CHICAGO CARLESS

(Although thousands of Brown Line riders are Hispanics who speak little English, the CTA’s Brown Line Capacity Expansion Project website includes no Spanish content whatsoever).

As it said it would, the CTA on Monday implemented the first of its long-term Brown Line station closures in support of the current Brown Line Capacity Expansion Project. You’re well familiar with these closures, I’m sure. They’re the ones that the CTA repeatedly promised local communities and Aldermen wouldn’t happen– until the agency discovered it had royally screwed up the project’s cost estimates and never really had the money to keep the stations open during the project to begin with.

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While not a downtown establishment, the coolness of Hilary’s Urban Eatery has swanked up the corner of Division and Greenview on the near northwest side for years. But according to this Metroblogging Chicago post from today, a sign on the door at HUE says that the last day of full service will be February 27 and that, at some uncertain point and in some uncertain location somewhere nearby, they’ll reopen–all of which sounds to me like a hedgy way to say “maybe”.

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The end of 2006 cannot come fast enough for this home cook. According to two features in Sunday’s Sun-Times (here and here), the much-anticipated downtown Trader Joe’s will open by the end of the year on Ontario between Rush and Wabash.

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(Photo: Viewed from the marina level, passing kayakers or fleeing residents? Credit: Looper).

Trouble appears to be never-ending for the beleaguered Marina City corncobs. Besides the Gary Kimmel hooker scandal and ongoing reports of trash-chute fires, ant infestations, and homeless handymen squatting in empty apartments, many Marina Citizens awoke this week to flooded apartments and ruined possessions. The culprit: a mistake made by a condo association-hired plumber that caused flooding in an as-yet unknown number of apartments in both towers. Yet even as damage reports continue to arise, the condo association remains silent about the catastrophic failure of a common element that it was responsible for maintaining–well, except to deny any responsibility.

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(Photo: If you see your home in this photo, Chicagoist thinks your opinion doesn’t matter. Credit: City-Data.com).

An email sent today by Chicago Carless to Jake Dobkin, co-founder and publisher of Gothamist, parent website to Chicagoist:

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The day after the Chicago City Council votes to rein in the nuisance noise from street performers in downtown Chicago (as Carless reported yesterday), local blog Chicagoist again backhands downtown residents.

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(Photo: Extraordinarily rare holiday-season peace and quiet in front of Marshall Field’s. Credit: Looper).

As reported this afternoon by the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago City Council passed a long-needed set of revisions to the city’s noise regulations concerning street performers by a vote of 42 to 4. The measures had originally passed the Council’s Traffic committee by a unanimous vote. After months of contentious debate, I guess as it turns out downtown residents really do have the right to be able to hear themselves think in their own homes.

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