Posts Tagged "downtown chicago"

Last Tree Standing

Lately at work, I’ve taken on a new role and am sometimes shuttling between our two offices (we have two locations, on either side of State Street). Along Madison, I noticed last week that there were suddenly fewer trees along the sidewalks. As in – a lot fewer trees.

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Chicago Cabbies Refusing to Pick Up Passengers Today From 6AM – 10AM, Protesting Uber

Will that be a good thing for cabbies? Or will it backfire, as I don’t get the sense that the general public reserves much good will for the industry. I don’t take cabs nearly as much as I used to, but I’ve had a mixture of experiences – some good, a few bad. And the bad tend to stick out. To this day, I’m still wary of cabbies telling me that their credit card reader is “broken,” and they can’t accept cards.

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The Homeless Man Who Wasn’t There

There is a homeless guy who sits on a milk crate, just outside the Chipotle at State and Madison. I see him most days, Monday through Friday, whenever I walk by. He’s an older black man, with a bit of gray in his hair. He speaks kindly to everyone who passes by, giving everyone a small salutation: “Hey there, sir. You have a good day. Hey there young couple, you be good to one another now.” His voice is cracked when he speaks, from the strain of trying to say hello to nearly everyone who walks by him.

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Mario Wallenda, Crossing the Chicago River

Today, outside of the Mart, there was a big WLUP promotion featuring Mario Wallenda and his “Skycycle.” A thin wire was stretched across the Chicago River (via two cranes), and a big crowd had gathered to see the spectacle. For the backstory to this, check out the press release I posted, a few days back. This is the view from…

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Impromptu Photoshoot

I was in the office today, and during one of my breaks – I walked over to the window and just stared at all the people walking by. This is a small ritual on the design side of the room – get up, stretch, walk to the window, and back to the desk. Today, I noticed a small girl running…

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Window Washer

I don’t know what it is, but I’m just fascinated by the window washers who dangle from a rope to clean the windows. I take pictures everytime I see them while walking around downtown. I first saw the solo window washer guy (as opposed to the ones who work in pairs on a ledge) when I first started this job….

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Huge snowflakes

Late in the morning, someone looked out the window and noticed the incredibly HUGE snowflakes coming down. Granted, it was snowing pretty hard, but I don’t know that I’ve ever really seen snow this big before. This had everyone out of their seats and up against the windows, looking out over downtown Chicago. I don’t know that these pictures (and…

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Afternoon Snow

Starting around 3PM, snow just kept on coming down. At several turns during the remainder of the work day, I found myself drawn to the window… just so I could watch the snow gradually accumulate.

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Light Display

Credit here goes to Ben, who noticed that one of those big spotlight-dealies was parked outside the Mart. They produced a neat effect, what with the steady bit of snow falling outside. We ended up turning down the lights in the office, so we could see it a bit better.

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Starbucks Promotion

So this morning, I hear rumors of multiple Santa Clauses (Santii, if you will), roaming around the place. I don’t pay much mind to it, and head up to work. Once upstairs, I find that several coworkers have wandered off to go check out the “holiday display” that’s revolving around said Kris Kringles. After a while, Chris, Jane, Bryan and…

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Top of the Mart to ya

So this morning, a few of us showed up early to work and managed to get onto the roof of the Merchandise Mart. To give you some perspective as to how high we are, check out this entry. Chris, next to what I think is some big satellite relay. That, or it’s the biggest popcorn machine I’ve ever seen in…

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