An extensive, three-part report from South Side Weekly and the Hyde Park Herald, profiles “a historic Black-owned housing cooperative on Drexel Boulevard. In March 2021, after a $3.4 million, [five-year] rehab project, the cooperative abruptly dissolved and sold the building. The Herald and Weekly interviewed dozens of Tudor Gables shareholders, lawyers, contractors, and neighbors and reviewed hundreds of internal emails and public documents about the rich legacy of the ‘castle,’ as members fondly referred to the building, the conflicts that led to its sale, and the changing face of the Boulevard.”
Mansion Market Remains Hot For Chicagoans Of Extreme Wealth
A Lincoln Park mansion is the third-most expensive home on the market at $12.5 million, reports the Trib. “The three-story house has six full bathrooms, two half bathrooms and a three-story staircase atrium with large picture windows… Among single-family homes, the only higher listing prices are for a six-bedroom, 25,000-square-foot mansion in Lincoln Park, which is on the market for almost $30 million, and a 20,000-square-foot Gold Coast mansion that has an $18.75 million price tag.”
Seaside Wright House Sells For $22 Million
“The only oceanfront home designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright has sold for $22 million in California’s Carmel-by-the-Sea, the dreamy coastal enclave where Clint Eastwood once served as mayor,” reports the Guardian.
Loop Shows Nation’s Largest Downtown Residential Growth
A new study by the Chicago Loop Alliance says the Loop is the country’s fastest-growing downtown. “As part of Chicago Loop Alliance’s work in analyzing and predicting various sectors’ impact on the Loop, the recent residential impact study recognizes the significant contributions of Loop residents to our economy,” Michael Edwards, president and CEO of Chicago Loop Alliance says. “The Loop continues to be the city’s fastest growing neighborhood, and the fastest growing residential downtown in the country, yet the Loop remains in need of amenities to attract and retain residents. We hope the evidence and narrative of this study provides context for how we can all work together to make Chicago’s Loop more beneficial for workers, tourists and residents.” The sixty-six-page study is here.
A Look At The Luxury Residences In Former Chicago Tribune Tower
The Architect’s Newspaper takes a look at the conversion “from paper to pamper” here.
Belvidere Could Be “Ghost Town” After Jeep Shutdown
“When the whistle blows at the Belvidere Assembly Plant on Tuesday, it may signal the end of an era,” reports the Tribune. “For nearly six decades, the massive auto plant has been the economic engine of the small river city near Rockford, churning out everything from the Plymouth Fury and the Chrysler New Yorker to the Dodge Dart.” With demand falling for the Jeep Cherokee, the plant is closing “indefinitely,” “laying off the last 1,200 workers and perhaps closing it for good.”
Crime Surveillance App Citizen Losing Early Funders
“Sequoia Capital walks away from crime app Citizen amid funding crunch,” reports the Financial Times. “The New York-based app, which has seven-million-plus users, allows people in U.S. cities to livestream crimes and access real-time reports from 911 calls… Citizen has faced controversies, including criticism that it encourages a culture of surveillance and that its use can lead to racial profiling and harassment.” An analyst tweets: “This is other shoe to drop as a fallout of the end of low interest rates. Startups will run out of cash and VCs will pass on keeping them alive.”
Tracking Wicker Park’s Stretch Of Milwaukee Avenue
Axios’ Justin Kaufmann surveys: “Milwaukee Avenue will never live up to its 1990s billing. But it still stands out as a unique stretch of Chicago, perfect for playing tourist in your own city.”
DINING & DRINKING
Avec Hosts “Chefs To Watch” Benefit Dinner
Chef de cuisine Dylan Patel of One Off Hospitality’s iconic small plates wine destinations avec has gathered five local rising star chefs for a “Chefs to Watch Dinner” on Wednesday, March 15 at avec’s original West Loop setting. “The next generation of chef talent in this city is incredibly exciting,” says One Off executive chef and partner Paul Kahan. “Whether they’re working in beloved neighborhood kitchens or notable spots downtown, we’re thrilled not only to bring amazing up-and-coming chefs to cook together for a special evening in support of an organization committed to the future of our industry in Chicago.” The chefs are Dylan Patel (avec); Tayler Ploshehanski (Wherewithall); Felicia Mayden (Food Network); Juan Espinal (Marisol); Joe Baker (Boeufhaus); Reynaldo Quinones (avec).
Patel “will open up his kitchen to the guest chefs as they take diners on a storytelling journey through their respective culinary experiences with a collaborative five-course dinner hosted in the restaurant’s private second-floor dining room. From hamachi ceviche with marjoram and coriander vinaigrette to cod with hedgehog mushrooms, each chef will showcase a specialty course. A portion of the night’s proceeds will go toward $10,000 of scholarship funds from One Off Hospitality to be awarded this spring in the form of two $5,000 scholarships to Chicago Public School recipients by way of Careers Through Culinary Arts Professionals, which provides culinary, job and life skills to over 20,000 middle-and-high school students across the country. Dinner is at 6:30pm. Tickets are available on Tock for $125 here. More here.
16″ On Center Names Ryan Pfeiffer Culinary Director
16″ On Center has announced Ryan Pfeiffer as culinary director. His first enterprise: menus at Dusek’s and Thalia Hall, 16″ On Center posts on Instagram. “With the support of chef de cuisine Geoff Thompson, Dusek’s will offer two distinct dining experiences. The Tavern menu will serve familiar tavern fare and feature an extensive cocktail, beer, and wine list. The Dining Room will work with the wood-fire oven with a rotating, curated menu focused on seasonality.” The Tavern opens Friday, March 3 with signature Smash Burgers, Baked Oysters, Cowboy Steak Sandwiches, and Dusek’s Cast-Iron Mussels. The Dining Room debuts Friday, March 10 and will feature a curated menu of four courses. “Natural Wines, classic cocktails and decadent desserts will round out this prix fixe experience.” Menus and more here.
Chez Moi, C’est Fait
“We would like to express our gratitude to all of our friends for eleven wonderful years at Chez Moi,” the owners announce on Facebook. “This community stood with us through the good times and through the tough years. The love and support from all of you after the tragic loss of Chef Dominique has been humbling. It is with heavy hearts that we must bid you adieu. The last night of service at Chez Moi will be April 1. A la prochaine…”
Corner Bakery Bankrupt
“Corner Bakery, the fast-casual bakery-café chain once tagged as a potential rival to Panera Bread but which has struggled as people stopped coming into the office,” reports Restaurant Business, “sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it seeks to fend off an effort by creditors to take control of the company. The chain, which finished 2021 with 161 locations but appears to have far fewer now, has $33.8 million in secured debt, a legacy of debt taken out in 2017 that investment firm Pandya Group inherited when it bought Corner Bakery from Roark Capital in 2020.”
Albion Manor Hires Executive Chef
The Albion Manor and The Parlour, an English pub and cocktail parlour in Lincoln Park, has a new executive chef, James Menendez. “He has honed his skills at notable, award-winning Michelin-starred restaurants such as Grace, Sixteen and Moody Tongue in Chicago, Saison in San Francisco, and Inn at Little Washington. He is passionate about cultivating and executing new menus with flavor and seasonality. He also has a passion for football (otherwise known as soccer), and his love of the beautiful game and elevated cuisine called him to The Albion Manor.” Menus here; more here.
FILM & TELEVISION
Jennifer Reeder: “Coming Of Age Is A Lifelong Process”
“I have no shame saying that on some level, I’ve kind of been making the same film over and over,” Chicago writer-director Jennifer Reeder tells Natalia Keogan at Filmmaker on the Berlinale premiere of “Perpetrator,” her fourth feature. “The reason I keep making films with all of these young people is because the experience has been fantastic… Although we are a culture obsessed with youth and beauty, especially among young women, we hate young women. We have built a machine to annihilate them. I wanted to address our obsession with youth and beauty among young women and our desire to literally tear them apart. I have thought so often about the language we use directly towards young women who have agency over their sexuality or have a really independent path. We often call them ‘wild’ and ‘out-of-control,’ which is not meant to amplify their spirit. It’s meant to diminish them and discourage that kind of independence. Even while I was still in post with ‘Knives and Skin,’ I thought, ‘The next one I do is going to be a proper genre film, not just a conceptual genre film.’ I had this idea of making something that started off with a ‘wild’ and ‘out-of-control’ girl who really becomes wild and out of control, so the language and tone that’s meant to diminish her becomes her superpower.”
Netflix Drops Fees In Over A Hundred Territories, But Not North America
The streaming giant has immediately reduced basic subscription fees around the world, writes the Hollywood Reporter. The drops range from twenty- to sixty-percent. This affects “more than ten million,” or more than four-percent of their more than 230 million subscribers.
LIT
Bookman’s Corner’s John Chandler Was Eighty-Seven
The Lakeview shop John Chandler ran for more than four decades is closed, but it’s still full of books, reports CBS 2. Chandler died on February 14. “Bookman’s Corner, at the corner of Clark and Wellington in Lakeview, served readers with an appetite for books.” Adds Block Club, “Even in bustling Lakeview, Bookman’s stood out: Every inch was covered in piles and boxes of books that shoppers would have to navigate around. Chandler opened the shop in the seventies and developed meaningful relationships with neighbors and customers, sometimes even gifting them books and other presents.”
Dahl Parts: Publisher Takes Advantage Of Worldwide Fracas By Issuing Sixteen-Volume Unexpurgated “Classic Collection”
“A collection of Roald Dahl’s books with unaltered text is to be published after a row over changes made to novels including ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ and ‘The Witches,'” reports the Guardian. “Dahl’s publisher Puffin, the children’s imprint of Penguin Random House, was criticised this week after [reports] that it had hired sensitivity readers to go over the beloved author’s books and language deemed to be offensive would be removed from new editions. In response, Puffin has decided to release Dahl’s works in their original versions [as well]. The Classic Collection will ‘sit alongside the newly released Puffin Roald Dahl books for young readers… ‘designed for children who may be navigating written content independently for the first time.'”
MEDIA
Scott Adams Opens Up As Racist; Papers, From Trib To USA TODAY, Fire “Dilbert”
“The best advice I have for white people is to get the hell away from Black people.” While “Dilbert” cartoonist Scott Adams, “the bizarro Charles Schulz,” has leaned into extremist conspiracy theories including those about masking and vaccines, a rant from his “Real Coffee With Scott Adams” podcast went explicit about racism on Wednesday. “Based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from Black people. Just get the fuck away. Wherever you have to go, just get away. Because there’s no fixing this. This can’t be fixed. This can’t be fixed. You just have to escape… I’m going to back off from being helpful to Black America, because it doesn’t seem like it pays off. Like I’ve been doing all my life. And the only outcome is I get called a racist… It makes no sense to help Black Americans if you’re white… You didn’t expect that today, did you?”
In response, newspapers around the country severed ties with the sixty-five-year-old cartoonist over the weekend. The daily strip has been excised from The Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune’s comics page as of Monday. The Los Angeles Times: “The Comics pages should be a place where our readers can engage with societal issues, reflect on the human condition, and enjoy a few laughs. We intend to maintain that tradition in a way that is welcoming to all readers.” “The USA TODAY Network [with over 200 papers] will no longer publish the Dilbert comic due to recent discriminatory comments by its creator.” (Among the papers: the Arizona Republic, Cincinnati Enquirer, Detroit Free Press, Indianapolis Star, Austin American-Statesman and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.)
Editor Chris Quinn of The Cleveland Plain Dealer notes that newspapers owned by Advance Media in Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Alabama, Massachusetts and Oregon have also yanked “Dilbert.” “This is not a difficult decision… It’s a staggering string of statements, all but certain to result in the loss of his livelihood… We are not a home for those who espouse racism. We certainly do not want to provide them with financial support.”
The Tribune profiled Adams twenty-seven years ago as “the man behind high-tech, high-fun ‘Dilbert,'” which began in 1989. “If you’re looking for the quintessential cartoon of the CyberAge [sic], look no further than Dilbert… No other cartoon is as computer savvy as Dilbert. The strips themselves deal with such topics as telecommunications, IBM vs. Mac users, and user-unfriendly software. In addition, Dilbert has an on-line newsletter, a separate area of America Online, a home page on the World Wide Web, and a screen saver. It even has a cartoonist who responds to his readers by e-mail.” In 1998, Art Spiegelman disdained Dilbert in the pages of American Heritage: “The strip’s tone, a flat, depressed whine that strikes a responsive chord in office drones… safely transmutes the reader’s anger at stupid bosses from revolutionary impulse into a perfunctory laugh that allows them to continue on in quiet desperation.”
Lin Brehmer’s Passing Provides WXRT Highest Ratings Ever
“January radio ratings show a big jump for Chicago stations, including WXRT,” reports Axios Chicago. “Chicagoans tuned in for the tributes and live memorials for broadcaster Lin Brehmer, who died last month… Brehmer’s death brought together the WXRT community and catapulted the radio station to the highest ratings in the station’s history.”
ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.
On The Child Labor Beat
An epic, disheartening report: “Arriving in record numbers, [migrant children are] ending up in dangerous jobs that violate child labor laws—including in factories that make products for well-known brands like Cheetos and Fruit of the Loom,” reports Hannah Dreier at the New York Times. Dreier “traveled to Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, South Dakota and Virginia for this story and spoke to more than a hundred migrant child workers in twenty states… This shadow work force extends across industries in every state, flouting child labor laws that have been in place for nearly a century. Twelve-year-old roofers in Florida and Tennessee. Underage slaughterhouse workers in Delaware, Mississippi and North Carolina. Children sawing planks of wood on overnight shifts in South Dakota. Largely from Central America, the children are driven by economic desperation that was worsened by the pandemic.” Via More Perfect Union: “A federal investigation has found that the owners of seven Pennsylvania McDonalds illegally made 154 kids aged fourteen and fifteen work before school, late on school nights, and operate deep fryers in violation of federal law. The owners have been forced to pay just $92,107 in fines.” The report is here.
Could Englewood Be Site Of Potential Derailment Disaster? U. S. Averages Chemical Accident Every Two Days; Shipment Of Cleanup Toxins Paused
“While Ohio residents grapple with the aftermath of a derailed freight train, the disaster has stoked long-held fears for residents in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood: What if that happened here?,” reports Block Club. For years, Norfolk Southern “quietly bought private homes in Englewood and tore them down to build the 47th Street intermodal yard. The railway company has failed to hire locally, repair damage caused by trucks or release environmental studies to show its impact [and] the company [is] finishing a yearslong expansion of the rail yard, extending south into the heart of Englewood to bolster capacity and send more freight through the area. The East Palestine disaster should be a ‘wake-up call’ for local officials,” neighbors said.
The Guardian reports that an “analysis of data collected by the EPA and by nonprofit groups that track chemical accidents in the U.S. shows that accidental releases–be they through train derailments, truck crashes, pipeline ruptures or industrial plant leaks and spills–are… occurring, on average, every two days.” Activist Erin Brockovich led an East Palestine, Ohio, town meeting. “About 2,500 people and a hundred reporters attended the town hall meeting with the crowd spilling into the school gymnasium… Brockovich and attorneys warned of long-term health and environmental dangers from the chemicals released after the fiery train derailment.”
