MAC Restoring Grande Dames at the Shoreland and Del Prado

posted by chicago pop

Terra cotta figure on upper stories of Del Prado Building

A community meeting on MAC's plans for Shoreland will be held at 7PM, at the Shoreland, on Wednesday evening, September 30, 2009.

As part of the community discussion of MAC Property's plans to restore the Shoreland Hotel to its former glory, HPP offers you a photo tour through the inside of both the Shoreland (this post) and the Del Prado (forthcoming). Bringing these historic and unique buildings back onto the market for modern, quality mid- to high-end rental units at key locations in Hyde Park will be an inestimable service to the neighborhood, its local economy, its heritage, and its quality of life.

HPP supports both of these projects 100%.

Crystal Ballroom in Shoreland Building

What criticism there is of the Shoreland project has focused on parking. This is no great surprise. It is also no great argument against either project. Parking is tight in East Hyde Park, as it is in all urban, dense, high-rise neighborhoods, and that will never change.

MAC's current proposal will add considerably fewer units to the market than the building was meant to hold as a hotel, or ever did as a dormitory. Which means that, in an auto-centric age, its impact on neighborhood parking is already considerably less than it could be.

Fallen Mask Wall Decoration, Shoreland Hotel

And, if it adds the maximum number of parking spaces allowable within the physical constraints of the building and Chicago city code, it will be able to provide parking for all patrons to any restaurant in the Grand Ball Room, and rental spaces for approximately 30% of the Shoreland's occupants.

Al Capone's Old Hideaway, Shoreland Building

MAC tells us that this number (30%) is in line with the demand for rental parking at its other high rise properties. HPP adds that this is in line with what ideal parking ratios should be -- and often are by default -- in high density urban areas as well.

Parking ratios lower than 1:1 (one parking space per residential unit, as opposed to 1:3) help to lower housing costs for everyone, while allowing MAC to invest more in its building and amenities than it would otherwise have to spend on a parking garage. Lower parking ratios also stimulate demand for people who may choose a car-free lifestyle, relying instead on alternatives such as car-sharing through I-Go or Zip-Car.

Entrance to Grand Ballroom, Projected Site of New Restaurant, Shoreland Building

Upshot: bringing the Shoreland and Del Prado back on line will not add to Hyde Park's parking problems, because higher-density development tends to reduce auto ownership, lowers development and neighborhood housing costs, and will ultimately support those amenities that make it less desirable to drive everywhere.

Adding more parking than what MAC has proposed would mean gutting a significant portion of the southern wing of the Shoreland. This would go counter to the goals of either preserving the integrity of the building, and of making more room in Hyde Park for people instead of cars.

Fallen Plaster Wall Decorations Stored in Attic of Shoreland Hotel

MAC's Shoreland plan will restore the great majority of a historic building at a conspicuous location, bring a new restaurant to the old Grand Ballroom and rental banquet space to the Crystal Ballroom, and add up to 350 units of rental housing to Hyde Park's housing stock. These are clear benefits to the neighborhood, to the South Side, and to Chicago as a whole.

47th Street Mural

posted by Elizabeth Fama

The new mural under the 47th Street Metra pass is finished, and was dedicated this past Saturday, Sept. 19. If you haven't glanced at it from your car, or walked past it on your way to the lake yet, it's worth a look.

It's in a style called "bricolage" mosaic, using broken tile, mirrored tile, colored grout, and tiles with photo transfers. The lead designers were Carolyn Elaine (a Bronzeville resident) and John Pitman Weber. The themes were chosen at community meetings, and photographs were donated by community members. The photos pay tribute to both better-known and unknown 47th Street inhabitants (and esteemed guests, in the case of Ella Fitzgerald) and they are, hands down, my favorite part of the mural.

Alderman Preckwinkle provided menu money to support it. The cost was $86,000, including wall prep and the youth team that worked on it over the summer.

Jon Pounds, Executive Director of the Chicago Public Art Group (CPAG), told me that the challenge was to create something sweeping and almost cinematic as you drive by, but more intimate and thoughtful if you're walking.

I am a sucker for photos from the 20s and 30s.

The symbols that each take up about 1/5 of the mural are (from west to east):
1) the Adinkra (West African) symbol for "know your heritage," called the Sankofa bird, holding the egg of the future in its beak
2) a hand with a spiral in the palm, the Native American sign of human presence
3) a woman's face, reading ("know, learn, read")
4) the Adinkra symbol for "adaptability," called the Denkyem, a crocodile-turtle that lives in water, breathes air, and lays eggs on land
5) Another hand, the Mudra, for tranquility and balance.

The face of the woman reading is in one of three "skylight" segments of the wall.

My biggest worry about murals, and public art in general, is the question of maintenance and removal. In the process of funding this mural, no money was set aside for future maintenance. When it deteriorates -- as it inevitably will (for instance, how color-fast are the photo transfers, when exposed to the elements? Will tiles pop off with seeping, freezing water? The grout in my shower needed work after 10 years!) -- a group like CPAG will have to scramble to find public and private funds for restoration. And years from now, the community that lives with it will likely have little say in whether it's historic enough to be restored, or dated enough to be retired.

Letter From an Old Goat

posted by Richard Gill

In the September 17 Tribune crossword puzzle, the answer to 42 Down is “Old Goat.” The clue is “Nasty geezer,” which pretty well describes me when I read about Hyde Park residents who regard everything in the neighborhood as community property. It makes me want to take my bent spectacles, my crooked cane, and my jug of hard cider over to Medici and snap at passers by.

Here are some examples of what I’m talking about. Remember the dysfunctional clock on the Hyde Park Bank Building? The Bank removed the clock and refinished the wall's surface where it had been attached. And the people said, how dare the evil bankers decide what to do with their own clock on their own building without consulting “the community?”

Then the University of Chicago demolished a vacant building at Harper Court, which it owns. It was known and agreed upon that the building would be demolished. And the Hyde Park Herald said, how dare the evil University begin demolition of its own building without consulting us first.

Now we hear about unhappiness in some quarters that the University repaved an interior driveway deep within the main quadrangle. And the people said, how dare the evil university work on its own infrastructure in a location that is not visible from outside, without getting our permission?

Community relations, civic engagement, good neighboring, or whatever you call it, is a thankless task for businesses and institutions. In Hyde Park, it must be agonizing. Whoever does this work for the Bank, the University, whatever, can’t get paid enough. Every day, they have to deal with Hyde Park, the busybody capital of America. In my opinion, the University of Chicago in particular has been patient to a fault. No wonder they sometimes just go ahead with stuff, as well they should. Otherwise nothing, absolutely nothing would get done.

The University’s board and administrators have a first class school to operate, fund, nurture and protect. Community involvement is one thing, but not the main thing, not by a long shot. In the big picture, it is not necessary for a university to be loved by its neighbors, nor even liked. But at some point, an institution's strident and unreasonable neighbors create a burden and a distraction. If community relations are good, that’s terrific. If not, that’s too bad.

I’m an old goat and a nasty geezer. If I were king of the University of Chicago, I wouldn’t have the patience for this neighborhood’s nonsense. After all, I'd have a great university to run, and I’d tell the neighbors to go to…..to go and fix their own driveways.

HyPa's Official Launch

posted by Elizabeth Fama

The Hyde Park Alliance for Arts & Culture was officially launched this past Thursday (9/10/09) at the Hyde Park Art Center. The group calls itself "HyPa," which is...kind of not an acronym? (I think it's more like a rap album title, and they should have gone all out with the letter H on the end: "Hypah.") They've existed informally for about 10 years, but now they're an official 501c3, and rarin' to go.

The goal of the organization is awesome, even if the tagline contains about three too many business-speak words, and starts with a participle: "Leveraging collective resources to promote Hyde Park as a cultural destination."

It's a consortium of (so far) 30 arts and cultural organizations in the neighborhood -- from behemoths like the Museum of Science and Industry (possibly the single south-side tourist destination that north-siders can name off the top of their heads) to gems you haven't heard of yet, like the South Shore Opera Company.

Lunch and networking in the exhibit space of the Hyde Park Art Center.

The general idea is this: we already have a vibrant and attractive cultural destination in Hyde Park, we just have to get people to realize it and start coming here. The meeting itself was a living example of this phenomenon: it took months of cajoling for Irene Sherr to get the Chicago Cultural Network to consider having this -- one of their more than bimonthly meetings -- here, in the bright exhibit space of the Hyde Park Art Center. The young woman sitting next to me worked for the Austrian Consulate General downtown (she is planning an exhibition in conjunction with the Joseph Regenstein Library), and was wide-eyed about how simple it was to get here on the number 6 bus.

HyPa's first achievement is the Hyde Park Jazz Festival (in its 3rd year, Saturday, Sept. 26), which features world-class acts for free in 12 of Hyde Park's existing cultural venues. HyPa is also developing a "Passport to Jazz" program, which they envision as an annual pass to a variety of jazz events (financial support provided by Boeing).

Sheryl Papier, President of HyPa, and VP of Marketing for the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust, with Chuck Thurow, outgoing Executive Director of the Hyde Park Art Center.

After Sheryl Papier spoke, the rest of the meeting involved Stuart Flack showcasing the new web site for the Chicago Humanities Festival. The interesting Hyde-Park information I gleaned from his presentation is that the October 17 kickoff of the CH Festival is an all-day extravaganza in Hyde Park. (But maybe you all knew that already.)

Can You Be A Liberal If You're Also A NIMBY? Um, No.

posted by chicago pop

One of the more curious dimensions of Hyde Park politics is the prominence of a certain strain of old-school Liberalism in combination with a militant variety of Not-In-My-Backyard-ism, or NIMBY-ism.

At first glance, the two traits don't really go together, and there is a sense that they are not bound by any particular logic. They simply coexist in a certain generation's consciousness, in Hyde Park and in other urban places across the country.

But such juxtapositions have a way of becoming contradictions as circumstances change. And all it has taken to bring these two traits into open contradiction is one circumstance in particular: global climate change. It's the equivalent, in terms of ideological watersheds, of Khruschev's 1953 speech to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party denouncing Stalin's Reign of Terror: it was hard to be Stalinist after that. Less dramatically, one might point to being a Southern Democrat after passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964; it was hard thereafter for many southerners to remain in the Democratic Party. Ideologies are intellectual coalitions, and if not updated, they fall apart.

So it is with old-school Liberalism and climate change. The environmental movement has many sources, and many of them (but not all) have been aligned with the American Left and the Democratic Party since the 1960s. This is the heritage that is so well established in Hyde Park. Refracted through the neighborhood's particular experience of Urban Renewal, with the latter's post-war faith in grand technocratic solutions to complicated social problems, the environmental consciousness of the time was steeped in distinctly anti-urban attitudes.

It could make sense, therefore, to be for civil rights, desegregation, unions, and withdrawal from Vietnam, while also wanting the built environment around you to be like a cross between Haight-Ashbury and Harper Avenue: low-slung, two-story commercial districts with quaint gingerbread Victorians along the back streets. One could fight each and every proposed mid-rise or in-fill project secure in the conviction that one was fighting the good fight against City Hall, just as one had done with civil rights and every other Big Project sponsored by Big Capital.

It turns out, however, that this particular type of urban model, and the militant resistance to making it more dense, may be fatal to the planet.

And that's a decidedly un-Liberal possibility.

We've seen this play out in any number of Hyde Park neighborhood controversies over developments, both real and hypothetical. The old-school mentality finds its voice with airy references to "viewsheds," a sometimes uncritical fondness for "open space," and a phobia for tall buildings. Traffic will be horrible, children will be run over, and pollution will kill us all -- when, in fact, just the opposite will most likely be true.

This train of reflection was triggered by a recent essay in a Bay Area newspaper ("You're Not an Environmentalist if You're Also a NIMBY," Robert Gammon, East Bay Express, July 1, 2009). Given the Bay Area's Liberal credentials, it's worth quoting the piece as a sign of the contradiction between earlier Liberal environmentalism and its uneasy NIMBY partner.

Global warming is changing far more than just the climate. It's altering the way environmentalists view development. For years, city dwellers who consider themselves to be eco-conscious have used environmental laws and arcane zoning rules to block new home construction, especially apartments and condominiums. In the inner East Bay, liberals have justified their actions by railing against gentrification and portraying developers as profiteers. But the lack of urban growth in Berkeley and in parts of Oakland during the past few decades also has contributed to suburban sprawl and long commutes. And all those freeways choked with cars are now the single biggest cause of greenhouse gas emissions in the region.

There are always contradictions in any particular political agenda, right, left or other. But it is hard to argue that climate change has not emerged as a political priority that trumps anything else one might care to identify as part of the Liberal portfolio, at least as understood in Hyde Park. Labor? Nope. Racism? Unfortunately not. Feminism. Still secondary. That nice suburban feel with the open spaces left over from Urban Renewal? Definitely, categorically, Not.

Referencing the East Bay again:

[F]or the inner East Bay to grow the way it should, it will have to overcome the region's well-developed not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) sensibilities. In Berkeley and North Oakland, in particular, liberals who view themselves as environmentalists have been blocking dense housing developments for decades. They have complained about traffic, overcrowding, and the potential destruction of neighborhood character. But among those who are paying attention to the causes of global warming, there is a growing realization that no-growth activists have to step back and look at the bigger picture. Climate change has forced a paradigm shift in the environmental movement. If you live in an urban area, you can't call yourself an "environmentalist" and continue to act like a NIMBY by blocking new housing.

This all sounds very familiar. And in truth, it has started to change, even here in immobile Hyde Park. An older generation is passing from the scene, one for whom complaints about "traffic, overcrowding, and the potential destruction of neighborhood character" were right and honorable reflexes in their day. They are also now in full contradiction with what needs to happen in order for Liberal -- or any other -- ideology to adjust to a new reality, so that there is at least some chance of slowing down what might be the greatest shock humanity has faced in its short time on earth.

A final quote from the author, Robert Gammon:

[P]eople who ... consider themselves to be liberal environmentalists ... need to finally start thinking globally and acting locally. The coming global warming crisis demands that they do more than just eat organic, install solar panels, or buy a Prius. They also need to realize that dense development will make their neighborhoods and their cities better — not worse.

The realization is starting to sink in here in Hyde Park -- though it has taken some doing. But it can't be encouraged enough.

Herald's Chicken: How to Botch A Front Page Headline

posted by chicago pop

Ooops!

Botched print edition, Hyde Park Herald (September 9, 2009)

Corrected web edition, Hyde Park Herald (September 9, 2009)

Squirrel Hill vs. Hyde Park

posted by Richard Gill

General street scene at Forbes & Murray
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The June 29, 2009, post in Hyde Park Progress took a look at Ann Arbor, Michigan with regard to the retail/commercial scene that serves the University of Michigan and neighboring area, and compared it with the University of Chicago/Hyde Park situation. Another place to look is the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. There’s an east-west strip of Forbes Ave. between Murray and Shady Ave., and an abutting strip of Murray Ave., south of Forbes. The area is a few blocks east of the Carnegie-Mellon/University of Pittsburgh complex. In what follows, I look at Forbes/Murray in relation to Hyde Park’s 53rd Street. I base this solely on visits to Pittsburgh over the past few weeks.

There are differences in the two settings. Forbes/Murray is wholly commercial, while 53rd is primarily commercial, with some residential property and a park. Forbes/Murray has several city bus routes, while 53rd has none. Package alcohol sales in Pittsburgh are restricted to “official” wine & spirits stores, while Chicago has no such restriction; and Squirrel Hill appears to be less diverse than Hyde Park.

However, there is enough similarity between Forbes/Murray and 53rd Street to draw some comparisons. Both are roughly the same distance from campus; both commercial strips are about a half mile long; both are in the middle of large old cities; both have wide sidewalks, two driving lanes, two metered parking lanes, and a shortage of parking; buildings are predominantly older two/three story structures.

General street scene on Forbes between Murray and Shady

The most striking difference is the level of store occupancy and activity. Even during the summer school break, Forbes/Murray bursts with life. I noticed no vacant storefronts. During good weather, the wide sidewalks on Forbes are dotted with outdoor café seating and store merchandise. Forbes/Murray is a magnet, drawing people of all ages from other areas, while 53rd is just there. It is almost impossible to imagine the Pittsburgh neighborhood tolerating the kind of interference and obstructionism that has stifled commercial life on 53rd Street. [Yeah, yeah, I know many people will take issue with my use of “interference and obstructionism.” I don’t care; that’s what it has been.]

At this point, there is no alternative but to proceed with the planning efforts regarding 53rd Street, including Harper Court. But look how long they are taking, with years yet to go before any construction will be completed. I don’t disagree with planning, but 53rd Street is wallowing in it. Some of it has been a delaying tactic by locals. While 53rd Street languishes -- to the delight of those who have stifled things in the name of preventing “congestion” or “density” or whatever -- Forbes/Murray thrives and is a true asset to the neighborhood, the universities, and the city of Pittsburgh.

Cars and buses mix comfortably on Forbes Avenue

Speaking of “congestion,” most the arguments bemoaning it on commercial streets are baloney. There can’t be stores and restaurants without people, and there won’t be people without good auto access. That’s just the way it is. Forbes/Murray has some congestion, and it is good. The streets aren’t choked with traffic, but they are full of cars and buses. Traffic doesn’t make the streets any more dangerous than, say, the present 53rd or 57th Streets. Yes, traffic moves a bit more slowly if there’s a lot of it, but that’s safer for pedestrians crossing the street. With signals and stop signs, people readily make the crossings.

On Forbes, there are mid-block pedestrian crossings, marked and signed. Further, traffic signal cycles have three phases: (1) north-south vehicles (no pedestrians), (2) east-west vehicles (no pedestrians), (3) pedestrians only. Phases 1 and 2 eliminate pedestrian-caused delays to turning vehicles. Phase 3 enables pedestrians to cross diagonally, allowing cater-corner crossings in a single move. It really works, and drivers in Pittsburgh are no more polite than those in Chicago. So Forbes/Murray attracts people, while we have 57th Street that you can’t get to, and 53rd that has insufficient reason to get to.

All-directional crosswalk at Forbes & Murray

Sure, the slow economy contributes to 53rd Street’s lethargy, but it’s not the cause. Maybe I’m being a bit simplistic and bombastic in this essay, but dontcha' get tired of other places having nice stuff, while we Hyde Park slog through molasses? When all the planning and fiddling is done, the result won’t be materially better than a more streamlined process founded on good zoning instead of micromanagement would have already produced.

Hyde Park Jazz Festival

September 26, 2009
11:00 AM
12 creative and unusual venues in Hyde Park

15 hours of nonstop FREE jazz music. Over 100 jazz musicians will be performing at the 3rd annual event including Ari Brown, Von Freeman, Jon Faddis, Pharez Whitted, Richie Cole, Willie Pickens, Dee Alexander, and Orbert Davis.

Check out our new 2009 festival web site and find the complete line up of musicians, links to most of the artists web pages, a new Jazz Resource room, photos from last year and much more.

Interested in getting involved? Why not join the fun and volunteer at at the Festival? Can you commit to a four hour shift on Saturday, September 26? If yes, call 773-834-3534 or email us to sign-up. And be sure to consider supporting the the Festival through our new "Give A Buck" for jazzcampaign - also on the festival web site.

South Side Special: The Obama Security Door

posted by chicago pop

From an ad in this week's Herald (September 2, 2009). Via a reader via, of all places, the Wall Street Journal ("Best of the Web," September 3, 2009).

ObamaDoor
OK, OK, so you already have health insurance. But how safe is your home? "The need for security hits home now more than ever," Family Security Door & Window Inc. informs us in an ad that appears in Chicago's Hyde Park Herald. "This prestigious security door will keep your home safe while honoring our 44th President!"

The door features a likeness of the president above the word OBAMA and then, in bigger letters, HO and PE. "Call to Order Your President Obama Security Door Today!"

For our part, we're just going to put up a "Beware of Death Panel" sign. That ought to be enough to scare off any intruder.

Get yours now.

Open Rehearsal: New Court Theater Blog

posted by chicago pop

There's yet another neighborhood blog up and running, and this one is pretty interesting. Court Theater's Open Rehearsal began less than a month ago (August 12, at 11:40 AM) but it's already clear that it's got a lot of love to share with Hyde Park. How could it not, given the Court's longstanding history in the neighborhood?

There are shout-outs to local goings on that theater-goers and literary types might appreciate, like readings at 57th Street books, and the weekly, Wednesday "Dean's Men (the University's resident Shakespear troupe) [which] holds court over "Shakes and Shakespear." Grab a $1 milkshake from the C-Shop and see a free Shakespear performance on Bartlett Quad at high noon. UChiBLOGo has the story." (And that's another new blog, by the way; we'll get to it next).

Open Rehearsal is dedicated primarily to theater rehearsals, which are as fascinating as any behind-the-scenes dish on a big production, but along the way you find all sorts of little nuggets that HPP readers might savor, such as this flyer from the days ca. 1963 when the Court "was an outdoor festival in Hutch Courtyard on the university campus."


On the back of which is to be found the following advert:

Popular Food, Unusual Prices?

And guaranteed to win our affection here at HPP, Open Rehearsal is willing to throw in its 2 cents on the occasional theater-related development issue. Here's what it has to say on the question, first raised by HPP's Elizabeth Fama, of whether the old Harper Theater at 53rd and Harper is historically significant:

Hyde Park Progress rightfully asks, is Harper Theater really historically significant? However, you can always count on the Regenstein Library’s Special Collections Research Center to have something, and indeed they do: this playbill from the very first Harper Theater production, Pirandello’s Enrico IV.

The playbill gives a brief but utterly bizarre history of the theater:

The Harper Theater was built in 1914 as a vaudeville house. The architects were H.R. Wilson and Company. The theater originally had 1200 seats. The balcony has been closed off and the coffee house built in the rear of the main floor.

The lobby and entrance were remodeled in the 1930’s, changing the entrance from 53rd Street to Harper Avenue. The Harper closed as a movie house in 1956 [!]. The rear half of the main floor, (under the balcony), was walled off in 1964 to create a coffee house.

The lights over the lobby counter were the original store lights for Finnegan’s drug store.

Fixtures in the coffee house are from Finnegan’s drug store, formerly located at 55th Street and Woodlawn Avenue. The fixtures were built in Boston in 1911 and then shipped to Chicago and installed in the drug store where they remained until being moved to the Harper last year.

The grill work in the lobby and coffee shop is from the fire escapes of the Hyde Park Hotel, 51st and Lake Park Avenue. The French marble of the counters came from a Fred Harvey restaurant at Canal and Madison Streets. The lobby’s stained glass windows are from a Dorchester Avenue home in Hyde Park demolished by Urban Renewal.

The chandeliers in the theater are believed to be original and were electrically rebuilt and rehung. (p. 134)

You can't be too hard on drama people (and I have been, at times, one of them) for having a soft-spot for theaters. It would certainly be nice to keep the old building if possible, but at least Open Rehearsal took a few minutes to go dig up some documents to attempt firm up Harper Theater's historical bona fides.

In any case, I like their plan for a renovated Court Theater of the future. Be sure to check it out.

Anyone Want to Run Orly's? It's For Sale (on craigslist)

posted by chicago pop

Anyone want to put poor Orly's out of its misery? The owner is willing to pay you to do so.

A reader sent us this notice from -- interestingly -- craigslist: where you really can find everything.

Get the word out to all your friends and Iron Chef America fanatics that the kitchen can be theirs to dream with. The location has potential: Zig & Lou's is smaller, as is the Medici Bakery. Someone should be able to work some magic at a strategic and bustling Hyde Park intersection -- so we're re-running the ad!

CHICAGO RESTAURANT OPPORTUNITY (Hyde Park )

---

Date: 2009-08-22, 4:01PM CDT
Reply to: job-d2udy-1336996431@craigslist.org ^{[Errors when replying to ads?]}

---

Unique opportunity for youthful yet experienced chef-restaurateur in densely populated Hyde Park.

Owner of 30 years in newly renovated central location wants to phase out and just focus on catering...the restaurant operation will be your ship to steer.
New operator will have complete autonomy to run kitchen & restaurant and keep 90% of profit...plus option to buy owner out at end of lease.

Must be capable of injecting his own 75K for working capital. Otherwise, a 700K 90 seat restaurant & bar is essentially free.

A fresh, new, ambitious face can take Hyde Park and the South Side by storm!

** Call David @ 773 330-0440 * Email your interest to: Beitalpha@aol.com **

The City that Works

posted by Elizabeth Fama

On July 9, I wrote fairly glowing post about new, permanent street-cleaning signs that are popping up on the busiest streets on campus (Woodlawn, Ellis, and Drexel, roughly between 55th and 59th Streets). I thought they represented efficiency and progress. An astute reader sent me this photo. It cracks me up.

Thanks for the laugh, Matthew.