CHICAGO | General Developments

[emathias]

676 N Lasalle did a little more with their footing or whatever this foundation element is called:


by me, on Flickr

[deebirch]

Originally Posted by FrankLloydWrong

I would love to see a Berghain style night club there. It's a shame Chicago's techno taste is so poor. Alas the best the West Loop can muster is The Mid

Lol. Looking for techno at the mid and judging Chicago's "taste" off a single venue. Dig deeper to see what the city offers, then we can talk

[LouisVanDerWright]

I badly want to purchase Fisk Power Station in Pilsen and turn in into a mixed use project with apartment buildings on the SW corner of the slip, giant art studios/event spaces/night clubs in the old powerplant with resturaunts along a river front promenade set up for yachts to park right along the slip, and townhomes on the thin slice of land on the East side of the slip with private docks right in front of their homes. Then build a pedestrian bridge across the river to link it to the Halsted Orange line station and Bridgeport. Would totally transform the river and Pilsen/Bridgeport. We can reserve a space in my development for a massive techno club. Maybe pour some floors in the top of the smokestack and run an elevator up there for the VIP lounge with 200' rooftop views of downtown.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by deebirch

Lol. Looking for techno at the mid and judging Chicago's "taste" off a single venue. Dig deeper to see what the city offers, then we can talk

LOL no kidding. They get a lot of mainstream acts. Sometimes good but usually mainstream. Every city has at least one club like that. Pretty naive comment from that poster.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by emathias

Borrrrring. I guess it's too far from the 'L' to qualify for TOD, although with excellent bus service and a very walkable area, it would have been nice to see it be taller, denser, and a lower parking ratio, given it's definitely an area people can live without a car. It's interesting how high the ceilings are in it, though. It's six stories in the same space that the building next to it has eight - almost eight and a half - stories. Given the difference in ceiling heights, I guess if this was eight stories, it would be about the same height as its neighbor if the rendering is correctly proportional. At six units a floor, that could be another dozen units. If the parking stayed the same, that'd be a .85:1 ratio, which wouldn't be bad.

The floor-to-floor looks to be 12'7", which is enough for 11' ceilings. These are larger, more spacious units aiming for a higher price point, they're not intended to be a sardine can full of studios and 1BDs. The building next door likely started off as exactly that, efficiency apartments or an apartment hotel, so the ceiling heights are probably 8' at best.

Contrary to what marothisu said, these two buildings are NOT aiming for a zoning change, parking reduction, or any kind of extra entitlement that would require a "community process" and provide a way for NIMBYs to block the proposal.

Ald. Smith has literally no backbone, and has killed many large proposals in her ward purely on the objections of a small handful of neighbors. Aging Lincoln Park elites are still furious with her over the Childrens development, even though she was jawboned into supporting that by the mayor.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Contrary to what marothisu said, these two buildings are NOT aiming for a zoning change, parking reduction, or any kind of extra entitlement that would require a "community process" and provide a way for NIMBYs to block the proposal.

You're right - I read it wrong regarding zoning. In case anybody is wondering:
http://ward43.org/wp-content/uploads...on_website.pdf

It sucks since the zoning allows for up to 84 units but they are only going with 30. They could have easily made this thing 15 stories which would have made it 185 feet tall, more in line with a 17 or 18 story buidling average. That's really too bad

Will await the Curbed article now

[FrankLloydWrong]

Originally Posted by deebirch

Lol. Looking for techno at the mid and judging Chicago's "taste" off a single venue. Dig deeper to see what the city offers, then we can talk

I have, and do. All I'm saying is, that to see a bigger act like Sasha or Tale of Us, I have to venture to a really terrible venue and put up with bad crowds.

Chicago doesn't have a bigger club like Output or Fabric that still manages to be a pretty good venue for people who care about the genre, and it would be nice to get one.

[KWILLSKYLINE]

if anyone is interested in what the new scoreboard looks like at the new Wintrust Arena they are currently testing it right now. Pretty fancy, NBA quality.

https://app.oxblue.com/open/clarkcon...mccormickplace

[k1052]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Ald. Smith has literally no backbone, and has killed many large proposals in her ward purely on the objections of a small handful of neighbors. Aging Lincoln Park elites are still furious with her over the Childrens development, even though she was jawboned into supporting that by the mayor.

Which is to be expected from somebody who was basically elected due to playing into the complaints of the neighborhood over Webster Square.

[the urban politician]

^ Isn't that how Pander-pimpdaddy Reilly was elected?

[LouisVanDerWright]

West Loop is ridiculous right now. Literally construction on every block. They are totally tearing up Fulton West of Green. Anyone know what the plan is? Looks like they are creating a huge margin for restaurant patios:





Another little LG project, probably a six flat, crammed in behind PQM:

[ithakas]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

Another little LG project, probably a six flat, crammed in behind PQM:

I need to walk through the neighborhood this weekend; definitely felt in overdrive last time I was over there (a few weeks ago).

Here's the project going in:


Source: Crain's

[the urban politician]

While all this construction is great, a part of me can't wait till the dust clears and we see this mighty new district humming away.

Love all the fine grain development. Now that is how great city neighborhoods are created.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

^ Isn't that how Pander-pimpdaddy Reilly was elected?

Essentially, yes.

[aaron38]

Aiming to Stop New Nail Salons, Bridgeport Alderman Seeks Rules For Halsted
https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/2017...es-for-halsted

Round three of this nonsense.

"We want there to be a place for people to get a sandwich and have a date night," (Ald.) Thompson said. "We need to create that momentum."

Those changes will make sure residents can have a say in what kind of businesses open along Halsted — and block those that are not in demand, Thompson said.

This is a massive misunderstanding of how the economy works. Residents do have a say. They can frequent the businesses they like, and not patronize those they don't. If there is massive demand for sandwich shops, wine bars and art galleries on South Halsted, then those businesses will open and flourish. If there isn't demand, Halsted will sit empty.

By what mechanism does Ald. Thompson think blocking nail salons will magically bring art galleries into existence? That if he blocks all other businesses, landlords will be forced to drop rents? Turning an ROI to the black? Anything else?
Why doesn't he instead work to reduce regulations, fees and taxes on businesses, to lower the cost of entry? Forcing a pay to play political contribution doesn't do that.

I guess the beatings will continue until morale improves...

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by aaron38

This is a massive misunderstanding of how the economy works. Residents do have a say. They can frequent the businesses they like, and not patronize those they don't. If there is massive demand for sandwich shops, wine bars and art galleries on South Halsted, then those businesses will open and flourish. If there isn't demand, Halsted will sit empty.

Well yes, if there is space for them. This is pretty non nonsensical by this alderman. Obviously there is enough demand (most likely) for these types of business there along with the actual space to accomodate them. As you said, people can support or not support a business and that can dictate which types of business will feel more welcome in an area. It's one part of being a good business person - knowing where to actually put your business. Obviously there's some bad business people out there, but I'm sure they aren't putting nail salons in various areas for the hell of it. They know there's a market for it. Making rules around it like this is kind of ridiculous. Seems like one alderman proposing something along these lines has begun to open up pandora's box, and not in a good way.

[the urban politician]

Yep. Alderman who've never owned a business in their lives, trying to dictate a market which they don't understand.

All they know is Government, Government, Government. This is a douchebag move at so many levels

[ardecila]

The irony is that Bridgeport already has a small artsy strip taking shape on Morgan with a few good restaurants, galleries, etc and the current streetscaping will kick it up a notch.

Problem is, Bridgeport is kinda schizophrenic. The neighborhood is split between the Chinese community, aging white ethnics, hipsters, and Latinos. Everyone co-exists fairly peacefully, but there's not a critical mass of any one group to support a bustling shopping street like Milwaukee Ave or 26th St. Of those four groups, the Chinese probably have the highest incomes, but they mostly see Bridgeport as a bedroom suburb of Chinatown, so they're not keen to colonize Halsted with more noodle shops and markets.

If Thompson really wants to make a difference, maybe consider a P-Street designation along Halsted so that any new development is at least highly walkable...

[Near North Resident]

Originally Posted by aaron38

[B]Aiming to Stop New Nail Salons, Bridgeport
Why doesn't he instead work to reduce regulations, fees and taxes on businesses, to lower the cost of entry? Forcing a pay to play political contribution doesn't do that.

I guess the beatings will continue until morale improves...

Because that's not how democrats in this city think... at all...

They pretend to work, and stuff like this is low hanging fruit to please the constituents enough to get re-elected

[PKDickman]

Originally Posted by aaron38

Aiming to Stop New Nail Salons, Bridgeport Alderman Seeks Rules For Halsted
https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/2017...es-for-halsted

Round three of this nonsense.


This is a massive misunderstanding of how the economy works. Residents do have a say. They can frequent the businesses they like, and not patronize those they don't. If there is massive demand for sandwich shops, wine bars and art galleries on South Halsted, then those businesses will open and flourish. If there isn't demand, Halsted will sit empty.

By what mechanism does Ald. Thompson think blocking nail salons will magically bring art galleries into existence? That if he blocks all other businesses, landlords will be forced to drop rents? Turning an ROI to the black? Anything else?
Why doesn't he instead work to reduce regulations, fees and taxes on businesses, to lower the cost of entry? Forcing a pay to play political contribution doesn't do that.

I guess the beatings will continue until morale improves...

The weird thing is that nail salons, barber shops and beauticians are already restricted to one every 1000 feet in B districts. Hell, you can have a tavern every 400 feet.

I am curious about the vilification of nail salons and wig shops lately. When did these become the harbingers of urban blight?