You’ve seen him, dressing in shiny, neon-colored suits and spinning around and waving at tour boats all summer long from Chicago River bridges. He’s Vincent P. Falk, but boat crews call him ‘Riverace’ (rhymes with Liberace,) and he’s a summer fixture in downtown Chicago.
The good news: Marina City has 1960s state-of-the-art architecture. The bad news: Marina City has 1960s state-of-the-art technology.
I never thought that bad balcony behavior at Marina City could any get worse. Well, tie me up in rope lights, folks, because the corncobs have reached an explosive new low: fireworks dropped from high-rise floors.
Being a good Marina Citizen, there are things that I just won’t do on my 175-square-foot, petal-shaped, 38th-floor balcony. Trouble is, the younger set has no tolerance for convention. From the ground, nothing would belie our beloved corncobs’ monumental mid-century modern style. But looking from one balcony to another, it’s a whole different world.
42nd Ward Alderman Burt Natarus loves to cozy to local business interests. But when idling tour buses take over your neighborhood, you have to draw the line somewhere. Today I wrote Natarus to tell him so.
Ok. Let’s get this all out of the way up front so that we can proceed to other topics. You know you want to know. You’ll be happier, I’ll be happier, Bertrand Goldberg will be happier. Answers to the most-asked questions about my humble abode, Marina City.