Hyde Park Urbanist

The City that Used to Work

They were burning the parks on the north side this afternoon.  City workers were just standing around watching the fire.

The Wake of a Cyclone

Jack & Ruth & I were pleased as punch to welcome a group of 60+ Iowa State students to Hyde Park a couple weeks ago and now one of them-- Brady Dorman-- has posted his impressions:

The beauty of Hyde Park is in its diversity, of land uses and people. College students, life-long residents, rich and poor coexist in harmony here. The neighborhood's massing and density benefits pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users, while still providing relative convenience for those with private automobiles. The sidewalks are pleasant and safe to walk on. The streets are narrow enough to not overwhelm pedestrians and cyclists yet wide enough to provide parking in most places. Hyde Park is a great example of a vibrant, sustainable, urban neighborhood - the kind of place where I would love to live and raise a family someday.

Well, I feel the same way, Brady, except for that bit about "rich and poor coexist in harmony here".  Hyde Parkers aren't much on harmony-- we're more cacophony people.  And there really aren't many poor people in HP; it just may look that way because we don't spend money on clothes.

The rest of his piece is definitely worth a read and something to think about amidst all the griping we do-- what I prefer to call critical thinking out loud.  And Brady's got loads of pictures here.  I know I'm supposed to ask permission first, but I couldn't help stealing this one on the right.

The Philosophy of Urban Renewal

This is a description of our neighborhood before urban renewal from the book Politics and Urban Renewal by Rossi and Dentler written in 1961 after urban renewal:

In addition, we have indicated there were undesirable features in the over-all physical layout of Hyde Park-Kenwood.  For one thing, there was crowding of the land.  The three-story apartment houses were built too close together.  Parking space was at a premium.  Little open space was left around parks, churches, schools, and institutions for their expansion.  The grid street layout of the community made almost every other street a potential thorughfare for heavy north- and south-bound traffic.

The retail businesses and service establishments of the community were spread out in small stores along 55th and 53rd Streets.  Many of the stores were vacant as the modern trends in retailing acted against the viability of the neighborhood store.  The efficient merchandising of the "shopping center" was not possible in a physical plant that was built to house retail stores serving primarily small neighborhoods.

In short, Hyde Park-Kenwood was built to serve the living patterns of an earlier era when there was little automobile ownership, when residents shopped daily for their needs in nearby stores, and when standards of living did not demand much in the way of open space.

It's hard to know where to begin, isn't it?  Reading that, you can practically see the dollar bills flying to the Middle East to buy oil, can't you?

The New HP Grocery Stores

I finally got up to the new Hyde Park Produce and into the new Treasure Island this week.  The delightful Elizabeth Fama posted about TI here and the comments are making me think I should try out Peapod, too.  (Elizabeth, if you accidentally break something in a retail store, you're not expected to pay for it.  I've worked in various food and books retail for years, so trust me on this.  First of all, the markup is often 30% or more; why should they make a profit on this?  Secondly, most of the time that customers break stuff, the store is partially or mostly to blame anyway.  They stack stuff precariously or stock crappy products.  Maybe if you're in a mom and pop curio shop, you might offer to pay half.  Otherwise, if it was an accident, it's on them-- whether it's a jar or a plasma TV.)

Before I describe my shopping experiences, I should point that in no way are my habits typical.  It's just me and my cat at home, so cooking's a chore.  However, I do have adventurous tastes.  When I go into a new restaurant, I usually order the weirdest thing they serve.  So, I was on the look-out for strange foods-- that I wouldn't have to cook.  And I'm rarely price-conscious.

At TI, my first big find was an Ataulfo Mango-- not the best specimen, but still.  Most of the mangoes we get here in the U.S. are the kind that Mexicans just use to make candy.  The Ataulfos are more popular and come all the way from Chiapas.  (And note that there's only a Wikipedia page for the Ataulfos in Spanish.  If I know Hyde Parkers-- and I think I do-- I'm sure I'll get special points for authenticity on this one.  Photo by Danny Smythe.)

TI had some expensive jars of ajvar at the front of an aisle, so I'll be  spreading that on bread for the next couple weeks.  In the frozen section, I couldn't resist the Bison pie.  In the snack food aisle, I picked up a delicious pecan "nut blend".  All three of those items were expensive.  Otherwise, I didn't see much in the way of new products that knocked my socks off.  It's nice that they have a good-sized display of Cedar's products.  There's more asian stuff than the Co-op carried, which is wonderful.  Nice selection of pears.  The prices seemed slightly lower than the Co-op's.   

On the negative side, they took out the highest row of shelves in the aisles, which has to mean that there are fewer items.  The bulk section is half what the Co-op had.  Ranch-style beans with jalapenos is a staple good at my house and I couldn't find any.  A lot of southern foods are gone.  I don't buy much fresh meat, but the selection seemed worse.  No wine, no liquor.  The hours, I believe, are the same, except TI will close earlier on Sundays.

The cashier and the bagger were both very courteous, which will probably startle a lot of Hyde Parkers.  I'm guessing we'll get used to it-- if it keeps up.  It's easy enough to keep employees smiling when they've just been hired.  The first couple hundred strangers you have to be nice to are one thing; after that it gets tougher unless you have a special personality.  No one was at the fish counter and I didn't see a sign saying what the fish counter hours were, which was something that used to cheese me off about the Co-op, too.

I never really understood the lure of Hyde Park Produce at its old location.  I take that back.  For a lot of folks, being "not the Co-op" was a good thing and I can understand that.  At the new store, nothing in the produce section spoke to me.  Their dry groceries are an odd assortment.  Some categories like pasta they have in abundance, but I never did find the crackers-- and I don't understand not having a highly visible selection of crackers in a high-end grocery.  Again, the Co-op had a lot more items.  The cashier was so-so and I saw one employee there that I'm pretty sure the Co-op fired, which says plenty.

So, on the whole, TI seems a step up from Co-op.  I'm very skeptical about the University's plan to re-do the front wall in glass.  The last time I worked in a grocery store with a glass front was 1979, I think, and that eastern sun may prove rather unpleasant.  (Frankly, the University's ideas concerning retail design have been... well... underwhelming.)  But I bet TI will do a good job replacing the fixtures inside the store and rearranging the departments.  We'll probably see fewer items than the Co-op had, but they'll be better displayed and more inviting.

I still don't get the attraction to Hyde Park Produce, but my grade isn't the relevant metric, is it?  There were plenty of folks in the store and they seemed to be happy with it.  That's the beauty of choice-- different strokes for different folks.  The important metric is HP Produce's customer count and they're doing fine.

An Awareness Test

A message from my favorite city about some of my favorite people:

Miscellany

An alert reader sent in a link to pic-left, another vertical garden in France.

Richard Gill has a post up at Hyde Park Progress concerning the second meeting at Ray School to discuss opening up 57th Street under the viaduct to two-way traffic.

Regenstein Library's Special Collections is the new home for much of the Co-op's assorted memorabilia.  It'll take months for the library to process the documents, but then the collection will be open to anyone requesting a day pass at Regenstein.

The Maroon updated the University @ 57th Street bus stop controversy.  Looks like Alderman Hairston will hold a public meeting after Spring Break.  Here's a lengthy quote from the article:

“In the past, the University has worked with the alderman’s office, Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), and the Chicago Department of Transportation to locate bus stops all around campus as a kind of collaborative process,” Campbell said.

“In this instance we did not confirm that the alderman was notified so that she would have an opportunity to hold a public meeting to discuss the moving of the bus stop, which is her typical process,” Campbell said. “So we apologize for that. It was an error on our part.”

Several community meetings were held before the University implemented CTA routes around campus in 2000, said Sherry Gutman, the deputy dean of students for housing and dining services.

“I think the alderman’s concerns are legitimate,” Gutman said. “Though from our perspective it’s fine, there are non-University people in the neighborhood who have needs and I think it’s a legitimate concern on her part to make sure all the voices are heard.”

That's a very helpful set of remarks from University folks.  Much applause!  (And I liked the Maroon's accompanying photo of the snazzy Gutman.)

Even More Like Paris

If you're like me, you probably find yourself wondering from time to time, "How could Hyde Park be even more like Paris than it already is?"  The answer, friends, might be: Vertical Gardens.

A Los Angeles blogger took pic-left while in Paris last May.  BHV Homme is a men's clothing store, I think, and they've grown this remarkably textured 3-story vertical garden on the front of their building.

The Musee du Quai Branly is home to the vertical garden in pic-right.  Remarkable, isn't it?  If I were that woman walking by it, I'd want stop and pet the wall.

This website promotes a book called Vertical Garden by Patrick Blanc, with many remarkable examples of the art.

Of course, the University can brag about its many ivy-covered walls-- and it deserves to brag.  But I've always wondered about those mossy walls under some of the viaducts.  Couldn't the moss be corralled in an artistic way somehow?  Are there other hues of moss that could somehow be arranged fashionably?

I suppose the answer to those questions would be "yes".  But, of course, what I really want to know is how could we get someone else to take an interest in vertical moss gardening?  Who could we get to volunteer for such a project?  Maybe this webpage on moss farming will inspire someone.

Do Not Want Center-Facing Cars

The CTA Tattler is a smart place to go for rumors and facts about the city's transit agency.  A report on the leasing of articulated hybrid buses is here.  And an earlier article links to a Ron Huberman Powerpoint pdf here.

Pic-right shows a possible new interior design for L cars on page 64 of the pdf.  Yes, I know they use that center-facing design for cars in New York and London, but there's a reason for that.  Their trains spend much more time underground where there's nothing outside to look at except tunnel walls.  Chicago's trains are usually above ground.  We should have the choice of facing forward so we can see all our pretty buildings.

Hyde Park Welcomes Cyclones

Pic-left is of Jack addressing a group of architecture students from Iowa State University in Ames, home of the Cyclones.  They're in Chicago studying intermodal transportation hubs, with an eye on bicycles in particular.  One of their teachers spent a couple months in HP in the early 80s and wanted his students to take in the best neighborhood in the world.  We met them at the Metra stop at 57th St and Jack & Ruth & I answered a few questions at the HP Historical Society.

Hairston Kills Bus Stop, Part 2

The Maroon reached Alderman Leslie Hairston on Tuesday and got her side of the story.  The Alderman may indeed be concerned about 4 parking spaces, but this seems to be mostly a protocol issue.  She didn't sign off on the bus stop move. 

I certainly understand the Alderman's motivation here.  Hyde Park did not elect the University and we only (very) indirectly elect the CTA board.  These goliaths don't represent us, but Ald. Hairston does.  She's right to put her foot down.

But does she have to put her foot down so artlessly?  The rationale given to the CTA on Friday was that she didn't want to lose 4 parking spaces.  However, the bus stop was merely moved from one side of the street to the other, so there was no loss of spaces.  Even more important, it's offensive to those of us who ride transit that the needs of four automobile drivers outweigh in her mind the needs of 500 bus riders-- that's the number who use that stop on a daily basis.

Nonetheless, I strongly disagree with the portion of the Maroon editorial stating: "the phrase 'Chicago politics' evokes a far more negative interpretation: bullying and inefficiency. Fifth-Ward alderman Leslie Hairston reinforced this principle last week..."  In Hyde Park, who's usually doing the bullying?  Who's growing increasingly arrogant?

I'd prefer for the Alderman to assert herself-- there's a democratic principle at stake here-- but on a different matter with the University.  Until then, we have the Hollies: