The Democratic National Convention. NASCAR. ShotSpotter. Protesters. Gridlock. Michael Madigan. Ed Burke. The sinking value of Loop condos. The sinking fortunes of Chicago sports team. And the ever-changing saga of where the Chicago Bears will be playing football a decade or so from now. (And who pays.) 2024 was filled with all kinds of Chicago news, not all of which involved City Hall or the Chicago Teachers Union.
This holiday week, the Tribune Editorial Board is looking back at the year through editorials covering Chicagoland, the machinations of City Hall, the presidential election of 2024 and national and world affairs.
Here’s our first collection: life as it was lived in our Midwestern patch, rarely a city so real as in 2024.
Feb. 7: The editorial board notes that restaurants are closing earlier and theaters are moving up curtain times.
Forgive us for waxing nostalgic for the days of Dr. Night Life, when opera singers kept the Italian Village pouring vino till the small hours. We miss the era of the Tavern Club, the London House (where jazz greats such as Sarah Vaughan would swing until 4 a.m.), of late-night cabarets and restaurants that would welcome people coming from the Shubert Theatre at 11 at night and keep them there until the wee hours of the morning, offering them food, cocktails and music. We’re thankful for Miller’s Pub, the Loop’s one true bastion of old-school, late-night reliability.
By all means, get your sleep. But let’s not forget why old-school Chicagoans love their city after hours.
April 25: The Chicago Bears propose a new lakefront stadium. The editorial board is unimpressed.
Chicago Bears CEO Kevin Warren, along with Mayor Brandon Johnson, invoked the illustrious name of the legendary architect Daniel Burnham more than a dozen times Wednesday in their slick public presentation on the team’s domed-stadium plan for Chicago’s lakefront. That makes sense from a public relations perspective. It was Burnham’s Plan of Chicago that established the idea of a city lakefront that would be “forever open, clear and free.” In order to get public buy-in for what would be the most substantial development on that near-sacrosanct public land, Chicagoans will need convincing this massive change lines up with Burnham’s vision, long the envy of cities across the world. “The Lakefront by right belongs to the people,” Burnham wrote in the 1909 document. “Not a foot of its shores should be appropriated to the exclusion of the people.” He did not specify any exception for NFL teams.
April 30: Northwestern University strikes a deal with student protesters for the Palestinian cause. The editorial board applauds the unusual compromise.
What this modest agreement says to us is that reasonable people, both within Northwestern’s administration and among the demonstrators, achieved parts — but only parts — of what they desired. Such is the characteristic of most successful negotiations. Northwestern’s leadership got protesters to stand down without resorting to force. The activists obtained some concessions that, in essence, require Northwestern’s administration to give their concerns a fair hearing but don’t obligate the university to capitulate to their position.
June 25: Former Chicago Ald. Ed Burke is sentenced to prison after shaking down businesses needing city permits and approvals. But the board argues he has reason to be thankful.
In a brief statement before the judge handed down the sentence, Burke said, “I’ve been blessed.” He was speaking about his family and friends. But he could just as easily have been referring to his good fortune in that courtroom. A lifetime of charity and generosity, both personal and financial, divided by two years of criminality added up to what few would argue was a light sentence given Burke’s outsize contribution to Chicago’s sad and deserved reputation as a swamp of corruption.
Sept. 4: Chicagoans are shocked by a quadruple homicide on a CTA train. The editorial board reacts.
In one respect, the proliferation of crime on the CTA is a manifestation of the public safety crisis confronting Chicago as a whole. But special attention must be paid to keeping trains and buses safe if Chicago is to get its post-pandemic footing back. There’s little doubt that fear of public transit, whether or not it’s fully justified, is holding back ridership and leading to ills such as yawning budget deficits for the transit system, traffic-choked highways, pollution and economic malaise. Chicago is blessed with a public transportation system that can get you almost anywhere, certainly within the city and out to most suburbs as well. The more usage the system gets, the better for all of us. So we hope that the Blue Line killings, tragic and awful as they are, spur Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, police Superintendent Larry Snelling, CTA President Dorval Carter and others to focus more intently and creatively on getting things under control and improving the environment and experience on the trains and buses that are as vital to the city’s health as blood vessels are to a human body.
Sept 27: Amtrak announces a new train, The Floridian, set to roll from Chicago to Florida. But it will take forever, notes the editorial board.
Roll is the word. According to its newly published schedule, The Floridian will take 48 hours and 19 minutes. As points of comparison, the famed South Wind train linked Chicago and Miami from 1940 to 1971 in around 29 hours (ah, progress) and you also could drive it in about 22 hours, assuming you had enough drivers to ride through the night. Even with a stop at a motel, you’d likely still do it far faster than The Floridian. Some cynics of our acquaintance have argued this is just a way to sell a massive construction delay. But that understates the value older folks especially put on a “single-seat ride,” meaning you don’t have to change trains anywhere. We suspect some of our relaxed-and-retired readers might find an all-aboard at Union Station and an exit in, say, Fort Lauderdale an attractive option when the snow starts to fly.
Oct. 4: The editorial board notes the arrival of a new temporary tourist attraction in the Loop, courtesy of Google.
Might we humbly suggest you take a special pedestrian trip down Randolph Street, position yourself on the north side of that Loop thoroughfare, stop when you reach 100 West and then drink in the post-modern vista of the James R. Thompson Center, as designed by the late Helmut Jahn? That might seem like a strange idea since the Thompson Center has been there since 1985. But here’s the thing. As part of the $280 million renovation of the building by Google, the old glass panels in the building have been removed in preparation for a new glass facade behind which some 2,000 Google employees are expected to toil at what will be the company’s main Chicago office. As a result, you can see right into the massive building, which features a 17-story atrium and occupies an entire block. It’s enough to stop anyone in their tracks.
Nov. 13. Irish restauranteur Billy Lawless dies at 73. The editorial board looks at his impact.
Billy Lawless didn’t just build relationships and restaurants but he passed on his skills to the next generation and fought for other immigrants. This city should be grateful for this remarkable man from Galway and find other ways to help those who want to follow in his hospitable footsteps. And they should not have to be Irish to benefit, either.
Nov. 20: The editorial board admires the plans for Northwestern University’s new football stadium, costing it friends.
We were in favor of Northwestern University’s new stadium from the start. For one thing, the plans arrived funded almost in totality by the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan family to the tune of some $850 million. For another, it looked like a major enhancement to the fan experience and, more importantly, to what Northwestern would be able to offer its student athletes in terms of training facilities and a safe, supportive playing space. And, of course, the build brought major economic development to cash-strapped Evanston in terms of construction jobs and permitting fees, even before the stadium opened. The fevered, lawyered-up objections of the NIMBY crew who lived near the stadium over a handful of concerts each year struck us as overwrought (although we lost a few friends there, hopefully temporarily). We felt that way especially since the capacity of the new stadium was being reduced from 47,130 to about 35,000. Given the demographic in northwest Evanston, we thought, and still think, it more likely that those neighbors (or their offspring) would be chilling on their lawns and listening to music wafting through the air than suffering from unacceptable traffic or familial stress.
Dec. 4: Eileen O’Neill Burke, endorsed by the editorial board, gets sworn in as Cook County state’s attorney.
What does doing a better job constitute? It means putting the concerns of victims before those of accused criminals (or paroled criminals, for that matter); it means displaying zero tolerance for the carrying or use of illegal weapons; it means protecting women when they’re threatened by their partners or ex-partners. In those respects and more, Eileen O’Neill Burke has started to check all of the right boxes.
Just as importantly, she also has chosen to begin her new job by embracing and celebrating what has made Chicago great in the past and what is present in the city’s fiber to make it so again
Dec 10: What a lousy year for Chicago sports teams. No fun at all, say we.
The Blackhawks just fired their coach less than halfway through a season in which they’ve failed to meet modest-at-best expectations. And the Bulls, while finally playing a more entertaining uptempo offense like the rest of the National Basketball Association, are widely expected to trade some or all of their star players in order to ensure their record is bad enough for a high draft pick. It’s not baseball season, of course, but White Sox fans still are feeling the sting of breaking the record for most losses in a season. We could go on. (No, Cubs, you’re not doing much better.) Our only point here is in a city struggling on so many fronts — political chaos, sky-high taxes, crime that remains unacceptably rampant — our pro sports teams are doing a lousy job at their most important task: giving us an escape from those depressing realities.
Dec. 17: Reports emerge that the prices for downtown condos have sunk. The editorial board sees a silver lining.
The glistening, aspirational high-rise condos that so fascinate visitors are vital to the city. Aside from their contribution to the tax base and an architectural beauty we can all enjoy, they’re filled with affluent customers for downtown restaurants, cultural organizations and other businesses and they represent crucial urban density, just at a different price point in the market from the ones you hear about more often from aldermen. We hope the market for them improves. In the meantime, downtown condos represent some great deals right now. And aside from snagging a bargain, buying one would help stabilize the market.
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