Err, no, the migration has totally gone north to Mandersonville (and Edgewater/Rogers Park as well as west and is beginning to go south to South Shore as well). The Halsted strip is becoming touristier and touristier as there are fewer guys of bar-going age in Lakeview due to a variety of reasons (dispersal due to less homophobia, bigger community, housing costs, etc).
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

It would certainly make the metro area less fragmented governmentally.
Forum: General Discussion

Yes, New Town. Many gay men of a certain age (those who are left of their cohort) often still call it that. And the migration north continues.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Yeah, you've got quintessential three-flats next to post-war bungalows. Great view btw.
Forum: General Discussion

I always wondered what Chicago would have been like had the depression not occurred. I'm guessing Skokie would look like much of the north side.
Forum: General Discussion

I recently saw something, I think on WBEZ, on why the Kennedy and Edens don't connect to the west and north bound lanes. Remember, there is a ridge where the elevation rises in that area too (as in Beverly) - Park Ridge is quite a big higher there too. The continental divide is right in there to (i.e. water flowing into Great Lakes vs. Missippi River).
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Wasn't Lakeview called New City (or was it New Town) at one point, as well?
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Did they use trolley poles/pantographs like the swift did?
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

Old Chicago was cool! Not surprised it closed though.
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

Always wondered what was beneath that mansard. Looks quite nice. And glad it's being saved.
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

You know, this is a country that can't figure out how to seat people at Denny's, do people really believe we have the managerial skills to pull off a conspiracy, let alone one needing the involvement of hundreds, if not thousands, of people and yet none of them spill the beans or let something slip or gossip?
Forum: General Discussion

There is a similar style hotel in Oak Park still in use as a hotel - rather charming, with a very nice French bistro off the lobby. Still has the original 20's decor, well maintained.
Forum: General Discussion

I happen to know Bobby Franks sister and I call BS on this story.
Forum: General Discussion

Jimmy's and Woodlawn Tap are pretty much interchangeable namewise. It's the same place. HP, 55th Street, used to be hoppin' - my dad talks about bars where they knew the raids were coming and would warn people. I think Goldstein in Chicago features one.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Tropical Hut was a swanky Tiki Steak House, they moved down to Stony Island past the skyway, can't remember the address. Ribs N Bibs has been at 53rd and Dorchester for eons.
Forum: General Discussion

Thanks for the Polk's directory - found out the architect who designed my building either lived there or owned a unit.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Cool - didn't know we had many of these in Chicago. They were really common in St. Louis, but even grander.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Most of the porches have been replaced with pressure treated lumber, which doesn't take paint well (and is somewhat out of fashion too - painting that is). We had a color that we thought was unusual in the 70's, a kelly green porch, which got painted national parks brown later on, before being replaced with pt lumber when the city really started cracking down on porch construction (even a bit
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Hyde Park Theater (or sometimes Harper Theater) on Harper just north of 53rd, though really, it's not a past theater, as it's being restored for reopening right now. There used to be the Piccadilly (might have been live shows as well) on Hyde Park Boulevard (51st Street west of Drexel Square) at Blackstone. Building and space, one assumes, still there. Used to be a ton of big theaters in Woodlawn,
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

That sounds cool! I remember in the 70's, probably late, that there was a log home showroom in Hammond near the South Shore station south of the big bridge, the name of which, the street I mean, is totally escaping me right now.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

I finally saw this last night; I was also entertained that a place I'd just been two days before, the Oriental Institute was in the movie (early on, the big black stone bull, etc)! It was really great to see the city at that time, the demo for what looked like UIC etc, the hyper modern interior to the tudor house, etc.
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

Not directly related, but there is a bit of a kerfuffle in Norway at the moment about the new Kon Tiki movie - one of the men on the expedition has been heavily fictionalized and his family is quite upset about it (a tenet of being Norwegian is not embarrassing other Norwegians), as they were only partially consulted, he was made to seem like, well, a whiny wuss.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Don't forget the ramps at the east end of the Skyway that were taken down when they lowered it (I think they removed a couple of ramps anyway). I hadn't thought of the train yards and crime, I seem to recall people complaining that they got off too soon and ended up on Michigan and State rather than the Dan Ryan too.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

In Britain you paid for gas via a penny meter, so electric wouldn't have been a stretch, though I don't remember hearing of it in the States. I think I still have a piece of "dual conduit' from an old Christian Science church (better know to infiltrators and ue'er's as St. Stephens) which was a round conduit divided into two semi-circular halves, once half of which was for wire and the ot
Forum: General Discussion

I went in August, it rocks!
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

I've been biking on Northerly Island lately and keep meaning to check this out - you can sort of see some "ruins" over the weeds along the edges of the mowed center portion of the island.
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

I think I knew the people who lived in 5641 in the 80's. Will walk by there to be sure.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

They did both and the hippies were long after these were torn down. Both my father and his then wife were doctoral students with a child at the time, and certainly did lead a bohemian life.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

TNF - it was a typical plan solution to minimize elevators and maximize exposure before air conditioning. Lots of apartment buildings in DC have that plan too.
Forum: General Discussion

There are a surprising number of specialist record stores left - if you have a unique niche, people seem to flock to it.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)