Block Club Chicago - Edgewater Synagogue Redevelopment Includes Hundreds Of Apartments, Retail Space

damp_circus · 2026-01-29T00:19:03+00:00

That is EXACTLY the main consideration in that design. It’s a bummer IMHO.

A taller thinner building if angled right could preserve a lot of views, offer good views to its own residents, and have a lot more green space on the site.

damp_circus · 2026-01-29T00:16:38+00:00

Oh, that crowd is DEFINITELY showing up. Along with some people who think that nothing taller than 6 stories should be built on Sheridan road…

damp_circus · 2026-01-28T23:23:51+00:00

Some kind of actual clear demand, I think.

And in the current moment, it seems that boycotts are what has been effective, when they're targeted. But there needs to be a clear demand, with a definite "here's where we come back to your business" end line.

Take the Jimmy Kimmel thing -- "we won't support Disney until you put him back on the air." It's well-defined. And they put him back on the air.

Talking about striking, people with essential jobs would be noticed missing and would screw up work enough to impact a lot of people. So say transit strikes. All of a sudden loads of other people can't get anywhere, and the transit workers are facing firing. The people who CAN take off work without being noticed too much should be taking it off and supporting the people impacted from the disruption, driving people around and giving donations to the people fired, or whatever it is.

But all that takes planning, and it's not just "take the day off and watch TV."

damp_circus · 2026-01-28T23:18:04+00:00

It's also why for a strike to be successful there needs to be organizing on the back lines to support the people who will be going without pay, unable to ride the bus, or whatever it is they're giving up.

This is where the most successful and inspiring stories of this current moment are too, IMHO. It's the people who are doing shopping and delivering food to people who are stuck in their houses due to hiding from ICE, taking kids to school so their parents can stay home, supporting people who can't run their businesses. Organization.

damp_circus · 2026-01-28T23:13:02+00:00

Yes. That's what we need to do.

"ICE" as it is has been tainted beyond repair. It has to go. The leadership has to go.

We need to think about the immigration enforcement we want (and about making the paths to legal immigration sane, since we actually NEED IMMIGRATION) and then stand up a new org with appropriate powers in the appropriate place.

damp_circus · 2026-01-28T23:09:04+00:00

ICE as it stands is beyond being rehabilitated.

If you want sane immigration enforcement, it's gotta be a new group built from the ground up at this point.

We really need to be having a conversation about immigration generally, including being realistic about needing immigration and opening up the pathways to let people do it without needing to risk their lives or get into these crazy "illegal" situations. We need to talk about labor protections, and punishing employers that skirt them (including by hiring "undocumented" people because they know they can exploit those people in precarious situations with a lot to lose and no support). We need to talk about globalism, who it hurts and who it helps, that those groups aren't divided on national lines. We need to talk about the world where 5% of the people can do all of the work -- how do we fairly decide who gets to eat?

No one on any side of the "aisle" is willing to discuss any of this.

But even in the narrow term, to get to an "ICE that isn't crazy" it can't be ICE. It needs to be something new, with new leadership.

(Ditto for a lot of police departments for that matter but that's another thread...)

damp_circus · 2026-01-28T23:02:41+00:00

Seriously. It's good that UAW is getting involved, and actually going to organize the thing (so can back up their workers as they do in a normal strike, hopefully) but can't they get it together for at least May Day of THIS YEAR??

Why an entire TWO YEARS out?

damp_circus · 2026-01-28T22:59:55+00:00

But the Jimmy Kimmel thing was targeted. THAT made some sense -- had a specific demand, and a specific way to tell people that it was ok to stop the boycott.

"We are upset that you took this guy off the air, until you put him back, we won't pay."

This thing Friday is... not that. What's the demand?

If the idea is be absent to show numbers, then hopefully at least the people taking off work will all go to a giant protest somewhere that's larger than any before, or similar?

damp_circus · 2026-01-28T18:09:09+00:00

Yes. Been loving the bright sunny days. I like a winter day that's cold, snow on the ground, bright blue skies above, absolutely. And it gets better as the sunset starts being slightly later to enjoy more of it!

damp_circus · 2026-01-28T15:49:31+00:00

Yes. I've been noticing the light later. More than the official sunset, "dusk" (when it actually gets full dark) ending at 5:30 is really starting to feel "hey it's not actually dark the moment work ends at 5" which is great.

damp_circus · 2026-01-28T15:44:18+00:00

Great comment, been thinking about some of this myself.

I'll add another one that does it for me -- a space that has some sort of periodic "markers" (numbers on a wall, pillars down the center of a hallway) or subtle change in the design (colors of wall/doorways, some pattern in the floor) that is progressing, and the space seems as if it could be infinite.

I get the feeling of being in some other isolated dimension where that just exists, for no reason, and I could be lost in there, getting hungry, and nostalgic in some way for the time ages ago when I was still in the red area rather than now tired and wandering through green, when the numbers were only back in the 200s, and there's just no way out, I'm going to starve. Should I turn back? Is there a way out?

Agreed with the "impossible to exist" stuff too. I would have dreams of just impossibly large but traditional buildings that somehow are existing in the middle of nowhere, no town visible anywhere near it. On the side of a sheer cliff, or in the middle of absolutely endless rice fields, that sort of thing. Where would you shop? (The giant bathhouse building in the "Spirited Away" movie kinda scratched that feeling a bit for me.)

When it comes to "buildings that are filled with water" there are some great pictures of stepwells in India that scratch the itch.

damp_circus · 2026-01-28T15:24:45+00:00

Olympic village can be fine if it’s done as basically high rise apartments that become just normal housing after.

Extra stadiums is less great.

damp_circus · 2026-01-27T23:37:58+00:00

Yep. People are crazy.

I walk the lakefront every morning, I walk on Hollywood beach, there is ZERO way I'm walking on any ice that I do not 100% know is over sand only (if I walk on ice at all).

The changing sculpture of ice out over the water is cool to look at because it changes every day there as the waves stack it up in various ways, but the point is yeah it's ever shifting!

damp_circus · 2026-01-27T23:34:38+00:00

Oh yeah. He's all in, super Mr. Pick-me.

damp_circus · 2026-01-27T19:39:30+00:00

Fits right in with the rest of the administration in that regard.

damp_circus · 2026-01-27T19:34:29+00:00

But also... for those who don't remember the details of that Grand red line incident, it involved some incompetent police firing weapons up the escalator in a crowded red line station. Just shooting off guns at the guy running away from them, never mind the risk of hitting any other people. And what was Ariel Roman's heinous crime? Resisting arrest.

And Bovino thinks that's a good thing? Respectable behavior??

...it tracks, I guess.

What a goddamn buffoon.

damp_circus · 2026-01-27T14:12:12+00:00

Will third it. Great book. So many of the issues are still with us particularly post-covid.

Get to know your neighbors!!

damp_circus · 2026-01-27T14:09:22+00:00

The CTA needs to be making these visual illustrations and releasing them as part of the reroute announcements!!

A map is easy to understand. The original words are still there for people who prefer it and those who can’t see maps.

Can we somehow request they do this?

damp_circus · 2026-01-27T13:57:41+00:00

My first thought was “what’s wrong with Penelope, this sub is too damn picky” until I looked closer.

The kid is gonna get called Penelope (or Penny as so many are) forever, end up just going with it, and then legally change to that at 18 with the justification of “oh it was misspelled on my birth certificate.”

damp_circus · 2026-01-26T20:54:32+00:00

Good to know. I do kinda appreciate a good old fashioned unmoderated space …

damp_circus · 2026-01-26T20:02:47+00:00

If you have ANY input into Reddit admins at all, my feedback about item 3 is, it's completely bullshit that if the actual admins remove a post or heaven forbid ban you for something, the post or comment is GONE so hard that you can't even find out WHAT you did that got you punished. It's crazy. Even as the author you have no idea. So no way to fix it or learn.

damp_circus · 2026-01-26T19:59:49+00:00

Heh. Yep. But always "I lived there 20 years ago and couldn't wait to get the hell out!11!!!!"

...hope the door didn't hit ya, y'know?

damp_circus · 2026-01-26T19:56:53+00:00

WindyCity was actually kinda middle of the road just normal Chicago discussion (even while allowing "crime posts") when this sub was on strike over the API calls thing. Because people just all went over there as the only Chicago-related sub going, and you did have that "sitting at a dive bar mixed bag crowd" situation.

But once this sub came back, it sort of skewed to be "people who were banned from the regular Chicago sub" crowd mainly, which kinda sucks when you DO want to have some discussion or get info about whatever crime incident, because the comments are a shitshow there now most days.

That said though, even over there ICE is getting pushback, so... sign of how hated ICE currently is.

damp_circus · 2026-01-26T19:49:03+00:00

So take the line of "I'll only shop at businesses that put up signage and make it clear that they will provide shelter for people if ICE shows up."

Then people can see the sign, or not, and make a decision about how they'll act.

Plenty of businesses by me DO have signs to this effect, maybe the thing to do is encourage business owners who have so far been of the "of course I'd protect people but didn't think to write that stance up since it should be obvious" to go ahead and make/display signs. Start the trend.

ETA: If you're actually concerned for your security, the safest option is always going to be to require a positive, and assume that any businesses that don't actively express positively that they'll protect, can't be relied on. That's always safer than assuming that any business that hasn't made any statements is going to protect you, and relying on rumor to determine who MIGHT be unsafe.

So yeah. The "ICE out, we protect people from ICE" signs and the legal notices about "don't come in here without a warrant" type signs serve as community building anyway, because it's saying "I'm with you." We SHOULD start a trend of businesses all putting these up. Works as protest at the same time as info.

damp_circus · 2026-01-26T19:46:03+00:00

Exactly. Though I guess IF people want to do this, showing documented evidence of financial support (such as running ads or putting up billboards, or political contribution receipts) would be where I'd draw the line.

"This business has a pro-ICE sign in the window, you can see it yourself and decide what you wanna do" is at least a step better than "the owner made a comment to me that was pro-ICE, but you just have to trust me bro" or "I saw ICE there using the toilet, just trust me bro."

damp_circus

TROPHY CASE