Category Archives: Lifestyle

Chicago Sites for Pumpkin Composting

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Illinois is offering residents an earth-friendly alternative for jack-o-lantern disposal, saving thousands of gourds from landfills and reducing methane emissions. Scarce, a local organization, has set up 49 different sites across the state where people can bring their pumpkins.

University of Illinois Extension educators continue to raise awareness, partially in an effort to combat bad advice being disseminated on social media, including recommendations to leave pumpkins in fields, abandoning them in natural areas for animals, or feeding them to household pets. These are all not advisable because of the legal prohibition of dumping anything on private property or in a nature preserve. Most animals don’t eat pumpkin naturally, so consuming the vegetable is likely to do more harm than good.

The first pumpkin drive was held in 2014 when close to 10 tons of pumpkins were composted. Last year, collections skyrocketed to 159 tons, as more people learned of the initiative.  

2021 Sites in Chicago include:

Plant Chicago, 4459 S. Marshfield Ave.

Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences, 3857 W. 111th St.

Edgewater Environmental Coalition and Andersonville Chamber of Commerce, 6040 N. Clark St.

Marathon Weekend Hastens Business Recovery

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The Bank of America Chicago Marathon, held this year on the weekend of October 8-10, gave Chicago’s hotels and restaurants a critical boost in business. After 18 challenging months of coronavirus-related restrictions, the city’s dining and hospitality businesses are finally seeing some relief as they served the nearly 26,000 marathon participants.

The run was the first of the American Abbott World Marathon Majors to officially return to in-person racing. Race organizers worked with the Chicago municipal officials, including the Chicago Department of Public Health, to ensure the safest possible experience for runners, spectators, and the Chicago community.

Chicago is Reopening

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Chicago is open for business! After 18 months of Covid-19 concerns, Chicago’s museums, restaurants, and attractions are back.

Businesses across Chicago are reopening.

For many of the diners and eateries in the Loop, the reopening has been a nuanced blessing. Their primary customer base- employees and visitors of local companies- have not yet fully returned to the office. They need a steady stream of customers to supplement the delivery and take-out business that has kept them going thus far. And those professionals who are beginning to head back to the office favor these establishments for a quick coffee break,  lunchtime, or post-work meal.

Eateries and attractions in and out of the Loop are eager to welcome customers.

With many new restaurants to check out across Chicago, there are countless options for a long-overdue meet-up with friends, a business lunch with colleagues, or a romantic date night.

Giving Back, Especially Now

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The Chicago Bulls have always had a reputation for giving generously to the community. This year – especially with COVID 19 and despite its challenges – they did so even more.

What better time to engage in the selfless act of gift giving to those less fortunate than ourselves than during Christmas?  This has been a tradition of the Chicago Bulls for many years and with the full and generous support of its players and partners, the team embraced many locals with gifts.

These 1,000 Chicagoans received an array of gifts.  Different people received different packages which had one or more of the following:

  1. Annual Holiday Meal
  2. Bulls sweatshirts
  3. Thanksgiving meal baskets
  4. Gift Cards
  5. Holiday meals for youth
  6. Holiday care packages
  7. Grocery Gift Cards
  8. Bulls gears

Some of those involved in the generosity were:

  1. Zach LaVine
  2. Jewel-Osco
  3. Otto Porter Jr.
  4. Thaddeus Young
  5. Operation Warm
  6. I Grow Chicago
  7. The Dovetail Project
  8. Wendell Carter Jr.
  9. Lauri Markkanen
  10. Denzel Valentine
  11. Chi Gives Back

It was a real team effort.  In addition, for some time now already since the pandemic started to hit, Hyde Park restaurants got together with Feeding Frontliners and Kenwood Food Project to give first responders and medical workers meals. Others participating in these endeavors include: Amer Abdullah of Cedars Mediterranean Kitchen which has already fed more than 2,000 first responders, 10 hospitals and four police districts.

Surviving COVID-19, Financially

Lifestyle,

A stimulus package was approved by the US Senate on the amount of $2 trillion to counteract the negative affects the worldwide COVID-19 has had on people’s lives.  As part of the package, most Americans will be entitled to $1,200 (those who were working before this started) which amounts to approximately $3,000 on average per family.

However those who make over $75,000 will not be entitled to the entire payment and those who make $99,000 an up will not get any money.  In addition, unemployment will be extended from 26 to 39 weeks for most individuals.

For companies that choose to use Uptake (a predictive maintenance software) it will be free.  This is especially good for those businesses currently deemed ‘essential’ such as vehicles used for food transportation as well as medical, supplies, etc.  This will be very helpful medical institutes to facilitate their distribution of essential items around local communities.

In addition, Sittercity  has now waived its fee for three months to those who work as first responders and health care staff working in the continuing ‘shelter-in-place’ order in Illinois.  These individuals are really on the front lines of Chicago’s outbreak.

Quality of Living in Chicago

Lifestyle

When it comes to high quality of living in the US, Chicago is up there.  In a recent 24/7Wallst. Com ranking of best places to live, Winnetka Village took the No. 2 place.  Ranking was based on: affordability, culture, jobs and low crime rate. Situated 20 miles north downtown Chicago, the name is derived from the Native American word for “beautiful land.”

This is not the city’s first Rodeo.  Back in 2011 it was featured in CNN Money’s List of Best Places to Live.  Plus, location wise it’s hard to find a more picturesque spot, alongside Lake Michigan with its sandy beaches, historic attractions and great educational institutions.

With nearly 30 parks, eateries, specialty merchants four shopping districts, an unemployment rate of 2.4 percent and an average commute time of 37 minutes, this has a lot to offer. The only one disadvantage is the cost of living being 130 percent higher than the national average.

In terms of employment opportunities, it seems NextCapital is a good choice. The enterprise digital advice® firm was featured in the 2020 List of Best Places to Work in Chicago 2020 assembled by Built In.  According to firm CEO, John Patterson:

“Investing in the company’s growth and success starts with investing in its people. We foster a diverse culture of people and ideas through programs like 10% time, where engineers can spend 10% of their week on self-driven projects, and DIVE, an employee-driven group that encourages diversity, inclusion, and equity.”

Marathon Makes Money

Lifestyle

The Chicago Marathon is a great money maker.   Last year, revenue was outstanding with a contribution of $378 million to Chicago’s economy.  In 2017 the figure was also high but $40 million less.

This year there were 45,857 participants in what was the 41st Bank of America Chicago Marathon.  Nearly 30 percent were visiting from overseas which is also great for tourism and the economy.  Further, it adds to Chicago’s prestige as a tourist destination.  Indeed, according to Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot:

 “The Bank of America Chicago Marathon is not only one of the largest and most prestigious marathons in world, but it is also an economic engine for our city – including a record-setting $378 million last year – that takes runners through 29 dynamic neighborhoods that together showcase our city’s diversity, history, and beauty. As mayor and as a fan, I look forward to joining Chicagoans and cheering on runners from all 50 states and more than 100 countries for the 42nd annual Bank of America Chicago Marathon.”

Jobs are also created from the marathon. For example, in 2018, 2,592 jobs were created, equaling $127 million in salaries.

Chicago: Local Quality of Life

Lifestyle,

Chicago is a wonderful place to live, featuring fabulous beaches (and the Chicago River), great culture (the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Art), impressive educational institutes (Northwestern University and the University of Chicago) county fairs and so much more.

But for the regular man/woman in the street, what are some of the issues that are being confronted?  Here we look at how the region deals with the following: recidivism, housing and health.

A recent report published by the Metropolitan Planning Council in conjunction with the Illinois Justice Project has pointed out a practical way of decreasing recidivism.  It found that since so many of these programs focus on jobs, there is a lack of attention given to another hugely important area for returning prisoners:  housing. The report is suggesting a greater focus on this matter.

As such, the report has assembled over a dozen proposals that could assist government officials in this task and save the state of Chicago $100+m per year. Given that the current recidivism figures are close to 40 percent this is a huge issue.  The report found that a large number of these individuals returning to prison were struggling with housing.  According to co-author of the Re-Entry Housing Issues in Illinois report, King Harris:

“The discussion around preventing recidivism is always focused on job training for people and somewhat on their health needs. Rarely is the conversation focused on housing and we feel that is the missing link.” 

Another issue for Chicagoans is the reduction in their housing value.  The weakest rate of growth in over 42 months was reported in May of this year.  According to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices, there was a miniscule 1.6 percent growth in the value local single family homes.  compared to the nation average, overall home prices developed less than half the 3.4 percent rate. one reason cited for this is slow job growth which again adds to recidivism issues.

In better news though, healthcare could be seen to be booming, or at least, hospitals.  Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial Hospital was ranked number 10 out of nearly 5,000 US hospitals in the 2019-20 Best Hospitals study. furthermore, according to a recent article by Lynne Marek:

“When it comes to health care, the Chicago area has a cottage industry of private-equity firms that invest in that sector, also including Linden Capital Partners, Waud Capital and Water Street Healthcare Partners, among others. The city developed the niche as professionals from health care giants Abbott and Baxter moved into investing.”