Tell me about Chicago (esp. Sears Tower)

[The_Gunslinger658]

Do you actually live in the city?

Of course I live in the city, I live on the northside around Western and Foster.
I aint one of them suburbanite types who Come to the city one day out of the week, try living here and getting your house broken into once a year or vehicle getting stolen. Good times.

Oh, the city cops here are a'holes, where your seat belts!


Scott

 

[Mark CMG]

Of course I live in the city, I live on the northside around Western and Foster.
I aint one of them suburbanite types who Come to the city one day out of the week, try living here and getting your house broken into once a year or vehicle getting stolen. Good times.

Oh, the city cops here are a'holes, where your seat belts!


Scott

Why do you drive downtown?

 

[William Ronald]

I am not too knowledgeable about Lower Wacker Drive, but I seem to recall that the producers of Batman Begins had to dirty up the drive. I seem to recall that the city tries to clear people out of Lower Wacker Drive. (I have not used it in years.)

There are several working class and middle class neighborhoods in the city. I am not very familar with the North Side. However, Bridgeport (which has some areas going through gentrification), Canaryville, McKinley Park, Brighton Park, Gage Park, Archer Heights, and Garfield Ridge can have working class to middle class or higher income levels. (Generally, working class to lower middle class. Garfield Ridge, which is on the Southwest Side, has better housing than Brighton Park, McKinley Park, or Bridgeport. However, there is a section along the south branch of the Chicago River in Bridgeport that has half-million and million dollar homes.)

Beverly is a middle class neighborhood on the far Southwest Side and is financially better off than the nearby Mount Greenwood neighborhood. There are several large homes.

Public transportation is considered good, with a combination of bus lines and elevated trainlines that sometimes become subways in the Loop. There are also underground walkways in the Loop, and in some other locations in the city. (I believe there are some on the West Side Medical Center District, that includes the University of Illinois Hospital, Cook County Hospital, and Rush Presbyterian St. Luke's Hospital.)

Also, don't forget the suburbs. Summit is a workign class suburb that was rated some years back by Chicago magazine as the best of the blue collar suburbs. (Our voters support school district funding.) Oak Park has great architecture. In general, the north and western suburbs are wealthier than the southern suburbs and Northwest Indiana. There are exceptions, as Orland Park and Tinley Park in the Southwest Suburbs have pricey homes.

 

[William Ronald]

Why do you drive downtown?

Personally, I avoid driving downtown as much as possible.

 

[eris404]

Thank you so far. Another quick question. What is weather like in early December? And how about public transportation vs. driving? I want to make sure that the place feels like Chicago.

The weather is changeable, but usually around freezing with snow optional.

I take the Red Line downtown every day for work. It runs north-south from the extreme ends of the city. It's usually packed at rush hour, with no place to sit. Very often, the cars smell like urine. Sometimes people walk through the cars while the train is moving, either to find a seat or to ask people for money. There is a recorded voice that announces the stops and which side of the train (in the direction of travel) the doors will open. As you go south, the train is above ground until it reaches the Fullerton stop, then it goes underground (this is mostly the downtown area) and then it goes back above ground after Roosevelt. Train riders can be anyone from bums to businessmen and everything in between.

A couple of good locations for a low-income family on the north side would be Uptown and Rogers Park. Both are being gentrified now and were much worse 5-10 years ago. Uptown has the added benefit of being the old gangster hangouts with places like the Uptown Theatre, the Riviera Nightclub, etc.

As for a place to meet people with magic powers, I would suggest Graceland Cemetery. It is an enormous cemetery on the north side where many prominent and famous people have been buried. Besides that, it is just a magical place (to me at least) with a lake that has an island in its center, tons of beautiful crypts and the infamous "Eternal Silence" monument:

http://www.graveyards.com/graceland/esilence.html

I also have a story about Graceland. I used to go there a lot to read and walk around (it has a very park-like atmosphere) and I had a crow try to talk to me. It flew down from a tree to rest at a monument not far from where I was sitting and made these "Hey! Hey!" noises, the sort of thing you'd do to get someone's attention. I'm sure it was just trying to get me out of its territory and was only immitating the speech of visitors, but frankly it spooked me so I did leave. There are lots of crows that roost there and I didn't want any trouble.

 

[kenobi65]

Personally, I avoid driving downtown as much as possible.

Ditto. I've worked downtown for 16 years, and it's only the ability to take mass transit to get to work that's kept me sane.

 

[William Ronald]

Ditto. I've worked downtown for 16 years, and it's only the ability to take mass transit to get to work that's kept me sane.

I consider trying to park downtown to be an exercise in pain.

Also, I would suggest to RangerWickett that he also check out the local newspapers and television stations to get a feel of the town. They do have websites. Here are a few:
Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Tribune
ABC 7 Chicago
WGN-TV

 

[BOZ]

Personally, I avoid driving downtown as much as possible.

as does any sane person who knows anything about the city. driving downtown as actually not that much of a problem - as long as you don't need to park anywhere.

"what - $15 to park for half an hour??"

 

[BOZ]

I take the Red Line downtown every day for work. It runs north-south from the extreme ends of the city. It's usually packed at rush hour, with no place to sit. Very often, the cars smell like urine. Sometimes people walk through the cars while the train is moving, either to find a seat or to ask people for money. There is a recorded voice that announces the stops and which side of the train (in the direction of travel) the doors will open. As you go south, the train is above ground until it reaches the Fullerton stop, then it goes underground (this is mostly the downtown area) and then it goes back above ground after Roosevelt. Train riders can be anyone from bums to businessmen and everything in between.

on the south side, say past comiskey park (oh sorry, US CELLULAR FIELD ), you also get the more creative vendors selling bootleg DVDs, socks, fruit chews, scented oils, and everything imaginable under the sun.

A couple of good locations for a low-income family on the north side would be Uptown and Rogers Park. Both are being gentrified now and were much worse 5-10 years ago. Uptown has the added benefit of being the old gangster hangouts with places like the Uptown Theatre, the Riviera Nightclub, etc.

i live right by rogers park, in west ridge. used to live in rogers park for about 6 years, lived on the south side for almost a year, then moved where i am now. and they have started working on the facade of the uptown theater, very recently, so it may open again soon one day! i work right by that corner, Broadway/Lawrence right by the Aragon Ballroom and Green Mill, and it has changed a whole lot in the last 3 or 4 years.

As for a place to meet people with magic powers, I would suggest Graceland Cemetery. It is an enormous cemetery on the north side where many prominent and famous people have been buried. Besides that, it is just a magical place (to me at least) with a lake that has an island in its center, tons of beautiful crypts and the infamous "Eternal Silence" monument:

http://www.graveyards.com/graceland/esilence.html

I also have a story about Graceland. I used to go there a lot to read and walk around (it has a very park-like atmosphere) and I had a crow try to talk to me. It flew down from a tree to rest at a monument not far from where I was sitting and made these "Hey! Hey!" noises, the sort of thing you'd do to get someone's attention. I'm sure it was just trying to get me out of its territory and was only immitating the speech of visitors, but frankly it spooked me so I did leave. There are lots of crows that roost there and I didn't want any trouble.

graceland (Irving Park/Clark streets) is defnitely a cool place. i have about a dozen relatives buried there, maybe more. the monuments there are outstanding.

 

[RangerWickett]

*grin*

Okay, I now need info on the Sears Tower. Why? So that my party can assault it this Saturday.

There's a prisoner being kept on the 37th floor of the Sears Tower, guarded by mercenaries working for an Illinois senator who has an office there (don't know if you can actually have a senator with an office in the Sears Tower, but no one objected). The senator wants to interrogate this guy and learn about some magic that the party also wants to know about.

The group can plane shift to the fey world and back once each per day. However, the prisoner was afraid of being captured by fey, so he put on an anti-plane shift spell that's permanent. The group has a means of removing the permanent spell, but it requires a difficult one-minute ritual. If they can grab the guy, perform the spell, and then planeshift, they'd still be 400 feet over the ground of Fey Chicago (basically what the place would be like if there weren't any humans).

So I need to know about the Tower, so that when they try to come up with a plan, I can provide useful information. The Sears Tower website amazingly enough does not mention whether it's legal to fly a helicopter within 20 feet of the tower windows. *grin*