Thursday, February 3, 2011
CHICAGO CODE BLUE: If it's gotten so bad that they've had to establish a database to help folks track down the 500+ cars abandoned on Lake Shore Drive and then towed and mayoral candidates are sniping, we probably should give our Chicagoans and others affected a place to continue to congregate in light of this week's blizzard.
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Complete and utter anti-climax in NYC.
ReplyDeleteAs for Chicago, my personal favorite coverage has to have come from the MayorEmanuel Twitter account. (Warning--not for the easily offended based on profane language.)
The Tribune story on that account was delightful, especially the end bit with State Rep. Fritchey.
ReplyDeleteYesterday I wandered a little bit out our front door (onto Lake Shore Drive) and I was going to clamor over snow drifts all the way to the outer LSD and onto the Lake edge, but the snow was HIGH and slippy and I feel like I am the kind of person who would manage to fall into Lake Michigan or yelled at by cops, so I just stood in the middle of inner LSD and looked. And this morning I was reminded how eerily quiet it was yesterday because you can always hear cars zooming by except yesterday. But as of 7:30am this morning there was asphalt visible on LSD on the curve.
ReplyDeleteAlso WGN did some pretty awesome helicopter coverage. LSD north might have had a lot of cars locked in snow, but LSD south seemed to be eaten by entire drifts of snow. And NBC 5 set up outside our building for some live reports--our place had great views of tow trucks and dump trucks full of snow clearing out. And this morning I saw Al Roker in a live shot across from the Wrigley Building.
WGN's Morning News were true champions yesterday morning. They were obviously all punchy and ended up digging old, random costumes out of their archives and having a tug-of-war and relay races with neighborhood children who came over to play with the reporters they saw outside.
ReplyDeleteWe are off work for the second day in a row, likely because LSD didn't reopen until 6 a.m. today, most of the public schools stayed closed, and a lot of the transit (Metra suburban rail mainly) is running on limited schedules.
I live further north than Heather K and for awhile, I couldn't see across the street. And it was weird because the snow stopped very suddenly and then the sun came out. I was surprised by how quickly it transitioned.
Our main streets are plowed up and one of my neighbors heroically shoveled out our building's sidewalks, as I'm sure the service we hire is inundated. I think they're starting the side streets today but I'm not planning on seeing my car for awhile.
Oh, and my dog has never been happier than the past couple days.
The things you mention are somewhat bad, but:
ReplyDeletehttp://news.uchicago.edu/btn/weather.classes.cancelled.php
!!
Yup. Law School fully closed. University can't fully close - thousands of people live on campus, and they need heat, electricity, food, etc, so campus officially remains open, but no classes. Hyde Park isn't plowed out at all (or wasn't as of late last night) and there are tons of abandoned cars and busses. Basically, the only people who could get to campus today are people who live close enough to walk - most people come by bus or car, and with the southern end of the Drive still buried and the city warning people not to use Garfield through Washington Park, there's no way to get there by car. Bus routes are a mess. So your only options are train or foot, and the closest train station is a mile from the Law School. And thus I sit on my couch at home.
ReplyDeleteThis is historic. No one can remember the Law School ever closing before - much less for two days. People think it might have closed for the '69 storm, but bo one is sure.
My kids have been loving playing outside and walking on Lake Shore Drive. They're very upset that the Drive is open now, as they wanted to do it again.
Will try to post photos later.
I have been following it for weeks - it's hilarious. By now, the cast of characters includes Axelrod, Axelrod's Civic, Carl the Intern, Hambone the puppy, and Quaxelrod the duck. Entirely profane, highly recommend.
ReplyDeleteI'm out on the northwest side, and my side street was plowed last night around 5. All the neighbors on the block were out late yesterday morning digging out sidewalks, cars and alleys. The scariest sight was when we opened the garage door to the alley and saw a snow drift about 5 feet waiting for us. Later in the afternoon, a good samaritan from down the block used his heavy-duty snow blower to clear a path wide enough for cars down the alley, so we all didn't have to hope for the city plows to come down the alley.
ReplyDeleteThat? Almost makes me want to join Twitter just to keep up with it.
ReplyDeleteAlmost.
What's funny is people discussing how this is a "non-political" storm, since the mayor's not running for reelection. That said, I did thorougly enjoy the article on the Trib's website where city officials were talking about "losing control of the Drive." "You can't lose control of the Drive!"
ReplyDeleteLiving my own personal groundhog day, all three kids home again.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe the Law School is closed. How is that even possible? I distinctly recall a very scary drive from downtown to Hyde Park for Federal Jurisdiction class with David P. Currie my third year of law school.
ReplyDeleteYou don't have to join Twitter (I haven't). If you use Google reader (or, I assume, another rss feeder), you can subscribe thusly. Totally worth it.
ReplyDeleteAs of last night, they were all living in the crawl space under his house, and using pork'n'beans cans to make a Chilean-miner-escape pod for themselves.
They didn't close for the 1999 blizzard, but school hadn't started yet.
ReplyDeleteAwesome Frontera Grill snowman:
ReplyDeletehttp://chicago.grubstreet.com/2011/02/working_hard_for_the_money_the_1.html
Sure, you may be physically present at the law school, and all the faculty, staff, and students might be under the impression the law school is closed, but I cannot believe a market couldn't find a solution to keep it open.
ReplyDeleteTRANSACTION COSTS!!!! (shakes fist)
They're out of the crawlspace now, taking a walk on f***ing frozen Lake Michigan.
ReplyDeleteI love that now that we're done with THUNDERSNOW!!! and in the middle of the deep freeze, we're being referred to as Chiberia.
ReplyDelete"There are a lot of things I can say I've done with my life. But now I can say I made a motherfu**ing snow angel on Lake Michigan."
ReplyDeleteThis recently happened in Baltimore along the JFX, although on a lesser scale. In all my years of being involved in blizzards in Michigan and Maryland, I came up with a theory and recently backed it up with a quick scan of archived news articles from several cities blizzard coverage.
ReplyDeleteMy theory is this: cars are more likely to be abandoned if the blizzard occurs in the early to late afternoon hours.
My theory comes from a simple human trait. People will not risk their lives or discomfort going TO work. But they will take unusual risks to get HOME.
My anecdotal evidence of archived news articles has proven this fact: If a blizzard comes in the overnight or on a weekend, the impact of abadoned cars is severely less than if the blizzard occurs on a weekday when people have to get home from work.
Perhaps the Chicgo politicians can take this under consideration.
Not anti-climax in Brooklyn. The borough was pure ice. I skated to work.
ReplyDeleteI was at the law school on Tuesday till about 4 pm. I got a cab (don't ask me how one showed up so quickly, I was amazed) from there to the South Loop via Lake Shore Drive. It took about an hour and a half for what is normally a 20-minute trip, fishtailing the whole time. Seeing all the accidents and trapped cars that came shortly thereafter I'm kind of shocked I made it; I gave the cab driver a huge tip and thanked him for rescuing me.
ReplyDeleteThere were still a few people at the school when I left; I'm not sure how they got home. It became pretty scary pretty quickly.