This morning I rode
my bike downtown in order to be at my dentist’s office by 8:30. On a great-to-be-alive morning I pedaled
along Lake Michigan and, as I do almost every day, realized anew why this is
such a great city.
Yesterday, Memorial
Day, was a hot day in Chicago with the temperature reaching into the upper
90’s, something that rarely happens at this time of the year in the Midwest,
and as I rode home on the 151 after narrating the last 90-minute river cruise
of the day, it was plenty easy to tell that the beaches had attracted folks in
record numbers. And why not? A Monday off, newly opened beaches, and the
kind of scorching temperatures that have brought Chicagoans to the coolness of
the lake since the city was chartered . . . it all came together in a city-with-the-big-shoulders
way.
Imagine the amount
of trash that the crowds that thronged the beaches from Oak Street north to
Fullerton Avenue must have generated yesterday.
Watch the 20-somethings making their way to the beach on a hot day, and
take note of what they are carrying with them.
All the stuff in those back packs, rolling coolers, and oversized carryalls
has to go somewhere.
By 7:50 this
morning as I wheeled along the beach between North Avenue and Fullerton, this
is what I saw . . .
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| Clean! Tuesday, May 29: 7:50 a.m. The beach at North Avenue (JWB, 2012) |
A city garbage
truck had made it all the way from Oak Street to about a hundred yards past
Castaways at North Avenue with just a few more refuse containers to go.
The folks in the
crew who were spearing all of the loose debris along the Lakefront Path had
just about reached Fullerton . . . everything from there south to Oak Street
was as clean as if Memorial Day Monday had never happened.
How amazing! Before 8:00 in the morning, the entire
lakefront had been swept clean after what might well be one of the biggest
beach days of the early summer.
Last weekend as I
chatted with tourists who were in town during Chicago’s NATO strike, I must
have fielded the same question a dozen times.
In one form or another it went something like this, “Did you guys clean
up the city for NATO or is Chicago always this clean?” How good it felt to be able to answer
absolutely honestly that, yes, Chicago makes the extra effort to scrub itself
up every day before it goes to work.
 |
| Clean! Tuesday, May 29: 8:20 a.m. Michigan Avenue (JWB, 2012) |
This morning, after
an uneventful hour in the dentist’s chair, I got on my bike again and rode
south to Grant Park, past Buckingham Fountain, down to Roosevelt Road. Crews were busy planting the flower beds for
the new growing season. The 319 acres of
Grant Park, this great gift to the city from generations past was preparing to
burst into bloom.
 |
| Clean--and Planted! Tuesday, May 29: 10:20 a.m. (JWB, 2012) |
And for the second
time today I felt the power and beauty of a city that always amazes. In a pristine park next to a sunlit lake, I
looked north toward Randolph Street.
With a train sliding past on the Illinois Central electric line to my
right and with the noise of Michigan Avenue traffic to my left, I felt the
realness of a city that is, to paraphrase Nelson Algren, the loveliest of
lovelies.
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2 comments:
Your photos are looking gorgeous! (Or, is that just a good looking, clean city?!) How is Dr. Dan?
Photo Shop is a big help, isn't it? Dr. Dan does not need to be Photo Shopped, but he seems a bit rushed. Anyway, I'm headed in this afternoon for a filling replacement. Great way to spend a rainy afternoon!
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