Walden at age 4 in front of her grandmother’s house Photo: Courtesy of the writer Chicagoans like to cut straight to the chase: “What part of town are you from?” If you’re from the West Side, like I am, it’s not enough to reply, “Out west,” because Chicago is a quilt of coves, each with … Read more
What I learned from traveling every inch of the L in one day
Bullets and beers with the Cubs’ comeback kid.
The renowned actor writes a sincere ode to a cold “that makes you feel more alone in the universe.”
Paula Fasseas with her three rescue dogs (from left): Josephina, Sandra, and Scotty P. Photo: Dan Busta Twenty years ago, adopting a homeless dog or cat wasn’t a badge of coolness. So in 1997, when Paula Fasseas founded a nonprofit no-kill shelter called PAWS Chicago, she had to work hard to convince her high-profile friends … Read more
A lineup of two-flats Photo: Ian Spula It is Chicago’s answer to the Brooklyn brownstone, the Georgetown row house, and the London townhome. Except the two-flat remains affordable, still performing the duty to which it was first called in the early 20th century—that is, serving as both shelter and source of rental income for striving … Read more
Columbus Park, circa 1935 Photo: Courtesy of the Chicago Park District “We all need the living green or we’ll shrivel up inside,” the Chicago landscape architect Jens Jensen once said. “To make the modern city livable is the task of our times.” I think of those words when I stroll through Columbus Park, a 135-acre … Read more
Photo: Darwensi Clark In a crowded city, a place to be alone should be cherished. Growing up near Loyola Beach in Rogers Park, a queer kid and a loner, I found my relief on this pier. I would walk to the end, look back at the city, and attain peace and perspective. It was like … Read more
Deep TunnelPhoto: Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune Chicago is home to some of the greatest engineering feats in the world. Like the skyscraper? Yeah, that. But some of our most impressive technical accomplishments have come not from reaching toward the sky but from wallowing in the muck. First, we had to build a sewer system in … Read more
Photo: justinwkern/Flickr Nearly every significant moment of my grown-up life has somehow involved Lake Shore Drive. Not once, not twice, but three times my wife labored in the back seat of our Honda as I raced south to the University of Chicago hospital, pressing the pedal and my luck as far as they would go. … Read more
