Tag Archives: Roger’s Park
Home sweet Monster Tudor home
In 2014 someone tried to steal my apartment building. Her name was Tanya, a petite and nonthreatening-looking woman who had briefly owned a unit in the building that was foreclosed on in the 90’s. One day she showed up in our lobby with a locksmith and he was already mid-way through changing our door and […]
Pandemic fear infrastructure in Rogers Park, Chicago
We’ve been in a quarantine lock-down for six weeks in Chicago. While all my friends seem to be spending their time cleaning and organizing their homes, crafting, learning new languages and growing sourdough starters, it turns out that in quarantine I am still a slob. So rather than magically transforming into a more productive person, […]
Quarantined travelers: these alleys are for you
I don’t own a car and I haven’t been on public transportation in over a month. So I walk. I love walking and I especially love walking with HOB, though of course during this time of pandemic-avoidance walking comes with terms and conditions; no access to parks or the lakefront, we are advised to wear […]
Mundelein College: resourceful nuns to the rescue
It was considered a skyscraper; a skyscraper college for Catholic women. And what did a Catholic women’s college need? Nuns, of course, to administer the college and teach the students. The nuns, like they so often have been, were ingenious heroines of Mundelien College. But before you hear about the nuns, you need to know […]
A walk through the intersection of Howard Street, Western Avenue and COVID-19 cancellations
On Thursday morning I was at an operations meeting at work, walking through a couple of weeks of programs with my colleagues—all the performances, films, community meetings, lectures, rentals, youth projects, exhibition load-ins and everything else that makes the museum vital and necessary. By Friday night, all of that was cancelled. The museums are shut […]
An all true and terrifying list of crimes committed by my immigrant and refugee neighbors
The 45th president of the United States recently created a new homeland security department called VOICE (Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement Office). VOICE launched a hotline last week specifically for Americans to report crimes “committed by criminal aliens”. On learning that many concerned citizens have been calling the VOICE hotline to report aliens of the flying saucer […]
Walking the West Rogers Park eruv, the invisible spiritual city on Chicago’s North Side
Look closely. See the long, black rectangle hidden in the mural below, beneath the red arms? That’s a door to a invisible city. An invisible city, or perhaps more accurately, an enclosed spiritual zone, known as an eruv. I’ve been traveling through the West Rogers Park eruv for years, unaware of its existence, until a few weeks […]
In which the art of Thomas Kong swallows a bodega in Rogers Park
I’ve been walking by Kim’s Corner Food in Rogers Park on Chicago’s far North Side almost daily for 14 years. I went inside a few times to have keys copied. The proprietor, Thomas Kong, was always kindly and soft spoken. About five years ago this sign appeared. God is good. You are special. Fudge Brownies. Soon after, […]
Devon Street Chicago: where a trip to the hardware store leads to hand slaughtered meat and a mango lassi
As much as I love to travel, I always end up homesick for the sheer variety of people in Chicago, especially for the delightful urban melting pot of my own neighborhood. We live in multi-cultural splendor in Roger’s Park, on the North side of Chicago. This morning HOB and I set out for a walk to the […]
Picnic at the Cathedral 