- Make no small pans? Chicago Ald. JoAnn Thompson, who represents the city’s Englewood neighborhood, tells Sneed that she doesn’t want the movie version of best-selling novel “Devil in the White City” filmed in Chicago because it highlights a serial killer who murdered women in Englewood. Thompson should also consider the fact that the real star of the book is our greatest civic hero, Daniel Burnham, architect of our spectacular 1893 World’s Fair and the visionary plan that protected our magnificent lakefront park system in perpetuity. It’s worth putting up with the grisly side story to burnish Burnham’s rep in front of a big movie audience—not to mention all the dollars moviemakers leave behind.
- State & Lake, brought to you by ABC 7? OK, my former TV bosses probably won’t buy, rent or lease the L stop next to the station, but they might be allowed to under a revenue-enhancement plan floated by CTA boss Rich Rodriguez, who is apparently willing to barter naming rights to every bus, L train, station, stop and transit facility in an effort to balance the budget without raising fares or cutting service. Rodriguez says the sponsorships can’t be connected to controversial products like cigarettes, booze and topless bars, or terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda.
- Daley disses Quinn’s tax stance. The mayor had this to say about Governor Quinn’s claim of a “mandate” to raise income taxes in Illinois: “You can’t just tell people, like here, ‘I’m just going to raise taxes.’ You’d be thrown right out of City Hall. They want you to cut expenses, cut waste, inefficiency, reorganize and get a bang for the buck.”
What I’m Watching—Nov. 11, 2010
