Category: City Life 2015 Critics’ Picks

Making something like a pot joke on 4/20 Three years ago Cook County state’s attorney Anita Alvarez described marijuana as a dangerous “gateway drug” while prosecuting thousands of cases involving the possession of dime bags. But as calls for reform grow louder—and she prepares for a potentially difficult reelection campaign next year—Alvarez has changed her […]

Joanna Klonsky @joannaklonsky Joanna Klonsky does for the City Council’s 11-member progressive caucus what it takes Mayor Emanuel’s two dozen flacks to do—get the word out. Hey, Mr. Mayor, hire Klonsky, so you can cut your PR budget and spend the savings on schools! Born in Chicago, Klonsky graduated from Oak Park River Forest High […]

Friends of the Parks fotp.org, @FOTPChicago The fight to keep the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and the Obama Presidential Library off land owned by the Chicago Park District was a David and Goliath match from the get-go, with the tiny nonprofit Friends of the Parks facing off against the mayor of Chicago and a […]

Chicago Light Brigade chicagolightbrigade.org, @ChiLightBrigade The Chicago Light Brigade performs creative protests the group has dubbed “light actions”—using projectors, battery-powered LEDs, paper lanterns, and the like—to make literally brilliant political statements. Inspired by a similar Milwaukee-based project called the Overpass Light Brigade, CLB supports grassroots activism by appearing at various events and helping other organizations […]

We Charge Genocide wechargegenocide.org When the United Nations Committee Against Torture convened for its quadrennial hearings last November, the voices of Chicago activists were loud and clear. Several groups with local connections traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, to present evidence on police torture to UNCAT. Among them was We Charge Genocide, a volunteer-run grassroots organization that […]

Chicago Architecture Biennial chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org, @chicagobiennial Who would have the nerve to knock down a unique landmark building over the horrified protests of an international roster of top architects one year, then launch a global architectural forum courting the respect and participation of the same architects the very next year? Why, Chicago would! Ergo, the first-ever […]

The “Pray 4 Rose” mural and shrine In early March, shortly after Derrick Rose suffered his umpteenth knee injury, a cartoon likeness of the Bulls point guard appeared beneath the Kennedy Expressway overpass on Fullerton Avenue—the same place where ten years earlier the religious convened in droves to admire a splotch of salt runoff that […]

Robert Morris University’s League of Legends team rmueagles.com, @RMUeSports Some folks snickered when Robert Morris University announced the nation’s first athletic scholarship program for a PC game called League of Legends. But by breaking college athletics’ “virtual barrier,” the school is merely keeping up with times in which competitive gaming has come of age. As […]

The Cal-Sag Trail calsagtrail.org, @calsagtrail There’s been a fair amount of gloating lately over the fact that the recently opened Bloomingdale Trail, a 2.7-mile elevated rails-to-trails conversion on the near northwest side, is nearly twice as long as New York’s much-touted High Line. But down in the southwest suburbs, just outside Chicago’s city limits, the […]

DePaul women’s team, 13 consecutive seasons @DePaulWBBHoops Exactly zero teams from Illinois made the men’s NCAA basketball tournament earlier this year, but that doesn’t mean March Madness skipped the state: the Northwestern and DePaul women’s teams both went to the Big Dance. While it was NU’s first appearance in 18 years, the Blue Demons have […]

Radish goradish.com Too tired to cook and put off by all the usual unhealthy delivery options? Lazy man cannot live on pizza alone, and Radish, a local tech start-up that launched in April, offers a needed solution to that dilemma: a smartphone app that seems like a mashup of Uber and Whole Foods’ food court. […]

CreativeMornings creativemornings.com/cities/chi, @Chicago_CM The monthly breakfast-hour lecture series CreativeMornings began in New York City in 2008 and has since sprouted chapters worldwide through which professionals in diverse fields gather before the workday begins, hungry for inspiration and snacks. When I moved from Boston last year, the Chicago outpost offered a quick way to connect with […]