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Chicago

CTA Pet Peeve #3: Bus riders who insist on using the front door to exit (CTAStories.com)

CTA Pet Peeve

This is a huge pet peeve of mine. It makes the bus driver have to wait longer before moving, and more importantly, it pisses me off. That’s why it’s my latest CTA Pet Peeve.

Why is it that every Tom, Dick and Harry feels that the only way off the bus is through the front door? I mean, I understand if the Tom, Dick or Harry is a little old lady sitting near the front of the bus. But we’re talking about young, healthy individuals.

Are these people actually afraid of exiting the rear door? Does it take some ungodly amount of athleticism to step down to the street?

Maybe if people moved towards the rear of the bus in the first place, they’d feel more inclined to get off in the back.

Could ticketing be another way to fund CTA upgrades for a Chicago 2016 Olympics Games…?

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Media news

Artvoice site redesign looking good; print product next?

Artvoice logo

In a bout of nostalgia (must be a sign of the apocalypse) I just checked out the new Artvoice site. Artvoice (and its talented editor-in-chief Geoff Kelly) gave me a shot at a few features.

He decided to turn two of them into my very first cover stories. (Check them out here and here. Geoff generously gave me a co-byline on the first piece.)

The big change I noticed on the site was the inclusion of Web 2.0 features like Digg and Del.icio.us. This was hugely necessary, as neither of its two biggest competitors – the Buffalo News and Buffalo Rising – carry any real 2.0 functions, except for, say, RSS feeds and comment fields.

And the banner font is much sleeker, I must say.

One function that got lost in the redesign was the ability to view the print version in PDF form, something I was able to do on the old site. (A working journalist, I need to print out my clips!)

My question to Artvoice is: Are there any plans for a print redesign in the works?

Categories
Chicago 2016

Chicago 2016 Update: Mickey D’s sitting out hometown Olympic fundraising

2016 Update

According to a Wall Street Journalreport today, the McDonald’s Corp. isn’t supporting Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympic Games.

Why not? They can’t. Because of the company’s ties to the International Olympic Committee as an official sponsor of the Games.

As a result, McDonald’s can’t make any contribution to the Chicago 2016 bid.

How about giving up that special sauce formula…?

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Media news

Update from Kellogg Social Media Symposium: Other blog posts

Kellogg Logo

Hey, all. The Northwestern University Media Management Center is linking to my blog posts from the Kellogg Social Media Marketing Symposium earlier this week.

They’ll have a bunch more blog posts from fellow Medillians and maybe some other media professionals. It’s worth checking out.

Categories
Chicago 2016

Chicago 2016 Update: Chicago hosts World Team Volleyball events

2016 Update

It’s been a busy day for international sports in Chicago.

In what may be another trial run for the Chicago 2016 Olympics, World Sport Chicago, along with U.S.A. Volleyball and the Internation Federation of Volleyball, announced that they will host an international volleyball match here on June 15-16 at the Jones Convocation Center at Chicago State University. The match will pit Team U.S.A. against Team Italy on the both days, with France and Japan facing off elsewhere.

This announcement came soon after the Amateur International Boxing Association announced that they were holding their World Amateur Boxing Championship events here in Chicago in late October-early November.

What’s next, cricket?

Categories
Chicago 2016

Chicago 2016 Update: Olympics would be of little benefit to city’s Southwest Side

2016 Update

It seems that some of the city’s Southwest side constituents aren’t too pleased about Chicago 2016 Olympic plans.

Ray Hanania, pretty much the lead columnist for the Southwest News-Herald, wrote in a column today that while Southwest side taxpayers will be asked to shoulder its share of the burden, the area probably wouldn’t play a role in any Chicago 2016 plans, to everyone’s detriment.

He writes:

A lot will be forgotten during that time, and that’s good for Southwest politicians who are scrambling to explain why they were AWOL when the Olympic proposal was crafted.

Congressman Dan Lipinski and Ald. Mike Zalewski told our reporter Chuck Salvatore that Palos Park and Bridgeview will host “some” events, the Orange Line will get an “uplift,” and maybe they’ll improve the local highways.

We have one local highway. The Stevenson. It’ll be renovated regardless of the Olympics, to keep the road contractors fat and happy, and motorists late and distressed.

Oh. And they’ll improve Archer Heights streets. So, is Zalewski saying Archer Heights will have to wait 10 years before it sees any street work? Or, street improvements happen all the time, Olympics or not?

Geez. Hanania doesn’t pull any punches. He continues:

Mayor Daley insists there’s no need for taxes to pay for the $5 billion cost of the event. That’s $5 billion in today’s money. You know that price tag will skyrocket on the basis of the “Chicago Political Principle.”

The Chicago Political Principle is much like Murphy’s Law. The latter is all Irish the former is mostly Irish.

Here’s some examples of the Chicago Political Principle.

Millennium Park. It was budgeted at $150 million, but it took four more years to build and it ran $350 million over budget. Oh, Daley had an excuse for every dollar, of course.

Ouch. It’d be nice if the Tribune and Sun-Times gave these guys equal voice in their coverage of a potential Chicago 2016 Olympics.

Categories
Chicago 2016

Chicago 2016 Update: Daley’s nephew more concerned about Sox than Olympics?

2016 Update

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley appointed his nephew to the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority yesterday, reports Fran Spielman of the Sun-Times. The Authority could play a pivotal role in the Chicago 2016 campaign.

His nephew, Peter Thompson, served as a former campaign finance chief for Daley. And the man’s not unqualified – he earned his MBA at the University of Chicago.

Thompson’s seat on the board is unpaid, but Spielman’s article contained some rather telling quotes. Perhaps it’s just what Spielman used, but Thompson seemed more concerned with improving U.S. Cellular Field and the surrounding Bridgeport neighborhood.

Let’s see if he has anything in store for decrepit Wrigley Field. He sure has an idea of what the ISFA can do about the Olympics. He says the Authority can’t own or operate any of the stadiums.

It’s looking more and more like the city will have to foot the bill…

Categories
Chicago

CTA Pet Peeve #2: People who stand near the doors (CTAStories.com)

CTA Pet Peeve

In my constant quest to improve my karma, here’s another edition of CTA Pet Peeves.

CTA riders who cluster near bus and train doors piss me off. I don’t know what else to say.

I shouldn’t have to shove my way through these people just to get off. (I am not, however, someone who waits until the very last second to get off the bus/train. That’s another pet peeve of mine, so stay tuned for that installment.)

Blocking doors:

A) Forces everyone to wait longer for the bus/train to start moving again.

B) Pisses everyone off.

Folks, just move away from the doors. If you can’t, be as accommodating as possible to people who need to exit.

Categories
Hip-hop Video of the Day

Video of the Day: Fabolous Rap City freestyle

Here’s my latest favorite Rap City freestyle. Fabolous, one of the most underappreciated rappers in the game, tore it up a few days ago. His new single, “Diamonds,” featuring Young Jeezy, won’t catch on; It’s a piece of snap-hop crap. Fabolous just can’t do the whole Southern thing. (Listen to his new single on the Def Jam site.)

He’s much more talented than, say, Cam’ron, I believe. He just doesn’t have the click to back him up. It’s a shame he sold out so early in his career.

Categories
Media news

Update from Kellogg Social Media Symposium

Chad Stoller

Chad Stoller (left) of Organic, Inc., discusses the aftermath of purchasing social media with fellow execs and Kellogg students (Photos copyright Daniel B. Honigman)

Kellogg’s Social Media Marketing Symposium got off to a good start Tuesday, as news-types and Web behemoths alike rubbed shoulders and drank coffee in the somewhat cramped quarters of Kellogg’s 4th floor conference room.

I started chatting with Scott Skurnick of Edmunds.com, the #1 (ranked by Google) car search service about their branding experience with social media. For all of you aspiring online entrepreneurs, even the big boys are using Google as their big gun, which is equally good and bad.

“You never want to depend solely on one source, but that’s the way [the search engine business] has become,” he said. “If you lose your rankings on Google, you’re out of business.”

Edmunds is comparable to the Kelley Blue Book brand, the brand. Thing is, said Sturnick, they’re just not doing anything online.

“Brands and properties have to realize that negativity is out there, and they need to police it,” said Chad Stoller, Executive Director of Emerging Platforms for Organic. For newspapers, they’ve forgotten that they’ve always been leaders and conversation starters. Newspapers that don’t want to blog — I just don’t get that.”

“If you’re the newcomer or the advertiser to the social media party, you have to bring some beer and pizza,” he continued. “If you don’t contribute something… and give back to the community, you’re not enhancing the experience.”

The beer and pizza, he said, were upgrades to social media platforms. A MySpace plug-in that lets people see their top 24, instead of eight friends.

We can create the social media, but can we attract the 18-24 year olds?”, asked Tony Wright of Schurz Communications. My guess: No, it can’t be done. Unless there’s unique content.

More to come, folks.