Post-public meeting on the Logan Square public plaza

Tuesday’s public meeting about the current proposal for the Logan Square public plaza was well attended by the standards of most neighborhood community meetings; it was, in fact, standing room only by a large margin.  I’m not sure how many attendees actually live in Logan Square.  I know there was a large presence of local food movement types, but I’m not certain they were necessarily loca-resideres, to coin an awkward phase (so awkward I find it necessary to explain it’s a riff on the word “locavore”).  I just don’t know. 

August 17 Proposal
for Logan Square Public Plaza and Orchard

The meeting began

Public meeting August 17 re: Logan Square public plaza

There will be a public meeting regarding the concept of a public plaza to be located at 2546-2566 N. Milwaukee Avenue on Tuesday, August 17 at 6:00 p.m.  The meeting location is 2333 N. Milwaukee Avenue (Logan Square Kitchen).

Long-Standing Sign Announcing Future
Community Open Space on Milwaukee Ave.

Perhaps you’ve noticed the sign that’s been up forever quite a long time.  (Note that Arnold Randall is listed on the sign as the planning commissioner.  He left that post in January 2009 and has held two other jobs since then.  And the Department of Planning and Development is no longer.  It merged with other city departments to

Longman & al fresco

On Thursday, Longman & Eagle expanded its dining area to include outdoor seating on its Schubert Street side.  Chicago weather has cooperated this weekend to provide an enjoyable atmosphere for diners.

Sunday Brunch at Longman & Eagle
in Logan Square

I find it a bit odd that they chose to use the Schubert Street/residential side of their building.  Possibly more enjoyable for diners away from the Kedzie Avenue and bus traffic, but a potential conflict with the residents on Schubert.  On Kedzie Avenue, though, it would have had an agglomeration effect:  the potential to enhance and benefit from further enlivening that strip with the other outdoor dining options.  What do you think?

Sensory perception:

Across the street from Longman & Eagle, beautiful iris grow in a beautiful parkway garden on Schubert St.

Fertile fields of Milwaukee Avenue?

Should a tree an orchard grow in Brooklyn on Milwaukee Avenue?  That’s the proposal of the Chicago Rarities Orchard Project (C.R.O.P.), supported by a group called The Empirical Opera, to place a rare-fruit orchard on the portion of Milwaukee Avenue south of Logan Square proper that is currently planned for a plaza to accommodate the Logan Square Farmers Market.

I’m not in favor of it for an extension of the concern I stated about what the community and What the real estate experts may not know [Correction:  see Open space and Milwaukee Avenue [Part I])]: The open space between Milwaukee and Kedzie Avenues (as desolate as it may be) and the Paseo Prairie Garden at the Logan Square “el” stop, the square itself, and the planned plaza south of

Gifts make the neighborhood

“Gifts Make the Tribe”

That’s a subtitle from the chapter, “The Powerful Culture of Gifts,” in Seth Godin’s Linchpin:  Are You Indispensable?, the book I’m currently reading. 

And by gift, he means art as he defines it:

Art is a personal gift that changes the recipient.

An artist is an individual who creates art.  The more people you change, the more you change them, the more effective your art is.

In the chapter mentioned, he explains the benefit of usury laws (stay with me; there’s a point):

If I give you some money to buy seeds, your farm flourishes, and now we both have money to give to someone else to invest.  The faster the money circulates, the better the tribe does.

One reason that art has so much power is that it represents

Open space and Milwaukee Avenue (Part I)

One of the interesting things that came out of the Milwaukee Avenue Corridor Development Initiative, is the desire for open space.  Every single development scenario, not just the four I’ve featured here (see Scenario 1, Scenario 2, Scenario 3, Scenario 4), included open space of some sort.

Commenting on the imagined development scenarios in the last workshop of the series, the real estate experts did not necessarily agree, either stating that open space was not appropriate on Milwaukee Avenue or that there was already adequate open space in the area.

So who’s “right,” the community or the real estate experts? How about both?

What the community may not know

What many of the community volunteers didn’t know was what open space was already planned for Milwaukee Avenue, and perhaps they didn’t consider what already exists or the potential of what already exists.

The 2004 Logan Square Open Space Plan calls for a plaza

Spotlight on Logan Square Farmers Market

Last week, ABC7’s Hungry Hound focused on some of the prepared food and meal-making and meal-enjoying opportunities at the Logan Square Farmers Market (video below–sorry, ad embedded):

Vodpod videos no longer available.

But, not to be out-shined by the prepared food vendors, a video of some of the farmers recently surfaced as well (video below) that not only spotlights the farmers, but is highly complimentary of the Logan