Why Chicago: Winter Warriors

The Chicago Bears are not the only athletes in town persevering through frigid cold and gusting winds from Lake Michigan.  Chicagoans prolong the inevitable dormancy of winter by continuing weekend soccer matches, flag football games, and daily runs against the wind well into November and December.

During a recent Saturday morning jog along Lake Front Path with members of Team in Training, I was baffled by the number of dedicated athletes ignoring 20 degree weather and high possibility of snow flurries.   The Team in Training volunteer staff even maintained periodic rest stops stocked with bananas and Gatorade.  Not an ideal Saturday morning for most!

Aside from runners and cyclists, the jog also provided a glimpse into soccer leagues organized by collectives like the Players Sports Group.  Outdoor soccer continues until early December before moving indoor for several months, but impromptu games of ice hockey fill the void throughout the winter season.

Capture footage of dedicated “Winter Warriors” and submit the results to Why Chicago.  Winners receive a trip to Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games for more cold weather…just what every Chicagoan desires

Why Chicago: Urban Botanical Gems

Remembering Chicago’s natural gems during the winter can be difficult with dormant beaches and parks settling for a four month stay.  However, a quick visit to either the Garfield or Lincoln Park Conservatories reminds residents of the beautiful spring, summer and fall seasons in Chicago.  A video capturing the exotic species and open spaces of the conservatories would provide a glimpse into the experience enjoyed during the traditional Olympic and Paralympic month of August.

When visiting Garfield Park Conservatory, be certain to spend time observing the lush ferns near the lagoon - some of which are nearly 300 years old.   Also of interest is the Sweet House - home to plants producing chocolate, sugar cane, chewing gum, vanilla and bananas.  The Lincoln Park Conservatory - completed slightly before Garfield Park in 1895 - was designed to create a “tropical paradise” escape from the effects of industrialization.   Entering a room filled with liberal shade from different Palm species definitely provides a paradise in the heart of Chicago.

Learn more about submitting videos on the “Why Chicago” Competition page.

Why Chicago: A City Full of Tour Guides

Chicago residents are familiar with visitors. Don’t believe me? Navy Pier alone attracts nearly 8 million visitors. The Obama Celebration at Grant Park drew over 100,000 people from across the U.S. for one night. Michigan Avenue’s Magnificent Mile provides ethnicities from around the world with shopping, dining, and entertainment on a daily basis.

With millions of annual tourists, Chicagoans have emerged as an immense group of volunteer tour guides ready to assist confused visitors upon first sighting of a fanny pack. Don’t believe me? I challenge anyone (skeptics, adventure seekers, etc) to tour the city with a camera asking for directions. A day of work should probably yield 50-60 helpful responses and also some local insight from Chicago’s hospitable residents.

Transform Chicago’s desire to share directional knowledge with the world into a WHY CHICAGO video. Read more on the Competition Guidelines page about requirements and the Grand Prize to Vancouver. This is your chance to ask another city for directions!

A Carbon Negative Getaway

A main attraction for the Chicago 2016 Olympic & Paralympic Games Bid is the compactness of venues, athlete living quarters and downtown tourist destinations. However, the influx of visitors to Chicago would also have access to relaxed pastoral getaways such as Monroe, Wisconsin’s Inn Serendipity during their stay.

Ecopreneurs Lisa Kivirist and John Ivanko left corporate positions in Chicago to build a Bed & Breakfast incubator (never thought I would type that phrase) for land-stewardship and sustainable living. The couple has created a retreat completely powered by renewable energy including a Straw Bale Greenhouse heated by passive solar. As a result of their efforts, Inn Serendipity is officially a “carbon negative” business, capturing more carbon than emitted through yearly operations.

Features of Inn Serendipity include:

• 680-watt photovoltaic system
• A labyrinth with 3000 years of history
• Solar heated water for bathrooms
• 10kW wind turbine system

Chicago’s skyscrapers and dense neighborhoods may intimidate some visitors, but a slower lifestyle is available in the surrounding areas. Don’t forget Wisconsin and Indiana are less than an hour away!

Locally Grown, Eco-Friendly Restaurants

by Andy Angelos

Chicago residents are already proud of their vast culinary treasures as demonstrated in numerous posts from Theresa. Adding to the diversity is a growing collection of environmentally conscious restaurants featuring locally grown food and energy saving practices. Some of the emerging conservation tactics employed by Chicago eateries include:

• Installing low-flow sprayers and dual flush toilets
• Reducing the pre-heat and idle time on cooking surfaces
• Run full capacity dishwasher loads
• Collecting organic waste for the Chicago Resource Center
• Use eco-friendly cleaners

Since I do not possess the same level of gastronomical expertise as Theresa or local critics like Tweating Out, I was forced to request help from my network of Twitter followers. Below are introductions to some of the more intriguing responses. Thanks to all who contributed!

312 Chicago. Chef Dean Zanella uses locally grown ingredients from Green City Market and naturally raised livestock. The “Italian-inspired American” food changes with seasonal produce but features constant specials such as seared day boat scallops. And for only $1000, Chef Zanella will instruct a personal cooking class and cater a small dinner party.

May Street Market. Located on 1132 W. Grand, May Street Market strives to provide multi-course meals for reasonable prices. Three full-course meals for $32 are offered nightly. The menu - created by owner and experienced Chef Alexander Cheswick - uses seasonal ingredients sourced from regional farmers.

Crust. This wood-oven pizzeria in Wicker Park was the fourth certified organic restaurant in the United States and the first in the Midwest. Owner Michael Altenberg also operates Bistro Campagne in Lincoln Square, which features locally grown and organic produce.

Uncommon Ground. Several blocks north of Wrigley Field, Uncommon Ground provides visitors with a unique blend of music, coffee, craft beer and locally inspired cuisine. The Devon location even hosted “Farmer Fridays” allowing Harvest Moon Farms to sell their sustainable organic products in the parking lot.

Feel free to add additional restaurants in the comments section!

Daley Praises Water Conservation and Sustainability

Athletes need fresh water. Chicago has cold waters of Lake Michigan and the strategically engineered Chicago River to quench their thirst. Seems like a perfect fit, right? Unfortunately the management of fresh water supply for Chicago residents is more complicated than my rudimentary illustration of supply and demand.

Mayor Daley discussed management of water resources today with a group of wastewater utility professionals and academics at the Water Environment Federation convention. ChiTownDaily’s Jennifer Slosar offers a complete synopsis of Daley’s remarks, which focused on Chicago’s network of “green infrastructure” programs dedicated to reducing water consumption. “Green infrastructure” initiatives include diverse solutions such as permeable pavers, rain gardens, rain barrels, green roofs, and bioswales.

An example of the “green infrastructure” recently helped a church remain flood-free during the largest Chicago rainfall in 100 years. St. Margaret Mary - a church located on the far North Side - habitually suffered from flood damage until connecting with the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) to construct a bioswale and two rain gardens. Bioswales are drainage ditches with sloping sides designed to remove silt, pollution, and runoff water from non-permeable surfaces such as parking lots. The bioswale and rain gardens combined helped divert rain water to areas covered with soil instead of overflowing sewers. For more information on the St. Margaret Mary project, visit the CNT project page.

“Growing” Opportunities in Chicago

by Andy Angelos

The economic impacts of the Olympic and Paralympic Games - as mentioned in a previous post - can be summarized into three categories: the creation of world-class facilities; recognition through global media coverage; and the influx of jobs, training, volunteerism, and funding for community development. Job creation and training are arguably the most important economic vestige of the Games - providing incentives for families to relocate and prosper in the host city for decades after the event.

Job creation and learning valuable life skills, however, are not reserved exclusively for momentous occasions as illustrated by Chicago based Growing Home. The non-profit social enterprise provides business and agriculture training for homeless and low-income residents of the city. Growing Home currently maintains three farm sites in Illinois, which are staffed by interns who cultivate and sell organic produce during a seven-month training program. All proceeds are reinvested into the program for improvement of training and maintenance of the farms.

Growing Home Administrative Director Rebekah Silverman graciously provided additional insight concerning the organization and also offered some advice for Chicago’s Olympic/Paralympic Bid. “One of our main goals is to help every intern find full-time employment or enter another training program by the end,” said Rebekah. Participants typically graduate remarking on the opportunity “to break away from the poverty cycle” and “build self-esteem by doing work that has real objective and results.” The life-changing self-esteem boost has resulted in a 68% employment rate for Growing Home participants, with others returning to receive their GED or additional education.

The job influx presented to Olympic host cities would be ideal for Growing Home graduates with newly minted business and agricultural skills. Silverman, however, impresses the need for the City to embrace candidates with employment barriers: “Folks like our program participants, who have some barriers to employment - [would] need to have support of the city. Not necessarily just the city with a Capital ‘C’ but also the Chicago community.”

To learn more about Growing Home visit their blog. I also hope to reconnect with Rebekah and team for a tour of their revamped Wood Street facility in the near future. Stay tuned!

Olympic Cleaning

by Andy Angelos

Cleaning is one of the most popular and exciting themes connected to the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Media outlets from across the globe suffer through crowded press conferences to discover insight from the world’s most prolific cleaning crews.

So cleaning is obviously not the most intriguing element of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, but maintaining sanitary conditions is essential to creating a welcoming environment for visitors. Alexander Schless from Hako-Asia - the company contracted to supply cleaning equipment for the 2004 Athens Games - describes the logistical hurdles connected to the immaculate presentation of Olympic windows, swimming pools, stadiums, and public spaces: “During the games, only at night is there time to clean - and you certainly have to make sure that, whatever the conditions, all jobs get done.”

At the center of sanitation is the environment and the many concoctions used by janitorial staffs containing potentially hazardous chemicals. Luckily, Chicago based company PortionPac provides a balanced solution ensuring both maximum cleanliness and environmental caution.  PortionPac is not currently affiliated with Chicago2016, but the company’s existence demonstrates the eco-friendly solutions available in our backyard.

PortionPac Chemical Corporation started manufacturing concentrated cleaning solutions in 1964. The company examines the entire product life-cycle from production to storage to distribution and disposal. Some of the benefits devised in PortionPac’s 40+ years of operation include:

• Offering multi-purpose cleaning solutions capable of completing 80% of customers cleaning needs
• Customers reuse bottles and fill with concentrate from larger containers
• Replace harsh chemical with safer formulations
• Portioning is controlled to ensure proper product mixtures

Despite the recent “greenwashing” employed by many corporations, PortionPac has not emphasized the environmental aspects of their own washing solutions. COO Burt Klein explains the different customer-centric approach of the Chicago company, “Our response is education and longevity. With education the consumer is better able to make a good decision and with longevity we will outlast them because I don’t believe that Greenwashing is a sustainable way of doing business.”

PortionPac is a founding member of the Chicago Sustainable Business Alliance.

Hitting the Streets Part 2: Little Village and Saucedo Elementary

by Andy Angelos

As Blagica noted in her most recent post, Thursday October 2 marked one year until the International Olympic Committee selects a 2016 host from the remaining pool of Tokyo, Rio, Madrid, and Chicago.  While Blagica and team raised awareness in Greektown (I was admittedly jealous) and at Pershing West Elementary, I ventured to Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood on West 26th street with an energetic group of volunteers and 2016 staff members.

Little Village, for those not familiar, is home to the largest concentration of Mexican-Americans in the Midwest.  The sizable community extends from 18th and Western to 26th and Cicero, an area featuring thriving businesses.  I was definitely impressed by the mixture of entrepreneurship - street vendors, Quinceanera shops, dry cleaners, grocers, etc.

After distributing the countdown clocks to neighborhood residents heading to work, the team descended upon Saucedo Elementary Scholastic Academy.  Excited parents and staff members welcomed the Chicago 2016 team and Olympian Connie Moore - a member of 2004 U.S. Track and Field.  Connie’s energy (partially fueled by a team pit-stop for Starbucks) sparked a spirited pep rally for Saucedo sixth graders interested in learning about the life of an Olympic athlete.  One student even recognized Connie from a television advertisement after the 2004 Summer Games…amazing memory.

Viewing city pride and Olympic enthusiasm from 12-13 year olds is inspiring for several reasons - mainly because the children of Saucedo will be helping the event organizers, promoters, and entrepreneurs that fuel Chicago’s economy in 2016.   Looking forward to more outreach with the city’s youth!

Quick Facts from the Chicago Conservation Corps

by Andy Angelos

Together with the Department of Environment, the Chicago Conservation Corps provides environmental training, technical assistance and resources to a network of local volunteers. After receiving training, Corps volunteers are offered sample project guides focused on improving the quality of Land, Air, Energy or Water in the Chicago Metropolitan Area. Below are overviews of recommend projects and how the Corps efforts continuously improve Chicago’s standard of living.

Roll Out the Barrel. The program title might conjure imagery of Lincoln Square’s German bars, but Roll Out the Barrel is a neighborhood program promoting the distribution of 55-gallon rain drums. Collecting rain water in urban environments littered with impervious surfaces (paved, buildings, etc) helps prevent both sewage overflow and also fresh water availability.

The Department of Energy offers discount rates for rain barrels, which are easily installed to garage or home downspouts. Common uses for the collected water include watering gardens, washing cars and pets, etc. Collected rainwater is not immediately suitable for drinking and presents a potential breeding ground for mosquitoes if not maintained properly.

Green A Festival. The city of Chicago host hundreds of festivals per year of varying scales. The sprawling Taste of Chicago and impressive Air & Water Show are coupled with more modest events such as the weekly farmer’s market on Division. Chicago Conservation Corps recognizes the amount of waste that can be generated from the food, cups, plates, plastic, etc disseminated at festivals and offers a “Green A Festival Project Guide.” Corps members are encouraged to collaborate with event organizers to promote biodegradable utensils, reusable water bottles, and environmentally friendly cleaning solutions.

As with most Corps program, Green A Festival and Roll Out The Barrel primarily surround education. For information about participating with the Chicago Conservation Corps, visit the registration information page on the city’s website.

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