Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Jeremy Glover

Maya Dukmasova @mdoukmas.bsky.social · 15h

Happy Indigenous People's Day from an Italian heritage street festival in Chicago's Viagra triangle where, yes, Bob Fioretti, dressed in a "Dignitary" sash, is collecting signatures for yet another run for elected office

14 15 51

Jeremy Glover @jgrantglover.bsky.social · 10h

And while you walk through this restored landscape, you may come across a reminder of how profoundly engineered it actually is! This is a huge drop shaft into the deep tunnel system that underlies much of the region. Tunnels as large as 33ft in diameter hundreds of feet below the ground!

A very large circular grate in a restored oak savannah landscape. Steam rises from the opening.

1 3 21

Jeremy Glover @jgrantglover.bsky.social · 10h

Long before Horner Park became home to a rare oak savannah and a modern effigy mound, it was a municipal dump. And before it was a dump, it was a clay pit and brickyard. This cycle of extraction to disposal to restoration inspires me to imagine an urbanism that is ecologically and historically just.

Two children running toward a spiraling effigy mound covered in native grasses

Children running down a mulched path that runs along a gently sloping riverbank covered in native grasses and a few burr oaks.

a restored oak savannah with native grasses in the front and a mix of deciduous trees in the back

Two children running up a gently sloping hill with short crabgrass. A row of trees sporting autumn colors rises beyond the crest of the hill.

1 9 70

Jeremy Glover @jgrantglover.bsky.social · 14h

Happy Indigenous Peoples' Day!

Sadly, we missed our opportunity to properly honor Christopher Columbus by forming an ad hoc Committee on Monument Relocation.

An aerial image showing the southern section of Grant Park. The image has been annotated with a red circle around the former location of the Christopher Columbus monument and a red dotted line ending with an arrow leading to Lake Michigan.

21

Jeremy Glover @jgrantglover.bsky.social · 15h

The barrier is money. I mean, it's costing the CTA $6 billion just to extend the Red line 5 miles over a right-of-way that already exists.

I suppose you could say that the CTA's inability to build new rail at a reasonable price is also a barrier.

1 4

Jeremy Glover @jgrantglover.bsky.social · 22h

Yes, this was part of CTA’s 1958 New Horizons plan. I’m not sure if it was ever seriously considered, though.

2 22

Jeremy Glover @jgrantglover.bsky.social · 2d

This rally was brought to you by the excellent intersection redesign from 2017 that bent Racine to meet Broadway at a right angle, creating a huge pedestrian plaza in the process. Would love to see more of these along Chicago’s diagonal streets.

Two side-by-side images of the same intersection before and after it was reconstructed to create a large plaza

1 4 52

Reposted by Jeremy Glover

👁🌻🦊⚙️⚓ Bob, Engineer, Pusher of Paper @navmecheng.bsky.social · 2d

> It is 2025 BC. I am a soldier from one of the outlying provinces called to defend the pyramid in Memphis

> It is 2025 AD. I am a soldier from one of the outlying provinces called to defend the pyramid in Memphis

Soldiers at the Bass Pro Shops pyramid in Memphis, TN.

70 3.5K 12K

Jeremy Glover @jgrantglover.bsky.social · 3d

Yo I’m just trying to go to bed here. This is killing me. 🐅⚾️🔱

1 14

Jeremy Glover @jgrantglover.bsky.social · 3d

Y’all need to see this sign.

2 8 67

Jeremy Glover @jgrantglover.bsky.social · 3d

Cheers, also from the couch. Go Mariners.

2

Jeremy Glover @jgrantglover.bsky.social · 3d

My mom sent us this popup Halloween decoration, and when my 3 y.o. son (who’s in a Spanish immersion daycare) saw it he said “that’s where chumbala lives”.

5

Jeremy Glover @jgrantglover.bsky.social · 3d

The troops do it for the love of the game.

4

Jeremy Glover @jgrantglover.bsky.social · 3d

The sidewalk data comes from CMAP's 2018 regional sidewalk inventory.

Regional Sidewalk Inventory, Northeastern Illinois, 2018

This feature layer presents the existence of sidewalks in northeastern Illinois as well as whether those sidewalks have a barrier or buffer from moving traffic. The features were digitized from aerial...

datahub.cmap.illinois.gov

6

Jeremy Glover @jgrantglover.bsky.social · 3d

The pilot zone was never determined, so I picked an area roughly in the 1st ward, since the ordinance was sponsored by Alderman La Spata.

$24 million still isn't cheap, but it's not a crazy amount for such an important service. And we've already spent 10x that on misconduct settlements this year!

1 10

Jeremy Glover @jgrantglover.bsky.social · 3d

Last week while voting down the Plow the Sidewalk pilot, Ald. Conway tweeted a misleading cost estimate for a citywide program. He extrapolated the pilot cost using area instead of sidewalk length and came up with a $40m price tag. I did the math the right way and got a figure almost half the size.

Alderman Bill Conway @AldConway · Oct 3

Plow The Sidewalks cost estimates.

The 1.5 sq mile pilot would cost $261,413.

Assuming 234 sq miles in Chicago, that would make the total cost $40,780,428 annually.

Hearing from @StreetsandSan & @ChicagoDOT & @MOPDChicago & @ChicagoCityLaw now:

Some potential caveats: 👇

Map showing sidewalks in a 1.5 sqmi area of Chicago bounded by North, Ashland, Chicago, and California Avenues. Total sidewalk length: 124,922.34 meters

Pilot cost $261,413.00
Example pilot zone sidewalk length 124,922.34 meters
Cost per meter $2.09
Total Chicago sidewalk length 11,579,447.17 meters
Total estimated cost $24,231,198.75

2 21

Jeremy Glover @jgrantglover.bsky.social · 4d

Please lord don’t make me suffer through a Cubs-Dodgers series.

1 9

Reposted by Jeremy Glover

Kevin J. CREATURE @kevinjkircher.com · 4d

Over 40% of corn grown in Indiana is used to make ethanol that cars burn. One acre of corn yields about 16,500 vehicle-miles per year of ethanol, which sounds high until you realize that one acre of solar yields about 2,700,000 vehicle-miles per year: 16,000% more driving for a given plot of land.

40 460 1.2K

Jeremy Glover @jgrantglover.bsky.social · 4d

Let’s expand downtown zoning along the entire lakefront!

2

Jeremy Glover @jgrantglover.bsky.social · 4d

Despite being two blocks from the 'L' and in the shadow of a half-dozen 20-30 story high rises, this site only allows a FAR of 2.5 by right. And that's with one of the highest-density residential zonings! By my calculation, the existing building has a FAR of ≈2.47. We gotta up those numbers.

Eric Erins @ericerins.bsky.social · 4d

Huge Development site hit the market in Edgewater. Right on Sheridan, just south of Loyola, couple blocks from the redline. Demolition in progress on the old hospital. Asking $6M for the entire site. Can the market support a new highrise again finally? www.loopnet.com/Listing/6130...

2 3 17

Jeremy Glover @jgrantglover.bsky.social · 4d

Even the street design in 1983 was leaps and bounds ahead of what we're doing today in the US. I'd kill to have traffic diverters like that in my neighborhood.

Hackney Cyclist @hackneycyclist.bsky.social · 4d

Frans Halsstraat, Amsterdam in 1983 and today

There are no trees in 1983 and the road is tarmac. Today it is paved and very green. A young girls cycles on her bike

2 1 17

Jeremy Glover @jgrantglover.bsky.social · 5d

There's actually a very good (by American standards) intercity Amtrak route between Milwaukee and Chicago. But it should be better.

1 7

Jeremy Glover @jgrantglover.bsky.social · 5d

PM2.5 concentrations in Cook County steadily fell from 2000 until leveling off in 2016. (Hmm, what else happened in 2016?) In recent years, we've seen several large spikes due to the impact of wildfire smoke.

The WHO recommends an annual average of 5 µg/m³. We've got a long way to go.

Average monthly PM2.5 concentrations at Cook County monitoring sites, 2000-2025

10

Jeremy Glover @jgrantglover.bsky.social · 5d

Hello from the roof on this beautiful autumn afternoon. I just installed a mini weather station up here because that’s the type of nerd I am. I can already tell that I’m going to want an upgrade with more sensors.

A distant view of the Chicago skyline from a rooftop. The sky is blue and scattered with small white puffy clouds.

A weather station on a dresser with the time, date, indoor and outdoor temperatures, humidity, and wind speed/direction.

6

Jeremy Glover @jgrantglover.bsky.social · 5d

Woah! 280 sensors! That's awesome. Can't wait to see the data.

2