From Ald. Schulter's weekly ward newsletter: "The Chase Park Advisory Council (CPAC) is currently sponsoring a fundraising event to to improve the Chase Park for our growing community of families. Residents and businesses can participate by purchasing a brick to be installed at the new grand entrance to Chase Park at Leland and Clark. Families will see your business name whenever they come to their favorite park to play!" The Grand Entrance will be built this spring/summer, and bricks are pretty reasonably priced, starting at $100. Click here for a form and more information.
Seen on a lightpole near Leland and Winthrop.
More info on this case is available here.
The terracotta from the former Azusa Building at Montrose and Broadway is now making its first appearance on the corner entrance of the Wilson Yard project in the same spot. While it is great to see the tiles restored, we can't help but notice that it does not match the rest of the retail facade. We wonder if this will be the extremely ornate entrance to the nail salon, Subway Sandwich, AT&T, or Game Stop...you know, the vibrant retail that is going to save that stretch of Broadway.
A neighbor of the Wilson Yard project writes in and asks:
"So when is it appropriate to have 24/7 spotlights on a children's playground? Ever since the Wilson Yard subsidized housing elevated playground was pieced together I have been bombarded with a federal prison spotlight that is also blinding when driving East on Montrose; how can this light be dimmed or hooded so it is less obtrusive to neighbors and drivers in the area?"
Oops! Who voted for a budget requiring City employees to take 15 furlough days but then forgot to take all theirs last year?
Click here for the answer!
A reader sends in the following photo and writes:
"My wife noticed this flyer outside our building from Fame da Lupo Pizza and I thought I'd send it in to you all. Sounds like a good deal. Not sure what is included, whether it's pizza or pasta, but $9.95 all you can eat is a great price and valid till April 1. I've had pizza from this place and it was great and the owner is really friendly. I don't think they get a lot of foot traffic on Leland so they really need some word of mouth now. I hope your readers will give them a try either dining in or doing delivery. We need to support our local eateries."
A reader sends in the following link and comment:
"They just made this deal in NY... NYC pays 50 million...15 million tax break...developer pays $5 million and any overages... win win win for Flatbush section of the city!
Wish this could happen to the Uptown Theatre!"
Read the article here
"Facing an imminent shutdown by federal health-care authorities, the troubled Somerset Place nursing home in Uptown filed a civil lawsuit Thursday to stop the government from administratively shutting it down this weekend." Read about it in Chicago Breaking News.
Update: "Violence and abuse at Somerset Place leading to loss of Medicaid, Medicare funding." Read why this could mean the end of Somerset as we know it, that it took in more than $15million in 2008 and made millions in profits, and that workers there feel it will go back to "business as usual" if allowed to stay open. Why is it only now, with closure imminent, that Somerset claims it want to work with the community surrounding the facility?
Today's the last day to RSVP and reserve your spot. From Mary Ann Smith's newsletter: "To encourage community residents to take back the streets, Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez is sponsoring a Positive Loitering Seminar on Monday, February 8, 6:30-7:30 p.m. at St. Andrew's Church, 5649 N. Sheridan. Held in conjunction with the Chicago Police Department, the seminar will present strategies that community groups can use to make a difference in their neighborhoods. To reserve, call (773) 334-4066 or email ltrier@cookcountygov.com."
This week, Consumer Reports Health posted the Leapfrog Group findings on hospital ICU infection rates. Per Consumer Reports, “Hospitals in the Chicago area vary dramatically in terms of how well their intensive care units (ICUs) prevent central-line bloodstream infections, a cause of death, disability, and expense in our nations' hospitals that is largely preventable.” Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center director John Santa stated, "Infection rates can vary widely from hospital to hospital and even within the same hospital chain or system. Providing patients with infection rate information enables them to identify which hospitals are making patient safety a priority and which ones are not."
Consumer Reports Health highlighted five Chicago hospitals that report infection rates that are more than twice the national average. Topping the “worst hospitals” list was Uptown’s Louis A. Weiss memorial Hospital, which has an ICU infection rate that is a whopping 421 percent worse than the national average.
To read ABC 7’s news story about the findings click here.
All your Target questions have been answered! Ask and ye shall receive!
A reader contacted Jeff DeMoss, the District Team Leader for Target, and asked him some questions about the Wilson Yard location. The reader forwarded on the following:
Target Opening On July 25, 2010!!!
A reader sends in the following pic and asks:
"So I was driving on Irving Park toward Sheridan and saw a "No loitering....call 911" sign under the L tracks right next to Tom Tunney's Ann Sather park. Is this new?"
UU reader "Eye In The Sky" clued us in on a link to this live webcam, showing an aerial view of Buena Park. We aren't sure of the camera's exact location, but maybe one of our clever readers can clue us in. Very cool.
via "Chicago's North Side Switching" and Tom Burke
"This photo shows the old C&E station at roughly Montrose Avenue, with Graceland Cemetery in the background.
This is the Buena Yard where the Milwaukee Road and the Chicago Rapid Transit interchanged freight cars.
Today the Buena Yard and the interchange tracks are replaced by Challenger Park, a linear park starting at Grace and going up towards almost Irving Park Road. The park is named after the former Challenger space shuttle."
Interesting tidbit from the comments:
"Those of us who lived through the Challenger Park debacle recall - and have the newspaper articles that prove -- that Challenger Park got its name from all the "challengers" who objected to the formation of Challenger Park. The community challengers objected to incoming alderman Shiller's deal to hand over the existing Park District playlot in the 4300 N Kenmore block to a developer and then replacing it with a the Buena Circle playlot located under the noisy and filthy El tracks. The Challengers also objected to the closing of Clifton St that used to run north/south from Irving Park and Montrose between the west side of the El tracks and the Graceland Cemetary wall in exchange for the one-way alley under the El tracks that still has no track shields to prevent debris from falling on cars parked below. The Challengers also objected to the give away of the use of the new "community park" for exclusive Cubs parking use. The losing alderman in that campaign pushed through the paper work to formally name the park "Challenger Park" before Shiller took office.
The Park District and Shiller have tried to re-write history and spin the tale that says that the park was named for the Challenger disaster to hide the historical truth."
Your former governor, Rod Blagojevich, will be indicted within days on fresh charges of public corruption. Yet another of Chicago's felonious aldermen, Isaac "Ike" Carothers, learned Monday that he's prison-bound. Prince of darkness Edward Vrdolyak awaits his sentencing by a different federal judge. And the polls close at 7 p.m.
No, those three gentlemen aren't on Tuesday's election ballot. But the Illinois culture of political sleaze is. You can skip the election and, once again, give the insiders of Illinois and Cook County free rein to tax, borrow, spend, reward their cronies and generally lord it over you.
Many of the pols who run Illinois and Cook County still hope you'll forget what they've done. Don't. Push back. You matter.
Hi, Uptown Update!
La Ciudad would like to offer your readers a free appetizer with their meal if they come in and mention that they saw the offer on Uptown Update! The offer is good today through Thursday, and they can also follow La Ciudad on Twitter @LaCiudadChicago, or on Facebook.
Want to find out more about that Salvation Army fish farm you're paying a few million dollars for?
Don't look at Ald. Shiller's website... you won't find anything there.
But there's an article about it in Mindful Metropolis magazine. That's where you'll read that Uptown can't support a farmer's market, so that's why aquaponics is such a good fit.
Uh-huh.
Read about the future of your TIF/Tax dollars here.
A reader writes in:
"Heading to work today I spotted a new restaurant at 1118 W. Wilson (next to Viet Bowl). I peeked inside and it looks like they have done a bit of remodeling and added new lighting. Thought your readers would be interested. I think the name is "Agees" judging from the banner but I was at a bad angle when I took the pic. The signs say they offer catfish, burgers, salmon, pizza and gyros, subs, tacos... pretty much everything. I will be stopping in soon to try it out. Hopefully they will be sprucing up their yellow awning, but not with the stickers the place across the street used."
From Clarendon Park Neighbors Association:
"Now that we have secured a large part of our funding, we need to get organized so we can have our Dog Park built as quickly as possible. We will have an organizational meeting on Monday, February 8th, at 7pm. The meeting will be held at the Kahawa Coffee House, 838 W. Montrose. The purpose of the meeting will be to bring everyone up to date, and set our primary goals moving forward. The meeting will take no more than 90 minutes, although we will try to keep it to 60 minutes. Please come if you want to help with the planning and execution of this community resource."
From Chicago Breaking News, by Carlos Sadovi
Updated:
An 8th-grader was shot in the arm on his way to school on the North Side this morning, police and school officials say.
The 15-year-old boy was headed to the Brennemann Elementary School when he was shot about 8:25 a.m. in front of a convenience store four to five blocks from the school at 4251 N. Clarendon, according to Chicago Public Schools spokeswoman Monique Bond.
The boy ran to the Brennemann school, where school officials called for an ambulance and police, according to Police News Affair Officer Robert Perez.
The boy was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in good condition, officials said.
Police suspect the boy was shot by a 16-year-old boy who fled, Perez said.
Bil Musleh, owner of the Food Town, 4401 N. Hazel St., said the shooting happened about a half block from his store. He said police were reviewing surveillance video from inside his store and have asked to make a copy of the video. Continue Reading
Wine and dine your honey on Valentine's Day by taking your main squeeze to Fontana (1329 West Wilson). Two different prix fixe options are offered at very reasonable prices. Click on the menu for details.
RedEye's "Dining" section went to eat at UU's new favorite Mexican restaurant and gave it a rave: "Don’t go looking for kitschy sombreros, lacquered maracas or any other prescribed trappings of a casual Mexican restaurant at sleek new Uptown BYOB La Ciudad. Partners and brothers Armando and Hugo De La Rosa wanted to create a more modern vibe in their contemporary 40-seat eatery, and the result is an unexpectedly stylish spot in an otherwise unremarkable strip mall." Read the whole review here, or get over to La Ciudad (4515 N Sheridan) and check it out for yourself.
Seen on the main door of the Uptown Broadway Building in the 4700 block of Broadway.
We heard from Amy Dressel, leasing associate with Joseph Freed:
"I just wanted to spread the word about a great new lease offer at our Uptown Square property (Borders, T-Mobile, Agami, Soggy Paws, Body Fit) - perhaps you can add to the blog? We have a 791 sf vacancy available immediately adjacent to Borders and we are offering 6 months of free rent for a limited time. The space is in excellent condition - perfect for an office or retail user. Rent is around $2,100 per month including CAM, insurance, and real estate taxes. Please call Amy at 312.675.5397 or email adressel@jfreed.com if interested."
Can you think of some businesses you would like to see in this space?
