In this month’s Chicago City Briefing from the Economist –

• Chicago has won out over Las Angeles for country’s bid to be host for the 2016 Olympics. The final decision will be made in 2009 among other international cities likely to include Rome and Tokyo.
• The CTA’s construction projects this summer will delay commuters who use the Red, Brown, and Purple lines. Construction will continue through 2009.
• Donald Walsh, assistant deputy chief paramedic, “retired” on April 30th after being accused of racial discrimination.
• Virgin airlines has launches direct, non-stop flights between Chicago and London’s Heathrow airport. (Check out Virgin Atlantic’s amenities). Virgin originally pulled out of the Chicago market after 9/11.

For more information, see the briefing at http://www.economist.com/cities/briefing.cfm?city_id=CHI

There will be a New Eastside Association of Residents (NEAR) on May 1st at 222 N. Columbus Dr.

 Present will be Brendan Reilly, Alderman-elect of the 42nd Ward as well as the Executive Director of the Loop Alliance Ty Tabing.

 Other presenters will talk about Grant Park and Daley Bicentennial Plaza summer programs as well as city-wide summer programs and events.

 More information — http://forums.new-eastside.com/index.php/topic,110.0.html

Earth Day Celebration with ComEd and Exelon

This Saturday from 9 to 11 am volunteers are welcome to help mulch trees and cleaning Grant Park. Meet at Daley Bicennteniel Plaza.

“We will be mulching trees (by working with the Chicago Park District, we have worked to get 1000′s of trees planted in Grant Park, close to two thousand in the last year). We will also be picking up left-over winter litter and debris.”

More information – http://forums.new-eastside.com/index.php/topic,109.0.html

Richard Ward has posted a number of images and pictures depicting the planned Chicago Spire which were presented to Friends of the Park on March 15th, 2007 http://www.neweastside.org/ChicagoSpire2007.html.

The Tribune recently published a story on the Chicago Spire Development – Streeterville Organization of Active Residents “will hold the first public meeting on March 26 about the proposed Chicago Spire, a 2,000-foot, twisting design that has won worldwide attention. ‘They didn’t get into traffic at all. We need a lot more information on traffic,’ said Gail Spreen, SOAR’s president.”

The developer’s web site is at http://www.shelbournedevelopment.com and they also have a web site specifically for the Chicago Spire project at http://www.thechicagospireonline.com. Also see Chicago Spire press release.

The Economist has published their monthly “Chicago City Briefing”. Topics include Daley’s re-election and challenges he is facing as he begins his sixth term, arrests made 2/21 for terrorist charges on the northwest side, Chicago’s Olympic Bid, and Aldermanic races in Chicago.

http://www.economist.com/cities/briefing.cfm?city_id=CHI

Bob O’Neill announced a joint meeting of the Grank Park Conservancy and the Grant Park Advisory Council to discuss topics related to 2016 Olympics, plans for a new Metra Station (renovation) in Grant Park, and an update on Hutchinson Field.

See the announcements section for more information –

Grant Park meeting 

There was a comment that the neighborhood does not have bus service to Ogden school. Free bussing existed in the past, but just this year the school district stopped providing bus service to the New Eastside neighborhood. New Eastside is in a big hole with no public school, also there is no local magnet or private school.
 
Natarus insisted that no one has “done more than me” in advocating for local eductional issues. He noted that the bond issue is done and they only need to let the contracts out to float the bonds to fund the Ogden school reconstruction and the construction of the new school in the New Eastside. Natarus insisted that the neighborhood will get back bus service.
 
Reilly stated that the bussing issue is a perfect sort of opportunity for the Alderman to step up and talk with the Chicago Public School system.
 
There was a question about whether the proposed pedway could introduce problems with flooding or attract homeless. The proposed pedways would be elevated, underneath the upper roadways, it would not be underground so there would be no issue with flooding. Regarding security, both candidates mentioned that keycards or other means could be used to restrict access to the buildings or to the pedway itself.
 
There was a suggestion that Northerly Island may be suitable for the Children’s Museum location. Natarus felt that the location is too remote. Reilly mentioned that the Museum Campus is probably a preferable location but that doesn’t work out, “why not?” consider Meigs Field (Northerly Island).
 
Someone commented about the noise levels at this past year’s Lollapalooza festival. Natarus said that he will try to keep a clamp on this; the city has noise laws and the environmental inspectors have to watch each event. The problem is that the department is small, it needs more inspectors who are able to come out at night. It was noted that the Lollapalooza festival was approved for four more years.
 
Finally, there were some more discussion about the neighborhood school. A charter member of GPAC said that according to a past meeting or meetings of GPAC, it was stated that the very first building of the Lakeshore East development would be the school. Natarus said that Magellan’s check is not enough for the school and that is has been in the CPS and City of Chicago’s court. However, now that Natarus has passed the bond issue, we can move forward with floating the bonds and getting the government portion of the funding to start construction.

Natarus has been 42nd Ward Alderman since 1971 and has served in no other public office. Prior to 1971 he lost three times while running for 42nd Ward Alderman. He has lived in the 42nd Ward for 47 years.

He is running now for the 10th time and each time has had goals. In the last term the Ward has added 32 acres of parks including the Lakeshore East park and the Ward is continuing to plan more parks such as the DuSable Park where the river meets Lake Michigan.

In this term he had two main goals: Ogden school must be rebuilt. This will be done by building a new school on the existing playground and then tearing down the old school building replacing it with a park. The second goal is to build the Lakeshore East school. Both schools are listed on a bond issue which was passed a few months ago.

In his closing statements, Natarus said he has lived in the same townhouse in Sandburg Village for 35 years. He has raised two children and is very cognizant of education needs. The usual means of funding school construction is bond issues such as the one just passed for the New Eastside school and Natarus said Daley is very interested in building this school. The bond issue has been passed, the city now just needs to float the bonds.

Natarus went on that he is working on the DuSable Park and funding, he is a member of the Chicago Plan Commission as well as the Landmark Committee.

In the New Eastside neighborhood one issue he is working on is the need to re-do the intersection at the entrance to 175/195 North Harbor Dr. and N. Harbor Dr. (Upper). Natarus is on-the-ball on all of these issues.

In other developments he is working on “Fish Hotels” to improve the aquatic habitat of the river along with the group Friends of the River. He is working on renovating Navy Pier to include a small expensive hotel to generate revenue for Navy Pier. Finally he is working to attract a permanent installment of Cirque du Soleil in downtown Chicago.

www.Natarus.com

I found this in another forum –

Cute idea! Here’s a video showing them in action:
http://www.graffitiresearchlab.com/, and here are the instructions for
building them:
http://www.instructables.com/ex/i/7DBB34EAEDFF1028A1FC001143E7E506/?ALLSTEPS

One poster writes –

They can’t be that expensive.. and it looks like a fun thing to do. I bet they would look cool on the Bean — http://www.acclaimimages.com/search_terms/chicago_bean.html But Park Security might not appreciate it after the $14 million they just spent buffing and polishing it. They patrol the park on souped up police Segways.. how futuristic, throwing magnetic leds at the bean and getting chased down by floating cops. I’m sure I can enlist from art students from the art institute near there..

Richard Ward has put up a lot of information regarding the proposed move of the Children’s Museum to the Daley Bicentennial Plaza including correspondence and notes which cover the major issues. There is an aerial photo depicting where the proposed museum would be constructed and photos of the area. There is also a poll asking web site visitors to share their views.

http://neweastsideforum.homestead.com/CCM.html

This article in Sun-Times sums up what’s going on.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-park08.html

The impetus for the move is that the Navy Pier location becomes very crowded during summer months.

The museum would be underground (“below grade”) and located next to the Grant Park’s Daley Bicentennial Plaza. It is believed that traffic would flow largely on intermediate Randolph. Residents believe this could lead to some congestion at the intersection of Randolph and Michigan but otherwise the top level streets Upper Randolph, Upper Columbus, and Upper Harbor would be largely unaffected. However, the outdoor playground in Grant Park next to the Daley Bicentennial Plaza would presumably get a lot more use.

Construction would last approximately 18 mos.

Tom Finnegan posted this series of photos of places around New Eastside.. photos include Outer Drive East and Grant Park along with various spots in the Cancer Survivors Park and other high rises such as Harbor Point, North Pier Tower, and Lake Point Tower. Thumbnails of all the pictures are here –
http://www.pbase.com/temper/chicago__new_eastside.

We moved to the new eastside neighborhood in October last year. Tanya told me to register a class for my daughter Elizabeth in the Daley Bicentennial Plaza. I found the following schedule:

details

Moms, Pops & Tots Interaction – Ages: 6mo-18mo
Restrictions: Children must be with an adult
Daley Bicentennial Plaza
337 E. Randolph
60601 (Map It)
Phone: 312.274.2764
T,10:00 am – 11:30 am
4/3/2006 – 6/11/2006
Base Fee: $45.00
Total Fee: $45.00
Gender: Co-Rec
Skill Level: Open to All
Activity Code: 24970

Moms, Pops & Tots Interaction – Ages: 18mo-36mo
Restrictions: Children must be with an adult
Daley Bicentennial Plaza
337 E. Randolph
60601 (Map It)
Phone: 312.274.2764
Th,10:00 am – 11:30 am
4/3/2006 – 6/11/2006
Base Fee: $45.00
Total Fee: $45.00
Gender: Co-Rec
Skill Level: Open to All
Activity Code: 24971

We have registered for her and started to go there three weeks ago. The first time she was so overwelmed as there are around 20-30 kids in the center and there are so many amazing toys too. She was watching at first and then try to crawl to get a couple of toys then she started to give a toy to a little girl. She like it so much to go there now and she will go to get a toy immediately. She has played with Margaret (one of the nannies in the building) and laughed so much. She also played Peekaboo spontaneously with Mark, who is just 2 years old.

Once I was sick and My husband took her there, he enjoyed watching her play. He has an important business call at 11:00 AM and had to leave although it was supposed to finish at 11:30 so he started to put her in the stroller at 10:55, she was so upset and wanted to come out and continue to play with the kids.

I highly recommend this place to kids who stay home, it is so much fun and all the people are very friendly. Plus it’s not expensive.

also visit ericfrost.com