Today In The Culture, March 1, 2023: Musing on the 15-Minute City | Aviary Beverage Director Exits | The Trace Opens Chicago Bureau

1200 West Fulton Development/Rendering: Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture

ART

Gallerists Style For Season

Chicago magazine offers a gallery of Chicago museum curators and gallerists in styles for spring, including Kavi Gupta and Jessica Moss; Myriam Ben Salah; Mariane Ibrahim; Aron Gent and Sibylle Friche; and Louise Bernard.

DESIGN

Urban Designer Paola Aguirre Serrano Honored By Landmarks Illinois

Urban designer and founding partner of BORDERLESS, Paola Aguirre Serrano [Newcity Design 50], is being honored by Landmarks Illinois. “Through her urban design and research practice, BORDERLESS, and Creative Grounds Initiative, she is actively invested in spatial justice by bringing more people into the preservation process, and empowering communities to have a voice in how historic places in their neighborhoods are reimagined.” Landmarks Illinois is honoring Paola for her community-led design processes that are redefining how places are preserved and for whom. She is one of five honorees chosen for “their influential mark on participatory design, economic development, finance, affordable housing and the creative sector.”

The others are Amanda Williams, artist, architect and 2022 MacArthur Fellow [Newcity Design 50 and Newcity Art 50]; Amy Mills, owner of 17th Street Barbecue, FAYE and The Factory at 17th Street in Southern Illinois; Calvin L. Holmes, president of the Chicago Community Loan Fund and a 2009 MacArthur Foundation Award for Creative and Effective Institutions recipient; and Related Midwest. Landmarks Illinois’ Preservation Forward event will be held on Thursday, March 2 at The Old Post Office.

Another 1.5 Million Square Feet Of Space In Fulton Market

The first demolition permit has been issued for a $600 million mixed-use development at 1200 West Fulton, reports YIMBY Chicago. “The development will replace a parking lot and three existing one-story industrial buildings with three structures, delivering 1.5 million square feet of space designed by Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture with Morris Adjmi Architects consulting on the project. The developer, Fulton Street Companies, is partnering with Waterton, a local landlord company, and Harrison Street Real Estate Capital.”

O’Hare Terminal 3 Gets $50 Million For Upgrades

Mayor Lightfoot announced that O’Hare International Airport will receive $50 million in Airport Terminal Program grant funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the largest such grant this year for any airport in America, which will upgrade customer amenities, improve security screening, and expand accessibility for passengers with disabilities at Terminal 3. “O’Hare is one of the busiest airports in the world, with millions of travelers passing through every year,” said the mayor. “This investment is critical for improving accessibility, safety, and energy efficiency at Terminal 3, and it complements the Chicago Department of Aviation’s ongoing efforts to modernize and expand O’Hare.”

Let’s Talk “Fifteen-Minute Cities”

Conspiracy theories erupted worldwide in February. “So, what is a fifteen-minute city? The term was coined by Professor Carlos Moreno, the Columbian born advisor to Anne Hidalgo, the Socialist Mayor of Paris since 2014, who has tried to implement some of his ideas,” reports British paper Byline Times. “Moreno set those out in a seven-minute TED talk in 2020… Many big cities don’t work. They are poorly designed, transport is a nightmare, the streets are often gridlocked, and everything is [oriented] towards the car, rather than the people who urban environments are supposed to benefit. The academic advocates relooking at urban environments and reassessing how we can use them in a greener, more dynamic way. That boils down to providing everything that anyone might need ‘within fifteen minutes’ of the city dweller: shops, healthcare, green spaces, education, housing and entertainment all should be easily accessible on foot or by bicycle.”

Adds VICE: “To many city-dwellers, a ‘fifteen-minute city’ with everything you need within walking distance is a dream. Conspiracy theorists are seeing it differently… This design paradigm… is not a city-dweller’s dream in this addled conception, but an open-air surveillance prison nightmare that is being imposed by shadowy forces.” Canada’s The Hub: “In the addled minds of conspiracy theorists, it’s an authoritarian plot to eliminate personal automobiles. Once we’re in our designated community, the story goes, we’ll be fined for driving to another neighbourhood, assuming our overlords deign to let us leave at all.”

DINING & DRINKING

Aviary Beverage Director Exits

“After a long road with The Alinea Group my time is coming to an end,” Aviary beverage director Micah Melton posts on Instagram. “I never imagined accomplishing 1/100th of the things I did and it all feels a bit surreal when I look back at it. The time has come for a change though, time for me to redefine who I am, and for Aviary to redefine itself again… Congrats to Paul Sauter and Chloe Fisher who will be taking the reigns at Aviary.” Eater Chicago: “Alinea Group co-founder Nick Kokonas notes that Melton joined the company as its first-ever ice chef.”

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Food Critic Leaves After Fifteen Years

“A lot has changed in the fifteen years—to the month—since I was hired to be the Journal Sentinel’s second dining critic,” writes Carol Deptolla at the Journal Sentinel. “Prices, sure, and fashions in food, certainly… Chefs developed thoughtful, modern dishes, and the spectrum of international flavors in Milwaukee broadened. It’s been a golden time to be a dining critic.”

FILM & TELEVISION

Nonfiction “Subject” Covers Ethics Of Doc-Making, Including “Hoop Dreams”

“Subject”‘s subjects are also the subjects of “The Staircase,” “Capturing the Friedmans” and “Hoop Dreams,” reports the Guardian. “This super-thoughtful and sensitive documentary also interviews the ‘stars’ of other well-known documentaries. Arthur Agee was a fourteen-year-old basketball prodigy from a tough neighborhood in Chicago when film-makers arrived to shoot ‘Hoop Dreams.'” A producer of that film says “that when the film became a surprise box-office hit, they… gave everyone with a speaking role a cut of the profits. For Arthur Agee, that money has been life-changing–around $500,000 to date.”

Florida Governor Punishes Disney For Opposing Agenda

“Appearing at the doorstep of Walt Disney World, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Monday that gives him new power over Disney, effectively punishing the entertainment giant for speaking out against the Republican’s political agenda,” reports CNN. The state takeover “allows the governor to replace the district’s existing board–mostly people with ties to Disney–with a five-member body that he hand-picks. ‘Today, the corporate kingdom finally comes to an end… Disney came out against something that was really just about protecting young kids, and making sure that students are able to go to school learning to read, write, add, subtract, and not having a teacher tell them that they can change their gender.'” The Hollywood Reporter quotes the presumed presidential aspirant: “I think that all of these [newly installed] board members very much would like to see the type of entertainment that all families can appreciate.”

MEDIA

The Trace Opens Chicago Bureau Covering Gun Violence

“The nonprofit newsroom The Trace is experimenting with a new approach to its award-winning coverage of gun violence in the United States,” reports NiemanLab. “After eighteen months of planning, the single-issue site launched its first local bureaus—in Philadelphia and Chicago—with one community-focused engagement reporter per every staff writer… In Chicago, the coverage will be led by engagement reporter Justin Agrelo and reporter Rita Oceguera… The Trace explained the two cities were chosen because they are places with ‘chronic’ gun violence where city officials have faced ‘little accountability’ for failing to effectively address the issue.”

Fox News, Controlled By Murdoch Dynasty, Knew Their Network Was Lying About Election Fraud

“New court documents show that media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his top lieutenants at Fox News were aware that former President Trump’s claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election were false, but agreed to give them continued coverage in an effort to keep the network’s unhappy viewers from fleeing,” reports the Los Angeles Times.

MUSIC

U. S. Prepares To Hike Visa Fees For Touring Musicians

“’Breaking’ America has been the goal of young British musicians since the days of Beatlemania, but that dream is being dashed. Hundreds of emerging artists could be affected by plans to hike visa fees by 250%–and music industry executives have criticized [British authorities] for failing to act,” reports the Guardian. “The U.S. immigration service wants to raise visa costs from $460 to $1,615 alongside other changes that artists and their managers say would make it almost impossible for anyone but the biggest stars to perform in the U.S.”

STAGE

Winifred Haun & Dancers Present “First Draft”

Winifred Haun & Dancers continues its twenty-fifth season with “First Draft: New Work by Chicago Dancemakers,” showcasing eight new works by eight Chicago-area choreographers at Links Hall. The program “gives Chicago choreographers the opportunity to see and present their latest works in a professionally produced context. The public presentation of a nearly completed dance work is an essential step for dancemakers as they develop high quality, new dances.” More here.

Detroit Opera Needs President-CEO

Detroit Opera has opened applications and welcomes nominations for the position of President and CEO.

“Hatef—” Finds Partners

First Floor Theater will conclude its tenth season with the Chicago premiere of Rehana Lew Mirza’s “Hatefuck,” directed by Arti Ishak, May 5–June 10 at The Den Theatre. The cast includes Aila Peck and Faiz Siddique. “Passions ignite when Layla, an intense literature professor, accuses Imran, a brashly iconoclastic novelist, of trading in anti-Muslim stereotypes. But as their attraction grows into something more, they discover that good sex doesn’t always make good bedfellows.” Says director Arti Ishak, “As an actor, I’ve experienced firsthand how Muslim stories get filtered through whiteness, whether it’s pining to prove we’re ‘just like you,’ playing up the exotic other, or blatantly leaning into stereotypes. Muslim Americans deserve nuanced representation that asks us to wrestle with our intracommunity issues while tangled in a story about messy human connection. Rehana Lew Mirza’s ‘Hatefuck’ is the modern Muslim love story I’ve been waiting for and I’m ready to help bring that story to Chicago as my directing debut.” Tickets go on sale Monday, March 27 here.

ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.

University Enrollment In Humanities In Freefall

“For decades now, the cost of education has increased over all ahead of inflation,” writes Nathan Heller in the New Yorker. “One theory has been that this pressure, plus the growing precariousness of the middle class, has played a role in driving students… toward hard-skill majors. (English majors, on average, carry less debt than students in other fields, but they take longer to pay it down.)… During the past decade, the study of English and history at the collegiate level has fallen by a full third. Humanities enrollment in the United States has declined over all by seventeen per cent, Townsend found. What’s going on? The trend mirrors a global one; four-fifths of countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation reported falling humanities enrollments in the past decade. But that brings little comfort to American scholars, who have begun to wonder what it might mean to graduate a college generation with less education in the human past than any that has come before.”

Medicaid Expected To Drop 700,000 Illinoisans

“Federal protections put in place during the pandemic are due to expire,” reports the Trib. “Anywhere from about 384,000 to 700,000 people in Illinois are expected to lose their Medicaid health coverage this year, as federal protections put in place during the pandemic fade. Though some of those people will gain coverage elsewhere, others will find themselves suddenly uninsured, and unable to pay for doctor visits and medications.”

Seven Groups Granted By Enrich Chicago

Nonprofit Enrich Chicago and its program Imagine Just have given $5,000 each to seven organizations that provide unique arts and cultural experiences. Award recipients include: ChiResists, Gage Park Latinx Council, Haitian American Museum of Chicago, Hearing in Color, The Honeycomb Network, SXII Studios and UrbanTheater Company. More here.

Guaranteed Income Applicants Cite Mental Health Struggles, But Fiscal Stability Is Also Indicated

“A third of applicants for a citywide program that would guarantee them [$500 per month] cash assistance for a year reported struggling with their mental health,” reports the Sun-Times. “University of Chicago researchers said applicants for the program reported experiencing psychological distress at five times the rate of the general population and said they planned to continue studying whether recipients of the assistance saw improvements in their mental health over the pilot program’s duration.” Wisconsin State Journal on Madison’s $500-a-month Madison Forward Fund: “The stories we are hearing from [basic income] recipients make it clear that just a small bump in monthly income helps them pay off debt, access job training or support their children’s education… Even after just six months of payments, recipients are already talking about the doors that have opened for them because they have more financial stability.” USA TODAY: “A 2020 study from the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University found that income guarantees of as little as $250 a month for adults and children can reduce poverty by forty percent… In Chicago, the Chicago Resilient Communities Pilot is providing 5,000 people with $500 a month and the Cook County Promise Guaranteed Income program is also giving $500 month to 3,250 people.”

Lawmakers Want Rail Merger Delay Vote After Catastrophic Ohio Derailment

“Federal lawmakers from Illinois are asking the U.S. Surface Transportation Board’s chief to delay a vote on a freight railway merger in light of hazmat concerns after a catastrophic derailment in Ohio,” reports the Daily Herald. “Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth and U.S. Representatives Raja Krishnamoorthi and Delia Ramirez asked STB Chairman Marty Oberman to intervene in the Canadian Pacific Railway’s acquisition of the Kansas City Southern Railway.” Reports the New York Times, “The train that derailed in Ohio was exempt from some federal safety requirements because it was not carrying enough hazardous material to be considered ‘high hazard.’ Lawmakers want to lower the threshold… The prospects for the measure are uncertain in a divided Congress, where the derailment has touched off a highly partisan debate over rail safety, federal regulation and who, if anyone, in Washington is looking out for the plight of rural communities like East Palestine, Ohio.”

How’s CPS Doing Teaching Migrant Children?

“CPS said it’s working with city and state officials to enroll kids in schools located near city shelters,” but sources tell WBEZ “that neighborhood schools often lack the staff and curriculum to work with non-English-speaking students.”

“How The Aesthetics Of Drag Drive Bigots Mad”

“The desperate reaction of the authoritarian governor and his ilk shows that the aesthetics of drag are powerful. Sometimes mistakenly derided as making fun of women, drag is in reality a joke on straight men. Beneath all the face paint, padding, duct tape and wigs, weaponization of caricature, sarcasm and ridicule is elemental,” writes Los Angeles Times art critic Christopher Knight. “Today’s aesthetic philosophy of drag beauty and power has two principal features. One is inner-directed, determined to build self-esteem. The other aims outward, lampooning social norms that push LGBTQ people down. The two are inseparable, and together they drive the bigots mad.”

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