Katrina Redux?

Its amazing that New Orleans is once again under threat from a Category 4+ hurricane. Hopefully Hurricane Gustav veers away from NOLA, but right now its right in the path of the storm. Mandatory evacuations will probably begin tomorrow, and so far, it seems like the city is much better prepared than last time.


The idea of evacuating an entire metro area seems almost inconceivably complex. I can't imagine something like that happening here in Chicago, short of a nuclear holocaust. Luckily, here in the Midwest, we're pretty insulated from major natural catastrophes. With worsening global warming, we should probably get used to more frequent natural calamities, I suppose.

Dreaming...

So, whenever I have some spare time, my mind naturally drifts towards fantasies...of Chicago transit system expansions. If we lived in a country that valued public transit, a lot of these expansions would have already been built. But since we live in America, transit falls into disrepair while brand new freeways are built in greenfields.

Chicago is blessed with an extensive network of railroad right-of-ways, many of which are abandoned and not in use. These ROWs could be utilized to built rail transit lines without requiring expensive property acquisition or destruction of existing neighborhoods.

Here's a couple other dreamers and their plans for CTA rail expansion.

http://www.gapersblock.com/detour/a_cta_map_for_2055/
This is a quite extensive proposal adding six new lines or extensions. Never going to happen, but its nice to think big. One can always hope.

http://community.livejournal.com/chicago_el/492948.html
This proposal is basically the Mid-City Transitway which is a real proposal currently undergoing analysis. It forms a circle/circumferential line which links up with the existing radial lines. It follows an existing ROW so construction costs would be relatively cheap.

http://www.Grayline.20m.com
This proposal involves conversion of an existing commuter rail line to a CTA-style rapid transit rail line. All the infrastructure is essentially already in place. It simply requires cooperation between the CTA and Metra. (Easier said than done.)

Perhaps if Chicago is awarded the 2016 Olympics and/or Obama wins the presidency, additional funds will be found to expand CTA service.

Public Access TV Stuff

Apparently our city manager, Tom Barwin, decided to look for greener pastures after only one year in Oak Park. He interviewed in Boulder, CO for the city manager position there. He ended up not being chosen for the position, although he did come in second place. Everything I've read and seen about Barwin has impressed me, so I'm happy that he's staying for a little while longer at least.

While reading up on this story, I found it interesting that Boulder, CO public access tv is available live on-line (www.boulderchannel8.com). I'm not sure how much work it would take to put Oak Park TV on-line, but it seems like something worthwhile to do.

End of White Flight?

There's an interesting article in the latest New Republic that uses Chicago as a central example. It's more data that shows the revitalization of centralv cities and their increasing desirability to affluent (predominantly) white families. The American model of poor in the center and wealthy on the periphery is gradually reorienting itself towards the European model which is the opposite. I've personally noticed the changing demographics of Chicago in my time living here since 1992. Taking this trend to the extreme, you have the possibility of slums migrating to the exurbs.

Now, its doubtful that, even over the long run, all the suburbs will go into terminal decline. For one thing, Chicago is blessed with a good radial transit system that allows people to live far from the central city and still commute into the central business district relatively easily. It also allows people like me to do the reverse commute from the city (and inner burbs) out to the outer suburbs. Still, the revitalization of Chicago is a trend I'm happy to see, and it'll be very interesting to watch the progress over the next few decades.

Shipping Costs Threaten Globalization

New York Times, August 3rd, 2008

Interesting article in the New York Times today regarding changes in globalization trends as a result of high transportation costs. This is something I started thinking about last year as gas prices started to increase. When your business plan depends on low fuel costs which allow you to have raw materials and finished goods shipped all the way across the world, what happens when low fuel costs no longer exist?

From a local perspective, this may allow a resurgence of local manufacturing and production, which could be good for the Chicago region, especially given Chicago's central role in the US rail network. The Midwest, as a whole, may lose a little bit of the rust in its belt.

Obviously, the downside is that it'll be more expensive for exporters based here to ship goods overseas. It'll take several years before we see how this trend pans out.

Summer in the City

It's the beginning of August, and psychologically at least, it feels like the halfway point of summer. We've been so busy with guests and traveling that it's been the rare weekend where we've been free to do typical Chicago summer activities.

I've been meaning to take Julia to the Lincoln Park Zoo and the Chicago Children's Museum which are both located along the beautiful lakefront, which we don't get to see nearly often enough. We have been to the Shedd Aquarium twice already, and Julia loved seeing the big jumping "fishies." Also on our list to visit are the Indiana Dunes, which are sand dunes along Lake Michigan as tall as multi-story buildings. There's probably a few more lakefront attractions that I forget which are worth a summertime visit.

I think Julia is still too young to enjoy the urban attractions I favor (architecture, historical stuff, tall buildings) so that'll have to wait a year or more before she can accompany me on my urban adventures. Someday I'll take her on the El (elevated train) to Wrigley Field for a Cubs game. I'm actually a bit curious to see if she becomes a big Cubs fan like most of the people here, or ends up indifferent like her parents.




Photo by Flickr user Luiz Castro used under a Creative Commons license