Roscoe Village

I was just about to post a similar message. I am so proud of our city and police force after this weekend's NATO events. Clearly the preparation and execution was well thought out and led to a VERY controlled response to these out-of-towners looking to cause trouble. I am all for free speech and peaceful protesting, but when people who don't live here come with sinister intentions it will certainly lead to conflict that had to be shut down. I also agree that Garry McCarthy has done a wonderful job. Being on the ground with his officers sends a strong message and his calm, matter-of-fact demeanor when speaking with the media is right on. You have to give Rahm credit for picking him as well. GOOD JOB RAHM, GARRY and ALL THE OFFICERS. THANK YOU!

I think thAt if a car is coming across a stop sign intersection and a biker is at the stop sign also you are to obey the signals but if no vehicle are not present that will be find not to stop for a stop sign but you guys with an intersection full of cars waiting their turn to go you guys just zip pass and cut off drivers. I had a wheel chair on my bus one day and he couldn't believe how bikes would just even cut off CTA buses and large trucks and how dangerous it is. Please this summer just stay safe on your bikes please.

My boyfriend and I both have iphones with Verizon and live near Wrigley. Just Northeast. I have never had a problem and I live in a highrise. I have lots of friends that have iphones with AT&T and there are quite a few places where I get reception and they don't. On the flip side, my boyfriend works in the Sears Tower and doesn't get reception very well and his co-workers have AT&T iphone with no problems.

Overall, I wouldn't switch from Verizon. I've had then for years and have very few if any dropped calls. I've had windows, droid and iphone with them. Iphone is the best and they keep putting up more towers.

Not. One. Dime. For. The. Cubs.

I fully believe the full Ricketts clan knew what was up with these proposed ads. And it's emblematic of most of the 1% class that they begrudge and fight with all of their might any dime going to the lower classes while also expecting us to let them slide on taxes and give away the farm for the privilege of keeping their precious businesses in town. They can go to hell. If they can keep their crappy, urine-scented dump of a ballpark profitable on their own, it can collapse into a pile of brick for all I care.

The root of the problem is that honest, reasonable, rational people have to share a society with sociopaths of all income classes, cultures, races and political leanings. People who do not seem to care about anything but their immediate gratification. They are obsessed with themselves, and frankly don't care who pays.

This applies equally to someone who games the system to receive assistance, and to someone who signs off on financial instruments, that are so arcane no one can understand them as an investment, simply to ensure a bonus for that particular financial period.

Sadly, the media is complicit in maintaining this system, as they do nothing but highlight them, and their mockery of our social compact by constantly chattering about how clever, or cunning or ingenious their cons are. There is condemnation tempered with opinion pieces blaming their victims, or asking if playing to win is so really bad.

if you want to play to win, join a basketball team. Don't attempt to sabotage a financial system or abuse a social assistance program to your gain. But there are people who are simply incapable of caring about what damage they do to others. They are at the top, and at the bottom, on the left and on the right.

Greg I did not know that ..In that case the Liberals can censor any Conservative view just by the breadth of their numbers . What that tells me is that they don't want different views on this site ..Or someone didn't count on this thing being used to censor . I dont think the ones I had deleted ( on another thread ) were done from that . The two that were deleted had 6 and 5 thanks and only 1 no thank . It said they were deleted by a " Trusted Community Member "

That's a really good question, Bob. I've been uncomfortable with the automatic assignment of invisibility to a level of no thanking and find some threads don't make sense without the hidden posts. Though it's easy to reveal them, I think the invisibility can create preconceptions that affect how I read the post.

Not sure what EB is doing with the data from the thanks/no thanks binary (anyone know?) but the false dichotomy might skew any info collected. It's easy for participants to understand "thanks/no thanks" as "agree/disagree" or "like/dislike"—but the words actually mean something different and function differently as used in real life.

Online life doesn't necessarily have to replicate 'real life', of course, but I'd like a button for "Thanks for the input. I disagree but can we keep talking?" :)

@jeff f, I appreciate your post. You inadvertently made a point for me to which, I think, we can all agree; public participation is key. Pursuant to the Chicago Zoning Ordinance, public notice is required for any zoning variance, which is a zoning change for a particular property (ie Lycee Francais). Once an entire area is up-zoned, there is no mandate for public notice, given that the project fits the current zoning parameters. A builder would be able to build the maximum amount of units, to the maximum height, without any public input or scrutiny. Serving on the zoning advisory committee, I am sure you are well aware of the fact that a zoning variation, in and of itself, does not set a precedent. However, a complete zoning change would set a precedent. If this happens you will see a domino effect throughout the neighborhood. If you were truly concerned with public participation, you would be vehemently opposed to the up-zoning.

Everyone should remember that the downzoning (and upzoning) that happened city wide 10 years ago or so was intentional and meant to stop this repeated rezoning process. There was LOTS of public notice. Even if your alderman recently snuck a rezone through the system, you can challenge it (and win) if you can prove they didn't follow proper notification procedures.

If your building is larger than current zoning allows, you are lucky and your property is more valuable as result. You do not need to bring zoning in line with existing for any reason other than major changes to your building or new construction. Selling has no bearing on zoning either. If everyone needed to bring their building into compliance with the zoning it actually is, then the entire city would need to revert to what it was prior to the big rezoning event. If you want to dormer your house and it has no impact on the neighborhood, talk to your alderman about that and he/she can work with you on it.

That being said, if the neighborhood want to upzone/downzone on a block by block basis (not parcel by parcel) then with support of the block, it should be able to happen just fine with the proper reasons. And the proper reasons to change an entire block do not include reasons regarding individual parcel zoning issues.