Updates
Today marks the start of my second year blogging about life as a determined non-driver living in downtown Chicago. Beginning my blog and moving to Marina City both coincided in June 2005. Back then, I thought I could get Marina City out of the way in my first post and go on to writing about downtown
Marina City
You West Tower residents, you think you're so high and mighty, laughing and lording it over us East Tower folks just because we've been the ones stuck with most of the fires, floods, and water pressure poop-outs lately. Well chuckle no more, you ne'er-do-well neighbors. It's your turn now, do you he
Marina City
Marina City's controversial and shadowy floral arranger, Deep Stem, has struck again. This week, just in time for Independence Day, Deep pulls out the patriotic stops to take us on a trip to...Tuscany?
Marina City
For the better part of a year the elevator lobbies in both Marina City towers have been graced with officially sanctioned rotating floral displays. Lucky for us Marina Citizens, to keep costs down, instead of using the services of a floral designer, or of an actual flower for that matter, these budg
Marina City
Last night, Marina City was full of crap. Literally. Barely one month after suffering through three days of water shutoffs in order to replace the 60-story condo complex's aging high-rise water pumps with new equipment, at least one of the brand-new pumps began to fail yesterday morning...taking the
Life
Words an Osco worker should never say to a customer--'Oh no you didn't! Do you work for Osco? Are you wearing a blue smock?' And good thing for her sake she didn't say them to me.
Getting Around
Recently, I suggested a way for the CTA to improve the way it tells riders about weekend service diversions on its website. And to my surprise, the agency agreed with me.
Food and Drink
According to a personal email from Intelligentsia CEO Doug Zell received this morning, Intelligentsia has decided to compromise on the weekday evening hours of its Randolph Street store and remain open, beginning next Monday, until 8 p.m. for the benefit of its growing residential customer base. Hur
Food and Drink
Nothing good lasts forever, especially the downtown-resident friendly evening hours of the Randolph Street Intelligentsia coffee bar. Earlier today, I praised Intelligentsia for meeting the needs not just of midday office workers and tourists but downtown residents as well. Now they've gone and cut
Food and Drink
There are two kinds of coffee bar in the Loop: the Chicago-local Intelligentsia; and everyone else. Although service got off to a rocky start last month at Intelligentsia's new Randolph Street store, at least I haven't had to hear about the sex lives of the staff. Unlike at the nearby Starbucks.
Getting Around
Perhaps we can be a public-transit region now. Yesterday, the Chicago Tribune decried the sorry state of repair of Metra's Roosevelt Road station, and laid blame at the feet of anti-Chicago Metra Chairman Jeffrey Ladd. Today he says he's resigning.
Getting Around
Ever wonder why the Metra station at Roosevelt Road looks like a big steamy pile of lactose-intolerant toothpaste poop while the rest of the Museum Campus area and the South Loop in general zoom along in their tony upswing? Three words: chairman Jeffrey Ladd.