I have to admit that the el trains and subways are pretty darned handy. I’ve logged a whole lot of hours on them and life around here would be awfully restricted without them. However, they can be a bit threatening. When you first enter the system, you are required to wait for a number of minutes on an elevated or underground platform. You never know who or how many people will be waiting there with you.
Continue reading Riding The “El” Trains
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If you don’t know your way around Chicago, you can easily stumble into the wrong areas without realizing it. The one warning I received before moving here was to stay away from Cabrini Green at all costs. That’s still good advice. This is an area just West of Wells Street running North of Chicago Avenue. It was designed to be low-income housing, but later degenerated into an area marked with drugs, gangs and violence. Another area I have been told to watch out for is Morse Street near the Lake. “If you don’t like the weather here, just wait 30 minutes.” I don’t know how many times I have heard that living here in Chicago. Another person told me, “we go straight from the freezer into the microwave”. Fact of the matter is, each saying is true. The weather here can change at the drop of a hat and you need to be prepared. The climate in Chicago includes just about everything: sun, rain, fog, tornadoes, flooding, lightning strikes, blizzards and especially extremes in temperature. During the Winter, you can feel the -70 degree wind chill as it bites you crossing the Michigan Avenue bridge. In the Summer, we can have a week’s worth of 100+ degree days. Several years ago, a number of people throughout Chicago died from an intense heat wave.  River North – River North is pretty much devoted to great restaurants and bars. And they come in all shapes, sizes and kinds. Something for absolutely everyone. Hard Rock Cafe, Planet Hollywood, Ed Debevics, Michael Jordan’s and the Rock and Roll McDonalds (world’s busiest McDonalds) for tourists. Excalibur, Club 720 and Polly Esthers for gen-X / youth culture / college-minded drinkers and dancers. Magnums, Lawry’s, Shaw’s and The Butcher Shop for the steak and seafood crowd.  Streeterville, named after an early settler on this land, is for the most part a pretty low-key area. In it you will find such things as the Northwestern Memorial Hospital complex, a major police station, McClurg Court movie theaters, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the local NBC and CBS television studios, a variety of smaller hotels and several nice, yet trendy hangouts such as Avanzare, Bice and The Gold Star Sardine Bar. However, for the tourists, there is one small section on Illinois just for you.  Grant Park is a large area of grass and trees directly East of the Loop and a little South of the Chicago River running along the lakeshore. At it’s Southern end are The Field Museum,  The Chicago River is a “Y” shaped body of water that runs down the center of Chicago and is fed by Lake Michigan. As you might guess, this is where Chicago was founded. Fort Dearborn, an early settlement, was built on what is now the South end of the Michigan Avenue bridge. If you take a look at the various bridges that cross the river, you will notice that they are all drawbridges. These drawbridges are all functional and typically are raised and lowered a number of times each week. During the warmer months, sailboats pass down the river to get to the lake on Sundays around Noon, causing all the bridges to be put up in succession. On Saint Patrick’s Day they dye the river a bright fluorescent green. (That might explain it’s odd green coloration the rest of the year!)
 West Loop and Printer’s Row are basically extensions of the Loop, except that one crosses the Chicago River and the other Congress Avenue. Close in, the West Loop contains the two major train stations, Union Station and Northwestern Station, where you can catch most of the commuter trains to the other suburbs and Amtrak trains to other cities. Continue reading West Loop and Printer’s Row  The Loop is the central financial area for downtown Chicago. It contains the Board of Trade and various major banks. It has a few large hotels such as the Palmer House and Hilton Towers and is comparatively sparse on restaurants and night spots. Most places to eat cater either to quick lunches for business people or the tastes of older professionals. |
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