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Which would be cool...but as far as a Reese site goes, doesn't do a ton to improve the public transit, but at least you can get down there faster via the train and a bus ride wouldn't be too far.
Which would be cool...but as far as a Reese site goes, doesn't do a ton to improve the public transit, but at least you can get down there faster via the train and a bus ride wouldn't be too far.
Yeah and if they put the facility at the Reese site, you would think they would add a stop sooner than later.
Yeah and if they put the facility at the Reese site, you would think they would add a stop sooner than later.
Exactly. I'm surprised they aren't putting one in at 29th either. I know it was part of the original research...4 stops at 18th, Cermak, 29th, and 43rd.
It's amazing though how much could be built up along the Green Line in some areas..
Yeah and if they put the facility at the Reese site, you would think they would add a stop sooner than later.
From a "most people would be willing to walk it" distance standpoint, Reese really isn't anywhere near the Green Line. It's certainly not regular walking distance from where the new Cermak station is, and most of the Reese site is a 15 minute (or more) walk from both 26th and Wabash and 31st and Wabash, the only other two places where Green Line stations would be logical.
What would be the most logical would be to either create the "Gray Line" out of existing Metra Electric tracks that has been discussed by Mike Payne, or get Metra to allow a couple real BRT routes from the Loop and from Streeterville through Grant Park using the bus lanes adjacent to the Metra tracks in that trench just east of Michigan Avenue. Currently that goes all the way to McCormick Place, but it wouldn't be too difficult to push it through to south of the Stevenson to connect to the Reese site.
In a "if dreams could be reality" world, what I'd really love is a new lakefront 'L' (or subway) line going from Midway along the embankment next to 49th Street following the tracks north to Pershing after Halsted, across the Dan Ryan, stopping for transfers at the Indiana station, the north under Vincennes through Reese, under McCormick, under Grant Park, under Streeterville, through the Gold Coast (Fairbanks/Delaware/Clark), through Lincoln Park under Clark to Broadway all the way to Wilson, then west to the Brown Line. That's a monster line, but would be pretty cool. Not gonna happen, though. Parts could be useful, though. And some parts have even been considered before (even kind of existed before).
From a "most people would be willing to walk it" distance standpoint, Reese really isn't anywhere near the Green Line. It's certainly not regular walking distance from where the new Cermak station is, and most of the Reese site is a 15 minute (or more) walk from both 26th and Wabash and 31st and Wabash, the only other two places where Green Line stations would be logical.
What would be the most logical would be to either create the "Gray Line" out of existing Metra Electric tracks that has been discussed by Mike Payne, or get Metra to allow a couple real BRT routes from the Loop and from Streeterville through Grant Park using the bus lanes adjacent to the Metra tracks in that trench just east of Michigan Avenue. Currently that goes all the way to McCormick Place, but it wouldn't be too difficult to push it through to south of the Stevenson to connect to the Reese site.
In a "if dreams could be reality" world, what I'd really love is a new lakefront 'L' (or subway) line going from Midway along the embankment next to 49th Street following the tracks north to Pershing after Halsted, across the Dan Ryan, stopping for transfers at the Indiana station, the north under Vincennes through Reese, under McCormick, under Grant Park, under Streeterville, through the Gold Coast (Fairbanks/Delaware/Clark), through Lincoln Park under Clark to Broadway all the way to Wilson, then west to the Brown Line. That's a monster line, but would be pretty cool. Not gonna happen, though. Parts could be useful, though. And some parts have even been considered before (even kind of existed before).
Good point, I've never walked it and didn't realize it would be a 15+ minute walk. I could handle it, but many people wouldn't.
From a "most people would be willing to walk it" distance standpoint, Reese really isn't anywhere near the Green Line. It's certainly not regular walking distance from where the new Cermak station is, and most of the Reese site is a 15 minute (or more) walk from both 26th and Wabash and 31st and Wabash, the only other two places where Green Line stations would be logical.
What would be the most logical would be to either create the "Gray Line" out of existing Metra Electric tracks that has been discussed by Mike Payne, or get Metra to allow a couple real BRT routes from the Loop and from Streeterville through Grant Park using the bus lanes adjacent to the Metra tracks in that trench just east of Michigan Avenue. Currently that goes all the way to McCormick Place, but it wouldn't be too difficult to push it through to south of the Stevenson to connect to the Reese site.
In a "if dreams could be reality" world, what I'd really love is a new lakefront 'L' (or subway) line going from Midway along the embankment next to 49th Street following the tracks north to Pershing after Halsted, across the Dan Ryan, stopping for transfers at the Indiana station, the north under Vincennes through Reese, under McCormick, under Grant Park, under Streeterville, through the Gold Coast (Fairbanks/Delaware/Clark), through Lincoln Park under Clark to Broadway all the way to Wilson, then west to the Brown Line. That's a monster line, but would be pretty cool. Not gonna happen, though. Parts could be useful, though. And some parts have even been considered before (even kind of existed before).
These are good points and I agree with you. IN a perfect world I absolutely wish this would happen. In reality, a lot of people would do it, you'd be surprised. I work in the western half of the Loop, but walk to the Red Line everyday which is probably about the same distance as what we're talking about here from 29th or 31st. I see a ton of people doing that walk. I guess it depends on how safe people think the area is to go ahead and walk it.
In a perfect world, I would absolutely love a Lakeshore line. Would be amazing. Remember though, there's old remnants of tracks underneath Streeterville and the areas you're talking about. Not sure what state they're in or what size cars they can accomodate but it's still there.
Theory vs reality (with a special heaping helping of Illinois awfulness...)
I think marothisu's post & emathias' about the former Army Warehouses from the WWII era that also served as CPS HQ for a while are SPOT ON -- the awfulness that exists on parts of nearer SW side could really benefit from something that does spark a new way of capitalizing on some of the pluses of those area that are MINUTES from the Loop, UIC, IIT & UofC . I have long said that I think smart investments and LEGITIMATE uses of TIF funds have the potential to throw off the 40 years of funky decline that hangs over parts of the city and makes most think of "the southside" as fit only for Bad Bad LeRoy Brown...
That is the hope.
The "theory" that the University of Illinois folks are going off is one of "geography" or "physical spaces". I am not sure I agree with this theory as I believe it is the exact same real estate driven mindset that has spawned the not so successful Northwestern Technology Incubator in Evanston, the mostly vacant office parks west of DuPage Co Airport north of Fermi Lab, similar strips of vacant offices north of Argonne along Cass Ave and even similar "belts" of once hopefilled office parks around Boston... Of course MAYBE the theories that drove these efforts did not fully think out the details of where young people like to live / hang out and I do have tto admit that none of these places have anywhere near the level of charm / character/ nightlife / affordability as the place emathias & marothisu have suggested SO MAYBE this "update" to the theory that includes a "hypothesis" about FUN will work. I really hope so!
The "reality" is that Chambana is a premier CS research site. There are some very successful firms that do trace their roots to the place and even a few actual certified successes -- Wolfram is the most well known but there are others. The real demand for the high level cutting edge CS type research is in reality pretty thin -- the folks that do postdocs at Argonne or Fermi or JPL or other places never get rich like some goofy maladajusted freak in the right place at the right time like Zuckerberg how had a DORM ROOM not a freaking "technology lab". The "pay off" for building these things is NEVER to the suckers that underwrite them (please ask NCSA how much it "made" off Mosiac vs how Marc Andressen "made out"... Is Tim Berners-Lee driving a Bugatti? How many people even know who Robert Cailliau or Vinton Cerf are???
Decades of letting criminal like Madigan "write the laws" has made what was once abhorent pretty much fully legal. How Do You Solve the Bill Cellini Problem? - The 312 - November 2011 - Chicago Thank-you moron Chicago voters and thanks to GOP go-alongs with neither the brains nor guts to do something to stop this...
Quote:
Originally Posted by marothisu
Yeah. I think we are all in agreeance that they should build on the lower west side or near-ish south side. I wouldn't be surprised if they built something in Bronzeville either. But I also wouldn't be surprised to see them build in an already good neighborhood. I hope to god this doesn't happen. I would love to see this place in an area near McKinley Park, Bronzeville, Bridgeport, Pilsen, Douglas Park (North Lawndale). I would be kind of scared if it brought bad gentrification to some areas, but if it's in a not so good area, then that's not a bad thing. An area like Bridgeport or Pilsen though, even further gentrification would suck, but I think it's inevitable in the near future anyway.
Depending on how many people would be working at this thing, it could be a real boost for a neighborhoods economy. When you have labs like this too, just like with any major research college, you have some companies (ones with extra money) building small offices around that lab/organization just so they can have easy access to it every once in awhile too.
Last edited by chet everett; 01-25-2013 at 03:54 PM..
Anyway, I love the idea. I really love that they're pushing tech here and this could really foster the talent that's in the midwest/Chicago and if good enough could keep some of that talent here instead of moving it out West (or some places East). I would be interested to see even more plans for this. Could be pretty big don't you think?
I was able to get both articles, maybe I signed up for the trib before.
As a Chicago native, UIUC alum, and current engineering prof at an R1 I've unfortunately taken a pessimistic view on these types of plans.
From what I could figure from the articles the plan is terribly underfunded with little focus. I'm sure that this isn't the reality of things and more just poor journalism, but just from the articles the focus of the institute seems to be in fields that would require a much greater investment than the 20 million suggested. For reference if you look at just the cost of new buildings like UofC is putting up like the Eckhardt Research Center they have committed over 200 million. That is a much more realistic number to get something big capable of getting off the ground. Can Chicago, Illinois, or the university system do that?
These plans are typically the brainchild of the bloated administrative staff, trustees, and govt officials who have taken too much control over universities and are short sighted. Their whole job is to develop these plans that are "me too" copies of what were successful models from places like Cambridge, Palo Alto, etc and now including the NYC Cornell project. The biggest problem here from the articles is that the source of short term funding is dependent upon federal grants, private donations, and industrial collaborations. Grant funding for professors in the big ten schools already skims on average ~40% for overhead and spending has stretched this so thin that things like pensions are causing serious strain. With grant success rates in the 7-20% range for most federal agencies these monies are not worth projecting to cover operating costs. In the same vein donations can't, and shouldn't, be counted on as revenue sources. I know some great tech profs who are leaving Illinois after the pension debacle and the budget cuts. I'd much rather see this money spent for retention and recruitment on campus at UIUC or used to strengthen the UIUC and UIC ties then on this project.
Sadly I agree with everything Toroid has posted EXCEPT for their hope that it is poor journalism that makes the plans sound incomplete and under-funded -- that deadly combination of half-baked hopes and money directed not to what will matter but some smoke filled back room of politically connected donors (generally in the construction sector...) explains why we have an abundance of monumental public buildings in the state yet a paucity of successful initiatives to really bridge the academic to the industrial...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Toroid
I was able to get both articles, maybe I signed up for the trib before.
As a Chicago native, UIUC alum, and current engineering prof at an R1 I've unfortunately taken a pessimistic view on these types of plans.
From what I could figure from the articles the plan is terribly underfunded with little focus. I'm sure that this isn't the reality of things and more just poor journalism, but just from the articles the focus of the institute seems to be in fields that would require a much greater investment than the 20 million suggested. For reference if you look at just the cost of new buildings like UofC is putting up like the Eckhardt Research Center they have committed over 200 million. That is a much more realistic number to get something big capable of getting off the ground. Can Chicago, Illinois, or the university system do that?
These plans are typically the brainchild of the bloated administrative staff, trustees, and govt officials who have taken too much control over universities and are short sighted. Their whole job is to develop these plans that are "me too" copies of what were successful models from places like Cambridge, Palo Alto, etc and now including the NYC Cornell project. The biggest problem here from the articles is that the source of short term funding is dependent upon federal grants, private donations, and industrial collaborations. Grant funding for professors in the big ten schools already skims on average ~40% for overhead and spending has stretched this so thin that things like pensions are causing serious strain. With grant success rates in the 7-20% range for most federal agencies these monies are not worth projecting to cover operating costs. In the same vein donations can't, and shouldn't, be counted on as revenue sources. I know some great tech profs who are leaving Illinois after the pension debacle and the budget cuts. I'd much rather see this money spent for retention and recruitment on campus at UIUC or used to strengthen the UIUC and UIC ties then on this project.
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Theory vs reality (with a special heaping helping of Illinois awfulness...)
