The Downtown Jailhouse

71 W. Van Buren at Clark. Right in the south loop is the Metropolitan Correctional Center with its distinctive triangular footprint and 5 inch slitted windows. The rooftop is an exercise area where its occupants can watch the downtown goings-on including the hustle and bustle around the Harold Washington Library (the main Chicago Public Library) and the DePaul University downtown campus. Read other reviews of this building here.

New York on the Blog

The New York Public Library on 42nd St. Six years after 9/11, we're still looking for answers to questions that become more confusing with each passing year. On this day, every city is New York City and we are all survivors asking, at what price, peace?

Jackson Harbor

Okay, here we are at Jackson Harbor. I took this from the Marina Cafe (an interminable wait but excellent food) which is housed in Jackson Harbor Station formerly a coast guard outpost. It was beautiful, and slightly chilly, and though we were a small group of patrons, about four or five tables in all--the lower deck was closed for the end of season--everyone was having a good time thanks to the house specialty: rum smoothies. Anyway, here is a link that will show you superb other views of this lovely and peaceful area by Chicago architecture critic Lee Bey, please go and check his site out--it is full of goodies and treasures and supremely well done photography; and last but not least, here's a link to what the dp blog Chicago Flair posted on Jackson Harbor in July of this year.

Blow Wind Blow

Mayor Daley has pledged to rid the city of homelessness by 2012--and through various research methods found that the number of homeless people in Chicago has gone down dramatically since. This man going through the trash on Michigan Avenue is supposedly just one of the few (24 to be precise) homeless people living on the streets of downtown. But what do I know, really...

Linne in the Readers Garden

Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778; also known as Carl Linne) is known as the Father of Modern Taxonomy. His statue can be found nestled in the Midway across from the University of Chicago. Commissioned by Swedish Americans and installed in Lincoln Park in 1891, the statue was moved to Midway Plaisance in 1976 after vandals stripped the statue of four allegorical female figures surrounding Linne.
The Readers Garden where Linne's statue can be found. Between Woodlawn and Ellis Avenue at Midway.

Big Shoulders

In honor of the upcoming Labor Day Weekend, I bring you some of the real men who make Chicago the City of Big Shoulders. These guys are Da Best! Have a safe and happy Labor Day Weekend, everyone!

The Chicago River

This is the Chicago River whose flow was reversed by wondrous engineering in the 1900s. River sewage used to empty into Lake Michigan which caused deadly cholera and typhoid outbreaks in the 1850s. The river was reversed through the use of deep digs and locks, basically creating artificial rivers to catch and train the flow to travel through to the Mississippi drainage system by way of the Des Plaines and Illinois rivers. On St. Patrick's Day, the city dyes the river green.

This Is Not Your Bad Dream

Relax, it's not you who found themselves inexplicably naked at work. The Macy's mannequins, in between costume changes...