I went back last month to visit. First time in probably 11/12 years.

That Chicago Riverwalk is great. Man I was so proud walking that thing. I remember that area was just there to take a piss in. The water taxi's and tour ships were a nice touch. Looks great.

It's too much traffic on a narrow river. It's bad enough with Micheal P O'Neil and Kiowa every day and it gets terrifying when the Deegan comes through once a month or so. Already this year there have been a few narrowly averted disasters.

The kayaks in particular have been gasoline on a fire since their inception. When I was working on the river back in HS/college it was bad, now it's a timebomb. That transient dock is at a terrible location, right around the blind bend at Wabash where traffic starts bottlenecking.

It's still pretty cool when Morgan and tug Zeus do their little ballet in front of the locks with the Deegan.

Daley I vision and Daley II implementation. They usually got public spaces correct, just like any totalitarian leader.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I can see a deer on the riverwalk from my building.

Honestly, I never use it. Fuck having to walk up and down stairs to be closer to the disgusting look and smell of that sewer of a river.

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There's been a lot of positive redevelopment in the city from the center out. I still recall the concrete jungle that was the UIC campus, a desolate south loop and a scary drive from downtown to the Chicago Stadium along Madison. The Riverwalk and Millennium Park are two solid additions to the core.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Agree on Millennium Park. The transformation of that area is awesome. Especially eating at the Gage.

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Billy Lawless bars getting all sorts of mentions at the site this week

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I agree on the Millennium Park mention. Actually the entire lakefront area as well as the river walk (viewed from a boat) seems very nice. I don't remember all the political Daley issues but I thought Millennium and all that renovation got him torched?

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Elections have consequences.

If memory serves it was behind schedule and way over budget. It turned out to be a centerpiece of the downtown area.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

It was. Now it's become Mag Mile South.

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Millennium Park for me was ok. Maybe if i was a kid i would have liked it better. I liked that Stadium area, looked cool with the metallaic overhang thing. The bean I just don't get. The water spout thing I liked but didnt participate.

Yeah, I'm not crazy about the bean in and of itself but what's important is that they made something of the dumpy Illinois Central yards and terminal (Millennium Station isn't a masterpiece but from the pictures I've seen it's still a huge improvement). For a city that's so hung up on its lakefront as public space, it's become hard to imagine Chicago without Millennium Park.

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That is a long time 11 1/2 years. Hope you had a blast!

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Happy Halloween!

Agreed. I remember thinking at the time, "how can it cost $200 million to build a park?" but somehow it now seems worth it.

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

Every day I passed the bean, I'd tell a tourist that government secretly has someone living in there and they need to put their ear right up near the bottom to hear what's going on.

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was an ugly waste of space before

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Since I haven't worked in the Loop for years and live near the lake anyway, I've never been either to the Riverwalk or the vanity project/dick picture that is Millennium Park.

Maggie Daley park is a continuing f you from her cocksucker of a husband. A constant reminder of the fraud, personal enrichment and selling out by that idiot.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

I wonder if Daley takes his twenty something girlfriends for walks through Maggie park and they ask him who that woman was.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.