Summer Cinema Scene Stumbles

With the Portage suddenly locked by its owner Eddie Carranza and the Patio closing in the summer due to a broken air conditioning system (still open now happily), our local cinema culture scene comes to a stumbling halt. Bummer indeed.

NPR presents the story of Dunning.

The story of Dunning, a 'tomb for the living'

Think Vote Theft Only Happens in Third World Countries?

Good commentaries on Belmont Height's disenfranchisement in both papers.

This one has a great pic of our alderman:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-wards-20130403,0,1816715.story

Mark Brown weighs in on the theft of our votes:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/brown/19238833-452/lawsuit-over-ward-remap-sure-to-shake-up-city-hall.html

Hold on to your ward boundaries, it ain't over yet.

The League of Women Voters has brought suit against the city for the recent ward remap. Of course, in the remap the 36th got gerrymandered into some kind of a folded-over salamander. The position of this blogger is that the citizens choose the aldermen, the aldermen don't get to choose us. Here's the story in the Sun-Times.

Patio Theater to Screen Chicago Cinema Society Selections

We scooped DNAInfo on this story (see below) but here's their tardy report for your reading pleasure
Patio Theater, Chicago Cinema Society Join Forces - DNAinfo.com Chicago.

Honda Fit Wheels Stolen

On Oketo just north of Addison.

Art Exhibits This Month at Roden Library

The Roden public library in Jefferson Park, 6083 N. Northwest Highway, will be exhibiting the work of two local artists this month for Woman's History Month. The artists are Barb Jaks and Molly Cranch. There will be a reception on Saturday, the 9th from noon to three. Check it out.

Chicago Fringe Festival Comes to Jefferson Park

Jefferson Park art scene is really expanding with the addition of the Fringe Fest. Chicago Fringe Festival Finds a New Home in Jefferson Park - DNAinfo.com Chicago

"Spider-Man" Robber Strikes Dunning

The Trib reports that the "Spider-Man" robber, who wears a Spider-Man mask, robbed two convenience stores on the 3700 block of North Harlem Avenue. The report states that he brandished a pistol. The weird thing about this troubling story, besides the Spider-Man angle, is that as far as I can tell, there's only one convenience store on that block, named Convenient. The story says there's a 7-Eleven on that block, but there isn't one there. They might be thinking of the 7-Eleven on the 2700 block of Harlem in Elmwood Park.

I've written about the north end of Harlem before. That area is in definite need of renovation. The strip mall where this robbery took place is a basin for trash and litter. I suspect that much of the litter might come from patrons of the Convenient store itself since that's where most of it accumulates. The owner and businesses of that mall should make a better effort to clean up the trash on its parkway along Harlem and particularly the area at the north end of the parking lot.

Further, the area is in governmental limbo, since it's designated to become part of the 38th Ward (Cullerton) from the 36th Ward (Sposato). Whichever way it goes, it desperately needs capital improvement. It's been a bit neglected. Decorative street lights, neighborhood identifying banners and entrance signs would go a long way to making the area more hospitable to shoppers and secure from crooks.

EveryBlock Bites The Dust

EveryBlock, the neighborhood-based social media site suddenly shut down today. Its parent company, NBC, was apparently behind the decision. The final blog post attributes the closure to "massive changes" in the news industry. It will be missed. We'll have to see if anything springs up to take its place.

Patio Theater Teams Up With Chicago Cinema Society

In what's making to be an extremely cool development for this area, the Patio theater has partnered with the Chicago Cinema Society to start showing independent and foreign movies. Upcoming screenings include Foo Fighter Dave Grohl's Sound City and the Chinese noir kung fu action flick Dragon. Of course your Hollywood faves will still be shown at budget prices.

In other promising news DNAInfo, in their Norwood/Jefferson/Portage Park edition, reports that the Chicago Rapid Transit Coalition and Ald. Arena (45th) are pushing to have a Blue Line stop built at Nagle (Narragansett) and Bryn Mawr. This stop was quashed when the Blue Line was originally built because of resident's fear of bla...er, crime. As the great bard once said, "the times, they are a-changin'." Okay, let's not get ahead of ourselves here just yet.

Access to public transportation is generally proven to be an economic plus for an area, e.g., Rockwell Corridor. This is especially true today with gasoline and parking becoming more and more expensive.

Happy New Year to everyone in the Belmont Heights, Dunning area. May 2013 be a prosperous one for our community. Let's all work together to make our community the greatest in Chicago!

New Mariano's Under Construction in Harwood Heights

Mariano's is building one of their grocery stores on the southwest corner of Lawrence and Oketo. The structure is going to be pretty big. It is reportedly going to open in spring of next year.

CTA Claims Enhanced Ridership, Faster Service

Although written for the Ravenswood community, here is a good analysis of the CTA's recent plans to improve service. It does discuss improvements for the Irving Park Addison, and Montrose bus routes.

http://www.wellesparkbulldog.com/news/cta-claims-enhanced-ridership-faster-service

Nice Review of Harlem Avenue Eatery

Caffe Italia and Mercato de Pesce get a nice writeup on the blog Ambience Chaser. I went to Caffe Italia myself on Tuesday. Had the gelato and regular coffee. The coffee was great and the gelato was pretty glorious. Bellezza Gelato Caffe now has some worthy competition down the street. These aren't just the typical local haunts--these are destination businesses that are bringing greater vitality to the area. Now, if we can only get some streetscaping on North Harlem...