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Thanks to the rise of digital mapping, the relative orderliness of different street systems can now be calculated. A measure of zero suggests a city with absolutely no consistent street direction; A measure of one implies a perfect grid, with no interruptions or curves. Chicago hits 0.89, higher than any other city on Earth. London, a city stitched together over millennia from villages on the lines of haphazardly placed Roman, medieval and Victorian thoroughfares, gets just 0.015. This can be shown on a polar histogram. Cities like London are circular blobs; those like Chicago, clean crosses.
Summary and audio linked here.
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
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Audio and summary
Growing up in Chicago we all enjoyed the orderly street layout. Didn’t realize how unique it was until reading this article.
City planners did a fine job, especially the lakefront that belonged to the people until Mr. Obama decided he needed public park land for his edifice. The day that was approved was a sad day for the citizens of Chicago and a whole bunch of mature trees.
The grid works — just try negotiating the lower Manhattan mess of non-grid streets to see how much you miss the easy to negotiate street grid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjE3BNBZaWI