Category Archives: Journalism

Toward a Generic Context Engine for Civic Data

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I have been thinking and writing for quite some time about how to use civic data— the type of info found on data portals like data.cityofchicago.org— to tell real stories. That’s why I’m psyched to be attending two events— Knight-Mozilla-MIT “Story & Algorithm” Hack Day on Saturday and the MIT – Knight Civic Media Conference, where I’ll be on a panel called, “Turning Data Into Narrative“.

Currently, turning data into narrative is a highly hand-sewn effort. Take, for example, this post about a neighborhood building being turned into a Walgreens I compiled this from ten databases, including building permits, business licenses, historic preservation lists, Sanborn maps from 1929 and 1950, county assessor, and county recorder of deeds. None of these databases are in one place, and none of them know how to consume or interpret information from the other. I also pinched info from five news sources, including an article from the New York Times archive about a bank run at this location in 1931.

What if there was a machine where I could enter a piece of information (the name of a lobbyist, the address of a building, the name of a construction project) and pick from a list of data sources (like those listed above) and teach the machine what the data means? Why can’t I get that machine to bring me back a list of businesses that used to be in that building (from municipal business license records and private landlord rent rolls) or the number of babies born there (from birth certificates) or what those babies grew up to do in this world (from the obituaries of the future)? OK, that last item might be hard. But I want this machine.

I’ve got some ideas on specific manifestations of this machine, and I hope to write about them this week as I prepare for Boston.

Here’s some posts wherein I drill down into data and tell a cohesive narrative about the place:

The grand-daddy of all of my efforts in this regard is a screed called, “New Walgreens in the Old Noel State Bank Building at 1601 N. Milwaukee (corner of North, Milwaukee, and Damen in Bucktown/ Wicker Park)“. It’s still not completed– a narrative in progress!

The Ballad of Tyler Hicks

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http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/08/22/multimedia/23tylerhicks_190.jpgTyler Hicks is one of the best war photographers in history. He has won the Pulitzer Prize and worked with some of the best, including C. J. Chivers and Dexter Filkins, trying to explain a world gone mad.

In March of last year, Hicks— along with colleagues Anthony Shadid, Lynsey Addario and Stephen Farrell—  was captured by Libyan forces, while covering the revolution in Libya for the New York Times. The article that the four of them wrote together explaining their ordeal, “4 Times Journalists Held Captive in Libya Faced Days of Brutality“, was a crushingly personal tale that also shed light on the story they were there to cover.

Last month Anthony Shadid died of an asthma attack while covering a story in Syria. This morning the New York Times published an article written by Hicks called, “Bearing Witness in Syria: A Correspondent’s Last Days“. I dare you to read it without crying. Hicks is a photographer, not a writer. It’s a hybrid document where he recounts the last days of his friend and colleague— ending with Shadid collapsing while Hicks was holding him up— and tries to tell the story they went there to get. Here’s a snip:

That evening I read a book while Anthony walked down the street to interview some fighters we had been with that day. A while later an activist returned to tell me that Anthony wanted me to follow him and to bring my cameras. I arrived back at the base where we had seen them prepare their weapons, and as is the custom I took off my shoes before entering. There I found a carpeted room full of the fighters, now familiar to us, singing and playing traditional music, some clapping as one sang.

Directly across from me, amid cigarette smoke and sitting among them, was Anthony with a huge smile on his face. This was exactly the kind of connection that made him most happy as a reporter; his great warmth and intelligence were part of what made him the most important journalist covering the Arab world.

He put his arms out and said gleefully, “Tyler, look at this!” I found a seat next to him. Always wanting to share the experience, he told me that when they started singing he immediately sent for me. They served a dessert of sweet cheese, doused in a sticky syrup. They ad-libbed to incorporate us into the lyrics of one of their songs, thanking us for coming to Syria to witness their struggle.

Read this article. Buy the newspaper in which it appears, and clip it out. Press it in a book or fold it into a novel on your bookshelf. And then, as time goes by, if you get nagged by doubts about the future of journalism, or want to debate about pay walls or Craigslist, pull this story out and read it again. And you will be reminded that the New York Times Company paid two friends to go find out what was happening with defectors from the Syrian Army in early 2012, and one of them died of a horse allergy, and the other one carried his body over the border between Syria and Turkey.

Toward Better Tools For Context in Civic Data Using Private Data Sources

Posted on by DXO
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Now that civic data is a normal part of the atmosphere in Chicago, it’s time to start mining private data sources to make automated context a natural part of our Web infolives. By that, I mean the addition of information about a subject that is generated without human intervention. My experience as the person responsible for obtaining civic data at EveryBlock has made me deeply aware of the power and limits of data lookup tools. Now that we have much more lookup tools and data to fill them, especially here in the City of Chicago, it’s time to turn our attention to the Web and the tools we use to extract data from it.

The recent dogged work of the Chicago News Cooperative, with help from Medill Watchdog, dovetails well with automated context. They’ve been publishing a great series of articles this week about lobbying in Illinois:

There’s great reporting in here based, in part, on a review of data. Here’s are some snips:

The investigation showed that the filings frequently are inaccurate. Both lobbyists and their clients are required to disclose their lobbyist-client relationships. In 242 instances, records show, lobbyists reported working for a client but there was no corresponding registration by the client.

*

Medill Watchdog examined statements of economic interests of public officials, lobbying registrations filed with the City of Chicago, Cook County and the state, and records of state bills and local ordinances. The investigation found 14 elected officials from Cook County alone who, while not lobbyists themselves, are related to or in business with lobbyists.

It’s time to automate some of that review.

Why civic data is not enough

City of Chicago Lobbyist Data - Lobbyist Data - 2011 Lobbyist Registry

Lobbyist data in Chicago has a great start on automated context. Lobby data was released earlier this year, and then improved when developers asked for better data and the City provided it. Those developers launched an awesome Web site– Chicago Lobbyists– that tracks lobbyists, clients, and projects. Here’s more info on how the Web site works.

Chicago Lobbyists Homepage

This is a great round-trip story: municipality releases data, developers analyze data (for free) and make suggestions, City heeding suggestions and releasing more data, and developers making a great app (again, for free) to view the data.

The next step seems simple– use the site to figure out all the big money relationships inside and outside government. But that didn’t happen. According to the data, $11,422,846 was paid to lobbyists working to influence the City in 2010. While that’s a lot of money, I do not believe that is the sum total of money involved in influencing the actions of a $6 billion operation. That doesn’t pass the sniff test, and the CNC articles this week show the nature of that failed sniff. There’s much, much more to be had.

Reverse-engineered bios

My assumption is that there are dozens of other positions, arrangements, and relationships that are factored into the true picture of lobbying. I am not in any way suggesting that these are nefarious, illegal, or improper. In fact, I find them to be absolutely normal. I just also find them to be hard to find. The CNC/ Medill stories of this week illustrate this very well– they did a ton of shoe-leather reporting to get insights. The thing is that we should be able to piggyback on that work with better tools.

For example this snip from a CNC story:, “the investigation found 14 elected officials from Cook County alone who, while not lobbyists themselves, are related to or in business with lobbyists.”

How did they find that out? Probably by painstakingly reviewing the economic interest disclosure forms and googling the shit out of the businesses listed. In most cases, online biographies of lobbyists played little to no role in pulling these pieces together.

As is typical in an industry where relationships matter, the people who do (and make) the most have to day the least about their work. The firm with the highest billings in 2010, Illinois Governmental Consulting Group LLC., has a one-page Web site with no feature/ benefit text and just emails to the principals. Why? if you don’t know who these people are already, they probably don’t really want to hear from you. To mailto me is to love me.

In situations like this, it’s not impossible to pull together a reverese-engineered bio for the principals, and picking up some noun clauses in the process. For instance, he was appointed to the Western Illinois University Board of Trustees. While we’re at it, here’s a mother-lode of George Ryan appointments to various state boards from 2001, including the Western Illinois appointment for Brunsvold. Someone needs to slurp that up and put it to use.

Automatically-generated entity associations

On the other end of the biographical info spectrum, I found that large law firms— with their sophisticated in-house marketing and PR teams— are much more forthcoming about what noun clauses matter in the world of Chicago lobbying. By doing entity extraction on the biographies of lobbyists, we can be armed with fodder for understanding and connections. With information from these tent-pole sources like law firm Web sites, we can apply that info to the other people in the industry.

Open Calais is one of many tools and companies that are focused on entity extraction and compiling knowledge on a topic.

Here’s an example from the bio of Edward  J. Kus, one of the lobbyists found in the data (with some initial research)

  • Executive Director of the Mayor’s Zoning Reform Commission
  • Zoning Administrator of the City of Chicago
  • First Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development
  • McCormick Place Expansion: the Chicago Tribune has a hundred or so stories about this from the 1980s and early 90s in their archive
  • Navy Pier Redevelopment
  • Central Station
  • Lakefront Millennium Park
  • Chicago Plan Commission: homepage of the Commission has a list of all current members as well as searchable PDFs of all meetings (with members, matters, and outcomes) going back to December 2009. Plethora of info. Includes vote counts, recusals, etc.
  • City of Chicago Zoning Board of Appeals
  • City Council Committee on Zoning
  • City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development
  • City of Chicago Department of Zoning.
  • Group Home Task Force
  • Open Space Committee
  • Landscape Advisory Executive Committee
  • Greater North Michigan Avenue Association
  • Leading Lawyer in Illinois

So even though Kus only received $19,000 in 2010 from lobbying (the top person, Brunsvold, pulled in $978,000), the 17 initial-caps entities can be whacked against all other names in the data to tease out connections. The best thing is that all of this could be automated. I would like to see a computer program that does entity extraction of each of these noun clauses and drill automatically into each of them, slurping up all of the people and putting it into an understandable chart. Again, all of this is fine– it’s nice to make money, it’s nice to have responsible civic voices helping us make decisions, and it’s nice to know everything one needs to know in order to understand.

This info can also be pulled into the Chicago Lobbyists Web site as context in and of itself. These two pages on the Internet: the ChicagoLobbyists page for a registered lobbyist and the Mayer Brown bio for the same person don’t even know about each other. No link, no unique user ID, no way to know that they are the same person, even though the content is in many ways complementary. Here’s an example:

Connections in plain sight, rendered in plain text on the Internet, there for the making.

Marrying databases and the importance of standards

The public data environment is maturing quickly; moving from one in which very little data is available to one in which different units of government publish different datasets about essentially the same thing. For example, the Cook County Clerk has their Lobbyists Online lookup tool which contains lots of information about many of the same people who are in the City data. The Cook County system publishes the contact information (including email and cell phone number) as well as what looks like a copy of the building access ID photo for every registered lobbyist. The City data does not include this info, but since they publish the name and firm, it is possible to marry this info into one record.

We’ve been successful in changing policy when it comes to the publication of data, but there has not been much corresponding thought on standards. Much of this has to do with the vagaries of existing software and the idiosyncrasies of intake forms. Meantime, there is lots of opportunity for private developers to pull together all of this info into a useful (and valuable) repository.

Compiling language about the thing itself

One cool thing about marketing and public relations text is that it allows one to leverage the curation of others. Here’s  a snip from a lobbyist bio on the DLA Piper Web site:

In 2011, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that a zoning deal concerning plans to develop the old Lincoln Park Hospital site in Chicago had won initial approval from the Chicago Plan Commission despite aldermanic opposition. Reporter Dave Roeder noted, “As a historical note, this project is the third example of a zoning deal winning initial approval despite aldermanic opposition. The only other recent case was the proposal, yet unrealized, for a Chicago Children’s Museum in Grant Park. The zoning lawyer for that deal and the Lincoln Park Hospital site is Ted Novak of the firm DLA Piper. Other zoning lawyers probably wish he would bottle his secrets and sell them.”

Telling language. How people describe their actions is almost always telling. That’s probably why the ones with the most work say the fewest things.

Another example is Shoefsky & Froelich’s pretty enlightening definition of lobbyng:

Our firm represents private-sector entities seeking rights, licenses and privileges from government boards, commissions, and legislatures. We develop government relations strategies, draft and engage in hearings on petitions for relief from government regulations, and negotiate public sector/private sector partnerships. In addition, a substantial element of this practice area includes pursuing zoning changes and other relief required for development

Here’s Mayer Brown’s mega-page explaining, in detail, the actions they take on behalf of their government relations clients.

Meanwhile, watching entities from the DLA Piper bio reffed above, I saw “Lambda Alpha International, Ely Chapter (an honorary Land Economics Society)”. Their Web site has a basic info on the field of land economics. They’ve also got 10 years of their newsletter archived. My guess is that contains some good info about tactics and methods for lobbying, written in the congratulatory prose of a trade publication. Good stuff.

If one wants to understand lobbying, one has to have this stuff in front of them. Making tools that finds and monitors these sources would be valuable.

There’s money in this

It’s not hard to think about commercial uses for such a tool. Opposition research for political candidates and competitive intelligence for the lobbyists themselves are just some of the uses that come to mind. There’s lots of great work going on in civic data, especially in Chicago. I’d love to see venture capital follow some of this important work. I think we’d all benefit.

New Walgreens in the Old Noel State Bank Building at 1601 N. Milwaukee (corner of North, Milwaukee, and Damen in Bucktown/ Wicker Park)

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Photo courtesy of the Cook County Assessor’s Office.

NOTE: This post is an aggregation of information on 1601 North Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago, which is currently being made into a Walgreens. This info was compiled mainly via Web searches and deep dives into public databases. It serves as a specific manifestation of a broader idea– that the City of Chicago contains a mountain of info about the space around us, it’s just unevenly distributed. Making tools to automate the process of turning this raw information into actual knowledge that helps shape our civic actions should be a priority for Chicago developers in the coming year.

A New Store in an Old Building

I’ve watched the work at the new Walgreens at 1601 N. Milwaukee, at the corner of North, Milwaukee, and Damen for a few months now, and I’m really excited about this place. The bank building is wonderful, and it looks like the build-out is going to be respectful of the original architecture. This has always been a dead corner on an integral six-corner piece of the city (I moved into the neighborhood in 1985 and can’t remember anything of interest being there, ever), so I really want to see this new store be an anchor.

The work done to date has been some tuckpointing and painting of the exterior and a general fix-up of the inside (described in full below).All of this work seems to be very preparatory and there’s nothing about the inside that indicates that a Walgreens will be in there any time soon.

I hope that the build-out mirrors the CVS in the old Home Bank and Trust Company building at the corner of Ashland and Division, with some improvements. I love that store, and I appreciate the care they took in maintaining the architectural features of the place.

CVS on Division and Ashland, Chicago

Having said that, the (original?) doors are very heavy/ hard to open and the store has a “dead air” feel to it. That might have something to do with the soaring height and relatively small footprint of the place. Also, the layout/ flow of the store is even less friendly than most CVS stores. No matter what you buy, you have to double back to the cash register. I’ve never seen the registers in the back of the store open, either–that might help to establish a better feel.

Door Detail of CVS on Division and Ashland, Chicago

I wanted to create this post just to aggregate as much info I could about the building and track the progress of the store. I’m interested in the history of the place (hence the Sanborn research– thanks, Jen!), civic process (zoning, permits, licenses), architectural detail (especially the glass ceiling), store format type, and the impact that such a project has on a neighborhood.

History

The building started life in 1920 as the Noel State Bank Building at the corner of Robey (now Damen) and Milwaukee. Taking a look at the 1914 Sanborn map for the area, the block had a wagon shop, a wholesale liquor establishment, a post office substation, a paints & oils place, two mattress factories (one with an electric motor), and a tailor shop with wood posts and electric power. As an aside, the tailor shop building now houses a place where they seem to have a never-ending string of weekend customers who want their eyebrows tailored. There were six separate buildings (1601, 1607, 1609, 1611, 1613, and 1615 N. Milwaukee– none of which were labeled with any particularity– where the bank would be built. Here’s the full Sanborn sheet (best viewed large) and a snip below (lower right):

This is a snip of the 1914 Sanborn Map of 1600 Block of North Milwaukee. The six properties that will make up the Noel State Bank are in the lower right triangle.

The next Sanborn map I have for the area is 1950, has the place all decked out. Here’s the full Sanborn sheet (best viewed large) and a snip below:

This is a snip of the 1950 Sanborn Map of 1601 North Damen Noel State Bank. As usual, there is great detail on many of the properties shown.

Note that this schematic refs a mezzanine in the front and back of the bank. You can see the front mezzanine in this recent pic. I wonder what they’ll put up there. Would be a nice breakroom. Or maybe their copious user-driven photo processing equipment. The Cook County Assessor’s Office PIN number for the property is 14313320180000.

Once you’ve got the PIN, you can go to the Cook County Recorder of Deeds to look up info about ownership of the property. Lots of action on the property, all of which map nicely to the news coverage:

Recorder of Deeds Page for 1601 North Milwaukee Ave.

Civic Process

1601 N. Milwaukee, Noel State Bank Building, Being Outfitted for a WlagreensGoing from a long-empty building in a neighborhood that has experienced lots of change and growth to a new business can be a long, arduous process. Here’s what I’ve gleaned from a search of the topic from a number of sources :

CBS2, April 26, 2011 (quoting Crain’s, whose story is unavailable w/o login) has the deal on the zoning change necessary to make it viable retail: Committee OKs Zoning Change For Old Wicker Park Bank

Crain’s Chicago Business reported Tuesday that the owners of the Midwest Bank building at 1601 N. Milwaukee Ave., are seeking the zoning change. The owners took over the two-story, 15,500 square foot building through a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure, and are now seeking retail tenants, Crain’s reported. Currently, according to the Zoning Committee, the building is zoned for both retail and manufacturing. The proposed change would change the zoning just to retail. The terra cotta building was completed in 1919 as the Noel State Bank building, according to the City of Chicago. It was later a Fairfield Savings Bank and most recently, Midwest Bank.

Racked, May 13, 2011 had the goods on the Walgreens moving in: Breaking: Walgreens to Take Over North / Milwaukee / Damen

Some new information just came our way that leads us to believe that this landmarked building at the six corner intersection of North Avenue, Milwaukee Avenue and Damen will soon become the latest location for the Midwest’s pride and joy: Walgreens drugstore.

The Building is fifteen thousand square feet split between two stories and will become similarly occupied as many of the other projects we’ve been seeing develop around Wicker Park and Bucktown. The facade will be power washed, the windows will become clear and appear to be larger by eliminating window frames allowing for more light into the space. Finally, a large non-lighted “W” sign is to be installed on the corner but plans shall be further studied in case there is a possibility the sign obscures the building’s character-defining features.

RedEye Chicago, June 8, 2011 has info on architectural detail: What’s the deal with Walgreens?

UPDATE (1:50 p.m.): Walgreens spokesman Robert Elfinger has confirmed that Walgreens has signed a lease in 1601 N. Milwaukee Ave., with a tentative opening of winter 2012. Burck didn’t know much about the project, except what was discussed in an April Commission on Chicago Landmarks meeting, which included a vote to keep the 14 ground-floor windows the same size (there was a proposal to enlarge the window openings) and an agreement to continue to study the location, size and design of a large “W” sign so that no building details are obscured.

I looked up the meeting minutes on that meeting on the Commission on Chicago Landmarks page on the City Web site. It was actually the March meeting. Here are the details:

1601 N. Milwaukee (Milwaukee Avenue District – 32nd Ward)

Proposal: Proposed rehabilitation and conversion to a retail use of a 3-story limestone bank building, including masonry repair and repainting, enlargement of ground-floor window openings, window replacement, and new retail tenant signs.

Action: Approved unanimously with the following conditions:

1. The fourteen ground-floor window openings, proposed to be enlarged, are original character-defining features on primary (street) elevations of the building, and the size of the openings shall not be changed. However, given that the existing windows are not historic, and in furtherance of the intended retail use of the building, the replacement ground-floor windows need not match the original configuration but may be undivided picture windows with minimal framing designed to maximize the amount of glazing areas

2. As proposed, all new replacement glass shall be clear glass. Existing and proposed dimensioned window and door details, and their proposed finishes, shall be included in the permit plans;

3. The fixture plan shall be further studied. Areas behind the windows should be kept open and unobstructed to allow transparency and views into the building. Additional information about the build-out behind the windows, any proposed window signage, and merchandising installations shall be provided for Historic Preservation staff review and approval as part of the permit application;

4. Masonry cleaning, repair, and replacement details shall be included in the permit application plans. Samples of any replacement stone, patching, and mortar shall be reviewed and approved by Historic Preservation staff prior to order and installation. Any new limestone shall match the unpainted limestone in color, texture, and finish; and any new mortar shall match the historic unpainted condition in color, profile, and composition;

5. A conditions analysis of the paint and stone shall be performed by a qualified materials engineer/conservator to determine the appropriate paint product type, color, and finish for the existing painted limestone. The analysis and paint specification shall be submitted for review and approval by Historic Preservation staff prior to order and application;

6. As proposed, no exterior light fixtures shall be mounted to the stone facades;

7. The location, size, design, and attachment details for the large “W” sign shall be further studied so as not to obscure character-defining features such as windows and to ensure that it will not adversely affect the building or the district. [A possible location is the wall area below the proposed window location.] The four signs proposed above the doors should be relocated to the flat stone jambs above the door and below the beaded stone molding, or could be relocated to the flat stone pilasters next to the doors and designed to appear like plaques. The other proposed sign areas, the two locations along the stone sign bands at the parapet and the proposed projecting banners mounted at the stone pilasters are approved in concept only. A rendering showing all proposed signage shall be submitted to Historic Preservation staff as part of the continued review. All future signage including material, color, attachment details, sizes, lighting and other information shall be reviewed and approved by Historic Preservation staff prior to order and installation. The signs shall be designed with as few attachments to the masonry as possible, and with attachments preferably located at the mortar joints; and,

8. The proposed use of the building requires a zoning change for the portion of the lot which is currently zoned M1-2. The Commission takes no position regarding the merits of any requested zoning change.

The reason this building is subject to the Landmarks Commission is because it is included in the City’s 1995 Historic Resources Survey. Here’s the record for this building in that database. I track buildings of this type in a side project called Demolition Hold List: A place for info about architecturally significant buildings in danger of being demolished (or are already gone).

Architectural Detail

I don’t have much on this at this time, since I haven’t been inside the building. I do have this set of pics I’ve taken of the place recently, including some good detail of the existing features in the entry:

1601 N. Milwaukee, Noel State Bank Building, Being Outfitted for a Walgreens

Building Permits

Google Advanced Search is handy when you’re looking for info on a particular address in EveryBlock.

Here’s the building permits I could find for this building on EveryBlock:

June 7, 2011: $500,000 Permit issued for renovation / alteration

SCOPE OF WORK TO INCLUDE RESTORATION OF EXISTING MASONRY, WINDOW AND DOOR REPLACEMENT, AND DEMOLITION OF EXISTING NON STRUCTURAL INTERIOR PARTITION WALLS

August 24, 2011 Permit issued for renovation/alteration

INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR ALTERATIONS PER PLANS FOR PROPOSED RETAIL WITH PHARMACY( WALGREENS) PER PLANS. CONDITIONAL PERMIT SUBJECT TO FIELD INSPECTION.

December 7, 2011: $255,700 Permit issued for elevator equipment

Install two (2) escalators and one (1) 3000#, 125 fpm, 3 stop hydraulic passengers elevator pursuant to plans submitted and subject to City of Chicago DOB Elevator Bureau inspection.

Business Licenses

I turned to the City of Chicago Data Portal for business license info.

There’s nothing yet from Walgreens, so there is no opening planned at this time. The only thing I found was a 3-day “Itinerant Merchant, Class II” license for a “James Perse Sample Sale” from May 20 – May 23, 2010. Otherwise known as a pop-up store. Here’s a vague invite for the event (no address). I wish I would have seen this– would have been good to get inside. Here’s Racked’s coverage of a similar sample sale on Walton in December 2011.

That’s all I’ve got for now. Check back for updates and please provide any info in the comments.

UPDATE, December 31, 2011:

Noel State Bank, Closed on June 18, 1931, Due to "heavy withdrawls in the last few days"
___

Update, April 7, 2012:

There has been very little activity at the location lately, but I noticed that they did reinstall the glass ceiling (though I can’t be certain that it is the exact same panes, that is my assumption):

Walgreens, 1601 North Milwaukee, Ceiling Window

Update, April 25, 2012:

They had the door open today:

1601 North Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, April 2012

Update, early August 2012:

They’re putting up the studs for the walls now:

Studding Out the Walls at the New Walgreens, 1601 N. Milwaukee

Studding Out the Walls at the New Walgreens, 1601 N. Milwaukee

Update, September 14, 2012:

This is a picture of a woman in a tan bodysuit singing in a temporary shower stall outside of 1601 North Milwaukee while a man in a tan body suit sits on a couch and another man looks on.

This is a picture of a woman in a tan bodysuit singing in a temporary shower stall outside of 1601 North Milwaukee while a man in a tan body suit sits on a couch and another man looks on.

Here’s the interior, night:

1601 North Milwaukee at Night, Interior Lit, September 2012

Here are links to a few other deep-dive civic posts that I’ve made over the years:

AldermanicWebsites.com– a Comprehensive Take on Chicago Political Web Sites

Posted on by Daniel X. ONeil
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Here's something I worked on over Christmas vacation: AldermanicWebsites. It is a fun/ manic little Web site that "contains links to and reviews of the Web sites, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, and other Web referencia for each of the 349 people who filed nominating petitions to run for Alderman in one of the cities wards."

Here's some more copy/ paste explanation:

You can read the detailed notes on the evaluation criteria here. The best political reporting Web site in Chicago, Early and Often, provided lots of the early info that feeds this site.

For each candidate in each ward, we link to the campaign Web, provide a screenshot of the homepage. We’ve got the first sentence of their bio and their slogan if they have one. For each Web site, we provide one thing that is unique about it.

The next obsession is the stars in campaign imagery, covering whether they use stars in their design and whether the star is the unique six-pointed star of the Chicago flag.

There’s links to any Facebook, Twitter, and EveryBlock accounts maintained by the candidate. There are some amazing discussions going on among neighbors and candidates.

If you’re looking for info on a particular candidate, your best bet is to search for the candidate’s name in the search form on the right.

Chicago Board of Election Commissioners Logo

If you’re interested examples in particular technologies used by particular candidates, the Quick-See pulldown menu is your best bet.

For instance, you can see all candidates using the WordPress Web development platform, all candidates using PayPal to collect contributions, or everyone who uses Contact Contact to send out mass emails.

Same goes for wards– just choose the ward your interested in (the 24th is super-lively) and you’ll see all candidates. The Ward list is in alphabetical order (when the ward number is spelled out). That’s a little goofy, I know– what can I say; I have limited skills.

If you’re just interested in the highlights (and low lights), I would stick with the “Analysis” links. That’s where I boil down all of the sites into some upshots.

I like the Analysis best– so far I've got five posts there, covering everything from good stars and bad stars to remarkable sites and popular Web development platforms. And you've realy got to view source to see anything.

More to come, including project documentation– I used about two dozen tools to make this thing. Stay tuned!