Gapers Block published from April 22, 2003 to Jan. 1, 2016. The site will remain up in archive form. Please visit Third Coast Review, a new site by several GB alumni. ✶ Thank you for your readership and contributions. ✶
WBBM coverage of a shooting in late June on the South Side is getting some warranted criticism for airing what seemed like a brief interview with a four-year-old boy about the incident. When asked what he would do to respond to area violence, the boy emphatically said "I'm going to have me a gun!"; then-anchor Steve Bartelstein remarked how "scary" the boy's comment was; what was intentionally left out of the footage was that the kid later said he wanted the gun because of his goal to become a police officer.
Recent storms have caused havoc for the Chicago River tour and water taxi services. Many were unable to operate this morning because of high water, but others were unable to work yesterday because of low water caused by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers measures.
Under a new ordinance passed yesterday by the city council, children under the age of 12 now have an earlier curfew that requires them to be home by 8:30 pm on weekdays, 9 pm on Friday and Saturday nights.
A library in West Humboldt Park became the first public building to be named after Richard M. Daley, with both the former and current mayor in attendance at yesterday's dedication ceremony.
Congressman Joe Walsh, a Tea Party member who represents the northwest suburbs, allegedly owes more than $100,000 in back child support payments, according to a lawsuit filed by his ex-wife.
Amazon is creeping into Groupon's backyard: AmazonLocal -- basically a reskinning of LivingSocial, which the company part-owns -- quietly launched this week in Chicago.
Freshman alderman Amaya Pawar (47th) made good on his campaign promise to reduce his salary from the standard $108,000 to just $60,000. Meanwhile, his chief of staff is one of the best paid in the city.
From Studio Sweet Studio comes The City Scout, a stylish set recommendations of places to check out in Chicago (and soon Brooklyn) from local creative types.
There are only seven available jobs currently posted at the city's human resources site, and nearly 10% [pdf] unemployed in the metropolitan area. Happy Thursday?
In Mechanics, Monica Reida explains some of the intricacies of getting a student into the CPS school of your choice, and why Mayor Emanuel might have picked a private one.
Manero, a new lifestyle blog from Urban Daddy and Heineken, aims to be your guide to the Latino side of Chicago. A few words in Spanish here and there might add some flair, but Gozamos has been around for a year doing the same thing without a tinge of condescendencia.
Eleven post offices may close in the latest round of proposed cutbacks from the USPS. All of them are on the South and West sides except for one in the West Loop.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez was arrested yesterday afternoon outside the White House. He was seen sitting on a curb with others to protest the more than one million people who have been deported since President Obama took office. This wasn't the first time he's been arrested related to immigration reform.
Chicago jazz legend Von Freeman will be awarded the NEA Jazz Masters Award this winter, but he'll be celebrated here this Thursday with a tribute concert at the Pritzker Pavilion.
A cyclist named Carly was involved in a hit-and-run accident with a Nissan 350z this morning at Milwaukee and Ogden, and has set up a site to collect information about the fleeing driver. (Seems like this could be a service, as often as it happens...)
Chicago officially completed its first protected bicycle lane on Kinzie Street between Milwaukee and Wells on Monday. The lane separates cyclist traffic from vehicle traffic by using flexible posts and painted pavement signals; read about early reactions to the lane in Tailgate. Next continuation plans are expected for Jackson Street between Halsted Street and Damen Avenue.
Jonathan Gitelson moved to Vermont awhile back to teach, but his latest artwork is about his commute to and from work here in Chicago. Oddly enough, it'll be showing at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art this fall.
Cheer on U.S. Womens Soccer Team members Hope Solo, Abby Wambach and Alex Morgan on October 9 as they run the Chicago Marathon as part of a charity team.
An alleged kidnapper threw the infant he was carrying at the cops chasing him down. One of the officers managed to catch the baby before it hit the ground.
Chicago retained the US Air Guitar championship belt Saturday, as Nordic Thunder won the finals Saturday at the Metro. Read all about it in Transmission, and catch him on "Lopez Tonight" Tuesday.
The A.V. Club's Pop Pilgrims series visits the many filming locations of the Blues Brothers movie, and gets the background story on the havoc that the film happily wreaked on the city.
Gis.to, the startup formerly known as Gistrr, is using Kickstarter to raise money to pay for well-written abstracts on a variety of topics. It's just one of many projects on Gapers Block's curated Kickstarter page.
Parking your car, that is--Logan Square alderman Rey Colon was able to introduce and successfully pass a new ordinance that allows for free parking along Kedzie and Logan Boulevards for up to 16 hours each day that will go into effect in the coming weeks. Residents aren't happy.
Groupon and CPS have teamed up to offer a "Kits for Kidz" deal tomorrow through Thursday -- buy it for $12 and provide a needy student with school supplies. (Related, from 2005.)
The Music Box Theatre kicks off a summer music film festival this evening with screenings of Martin Scorsese's documentary The Last Waltz, and the Radiohead doc Meeting People Is Easy. The festival runs through this week, and also includes the latest Sound Opinions music film screening, Jonathan Demme's Talking Heads performance film Stop Making Sense.Details in Slowdown, or see the Music Box Website.
Art Barcs is a novel way to share your art with the world: through QR codes that provide additional information about a work on display. (Thanks, Elizabeth!)
WalkScore.com has ranked the "walkability" of thousands of U.S. cities. Out of the 50 largest cities, Chicago comes in 4th. The most walkable Chicago neighborhood? Printers Row.
The British developer who purchased the Old Post Office Building announced a high-flying proposal for the property, including a 2,000-foot skyscraper that would become the city's tallest. David Greising calls it a pipe dream, and Lee Bey wonders where the money is.
The League of Courteous Cyclists, that is. Today's the last day to pre-order a discounted t-shirt designed by local artist (and cyclist) SarahBecan promoting bike etiquette. (We interviewed Sarah in Bookclub last year.)
Last summer, UIC Electronic Visualization Laboratory grad student Arthur Nishimoto created Fleet Commander, a Star Wars video game that's played on a wide-screen multitouch display. He's currently working on a TRON game. [via]
GQ couldn't be bothered to get a fresh photo for their "Worst-Dressed Cities in America" feature linkbait, so they ran with an image of a 15-year-old SNL skit while declaring us fourth worst, in between Manhattan and Pittsburgh. LA is number 2.
Here's a reason to be thankful for peer pressure, the A.V. Club is putting together a music festival this summer simply because everyone else is. The few confirmed bands, including The Archers of Loaf, make for a promising start.
Tavi Gevinson, the teen fashion blogger behind Thestylerookie.com, is shopping a book. The proposal for "Diary" suggests "the book will be one part make-your-own scrapbook, one part feminist manifesto for girls and one part celebrity memento collage."
Michelle Obama held a joint press conference this week with reps from Supervalu and WalMart to announce that to be good, (cough) profit-earning guys, the retailers will open new stores in underserved neighborhoods in the next five years. Walgreens will also add more produce and healthy foods for sale at 1,000 more stores, as they've already done.
The City turned its curbside recycling program into a three-way competition, with two private firms going up against Streets & San trucks. The plan is to expand recycling to more neighborhoods in six months.
Governor Quinn is saying he will fulfill the wager he made in January with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker before the start of the next football season. Hopefully he's assuming the lockout will be over by the start of the 2011 season.
A former commodities broker from New York had several members of the Chicago-based National Futures Association on his hit list, according to federal prosecutors.
"101.1 FM New" debuted on WKQX this morning, and it sounds a lot like the pre-1993 Q101 -- Murphy in the Morning and pop hits from today and yesterday (mostly yesterday). This is an interim setup while Merlin Media readies its news programming; more details on Chicagoland Radio & Media.
The Affinia Hotel has a rather unique room available for just $10,000 a night: "The Inside-Out Suite" on the 29th floor -- essentially the C-View bar turned into your private outdoor penthouse for the night.
Even if you didn't make it to Pitchfork this weekend, you might want to check out our coverage in Transmission -- we'll have reviews, interviews and photos posting all week.
Even though the actual Winnetka home used in the Home Alone movies is still for sale, a building company has given it a modern update and is selling a new version of its design for mass production.
Mayor Emanuel announced that 625 city employees will receive layoff notices today amid efforts to streamline the government and save money. Meanwhile, Bloomberg Philanthropies, controlled by NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is giving Chicago $6 million in grants over the next three years.
The European arm of Edelman, our home-grown global PR firm in the world, has been brought in by News Corp to help handle the heat over its phone hacking scandal.
GQ ranks us 4th on its slideshow link-bait list of America's Worst Dressed Cities. And includes a photo of SNL's "Da Bears" sketch. Of course. Thanks for nothing.
Today's the last day to get your new city sticker for your vehicle. The Parking Ticket Geek has a guide to avoiding the long lines to get it done today.
When you're gearing up to complain about how much that club sandwich costs just remember that at least according to one survey Chicago is only 108th most expensive city in the world.
WBEZ announced today that it's bringing the popular Paper Machete "salon in a saloon" to the radio in the form of the Paper Machete Radio Magazine. It'll be live each Saturday at 3pm, which means if you go to the show, you're in the studio audience.
Today is Q101's last day as an "alternative rock" station; the programming switches to something new (expected by everyone to be news/talk) at 10am Friday morning. Listen in today as the DJs say their goodbyes. Not to be outdone, WBBM-AM will be simulcast on 105.9 FM starting Aug. 1. Guess that means a few more DJs will be looking for new jobs.
Evidently Chicago is the least friendly city for teleworking, according to a Microsoft survey. We can take solace in the fact that San Francisco and New York are on the list, too. [via]
The Chicago Architecture Foundation is holding a tweetup during its "Vice to Nice" tour tonight at 5:30pm. Sign up with the code "Tweetup714" for a discount.
One big reason the Cubs and White Sox have so disappointed this season is they're loaded with hitters who will swing at anything. It's baseball with bubble graphs!
The Transmission staff writes about each of the acts playing the Pitchfork Music Festival which starts Friday afternoon. Read up and decide who will win your undivided attention this weekend at Union Park. Keep an eye on Transmission for reviews and interviews as the fest unfolds.
The Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust has launched a new store in the Rookery, and are celebrating with a Champagne and shopping event July 21. RSVP by the 19th. [via]
Not this time, anyway. The Rogers Park Business Alliance is inviting knitters and crocheters to help them yarn-bomb Howard Street -- for charity. Each piece produced will earn a $10 donation to the Rogers Park nonprofit of your choice. Details on Facebook.
Chicago-based startup ParkWhiz is competing in American Express OPEN's Big Break for Small Business contest to win a Facebook makeover and $20,000, and have until Saturday to get as many votes as they can. (There are two other Chicagoland competitors, too, from Gary and Dixon.)
The once-faulty reservation system for the sittings of its Tour of Thailand at Next is back on. Get in there before it dies! UPDATE: it sold out. Sorry, folks!
Zipments, a service that allows you to post a delivery job (picking up something at your office and taking it to your accountant's, for instance), launched in Chicago yesterday.
While covering the DMB Caravan, Jim Reedy had issues with the US Steel South Works as a concert venue. Our managing editor, David Schalliol, has done a good amount of research on the site in his day job, and shares some background on how it came to host a music festival and where it's heading from here.
Eric Fischer's "See Something or Say Something" project maps geotagged tweets and Flickr photos and shows where they overlap. Chicago lights up nicely.
Need tickets for Pitchfork this weekend? Apartment site domu is giving a pair away to the person with the best story about crazy roommates. (See our own bunch of stories in Fuel.)
The Movie Doc surveys the wreckage of The Trial of the Chicago Seven, a film Steve Spielberg was putting together that was derailed by the actors strike, never to be heard from again. Spielberg went on to do TinTin instead.
Meet Tom Stuker, an Chicago-based automotive industry consultant who on Saturday became the first passenger to log 10 million miles on United Airlines.
This morning's severe thunderstorm knocked out power for more than 600,000 people in the Chicagoland area. I caught a screenshot of the radar that I think explains why we were caught off guard by this storm.
Police are charging a local 18-year-old with disorderly conduct after a suspicious package left by "The Bean" in Milennium Park led police to evacuate part of the park. The package apparently only contained two bricks, and was left there as part of a "role-playing event."
The Force head into the playoffs undefeated -- and are up against the defending champions the Boston Militia in tonight's game up in Evanston. If you can't make it for the 6pm game, you can watch it live online.
In Tailgate, Brian Livingston assesses the Cubs' chances of making the playoffs. Sure, they're practically nil, but there's always that glimmer of hope...
Nearly nine out of ten people who plead or are found guilty of marijuana possession in Chicago are black men. The Reader's cover story this week takes a closer look at the disparity.
...and by "play," I mean "sell." The CHIRP Record Fair at next weekend's Pitchfork Music Festival is looking for a few more craft-sellers, record vendors, and retail oddities to join their ranks.
An oldie but a goodie: Royko at the Goat, a short film of Mike Royko telling stories about 16-inch softball. Now with a preface from cinematographer Scott Jacobs.
There's a media league playing today -- head over to Trebes Park on Monday and Thursday nights this month to catch Gapers Block, Chicagoist, RedEye, Time Out, CHIRP, WBEZ, The
Reader, WSJ, WCIU and ChicagoNow battle it out on the dirt diamond. We play at 6 and 7pm.
Chicago start-up SceneTap wants to bring facial recognition software into bars so owners can monitor the number, age, and gender of their customers. Because figuring that out without computers would be impossible, right?
City Council approved an ordinance allowing firing ranges within city limits -- just ahead of a court ruling striking down a ban on said firing ranges.
The Sun-Times checks in on the bee farmers who have set up shop on 2,400 square feet of vacant, undeveloped land at O'Hare International Airport. (Previously: WLS-7 couldn't resist a "beehive of activity" pun.)
The Nerdery Overnight Website Challenge, a marathon site-building experience dedicated to helping non-profits in a very direct way, has extended its deadline to July 15. Go sign up here. Want to help out? There's a form for that too.
There were once more than 227 miles of elevated train tracks in Chicago. Forgotten Chicago digs up what remains of several train lines demolished by the CTA over the years.
"I was drinking Champagne on Lake Shore Drive. Eighty-nine miles per hour. Is poor road, wearing a tuxedo, very sharp." An odd collaboration between Univore and Marco Casale.
A man was beaten and stabbed by a group of young people on Halsted in Boystown Sunday night; the incident was caught on tape. Ironically, a "positive loitering" rally had been held the night before, after two similar attacks in recent weeks; the rally generated controversy itself.
A few people in Chicago and elsewhere are taking literal interpretation of the Bible to new extremes: believing the universe revolves around the earth -- a belief the Vatican and even a lot of creationists don't support.
If you're looking for someone to cheer for on July 4th, try Chicagoan Patrick "Deep Dish" Bertoletti, who is competing in Nathan's Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest at New York's Coney Island.
After the sale of radio stations The Loop and Q101, many insiders are saying at least one of the two will be converted to an all-talk format. This could mean substantially less rock on the airwaves in Chicago, since only four stations -- including The Loop and Q101 -- are currently classified as "rock stations."
Did you hear the one about Bulls forward Kyle Korver, a rock radio DJ and an injured, 20-pound turtle? Our man was equal parts Good Samaritan and Dr. Doolittle.
Murphy's Bleachers' Open Mic Night attendees got quite the surprise when Eddie Vedder decided to hang out after the Cubs game and perform a few songs last night.
