Chicago
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Fun with energy efficiency! (No, really. I promise.)
The problem with trying to make your home more energy-efficient is that energy efficiency is deadly boring. Start talking about heating systems and insulation and smart windows and even the niftiest thermostat ever, and eyes start to glaze over. The Energy Bills, though, are funny. Ish. At least, they're funnier than any other conceivable idea […]
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Spandex wars: Chicago bike critic looks crappy in tights
Photo: Steven VanceThe two-wheeled revolution has arrived in the Windy City, thanks to its bike-loving mayor, Rahm Emanuel. (Finally, a way to describe the man without calling him a potty mouth!) During his campaign, Emanuel pledged to build 100 miles of new separated bike lanes within five years. The first of them went in this summer. […]
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Chicago losing disgusting distinction as sole U.S. city that doesn’t treat sewage
Now that condos and a Trump Tower line the banks of the Chicago River, the Windy City is finally thinking about making it less gross. It's one of America's most exploited waterways — in 1900, the city literally reversed the river’s flow to keep all the sewage it channeled from entering Lake Michigan — and […]
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Rahm Emanuel decides public employees must use public transit
Employees of the city of Chicago are going to have to get used to taking the bus and the subway. Starting next year, they’ll have to use public transit, unless they have a really good excuse and are down for filling out a lot of paper work. Whose idea was this? Mayor Rahm Emanuel, of course.
Rahmbo doesn't want city employees on official business to take their personal cars or #*(%&@ cabs. They're public employees; they'll take *#@%(& public transit!
This isn’t just for green reasons; it’s also because Chicago -- surprise! -- is totally corrupt. -
Ads that Fight Back Against Coal
The coal industry is learning to not take the Sierra Club lightly – and we’re hoping our local, state and national officials are learning the same lesson. In one example – just today we released a Spanish-language television ad rejecting President Obama’s decision to delay long overdue, life-saving protections from smog, an acidic air pollutant […]
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When the levees broke: the flood that made rock 'n' roll
An epic flood on the Mississippi River in 1927 spurred the northward migration that transformed Delta Blues into Chicago Blues.
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Bank of America is now paying to tear down foreclosed homes
Bank of America is paying for the demolition of some foreclosures in Cleveland, Chicago, and Detroit. Could this help these cities to find new life?
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Next stop, the food desert: Fresh produce gets on the bus
The payoff scene in this video about a new mobile produce stand on Chicago’s West Side comes about nine minutes in. A young boy is urged to eat an apple by the women staffing the Fresh Moves bus, which just launched with the mission of bringing fresh produce to an inner-city food desert. The boy […]
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Suburban corporate campuses are going out of fashion
Is the corporate suburban stampede finally reversing? Photo: KevinCross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. In the late 1990s, when Don Chen, Matt Raimi, and I were researching our book, Once There Were Greenfields, we lamented the flight of business from America’s central cities to increasingly outer suburbs and farmland. In that book we frequently […]