CHICAGO’SFREEWEEKLYSINCE | JULY | JULY CHICAGO’SFREEWEEKLYSINCE Omen gets back in the game The TRiiBE 26 Why is the rent so damn high? Maya Dukmasova and Anjulie Rao 16 The worst hecklers are the cats Brianna Wellen 19 ‘A place I can call Chicago has one of the largest Rohingya refugee populations in the home’ country. This is one survivor’s story. By EF 12 THIS WEEK CHICAGOREADER | JULY | VOLUME NUMBER IN THIS ISSUE T R - ­ ­ CITYLIFE populationsinthecountryThisis ScandinavianschlockYesterday 31 TheSecretHistoryof @ 04 SightseeingHowanambitious onesurvivor’sstory andtheideaoffi ndinghome ChicagoMusicDrummerKahil planforanairportinthelakefailed throughtheBeatles El’Zabarelevatesgroovetoa totakefl ight 23 MoviesofnoteBefore transcendentplane PTB 05 PSAGivemeyourtiredmasses Stonewallutilizesrevealing 34 EarlyWarningsClaud ECSKKH DEKS yearningtoplaycornhole interviewsandrivetingarchival HieroglyphicsShonenKnifeand C LSK footageToniMorrisonThePieces morejustannouncedshows D P JR ThatIAmisrichwithinsightsabout 34 GossipWolfGuitaristand CEAL NEWS&POLITICS M EP M 06 Joravsky|PoliticsHowfear BlacknessandSpiderManFar soulsingerIsaiahSharkeydrops A EJL drivestheoppositiontosingle FromHomeprovideseyepopping akaleidoscopicnewalbumblack SWDI payerhealthcare escapism metaltakesontheFantasticFour BJ MS SWMD L G andmore EA SN L G D D C S MEBW ARTS&CULTURE OPINION L CS C -J 16 ArchitectureAvisittothe 36 ForeignPolicyHowDemocrats FL CPF ‘Evicted’exhibitinMilwaukee andRepublicanskeepusconstantly TA ECS 18 VisualArtQuiltsofValorpieces engagedinconfl ict CN B D C LCI togetherawaytohonormilitary 37 SavageLoveDanSavage G AG KT vets off ersadviceonwhetherhaving HR H JH 19 ComedyAtthestandupshow ‘athingforBlackguys’makesone JH IH DJM KS K MM ‘JustKittenAround’theworst prejudiced B MQJRN hecklersarethecats LPKRBSD S TTRBEA W FOOD&DRINK CLASSIFIEDS ---------------------------------------------------------------- 08 RestaurantReviewA THEATER MUSIC&NIGHTLIFE 38 Jobs D D J D UniversityVillagestorefrontshows 20 PlaysofnoteFlowerofHawaii 26 Feature|TheBlockBeat 39 Apartments&Spaces D P E &P theglobalversatilityoftheNepali isafrothyfantasythatfi rstbloomed A eryearsawayChicagorapper 39 Marketplace KK dumpling inprewarBerlinforagoodtime andproducerOmenreturnsto O M S A A AJG comealloverthedatingsatire DreamvilleRecords’starting YD FEATURE GrindrtheOpera lineupandtothesouthsidepark 10 PhotosWhatdoesDykeMarch wherehelearnedtoplay ADVERTISING O P A -- -@ meantoyou? FILM 29 ShowsofnoteCombo P F P ’ C @ 12 HomeChicagohasoneof 21 ReviewMidsommarisnothing ChimbitaFeeLionBonoboand thelargestRohingyarefugee morethanadresseduppieceof morethisweek SD PF V PSAM CRM TP SA R B GAH THIS WEEK ON CHICAGOREADER.COM J L LM-H A RLS B W CSM W R NA V MG --- J LSB ---------------------------------------------------------------- DC [email protected] -- STM READER LLC BPD RL TE R S JS A- S V Movie Tuesday: Inside the Pride Parade Sunday’s storms actually CC EB The parade was cut short because Greatest hits of Italy’s post- improved Lyrical Lemonade’s ---------------------------------------------------------------- of thunderstorms, but not before R ISSN-­ photographer Kathleen Hinkel STMRLLC Pasolini decade Summer Smash SM SC IL captured some memorable moments. -- Ben Sachs on fi ve fi lms that capture It’s grown into Chicago’s biggest rap C ©C R the era’s fi lmmaking at its best festival in just its second year, but it P C IL needed a nudge from the elements to A C RR get its act together, Leor Galil reports. RR T® In last week’s Generation Stonewall spread, we mistakenly attributed a quote to David Stienecker. The Reader regrets the error. 2 CHICAOREADER - JULY ll ll JULY - CHICAOREADER3 CITY LIFE A Lake Michigan site for Chicago’s third major airport, 1970 CITYOFCHICAGODEPARTMENTOFPUBLICWORKS the jobs generated by an airport on the south and potentially dangerous scheme; and en- side. The communities closest to the airport vironmentalists. Unfortunately for Daley, his would see dramatic investments in the form proposal came at a time when the public was of hotels, restaurants, and other facilities to particularly anxious about the health of the service airline tra c. Moreover, an airport in Great Lakes. “The lake is already threatened Lake Michigan would be the kind of make-no- with extinction by pollution,” as an editori- small-plans enterprise that Chicago mayors alist at WIND-AM put it. “It doesn’t need any and their constituents love—an awe-inspiring additional threats.” public works project that would pump tens of City Hall simply refused to concede any millions of dollars into the construction trades real risks in its pharaonic project. Milton and leave a heroic monument to the city’s Pikarsky, Chicago Commissioner of Public technical ingenuity. Works, claimed in May 1971 that water quality The initial report by the Hanza Engineering and aquatic life would actually improve if the Company, a Chicago fi rm renowned for design- airport were built. “All the evidence we have ing dams and other large-scale hydrological indicates we can overcome any environmental projects, considered a site due east of 35th problems,” he told the Chicago Tribune. Street, with the Stevenson Expressway four Although Pikarsky claimed fog wouldn’t be Sightseeing miles across the lake to the island airport. But an issue because takeo s and landings would in its 1970 report to the city, Hanza settled on a be automated, air controllers and pilots con- site whose center would be 8.5 miles due east tended that the airport would be vulnerable to An airport in the lake of 55th Street. Hanza envisioned that barges icing and low visibility, and judged its location would create a circular dike five miles in di- too close to O’Hare and Midway’s crowded How Mayor Richard J. Daley’s ambitious plan failed to take fl ight ameter, dumping tons of sand or rock-fi ll into airspace for it to be e cient. Nor did City Hall the lake. Over a three-month period, all the adequately address a 1969 Federal Aviation By JN water within this circle would be pumped out. Administration-commissioned report that After the diked enclosure had been fortified warned that catastrophic dike failure was still with rock quarried from below the lake bed, a modern phenomenon. The barrier protecting he next time you’re cruising on Lake it chose the lightly populated site that later the terminals, hangars, and runways would the airport could be put under stress by severe Shore Drive south of McCormick became O’Hare. Two decades later, with fears be constructed. A causeway would connect events involving weather, leakage, sabotage, Place, look to the lake and try to that O’Hare and Midway were approaching the airport to the mainland. The entire airport or accidents. imagine how di erent your commute full capacity, the city commissioned a study would be the antithesis of an artifi cial island, Critics also came with common-sense ob- might have been if Mayor Richard J. to explore the feasibility of an airport in Lake with planes fl ying into a space that had been jections that were di cult to wave away. How- TDaley had pulled o his most audacious pub- Michigan rather than in the suburbs. the very bottom of the lake. ever daring, the experimental design of the lic works plan—a major airport built in Lake An airport in the lake would solve a num- Hanza Engineering noted it had employed airport seemed vulnerable to cost overruns. Michigan, fi ve miles from shore. ber of problems for Daley. There simply was C. H. Mortimer, a widely respected limnologist American airports had several entry and exit The idea of building a major airport in the no place within the city boundaries to put a who specialized in the Great Lakes, as a con- points in case of emergency; this would have lake predated Mayor Daley. In 1928, the City major airport. It was one thing to demolish sultant on ecological matters, yet the report just one. Tra c on Lake Shore Drive could not Council approved funding to plan an airport 106 acres to make room for a Chicago campus didn’t dedicate much space to environmental handle an airport the size of O’Hare. In addi- built on an artificial island stretching from of the University of Illinois, a project largely concerns. It conceded that fi sh would be “ex- tion to how such an unprecedented project 16th to 31st Street. Seven years later, the fed- supported by Chicagoans outside of the near- pelled” from the airport zone during construc- might a ect the lake ecology, there was also eral government denied funding for an island west-side neighborhood that was destroyed. tion, but maintained the total e ect on marine the question of whether the noise of constant air station east of the Adler Planetarium, on It was another thing to clear 8,000 acres for life would “be localized and quantitatively flights might simply bounce off the lake and the grounds that the area could not cope with a third airport. Although Richard M. Daley unimportant.” Hanza was confident that all disrupt the peace with incessant jet noise. the noise, tra c, and other disruptions a big considered building an airport around Lake the wastewater produced by the airport could In the end, City Hall was unable to contain airport would bring. Downtown would get its Calumet in the early 90s, this area was still be piped to treatment plants on the mainland, opposition in Springfield or Washington. In airfi eld, but it would come in the form of Meigs dominated by smoky industries.