DEFUNCTSITE

What we have to look forward to if Chicago gets the 2016 Olympics:

“…in what is claimed to be part of an urban beautification plan for the Olympics, Chinese officials in Beijing have taken now to walling off parts of the city that could not be ‘razed and remade’ in time, and where mostly migrant families and poor communities struggle to survive in a shabby commercial part of town that has so far managed to avoid the claw of redevelopment.”

(From Subtopia, a “Military Urbanism” blog–read the rest of the post HERE.)

Reading that, I was reminded of something I saw in Boss, Mike Royko’s biography of the late Mayor Richard J. Daley, that describes preparations the Mayor made for the 1968 Democratic Convention–specifically, the “wooden fences (Daley) had erected along the route from the Loop to the Amphitheatre to conceal unsightly buildings and the rubble of empty lots.”

I’m just sayin’…

Until I think of something to write about, or at least remember why I started this blog in the first place, feel free to examine a few recent images of uncelebrated Chicago buildings that I doubt anyone else will ever bother to photograph.

This area of East Pilsen has been photographed and photoblogged to death, but for a good reason: it’s one of the few places near downtown where you can still see and feel Chicago’s industrial roots…

A factory on the west side of Chicago where spring is manufactured.

As I rode back up California Boulevard a squad car pulled up behind me and sounded the siren, while another squad car parked in front of me. I’ve been pulled over by the police before, but never while riding a bicycle. The officers got out of their cars and started barking questions: why were you taking photos of that building? OK, but why THAT building?…