Entries tagged as ‘Grant Park’
A review of options this evening, as culled from various news sources.
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Event: Grant Park Rally
Time: 8:30 p.m. gate opens
Place: Hutchinson Field
Special Features: Guest appearance by the president-elect.
Commentary: Weight the competing impulses of participating in a historic event versus coming face-to-face with “the people.”
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Event: Illinois for McCain
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Place: English, 444 N. LaSalle St.
Special Features: Free drinks first two hours.
Commentary: Short lines at the bar may make up for the gloomy ambiance.
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Event: Onion News Network coverage
Time: 7:01 p.m.
Place: Quencher’s, 2401 N. Western Ave.
Special Feature: $2 PBR longnecks
Commentary: Beats watching real TV, but live music starts at 9 so load up on PBRs and high-tail it to another event.
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Event: Bronzeville Celebration
Time: 6 p.m.
Place: Bronzeville Information Center Exhibit Gallery, 411, East 35th St.
Special Features: Frugal Joe’s Beer, $2; free popcorn
Commentary: Discover the South Side. It’s where our next president is (sort of) from.
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Categories: Presidential Poop · Public Service Announcement · Punditocracy
Tagged: Bronzeville, FitzGerald's, Grant Park, Hipsters for Obama, Hyde Park Hair Salon, Illinois for McCain, Jesse Jackson Jr., Sandi Jackson, Sonotheque, The Onion News Network, Tony Peraica
The office of downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly just released the following information about “parking restrictions, street closures and event guidelines that will be in place starting as early as Monday, November 3rd.”
PARKING BANS:
Parking bans will be in effect from Lake Michigan to the Kennedy/Dan Ryan Expressway, as well as the Chicago River to the north to 22nd Street to the south Tuesday, November 4th after the PM rush hour.
Residents are advised to pay special attention to posted signs.
STREET CLOSURES:
On Saturday, November 1, 2008, Balbo Drive will be closed between Columbus Street and Lake Shore Drive.
After the November 3rd AM rush hour, Columbus Drive will be closed between Congress Parkway and Roosevelt Street.
After the PM rush hour, the closure will extend as far north as Randolph.
Please note that residents may see additional rolling closures throughout the Central Business District from Tuesday afternoon thru Wednesday morning.
(Rolling closures are intermittent and temporary street closures used for motorcades as they travel on city streets. They are enacted for security purposes only.)
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION:
The Chicago Transit Authority will provide additional service and extend the hours of select bus and rail routes serving the Loop until 2 a.m. for individuals attending election night events downtown – including the Obama Grant Park rally – on Tuesday, November 4.
CTA will operate longer trains; provide additional bus service and later service to accommodate attendees. Temporary street closures in the vicinity of Grant Park may necessitate reroutes so customers should allow extra travel time.
In addition, due to potentially crowded conditions, bicycles will not be allowed on the rail system after 4:00 p.m. Tuesday until 4:00 a.m. Wednesday morning.
HUTCHINSON FIELD:
The November 4th event in Hutchinson Field is a ticketed event hosted by the Obama Campaign.
The site opens at 8:30 p.m. and ticketed residents have been asked to enter through either East Congress Parkway or East Jackson Boulevard.
Everyone coming into Hutchinson Field will be screened by event organizers and they have asked that residents refrain from bringing any bags, coolers, bottles, chairs, signs, banners or strollers into the park.
Categories: Aldermania · Expect Delays · Presidential Poop · Public Service Announcement
Tagged: Barack Obama, Brendan Reilly, Grant Park, Hutchinson Field, parking, rolling closures, the CTA
It’s not the world championship celebration for the Cubs many here were hoping for, but the news did seep out this week that the Obama campaign is planning an Election Night party here – possibly in Grant Park.
“[A]ll indications are that campaign officials are leaning toward Hutchinson Field on the south end of Grant Park as the site of their election night party,” CBS2 reports. “The field is home to softball diamonds, the popular summer Lollapalooza music festival and was the site of the mass Pope John Paul held in Chicago nearly 30 years ago.”
Agence France-Press reports that campaign aides are also considering Millennium Park, but the park is hardly equipped to handle that sort of event.
The campaign is working with city officials on the arrangements, and you can bet that the cash-strapped Daley administration will foist every penny of the bill on the flush Obama campaign (as other cities have).
Meanwhile, the city is preparing in other ways for a possible Obama victory.
(more…)
Categories: Presidential Poop · Punditocracy
Tagged: About Last Night, Barack Obama, Chicago, Grant Park, meat a-cookin', Pope John Paul
Among today’s developments on the Children’s Museum front:
* The Tribune editorial page today publishes a list of museum officials it holds responsible for the proposal to build in Grant Park, including the museum’s officers (Peter England and Jennifer Farrington), Board of Directors, Board of Advisors, and Past Chairman’s Council. Sixty-five names in all. Take a look and drop them a note!
* A full-page ad in the Sun-Times today lists members of the recently manufactured All Chicago Children’s Museum Committee. Eighty-four names in all. I’m sure the mayor is keeping a list.
I couldn’t find the list of names on the museum’s website to link to for you, but maybe their names will appear as sponsors of the museum’s new Astroturf exhibit.
* Division Street had the scoop! And today the Trib has “Grant Park Museum Foes Hit Liquor Request,” in which museum official Jim Law says that the language in their development application allowing for future restaurants and liquor sales on the site is “just standard.”
I’m sure he won’t mind taking it out then.
Categories: Destroying Our City · Division Street · Dumb Ideas · Fake Pols · The Daley Show
Tagged: All Chicago Children's Museum Committee, Astroturf, Children's Museum, Grant Park, Jennifer Farrington, Peter England
While the epic Wal-Mart battle is fading into oblivion, the epic Children’s Museum battle is about to get worse. After laying low for several months huddled with PR powerhouse Hill & Knowlton, museum officials are embarking on a new offensive – and that pretty much describes it – in its unpopular effort to move to Grant Park. Like the Wal-Mart fiasco, this fight also turned racial when the mayor (him again) accused foes of not wanting black kids in the neighborhood.
The controversy has already been a public relations disaster for the Children’s Museum, but for some reason it’s officials stubbornly blunder on like, well, children, even though downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly has suggested a couple dozen alternative sites he could get behind.
In the Tribune article, Reilly derided the museum’s new public relations effort as “an attempt to manufacture public support that isn’t there.” Maybe Hill & Knowlton will have better luck than Barack Obama media maven David Axelrod, who was previously running stealth PR operations for the museum, according to the April issue of Business Week Chicago.
The opposition remains galvanized. In an e-mail sent to supporters earlier this month, Reilly wrote: “This project is NOT on the March Plan Commission Agenda but very likely to be heard at the April 17, 2007 meeting. Thousands of community residents, Friends of the Parks, Preservation Chicago, Save Grant Park and Friends of Downtown all continue to reiterate their opposition to violating the special protections that have preserved Grant Park for 172 years.”
Preservation Chicago, in fact, has put Grant Park on its list of the city’s most endangered, um, buildings.
In an e-mail sent out on Tuesday, the organization asked those opposed to the museum move to attend the Plan Commission meeting in green shirts.
It’s an environmental message, to be sure, but it’s also the only color the Children’s Museum – which would be in line for park-related taxpayer subsidies – seems able to understand. Maybe in the confusion, the museum folk will change sides.
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Mick Dumke and Ben Joravksy at Clout City have some other ideas about how to fill up Grant Park.
Categories: The Daley Show
Tagged: Ald. Brendan Reilly, Children's Museum, Clout City, David Axelrod, Grant Park, Hill & Knowlton, Preservation Chicago
– $1 (Chicago)
