Shots Around the Sloop: Looking Down

First of all, just wanted to say thanks to everyone who sent us some of their Shots Around the Sloop last week.  We got a great response and are excited to show off your skills and our neighborhood over the course of the year.

Second, we figured it would be best to restart Shots Around the Sloop with two shots from an arial perspective.  Thus we wanted to give a quick shout out to Joe Zekas of the website YoChicago for taking some awesome shots of the South Loop from their recent helicopter trip around the city:

For the same pictures in high res click here to go to YoChicago's Flickr page.

(Hat tip: JZ & YoChicago)

New Apple iOS 6 Maps Melts Buckingham Fountain

The iPhone 5 was all the rage these past couple of days and while their sales numbers are absolutely redonkulous not everything has been smooth sailing for the newest god phone.  The biggest issue is their new maps app which doesn't use Google Maps anymore.  As a result, people are finding some odd things when they search around their city.  Our favorite is their weird, melted Buckingham Fountain:

The Chicagoist has some more Chicago weird maps for your viewing pleasure.

Chicago Magazine: Alain's to Reopen on Monday (10/1)

There has been quite a lot of buzz about Alain's (1355 S. Michigan) around the Sloop and city since a green eviction notice appeared on the window earlier this week on Monday.  Since then the eviction sign came down (on Wednesday 9/26) and yesterday a couple of readers sent us a link the Chicago Magazine dining blog Dish that states:

The fledgling South Looper Alain’s was forced to close temporarily after being served with an eviction notice last weekend. Things will be up and running again by Monday.

It's been a busy and tumultuous week on South Michigan Avenue.  Who knows what's in store for today.

Stay tuned!

Interactive Chicago Gang Map Buzzing Around the Interwebs

Shootings and violence have been an ongoing issue and concern throughout Chicago recently.  It seems like a day doesn't go by without some form of shooting going down in the city.

WBEZ has a fascinating and slightly controversial article, interview and interactive map that has been getting a lot of play throughout Chicago news sources, blogs and social media.  While it's not something to take lightly, we were naturally curious to see what information the interactive Chicago gang map would have about the Sloop.

Is our neighborhood infested with gangs?  how does it compare with other neighborhoods?  Am I living in a gang territory?

Before we dive in too deep, we wanted to preface these maps with a disclaimer from the CPD's Chief of Organized Crime:

CPD Chief of Organized Crime Nicholas Roti appeared on The Afternoon Shift (interview on WBEZ's website) to address several questions about the maps, their use and their limitations. On the question of why the department doesn't dessiminate gang territory maps on its own website, he said such data is a double-edged sword. The department, he said, uses such information internally and, through the Commission's gang book, shares it with suburban police departments.

But on the other hand, he said he'd be concerned if the maps are too easy to pass around. "We don't want to either glorify a gang or maybe unintentionally cause a gang rift," Chief Roti said. "You [a gang member] could look at a map and say, 'They got way more territory than us.'"

Chief Roti also expressed concern about the possibility that such maps would stigmatize any particular Chicago neighborhood as being affiliated with gangs. "That not only goes into people buying homes," he said. "That could go into businesses looking to start there."

So with that said, it appears that the downtown core doesn't appear to have as many territories as the South Side, West Side and North Side (note that the pins on the map are 2012 homicides in the city).

And specifically looking at the the South Loop, it looks as if it isn't particularly ripe with gangs.  The one exception is that a gang appears to have "territory" around the Hilliard Homes and the Old Harold Ickes homes (which were knocked down a couple of years ago) around the Southwest portion of what we consider the South Loop:

So what does this mean?  We're not going to try to draw any conclusions because it's seems like that's what the CPD Chief of Organized Crime said to do.

If you have thoughts let us know, but please keep comments constructive.

Karamela...We Have Lift Off?

Apparently their is a lot of misinformation floating around the internet (SHOCKING!?!) about Karamela's Cafe, the new spot at 1250 S. Michigan that looks like it's been ready to open for awhile.

According to a post we did in regard to a weird post on their alleged Facebook page (Karamela...we have a problem) the owner ditched the cafe.  We reached out to the contact on Facebook and according to that person the project was in limbo.

Image from Jnette R. on Yelp

Fast forward to yesterday and we received another email from a reader:

I just saw on Yelp that Karamela Cafe is opening this Friday, Sept. 28: It's been sooo long since the signs went up in there, so it's about time!

Talk about some internet drama.

It is true that someone named Jnette R. posted to Yelp that Karamela Cafe was opening on Friday, September 28th.  She also posted some nice pictures of the interior, machines and food (although it was a little ironic that she also gave Karamela a 5 star rating -- but we digress).

Anyway, we will just have to wait and see if this rumor is true.  We hope so!

Eviction Sign Appears on Alain's Door (1355 S. Michigan)

A reader writes:

Sloopy,
Looks like Alain's got evicted today.

This ain't good and it eerily reminds us of a similar post we did at the exact same location in April of 2011 regarding Entourage Man.

We've been happily covering the blossoming scene at 14th and Michigan and Alain's (1355 S. Michigan) was one of the places we were pretty excited about.  Maybe it wasn't meant to be?  I guess we will have to wait and see.

Yelp has given it pretty good reviews (4 stars) but the Red Eye said it was good but could use a couple tweaks.

Anyone have any more information on this one?

UPDATE:  9/26 - 9:30am
As of this morning, the green eviction sign was off the front door at Alain's.  Does this mean they're reopening?  We're not sure.  We will see.

(Hat tip: BK!)

Construction for Mariano's Fresh Market About to Begin

There has been a lot of anticipation for the planned Mariano's Fresh Market that is slated to come to the South Loop.  A reader sent us the picture above and states:

New sign up at 16th & Clark.
Maybe construction to start soon?

Well over on our message board there has been a lot of conversation on this particular topic and one poster let us know that the Alderman Pat Dowell sent out an email about an official groundbreaking ceremony:

Neighbors and Friends:

You are cordially invited to the official groundbreaking of the new Mariano's Fresh Market to be built at 1625 South Clark Street. The event will be held on Friday, September 28, 2012 at 1pm. Mariano's is expanding its presence in Chicago with a three story commercial building consisting of a 65,000 sq. ft. grocery store, a surface parking lot with 50 parking spaces and a two floor parking deck above the grocery store with 140 parking spaces on the second floor parking deck and 150 spaces on the third floor of the deck. 

Mariano’s Fresh Market is unlike any other store and I am excited to bring them to the South Loop. I hope you will come out and celebrate the beginning of what will be a welcomed addition to our community. 

Please come out and meet Bob Mariano, President and CEO of Mariano's and his team. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been invited.

So there you have it, work is about to begin.

(Hat tip: EK & TJ!)

Poll: 2012 Bash on Wabash Attendance

This Week on the Sloopin Message Board (w/o 9/17)

The message board this week had an interesting discussion about River City as well as some sleuth work by JeffWagg to find out that a Bollywood movie was filming on the Chicago River in the Sloop.

Here are links to these new threads:

• What Movie is being filmed on the river at 18th?
• Park on 16th and Wabash?
• LoftWalk 2012
• What's up with 800 S Wells (River City I think)?
• Mariano's Fresh Market (or older thread on a similar topic  Mariano's...weren't they supposed to start construction by now?)
• Condo Cleaning Services

Thanks for the discussion and contributions!

Shots Around the Sloop: We Need Your Shots!

We don't have a shot around the Sloop this week and instead of us simply going outside to take a picture we thought we would do a quick post asking for help.

While we love taking photographs of our lovely neighborhood, the best ones we've received come from  you!  With that said, next time your out and see something rad, whip out your trusty smartphone and take a shot.

With that said, we're not going to leave you hanging.  Here is a link to all 132 Shots Around the Sloop and here is one of our favorites that a reader sent us (which is hopefully symbolic for the Bears game):

(Hat tip:  GH!)

Sloopin Ranked 6th Best Neighborhood News Site in Chicago

Well this is nice to hear:  Sloopin is Ranked the 6th Best Neighborhood News Site in Chicago (on page 10 of this pdf)

From Chicago Community Trust's recent press release:

Two reports were released today (9/13) at the 2012 Chicago Community Information Summit at The Chicago Community Trust:

• The NEW News 2012: Ranking Chicago’s Online News Scene, by Thom Clark and Emily Culbertson of The Community Media Workshop, and

• Linking Audiences to News II: 2012 Network Analysis of Chicago Websites, by Rich Gordon of Northwestern University and Zachary Johnson of Syndio Social. 

The reports used a variety of quantitative and qualitative measures to identify the most noteworthy sites and to shed light on changes in the landscape since similar studies were conducted two years ago.

We've had some conversations with people at The Chicago Community Trust and are honored to be ranked in this thorough, time intensive report.

According to their ranking (on page 10 of this pdf) Sloopin's synopsis was:

If you're interested in the local news scene, the conference video is live and interesting (depending on your definition of interesting).  According to their research, the "neighborhood news" portion is

“Innovation is happening on the neighborhood level. The biggest diversity in sites, business models and news presentation is happening in neighborhood news, where online start-ups compete with weekly papers and efforts funded by foundations and nonprofits. Add to that innovation EveryBlock and the New Communities aggregator, and you see the most diversity in online news approaches in neighborhoods.”

We like to hear this and agree.  Hopefully you do as well.

Thanks for your support!

Sloopin Crew

The Venue Opens at 1550 S. State

When we saw this article in the Chicago Tribune we were a little perplexed.  We like to think that we know a thing or two about the neighborhood and apparently this new club, called The Venue (1550 S. State), went completely undetected by us.

Anyway, the Chicago Tribune provides some background:

Image from The Venue's Website

He has spent most of his adult life in the demanding and financially precarious world of music. Despite that, John Devens remains a sane man, and so it came as a mild shock to learn that he has decided to become the artistic director of a new music club in the South Loop. 

"Yes, it's a very tough and risky job, but this is really a labor of love," said Devens, standing on the sidewalk in front of the building that will house The Venue, a simple name for a bold and potentially important (but yes, tough and risky) addition of the city's entertainment scene, at 1550 S. State St. 

Recently Devens and some friends were putting the finishing touches — draping the walls with black fabric, arranging tables and chairs and installing soundboards — on the new club, transforming a room sometimes used for church services into what he hopes will be, as Devens says, "a great chance to showcase Chicago talent."

We grabbed the picture from their website and it appears that the place could use a little more character (at least visually).  To be fair, a picture does not always do justice and we are definitely intrigued by the concept.

We love music and hope that The Venue does well and helps bolster the neighborhoods music chops.

Installation of Stop Light at 13th and Wabash Begins 10/1

Good news for those of you who have almost been hit by a car at the corner of 13th and Wabash.  A reader writes about Alderman Fioretti's most recent news letter:

Hey sloppy just saw this from the aldermans office. Great spot for light because I have personally almost been hit by a car there at least a dozen times crossing the street.

Traffic Light Installation at 13th and Wabash

A traffic light will be installed at 13th and Wabash, with construction beginning on October 1st and ending around Thanksgiving. Alderman Fioretti secured funding for a traffic light at this busy intersection over a year ago, in response to constituent requests. This project is part of over $53 million in infrastructure improvements that have come to the South Loop through Alderman Fioretti's leadership.

As you may or may not remember (luckily the internet stores everything), this intersection has been a hot topic for awhile here on Sloopin.  Way back in May of 2011, we had a post "Danger Zone: 13th and Wabash Intersection".

This garnered a pretty healthy debate and back in November of 2011 it appeared that work was being done to install lights on Wabash.  It didn't happen then, but we heard it was still coming in June of 2012.

So here we are.  Hopefully it will happen soon because a man in a motorized scooter was struck at this intersection by a charter bus just two weeks ago (via the Tribune).

Image of Motorized Scooter being hit by Charter Bus (via Chicago Tribune)

(Hat tip: HS, MT and N!)

Bear Down with Kroll's Bearsmobile Tailgate this Sunday

Sponsored Post

ATTENTION BEARS FANS! 

Kroll's South Loop is excited to offer an incredible tailgate experience at the Bearsmobile this Sunday (9/23) before the Bears battle the St. Louis Rams.

Da Bearsmobile Tailgate will start four hours before the game and will include all you can eat and drink.

The menu for the tailgate includes some amazingly delicious options prepared by a professional chef -- Lobster, Dino Ribs, Porkchop Lollipops, Huge Turkey Legs and much more.  The tailgate will also have a bartender pouring top shelf liquor and beer.

And if that doesn't quench your thirst for football, food and drinks, after the Bears game you will have preferred access at Kroll's.

Spots are limited and will be reserved by cash or credit card on a first come first serve basis. Tickets are $50 per person. Please call for more details (312.235.1400).