One of the most prominent restaurant critics in the country insists that you tip 20 percent at all times, which comes as a shock to some. When did 20 percent become expected? Earlier, it seems, than I thought.
With the United States Postal Service losing $8.5 billion last year, some 3,653 post offices nationwide (out of 31,871) are being reviewed for possible closing. Illinois carries the dubious distinction of having the most potential closures—176. Chicago gets whacked with the possible closing of 12 stations, and all of them sit in the congressional districts of either Danny Davis or Bobby Rush…
Recent comments suggest that Chicago’s top cop could be amenable to softening the city’s approach to policing low-level possession. It would also be another bad-behavior-based revenue stream, which are becoming an increasing part of the city’s shaky finances.
Racing Sausages for Recall; presidential-size turnouts; gubernatorial-level campaign money; and total unpredictability. Our neighbors to the north live in much more interesting times.
Chicagomag.com on Friday will launch a blog called Off the Grid: Dispatches from Chicago’s Writers-in-Residence. Every so often, we plan to feature a new writer who will post about topics of his or her choosing—anything from personal essays to reported pieces. The only requirement is that the stories be about Chicago and its people. We’re thrilled, then, to introduce our inaugural writer-in-residence, Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here and…
Did the mayor go back on a campaign promise not to impose new taxes, or were higher property taxes always an option for making up the CPS budget shortfall?
The city uses stimulus money to replace some of its high-pressure sodium street lights with white, “suburban” ceramic metal halide ones.
A surge in Latino births produced a tremendous shift in the demographics of Chicago toddlers, portending substantial policy and political changes to come.
The CPS just released its proposed 2012 budget, and it’s facing revenue and expenditure problems. Here’s what you need to know before next week’s public hearings, and this month’s vote.
How a Chicago tombstone-maker’s wooden toy set inspired one of the great computer scientists of our time, and how Frank Lloyd Wright’s Imperial Hotel resulted in the invention of Lincoln Logs… by his son.
