Being Totally Sweet in Chicago

Photo by Havanai

"One of my favorite things about cycling is that it can reward suffering with joy." - Bike Snob NYC

It seems I'm the last to report the 2009 Tour Da Chicago. Beaten to the punch by Hipster Nascar and Dispatch 101,I'm none the less stoked to see another season of the foul weather classic unfold. For the uninitiated, the Tour is a series of bicycle races set in live traffic; graced by freezing rain and numbing cold . Check MySpace for more info and don't forget to pay respects.

Alligator pizza in Brooklyn, photo by moviemuff. Will it translate to Wicker Park?

Bi-polar weather has been on everyones' minds, from the spring-tease on Sunday to controvery-inducing snow late in the week. 

 A lot of the cool kids are talking about chickens, but who's gonna but their money where their, er, eggs are?

A suprising number of cyclists are out in the snow, and some of them are making money.

Free pizza has arrived in Wicker Park, but will it measure up to its NYC roots?

Finally, contrary to common sense, there are no shortage of reasons to go out this weekend.

City chicken hipsters, photographed by artcphoto.

Both Chicagoist and Gapers Block ran stories about urban chicken keepers yesterday. Raising laying hens in the city appears to be a hot trend nationwide. Click the previous link to the Christian Science Monitor for a very informative article on the topic.

Photo by Flickr user key lime pie.

Chickens are still legal in Chicago so now is the time to jump on the bandwagon and source your omelets from the back yard, porch, or rooftop.

Backyard coop by Philip Ferrato.

For more urban poultry reading:

• Urban Chickens blog
• UrbanChickens.org (unrelated to the blog)
• How to keep chickens in the city, via wikihow
• BackyardChickens.com

A beacon for the lost: Cal's Liquors, photographed by ten-nine.

This was a good week for street photography, with memorable offerings from Insomnia Jones, J.D. and Sean's 100 Strangers efforts. Jay Ryan made a beautiful poster for the Illinois State Cyclocross Championship, Cal's is still the best downtown dive bar, and Metropolitan Brewing was on TV.  Make sure you check out all the going's on this weekend! 

Stylish Thanksgiving Woman, by Flickr user Insomnia Jones, J.D.

Insomnia Jones, J.D. posted a few nice Thanksgiving street shots.
I've always felt this kind of photo typifies the urban experience.
Everybody walks around doing their thing and nobody pays much
attention, then wham!, someone turns you into an icon of late-fall
couture. 

60th & Damen.

Englewood is widely regarded as the most dangerous neighborhood in Chicago. Urban decay has left the shell of a once successful railroad community, infamous for its extreme crime and murder rate. Common wisdom is that if you don't live in neighborhood, you have no business being there.

Flickr user M3gustafson recently posted a stand-out set of photos shot during the inspection of an old railroad viaduct. She agreed to answer a few questions about her experience.

How many times have you been to Englewood?

Let's see, I've been through it a bunch of times on my way South, or when I want to explore Chicago if I happen to have a rental car. But this was the first time I walked around for an extended period of time.

How did you end up walking around the most dangerous neighborhood in Chicago?

I work for the Department of Planning, and was with four co-workers in a City vehicle. We looked official. We were inspecting viaducts on the Englewood Embankment which hasn't carried a train in over 20 years. No one bothered us, but I'm sure people were wondering what we were doing. Our CDOT counterpart had a City vest on which I think is a good idea, but my boss prefers doing field work incognito. I'd rather be associated with City government than look like real estate speculators. Someone stopped us to say that the street lights were broken.

Transit police, from a graffiti artist's point of view.

Did it look the way you expected?

I'd been looking at aerial maps of the area all week, so I knew about the abundance of vacant land and dilapidated buildings. I was unprepared for the natural beauty of the Englewood Embankment and how the prairie has taken it back. I did not expect to see a place called "Blackface Records" on 59th & Wolcott. Oh, and encountering a pack of stray dogs.... was a little unexpected.

I noticed a lot of train pictures. Why are they a focal point?

We were looking at the condition of the viaducts and the line itself. It's in great shape. It's like an enchanted fairy tale forest up there! If you notice in my photos the rails have been disrupted, taken off the ties and moved over a few inches. It's bizarre, I don't know who did it or why they would go to the trouble.

Brad with lettuce.

Who is Brad, and where did he get the lettuce?

Brad is my coworker in the Planning Department. He works on the City's Green Urban Design Plan(bottom of page) which will be Chicago's new policy for sustainable building practices.

The lettuce is from the Growing Home farm on Wood Street, adjacent to the Englewood Embankment. Growing home sells its produce wholesale to many restaurants and stores and also participates in the Farmer's Markets. Their mission includes job training for homeless and low-income people, as well as an arrangement with Kennedy King College to offer free GED classes for participants. I took some of that lettuce home, and it was delicious! Check out their website!
Packs of wild dogs roam this area.

Packs of wild dogs are commonly found on the fringes of civilization. You mentioned seeing them in Engelwood.

Over by Bontemps Elementary School on 58th & Throop there's an old two story concrete railroad spur above an adjacent vacant lot, at the same elevation as the embankment. We all climbed up there. I was last because I'd be taking so many photos when 50 feet away, we see a mangy German Shepard/Akita type mutt come dashing towards us. Then five others appear from their den in the concrete caves. My boss yells, "Oh shit, a pack of stray dogs." And I BOLT. Ok, ok, ok, I KNOW that's the worst thing to do, but my body would not let me stand there and get mauled. Well, then I tripped on a big rusty metal RR tie and everyone screaming- DONT RUN! I looked back over there and the alpha dog gave us a good stare, looked around and lifted his leg to pee. The others contemplated us for a moment and then trotted down the north side of the embankment towards the playground. Hopefully the kids in school at Bontemps are learning about how to avoid a stray dog attacks.

Do you think you'll go back?

I'd love to go back. What are you up to next weekend!?

The prairie is reclaiming this set of derelict tracks.

Thanks Meg!

This weekend's Chicago Tattoo Arts Convention. Photo by mjkmjk.

The Chicago Tattoo Arts Convention took place this weekend at the Hyatt Regency with over two hundred artists in attendance. Mjkmjk, one of my favorite Chicago Flickr users, captured the event in intimate detail.

The timeless appealing tattooed lady. Photo mjkmjk.

 So long, summer days!  Walks down the Bloomingdale Trail will now require sweaters and jackets.  Photo by sgt fun.

The election season is over and everyone gearing up for winter.  We have the Shepard Fairey signs around city hall to remind us new things are on the move.  The Festival of Wood and Barrel Aged Beer was a spectacular success, with promises of two new breweries opening in the near future.  I'm already feeling nostalgic for outdoors urban adventures like the Bloomingdale Trail.  Cyclists are making plans for next season and weekend activities will increasingly focused around the indoors.

Get in my nose! Olfactory sensations abounded at the Festival of Wood and Barrel Aged Beer.

If you lust for beer aged in wood, Saturday night was the fulfillment of your desires. The curator was Jeff Sparrow of the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild, the genre was esoteric, and the two sold-out sessions were the largest in the country. Cask-born flavors ranged from motor-oil barley wines(festival winner, Three Floyds Behemoth) to fruity, floral sours (New Belgium Tart Lychee) to bludgeoningly-woody ales (Surly Cedar Smoke). There was something new for the most weather veterans of the brewing trenches.

Gabriel of Half Acre Beer Company, with friends.

Aside from the beer, my favorite part was meeting the brewers. The dedication of these geniuses of fermentation is as staggering as the gravity of their potions. I happily discovered two new purveyors of alcoholic vice within the city limits: Metropolitan and Half Acre. Keep an eye on their blogs, the upcoming brewery openings will be mandatory for the legions of beer-obsessed.

This hops and cog tattoo belongs to Tracy Hurst of Metropolitan Brewery.

The festival is six-years-running, and measuring by enthusiasm the next will be even larger. In the mean time track down the award-winners and make your own decision.

All photographs by Andrew Golding. 

Obama victory celebration, Pan-African News Wire

It's been a truely inspiring week in Chicago.  We started off with a new monthly soul night, participated in democracy with outstanding results, and have a new reason to visit the fish.  The bloody marys were a hit, and the weekend is packed with reasons to get out and brave the snow.