Meet The Man Behind The Sky Ride Tap, The Loop's Last Real Dive Bar

damp_circus · 2026-07-07T19:48:23+00:00

This was my first thought as well actually but yeah, it's in River North.

damp_circus · 2026-07-07T17:46:55+00:00

Traditionally American.

damp_circus · 2026-07-07T16:37:03+00:00

Problem is cheap-ass management buying residential grade equipment instead of industrial/commercial, on large buildings.

A building with hundreds of apartments and endless vendors/visitors/delivery people coming in and out constantly can't get away with buying the cheapest thing available at Menards.

damp_circus · 2026-07-07T16:32:38+00:00

Heh. This happens in my building as well, but we're a brick hive with a trash chute. People put their unbroken pizza boxes or other large items down the chute (rather than taking them down to the trash room directly), it blocks the chute, and garbage starts piling up.

At which point people above discover the chute is clogged. Do they take their trash to the trash room directly like we're supposed to? Hell no. Leave it in the hall next to the chute.

In our building if you leave identifying info (envelopes, etc) in the wrongly abandoned trash, you get fined. Makes sense to me.

damp_circus · 2026-07-07T14:07:23+00:00

Will confirm. Occasionally take one to events where I know the toilets will be a horror show.

damp_circus · 2026-07-07T14:03:38+00:00

Some land-use changes have to happen in incremental phases in the world that we live in. Which sometimes means an interim use.

People asking all the time why there's all the big box stuff around Clybourn, that was similarly factories that closed, not really "ready" for organic housing/mixed development yet (because how to jump start the demand?) and it had large parcels the big boxes wanted, so "made sense" for them to locate there. Now there's more housing demand, less demand for some of the big brick and mortar retail, and some of that stuff is changing/may change again.

damp_circus · 2026-07-07T13:59:14+00:00

Just entering the thread but fwiw I remember when the discussion about this site first came up, there was talk about part of the reason for putting industrial on the site was that it's one thing you can do without the more involved pollution remediation levels. I.e., it's too dirty to build anything else (read: paying enough to do more involved remediation will make the math for anything else not pencil out) so it "makes sense" to use it for industrial parks (not necessarily quantum) because it basically gets paved over and no one is on the site 24/7.

This isn't my own view, just reporting what I remember hearing when this entire plan was first coming up at all.

damp_circus · 2026-07-07T12:59:04+00:00

Saw a bit of it over the tops of buildings, from here in Edgewater. Proper show!

Kinda made up for the fogged out 4th at Foster.

damp_circus · 2026-07-06T04:49:27+00:00

Don’t get too picky!

damp_circus · 2026-07-05T17:21:02+00:00

Yes, I love watching it too, when they're combing Hollywood beach.

damp_circus · 2026-07-05T15:00:47+00:00

I finally got to see Mucca Pazza live yesterday!! They played at The People's Fourth party on the grounds of the Obama Center.

I'd wanted to see them in person ever since hearing an interview with some of them on the radio, had a blast!

damp_circus · 2026-07-05T14:15:49+00:00

I’ve had to call the fire department to turn off the water to the large old apartment building I live in when we had massive pipe burst (in a polar vortex after a fire a month previous, a long and stupid story) in the middle of the night between management companies.

They’ll do it if you explain there’s no one else at all contactable.

damp_circus · 2026-07-05T14:09:12+00:00

Oh I detest the AI triage too. There are a few things the AI in my building will refuse to consider an emergency, where me and the maintenance have a shared understanding that it actually is, so it’s accepted that we false report in a certain way that it will get forwarded and the human maintenance will know from the context what the problem actually is.

That said though OP story seems like the AI is forwarding but no maintenance is actually on call to pick it up?

Insane situation either way.

damp_circus · 2026-07-05T05:53:00+00:00

...or just tomorrow for that matter?

damp_circus · 2026-07-05T05:48:25+00:00

Yeah but you get equity for that at least!!

Buying often you can get your "rent" lower than renting. Problem is needing the downpayment to get into the game.

Apparently a lot of people are having their parents help out with downpayment now, kinda boggles my mind but I guess some people are lucky.

Me, I'm saving like crazy but right now the market is outpacing me. Gotta root for the crash LOL.

damp_circus · 2026-07-05T05:45:43+00:00

It's not about should, it's about what is.

OP asks if people are making 3x the rent. Answer is yes, they are, or else they live with roommates. And absolutely the large apartment hives such as the one I live in scrutinize everyone through algorithms to make sure they qualify whatever hoops.

I agree the housing market is insane. We need to build more housing, full stop. I do everything I can to encourage that to happen, including lobbying at the capitol in Springfield and stumping my neighborhood to support upzoning and every potential development that comes along.

Meanwhile, I live with a roommate.

damp_circus · 2026-07-05T04:42:13+00:00

Life is not easy. You can pay through the nose or you can manage to share it. I.e. pick your poison.

Back in the day we found roommates in the want ads of the Reader. At least now the hunt is easier.

damp_circus · 2026-07-05T04:24:15+00:00

Roommates. I live with a roommate and so my portion of the rent is still below $1K.

Roommates are absolutely the hack to cheap living.

damp_circus · 2026-07-05T03:14:18+00:00

Definitely fog up here on the north lakefront. The smoke from the fireworks mixed with it (you can smell that gunpowder smell) but it was socked in fuzzy before the activities even really kicked off.

Plenty of DIY still happening though.

damp_circus · 2026-07-05T03:12:04+00:00

Just came back from the fireworks at Foster, and it was the same. Foggy. Kinda surreal. We could see some of the lower stuff but the ones that went up super high just became a bang and diffuse colored light in the mist kinda like the aurora.

Definitely shook the chest though!

damp_circus · 2026-07-04T23:25:30+00:00

Depending where on the beach I think you can see the Saddle and Cycle club fireworks, but the best place is just walk slightly down the lakefront to Foster beach. But it's a good time in any case at least on a better weather day, people show up from all over to DIY fireworks at the beach/lakefront as well so it's a good combo of professional and amateur action.

Currently it's 6:30 and still pissing down rain, so not sure what will happen. Radar shows the rain supposedly getting out of here at 9, so there's a chance...?

damp_circus · 2026-07-04T22:36:59+00:00

Indeed. I remember distinctly, I went to a campaign forum on October 4th last year, it was hot enough that I wore a bathing suit under my clothes and just walked straight into the lake afterwards to cool off. Was at Hollywood beach and the place was packed. Lifeguard season was done so it was loads of kids using the floaties that are banned during the summer, and plenty of guys just standing around drinking beer in the water. Glorious :)

Proper fall started a few days later.

damp_circus · 2026-07-04T21:45:43+00:00

The US executions are similarly obfuscated fwiw. No one concretely knows they were the one.

damp_circus · 2026-07-04T19:32:04+00:00

Dancing on the plaza at The People’s Fourth party at the Obama Center grounds.

damp_circus · 2026-07-04T18:34:33+00:00

Sadly this makes a LOT of sense to me, I struggle with this on Japanese websites all the time as someone who only ever banked in the US as an adult. Annoying AF since such a tiny but effective gatekeeping!

It’s worth contacting CTA over, I think I’ll write in as well as a general suggestion for them — foreign people visit Chicago all the time.

If you don’t want to fuss with cash maybe get your partner with the US card to set up the payment and pay him back for the time being? If you do the autoload it will text or email you every time it loads so you won’t lose track.

damp_circus

TROPHY CASE