#Chicago Metropolitan Area

[rabbitcruiser]

Clouds (No. 860)

Hanna, IN

Wolf Lake Memorial Park, Whiting (five pics)

Community Veterans Memorial, Munster (two pics)

Chester, WV (two pics)

[gudamor]

Op turned off reblogs but I wanted to point and laugh at Shanghai going to the other extreme. There's probably some parallels between the Shanghai urban areas versus the suburban districts: "I say I'm from Shanghai but actually I'm from Jinshan and rarely went into the city"

[antiadvil]

sorry people are annoying about your chronic illness lou i think you rock and it sucks that you have migraine 😔 you deserve to have so much fun at tit no matter what tho. love you x1000

thank you <3 i am really excited for tit!! i was talking with some friends the other day and i'm trying to convince a friend to visit for the show so we could go together and even if they can't make it it's going to be so fun. i'm for sure going to be meeting up with a friend who i met up with at WAD and there should be a few other tumblr people there who i'm excited to meet :) i'm planning to take a nurtec beforehand to hopefully help prevent a migraine from the lights/general excitement of the experience and i will have my nsaids and triptans with me in case that's not enough!

my real hope though is that whatever we do at my next neurology appointment will actually help this time (which it should... i think i've finally jumped through enough hoops for botox or a cgrp antagonist but i've thought that before and insurance has told me i am wrong) and i will maybe not need to worry so much about all the migraine stuff. summoning circle or whatever

[ajl1963]

Deco Doings - December, 2023

[facts-i-just-made-up]

could i get some facts about me to recite when new people ask me to tell them something about myself and my mind goes immediately blank

This is a problem that happens to many people with much on their mind. Here is a set of things you can tell people, no matter what the occasion:

I am not made solely of pine-wood or pine-derivative plastics.

I have between zero and four thousand limbs, inclusive.

I contain several liters of my people's water.

My name is comprised mostly of real letters (Musks may differ).

I am unaware of the contents of soil on most exoplanets.

My spleen is smaller than the Chicago metropolitan area.

I am not, have never been, and may never be you.

Telling people these facts will always put them at ease and quell any concerns they have about your normality.

[spectroscopic-binary]

Saw a similar post asking about the top 9 most populous cities worldwide and 98% of respondents do not live in one of those. Was very curious to repeat the experiment using the top US metro areas

[of-themysciraa]

more complete poll re: @unclear-asdf

drivable distance is 2 hours or less.

[ef-1]

Since F1 is allegedly close to securing a deal with Chicago for another fucking street track added to the calendar I just wanna point out 2 things: the element of jeopardy in f1 cant always just be "issa street track! The walls are close so you have to be careful or youll eat them!!!" you need purpose built tracks, like I know run off areas sends reddit men seizing about how boring it is that overshooting a corner doesn't get a driver airlifted to the hospital but even "boring" tracks show the fine margins between drivers, it really puts to test the ambition vs talent. Instead of fear vs talent.

And secondly it would be the 4th American race on the calender when multiple drivers, lead by Lewis, have lobbied for a single race in Africa given F1 is supposed to be a "world" championship. Kyalami is a purpose built track and they keep getting priced out from the bidding war for a slot on the calandar because local mayor wants to terrorise citizens of a busy metropolitan area for a week.

[amtrak-official]

A bill has been proposed in the Illinois state legislature to merge the CTA, Metra and Pace into one agency to reduce redundancy and better fund transit in the Chicago Area

[hopefulkidshark]

Chicago Skyline, U.S. state of Illinois, United States: Chicago is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the third-most populous in the United States after New York City and Los Angeles. Chicago is the center of the Chicago metropolitan area. Wikipedia

[racefortheironthrone]

Now you mentioned i, I am a bit surprised Smallville is prominently and consistently in Kansas? It's Smallville, Kansas. There might be others and certainly cities located vaguely within a real region, but it's definitely the first fictional town or city of D.C. in a real-world American state to come to mind.

So this gets to the weirdness of D.C geography. When Superman was first established, there was much less of a cohesive "universe," so if Siegel and Shuster wanted Superman to specifically be raised in Kansas, that's where he was from and the rest of the geography would have to work itself out.

IMO, this early slapdash approach to world-building has (over time) led to some things that just don't make sense to me as a student of urban history and urban studies:

Metropolis shouldn't be in Delaware. It doesn't make sense in terms of urbanization, given the context of an already-crowded Northeastern Corridor - Delaware simply does not have the capacity to sustain a city of 11 million people, and you wouldn't get a municipality of that size right next door to New York City (as well as D.C's other fictional cities in the area). The whole idea of Metropolis and Gotham being across the river/bay from each other has never really worked for me; you can still do Superman/Batman team-up stories no matter where they are, because Superman can fly and Batman has his own personal fighter jets.

More importantly, it doesn't make sense in terms of historic patterns of urban migration. Moving to the big city in search of the American Dream is a big part of the Clark Kent story, but historically people moving from rural to urban areas overwhelmingly go to the nearest large city, depending on how transportation networks are arranged, whether we're talking about train lines or direct flights or highways or bus routes. There is a reason we can track regional movements of black communities during the Great Migration, because who went where depended on which train lines ran through which states:

This is why I've always felt that, while Metropolis has aesthetically been associated with New York City, it logically should be Chicago. It is the biggest city in the Midwest, one very much associated with robber baron industrialists and corruption at the highest levels, and absolutely stuffed with art deco architecture for Superman to pose on top of. Up until the Tribune Company began to strip it for parts, it's also been a major newspaper town with a long tradition of muck-raking investigative journalism that would inspire a starry-eyed cub reporter like Clark. As one of the original transit hubs and the U.S' own "nature's metropolis," it is precisely the place that a Kansas farm boy would hop a train to, because all trains go to Chicago. Also, culturally I like it better that Clark Kent represents the City of Wide Shoulders whereas Bruce Wayne is the typical Tri-State Area Type-A personality.

Going back to D.C's bizarro Northeast geography, I likewise have an issue with Gotham being in New Jersey...if New York City is also supposed to be a major metropolitan area in the D.C universe. Just as Delaware would struggle to support a city of 11 million people, it would be very difficult to grow Gotham into a city of 10 million people so close to the gravity well of the Greater New York Metro Area. New Jersey is a pretty urbanized state, but its biggest cities tend to range in population from 300,000 to 100,000 - which works very well for a place like Blüdhaven, which is supposed to have something of an inferiority complex vis-a-vis Gotham - because a lot of the population tends to gravitate to NYC for work and eventually housing as well.

I've already said my piece about the lack of cultural specificity of D.C's Midwest.

As far as the West Coast goes, I've always found it a bit odd that Star City isn't where Seattle is supposed to be. Let's face it, the only place where Oliver Queen's facial hair would go unnoticed is Seattle. Also, Coast City is often depicted too far north on the map - if it's supposed to be a half-hour away from Edwards Air Force Base, it should be significantly more southern, down by Kern County and San Bernadino County, not practically up in San Francisco.

[famousinuniverse]

Chicago Skyline, Illinois, United States: Chicago is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the third-most populous in the United States after New York City and Los Angeles. As the seat of Cook County, Chicago is the center of the Chicago metropolitan area. Wikipedia

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

Wondering what kind of shenanigans you foresee Meghan trying to pull re: Kamala Harris? I’ve seen a puff piece claiming “Meghan would love to endorse Harris” floating around but that was last week when people with much bigger names actually were coming out to endorse. That article mentioned that Meghan had been in close touch with Shannon Watts (Moms Demand Action co-founder) who organized a fundraising zoom call for Harris last week that had several celebrities on it, but if Meghan was on the call then she wasn’t asked to speak or wasn’t mentioned. I think you’ve said before that most people in politics have already figured Meghan out, but I can’t help but think she’s going to be desperate to try and do something, especially considering both she and Harris are mixed-race California women. In my own personal opinion, if the Obama’s won’t touch her with a ten foot pole then neither will Harris, and the last thing a serious presidential candidate should want to do is give the time of day to someone who has public beef with one of our best allies…but who knows

*not trying to start a political debate on your blog. I simply am curious as to your thoughts on if/how Meghan will try to hijack this moment, and what her success level will be.

There was gossip a couple months back that Meghan and Harry were planning to contribute to the election in some way again - my thought was that they were probably going to do another GOTV video, even though it was widely panned and criticized.

But now that the race has changed and the presumptive nominee is Kamala Harris? I’m actually not so sure anymore. Kamala and her team would be fully aware, and wary, of the way Meghan operates, given their relationships in California politics, friendships with the Obamas and Bidens, and Kamala’s position in the party.

Will Meghan try to get in and do some politicking? Absolutely. But the campaign will probably keep her at arm’s distance because they know all the dirt and the closest Meghan will get to them is a sudsy public service announcement on the importance of voting or maybe a spot at a closed-door private fundraising dinner hosted by a WME connection.

Will Meghan try to manifest a relationship or a connection with Kamala? Absolutely, again. In fact it’s already started - @the-empress-7 pointed out yesterday that Meghan’s press releases and emails have begun using vocabulary and style that mimics Kamala’s speeches. So the subtle SEO work is in progress, and I would expect it to ramp up in the coming weeks as the Democrats come to Chicago for the convention.

Speaking of Chicago, Harry’s been to Chicago a few times for work with the Obamas. And let’s not forget that Meghan went to college in Chicago (technically, in the metropolitan area of Chicago but she doesn’t care about facts). So there are increasing odds that we *might* see the Sussexes in Chicago. My theory is we’ll see her GOTV ad during the convention primetime air slots.

Since Meghan seems to be on a new kick with Moms Demand Action (because mom is her latest rebranding) and it ties in nicely with Harry’s security salvo from last week about how dangerous the UK is (which certainly isn’t helped by what happened in Southport yesterday), my feeling is that she may be trying to wedge herself in the door through them. But how will she act? There’s a few possibilities:

Another NYT op-ed endorsing Kamala.

In a “(identity politics) for Harris” call/conference.

Through some magazine article feature story because it’s time for her to win another award.

A special episode of her podcast, now hosted at Lemonada.

I can’t say why, but my gut is saying it’s going to be an op-ed of some kind or an appearance at an issues-based conference/summit that no one’s heard about. Because Meghan is uniquely qualified more than anyone to speak on the horrors of having to live under constant threat of danger just to do ordinary things in her ordinary life…which she will say with left eye, one tear, go to parents that have lost their children to school violence and everyone will be uncomfortable.

I’ll end it with this. If it’s true that Harry will be spending 4+ weeks in the UK soon, we should fully expect Meghan to go nuts with paparazzi stunts and appearances, as she usually does when Harry’s away. We could very well see her trying to get “in” with the campaign since late August/early September is when the campaigns swing into high gear.

[ajl1963]

Deco Doings - November, 2023

Autumn by William Welsh, 1930. Image from Pinterest. Here is a list of some wonderful Art Deco Events happening this November to enjoy. Metropolitan Museum of Art Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930s (In Person Event)      Thursday, September 7 – Sunday, December 10, 2023, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY   Poster House Art Deco:…

[vacuously-true]

Okay how about this. What's the best Midwest Metropolitan Statistical Area?

Here's the ten most populous metros in the Midwest, as listed in this Wikipedia article. Vote for your favorite! Check the article if you need more info about what cities or towns are included in each metro. They're listed below by the largest city in the metro, the state(s) the metro area is in, and the population of that metro area.

But there's a twist! Once the poll is closed I'll scale the results proportional to the populations of each metro to get final results. I want to know which metro will get the most love proportional to its population!

[1863-project]

A common argument against expanding passenger rail that I hear a lot is that we'll need to cut down a lot of trees to make way for the tracks. Do you have any thoughts on that?

We actually have plenty of existing rail infrastructure!

The problem is that it's mostly used for freight these days, and the Big Six (the six Class I railroads running freight in the US) often aren't interested in sharing (see Amtrak's Twitch stream beef with CSX and Norfolk Southern for one example). Passenger trains legally - by government decree - get priority over freights, even hot shot freights...or at least they're supposed to. In practice this often does not happen.

A lot of old rights of way still exist or need maintenance, and of course if the freight railroads would share with Amtrak and local services more, things could actually be done fairly easily. There'd have to be some cleaning up on rights of way that aren't used anymore, but you can generally tell where railroad tracks used to be, and a lot of the time you can patch things up and lay new track without doing too much environmental damage because the right of way is there already from decades ago.

I live in New Jersey and work in NYC, and we have arguably some of the best public transit in the country (which isn't saying much on an international scale). A big part of that is that the freight railroads that operate in this area share the rails in New Jersey with New Jersey Transit. NJT owns the trackage, but they share it with the freight railroads via rights agreements, and in some cases they use tracks owned by other railroads that they lease.

Metra in the Chicago metropolitan area has a similar arrangement; four Metra routes are on tracks owned by Union Pacific and BNSF, and these railroads operate the Metra rolling stock and services under the Metra name. Metra's seven other routes are operated by the Northeast Regional Commuter Railroad Corporation, their operating arm. (Union Pacific was apparently going to transfer operations of the Metra lines on their trackage to Metra at some point this year but I don't know if it happened yet or not.)

The tl;dr here is basically that we actually have a ton of tracks left over that could be being used to restore passenger service to places it's left. We also have examples of it working quite well in higher population areas. We don't necessarily HAVE to build all new rights of way - they're already there. We just need to restore them and get the freight railroads to be willing to share.

On a directly related note, I sincerely hope they continue to go ahead with restoring the Lackawanna Cutoff, and if they do you bet I'll be on the first train out for a relaxing jaunt. This is an excellent example of how it can be done.