CHICAGO | General Developments

[brian_b]

https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/2017...ving-back-city

The source for my numbers, BTW. This article also includes the payment amounts. There's a link to a Tribune article that shows the significant challenges the team faces, if you want a more balanced view.

[Kumdogmillionaire]

^ because of how much money the NBA is making right now, there really is no concern for these budding WNBA franchises. The NBA execs will never let that ship sink, even if it causes them to go in the red for another 10 years before profits hit. Hell, the NBA only recently started having most teams make money. I'm sure they'll be patient

[SolarWind]

Originally Posted by spyguy

New Columbia student center

July 26, 2017





Two mobile drill rigs on site at the same time

[denizen467]

Originally Posted by Bonsai Tree

New article from Curbed about Sterling Bay's Finkl Steel Redevelopment plan-
https://chicago.curbed.com/2017/7/26...-606-extension

The "renovated metra station" (sic) is included there at a barely pre-conceptual level, and I hope future plans create something great, but I do like the routing they've laid out for solving the 606 extension across the Metra tracks. (Maybe this has already been presented.) It's a long ascending ramp northwestward alongside the tracks; then it goes east along Cortland, and descends back to the normal 606 level along Besly back to the Bloomingdale alignment. I believe it doesn't even need to jog anywhere nearly as far north as Cortland to ascend to Metra overpass level; the overpass could be mid-block if it were allowed to slice through whatever new development is built between the tracks and Besly (it's a new multimodal parking garage in this diagram).

The diagram simultaneously mentions a "potential 606 tunnel under metra tracks", but I think that's a recipe for danger and could even derail momentum and funds for building the ramps and overpass. There already have been muggings along the 606, by people specifically waiting to mug bicyclists (e.g. earlier this week), so forget the expensive and questionable tunnel. Plus, overpasses are awesome because they afford new vistas, and overpasses over train tracks are even awesomer.

[Near North Resident]

Originally Posted by denizen467

The diagram simultaneously mentions a "potential 606 tunnel under metra tracks", but I think that's a recipe for danger and could even derail momentum and funds for building the ramps and overpass. There already have been muggings along the 606, by people specifically waiting to mug bicyclists (e.g. earlier this week), so forget the expensive and questionable tunnel. Plus, overpasses are awesome because they afford new vistas, and overpasses over train tracks are even awesomer.

There are tons of tunnels all over town to access the lake front and with the number of people there are not many muggings... I don't see that as a valid concern, and who's to say you can't get mugged on a freakin bridge?

I can not imagine that a lengthy and frankly massive overpass would be any more cost efficient than a tunnel...

and yeah overpasses over train tracks are so cool, just look at all the fugly train tracks when you're walking to soldier field

[Khantilever]

Originally Posted by Near North Resident

There are tons of tunnels all over town to access the lake front and with the number of people there are not many muggings... I don't see that as a valid concern, and who's to say you can't get mugged on a freakin bridge?

I can not imagine that a lengthy and frankly massive overpass would be any more cost efficient than a tunnel...

and yeah overpasses over train tracks are so cool, just look at all the fugly train tracks when you're walking to soldier field

The perception alone that tunnels are dangerous is a problem, though. I've had to take a roundabout path to the Lake plenty of times because people with me don't wanna use the tunnels at night. The smells and graffiti that inevitably accumulate don't help either.

Plus, railroad tracks make great backdrops for selfies.

[Ned.B]

Part of the problem with many of the lakefront tunnels is that they have indirect entrances from access ramps that converge at right angles at the tunnel entrance. Thus it is not possible to see into the tunnel until one is down at the bottom of the ramps. A tunnel with more open view angles, which is good practice anyway when bikes and runners are involved, such as the one that passes under Lake Shore at Barry would not have the same perception.

[ChiHi]

Originally Posted by Randomguy34

Permits for 900 W Washington to begin construction were issued yesterday. A refresher of what this project looks like:


Source: DNAInfo Chicago

What is it with builders/architects refusing to design a building that is on a corner in the West Loop to actually address the street on BOTH sides. They seem to continuously design these as if they were mid block buidlings and create essentially a blank wall on one side. Guessing it's a cost thing but this would be so much better of a building if they carried the front design around the other side as well. Kind of makes the whole design lazy to me.

[the urban politician]

So Chicago now tops the nation in breweries and downtown apartment construction from 2010-2016:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...27-column.html

So when certain forumers claim that Chicago's boom "is like what is happening in every other city", here is evidence to the contrary.

Anyhow, I thought it was cool that Chicago has nearly as many breweries as NY and LA combined. We hear all the stats about Chicago having more murders than those cities combined, but it's nice to read something positive for a change.

[the urban politician]

^ From the article:

Downtown Chicago, meanwhile, experienced the largest wave of apartment construction in the country from 2010 through 2016, with 10,937 new units. CoStar's definition of downtown includes an area roughly bounded by Lake Michigan, Chicago and Ashland avenues and 26th Street.

[r18tdi]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

^ From the article:

Weird. So the towers going up on Wells north of Chicago Ave don't count as their definition of "downtown?"

[Rizzo]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

So Chicago now tops the nation in breweries and downtown apartment construction from 2010-2016:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...27-column.html

So when certain forumers claim that Chicago's boom "is like what is happening in every other city", here is evidence to the contrary.

Anyhow, I thought it was cool that Chicago has nearly as many breweries as NY and LA combined. We hear all the stats about Chicago having more murders than those cities combined, but it's nice to read something positive for a change.

I bought a place by Begyle and Dovetail breweries. I heard the local chamber is trying to get the name "malt row" to stick along ravenswood. I'm cool with that

[ardecila]

If they're surveying breweries, they should really only look at places that are licensed to distribute, not brewpubs that can only serve on the premises. I'm sure Chicago would clean up in that category, too, but I'm not sure we would beat out Portland or SoCal.

Also their definition of downtown is a little screwy. The northern border is only Chicago? That leaves out all of the recent growth in Cabrini and Gold Coast which most people would agree are "downtown neighborhoods".

NOt that I'm arguing with the #1 ranking for new apartments, but I'm more interested in comparing Chicago 2016 to historic Chicago 1900 or Chicago 1920 than I am with comparing to Houston or New York.

[LouisVanDerWright]

Their study is based on their submarkets. Costar has many distinct submarkets in every city and they aren't designed to satisfy people's conventional definitions of their Neighborhood, but to give real estate agents the most useful info possible. Everything north of Chicago probably falls into the north/clyborn market or Gold Coast Market. But of course it is odd to us since we would never consider that "downtown" doesn't include the Hancock Building.

[Randomguy34]

I hate being the Debbie Downer of zoning news, but Ald. Raymond Lopez wants to downzone W. 63rd St, from Marshfield to Damen, to RS3 and B1-1. What do these aldermen think they're accomplishing when they try to downzone struggling retail strips?

[Rocket49]

^^^. What's the current zoning on 63rd?

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by Randomguy34

I hate being the Debbie Downer of zoning news, but Ald. Raymond Lopez wants to downzone W. 63rd St, from Marshfield to Damen, to RS3 and B1-1. What do these aldermen think they're accomplishing when they try to downzone struggling retail strips?

Is that so they can go from abandoned buildings and weedy lots to.....mud farms? OH, OH I know, how about quicksand! Let's have quicksand pits down there! We can have snakes and possums and even an occasional wild turkey running around, and maybe we'll allow people to come down there with their rifles and, for $15 hunt for wild game. It can be Chicago's answer to northern Wisconsin.

The south side just keeps getting screwed--first by the global economy, and now by mentally challenged but forever pensioned Aldermen whose existence AT ALL (we have goddamn 50 of them!!!) is questionable.

[Randomguy34]

Originally Posted by Rocket49

^^^. What's the current zoning on 63rd?

For that stretch, mostly B3-2 with some C1-2

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

Is that so they can go from abandoned buildings and weedy lots to.....mud farms? OH, OH I know, how about quicksand! Let's have quicksand pits down there! We can have snakes and possums and even an occasional wild turkey running around, and maybe we'll allow people to come down there with their rifles and, for $15 hunt for wild game. It can be Chicago's answer to northern Wisconsin.

The south side just keeps getting screwed--first by the global economy, and now by mentally challenged but forever pensioned Aldermen whose existence AT ALL (we have goddamn 50 of them!!!) is questionable.

The vast majority of aldermen are useless and potentially harmful to the city. It's terrible.

[Mr Downtown]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

we have goddamn 50 of them!!!

What do you mean we, Kemosabe?