$20 per Gallon?

Interesting series of short articles in Forbes Magazine about life in America when gas is at $20/gal. Its based on a new book by Chris Steiner, a staff writer for Forbes. Its available at audible.com so I'll have to download it and check it out.

Tipping Point

Well, it appears that this blog has become a repository of links that I find interesting and want to save for posterity.

Here's an interesting analysis of demographic data in Chicago from from 1970-1980.

Basically, there's the concept of "tipping point" where whites will tolerate a small minority population in the neighborhood, but will leave (white-flight) when the minority population reaches a critical value, the so-called tipping point. According to the data, the tipping point in Chicago from 1970 to 1980 was 7%! This explains why there are so few stably integrated neighborhoods/suburbs in Chicagoland; Oak Park, being one of the few. It'd be interesting to analyze 1990 and 2000 census data to see if the tipping point percentage has changed.

'WE'RE ALL RACIST NOW'

While browsing city-data, I found this fascinating article about racial change in the near west suburbs of Chicago. Its a bit dated (1994), but the issues still remain very relevant 15 years later.

We're #7!!! (Really?)

According to CNN and Money Magazine, Oak Park is #7 on the list of best places for the rich and single, beating out places like Irvine, CA, Belmont and Arlington, MA. As gratifying as it is to see our fair village get some positive press, I find it a bit hard to believe. Oak Park is great for the rich and married with children set, in fact, its probably near ideal for that demographic, but the single? Not so much.

Yes, Oak Park got a small but decent downtown area with shops, restaurants, and a bar or two, but really, compared to our next door neighbor (Chicago), its pretty miniscule. If I were still single, I think living in Oak Park would drive me crazy. Even working out in the far burbs wouldn't prevent me from living in the city proper. Still, I suppose its all relative, and we beat our neighbor to the southwest, Lisle, by ten places, so take that, DuPage County!

A Tale of Two Exurbs

Interesting article in The American Prospect about new urbanism and the right (and wrong) way to build suburbia.

A Tale of Two Exurbs
http://prospect.org/cs/articles?article=a_tale_of_two_exurbs

This article fits nicely with Christopher Leinberger's Atlantic Monthly article I cited last year (and actually quotes Leinberger.)

Frankie Manning: 1914-2009

Somewhat uncharacteristicly for me, I became heavily involved with social dance a little over ten years ago. More specifically, I fell into the Lindy Hop scene in Chicago, and after I moved to Boston, I quickly infiltrated the scene there as well. I met my wife that way as well as many of my good friends.

Although no one person can claim to have invented Lindy Hop, arguably Frankie Manning did more to popularize it back in the 1930-40s and then more remarkably help repopularize it in the 80s and 90s when I was introduced to it. This guy was still dancing in his 80s and 90s with two artifcial hips and the same infectious enthusiasm for the dance that he had over 60 years prior.

Even at the end, he was planning on attending a Lindy Hop Festival in honor of his 95th birthday. What a wonderful, well-lived life. I can only hope I'm still actively doing what I love at that age.

RIP Barnes & Noble, 659 Diversey Parkway

Last weekend, feeling a bit of wanderlust, I snuck out of the house while Julia was asleep and headed into Chicago. I wasn't quite sure where I was going to end up, but I gravitated towards the intersection of Clark and Diversey. I used to spend endless hours in this neighborhood while in medical school. This is pretty much the heart of the vibrant, dense lakefront north side. Within a few blocks of this intersection were too many restaurants to name, music stores, coffee shops, and the first Barnes and Noble in Chicago, located just one block west of the intersection on Diversey. The restaurants and coffee shops are still there, the music stores are barely hanging on, but sadly, the B&N is no more.

I first walked into this bookstore in 1993, just after it opened. Back then, the idea of a bookstore where browsing/lingering was encouraged was a novelty. The idea of having a coffee shop within a bookstore, crazy! Something about the high, arched ceiling (it felt vaguely barn-like) and the dark Chestnut stained bookshelves appealed to me. I spent many a night browsing and lingering till closing (yeah, I was a geek), and occasionally coughing up the money for a scone and tea (and a poor student geek at that).

All that time spent at that location imprinted somewhere in my brain, and I've always had fond memories of time spent there. So I was disappointed to approach the location and find it shuttered for good. According to the notice on the door, it closed on December 30th. I think I was last there in November, and all seemed normal at the time.

I suppose it was inevitable, between Amazon and this depression, that the days of these chain stores are numbered. Oak Park has a Borders bookstore which I've spent quite a few hours and dollars in (don't care for the tan-colored bookshelves nearly as much), but I'm expecting it to close eventually too (along with the entire company.)

Hopefully the independent bookstores can fill the void, because much as I enjoy web surfing, browsing Amazon (even with coffee in hand) isn't nearly as enjoyable as hanging out in these bookstores.