THE EXTREMELY LOCAL NEWS: STREETS AND SAN



Last week a tire appeared in the middle of the street.

Everyone drove around it.

I waited to see how long it would be there, until someone moved it.

Three days passed.

Still it was there.

So I went to take a picture of it.

Suddenly, a man popped his head out of the window of the nearby apartment building and yelled, "I called the city about that hole three days ago, and they still haven't come. Can you believe it?"

I looked up at him.

And then I looked more closely at the tire.

It was covering a huge, deep hole.

Oops.

So on the way to class I called the city, to remind them about the pothole.

They said they'd put it at the top of the list.



The next day the tire was in a vertical position.

Two days later it was on its side again, with a two-by-four sticking out the top.




One week later, the hole is still there.

So is the tire.

And the City That Works is still trying to lure the 2016 Olympics here.






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Earlier this week, they started tearing up Peterson Avenue... even though the fast, four-lane Peterson was in pretty good shape, apart from a few (filled) potholes.







So I wondered, Why are they doing this?

Then I noticed the orange sign.



Stimulus money.




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How cool is it that Wilco is on the back of CTA buses?



It's almost as amusing as the fine print on this:








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Last week the city came and took down a tree across the street.

This week another crew returned with this oddly-named machine,




which did away with the stump.

As if Johannes Vermeer would have wanted it that way.







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I just realized that the song the ice cream truck plays when it goes by several times each day is....

the Conferate anthem "Dixie."

Such a unexpected thing to hear, in such an integrated neighborhood.