Do you need air conditioning in a retractable dome? Wouldn't you just open the roof when it was warm enough to need A/C?

Retractable roof doesn't mean fully enclosed. It could be constructed similar to SafeCo Field's roof where it is literally just a roof and the sides are left open to permit air to flow into the stadium. That way you could play in the open-air without worry about inclement weather.

That’s great in a city with a mild climate but frequent light rain. Does it really do anything for you in a city with Chicago’s winters? Or even its summers (when it could just become a big greenhouse)?

Bummer the stadium is not big enough to host the Super Bowl. I'm sure that would be an insane amount of mostly unused seating for just the chance to win an annual event, but it would be cool to have the Super Bowl in Chicago.

Unused seating?
Think unused acreage.
Stadiums that size eat up 25 acres before you start adding parking.

I hadn't considered the size, admittedly, but I've seen some stadiums built in tight spaces. Ryan Field in Evanston comes to mind, but it's fairly small. I think it seats 45-50k. Might be able to make it work if they went with more vertical vs bowl style seating. Wrigley does just fine with limited parking. I'm sure this proposed stadium could as well given its proximity to Metra and CTA buses and rail lines. It wouldn't be as convenient as stepping off the red line and being at Wrigley, but it'd be good enough...

In some places it's too hot, like Houston and Miami, so they close the roof and run the AC.
Any time you enclose a building you need some way to move air through it.

Yeah, but it's all bleachers.

It would take 12 metra train loads to fill the 20,000 seats, Super bowl would need an airlift.
It is an interesting notion and completely out of left field. Frankly if I was looking to put a stadium somewhere, Finkltown wouldn't even have come to mind.

Best guess, they're thinking this for the City fleet management parcel. At least it's on the same side of the river as the Kennedy. That's 18 acres figure they need at least 10 for the stadium itself and a chunk for the park they promised. Not a lot left over for parking.

They could do a remote lot. The old Sun-Times warehouse parcel on Elston that must be 5 acres, and a better spot for traffic dispersion. I'll have to check who owns that.

If it gets built, the bears should move into this for two years and rebuild soldier with more seats and a retractable roof. That way we CAN get a superbowl here. And yes old school fans, i say keep the roof open for regular season games.

EPA probes pollution from scrap yard near potential Amazon HQ2 site in gentrifying Clybourn Corridor
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...228-story.html

Can't say I'm surprised by this. If General Iron is forced to leave, that can only be good news for Sterling Bay if they want to increase the number of parcels they own.
http://www.trbimg.com/img-5a443b12/t...ap/750/750x422

Well, it was always going to be a matter of time until they left. Rising land values don't really square with low-value uses like scrapyards. They were only able to hold on this long because PMD zoning kept redevelopment at bay, but now Rahm's opened the floodgates to office development.

Of course, even if General Iron shuts down, they may land-bank their holdings and wait for a better price in ten, twenty years. The Labkon family that owns it is very spiteful.

That's a shame, general iron is awesome, I love the street just goes right through an active scrap yard. It's also a shame we don't get to see those cauldorns of molten metal at Finkl anymore too. But change is inevitable and good I suppose.

The city has encouraging manufacturing industries in the North Branch to relocate to the South and West Sides, so it's possible they are still able to stay in the city

Sometimes while driving through a scrap yard I get aroused. Does anyone else experience that?

Like 2 weeks for the Amazon decision right?

Definitely not a final decision in 2 weeks. We'll get a short list first.

I believe I saw a shortlist in the newspaper, and Chicago was a part of it !

Good eye! Nobody elsewhere has mentioned that nugget of news—at all!

:sarcasmalert:

Well it clearly wasn't mentioned in THIS thread.