May 01, 2006
Foie gras doesn't fly in Chicago
The Chicago City Council has been on a tear lately. First they banned urchins from banging on buckets outside my old apartment. Now the ban foie gras. Every one of my French friends thinks I'm crazy for supporting foie gras bans, but it's a barbaric practice. Called the "rich man's chopped liver," foie gras was discovered when some French people noticed that the liver of a goose tastes really good when the goose has fattened-up before the migration. It's produced today by force-feeding geese or ducks, often to the point that their stomachs burst. It also has some wonderful wine pairings.
Chicago joins over a dozen countries in banning foie gras. When the Chicago City Council finally bans right turns on red and smoking in public and on sidewalks, I might be ready to move back.
Posted by adrianjo at 11:47 PM
February 08, 2006
Bye bye busking bucket boys
More news from Chicago, this time good news. One of the biggest annoyances of living along the Mag Mile, aside from the cars that tried to run me down on several occasions, were the south-side boys who drummed on buckets across the street. (In my building, a call to security was enough to get them booted, but nearby building owners were more accomodating.) The noise was ear-splitting on the ground and could be heard even where I lived, some 875 feet above Michigan Ave. Giant crowds of bumbling tourists would form around the buskers, forcing passers-by to fend for themselves against the busses and the cabs on the street.
Chicago's city council took the meek step today of banning buskers and other street performers along a four-block stretch of Michigan Ave, which will simply force them onto the narrower sidewalks adjacent to that four-block stretch. From the Trib:
"Bucket boys" who beat on makeshift drums, same-song saxophonists who blast their horns and even mimes who, by definition, don't make a sound will be banned from a stretch of tony North Michigan Avenue under an ordinance passed Wednesday by the City Council.Some aldermen contended that quality of life and safety concerns dictated the need for the street performer prohibition, which passed by a 42-4 vote. Opponents insisted that the entertainers help create a festive atmosphere on the Magnificent Mile.
...
The ban applies to the stretch of Michigan between Delaware Place and Superior Street. Performers also will be barred from the area around Millennium Park, at Michigan and Randolph Street, but only when concerts are in progress in the Pritzker Pavilion.
Violators will face fines of up to $500 and, for three violations in a year, 12-month suspensions of their street performer licenses.
Ald. Burton Natarus (42d), who represents the area, said that high-rise residents suffer the effects of "excruciating noise," amplified by the canyons created by the towers.
"They work hard all week, and they come home and they have the right to enjoy the peace and quiet of their apartment," the alderman said.
It's a nice start, but I doubt that it'll solve the problem.
Posted by adrianjo at 10:57 PM
Wanna buy a skyscraper?
One of Chicago's more appealing skyscrapers has fallen to 35% occupancy and is now on the block. The postmodern 190 S. LaSalle elegantly recalls Gothic and Romanesque cathedral architecture with massive gables atop and imposing lanterns below, with a three story barrel-vaulted lobby framed in pink granite.
When I worked in Sears Tower, I spent a lot of time in the Boardroom gazing out over the harbor and 190 S LaSalle, located a block away. Chicago, once known for its great architecture, has suffered from two decades of horribly bland development--the same sort of boring, square, formulaic glass, steel, and concrete that blots skylines from Hong Kong to Dusseldorf. 190 S. LaSalle is one of the rare exceptions.
From Real Estate Alert:
Insurers Show Chicago Office TowerA joint venture is shopping a prominent Chicago skyscraper
that lost its anchor tenant last year.The 800,000-square-foot building, at 190 South LaSalle
in the Central Loop submarket, is expected to trade for $80
million to $90 million, or up to $113/sf. Eastdil Secured is
believed to be marketing the property for a partnership
between Nippon Life and Metropolitan Life.Last year, the city’s largest law firm, Mayer Brown, moved
out of 190 South LaSalle, leaving the building roughly 35%
occupied. Class-A properties in the market have an average
occupancy rate of 85% and average rent of $25/sf.The buzz is that John Buck Co., which developed the 40-
story tower in 1987, might be interested in buying it back.The granite building, which is capped with two-story
copper gables, has a distinctive lobby, with arched and
bronze-framed entryways and a gold-leaf, barrel-vaulted
ceiling that is three stories high. The property includes a
restaurant, a health club, a tenant lounge and underground
parking.
By the way, these Mayer Brown guys look like a bunch of morons. They have a map of their offices with a note that "City locations on map are not meant to serve as exact geographical markers." What sort of moron would think they would? And why would I want to pay a firm $500/hr to advise me on such trivialities? If we're going to have 10,000 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean, can we start with Mayer Brown lawyers?
Posted by adrianjo at 03:43 PM
July 18, 2005
What does the Bible say about building on solid foundations?
My former apartment [click for views out the window] was located across the street from Chicago's Fourth Presbyterian church. In 2004, the church decided to sell the rights to the air above the church to a developer, who proposed to build a 64-story condo tower in the air above the church, with a small entrance on Delaware Pl. They even gave it a ridiculous name, Project Light, even though the tower would cast the church in near-perpetual shadow.
View from my old apartment in Chicago. Click for larger.
In May, the 42nd Ward alderman Burton Naturus decided to oppose the tower's approval. (I just learned of this.) Chicago aldermen are particularly powerful, so Natarus's opposition might effectively kill the project. More realisticly, the tower might be scaled down to a more manageable size, something perhaps in the 30-40 story range. Since Naturus came out against the tower, there has been little news, except perhaps this article in today's Tribune, which makes no mention of the proposed tower.
Posted by adrianjo at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 23, 2004
The first Bûche de Noël
MK restaurant is known for some amazing food, but if you can make it soon, don't miss the Bûche de Noël (Yule Log). The Yule Log is a French dessert of loaf-shaped cake with creme that, when sliced like a bread loaf, looks like tree rings. (So far, this is pretty standard; you can buy one at Neiman Marcus or make one.) MK adds two wonderful edible almond oak leaves and two mushrooms of white meringue that look perfectly realistic. Anyone who goes to a good restaurant and doesn't save room for a creatively-presented holiday dessert like this is a fool.
Posted by adrianjo at 10:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 21, 2004
A Farewell to Comrades-in-Arms (but with a happy ending)
I wanted to wish everyone at the office best wishes as I depart for New York City. Please join me for drinks tonight at One North Kitchen & Bar in the UBS Building at 6PM.
UPDATE: The line in my goodbye e-mail about an "advanced pathbuilding fellowship" is not for real...
Posted by adrianjo at 03:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 15, 2004
Community Activism - Gold Coast Style
I attended a "community forum" tonight. It was held in the Ritz Carlton's grand ballroom, on the 12th floor under a massive crystal lightpiece and all the elegant decorations that make the Chicago Ritz Carlton one of the world's top 100 five-star hotels. Inside were gathered perhaps 250 millionaires and other wealthy Gold Coast property owners. At times it was hard to hear from all the jewelery clanging as people shifted in their chairs. Welcome to the Gold Coast. As the poorest member of this crowd, I wore a ratty faded shirt from 1997, jeans with holes, and an old pair of sneaks I bought from one of the hottest Swedes I ever saw. (OMG, she made Tiger's wife look ugly as Roseanne.)
The topic of conversation is a giant 750-foot tower to be built atop Fourth Presbyterian Church on Michigan Avenue across the street from the Hancock. The church sold the right to the air above the building plus a very small plot of land for $25M. Yes, a developer paid $25M for some air and the right to try to build a structure in that air. The problem is that the building will block views and make traffic even worse, but it will surely be built and become a blight upon the church. But hey, it's their church, and 10% of the congregation voted to sell the air rights, so it shall be. As one resident pointed out: "Fourth Presbyterian does a lot of important things for our neighborhood. I tutored there for four years and just got a letter from the boy I tutored. He's now in prison."
Posted by adrianjo at 09:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 20, 2004
Disney lights or Miss World? You Decide 2004.
The Magnificent Mile Lights Festival is currently underway some 40 feet outside my windows (and 850 feet below) and blocking Michigan Avenue, so I have settled in to watch Dr. Suess's How the Grinch Stole Christimas, the original version with Boris Karloff, not the stupid remake. What can beat lines like, "Why that Grinch even took the last can of Who Hash!" and "You're a three-decker sourkraut sandwich with arsenic sauce" or "Your soul is an appaling dungheap overflowing with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable rubbish imaginable."?
In other news, Powerline has suggested that, now that the election is over, we turn our attention to things like beauty contests. Always eager to lend a hand to another Wharton Real Estate alumnus (in this case, Donald J. Trump Sr.), I have checked out the homepage of the Miss World pagent. I note that the attractiveness of the contestants is inversely proportional to the attractiveness of the average young woman seen in the street. I won't point out the specific countries; just check for yourself.
Posted by adrianjo at 09:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 18, 2004
A great job for $17.20/day
I spent the last two days serving jury duty, at a pay of $17.20/day. In the end, I think people actually enjoyed the experience--everyone was all smiles at the end, and we frequently were reprimanded by the sheriff for laughing too loud. We were quite a crew, including an Egyptian chiro, a young Subway manager who had previously served on a Murder 1 jury, a young fake-baked math teacher of Polish background, a Naval radar technician, and a South Sider whose brother was murdered. We spent more time in the jury room than the court room, where the jester was an obese south-side schoolteacher who regaled us with tales of her wild ADD students and the Smell-Blaster toy.
The case was a young Hispanic man of slight build accused of drunken driving and obstructing traffic. It looked like a slam dunk for the prosecutors. However, the cop and defense witnesses (including the defendant) told wildly different accounts, and either the cop or the defense witnesses were committing perjury. The cop asserted he witnessed the defendant arguing with his girlfriend and drive away wildly, at which time he made the arrest of the driver. It was a prima facie case, and the arrogant prosecutors were quite sure that the conviction was in the bag. The defense then called three witnesses who argued that the defendant wasn't even driving!
Both sets of attorneys, the prosecutors and the public defender, were novice attorneys. The public defender was a female Columbo (less rumpled cloak and cigar), stumbling through her poorly-prepared case and seemingly grasping at straws, with lots of "oh, and one more thing." In fact, the jury came up with nicknames for all the participants, and we considered entering the list as "Jurors' Exhibit #1." The prosecutors were both extraordinarily arrogant. One was one of the type of fat guys wearing poorly-tailored trousers whom I regularly encountered (and beat) in high school debate. The other was a young Indian who delighted in confusing the low-IQ defense witnesses and using this to brand them as "liars," which the jury found offensive and insulting to our collective intelligence. (It was actually a very smart group of jurors.) Among this prosecutor's most brilliant questions: "About how tall were you on September 19, 2001?" The defendant's response: "About as tall as I am now."
I actually have to hand it to the public defender because, despite her awkwardness and poor preparation, she did an excellent job presenting the case. The doubt started with some shoddy policework, as the cop errored in his account of the traffic stop, claiming it happened eastbound when the road was one-way westbound. All three witnesses were led to point out this shoddy policework, and a small technicality started to provide the doubt needed for the defense to make a credible assertion that the cop happened upon the scene after the argument when the car was parked. The defendant frankly admitted that he was wasted and asked his buddy to drive him in his car. Seeing his girlfriend walking, he said he got out and argued with her while the driver parked his car. Someone called the cops because of the domestic disturbance. (This was a very key point that the prosecutors didn't even recognize.) The cops proceeded to the parked car, around which two people were standing. The cop then assumed (or so my theory goes) that the drunk owner of the parked car must have been the driver and backfilled from there to create a story that we didn't find believable. For instance, the cop argued that he spent five minutes waiting as the car blocked traffic--no cop spends five minutes patiently waiting while someone obstructs traffic on a narrow road, not even in Paris. The defense also portrayed their witnesses as being rather dim-witted, such as dressing one in a soiled Old Navy shirt. This contrasted very strongly against the female prosecutor's haughtiness and actually contributed to the theory that both the prosecutors and police were playing loose with the facts to get a conviction. Just like when I went to court on a traffic violation of my own.
So it ended up anti-climactic, as every juror agreed on acquital very quickly. I don't know what we would have decided if the policework were not so shoddy, but at least it felt good to give the verdict. Perhaps we were totally hoodwinked by three brilliant confederates who orchestrated the flawless telling of the exact same lie three times (even under cross-examination), or perhaps a cop lied under oath attempting to obtain a false conviction. One of these whoppers was said under oath today, and that's what really bothers me.
Posted by adrianjo at 10:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 14, 2004
The magic of nothingness
This morning I set out early (about noon) to procure the Bose noise-cancelling headphones. These are the headphones that produce an equal-and-opposite sound to cancel-out background noises like humming, buzzing, jet engines, etc. Chicago is not a very loud city--places like Bangkok and Athens are much louder with their thousands of motorbikes and large industrial sites and ports nearby. Nonetheless, I now realize that I live bathed in 10-20 decibels of noise that radiates up from the city below, over from the elevator shafts, and all around from the air handling system. All of this disappears with the magic headphones. And the best thing: when local urchins sit below my windows (albeit 850 feet below) and bang on buckets for the amusement of brainless suburb-dwellers, that horrible sound gets cancelled too.
At the office, we sometimes do these psychological profiles, one of which declares that I am an "extrovert." Maybe... I suppose maintaining this website (at a cost of $250/yr) would be some evidence of extroversion. Back in the States, I also find lots of reasons to like introversion. The biggest is that I really like being in a place where conversations are conducted in languages I don't understand. I always wondered what people in the streets of Paris, Oslo, or Krakow were discussing. If it's anything like what people here discuss, I am happy not to know the language. Religion. Personal problems. Shopping. "What a tall building." Into a mobile phone: "Yeah, I'm shopping on Michigan Avenue." That one is my favorite. Why is it that I never hear anyone on Oak Steet say anything similar?
Posted by adrianjo at 11:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack