What should I do with my other Instagram account?

Since late July I had been utilizing a 2nd profile - attached to The Sixth Ward - on the social networking site Instagram. Basically it's used for snapshots taken around the neighborhood and sharing ("regram") posts from other ig users. If used for the sharing of information as has been done with The Sixth Ward's ig it's very nifty.

One of the recent posts that have been somewhat newsworthy was the snapshot (seen above and embed below) I had taken of a local hotdog stand - Jim's Original. The stand is located near the 95th terminal of the CTA Red Line and is slated to close as a result of a project to significantly expand the CTA terminal. It had been the closest and easiest place for me to get a Maxwell Street polish sausage.

All the same I've been wondering what is the most effective way to use this social networking program. It probably can't be used the same way I have been able to use The Sixth Ward's Twitter and Facebook pages.

What I can count on is that it has attracted followers from a number of areas. For example both the Twitter & fb pages have attracted some major companies for example Mariano's as many people on Chicago's south side want to attract the newest grocer to this at part of the city.

My ig page has gotten followed by AMC Theatres which I threw a shout-out for that. In addition to that I have followers who include politicians on the local and state level in addition to aspiring activists and of course aspiring businessmen. Even better my ig page is being followed by the Maroon Tiger ig which is the student newspaper of my alma mater Morehouse College.

So the next question. What is the best way to truly utlize this account? Could this be one way to market the south side to any future investors especially any major companies to come to this part of town? Can it be utilized to share important information?

How do I learn more about urban planning?

aerial photo of 63rd/Halsted Englewood

Last year I wrote about this "dreaded G word" over at my other blog - The Sixth Ward. It was in relation to the news that Whole Foods Market was coming into a low-income neighborhood in Chicago. That neighborhood is the south side's Englewood.

The point I was making was to address the concerns of the dreaded G word - gentrification - as it relates to Whole Foods which is basically a high-end grocer coming to a low-income neighborhood. Over the years in Chicago we've heard so much about a "food desert" where many Chicagoans don't have easy access to fresh produce and healthy foods. One means to attack this issue have been bringing in grocers in those areas were grocery stores are few and far in between.

But Whole Foods Market in Englewood of all places? Many nickname this place Whole Paychek, when I go in there the few items I have purchase could easily go up to $20 and it didn't take much for the bill to go up that high. I'm saying this recognizing that's a walk in the park compared to the bills of many other people who shop at a grocery store in general. Besides if you regularly pay $100 for groceries periodically, imagine how much the bill would be if you purchase that same amount from Whole Foods.

Either way since then I've periodically taken a look at this issue. Much more recently I showed some footage of a ceremonial ground breaking and the politicians and Whole Foods executives were saying the right things. While the issue of prices still keep coming up most of the coverage indicate that the products to be carried in this future store to open in 2016 will be affordable to residents of Englewood.

All the same the issue also is whether or not Whole Foods coming to Englewood is the start of movement. Will the many low-income residents of Englewood may in the near future find themselves forced to find another neighborhood to call home?

Not an easy answer to that question and the affordability question. To be sure, I only wish I knew more about urban planning so that there would be an better solution for everyone.

BTW, recently I learned that the west side of Chicago has a former grocery store - a former Moo & Oink -  looking for a tenant. If anyone fantasizes about another Chicago area grocer such as Mariano's come to that part of town they would be disappointed. Mariano's may not be quite right for the west side area for this former grocery store. So how is Englewood right for Whole Foods?

ALSO, another aspect of urban planning that I wish to understand is what it takes to bring certain types of retailers or businesses to a given area. Or indeed what it takes to attract these amenities to a community that certainly needs them. Will low-income people shop at a Whole Foods Market for example? If you build it will they come or will someone with the necessary income become regular shoppers?

Read more Whole Foods posts at The Sixth Ward!

Didn't I say this particular store would be a Whole Foods?

255 E. Grand Ave in early Feb. 2014

For some reason I liked going to this Dominick's store in the Streeterville neighborhood. Unfortunately like the many Dominick's stores in the Chicago area it was closed when parent company Safeway decided to close those stores. Many of these stores have been bought up by other grocery chains such as Jewel-Osco another local chain although owned by a not-so-local corporation.

In any event this particular store would be a great location for a Whole Foods Market and it's in the news that they indeed snatched this and other former Dominick's locations up recently. It was kind of alluded to in earlier reports that I blogged about. Still it's certainly good news.

Another thing I've considered however, is that it seems Whole Foods have been aggressively expanding - including a future store in the impoverished Englewood neigborhood -  to the point in which I would be concerned about over saturation. Perhaps I'm only exaggerating that in my mind, but in this part of town there's another Whole Foods store in the nearby Gold Coast neighborhood. Who knows perhaps that already established store may be closed at some point in the future.

In any case I do look forward to visiting this future Whole Foods especially if I'm strolling around in downtown Chicago or at least the area of the Magnificient Mile!

My first #picstitch

Wednesday afternoon, I explored the intersection of 63rd/Halsted. This excursion made easier by the Red Line reconstruction where I could take a shuttle bus to Garfield and then change for a train there. I could either go north from Garfield or head west into Englewood.

Over at my other blog you see this intersection at various points in it's heyday. Here's another picture of a time when it was a destination of choice for many on this part of time. Alas within the last 40 or so years this intersection has seen hard times and is still looking for something to bring it back.

The top left and bottom right corners are of Kennedy-King College, one of the Chicago City Colleges. Perhaps this is one way to revive this intesection and with an L rolling along I have always envised that this area could be as busy as the Loop where another city college is located Harold Washington College. Although granted if it were to ever happen this area as a long way to go!

BTW, check out this page on the L stop adjacent to this intersection at Halsted.

Took a stroll through Hyde Park earlier this week...

Wednesday I paid a visit to the President's Chicago neighborhood Hyde Park and snapped a shot of this restaurant Park 52. I was here last fall for a political fundraiser hosted by "SWIPO". SWIPO stands for the Seventh Ward Independent Political Organization and it was headed by 7th ward alderman Sandi Jackson who is also the 7th ward Democratic committeeman.


Little did I know attending this fundraiser that Ald Jackson was about to wind down her career as a Chicago Alderman. When I attended this fundraiser she was being interviewed by Chicago news anchor Cheryl Burton. After arriving we saw various local news vans staking this place out possibly looking for  her husband then Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. to surface after having been absentee since it was revealed that he was under medical leave from the House of Representatives.

Congressman Jackson had resigned his congressional seat not long after winning another term to the "People's House". Since he had been on medical leave since last June he didn't even campaign. Ald. Jackson also resigned her Chicago City Council Seat almost two months after her husband resigned from Congress. They both have since pleaded guilty to misusing campaign funds in Jesse Jr's case and in Sandi's case tax evasion. It appears we'll hear more about this case on Friday as their lawyers are due in federal court.

Until doing a Google search I just found out that Park 52 was closed permanently. The signs were still up when I took my stroll through Hyde Park, however I wasn't certain that this was remodeling or what. Having done the Google search and finding this article via Crain's there's certainty that this restaurant isn't coming back at all!

Park 52 itself was located at 52nd & Harper.

Also I have to figure out how to edit some of the video I shot along Lake Park Avenue in Hyde Park

Marathon Pundit: More good news on the endangered Chicago Reagan apartment

832 E. 57th St. on Jan 6th by John Ruberry

Marathon Pundit: More good news on the endangered Chicago Reagan apartment:

Well it looks like while demolition is going on at the site of Ronald Reagan's Hyde Park apartment building, the building itself remains in tact for now with a 90-day hold. The Alderman who represents that area where the University of Chicago hospital seeks to expand is more serious about a plaque to mark President Reagan's Hyde Park residence.

BTW, Ruberry at Marathon Pundit offers those concerned an e-mail address to this alderman to let them know to keep Reagan's old Chicago apartment in tact! Feel free to let her know what you think about demolishing this building.

PREVIOUS POSTS

• Marathon Pundit wants to save President Reagan's former Chicago home 
• Who knew Hyde Park had a Reagan connection?

A drive along 63rd - from Englewood to Woodlawn

Originally posted to The Sixth Ward on January 4, 2012 

[VIDEO] The vid above is from one of my long time YouTube favorites, artistmac. He takes a drive along 63rd Street  from Morgan Street all the way to Stony Island an sure to note how the individual neighborhoods once grew along that corridor.  63rd & Halsted was once a bustling commercial district in Englewood and then the area around 63rd & Cottage Grove was also a bustling commercial area in Woodlawn. Both areas are now mostly vacant lots although some redevelopment has occured in those areas.

In fact on East 63rd just past the Cottage Grove terminal of the CTA Green Line some single family homes have been built. Artistmac didn't want to get into the politics on the video of how the Green Line abruptly ended at Cottage Grove when it used to terminate as far east as Stony Island. Sometimes I wonder if cutting the L beyond its current terminus was a huge blunder!

On West 63rd, Kennedy-King College was built within the former 63rd/Halsted business district and is still waiting for even more development. While it seems more likely Woodlawn could be redeveloped given the fact that the University of Chicago is slowly but surely expanding south beyond the Midway Plaisance, time can only tell for Englewood.

Artistmac does provide one omnimous conclusion: "Unless those middle-class residents can be enticed to come back to Woodlawn, Bronzeville and Englewood, I doubt those neighborhoods, or any of Chicago's declining neighborhoods, can be brought back to life."

VIDEO: Wide new Lincoln Park rowhomes under $1M

[VIDEO] I post the vid above for one main reason. Sometimes I wish I was an architect and most importantly wish I was a builder. If only these homes could be built in communities that needs them.

The design from the outside looks great, however, they're built in Lincoln Park for a reason. These homes are expensive, thus for a builder on the the south side depending on the neighborhood they have to find a way to scale down the price. It makes me wonder if the construction of the home ultimately helps determines the price when it's built and available for sale.

This only shows that I have an interest in real estate mainly the purchase of property and it's leasing. Of course the next step is to learn the economics of construction.

And now a drive down the "great" Michigan Avenue...

[VIDEO] Alas, it's not the more well known "Magnificent Mile" with all the shopping and million dollar properties. Instead it's the shopping and residential areas on the far south side of Chicago that's referred to here as the "Non-Magnificent Mile". That area is referred to as Roseland, a very depressed community with abandoned homes, vacant buildings with bombed out storefronts, and vacant lots.

This is an area I drive through a lot and of course when I see anything from either better days to even its worst, it's thrilling to see it exposed to the rest of the world on the internet. It's all just to show the world what the real Chicago looks like.

Our host, Partee Wesley, has a sense of humor in spite of this bleakness. Then near the end he turns more serious letting us know that it's very important to see the entire meal and not to see it cut in half. He even makes an offhanded reference to one possible reason why the Olympics aren't coming to Chicago.

Via YoChicago!

VIDEO: Marc Sims drives around Roseland

[VIDEO] Marc Sims, a cable access personality was driving around in the Roseland Neighborhood. One minute he's driving on Michigan Avenue the next he's on 111th driving near Alex Haley Academy, then he's on State St. then he's on 115th, then he near Fenger High School, then he's on Halsted, then he's at Julian High School on 103rd then back to Vincennes.

Just note that while you're hearing sights and sounds of this part of the far south side, you will also hear him babble for over 17 minutes.

For Candidates, the 15th Ward’s Ills Are Daunting

15th Ward

You know there are some wards where it's difficult to get anything done. Chicago's 15th Ward is one of them as well they've suffered through not only lackluster Aldermen, but terrible voter turnout according to this Chicago News Coop article.

The incumbent Ald. Toni Foulkes but a challenger, attorney Felicia H. Simmons-Stovall, has received notice from the Tribune and the Chicago Crusader. If you give weight to endorsements the subscription website Early & Often has Foulkes running away with endorsements

One candidate that probably should get more notice is Syron Smith. He was able to beat in his race for Alderman challenges to his petitions unlike his race for State Representative. I know of him by his YouTube videos and has made several about this race. He likes to talk about his block-by-black activism. We'll know on Tuesday whether or not that strategy will result in a Smith victory.

Another Roseland neighborhood picture

On Sunday, Unknown Chicago over at ChicagoNOW offered another street quiz and I instantly recognized this picture. The give away was the marquee for the long demolished State Theater you see in the background. This picture is looking north along South Michigan Avenue in 1934.

The land where the State stood is now a parking lot for a nearby post office most of the buildings in this pic are long demolished replaced by a Walgreen's on the west side of the street and a currency exchange on the west side of the street. Of course street car service had been eliminated by the CTA in the late 1950s.

I also had to look up the Parkway Theater which you see in the foreground on the east side of the street. If Englewood was noted for the many theaters that were operating near 63rd & Halsted, the Roseland neighborhood had their own treasures of which only one, the Roseland Theater, still stands today.

In any event in the post where I would've had to identify the various scenes; there were two that were identifiable without a doubt. The first two pictures in the gallery especially the pic above. The post that offered the answers gave me an education as to where those other scenes were located.

Who knew Hyde Park had a Reagan connection?

832 E. 57th St.

ALSO note that this home was the subject of a post over at Unknown Chicago, a ChicagoNow blog.

So Hyde Park can now claim two Presidents although one of them spent only a brief time in this area of my city. Brought to the fore thanks to this Sun-Times article:

Locked up, abandoned and forgotten, the vacant six-flat standing at the northeast corner of 57th and Maryland has no plaques or statues and few clues to its history.

Now, the little-known childhood home of Ronald Reagan in Hyde Park could soon be torn down by the University of Chicago, which has quietly plotted its demolition, the Sun-Times has learned.

The plan has made unlikely allies of conservatives who consider Reagan an icon and liberal Hyde Parkers who say the university’s secrecy is typical of how it has treated its neighbors for decades.

It puts the school that provided the intellectual force behind “Reaganomics” in the awkward spot of attempting to destroy what was until the election of Barack Obama the only home in Chicago where a president has lived.

This is what the need for preservation is about:

Hyde Park Historical Society board member Jack Spicer, also the president of all-volunteer Preservation Chicago, said the Reagan six-flat — just a mile south of President Obama’s Kenwood home — is the finest remaining example of what was once a solid working and middle-class black neighborhood. Destroying it would create “a medical canyon” that separates the hospital from the city and risks deepening long-standing wounds in university-resident relations, he said.

“Whatever you think of Reagan — once the building’s gone, it’s gone forever,” he added.

Landmarks Illinois president Jim Peters also said that he would like to see the block preserved. Reagan’s home is protected by a zoning giving critics 90 days to object if and when the university announces a plan to destroy it, he said.

Further headaches could come from conservatives keen to name everything from aircraft carriers to schools in Reagan’s honor.

How did they find this place?

Park Ridge resident Tom Roeser, 82, discovered the link in the early 1980s when he pressed Reagan for details of the home during a visit to the White House. Reagan couldn’t remember the address, but passed on a message: “My father was picked up often as a common drunk — the police records should have that fact.”

Records confirmed that John R. Reagan was arrested by Chicago Police for drunkenness in 1915, giving the 57th Street address, said Roeser, a former op-ed columnist for the Sun-Times and a former Quaker Oats vice president.

You never know what place or places have an historical connection.

115th & Michigan back in 1934...

And at this intersection the only building that remains is the one with the drugs sign on the northeast corner. That building is still there. I never thought I would see such an old picture from the Roseland neighborhood courtesy of Unknown Chicago. That other nice building on the southeast corner, well that building was torn down, the property is currently vacant.

As a bonus check out my post about Englewood at The Sixth Ward. Also using historical photographs from Unknown Chicago.

The last Jew of South Shore Gardens

She died this past April and I just now found this article. Found it very interesting. She was the last Jew in the area called South Shore Gardens. Well I just refer to that area with it's boundaries as Pill Hill although that may not entirely be accurate:

Gloria Kolodny Chanenson, the last Jewish resident of the Chicago neighborhood of South Shore Gardens, died while visiting her daughter in Cincinnati on April 8, at age 90. She refused to move from her home, which was built in South Shore Gardens in 1954. South Shore Gardens suffered an acute epidemic of white, and especially Jewish, flight between 1967 and 1972, while the neighborhood was new and building up. These tumultuous times were reviewed in the book "The South Side" by Louis Rosen (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, Inc., 1999). The neighborhood is bounded by 87th Street on the North, Jeffrey Boulevard (2000 East) on the West, 93rd Street on the South and Anthony Avenue on the East.
...
When their neighbors began to move in the late 1960s, the Chanensons decided to stay in their home, and they became friendly with their new African-American neighbors as they moved in. "We integrate the neighborhood," Irving said. Eventually, only a few other staunch and stubborn Jewish families refused to "go with the flow." Among the last couples to remain in their homes in South Shore Gardens or neighboring Pill Hill were Esther Malkin Lesner, a retired elementary school French and adjustment teacher, and her husband, Samuel J. ("Sam") Lesner, retired movie and night club critic of the Chicago Daily News and a columnist for the Hyde Park Herald; Minnie Brainin Lieb and Dr. Bernard Lieb, a physician; and Dr. Max Martin Jacobson, a distinguished ophthalmologist who had studied in Vienna early in his career, and his wife, Eugenia ("Jeanne") Rydnik Jacobson, a pianist and piano teacher.

These three couples all died while remaining in their neighborhood homes, and Irving passed away in 1990, leaving Gloria as the last Jew in the South Shore Gardens area and probably the only Jew in the entire South Shore-South Chicago area from 71st Street southward to the city limits and from Lake Michigan to Stony Island Avenue.

An interesting story taking place on the South Side.

If you want to know more about this racial change that took place in that particular area then I would like to refer you to this post I had written in 2005 about a book I had checked out of the library. It was about this very community that was populated by the Jews and what happened when Black Americans started moving in.

A Detroit District Thrives by Building on the Past

Thanks to the NY Times we're taking another virtual trip to that great American city of Detroit. Of course depending on how you view Detroit it's not so great and it's no stretch to say that great city is struggling to find itself these days. Anyway, what about building on the past in this Detroit neighborhood:

In sharp contrast to the rest of the Detroit metropolitan area, an area known as Midtown just north of the central business district has been holding its own in the recession.

Much of the success of Midtown — as it was branded a decade ago — is a result of the strength of institutions like Wayne State University, the Detroit Medical Center, the Henry Ford Hospital and the Detroit Institute of Arts, all of which contribute students and employees as well as residents.

Another component of Midtown’s success is that its developers are refurbishing older buildings, using tax credits and public financing, as much as they are building from scratch.

“For a long time, there was a big effort to tear things down in Detroit,” said Michael Poris, a principal of the architecture firm McIntosh Poris Associates, which is restoring a former vaudeville house in Midtown for multiple uses. “But if we have all these great historic buildings here, why not take the historic tax credits and reuse them? Plus it’s a greener, more sustainable form of development.”

According to the CoStar Group, a real estate information company in Bethesda, Md., the vacancy rate for office space in Midtown — including an adjacent area called New Center, where the former headquarters of General Motors now houses state offices — stood at 8.2 percent in the second quarter of this year.
...
“We really have lost almost no businesses during the recession,” said Susan Mosey, the president of the University Cultural Center Association, an organization formed by several Midtown institutions that guides development in the area. “That isn’t to say that businesses haven’t had to reduce costs and become more efficient, but the neighborhood’s remained pretty stable.”

The housing market is thriving too, Ms. Mosey said. Many obsolete buildings in Midtown have been converted to rental housing in recent years, and the rental market has been strong. An association study found that 92 percent of the 4,295 rental units in the area were occupied last spring.

A handful of condominium projects begun right before the national housing market collapsed had to shift gears and become rental apartments. Those were leased quickly, Ms. Mosey said.
...
Preservationists had the foresight to get much of Midtown designated as historic in the 1990s, thus ensuring they would be eligible for tax credits, said Diane Van Buren, vice president of sustainable planning at Zachary & Associates, a property development and development consulting group.

Zachary & Associates, with several partners, is in the process of creating an area within Midtown called the Sugar Hill Arts District, in tribute to the traveling black jazz musicians who once played in clubs and stayed in stately homes in the neighborhood, Ms. Van Buren said.

Much of the district was destroyed in the urban renewal movement in the mid-20th century that displaced many African-American neighborhoods in Detroit and elsewhere, she said.

Several buildings and sites in Sugar Hill are being redeveloped, including 71 East Garfield Street — the former site of a hotel that was destroyed by fire — which has undergone a $6 million renovation into 22 live-work spaces for artists and eight commercial spaces.

I probably excerpted a lot more from this article than I should of, but this is an interesting article that is worth your time. Not all is bad in Detroit and there are people there - oustide of the political establishment - who are working to rebuild Detroit. Finding your groove of course takes lots of time.

Hat-tip Urbanophile which also has a post up about how Detroit can market itself.

Citizens painting fire hydrants

Patrick McDonough takes issue with anyone other than city workers painting fire hydrants for this reason. Oh yeah, you should also know that McDonough isn't a fan of Mayor Daley and has no problem taking a swipe at him in this post:

I made sure some police showed up as everyone should when people tamper with the potable water supply. This is a major priority after 9/11 and posters at work inform us to not take this lightly.

It makes sense although, he may want to tell that to artistmac. Who close to three years ago was a little fed up with the city not painting fire hydrants in his neighborhood, and opted to paint them himself!

Another Recovery Act sign

Near 111th/Ashland in Morgan Park. The bridge across I-57 was out of service and being fixed up. Another Obama stimulus "campaign sign" located on Chicago's south side. A little more background from Marathon Pundit, he's been keeping an eye on these.

Sellers Refused Home to Black Couple: HUD

Read this ChicagoBreakingNews article about a Black couple who filed a complaint against homeowners who said outright that they "preferred" not to sell their home to a Black. I can't believe this still occurs today, but we see it will make the news.

Newsalert makes a connection between this Bridgeport couple and the Chicago mob and Chicago Democratic machine.

Also note we're talking about Bridgeport historically this neighborhood has been hostile towards blacks. In fact the 1919 race riots had their principals between both Bridgeport and the Black Metropolis.

Sears on 79th Street lost my business

Sears-79th Tower by Coyote2024

Bad customer service today.

All I needed to buy was a pair of pants and some socks and I went to two registers. One sent me to another register where I waited for an associate to come back to the register. She finally did and took care of other customers which was fine, but then after taking care of that customer she told me to go down to another register as she had to take care of someone else.

That ticked me off since I was already told to come to that register by a woman who either wasn't cashed in to take care of anyway and she appeared to be doing inventory. Long story short I just decided to put my items back and leave. I should've been more vocal, but I got a blog I'll do my talking there.

Of course I say that knowing that no one from Sears will be reading. I just wanted it to be known that I wanted to support our local Sears store instead of going to either the Suburbs, downtown, or even 63rd & Western where I finally did get my pants. 79th Streets needs to do better than that one off day that I was actually there.

BTW, this is a rare post that I do. It's just me venting. Hopefully if you live in the general area and know what I'm talking about hopefully you'll be more vocal than I was.

Thanks for reading!