September 2011
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10/27/11Inequality Worldwide: Their One Percent Versus Our One PercentIncome inequality is on the rise in the U.S.—just as it is in the U.K. and Canada. It's a subject that's getting a lot of attention, but just as interesting is the massive collapse in inequality during World War II, and the following "Great Compression." Posted at 2:50 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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10/21/11Chicago Gangs and the 'Interrupters' of the PastThree great reads on three late-sixties attempts to integrate members of the Blackstone Rangers and the Vice Lords into Chicago, academia, and the local art world. Posted at 3:38 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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10/20/11Urban Partnership Bank Rises from ShoreBank's AshesAs a new bank fills the void of the legendary Chicago community bank—a victim of the economic crisis—information and analysis emerges about why ShoreBank collapsed, and how close it was to being bailed out. Posted at 4:59 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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10/19/11Chicago's SUV Tax and Road Damage: Do the Numbers Add Up?The Mayor's proposed SUV tax—which would actually encompass heavier sedans—is predicated on the idea that heavier cars cause more damage to roads. But is that actually true? Posted at 6:54 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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10/13/11The CSO Plays Ives (Oh, and 'Also Sprach Zarathustra')Tonight Susanna Mälkki leads the CSO in Charles Ives's "The Unanswered Question," a short, funny, eerie little piece that's either about the cosmos or tonality. Posted at 2:03 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (1) |
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09/30/11Chicago's Bloody, Morbid Traffic HistoryIf you think driving is dangerous in Chicago these days, you should see the statistics from the 1930s, when the roads were bloody and the press coverage was morbid. Posted at 5:36 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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09/30/11The Tevatron's Final Hours, LiveFermilab's particle accelerator goes offline today, after a ceremony that you can watch online. It's about 41 years since Weston, Illinois, the small farming community that used to be where the Tevatron sits, went offline to make way for Fermilab. Posted at 12:38 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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09/29/11The Wild Card Race, Steve Bartman, and the Terrors of SportsOn last night's historic baseball action, "Catching Hell," the 2003 NLCS, pitch counts, mob mentalities, and the wonders and terrors of sports. Posted at 7:19 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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09/28/11Chicago: The Nation's Worst Commute, Best Commute, and 11th Most Frustrating CommuteChicago remains among the worst cities in America in "lost time and wasted fuel" because of our congestion. But we spend less time in the car than many of our metropolitan peers, which is great... but that short time is spent seething. Posted at 6:46 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (2) |
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09/28/11Chicago's Budget Crisis: At Least We're Not AloneA new report from the National League of Cities, co-authored by a UIC prof, takes a look at what problems American cities are facing during the recession, and how they're addressing them. The results will be familiar. Posted at 12:43 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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09/27/11The Tevatron Is (Almost) Dead, Long Live the TevatronFermilab's legendary particle accelerator gets shut down at the end of the week, a bit shy of its 30th birthday. Due to budget cuts, it's the end of an era in American physics. But the Tevatron was on thin ice from the beginning—and it's left us a lot of data to explore. Posted at 6:32 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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09/27/116 Things About Ozzie Guillen (and One About Sandy Alomar Jr.)The first good profile of the erstwhile White Sock; Ozzie and his wife on WCIU's "Beisbol '86"; leadership advice on the importance of running your mouth; and more. Posted at 4:31 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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09/27/11The Incredibly Short Shelf Life of a Fox News Political FreakoutMike Quigley's innocuous comments at an American Islamic College conference—all part of a day for a typical pol—are picked up, batted around, and dropped by Bill O'Reilly and colleagues. Posted at 12:54 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (1) |
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09/27/11Mark Rothko at the Goodman Theatre and the Art Institute"RED," a play about Mark Rothko by former Chicagoan Josh Logan, opens tonight at the Goodman. Here's where you can see Rothko's paintings in person in Chicago and throughout the Midwest. Posted at 10:33 AM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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09/26/11Groupon IPO Watch: Groupon Versus the Accounting BlogsLast week Groupon restated its revenue, essentially cutting it in half. The move was a big shock, but it actually originated from the blogosphere, where the reasons behind it are made clear. Posted at 7:49 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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09/26/11Chicago's Rising Property Taxes and TIFs Part EtcAnother year, another contrast between stagnant home values and rising property taxes. The complexity of the property tax system makes it a confusing, if useful, crutch. Posted at 4:38 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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09/26/11Bears-Packers Postmortem: A Mike Martz Team Without Great Receivers Is Not a Mike Martz TeamThe Bears are 1-2 and not running the football... unlike last year, when they were 3-0 and not running the football. It's not time to panic yet, but I wouldn't get too excited either. Posted at 1:45 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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09/23/11The Eternal Tension of Amateur and Professional SportsBlockbuster articles in The Atlantic and Sports Illustrated have people calling for the professionalization of amateur sports. It's a debate that's gone on as long as the two have uneasily co-existed in America. Posted at 3:18 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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09/22/11There Is Power in a Union: The Latest Chicago Pension ScandalState-union relations and public pensions are on the political frontburner... and a Tribune-WGN investigation into local union leaders drawing substantial city pensions will add fuel to the fire. Posted at 6:36 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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09/22/115 Great Pieces by Dmitry Samarov, Author of 'Hack: Stories From a Chicago Cab'A brief introduction to the work of Dmitry Samarov: artist, writer, cab driver, and the next contributor to "Off the Grid," dispatches from our writers-in-residence. Posted at 4:31 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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09/21/11The Ongoing Poverty of Pembroke, IllinoisThe downstate community of Pembroke is in the news again for its poverty, as it has been for over four decades. Studies and plans come and go, but it's remained rural, agricultural, and barely developed—which is its next plan for the future. Posted at 6:54 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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09/21/11More Theories of Brown and Blue Line DepressionMeans of commute, compared, from slow zones to 5000-series cars. Plus: a modest request to go Mass Mohair on an old-school, art-deco Electroliner. Posted at 2:26 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (1) |
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09/20/11A Deep Look at the 'Dark Knight' Chase SceneRogerEbert.com founding editor Jim Emerson does a long analysis of the Batman film's exciting, but arguably incomprehensible, Lower Wacker pursuit sequence. Posted at 3:55 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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09/20/11A Plea For More Delicious Non-Alcoholic DrinksThe rise of mixologists has livened up the city's bar scene and made our restaurants more exciting as well. But the options for the sober remain, for the most part, the same. Posted at 2:50 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (2) |
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09/20/11Why Barack Obama Shouldn't WithdrawThe economy is in terrible shape, but unemployment is still lower than it was during a comparable point in Ronald Reagan's first term, a year before "morning in America." Posted at 2:06 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (1) |
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09/19/115 Reasons the Yuppies On the Brown Line Look So DepressedWell, there are a lot of reasons: the Great Speedup, job insecurity, student-loan debt, cynicism about public institutions, and stalled incomes. But in our depression is our salvation. Posted at 6:44 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (14) |
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09/19/11Yet Another Resonant Graph About TIFsA chart from the Civic Federation shows not just the impact tax increment finance districts have had on the city coffers, but how that impact has greatly increased in the past five years. Posted at 1:11 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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09/16/11Poetry Foundation Stages ‘Meet Mr. Yeats’In March 1920, on his third and final visit to Chicago, William Butler Yeats explained his dramatic ideal to a crowd at the Casino Club. “I am trying,” he said, “to create a form of poetical drama played by one company, all of whom could ride in one taxicab and carry their stage property on the roof...” Posted at 11:06 AM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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09/14/11The Longer Chicago School Day: Where Would the Money Come From?If CTU acquiesced to a longer school day, an already cash-strapped CPS would have to pony up a lot of money. From where? Jean-Claude Brizard has an answer, but the cuts would have to be substantial. Posted at 6:24 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (1) |
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09/14/11More on Chicago School-Day Length and the Teachers UnionThe school-day stretching came pretty quick on the heels of the new school year, meaning it's clearly not going to be widely implemented. Even if you are a proponent, that's probably not a bad thing. Posted at 4:54 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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09/13/11The Chicago School-Day Length Debate, and Other ModelsThe battle between the Chicago Teachers Union and the Chicago Public Schools has culminated in a lawsuit over teacher hours and pay. Here's a long look at the difficulties of getting good information, and a look at the Japanese and KIPP approaches to the school day and year. Posted at 5:51 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (5) |
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09/13/11Brilliant Corners of Popular Amusement: The Carnival/Concert/Farmers' Market/Craft Fair Event of the SeasonMike Reed, the drummer/composer who programs Pitchfork and the Umbrella Music Festival, talks about his family-friendly arts and culture extravaganza, which kicks off Friday, September 16. Posted at 12:15 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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09/12/11Caterpillar CEO Steps into Structural Unemployment DebateDoug Oberhelmen laments that his company can't find qualified employees despite high unemployment. He's not the only person to make the point, as the debate over "structural unemployment" continues. Posted at 7:16 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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09/12/11The Radium Girls of Ottawa, IllinoisOn Labor Day, the young women of Ottawa who died of radium poisoning from their work at Radium Dial were memorialized. Chillingly, they were the second Radium Girls: an identical case made an identical furor in New York ten years prior, but it took years for the science, and the law, to make it to Illinois. Posted at 4:41 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
09/11/11A 9/11 Sunday—10 Years LaterOur writer-at-large Bryan Smith looks back on his September 11th reporting from Ground Zero. Posted at 12:23 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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09/09/11United Flight 23 to Chicago: The First Airline Terrorism?In October 1933, a plane bound to Chicago from Newark via Cleveland exploded in the skies over Chesterton, Indiana. It's cited as the first incidence of American airline terrorism... but it's still a mystery. Posted at 5:45 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (1) |
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09/09/11Pop vs Soda? I'll Show You Pop vs SodaWhere "pop" becomes "Coke," "crayfish" becomes "crawdad," and other fine questions of American regional dialects. Plus: the origins of the "word, schmerd" tic. Posted at 11:53 AM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (1) |
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09/08/119/11 and Social MediaThe dangers and advantages of "social media" in the wake—or the moment—of national disaster, from the Kennedy assassination to the attack on the World Trade Center. Posted at 6:04 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (5) |
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09/08/11The Chicago Fed President Stirs the Pot Before Obama's Job SpeechCharles Evans makes his own plea for employment-friendly federal policy in advance of the President's speech. But his institution is in as much of a pickle as Obama's, now that the economy is trapped in a consumerist staring contest. Welcome to hangover Sunday. Posted at 2:31 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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09/07/11What Is the Oldest House in Chicago, Anyway?The Clarke House, the oldest house in Chicago, prepares to celebrate its 175th year—it's just slightly older than the city itself. But the Noble-Seymour-Crippen House in Norwood Park is actually the oldest house in Chicago... unless it isn't. Posted at 5:09 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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09/07/11The Impending Death of the U.S. Postal ServiceWhy the USPS is nearing the brink, and what can be done to fix it. Right now it's in an awkward position between subsidized public good and flexible private business, so the philosophy will have to change as much as the operation. Posted at 4:42 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (1) |
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09/07/11Kevin Coval's Unabridged Weekend PlansSeriously, this guy is busy. What made it into this week’s Chicago Guide was only the beginning. Read Coval’s full weekend agenda here. Posted at 2:30 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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09/06/11Kurt Vonnegut On the Most Popular and Most Truthful Stories in the WorldThe engineering-trained novelist (and City News Bureau vet) explains the structure of great narratives. Plus: other outstanding novelists to come out of the sciences. Posted at 5:38 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (2) |
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09/06/11Innocent Until Proven Guilty? Not in Public Housing15 years after Bill Clinton pushed public-housing administrators to strictly enforce "one-strike" penalties, CHA residents can be evicted if anyone in the household commits a minor crime—or even if they're charged, but not convicted, of one. Posted at 3:30 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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09/02/11Five Great Reads About Working in ChicagolandA '20s tattoo artist, a developer and his son, the man behind Sybaris, a "mood director," and a legendary Chicago courtroom figure: a Labor Day weekend reader. Posted at 1:26 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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09/01/11David Axelrod's Last Campaign Will Also Be His HardestBarack Obama's veteran strategist returns home to Chicago, the city where he cut his teeth, to prepare for the 2012 election. To win the future, he's looking to the past... perhaps because the future looks cloudy. Posted at 7:10 PM in The 312 | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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What the editorial staff at Chicago magazine is reading, watching, clicking on, listening to, talking about, and doing—shared here and open for discussion.
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