The February Issue Of Chicago Magazine Has Arrived

I went through the February issue of Chicago Magazine the other day, and was kind of surprised to read in "The 312" section that the South Side neighborhood of Woodlawn is being gentrified, all because the Obama Presidential Center is set to open in Jackson Park next year. Back when I lived in Chicago, Woodlawn was filled with abandoned buildings and vacant lots, with a very high crime rate. I am glad to see that things are looking up for that part of Chicago just south of Hyde Park. There was also an article on how Chicago's St. Valentine's Day Massacre inspired the first move toward gun control by banning machine guns favored by gangsters, another article about a University of Chicago professor put under house arrest in Iran, and a piece about the birth of "Fast-Fancy" in Chicago, which has to do with high-end restaurants trying to cut down on the high cost of labor by operating with limited staff. Evidently Chicago, like Denver, is now requiring a "living wage" for restaurant workers, resulting in much higher labor costs. One of my favorite restaurants here in Denver, Piccolo's, specializing in Italian and Mexican dishes, closed last year due to the high minimum wage. For years they hired students and part-time workers just looking for extra money, and now that door has been closed to them. The bottom line - fewer restaurants and higher costs in both Chicago and Denver. As for the cover story, "The 20 Best Cocktails in Town," do the readers of Chicago Magazine really care about such things? Evidently yes. Scary.