The Plan of Chicago, Pt. 4: Chicago’s Grand Heartbeat

We're nearing the end of tour exploration of the Plan of Chicago. This week we look at the final chapter, The Heart of Chicago. 

Show notes here!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

This week was the first week that we realized that we are actually nerds.

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Just this week?

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Yeah, it was this week. 77 Flavors Part 4. Let's go. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Turn down my headphones just a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Yeah, I got you. Let me let me ask you.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

You also said 77 Flavors part four?

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Yeah. Because this is the fourth iteration of this podcast. Oh. Y'all get it.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

He also means possibly plan of Chicago plan.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's definitely what I meant.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Yeah. Anyway, welcome. There we go.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Welcome.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Uh thanks. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

How are you?

SPEAKER_01 0:42

I'm good.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Uh welcome back to 77 Flavors. If uh you're new here, every week we visit a new topic. Oh, well, not a new topic. We tell a story from Chicago history. Sometimes it's new. Sometimes it's a new topic. Uh this iteration, we uh are kind of like doing uh multiple episodes per topic. It's been really fun. We are on the Plan of Chicago part four. So if this happens to be the first episode you're tuning into, I would go back and listen to uh episode one uh of this uh section or from January. January is when like the we we've we've kind of revamped it a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Um I like all of our episodes, but like these have been different.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

These have been these have been really fun. I like the um kind of uh structure for these better. We've played with the structure a few times, it's my favorite one so far.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

A lot of people like the new structure.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Yeah. Um if this is not your first time, welcome back. You know, you know, there's some some fun history here, and we're excited. Uh if uh you do like what we're doing and you want to support us, go ahead and give us a little while you're listening. You don't even have to leave the screen you're in.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Yeah, also hit the donate button.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

You're probably not on a screen.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

You're probably while you're listening. I mean, you probably yeah, yeah, you own a screen.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Well, uh like when I listen to podcasts, I'm like doing something else. I'm like cleaning or like cooking or something. So I'm not like on my phone, but if you are on your phone, hello five stars. Uh let us know if you do like it uh in the um you know rating. We'd love to hear how was your week?

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Good. It was it was good. I mean, busy, long. I it just it seemed like it's a lot of like background work stuff this week. Yeah, a lot shoot. Even after this, uh it's still a lot of background work stuff going on.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

For sure. We did do some fun stuff though. We started out our week last Monday by going to a preview slash interview for Sophronia.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Yeah, which was super cool because we got to talk to the cast.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

Yeah, it was it's the uh first, well not first, it's like a commissioned piece from Lyric. Yeah, not like it's literally um a commissioned piece from Lyric for uh Avery Young, and he's been working on it for five years.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Yeah, yeah. I mean, so him and the cast are been working on it, but he is the first Chicago uh poet laureate uh in Chicago, I believe.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

I I think so.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Yeah, because like I mean, now he brought it to the lyric opera. Yeah, so I mean that makes him the first in Chicago.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

So it was so phenomenal.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Yeah, yeah, he went crazy.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

What was your experience sitting there watching that show?

SPEAKER_01 3:20

I mean, it was I mean, it was good. See, it's it's a black event, y'all. Yeah, so he's saying let's get that out there. It's a black event, and it felt good to see, you know, representation like that. Yeah, like that. Now I'm not saying like having you know black people on stage. They've been doing that, you know what I mean? Like anybody's black story, like a quintessential black story. So like a black story, yeah, like done very well with all the with everything, and and seeing that in uh lyric opera, yeah. It was unreal. I mean, church, it was church. Like we you you don't expect to go to a lyric opera house, one of the biggest opera houses in the world, and see church, yeah, blues, RB-ish, yeah, you know what I mean? Like gospel, you know what I mean? Like you don't expect to see that in his glory. Yeah, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 4:06

It was I saw someone post that they um took their mom to the show, and their mom had lived in the south like J and during Jim Crow. And to watch the story of if you haven't heard of Sephone, the story is that they uh the the family goes through the great migration, right? So it starts with the family in the 20s, the husband and wife meet, they have children, and it's like the uh struggles of the daughter uh after they had moved to the north and how she kind of like was still connected to the land that they left behind, yeah. Uh and like the legacy of her family in the south. And so it it was just so uh interesting. I mean, like just seeing it come to life like that, the music is uh was unreal.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Yeah. You know what was really cool with the connection, and and it's crazy because watching this made me realize how connected, you know, I am to the south. You know what I mean? Like the great migration, like it's really deep. And the one thing that made me realize I am like my family, I'm a direct descendant of people from the south, which I already knew. Um, was they use the term Charlie, you know, when they call a uh a white person. So that I never knew what that was. I just knew it was like that's just something that you know we said when I was on the South Side. You know what I mean? Like that was just something we did. We talked about some to somebody. We would talk to each other like that. You know what I mean? Like me and my cousins, and like just people. And hearing them, he's like, Dan, that's a that's really South. And I knew it came from the South because my grandma, she was, I mean, you know, yeah, she she was from the South. And uh, you know, hearing, oh my God, it's crazy. Like, so that I was like, man, I am really like a what is it, one, two, third generation from from removed but from the south.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Your grandmother was born in the south. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Not even third. Because your mom would be first generation.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Yeah, I guess, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm I'm second generation. You know, it which I knew that because like I'm what second generation Chicago. Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean? Like, that's that's crazy. So they was good, it was very good. They and they did a great job. That cast, I mean, the cast did a fantastic job from the orchestra down to the shout out to the lyric opera orchestra making that transition.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Yeah, they added some more pieces to the orchestra, obviously, like the guitar and yeah, that kind of stuff to get that sound. And it was so phenomenal. Yeah, they were great, and it was the stage was so cool because they were kind of like usually the orchestra is in the orchestra pit, right? Yeah, but this one they were above the above, above the cast, and it was they were like on a platform above and behind a see-through screen, yeah, like a transparent screen that was also projecting images of like whether the family was in their home or in their uh in the field or like wherever they were. And seeing the uh conductor back there and like some of the orchestra was fascinating. I've never seen like we've gone to Lyric for the last two years almost every show, and they're all the orchestra's always in the pit. Or like if we're seeing a concert, they're on stage. On stage, yeah. But seeing them on stage above the cast was so cool. Yeah, I don't know. It was just such a fun. I I cannot wait for him to take this to other uh theaters around the world, around the country, wherever he goes. Um, shout out to him.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

This was like a huge had the city on his back and he delivered. He delivered, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

Two fully sold-out shows, it should have been at least like a 4-day run minimum.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

You know, the powers may be that maybe who knows where this goes for him.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

Yeah, I honestly, you know what I'm sure he's gonna take it somewhere else.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

I was sitting there and I was thinking the whole time. I'm like, we watching stars be born. Like, like I'm like that. As we were sitting there, we are literally in the presence of stars that are about to be born from this. I you know, I mean, like when people saw Michael Jordan for the first time, yeah, they had to be like, bro, this is a star. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like when you see certain things, you like, we're at the beginning of this.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Yeah, like we And like the cast has been doing what they're doing for a while, just never in the context of an opera. Yeah, and so it was just fascinating.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

It'd take a while to get to start them. It'd take a while for you to like reach that breakpoint, yeah, where everybody knows who you are.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Yeah, you're like a household name. Yeah, we Avery Avery is a household name, I feel like soon.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Avery young, y'all. Not already. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:37

I feel like within like his peers and like the black community and like the poet community, like whether whether whether like that creative community, everyone knows who he is, but to be like a mainstream household name is like a sep.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Because they they go on uh they touring after this slight tour uh after this. So uh they're moving on. They're moving on.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

I'm excited for them. We also had some good food this week. We went to Cinco Rabonitos, which in in Pilson, the Pilson one. I didn't know they had a Hyde Park location.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Yeah, I saw it on the menu too. For some reason, I didn't know that. I always talk about the one that was. Pilsen. Yeah, Pilson. Yeah, yeah. It was delicious. Yeah, I mean, they don't never miss. Ever. Ever. That's the first time though I had enchiladas from there.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

And their mole is so good.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

Mole is crazy.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

Everyone at the table had mole. Yeah, they in different variations. You had it in enchiladas, I had it in the uh um the rice, and it was so good.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

Yeah, they they go crazy. I mean, like, they don't miss. If you've been to Cinco Rebenitos, you know what time it is.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

Yeah, and then we a new one for us was Golden Bull in Chinatown. Oh my god, add that to your list. Triple crown is our like our go-to Chinatown take like takeout order.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

Golden Bull might Golden Bull like 1A1B at this point. Yeah, I I didn't think nothing was gonna be triple crown.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

Triple crown is like, you know, it's gonna be good every single time.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

And when we went to um what's funny is we were when we were up in uh Lincoln Park, we would order from Les Saze One, which is right down, you know. Yeah, and that was That was phenomenal. That was phenomenal.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

I mean you you throw a rock in Chinatown and your hands.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

Like Yeah, you can blind dart it and you you're gonna be all right, you know. But man, like I don't know, y'all need to go check this one out. Yeah, it was phenomenal. You gotta plan accordingly and make your reservations.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

Make reservations, make reservations because it was packed. The place is not giant, no, but they have some like big tables that they save for bigger parties. If you're like four people, it was five of us, and I was like, we should have made reservations because we the wait wasn't the wait was an hour.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Oh no, we didn't. We didn't make the reservation first time.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

We were supposed to be there at six, so we didn't sit down until like 7:15. So, and this was this was a weekend, so like you know, plan accordingly, but it was worth the wait. Yeah, we had the lobster with the garlic and ginger.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Well, they went crazy.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

I mean what my god. So one uh one of our friends was like, You should pull, can you like pull some cr street credit with 77 flavors? I was like, our credit, we not not in this neighborhood.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

But by French, you mean uh Byron from Shafu Logo.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

Um, I was like, they don't need us to like vouch for them. They're they're they don't need us, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

No, I it almost feel like don't no place don't no place in Chinatown eat us. I mean, like, don't need nobody, not just us, but just nobody. They don't need to.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

Like they don't need an influencer to come in and be like, you should try this place. Like this was truly like we just went to have dinner with our friends and it was. We did post about it on our Instagram. So if you want to see a peak of what the food looked like, you can.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

But if you're not watching, because I'm I threw I'm gonna throw B-roll.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Yes, yeah, if you're listening. Um, but I'm excited to get into this episode.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

I feel like that was it. That was that was a week right now. Yeah, yeah, that was it. That was it. That was it. All right, let's get into it.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

Yeah, you you're ready to go. Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 11:42

I am. We're nearing we're nearing the end here. This is the last chapter of the plan of Chicago.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

The heart of Chicago. And next week we're gonna wrap it up and kind of like look to the future. Uh and it'll be the last uh iteration of this. But I'm really excited. And to kind of like give you a little sneak peek of what we're doing next, we're doing uh the World Columbian Exposition. Yeah, y'all get ready for that one. Get ready. Get ready for that. While we have some some stuff that we've pulled for this one that's going to blow your mind.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

Yeah, World Exposition.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

This might be an eight-parter. Now we're playing. We're not. I mean, I don't want to put a number.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

I don't want to, because right now we're at least at four. We because we're gonna have guests on here. We're gonna have so good. Artifact. All right, let me know. Just be ready.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

But let's get let's get into this. I'm excited. Heart of Chicago. I feel like uh uh it's it's like he's talking about I mean, like the center.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:45

Well right, like what the what he wants because we've talked about streets, we talked about the circuits, we talked about the parks, yeah, and he's kind of like wrapping it all up. Like this is the vibe.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

Yeah, so the heart of Chicago. Think about a heart, y'all. Yeah, what does the heart do?

SPEAKER_00 13:00

Pump uh I was gonna say pump air, but no.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

Pump life.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

Life, pump life into you. Yeah, yeah. So it's like the it's like it's like that middle part of the city.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Yeah, it's it it not necessarily even the middle part, right?

SPEAKER_00 13:11

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

It's just like where the heart is, like literally the heart, where the you know, where all the life comes from. And so some of y'all that don't know what a heart is. Yeah, yeah, right. It's you know where the life comes from. It's what what is the heart? Four chambers. You're asking me. Well, I kind of did that. I think it's four chambers. It is four chambers. Four chambers. And the reason why four chambers.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

You don't read, you don't know what a heart shape is. You know what I mean? Heart shapes is different.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

That's the validity of this podcast, is dropping week by week. We slighting your ass. No. Uh so here's the defined area of what the heart of Chicago was. Uh, the defined area was Halst to Michigan Avenue, uh, west to east, and then uh from 12th, from main branch to 12th. 12th is Roosevelt. Yeah, Roosevelt, y'all. If you haven't listened to any of these, yeah, if you if you don't know. Now, they were going to widen it to reach more people. Once they realized, hey, look, they knew real quickly those were going to get exhausted. Yeah. Those areas. So the widening.

SPEAKER_00 14:14

Because they were packing a lot in those areas. Yeah. It's like the civic center, like I'm sure we're gonna talk about that in a second, but like it was a it was a lot gonna be happening in that.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Yeah, absolutely. And and so to whiten it, they were gonna go Ashland to Michigan Avenue, and then Chicago to 22nd.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

So like that's pretty that's pretty big. So that's right where Chicago is right where uh Watertower is. Um and then 22nd, you know, that's right down here on South Loop. South Loop. Yeah, that's South Loop. Uh and then Ashland, that's way west. That's west. You know, that's way west, and then of course, Michigan Avenue.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

We like have you know almost crossed a highway.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

Yeah, we not almost. Huh? Yeah, I mean, we eh, you know, we we crossed it.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

We crossed it.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

A little, you we were about to cross it.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

Yeah, it definitely crossed 99.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We over there. Um, now the Michigan Avenue was the basis, was the main artery. Yeah, so to say, if we're talking about a heart. Uh, it was the main line, and everything was going to be really based around this. From there. Here's a quote from the uh from the book. Michigan Avenue is probably destined to carry the heaviest movement of any street in the world. So they were like, Michigan Avenue is about to be it.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

I I like while I was reading it, he said that he or like the um they implied that they want it to be so wide that people can like promenade on the sides, but also it looks like it never ends. Like when you're looking down, it looks like Michigan Avenue goes forever.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

And which I mean on the south side, it like looking south, it kind of does. If you start from Chicago. 100%.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

South. There was a in the book, they outline the reasoning and the numbers behind where they came up with the total width of the street. And to give you an idea of how large they wanted Michigan Avenue to be. 246 feet wide. I feel like it's wider.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

Is it not?

SPEAKER_01 16:18

Well, funny you should ask, because I where the hell did I did I skip a page? You skipped a page. Bro, y'all, I have my notes and then all of a sudden it must have been stuck together. I just skipped the whole page. Two pages. Well, that's now legendary in this book. Uh, to give you an idea of today's width, the width of the um Michigan Avenue Bridge, Jusabo Bridge, uh, is 92 feet.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

Rough about 92 feet.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

Yep. Both lanes?

SPEAKER_01 16:47

Yeah, the whole bridge, including all the walkways, right? Wow. Uh on it is 92 feet. That's that's that part. And it stretches about that way for a little bit. Now the part in front of uh Grant Park and Art Institute of Chicago is today roughly 120 feet.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

Okay. It's a it's rough uh it would have been double. His plan was to make it double that.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

Double that. Yeah. He was he was trying to so think about think about where that is right now. Like by Can you imagine that being double? Double. Like double. Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a highway basically.

SPEAKER_00 17:26

But like that includes the pavement, like the walkways.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Yes, uh, that includes the walkway up to the building. So so just think about so from where building to building, 100 and 246 feet. Now, the process of widening was already happening as of 1909, uh, of widening that street. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They were going to widen it into 130 feet.

SPEAKER_02 17:48

Right.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

So that part fell just 10 feet short. Right. So that part of Chicago uh well, I fell 10 feet short where it is today. Yeah, yeah. You know, it's 120 feet short of where it should have been. Uh now most of the most of that before the expansion, which happened 1918 to 1920, remember those numbers because I'm coming back to it pretty quickly, was about 66 feet. Imagine that now being half the size. That so, yeah, that was the plan for Michigan Avenue. And they get real specific, right? The whole goal to was to get Grant Park to connect to Lincoln Park. And yeah, so they wanted to they wanted to get it all the way up there.

SPEAKER_00 18:33

Kind of like it obviously it does not, yeah, but like if you're walking from Grant Park to Lincoln, because I've made that walk from Lincoln Park down to um not to Grant Park, but to like the northern end of Michigan Avenue, and you can walk Lincoln Park all the way down. Yeah, like you don't you don't drive it technically. I mean you obviously can drive it, but like if you're on Lakeshore Drive, you're driving it. But like you can walk through Lincoln Park and like the inner side of Lakeshore, you're still in a park technically, until you hit Streeterville, yeah, and then that cuts off.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

There's not really a park there unless you come over to the reason why I say drive it is because you think about y'all, like if you if you've never driven downtown Michigan Avenue, but if you have driven, I'm gonna describe it for you. So when you reach past uh the Hancock building, um, and you're about to get make you got two decisions to make.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

Lakeshore.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

Lakeshore, the expressway, yeah, the or Lakeshore the inner, the which is the residential-ish area. Yeah. I would imagine, don't know this for a fact, I would imagine part of the plan is there. Like part of that plan is that residential part that was supposed to continue on.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

For sure. So I I was actually reading something that the Dree House had put out about um McCormick'sville, which was that area around the Dree House, right? And it was before the the Michigan Avenue Bridge even came to existence in the 20s, that area was like, you know, the wealthiest, like, you know, judges and uh the richest of the rich lived in that area. Yeah. And um the the uh it was so hard to get to because the only bridge that existed was the tiny little Rush Street Bridge. Yeah. And it was one, it was one lane, but it was two ways. So it was super congested. And so people never made it to uh that northern end of Michigan Avenue. And so it was truly just like the richest of the rich. Yeah, and it was super quiet. And so when the Michigan Street Bridge came along, they were like upset that their area was now disturbed. Yeah, but I think that was like that area is still kind of you still have that park-ish system.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

Like you could you kinda you dropped the head of here right here because I was about to get to it. Yeah, just verbatim next.

SPEAKER_00 20:50

McCormick, McCormick's Vill no longer exists, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:52

I'm not not McCormick'sville, but yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, so now they broke down this section into a few parts, right? So that was just me telling you like the thought process of you know where where it was, so you know the boundaries, and then how important Michigan Avenue was. Now keep in mind Michigan Avenue is important throughout this rest of this conversation. Yeah, you know, I don't want to necessarily have to bring that up. So now that you know, the part that was really cool is because they understood this is supposed to carry the heaviest traffic, right? Right, so the heaviest traffic is cars and people. You can't necessarily take the cars off of the road because remember, we in part two, I believe it was, we talked about how that is one of the main circuits, also.

SPEAKER_02 21:34

Right.

SPEAKER_01 21:35

So the cars are gonna be there in order to circumvent, you have to make upper and lower. So now we got the notion of the double decker streets. And so they detail a lot of ideas of how they wanted the upper deck. The one interesting part, not one interest, but one of the interesting parts is how they anticipated that the street would rise. See Daniel Burnham and the boys were sitting there like Daniel Burnham and the Boys.

SPEAKER_00 22:03

You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 22:04

Like the aka the commercial club. You thought they was throwing upsets. You think they was at the commercial club? They had a yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:10

1000% they had a call, like a role. Yeah. They didn't do it. No, it's too soon. Ah, Sabrina. Sorry. Uh for those of you. Oh well, no, let's not get into it.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

No, for those of you don't know Sabrina Carpenter, she didn't know. You know, she didn't know what she was talking about. She called somebody out the culture. Um she did. But so, you know, they they were like, hey, at a certain point, we anticipate we can raise Michigan Avenue about 10 feet. Right. But then it's inevitable that it's gonna have to rise up. In some parts, for the majority of it, 11 feet from above where it is now. So they were like, we gotta raise this up. And then their gradual drop down, it's gonna be even higher in some spots, is gonna lower back down when you get to Lake uh Lincoln Park. Yeah. So that was the level out. So the and and the thought was too, it's such an expansive lane where you're not gonna really feel that incline. You're gonna know it, but it's not gonna really feel it.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

Kind of feel it now. Kind of feel it now. It's not like prominent at all.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

No, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

You know, it's not if you're walking it, you're like, why am I?

SPEAKER_01 23:18

But also, but also, if you know, you were back in the day, that was probably a big deal. Yeah. That was probably crazy. I mean, obviously, anything was a big deal. You you see how they were, what the hell? You know, like this is crazy.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

Um I can't imagine going from like riding a horse and buggy to being like, we have two level streets. I'd be like, um, sorry. Like, I again, I I feel like the the way things moved technology-wise so quickly, yeah, had to be like terrifying. Like, yeah, what do you mean you went from like horse and buggy to car?

SPEAKER_02 23:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:49

Like nothing compares to that in our lifetime, at least. Right. It's like going from car to plane. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:54

Like it's crazy. What?

SPEAKER_00 23:58

They haven't they haven't made anything yet in our lifetime that's that dry because rockets existed, planes existed, cars existed, trains existed. Like, nothing has been shocking in terms of like transportation.

SPEAKER_01 24:10

Yeah, nothing. Nothing has been crazy. I mean, we're trying to make it crazy. We have flying cars and shit. That ain't happening.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

Not in probably not in our lifetime. I mean, we got they got flying mobiles. The only thing we got is self-driving cars running into each other.

SPEAKER_01 24:23

Yeah, yeah, stopping traffic. Hold this hold stuff up.

SPEAKER_00 24:26

And the little the little food delivery guys that run into the uh the bus vestibules. I personally don't have no problem with them. Me neither. They're so cute.

SPEAKER_01 24:33

I ain't got no problem with them. I mean, I don't know if I don't have a problem with them. I don't have no problem with them. I mean, but a lot of people do. A lot of people hate them things. Like, ugh robots taking over on that streets.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

Listen, if it was like 50 robots delivering food, I don't think that's gonna happen anytime soon where it's like we're overrun by robots delivering food.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

They got ordinance, uh, ordinances uh limiting.

SPEAKER_00 24:53

I mean, they're limited to distance. They they can go, they're limited in the uh areas and everything.

SPEAKER_01 24:57

Well, me shit. They are here in South Loop now.

SPEAKER_00 24:59

I know I saw one. I saw one.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

I was walking home yesterday.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

Look at cocoa, and I was like cocoa on the street. I'm like, Cocoa is I'm lost. I I hate that they I hate that they gave them eyes because now I feel empathy towards them.

SPEAKER_01 25:10

I mean, but that's what you wanted. That's what they wanted.

SPEAKER_00 25:12

No, that's what they want. Yeah, they they want that.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

They want you to be like, oh, look at the little guy. Did one girl dig uh dig one out of the snow, strip the snow, then he goes with the eyes, thank you, or whatever. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00 25:21

Stop it. That's just the little guy. It's just a little guy.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

Anyway, uh so nothing to do with the plan. Nothing. The the raised streets, though. One thing I do want you to know, because we're gonna get into where we are now with the plan next week, right? And what what's there? But it's really cool to read these things uh and be like, I know exactly where they are. Yeah. So one of the what one of it was a slight raise until coming, I said um Lincoln Park. That it was a slight raise until Lincoln Park, but that was gonna be the end of it. But there was a um a slight raise coming down right around Ohio. So if you're on Michigan Avenue and you know where that is, that's right by where you can walk under underground and Billy Go Tavern. Right.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

So they have it stairs on either end.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

So and and right there, you're walking underground, and then it stops. Like it does stop, and people come, you come back up ground. Yeah, uh, you know, like you have to make the it's a T interception right there. Also knows what you gotta go upground, y'all. Shit. You know, Charlie. Um, so that was uh that was really cool to read and be like, oh, this is how they made that. Yeah, yeah, this is this is why we have that.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

Very cool to see how part of the plan was there. Now, I put here in the notes um the on page 105 is where they really talk to uh explicitly about these two level streets and how it was supposed to be well lit for uh not at all. It's supposed to be well lit for people to walk underground if they want to.

SPEAKER_00 26:53

No like water dripping down on your head, no salt, no tetanus inducing metals around you. You know, right, all that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

But he rats. He was like, hey, look, this is supposed to be man, it's it's crazy you bring that up too. They talk about the rats, they talk about cleanliness and and it's a very cool perspective that we know anybody that travels the world. Uh so that was really cool um to see them really talk about how deep how the it was supposed to be, right?

SPEAKER_00 27:20

To be fair, Lower Whacker was meant for like uh freight. Yeah, so like it was never meant to be like where you leisurely where what he's talking about is probably like the second layer of like below Michigan immediately below Michigan Avenue. That is fine. Like you could walk down that street and it's just a regular street, yeah. Especially the bridge. Yeah, yeah. So it's fine that it looks grimy. Yeah, I want to clarify. Yeah. And I'm not like a specific, like I don't necessarily hate Lower Whacker, I just hate Verizon for like cutting off my phone once I'm in Lower Whacker. Because like at this point, I've driven down there enough that I can like I can get out. You know what I mean? I can figure it out. Um, but it's like I don't want to feel like I can't reach anyone if I if you know something happens and I like get into an accident or something. You can't reach anyone. Yeah, you have to walk your ass down to two, three blocks and up to the side so you can get service. Yeah, that's my only qualm.

SPEAKER_01 28:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:20

But he didn't know that. Yeah. He didn't have a cell phone.

SPEAKER_01 28:22

Yeah, right. No, that wasn't even. I mean, we were close to them making a cell phone.

SPEAKER_00 28:26

Right, not really.

SPEAKER_01 28:27

A couple decades away, you know.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

I guess in the grand scheme of things, that's close.

SPEAKER_01 28:30

Yeah, yeah, you know. Um, now this is where we start to get the the mention of how the use of uh Rush Street Bridge. Yeah, which is crazy. Go back to us, you know, talking about Rush Street being the first street. Now, the whole point of this is they had to alleviate some of the stress off Rust Street. Yeah. Like Rust Street was just it was Rush Street. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 28:52

Like that was it's the only way you can get from the north side to the south side of the river.

SPEAKER_01 28:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:57

Or not south side. Yeah. You know, you cross the river.

SPEAKER_01 29:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:00

It was the only way.

SPEAKER_01 29:01

Right. And what's cool about listening to it from this perspective is we told the story of Rust Street Bridge and then how we got to um, you know, other bridges, right? Uh and and here, the Rust Street Bridge was used as a temporary bridge because they basically said, look, that bridge, until we can get something better, that's what we have. That's what we have. This is what we got to do. And to paraphrase what we already talked about, this is probably the fourth iteration.

SPEAKER_00 29:32

Not probably this is the fourth iteration multiple times, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:36

Four times. Four times. So now they were like, we got to get something better.

SPEAKER_00 29:40

Fire, cattle, just a ship hit it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:43

And then it just collapsed. Yeah. Yeah. So you we know what the bridge is.

SPEAKER_02 29:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:50

Michigan Avenue. Right. Michigan Avenue, right when the 18th, the 1918 to 1920 um expansion in uh that era, the bridge, that was the Chicago uh the the expansion they were talking about. Michigan Avenue Bridge. So it's really cool to have the context of what we've been talking about and see it in the plan. It was a major part of the plan. And in there, they said it's only two types of bridges that you can that you can use. Yeah. The bascule bridge or a taller bridge, they say in there. That is crazy. Because the swing bridges, they were like, we're not doing this no more. We're not doing that swing bridge. We're not doing that. Seesaw it was a seesaw bridge. We're not doing that no more. We're not doing none of those. You're only using two type of bridges. And it's that's so funny. Yeah, and you only get that reference if you did the research. And it's kind of funny. They didn't, he ain't go into it. He like, I ain't going into it, but we're not doing that shit no more. Swing bridge is crazy. But swing bridges out of control, especially with Chicago to be the way it was. Imagine. Hell no. No, ain't no way. Ain't no way I'm I'm imagining doing that.

SPEAKER_00 30:54

Now swinging or false.

SPEAKER_01 30:56

That's crazy. I ain't doing that. We ain't doing that. Now, that's Michigan Avenue, right? So we you know they're gonna expand it. One more thing to note about the Michigan Avenue Bridge, uh, Michigan Avenue is that they were super particular about that street, how it looked. And so I I was like, they are really particular about this. What's what's up with the street? So I looked up on Chicago.gov, and I looked up the ordinance of the historic Michigan Avenue. Let me tell you, y'all, if you want to this is that's why I said we I we're nerds. We're nerds, because ain't no reason I should have been reading that. There is so much detail in how the renovation could look, how the certain buildings could be, how the height is, and what the windows look like on that street, how to maintain it, the historic preference uh preservation, how to, if you're gonna add a building, how it has to look bro, I was like, this is Michigan Avenue is way deeper than we thought, man. Yeah, like it is, and we I also did not know that Detroit has a Michigan Avenue that is 120 feet wide, pretty much. Really? Not only that, but it is almost not almost, according to what I read, it is a continuation of our Michigan Avenue. How's that possible? It's not possible, not continuation as linear, you know, but it is literally a direct descendant of our Michigan Avenue.

SPEAKER_00 32:28

Unbelievable. Now we have to go to Detroit because I want to see it.

SPEAKER_01 32:31

You want to see it, and and not only that, now you understand why they say we cousins with Detroit. This is one of the reasons. Like that is fascinating, very fascinating. Yeah, so So they couldn't get their own plan, they had to take ours. No, they just I guess they might. I'm sure people we do research, I'm sure we it's gonna be some similar names.

SPEAKER_00 32:49

They come up there and be like, hey, I'm just joking.

SPEAKER_01 32:51

Yeah, right. Some Detroit's gonna be like, man.

SPEAKER_00 32:54

Actually, Detroit was first. Are you going here?

SPEAKER_01 32:56

No. I'm just playing, I'm just playing Detroit. Y'all don't do that now. Um, Halsted. Let's talk about let's talk about Arabs. Uh no, no. Let's talk about Halstead, because that was the western side. Uh, and that was also a very important street. And we know Halstead is a very important street now. We know that. Yeah. But listen to how they talked about it 1909.

SPEAKER_02 33:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 33:18

Halsted, the king of streets, because it ran from uh from the lake at Lincoln Park, which break that shit down, y'all. The lake at Lincoln Park. You know, it was real was real close to so far south to Chicago Heights. Oh, wow. Yeah, over 12 miles. And I want to say it ran. It is, it is. You know what I mean? That's what it is now. So that was obvious to them. They were like, obviously, these two row pathways is where we is our boundaries right here. You know what I mean? Like to the east and west. And so uh something else very interesting. Chicago took a lesson. I'm talking about the cleanliness here. Chicago took a lesson directly from Berlin. Berlin, and uh to how the streets were going to be cleaned daily, y'all, daily street cleanings to be power washed. Power washed. Power washed, then you say power washed, but washed is what they used. They did say washing. I don't think they had power washers. Yeah, yeah, they didn't washed.

SPEAKER_00 34:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:25

And the owners, listen to this, y'all. The owners only built on two-thirds of their own property, and the rest of it was left for court. So imagine so a lot of outdoor shit. And and and the reason why I say you wouldn't, you would know, and people that travel know when we traveled overseas and and and we see them w power washing the streets.

SPEAKER_00 34:48

And I do think, I do think Chicago, I mean, Chicago's one of the cleanest cities by far. For sure. You know what I mean? And especially Michigan Avenue, you really rarely see like any garbage or anything like that, unless like someone has tipped over a garbage can or the wind has tipped over the car. You know what I mean? Like you don't really see trash. Um, and I I I know that they do clean this the the streets, they do power wash the sidewalks. Yeah. So like I'm that's where we're right there.

SPEAKER_01 35:14

We're right there. And I got my church fan. This is from Saproni, y'all. Uh yeah, church fans at the show. Well, it was it was real there. It was real. Um, bookmark. Yeah, yeah, bookmark. Because I do want to read you this direct quote with with uh no context. I'm just gonna read it, and it has to do with the cleanliness. Y'all feel how you feel after this, okay? Okay. Uh Chicago has not yet reached the point where it would be necessary for the municipality to provide its own at its own expense, as does the city of London, for the rehousing of persons forced out of congested quarters. But unless the matter shall be taken into hand at once, such a course will be required in common justice to men and women so degraded by long life in the slums that they have lost all power of caring for themselves.

SPEAKER_00 36:03

So y'all. He was a spicy man.

SPEAKER_01 36:06

He he but it's for the people.

SPEAKER_00 36:08

Yeah, he was he was like, look, no, but he said we're we're not doing that.

SPEAKER_01 36:12

Unless, unless, you know what I mean? Like uh, if they can't do it for the for their own expense. He said, We're gonna get them, we'll come in if they can't do it.

SPEAKER_00 36:20

If this you know what I mean, like but my my question to that would be like who decides whether they can or can't, and what does that mean? Right. Clarify, yes, Mr. Burnham.

SPEAKER_01 36:30

Yeah, we need we need clarification. Now, I we this next part, again, I broke this down into uh four chambers, uh, y'all.

SPEAKER_00 36:39

This next now he knows how many chambers a heart has. No, I knew the whole time. Yeah, I knew that. What do you mean that you knew the whole time? I said four at the beginning. You did. I knew that.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

I didn't have four? I didn't have to look it up. If you don't know the heart got four chambers, let me clarify. You missed a big part of biology class.

SPEAKER_00 37:00

Yeah, like like third grade biology. Yeah, I'm not necessarily third.

SPEAKER_01 37:04

Nah, you learned that really in high school. Like, like, like eighth, ninth heading to high school. You know what I mean? Like high school is when I really was like, oh, okay, this is what it is. Maybe it could be freshman year.

SPEAKER_00 37:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:16

But you know.

SPEAKER_00 37:17

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 37:18

Yeah. Uh it was way earlier for me. I I don't doubt that, being that I'm a part of the uh United States uh school system.

SPEAKER_00 37:25

So I mean, it is. We did have different educational experiences.

SPEAKER_01 37:29

Uh so you know, kind of to your point, who who was this? And reason why I stopped it right there, there's a little bit more fluff in between there. But that was the basis of that part. The reason why I bring that up is because now we're at Grant Park. Grant Park was the crown jewel, the public garden. Yep. It was supposed to have an arbor that ran really uh a yacht harbor at that time.

SPEAKER_00 37:56

Oh, a harbor. I thought you said an arbor.

SPEAKER_01 37:58

I mean, well, trees too, probably. But but harbor. I probably didn't say arbor, because I'd be low-key confusing when to use the two. I know it when I know arbor is to do with trees, and I know harbor is to do with boats and water. But when it's when I be in the- learning a lot this episode. I mean, too. Some people, some party was like, oh, that's what arbor is. Arbor day. People know what arbor is. Y'all, y'all stop it. You know you need.

SPEAKER_00 38:24

Arboretum, you know what that means. Some people probably put that together. You know what? I'm not judging you if you don't. I'm not judging you if you don't. We don't because I didn't learn that that word until I was like probably in high school.

SPEAKER_01 38:35

Hey, look, this is a safe space. We clown. I'm a cloud.

SPEAKER_00 38:37

I mean, it's a bad, yeah, yeah. You're still gonna get made fun of. But but it's fair, it's it's safe-ish.

SPEAKER_01 38:43

I ain't gonna judge you. I mean, one of us will, but not both. Look, I just admitted to like not being able to use it. It's for whatever reason. It's like, you know, trying to spell Mississippi real quick. You know what I mean? It's gonna kick my ass every time.

SPEAKER_00 38:58

It's it's pamphlet.

SPEAKER_01 38:59

Oh yeah. Pamphlet. Pamphlet boy. I don't know why I kept saying pamphlet.

SPEAKER_00 39:04

There's another word that you always like switch the letters.

SPEAKER_01 39:07

Well, a few episodes ago, I was I couldn't say uh uh what was it? Um uh sensationalization.

SPEAKER_00 39:14

Sensationalized some some words are like hard hard. They are imagine learning English and it's not your first language. Man, I could only I don't know. I don't know how to be fair, it is any language.

SPEAKER_01 39:26

Like outside your own.

SPEAKER_00 39:27

Like some of yeah, yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_01 39:29

You know, outside your own is that's true. That's hard.

SPEAKER_00 39:31

Yeah, Arabic is hard. If I didn't grow up, if Arabic wasn't my first language, I would not have learned it.

SPEAKER_01 39:36

I mean, it's so hard. It's tough.

SPEAKER_00 39:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:39

Yeah, all of it, all of it's tough. Now, there were a few buildings that were supposed to be here as part of our crown jewel. And to jump ahead, this was supposed to be the uh art. If you came here, right, to Chicago, yeah, to this heart of Chicago, you are going to experience art, literature, and science.

SPEAKER_00 39:59

Yep. So that is I think that's still valid. I think that's still true.

SPEAKER_01 40:04

Well, oh it should be more well, I'm gonna lead off strong. The first building that was supposed to be the crown crown jewel. The art institute, the field museum, y'all. The field museum, you know where it is now, yeah, museum campus, right on Lake Shore Drive, was supposed to be in Grant Park. Whoa. Yes, and it was supposed to symbolize, it was it was in the center, and I put this as a direct quote to symbolize the center of human uh to uh the center of human interest. When you came there, you were getting all that art, literature, and that's what the film museum was supposed to. Now, I I wrote some fun facts about the film museum, particularly Marshallfield. Obviously, Marshallfield is the reason we have Field Museum. Uh Field Museum was built in 19 uh 1894, right after the World's Fair, as a piece of the World's Fair, right? When Marshall Field died, passed away in 1906, he left $8 million.

SPEAKER_00 41:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 41:09

Okay, for the field museum.

SPEAKER_00 41:10

How much is that now?

SPEAKER_01 41:11

Hold on, I got you. Four million dollars was for the creation.

SPEAKER_02 41:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 41:15

Okay. And then another four million was for endowment. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 41:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 41:19

So to keep them going. Yep. You you just whatever you you can't spend that four million, but what you grow off of that four million, yeah, you use that to get going, right? In today's time, in today's time, that's that eight million is two hundred and ninety-three million dollars in today's, and that's hold on, that's purchasing power, y'all. That's purchasing power. I did I saw relative power, which is the uh economic value anywhere between one and two billion dollars. That is wild.

SPEAKER_00 41:56

So when we say how rich Marshall Field was, listen, if anyone from the Field Museum wants to let us up in there to talk about the history, please email us.

SPEAKER_01 42:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:08

Because I would I would die to look at those archives.

SPEAKER_01 42:12

Man, look, we're love to.

SPEAKER_00 42:13

I don't I don't want to look at any of the stuff you have in the museum. I want the history of the museum. I love the museum. No, I love the I love the field. Yeah. Like so, so, so, so much. But I'm I'm not talking about like the dinosaurs and the natural history. I want to look at the history of the museum.

SPEAKER_01 42:31

What what was my where y'all spent their money?

SPEAKER_00 42:34

No, no legends. Yeah, pictures of Mr. Field talking about from breaking ground.

SPEAKER_01 42:41

I don't know what from 84, from from 94 to 9 uh 06 when he passed. You say, I want to see it all. All of it. That's what I want to see. Now please. Now, here's the other one that is bizarre to me. Had no clue. The creation of a new library that was more niche down, more niche down, the John Creer library, which the John Creer, if you know, is a library, but at University of Chicago. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:09

Interesting. What was the niche for that library? Do you know like what was the main focus? Probably like science.

SPEAKER_01 43:16

Yeah, more, more uh literature, um, so to say. Unlike all the other libraries, where but it's not I mean it wasn't a public library. Oh, I see, I see. You know what I mean? Now the public library was the cultural center.

SPEAKER_00 43:30

Right.

SPEAKER_01 43:30

Yeah, public library was cultural center. Now, and then the last piece of that was the art institute.

SPEAKER_00 43:36

Can you imagine having this this uh the public library, which is right here, the art institute, which is right across the street from it, and then next to it, the field museum, and then across from it. Like what again, I'm glad they kind of didn't do that because that would have been so congested. But I'm I feel like we lacked a little foresight.

SPEAKER_01 43:53

What would have been congested? Because if you have 246 wide streets.

SPEAKER_00 44:00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:00

And then that's just Michigan Avenue going north to south. We we didn't even mention Congress leading up to the Civic Center, which is the next part of uh of of my uh the last part of my uh uh chambers, yeah, was the Civic Center. So when you have the Crown Was that that would have been on closer to 12th? No. Closer to Roosevelt? No, no, that was Grant Park. So that was right where that was the proposed Grant Park, yeah, right? Because uh if you if you it's a little bit shifted now, all that is kind of Grant Park, all that is, but Congress being right where it is and then going all the way west. Um that's so everything would have been shifted down just a tad bit, just a tad bit shifted. Um, but yeah, right there. Now, also, you we got this big corridor of uh Congress that you were so they wanted you to look straight down west and see this big, huge, epic civic center. Yeah, and this is the civic center we've been talking about all four parts now. Uh they wanted you to see Halsted all the way down there, how it looked. And then they wanted it to be grand, and they broke it down to three parts. And the three main parts that you were going to experience if you walk down there. So I'd assume the three largest buildings that you see was the city of Chicago, so where the mayor and all of it. Like City Hall is City Hall, uh, Cook County, and then the federal government. And and those were gonna be the three parts. We now we're talking about public work stuff too, also was gonna be mixed in there. So they all have their different buildings and everything. Where obviously, if you were a person and you need to get some business done, and you need to get something, you go to one of those buildings. Yeah. Also, banks and everything, part of the federal federal government, all that stuff. So where our financial district is now, that's where where the uh the daily center is now, all that stuff was gonna be up in Halston, Congress, far from where it is now.

SPEAKER_00 46:02

That's kind of interesting.

SPEAKER_01 46:03

Yeah. This was supposed to look like the World's Fair, and so they were like, we already have the World's Fair. We already saw what we could do and how grand it looked, which I'm so glad we're doing the World's Fair now. And I'm so excited. We know how grand that looks. Let's make the Civic Center is gonna be that. Yeah. I mean, they wanted to make it exactly that. Here's how ambitious and how crazy they want it to look. And y'all, as I'm doing this, I I want to put up pictures of they guys in this book. They have several pages that are dedicated, just pictures. Pull out uh pictures too, so you can see the grandeur of what the streets look like from east to west, north to south. Uh, all these points of views and perspectives. The one going east to west, hey man, look, this might be the part of Chicago, the plan of Chicago, that I wish, man, had we done that, listen to this quote, y'all. This is about Chicago, right? It would be what the Acropolis was to Athens, the Forum to Rome, and what St. Mark's Square is to Venice. And if you again, you listening to it, so I gotta. I put pictures, Sarah and I have been to all three locations. And and let me tell you, that square in Venice is out of control. Yeah. That square in Venice is a I could see what they wanted that to be. That was that's crazy. The forum and man, it's a different vibe. It's on a hill and all this stuff. Granted, we didn't have no hills and nothing like that, but like the forum was down low, right? Yeah, yeah, the forum was down low, and they had all the little civic stuff right there. You know what I mean? Like all that stuff was right there. The Acropolis, we you know, that's where the democracy started, was right there at the Acropolis. So in Athens. So to have buildings that look like that, and to they were like Chicago gonna be this. Man, I wish that I wish we had. Granted, we got our architectures second to none. Second to none. Which last point, not an extra part, but like just a little thing that I want to leave off on uh was how he thought about the building process. Because in these, in this chapter of the book, when they talk about all these things, you know, money got to come up. Right, you know, again, Daniel Burnham and uh the commercial club made it apparent that, hey, we know this shit gonna cost a lot of money.

SPEAKER_00 48:34

We know and they were ready to fund it.

SPEAKER_01 48:36

Yeah, and he made it we have to do this, or else it's gonna be out of control. You we we're not this city is not gonna survive. That was their honest thought in their heart. He believed this.

SPEAKER_00 48:49

I mean, that's a salesperson.

SPEAKER_01 48:50

It's a sales, right? It's a salesperson. If you don't buy this, yeah, he everybody's gonna die. Yeah, I paraphrase this little last piece to get out here, and this is how he thought about the buildings, and then it just that's why I brought up earlier looking up the.gov and how Chicago really is intent about the bit. This is why we're the skyscraper, capital of the world, while we do it.

SPEAKER_02 49:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:12

He basically was like, hey man, if we go cheap on the buildings, if we don't spend on architecture, if we don't make this stuff look good, Chicago done. Yeah, he's like, scrap the plan. We might as not even might as well not even do this.

SPEAKER_00 49:26

Yeah, the city won't grow, it'll decrease in population, it'll be run down. No one, it's it's not gonna be like memorable or at all.

SPEAKER_01 49:33

Yeah, yeah. And what's crazy is now we can get move on to what we have from it because I wonder what he would think today.

SPEAKER_00 49:42

And uh and we'll do a look to the future. So uh obviously, like for the for this week's I'm not gonna do where we are 10 years later because I want to do that next week. So we're gonna skip that part. Um, and we've spent the last three weeks talking about where we were 10 years before. So we we kind of know where we are and what the city looked like before the plan started. And I'm excited to kind of wrap it up next week with where we we were we're gonna visit decades next next week. So we'll break down a few different decades and then we'll look at the future plan of 2045, yeah, which is really exciting. Um, because uh a lot is about to change and uh hopefully for the better, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 50:32

Addition of new jobs, yeah, you know, everything.

SPEAKER_00 50:35

Yeah. And um a lot is changing, actually. Right. And then, you know, there has been a revitalization of the loop. And, you know, his dream was that a million people would be working in the loop. I think at max we've hit 250,000. But it's it's interesting to see is that how that's going to play out in the future. I feel like um it it's it affects the entire city how the loop does, and obviously like how industries come to the city uh and and what industries stay and all of that stuff. So it's it's it's kind of like less, it's it feels less glamorous when we're talking about like current, yeah. Uh, because we love history so much. But I and you, you know, obviously, usually we focus on history, but I feel like it would be uh kind of a shame to talk about all of this and not visit what's gonna happen in the future. Yeah. I feel like it's it's exciting to look at it and kind of like document where we are right now, even though that's not usually what we do. But yeah, uh I'm excited. I'm excited to do that. Um the same same recommendations as the last few weeks for the episodes that you can uh listen to. Uh if you're interested in learning about how Lincoln Park came about, you can listen to the Lincoln Park episode. Uh, but other than that, it's the same. I have the same recommendations for those weeks.

SPEAKER_01 51:47

But yeah, this was fun to go through this so fun. Man, it's look again.

SPEAKER_00 51:51

I say that we literally read the entirety of The Plan of Chicago.

SPEAKER_01 51:54

Yeah, this was the best book report ever.

SPEAKER_00 51:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:56

I would encourage again, it we we were talking uh to some people, find out later. Uh, but about if they read the plan. This is a nerdy thing to do. Nobody is just sitting up reading a plan.

SPEAKER_02 52:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:08

If you are a histor a Chicago historian, I think it's worth it. You know, I think it's worth it to know what the idea was because we got very little of this plan. Yeah, you know, we got very little. We have crumbs of what could be. We have an outline of what it is. And as we were talking to this person, you know, it's good to look back to see how you can build. Yeah you know, and and you know, Daniel Burnham, he made no little plans.

SPEAKER_00 52:36

Yeah. And urban planners still pull from the plan of Chicago. Like around the world, around the country, people still reference this as um kind of a feat of urban planning that uh, you know, whether whether it was done 100%, 10%, 50%, whatever it is, it still is kind of um like a reference, yeah, yeah, for a lot of people. So so it's it's it's kind of like increases you know the pride of having something like like yeah, maybe we didn't get it 100%, but obviously um we think Chicago's the best city. We think it looks beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 53:09

A lot of people do.

SPEAKER_00 53:10

We think we love our parks, we love our beaches, we love our libraries, all of that. And you know, it's it there is a direct correlation between the plan of Chicago and having all these things at the same, you know, at the same time. Um, so not to say that they would not have happened if the plan of Chicago wasn't in place, but it's um it's interesting. But yeah, that's all I have for you today. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Uh, if you loved it, please send it to someone you love. We're so happy uh for people to learn about the history of Chicago, and we want you to keep learning. If you did not enjoy it, that's all right. Maybe skip next episode and uh come back for the uh Colombian Exposition. We'll see you then. Peace.