Happy holidays Newcitizens! To keep you from passing out in the eggnog, we bring you OUR annual tradition, the Top 5 of Everything. And we mean everything. Seventy-three lists in all. By the time you finish digesting them, it will be 2012. See you then.
Top 5 Blossoming Chicago Park District Stories After a mysterious two-year delay, design work finally starts on the Bloomingdale Trail Chinatown’s serene Ping Tom Park expands north, nearly doubling in size To fight obesity, field houses get ninety-six vending machines stocked only with healthy snacks Planning starts for North Grant Park rehab; ideas include a skate park and a climbing wall A freak summer hailstorm ravages the Garfield Park Conservatory, closing several rooms —John Greeenfield
Top 5 Not-So-Pedestrian Local Walking Stories CDOT installs pedestrian safety flags at ten dangerous intersections The city drafts the Chicago Pedestrian Plan for release in February 2012 After many dismissed tickets, cabbie Mohammed Ahmed runs over a senior, killing her Thirty-two mannequins installed on Wacker Drive in memory of peds killed by cars last year Six years after Daley removed the Buckingham Fountain crosswalk, Emanuel reinstalls it —John Greenfield
Photo: Steven Vance
Top 5 Wheelie Exciting Chicago Bicycling Stories Kinzie protected bike lane (PBL) opens; one hundred miles of PBLs pledged for Rahm’s first term Lakeside Velo Works wooden velodrome opens on old U.S. Steel site, 8615 South Burley CDOT announces plans to launch 3,000-vehicle bike sharing system by next summer New bike lane is striped on Madison Street, breaking the ban on lanes in the central Loop City’s first on-street bike parking corral debuts at the North/Damen/Milwaukee “crotch” —John Greenfield
Top 5 Rapidly Developing Transit Stories New Green Line stations slated for Morgan, Cermak, plus Clark/Division makeover Facing budget shortfalls, Metra raises fares and cracks down on freeloading riders UK native Adham Fisher sets record, riding entire CTA El system in nine hours, thirty-six minutes Bus rapid-transit corridor along Jeffery Boulevard slated for 2012 construction One billion dollars earmarked to rehab the Red and Purple Lines, CTA’s busiest route —John Greenfield
Top 5 Good, Bad or Interesting Findings by the Pew Research Center in 2011 A few less people are pointing at events like Snowmaggedon and saying, “See?! I told you global warming isn’t real! Stupid Al Gore!” An overwhelming majority of Americans, blue and red both, saw the debt-ceiling negotiations as “ridiculous.” Which, of course, they were. Most teens say their peers are “mostly kind” on social networking sites. That means that even if kids are dicks to each other, they at least choose to do it in person. Only nineteen percent of college presidents think we’ve got the best university system in the world. So basically what they’re saying is the US has become the world’s safety school. Three out of ten of your friends would rather text you than call you. Eight of ten if you happen to be Gilbert Gottfried. —Eric Lutz
Top 5 People Who Died in 2011 You’d Forgotten Were Still Living Dolores Hope, 102, Bob “Texaco” Hope’s wife Charles Percy, 91, former U.S. Senator from Illinois G.D. Spradlin, 90, actor, “Godfather Part II” and “Apocalypse Now” Sherwood Schwartz, 94, creator of “Gilligan’s Island” and “The Brady Bunch” Betty Ford, 93, founder of a rehab clinic —Dan Churney
Today In The Culture, October 11, 2022: Chicago's Top Art Collectors | Keanu Exits Devil In The White City | Tribune to End Endorsements ART Chicagoans Mark ARTnews' "Top 200 Collectors" List ARTnews' annual Top 200 Collectors list is out; the extensive profiles of Chicago notables include Anita Blanchard and Martin Nesbitt (profile); Barbara Bluhm-Kaul and Don Kaul (profile); Denise and Gary Gardner (profile); Liz and Eric Lefkofsky (profile); Alec Litowitz and Jennifer Leischner (profile); George Lucas and Mellody Hobson (profile); and Penny Pritzker and Bryan Traubert (profile). Ex-Chicagoans…
