i'm a sox fan - and i get it, the ties of many sox fans [and others] to the old park & the name comiskey park.
but i didn't like chuck comiskey - the proximate cause of the black sox scandal. and so when the new [well, not so new now] park naming rights went to US Cellular, and the nickname The Cell emerged, i grew fond of that.
so i still call it The Cell, sometimes. and often call it Sox Park. and wrigley Cubs park.
The gum company doesn't pay for the branding and I'm sure any effort to change the name to the name of an actual sponsor would be met with howls of protest.
When the Ricketts were negotiating to buy the Cubs (which was a package deal with the ballpark), Ricketts actually tried a negotiating tactic that they would buy the team only, and not Wrigley along with it. The local media and Chicagoans were not buying it, as Wrigley is THE core to the "Wrigley experience" - and why (80%? 90%? of) the fans in attendance go to Wrigley in the first place. That negotiating stance lasted as long as an ice cube in the Sahara, and the Ricketts' negotiators were laughed at for trying such a lame (and completely unconvincing) negotiating ruse.
I know it’s probably considered unpatriotic. But I have never been a fan of Wrigley Field. Actually, the first time I attended was at a Bears game to which my father took me. Remember Bobby Douglas? I grew up on the south side, so Comiskey was simply easier to get to. I thought it was an ugly park in a crowded neighborhood. The inner concourse looked old, cheap and dirty. You had a good chance of missing half the from behind a post. Weeds on the wall and and hand operated scoreboard did not thrill me. Where should you park? Oh, that’s right- take the CTA. That’s not as handy as it sounds, coming from the south side. Anyway, that’s my view. And I remind people it did not always fill to the brim. I remember a television game where the announced crowd was something like 906. I’ll give the Cubs credits for selling the ballpark rather than a lot of terrible teams when they now have the highest game costs in MLB.
Wrigley isn't as old as people think or the Tribune Company claimed when it wanted to do the lights in 1988..
While the original Weeghman Field was built in 1914 as a single deck, the upper deck was built later.
But the bleachers weren't built until 1931 under Bill Veeck's father & the PK Wrigley totally demolished all the concrete, two sections at a time in the late 1950s & early 60s once the Bears seasons ended. I watched it being done from the CTA Howard Line or the Clark bus. There were a couple of huge cranes in the middle of the field doing the demo work & all new concrete was used then. Only the major steel girders were left from the upper deck construction of about 1923 & the lower deck construction of 1914.
If you look at the Guaranteed Rate/Rate logo, you'll note that there is a red downwards arrow incorporated therein. So its implied name is "[Low] Rate Field". But both were and are idiotic names for a ballpark.
Thanks a million for the link to the Trib's Best Photos of 2024! I'd already seen them (but maybe not all of them?) in the printed paper, but clicked the link and swiftly relearned what we paperphiles too often forget: digital imagery looks WAY better on a screen than in print. And THAT, kind sir, is how I've finally become compelled to break my addiction to the print paper: as soon as I finish tapping this, I'm switching my subscription to digital-only.
Don’t care one way or another. You need the paper copy to do the puzzles. But I say that as someone who no longer pays for overpriced copies merely to do puzzles.
I kept the subscription going because I far prefer reading from paper rather than from a backlit screen, not because puzzles seem doable only on paper. The only Trib puzzles I work are Sudoku, Jumble, and WordWheel. It's easy to grab a Sudoku screenshot from the digital edition, then quickly sketch the starting grid when time allows. Ditto the Jumble if it's one of the harder ones, jotting letters and words on the back of the grocery list. WordWheel doesn't require paper at all. Crosswords, I confess, are a problem, but I get mine elsewhere, not the Trib.
I have digital subscriptions to the Times and Tribune and print the puzzles, including Hocus Focus for my granddaughter. I also get the physical paper on Sunday.
You are probably younger and have more energy than me. Besides, now you need to buy pepper when the whole idea was not to waste money on the print copy
The fat orange traitor has always been a bully, that's why his parents sent him to a military high school. Except that had the opposite effect, as it turned him into an even worse bully, because at those schools, the upper classmen always bully the freshmen & sophomores.
As for his ridiculous lawsuit against the Des Moines Register, I sure hope the Register's lawyers go before the judge & not only ask that it be dismissed because it's an abuse of the process, but to sanction & fine both him & his shysters for violating Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which state that a lawyer must certify to the court that the case they are bringing is valid & has merit.
This case has zero merit & definitely isn't valid!
As for the police chases in Chicago, over a month ago, Channel 2 had a story about a device a cop can shoot out the window at a fleeing vehicle & that device will stick to the fleeing vehicle's back & emit a radio signal the cops can follow.
While I'm also sure that the bad guys could stop their usually stolen vehicle & remove it, if they know about it, it's still better than a high speed chase after guys who aren't capable drivers in the first place, because in almost every chase around here, the bad guys crash into something to end the chase, often innocent people in their cars or on the sidewalk. Which is why the city ends up paying out so much money to the innocent victims of the chase.
The TV station reported that CPD "is looking into the device"!
So Larry Snelling, stop looking into it, buy a few & try it out!
Let's not forget the second stage of a police chase - the perps jump out of the car and run. Tracking the car without a chase will only allow for a second location to gather evidence, not an apprehension. This is a disguised way of not chasing. There may be the occasional discovery of a relevant location.
I think we may need to accept that the police are there to collect evidence and witness reports. Then wait for someone to tell them where a perp is sleeping.
And for a third comment, I rode a bike for 60 years in this city, but had to give it up five years ago due to arthritis.
I flat out hate the bike lanes & never used them when they first started.
I always went for side streets over main streets. I could ride the 5.5 miles to Costco & back on all side streets & a few alleys, except for a one block stretch of Lincoln Ave, to to the end of a side street.
I used to ride on the service drive of King Drive, between 35th & 51st.
Last year the city put in fully separated bike lanes on Clark St between Devon & Peterson, so Clark is now one lane in each direction, down from two lanes there & was actually three lanes 30 years ago.
Southbound Clark is now often backed up from Devon north for over 3/8ths of a mile!!!
A couple of weeks ago, the WaPo had an article that the sole purpose of the bike lanes in DC was to screw up traffic so bad that people will take public transit.
It's the same thing here in Chicago!
So guess what, I do take the Clark bus all the time & it takes forever now to go from Pratt south to Peterson due to that useless bike lane that almost no one uses & won't be able to use after a snow storm, when the plows bury the bike lanes under a couple of feet of hard packed snow & ice!!!
Road cyclists like you insist on making roads more dangerous for all users. I can promise you that when Clark was 3 lanes it was more dangerous for evey road user involved. When it was 2 lanes, it was more dangerous for everyone than it is now. Wide roads and high speeds create danger.
As ivs done the past few weeks, read Killed By a Traffic Engineer. Wide, high speed roads are NOT safe.
People use the lanes. In fact, the more we build lanes the more people use them and the more cyclists we start seeing. Bike Grid Now! has made thia their point for years. You wont get a true critical mass of riders until it is actually safe and connected around the whole city.
We have plows for winter for bike lanes.
Finally... my main point always... bike lanes are not to inconvenience cars! How self centered can you be where you think thats the only reason? I, like so many others, am so damn tired of seeing 100+ people needlesly killed on city streets each year. I am sick od the pollution, the microplastics, and the wasted city money. I want my tax dollars better spent, i want businesses to thrive. Cars are the antithesis to this all.
I make this challenge often and very rarely do people take it up (Eric hasnt,) but actually look into the cost car based society has. Its is far from cheap and we are all steeply paying the price with wasted money, diseases, injuries, and death. There are better ways!!!!
To add on, cars are like cigarettes. You think we are trying to take away a simple pleasure because it annoys us. Thats no true. We dont care what you do away from others, but when your actions are getting innocent people killed and ia costing society billions of dollars that could be better spent? Yeah, youre gonna get people wanting to limit the negatives.
Actions have consequences and weve let the consequences of a car-based society get way out of hand. Its time to atart clawing it back
You don't know a damned thing about Clark St. I have lived 232 feet from it for 72 years now!
It was a mess when it was three lanes, because that was one too many lanes for the amount of traffic & you actually had people racing each other there, but cutting it to two lanes made it work perfectly.
I was not a "road cyclist", I was a very low traffic side street one, there is a huge difference!
And we don't have plows for the winter bike lanes, we don't even have plows for the far more important sidewalks we use to get everywhere, no matter how we got there, either by car or bus!
And as I wrote, that bike lane on Clark isn't used & has wrecked the time it takes for the bus to go that mile!
As for that 100 people killed by cars every year, how many of them were killed either mid block, when there was a traffic light to help them cross safely not far away or even worse, crossing at night while wearing dark clothing, which I see everywhere.
I'll bet you are one of those loony mass biking riding that goes crazy around a car & makes that driver's operation become impossible.
Gary, you dont know what youre talking about, youre making ad hominens, and you are victim blaming dead people. Nice guy!
Youre not engaging with what I, or any other advocate, says. Typical of drivers, you want your cake and to eat it to. You want to ignore the issues cars inflict and blame everyone else. You attack me and refuse to understand why people ask for the changes they do. Its disgusting.
I live on Clark. I know EXACTLY what I am talking about. I also pay attention to road deaths and injuries, do you? Because if you did, you would know bike lanes make streets safer and dont create congestion. But something tells me youve never truly engaged with this content
2. I'm not a driver & have never owned or driven a car! I now take the bus!
3. Bike lanes don't make streets safer & they certainly do create congestion, as I wrote, Clark is now backed up for southbound traffic for 3/8ths of a mile multiple times a day for hours at a time at Devon due to that utterly useless bike lane that no one uses! It shouldn't take 10 minutes for the 22 bus to travel that short distance, but it does!
4. Exactly where on Clark do you live, as it certainly isn't north of Devon?
Otherwise, i only care about 3. This is Brandolini's Law at work, here. I continue to bring up the book Killed By A Traffic Engineer because it gets to the myths about our road system. Wide, fast roads, especially in cities, are very dangerous. The faster people go, the more dangerous it is. Wider streets encourage faster driving, which in turn make the streets more dangerous! AND, heres the kicker, it doesnt speed up the flow of traffic due to pedestrians, turning cars, and traffix lights, the average speed on city streets is ONLY 19mph. Slowing down cars between lights WILL improve safety and bike lanes are a huge part of that. When streets get them they see safety improve.
Secondly, cars cause congestion! Ypi dont drive, right? So surely yoi should see that! The city of Chicago currently gives roughly 90% of our publicly owned land to cars. Traffic is awfull its only gotten worse for the past 100 years. During that same time frame we significantly reduced our public transportation network, defunded what we kept, widened roads, built more parking, and installed highways. How much better has congestion gotten?
Its time we stop dirtying our air and drinking water for the supposed convenience of a system that kills hundreds of Illinois per year, ours countless others in hospitals, causes grief for thousands, and soaks the taxpayers
Makes me imagine what an image of all of Chicago would look like done this way. I.e., What percentage of total land area -- including highways, streets, alleys, and I suppose you could also include garages -- is devoted to cars? It would probably horrify us.
Its absurd how much we devot to them without even considering it. Imagine what we could do with all that space! Housing! Parks! Plazas! Trees! Outdoor dining! Fountains! The options are endless but we stop at car lanes and parking so we can surround ourselves with danger and pollution. Its really odd
Garry, This comment leaves me in total awe of you. You possess the superpower of going to Costco and leaving there with few enough things to return home on a bike!!! This is a supernatural power that I was not even aware existed, and my hat is off to you my friend!
I once carried home a 30 pack of toilet paper on the rear carrier for that 5.5 miles! Plus a box of smaller stuff in the basket attached to the handlebars. I got a lot of stare on that trip!
Riding to Costco on a bike? I am smiling imagining you trying to haul that thousand roll case of toilet paper on a bicycle. I know, it's not a thousand roll but almost everything Costco sells is super-sized.
I’m with you on Sox Park over Rate Field. I do think it’s amusing that according to an interview with senior management, they dropped “Guaranteed” because most of their customers couldn’t spell it.
Do any of these companies actually profit from having their names on ballparks? I doubt there are many fans who return home after a Sox defeat and take out a mortgage with "Guaranteed Rate," wherever and whatever that is, because of the name of the ballpark.
I have wondered that, too. How many air travelers think, even subconsciously, to buy a ticket on United because they've seen a game or heard a reference to the United Center? To me, the name "United Center" doesn't even conjure the airline. They should have made it " United Airlines Center" similar to how the Dallas Stars and Mavericks play at the "American Airlines Center" in Dallas. That said, there probably are people who, when looking for a mortgage company, have a comfort with Guaranteed Rate -- now Rate -- because they've seen and heard the name so much.
The Trump lawsuit in Iowa is based on the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act. The claim is that the paper and the pollster both knew that they were producing and publishing a misleading poll. This defrauded the public and cost the campaign additional money to increase campaigning in Iowa.
This is no more frivolous than many consumer fraud claims.
And it might be useful for the media to be more forthright and circumspect regarding polls on many topics. Especially when they are promoting the notion that the polls are objective and scientific. This is particularly relevant in separating news from opinion.
MAGAs use so many specious arguments to defend Trump. Come on, Marc- we know what this and who Trump is. He is getting back at people that don’t adore him. Did you read the story about the suit? He is claiming that merely reporting the poll affected the election result. What harm was done to him, that he didn’t win Iowa by enough? What does he expect as a result? Money? What were the damages, especially since he won? To have the paper shut down? This is purely a Trump tantrum.
Team Trump will have to prove that the poll was not taken in good faith and that it suffered damages because of that. C'mon, Marc, you are smarter than this. It's a frivolous, bullying move, period.
Both the NYT and NY Post have had recent articles about the ABC settlement. One said that Stephannopolous (SP?) had been told several times shortly before going on the air not to use the word "rape." Instead, he not only used it he used it nine or 10 times and in a fairly badgering manner (though that doesn't really matter legally, I don't believe). It might matter to a jury, however. And apparently (I can't get the Times on this computer so I'm having to recall something from earlier today)the timing was this: A judge on Friday ordered both George and Trump to sit for depositions. Negotiations started almost immediately and the settlement was announced Saturday. To me this indicates that ABC had good reason to settle and none of it is related to Orange Man Bad.
I only care about 3. Unfortunately, thats just not how it works. Wide open streets are dangerous and do not relieve congestion. Again, if you have any actual interest in this, I cannot recommend Killed By A Traffic Engineer enough. The assumptions we have on road safety and capacity are fundamentally wrong. It, quite literally, takes a whole book to break down your arguments. He has chapters devoted to every single thing you wrote.
Its Brandolini's Law here, I cannot respond to everything you are saying because your assumptions are just so off base. I implore you read the book. People die, people wind up in the hospitals with horrible injuries (and come out in debt!) we breath dirty air, and drink microplastics based on faulty assumptions that this is the best we can do.
“And there’s the issue of damages. Trump won the state and the election. What harm was done?” Could Trump use this argument that his election interference in 2020 was harmless, since he lost anyway?
Trump's conduct was criminal and he was prosecuted by the government under criminal law, no damages necessary. He is suing the paper in a civil court for financial damages, where he needs to prove some kind of harm was done to him, which would be remedied financially.
ha ha, good one, laurence - a classic. however, as i stated in an earlier post to the PS, i'm no fan of charles comiskey.
but i understand the attachment to comiskey park. i started attending sox games in the ealry '60s - so almost 30 yrs of calling the park comiskey - and 'new comiskey' thereafter, until US Cellular bought the naming rights.
i'm still fond of the nickname The Cell - unique in pro sports - and not goofy or unnicknameable, like Garanteed Rate, or Rate.
Zorn....we made our trek up to the city to once attend "Songs" this year. It was as wonderful as ever so thanks to you and Mary and the wonderful musicians and everyone involved at the OTSOF including the kind and welcoming volunteers. You can describe it using many many adjectives-Joyful, poignant, funny, sad, hopeful. We lost one of our group suddenly and recently and so it was very emotional on all levels. The musicianship is just outstanding and we are so happy to have a CD this year-with our pic in the montage too! It's just an amazing experience to be singing not as a choir-but a community. We don't have family close by so attending and participating in this event with dear friends is our holiday season highlight. Thank you.
And, thank you for all the work you put in to publish the PS twice weekly. It seems like it has gotten more comprehensive over time. It provides a lot of timely local, regional and national news, funny stuff and music from a broad array of sources. And the comments make it all a nice stew. Happy Holidays to all!
It’s encouraging that the U.S. House of Representatives voted down the Republican proposal to suspend the debt ceiling so that Trump could extend the tax cuts favoring the top one percent. For those who haven’t been following, the four legislative leaders, Republican and Democratic in the House and Senate, had negotiated a continuing resolution to keep the government open. Right before it was to be voted on, Elon Musk tweeted against it, and then Trump tweeted that it should include a suspension of the debt ceiling for two years. Speaker Johnson immediately caved and did what Musk and Trump demanded, pulled the continuing resolution that had been negotiated, and put the Musk-Trump version up for a vote. It failed miserably when almost all Democrats and a significant number of Republicans voted against it. I am no fan of Chip Roy, a Republican from Texas, who is mainly concerned about the national debt, but he spoke forcibly against the Musk-Trump measure even after Trump said he would primary Roy. A Republican who stood up to Trump and the oligarch! Can you imagine! If the Musk-Trump version had passed, it would have been a sign that we would have at least two years of government of Musk, by Musk, and for Musk. We are still in dire straits, but things aren’t as bad as they could have been. We need more Republicans who are not cowed by Musk and Trump.
We need many more Republicans in DC to grow a spine. We've already seen Trump allies calling for Johnson's head, with Rand Paul floating the idea of making Elon Musk speaker!
Rate Field? It's okay I guess, but I'm not the one playing on it. You should really ask the team...
Also thought of:
Rate Field? Good. Rate Team? Bad.
you're charitable, john - my Rate Team: very bad.
It's a public relations coup similar to HBO changing its streaming service name to "Max," lol
in an otherwise average week of QotWs [and average incl's a bunch of funnies], i totally busted a gut on the jellyfish quip 😆🤣
I didn’t bust a gut, but I did think it was the only remotely amusing quip.
Full laugh for me!
Cubs - Wrigley Field
Sox - Comiskey Park
So it was, so it shall be.
i'm a sox fan - and i get it, the ties of many sox fans [and others] to the old park & the name comiskey park.
but i didn't like chuck comiskey - the proximate cause of the black sox scandal. and so when the new [well, not so new now] park naming rights went to US Cellular, and the nickname The Cell emerged, i grew fond of that.
so i still call it The Cell, sometimes. and often call it Sox Park. and wrigley Cubs park.
Wrigley is a corporate name, the gum company!
Wrigley Field wasn't named for the company but the man who owned the Cubs (and also started the gum company), William Wrigley, Jr.
https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2020/6/20/21297343/wrigley-field-named-after-cubs-owner-not-the-gum-company-proof
Same difference!
The gum company doesn't pay for the branding and I'm sure any effort to change the name to the name of an actual sponsor would be met with howls of protest.
That's because the name "Wrigley" is so ingrained into the public, changing it is impossible!
There would be a massive fan revolt if the Ricketts tried to do that!
When the Ricketts were negotiating to buy the Cubs (which was a package deal with the ballpark), Ricketts actually tried a negotiating tactic that they would buy the team only, and not Wrigley along with it. The local media and Chicagoans were not buying it, as Wrigley is THE core to the "Wrigley experience" - and why (80%? 90%? of) the fans in attendance go to Wrigley in the first place. That negotiating stance lasted as long as an ice cube in the Sahara, and the Ricketts' negotiators were laughed at for trying such a lame (and completely unconvincing) negotiating ruse.
I know it’s probably considered unpatriotic. But I have never been a fan of Wrigley Field. Actually, the first time I attended was at a Bears game to which my father took me. Remember Bobby Douglas? I grew up on the south side, so Comiskey was simply easier to get to. I thought it was an ugly park in a crowded neighborhood. The inner concourse looked old, cheap and dirty. You had a good chance of missing half the from behind a post. Weeds on the wall and and hand operated scoreboard did not thrill me. Where should you park? Oh, that’s right- take the CTA. That’s not as handy as it sounds, coming from the south side. Anyway, that’s my view. And I remind people it did not always fill to the brim. I remember a television game where the announced crowd was something like 906. I’ll give the Cubs credits for selling the ballpark rather than a lot of terrible teams when they now have the highest game costs in MLB.
Wrigley isn't as old as people think or the Tribune Company claimed when it wanted to do the lights in 1988..
While the original Weeghman Field was built in 1914 as a single deck, the upper deck was built later.
But the bleachers weren't built until 1931 under Bill Veeck's father & the PK Wrigley totally demolished all the concrete, two sections at a time in the late 1950s & early 60s once the Bears seasons ended. I watched it being done from the CTA Howard Line or the Clark bus. There were a couple of huge cranes in the middle of the field doing the demo work & all new concrete was used then. Only the major steel girders were left from the upper deck construction of about 1923 & the lower deck construction of 1914.
I don’t think we should ask an owner to keep the name of a previous owner on a stadium. That said, Rate Field is a strange name.
If you look at the Guaranteed Rate/Rate logo, you'll note that there is a red downwards arrow incorporated therein. So its implied name is "[Low] Rate Field". But both were and are idiotic names for a ballpark.
I think they should call it Tronc Field.
I like screw the taxpayers park!
yup
Thanks a million for the link to the Trib's Best Photos of 2024! I'd already seen them (but maybe not all of them?) in the printed paper, but clicked the link and swiftly relearned what we paperphiles too often forget: digital imagery looks WAY better on a screen than in print. And THAT, kind sir, is how I've finally become compelled to break my addiction to the print paper: as soon as I finish tapping this, I'm switching my subscription to digital-only.
Don’t care one way or another. You need the paper copy to do the puzzles. But I say that as someone who no longer pays for overpriced copies merely to do puzzles.
I kept the subscription going because I far prefer reading from paper rather than from a backlit screen, not because puzzles seem doable only on paper. The only Trib puzzles I work are Sudoku, Jumble, and WordWheel. It's easy to grab a Sudoku screenshot from the digital edition, then quickly sketch the starting grid when time allows. Ditto the Jumble if it's one of the harder ones, jotting letters and words on the back of the grocery list. WordWheel doesn't require paper at all. Crosswords, I confess, are a problem, but I get mine elsewhere, not the Trib.
There is a digital iteration of the crossword puzzle.
You win. Personally, I do USA Today puzzles online.
After I switched to digital-only, I would click on the Sudoku and print it out.
I have digital subscriptions to the Times and Tribune and print the puzzles, including Hocus Focus for my granddaughter. I also get the physical paper on Sunday.
You are probably younger and have more energy than me. Besides, now you need to buy pepper when the whole idea was not to waste money on the print copy
Paper, paper. One of these days, I either need to learn to proofread or dump auto typing.
The Reader's "Best of" poll is very much skewed to the North side, which is another reason it's useless.
And not even the entire North Side, just the pockets in which Reader readers live.
The fat orange traitor has always been a bully, that's why his parents sent him to a military high school. Except that had the opposite effect, as it turned him into an even worse bully, because at those schools, the upper classmen always bully the freshmen & sophomores.
As for his ridiculous lawsuit against the Des Moines Register, I sure hope the Register's lawyers go before the judge & not only ask that it be dismissed because it's an abuse of the process, but to sanction & fine both him & his shysters for violating Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which state that a lawyer must certify to the court that the case they are bringing is valid & has merit.
This case has zero merit & definitely isn't valid!
As for the police chases in Chicago, over a month ago, Channel 2 had a story about a device a cop can shoot out the window at a fleeing vehicle & that device will stick to the fleeing vehicle's back & emit a radio signal the cops can follow.
While I'm also sure that the bad guys could stop their usually stolen vehicle & remove it, if they know about it, it's still better than a high speed chase after guys who aren't capable drivers in the first place, because in almost every chase around here, the bad guys crash into something to end the chase, often innocent people in their cars or on the sidewalk. Which is why the city ends up paying out so much money to the innocent victims of the chase.
The TV station reported that CPD "is looking into the device"!
So Larry Snelling, stop looking into it, buy a few & try it out!
Let's not forget the second stage of a police chase - the perps jump out of the car and run. Tracking the car without a chase will only allow for a second location to gather evidence, not an apprehension. This is a disguised way of not chasing. There may be the occasional discovery of a relevant location.
I think we may need to accept that the police are there to collect evidence and witness reports. Then wait for someone to tell them where a perp is sleeping.
Not only that, but many of these chases end in crashes. So all the cops end up with a wrecked vehicle to return to the owners.
And for a third comment, I rode a bike for 60 years in this city, but had to give it up five years ago due to arthritis.
I flat out hate the bike lanes & never used them when they first started.
I always went for side streets over main streets. I could ride the 5.5 miles to Costco & back on all side streets & a few alleys, except for a one block stretch of Lincoln Ave, to to the end of a side street.
I used to ride on the service drive of King Drive, between 35th & 51st.
Last year the city put in fully separated bike lanes on Clark St between Devon & Peterson, so Clark is now one lane in each direction, down from two lanes there & was actually three lanes 30 years ago.
Southbound Clark is now often backed up from Devon north for over 3/8ths of a mile!!!
A couple of weeks ago, the WaPo had an article that the sole purpose of the bike lanes in DC was to screw up traffic so bad that people will take public transit.
It's the same thing here in Chicago!
So guess what, I do take the Clark bus all the time & it takes forever now to go from Pratt south to Peterson due to that useless bike lane that almost no one uses & won't be able to use after a snow storm, when the plows bury the bike lanes under a couple of feet of hard packed snow & ice!!!
Youre part of the problem, my man. You are repeating the same arguments John Forrester used for years. He got many people killed with his idiot ideas.
https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/4/28/why-john-forester-was-wrong-design-streets-for-the-humans-you-have-not-the-humans-you-wish-you-had
Road cyclists like you insist on making roads more dangerous for all users. I can promise you that when Clark was 3 lanes it was more dangerous for evey road user involved. When it was 2 lanes, it was more dangerous for everyone than it is now. Wide roads and high speeds create danger.
As ivs done the past few weeks, read Killed By a Traffic Engineer. Wide, high speed roads are NOT safe.
People use the lanes. In fact, the more we build lanes the more people use them and the more cyclists we start seeing. Bike Grid Now! has made thia their point for years. You wont get a true critical mass of riders until it is actually safe and connected around the whole city.
We have plows for winter for bike lanes.
Finally... my main point always... bike lanes are not to inconvenience cars! How self centered can you be where you think thats the only reason? I, like so many others, am so damn tired of seeing 100+ people needlesly killed on city streets each year. I am sick od the pollution, the microplastics, and the wasted city money. I want my tax dollars better spent, i want businesses to thrive. Cars are the antithesis to this all.
I make this challenge often and very rarely do people take it up (Eric hasnt,) but actually look into the cost car based society has. Its is far from cheap and we are all steeply paying the price with wasted money, diseases, injuries, and death. There are better ways!!!!
To add on, cars are like cigarettes. You think we are trying to take away a simple pleasure because it annoys us. Thats no true. We dont care what you do away from others, but when your actions are getting innocent people killed and ia costing society billions of dollars that could be better spent? Yeah, youre gonna get people wanting to limit the negatives.
Actions have consequences and weve let the consequences of a car-based society get way out of hand. Its time to atart clawing it back
You don't know a damned thing about Clark St. I have lived 232 feet from it for 72 years now!
It was a mess when it was three lanes, because that was one too many lanes for the amount of traffic & you actually had people racing each other there, but cutting it to two lanes made it work perfectly.
I was not a "road cyclist", I was a very low traffic side street one, there is a huge difference!
And we don't have plows for the winter bike lanes, we don't even have plows for the far more important sidewalks we use to get everywhere, no matter how we got there, either by car or bus!
And as I wrote, that bike lane on Clark isn't used & has wrecked the time it takes for the bus to go that mile!
As for that 100 people killed by cars every year, how many of them were killed either mid block, when there was a traffic light to help them cross safely not far away or even worse, crossing at night while wearing dark clothing, which I see everywhere.
I'll bet you are one of those loony mass biking riding that goes crazy around a car & makes that driver's operation become impossible.
Gary, you dont know what youre talking about, youre making ad hominens, and you are victim blaming dead people. Nice guy!
Youre not engaging with what I, or any other advocate, says. Typical of drivers, you want your cake and to eat it to. You want to ignore the issues cars inflict and blame everyone else. You attack me and refuse to understand why people ask for the changes they do. Its disgusting.
I live on Clark. I know EXACTLY what I am talking about. I also pay attention to road deaths and injuries, do you? Because if you did, you would know bike lanes make streets safer and dont create congestion. But something tells me youve never truly engaged with this content
1. You can't even spell my name correctly!
2. I'm not a driver & have never owned or driven a car! I now take the bus!
3. Bike lanes don't make streets safer & they certainly do create congestion, as I wrote, Clark is now backed up for southbound traffic for 3/8ths of a mile multiple times a day for hours at a time at Devon due to that utterly useless bike lane that no one uses! It shouldn't take 10 minutes for the 22 bus to travel that short distance, but it does!
4. Exactly where on Clark do you live, as it certainly isn't north of Devon?
Autocorrect, my bad 🙂
Otherwise, i only care about 3. This is Brandolini's Law at work, here. I continue to bring up the book Killed By A Traffic Engineer because it gets to the myths about our road system. Wide, fast roads, especially in cities, are very dangerous. The faster people go, the more dangerous it is. Wider streets encourage faster driving, which in turn make the streets more dangerous! AND, heres the kicker, it doesnt speed up the flow of traffic due to pedestrians, turning cars, and traffix lights, the average speed on city streets is ONLY 19mph. Slowing down cars between lights WILL improve safety and bike lanes are a huge part of that. When streets get them they see safety improve.
Secondly, cars cause congestion! Ypi dont drive, right? So surely yoi should see that! The city of Chicago currently gives roughly 90% of our publicly owned land to cars. Traffic is awfull its only gotten worse for the past 100 years. During that same time frame we significantly reduced our public transportation network, defunded what we kept, widened roads, built more parking, and installed highways. How much better has congestion gotten?
Its time we stop dirtying our air and drinking water for the supposed convenience of a system that kills hundreds of Illinois per year, ours countless others in hospitals, causes grief for thousands, and soaks the taxpayers
Fine. Just get bike lanes off arterial streets.
When I first saw this illustration of how much public space has been ceded to cars it stopped me cold. Incredibly compelling.
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-illustration-by-Karl-Jilg-shows-how-much-public-space-weve-given-up-to-cars_fig4_363558420
Makes me imagine what an image of all of Chicago would look like done this way. I.e., What percentage of total land area -- including highways, streets, alleys, and I suppose you could also include garages -- is devoted to cars? It would probably horrify us.
Wanna see another good one?
https://images.app.goo.gl/E7PrRLKFMw1HtTXX6
Its absurd how much we devot to them without even considering it. Imagine what we could do with all that space! Housing! Parks! Plazas! Trees! Outdoor dining! Fountains! The options are endless but we stop at car lanes and parking so we can surround ourselves with danger and pollution. Its really odd
Garry, This comment leaves me in total awe of you. You possess the superpower of going to Costco and leaving there with few enough things to return home on a bike!!! This is a supernatural power that I was not even aware existed, and my hat is off to you my friend!
I once carried home a 30 pack of toilet paper on the rear carrier for that 5.5 miles! Plus a box of smaller stuff in the basket attached to the handlebars. I got a lot of stare on that trip!
I just commented on the toilet paper a few minutes ago before I read this.
Riding to Costco on a bike? I am smiling imagining you trying to haul that thousand roll case of toilet paper on a bicycle. I know, it's not a thousand roll but almost everything Costco sells is super-sized.
I’m with you on Sox Park over Rate Field. I do think it’s amusing that according to an interview with senior management, they dropped “Guaranteed” because most of their customers couldn’t spell it.
Still going with “Wrigley” though.
I thought it was spelled "Reat" as in "Great."
Do any of these companies actually profit from having their names on ballparks? I doubt there are many fans who return home after a Sox defeat and take out a mortgage with "Guaranteed Rate," wherever and whatever that is, because of the name of the ballpark.
I always thought it was funny when the park was still called "U.S. Cellular" years after that company had stopped serving Chicago.
I have wondered that, too. How many air travelers think, even subconsciously, to buy a ticket on United because they've seen a game or heard a reference to the United Center? To me, the name "United Center" doesn't even conjure the airline. They should have made it " United Airlines Center" similar to how the Dallas Stars and Mavericks play at the "American Airlines Center" in Dallas. That said, there probably are people who, when looking for a mortgage company, have a comfort with Guaranteed Rate -- now Rate -- because they've seen and heard the name so much.
How many people had ever heard of SoFi before they got the naming rights to the new stadium in LA?
I have no idea what a "SoFi" even is!
The only good corporate-named field is "All American".
The Trump lawsuit in Iowa is based on the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act. The claim is that the paper and the pollster both knew that they were producing and publishing a misleading poll. This defrauded the public and cost the campaign additional money to increase campaigning in Iowa.
This is no more frivolous than many consumer fraud claims.
And it might be useful for the media to be more forthright and circumspect regarding polls on many topics. Especially when they are promoting the notion that the polls are objective and scientific. This is particularly relevant in separating news from opinion.
MAGAs use so many specious arguments to defend Trump. Come on, Marc- we know what this and who Trump is. He is getting back at people that don’t adore him. Did you read the story about the suit? He is claiming that merely reporting the poll affected the election result. What harm was done to him, that he didn’t win Iowa by enough? What does he expect as a result? Money? What were the damages, especially since he won? To have the paper shut down? This is purely a Trump tantrum.
Team Trump will have to prove that the poll was not taken in good faith and that it suffered damages because of that. C'mon, Marc, you are smarter than this. It's a frivolous, bullying move, period.
Both the NYT and NY Post have had recent articles about the ABC settlement. One said that Stephannopolous (SP?) had been told several times shortly before going on the air not to use the word "rape." Instead, he not only used it he used it nine or 10 times and in a fairly badgering manner (though that doesn't really matter legally, I don't believe). It might matter to a jury, however. And apparently (I can't get the Times on this computer so I'm having to recall something from earlier today)the timing was this: A judge on Friday ordered both George and Trump to sit for depositions. Negotiations started almost immediately and the settlement was announced Saturday. To me this indicates that ABC had good reason to settle and none of it is related to Orange Man Bad.
I only care about 3. Unfortunately, thats just not how it works. Wide open streets are dangerous and do not relieve congestion. Again, if you have any actual interest in this, I cannot recommend Killed By A Traffic Engineer enough. The assumptions we have on road safety and capacity are fundamentally wrong. It, quite literally, takes a whole book to break down your arguments. He has chapters devoted to every single thing you wrote.
Its Brandolini's Law here, I cannot respond to everything you are saying because your assumptions are just so off base. I implore you read the book. People die, people wind up in the hospitals with horrible injuries (and come out in debt!) we breath dirty air, and drink microplastics based on faulty assumptions that this is the best we can do.
“And there’s the issue of damages. Trump won the state and the election. What harm was done?” Could Trump use this argument that his election interference in 2020 was harmless, since he lost anyway?
He could, I suppose, but he would first have to prove false the accusations of tampering, etc.
Trump's conduct was criminal and he was prosecuted by the government under criminal law, no damages necessary. He is suing the paper in a civil court for financial damages, where he needs to prove some kind of harm was done to him, which would be remedied financially.
It would also be rather obtuse to say no harm was done when several people were injured or killed during the Jan 6th insurrection.
I am at this moment wearing my tee that says “I still call it Comiskey”.
ha ha, good one, laurence - a classic. however, as i stated in an earlier post to the PS, i'm no fan of charles comiskey.
but i understand the attachment to comiskey park. i started attending sox games in the ealry '60s - so almost 30 yrs of calling the park comiskey - and 'new comiskey' thereafter, until US Cellular bought the naming rights.
i'm still fond of the nickname The Cell - unique in pro sports - and not goofy or unnicknameable, like Garanteed Rate, or Rate.
Zorn....we made our trek up to the city to once attend "Songs" this year. It was as wonderful as ever so thanks to you and Mary and the wonderful musicians and everyone involved at the OTSOF including the kind and welcoming volunteers. You can describe it using many many adjectives-Joyful, poignant, funny, sad, hopeful. We lost one of our group suddenly and recently and so it was very emotional on all levels. The musicianship is just outstanding and we are so happy to have a CD this year-with our pic in the montage too! It's just an amazing experience to be singing not as a choir-but a community. We don't have family close by so attending and participating in this event with dear friends is our holiday season highlight. Thank you.
And, thank you for all the work you put in to publish the PS twice weekly. It seems like it has gotten more comprehensive over time. It provides a lot of timely local, regional and national news, funny stuff and music from a broad array of sources. And the comments make it all a nice stew. Happy Holidays to all!
It’s encouraging that the U.S. House of Representatives voted down the Republican proposal to suspend the debt ceiling so that Trump could extend the tax cuts favoring the top one percent. For those who haven’t been following, the four legislative leaders, Republican and Democratic in the House and Senate, had negotiated a continuing resolution to keep the government open. Right before it was to be voted on, Elon Musk tweeted against it, and then Trump tweeted that it should include a suspension of the debt ceiling for two years. Speaker Johnson immediately caved and did what Musk and Trump demanded, pulled the continuing resolution that had been negotiated, and put the Musk-Trump version up for a vote. It failed miserably when almost all Democrats and a significant number of Republicans voted against it. I am no fan of Chip Roy, a Republican from Texas, who is mainly concerned about the national debt, but he spoke forcibly against the Musk-Trump measure even after Trump said he would primary Roy. A Republican who stood up to Trump and the oligarch! Can you imagine! If the Musk-Trump version had passed, it would have been a sign that we would have at least two years of government of Musk, by Musk, and for Musk. We are still in dire straits, but things aren’t as bad as they could have been. We need more Republicans who are not cowed by Musk and Trump.
We need many more Republicans in DC to grow a spine. We've already seen Trump allies calling for Johnson's head, with Rand Paul floating the idea of making Elon Musk speaker!