Rio: Beautiful...Check, Dangerous...Check

ABC 7 has a good video today talking about some of the negatives and positives surrounding Rio's 2016 Olympic Bid. One thing is for certain, it really is a beautiful city and would be a picturesque setting for the Olympics.

On the other hand, violence is a huge factor. According to the video more then 2,000 people were murdered in Rio last year (which averages to nearly 38 a week. Yikes!).

We couldn't post the video, but here is the link if you want to check it out.

Rio's 2014 World Cup Touted as an Advantage in Quest for the 2016 Olympics?

Take that with a grain of salt, but it's an argument that Brazilian Sports and Olympic officials are touting. According to an article on ESPN.com today:

"The 2014 World Cup is an important part of Rio de Janeiro's bid," Rio de Janeiro state governor Sergio Cabral told the IOC members on Wednesday. "The improvements in accommodation, security and transportation will be useful for both events."

While these points are valid, Governor Cabral is forgetting another factor: Ego. Let's not forget that the world of international sports is driven by some huge personalities. Would the Olympic movement really want to come to Rio/Brazil two years after arguably the second largest international sporting event, the World Cup?

There is precedent for the World Cup to follow the Olympics, but not vice versa (or as far as we could tell). It's impossible to know how IOC officials feel about this, but we imagine it's something that they do consider.

The Sloop's Newest Neighbor? Where are the Peregrine Falcon's Nesting?

We need your help! Stephanie Ware (a reader, Field Museum employee and fellow Slooper) recently reached out to us about helping her program find a new resident to the South Loop, the Peregrine Falcon. They've been spotted in the South Loop (around 14th and Wabash), but they're specifically trying to determine where or IF these Falcons have chosen a new nesting site in the neighborhood:

Hi There,

I work with a program that monitors the Peregrine Falcon population here in Chicago. Two years ago, a pair of peregrines new to the Chicago region tried to nest on the Field Museum, but they were unsuccessful. They returned the following year and, after laying a few eggs in a precarious location on the museum, tried to set up shop at a construction site in the south loop. That nest failed as well.

The pair is back this year and we have been tracking them since early March. However, we haven't been able to determine where or IF they have chosen a new nesting site. At this point in the season, this pair will have likely laid eggs and they should be hatching in the next couple of weeks. We would like to find them in order to put leg bands on the chicks and record the identities of the adults.

Peregrines nest on cliff ledges, so our wild urban population makes fine use of the ledges on Chicago's taller buildings as nesting sites. Residents of those buildings may see the adults frequently and we would love to hear about those sightings. Perhaps your readers may be of some assistance. If you would consider posting a picture of a peregrine on your blog and mention my email address (sware@fieldmuseum.org), that would give people an easy place to report those sightings. I have been seeing them most frequently in the area of 14th and Wabash.

I have attached a picture I took last year of the museum's adult male, which should provide ample information regarding physical characteristics.

Thank you for your consideration!

Stephanie Ware
Collections Assistant, Insect Division
Secretary, Scholarship Committee
Member, Chicago Peregrine Program
Zoology Department
The Field Museum
1400 S. Lake Shore Dr.
Chicago, IL 60605-2496
sware@fieldmuseum.org

For those of you who don't know, the Peregrine Falcon is Chicago's official bird. For more information about the bird you can check out Stephanie's blog or this article.

Keep your eyes peeled to the sky and hopefully we can help figure out where the Falcons are nesting!

Columbia's Media Production Center Under Construction

There has been a lot of recent press about the success of downtown colleges in the Loop and South Loop. As a result it's not surprising to see many of these organizations continuing their expansions in the area.

Last year we got word of Columbia College's proposed Media Production Center at the corner of State and 16th. The construction is officially underway:

The official groundbreaking is tentatively scheduled for early 2009, possibly in February if weather permits, Micki Leventhal, director of Media Relations, said. The building is slated to be finished by spring 2010.

The building will provide some new facilities for the school and their students:

The Film, Television and Interactive Arts and Media departments will all be working together in the new space. The building will include two sound stages and a motion capture studio.

Here is a picture of the construction progress from a High rise in the South Loop:
(Hat Tip for the picture: Ryan L)
(Image from MICKI LEVENTHAL)

No Smoking in New Printer's Row Rental Apartment

For non-smokers looking to live in Printer's Row a new rental building might be exactly what you're looking for. The recently finished 24-story highrise, AMLI Residential at 900 S. Clark, mandates that residents can't smoke inside or outside of the building. Although this might limit some people from living here, for others it's exactly what the doctor ordered:

"I don't smoke, so I love the smoke-free building," said Benz, a professional filmmaker and student at Columbia College.

"I've gotten used to going to places that don't smell like smoke. The loft I lived in before this really smelled bad, cigar and what have you," Benz said. "What I like most about AMLI 900 is that it smells fresh and clean. There are no weird odors."

For more information on the building check on the article at the Sun-Times website.

(Image: Brian Jackson / Sun-Times)

IOC in Rio for 2016 Evaluation

The 13 member IOC 2016 evaluation committee touched down in Rio today and is set to judge how their bid stacks up to the competitions (Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo).

The committee has already been to Chicago and Tokyo and from the sounds of it, both cities did relatively well. It's hard to get a good read on how successful the presentations were, so the thinking is that as long as there is no major problem or gaffe, then they will be considered a success. If something bad happens on the visit we would most definitely hear about it.

With that said, we will be scouring the internets monitoring how Rio's evaluation goes over the next week. Our guess is that the committee will use words like 'dynamic' and 'vision' to praise Rio's bid, but at the end of the day, we won't really get a good read on how Rio really stacks up.

Regardless, we will be watching...

Howie's For Sale?

According to businessmart.com and menupages.com, one of our local Sloopin favorites, Howie's (at 1310 S Wabash) , is for sale:

Most everybody loves South Loop greasy spoon Howie's — but do you love it enough to make it your legally binding very own? Because it's for sale — drop a scant $105,000 and the quick-service 50 seater (and, presumably, as much grape soda and cheese fries as you're interested in consuming) is all yours through 2014, when the lease is up for renegotiation.

If there are no buyers, will Howie's close? We sure hope not!

(Hat Tip: Karen)

Motor Row Sign?

Over the past couple of years, the city has spent a lot of money upgrading the street scape on Michigan Avenue south of Roosevelt. With these improvements have come some increases in pedestrian traffic, but it's still relatively minimal probably because a lot of the retail space hasn't filled in yet. We can only imagine that will change...

One of the improvements we noticed was a blank sign close to the corner of Michigan and Roosevelt (on the east of the street):
Although we don't know what this will be used for our guess is that it will highlight some of the historic areas in the neighborhood (ie - the historic motor row buildings along Michigan Avenue). Has anyone heard what this sign will be used for or when it will be used?

Central Area Action Plan: South West Loop Part 2

As we posted a couple of weeks ago, Chicago has recently unveiled a plan for many neighborhoods in the downtown area. Many of these plans affect various areas of the Sloop and as a result we are going to have some posts over the next couple of weeks looking into these changes. Some of the changes are already underway, but most are plans that could happen sometime before 2020. Will they happen? Who knows, but it's still good to consider.

South West Loop - Part 2
For more info on Part 1 of this area click here.

1) South Branch Bridges
In our opinion these projects are no brainers. By adding bridges at Polk, Taylor and 16th street (in order from north to south) it will better connect the "South West Loop" to the rest of the city grid. This in turn will help the area with traffic flow and make the greater Printers Row area easier to access.

2) Bicycle Lanes & Markings
This is a minor addition and probably relatively inexpensive. So, there is not much argument coming from us. If it happens great, if not no big deal.

3) Clinton Subway (Station at Roosevelt)
Although this is debatable, we're not sure a Clinton Subway line is the best use of public transportation funds. We realize that it would connect to the main proposed multi-billion dollar "West Loop Transportation Center" but won't the circle line also connect everything? In a perfect world the city could afford both the Circle Line and Clinton Subway line, but we truly hope that the Circle Line is the priority. It seems easier to implement and would be better for the greater region. We would love to hear your thoughts on this one...

4) South Branch Riverfront
As we stated in part 1 of this segment, we love this idea. However, it shouldn't be a priority. There are a ton of other projects and things the city needs to focus on (transportation, schools, etc.). Although it would be great to have additional riverfront paths for recreational purposes we don't think it's necessary.

What do you think about these proposed additions? Which ones do you think should get the green light?

Public Transit Humor

It's Friday and after a long week of CTA buses taking forever and crowded El trains we thought we would pass along this public transit "sign" courtesy of CTA Tattler:

Central Area Action Plan: Update from the Trib

On the front page of chicagotribune.com today the main story was about Chicago's Central Area Action Plan. It sounds like the plan is set to be approved by city council next month, which might be alarming to some. However, they still haven't said how it's going to be funded and our guess is that many of the projects have a loooooong way to go.

The Olympic bid (which is set to be decided upon in October) proves to be the wild card again. If Chicago is awarded the games, we expect a lot of these projects to get fast tracked and hopefully receive a larger share of federal funds.

The Tribune has some "interactive" maps here. However, these are only a couple of the major parts of the overall Central Area Action Plan. Like we said earlier, we're going to focus on some of the projects that specifically touch the South Loop. Stay tuned, we hope to post something later today.

Marquee Adds Rental Options; 1555 S. Wabash Closings to Start Soon?

YoChicago has two recent posts looking at two of the newer developments in the South Loop.

The first is a post about Marquee (1464 S. Michigan Ave. - pictured to the right) rolling out rental options for some of the remaining units that haven't sold yet. We've heard about similar approaches in the neighborhood given the difficult real estate market.

Also of interest is that 1555 S. Wabash looks to be finally closing on some of their units:

The building has obtained certificates of occupancy for its first three residential floors and should be ready to "rock and roll" (which I interpret as "start closing units") around the first week of May.

Shots Around the Sloop

Beautiful shot looking east from the Roosevelt Green and Orange line platform from our friends at The Windy Pixel. If you haven't checked out their blog, you should...simply awesome!

(Image from: thewindypixel.com)

"The Shrine" is Coming

Today we got word from a reader that a new sign for "The Shrine" has gone up around where we heard the new club/lounge/bar would be. After doing some more digging, this looks to be the new club. The Shrine is located at 2109 S. Wabash Ave and looks to be a relatively big space. According to Metromix:

This South Loop club-lounge combo with so-called "Africa meets James Bond" decor debuts in the former Chicago Legends space in late May.

Expect to find two distinct spaces with separate entrances. On one half, you'll find a DJ-driven dance club with a stage and sound system ready to host local and national music acts. On the other half, The Coup d'etat lounge will offer a sophisticated space for cocktail-sipping on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (when the club half is closed) and VIP treatment throughout the weekend. And both smokers and non-smokers will appreciate this: A separate outdoor smoking patio that eliminates the in-out hassle as well as the requisite cloud of smoke near the entrance.

The name of the club doesn't really spark to us, but we will give it the benefit of the doubt and reserve our judgment until it opens and we can check it out.

(Hat Tip: TD)
(image from: theshrinechicago.com)