The April And May Issues Of Chicago Magazine

After returning to Denver from Stuart, Florida, I was finally able to go through the April and May issues of Chicago Magazine. The April issue's cover story is titled "The Best New Restaurants: 11 Sizzling Spots Making Their Mark on the City's Dining Scene." And I must say, most of the entrees featured by these restaurants did sound pretty good. However, although the editor wrote an introduction stating that most of these new hot spots represented the middle ground between casual and fine dining, to me they sounded expensive as hell ($195 for this, $125 for that is NOT the middle ground!). What I found more interesting was an interview with Will Venable, the new manager of the Chicago White Sox, and a review of a new book titled "Justice Batted Last: Ernie Banks, Minnie Minoso, and the Unheralded Players Who Intergrated Chicago's Major League Teams." I found this article fascinating. After all, I actually watched both Banks and Minoso play. Which means, of course, I am old.

The cover story for the May issue of Chicago Magazine is titled "The L In Crisis: Why Our Train Is In Trouble And Why It's Worth Saving." As someone who took the "L" a lot when I lived in Chicago, I found this article very interesting and informative. Many of the problems with Chicago's "L" are the same as the Light Rail here in Denver: lower ridership since the pandemic, drug use on trains, not enough security to protect riders, budget problems, long delays, and a lack of personnel, among others. But in Chicago, a big reason preventing the solving of these problems is the fact that there are four agencies that control mass transportation in Chicago: The Regional Transportation Authority (RTA), the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), Metra (which runs the commuter trains), and Pace (which runs suburban buses). And as usual, attempts to combine these agencies is hindered by politics. Another interesting article concerns a new book about the history of Chicago's Wrigley Building. Did you know that during the 20th Century, Studio 12 was located on the second floor of that iconic structure, and musicians like Benny Goodman, Peggy Lee, Cab Calloway, Gebe Krupa, and Big Bill Broonzy made recordings for Columbia Records there? Fascinating, right? Finally, there was a feature called Shades of Boredom - Everyday Life in Chicago 35 Years ago, featuring excellent photographs by Mark Steinmetz. Which gave me pause - 35 years ago, I had already been gone from Chicago for 9 years. Time sure does fly.