Good afternoon! “Depraved” sing-along showtimes are coming quickly. Right here’s what else you could know at the moment.
1. Chicago’s indie music venues have a Taylor Swift downside
The willingness to spend astronomical figures on main enviornment reveals is having a downstream influence on Chicago’s live performance halls, my colleague Sofie Hernandez-Simeonidis writes for WBEZ.
Live performance tickets have generated widespread handwringing lately. An anxiety-inducing Ticketmaster queue is a virtually common expertise today, in addition to budgeting $100 for a coveted ticket — and infrequently paying a whole bunch extra.
At the moment, the typical ticket hovers round $127, in response to a midyear report from Pollstar. And concertgoers spending extra on fewer artists additionally has an impact on smaller, extra usually domestically owned venues: They might be much less more likely to make the leap on a efficiency for an artist they’re much less aware of.
“Popping out of lockdown was nice in so some ways. We had been promoting out of every little thing,” mentioned Brent Heyl, the director of music of 16 on Heart, a Chicago hospitality group that owns and operates venues like The Salt Shed, The Empty Bottle and Thalia Corridor. “I believe lots of people had been shopping for tickets to reveals to assist the venues. Now there’s this whiplash the place [audiences] received somewhat bored with going to reveals, or they spent all their live performance cash.”
The plague of excessive ticket costs — and altering client conduct consequently — has additionally hit music festivals, together with Chicago’s Pitchfork fest, which introduced earlier this yr it was leaving the town. Some folks might splurge. However different concertgoers are skipping festivals and as a substitute selecting a single massive present. [WBEZ]
2. IBM will be a part of Illinois’ sprawling quantum park on the South Aspect
The announcement marks the primary Fortune 500 firm to hitch the soon-to-be-constructed Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park on the South Aspect, Tina Sfondeles stories for the Chicago Solar-Occasions.
It’s an enormous win for Gov. JB Pritzker, who has for years sought to make Illinois a world chief in quantum computing and innovation. The announcement comes a day after the Metropolis Council gave the multibillion-dollar quantum computing campus remaining zoning approval.
The Nationwide Quantum Algorithm Heart will probably be anchored by IBM’s modular quantum pc, referred to as IBM Quantum System Two, which is able to attempt to advance quantum supercomputing throughout industries.
Past the potential advances in quantum expertise, the middle is anticipated to spur financial growth by attracting scientists from internationally. Pritzker can also be hoping IBM’s choice will proceed to assist advance federal analysis grants and personal investments in the direction of the quantum campus.
The middle will function briefly out of Hyde Park Labs, a industrial science and tech hub affiliated with the College of Chicago. After the state’s quantum campus is constructed, the middle will transfer to the 128-acre Illinois Quantum & Microelectronics Park. The 440-acre growth will probably be accomplished in phases over the following 4 to 6 years. [Chicago Sun-Times]
A brand new examine calls for presidency businesses concerned within the Cook dinner County property tax system to higher collaborate to assist the system grow to be extra honest and equitable, as a rising refrain of householders complain they’re struggling to pay skyrocketing payments, my colleague Kristen Schorsch stories for WBEZ.
A standard theme within the examine is that communication between county Assessor Fritz Kaegi and the county Board of Evaluate wants to enhance. These two key county businesses assist decide the destiny of how a lot industrial property house owners pay in taxes and the way that burden shifts to struggling householders.
Researchers discovered there’s a giant hole in how a lot knowledge these two businesses share to determine how a lot a property is value, resulting in wild fluctuations in how a lot everybody in Cook dinner County pays in taxes.
If the county has a extra correct image of how a lot residential property house owners owe in taxes annually, the federal government may give you higher methods to assist people who find themselves struggling to pay their payments, mentioned Rachel Ruttenberg, Cook dinner County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s deputy chief of employees for coverage. [WBEZ]
4. A state contract raised questions on the way forward for paper mail in Illinois prisons
The Illinois Division of Corrections is rolling out a program that will enable prisons to electronically scan incoming mail, regardless of objections from some jail reform teams, my colleague Mawa Iqbal stories.
The change comes as state lawmakers and the union representing jail guards elevate considerations about medicine like fentanyl getting inside prisons by means of paper mail. Paper is usually sprayed or soaked in illicit substances, reminiscent of artificial medicine and even roach killer, then mailed into prisons the place folks can get excessive by smoking it. That’s contributed to an enormous spike in jail drug overdoses nationwide lately. The union mentioned guards have reported getting sick after dealing with tainted mail.
However Restore Justice, together with dozens of authorized and neighborhood teams, despatched a letter to IDOC final month urging them to not exchange postal mail with a scanning system and to as a substitute “discover evidence-based options that foster security and rehabilitation.” [WBEZ]
5. Brookfield Zoo’s new honeybee exhibit affords households immersion with safety in thoughts
The show was designed to assist children see bees up shut — and even be taught what it’s prefer to be one — with the hope they go house and work to guard them, Davis Giangiulio stories for the Chicago Solar-Occasions.
Situated contained in the zoo’s Hamill Household Play Zoo, the exhibit options two domestically rescued honeybee hives for commentary and a play space the place children can faux to be a bee.
“You may see them working to wash out the hive, caring for the queen, you may really see the queen laying eggs in cells and the employee bees capping the honey,” mentioned Jennifer Baader, Brookfield’s senior vice chairman of presidency affairs and neighborhood applications.
Although bees have made headlines not too long ago for a resurgence, Baader mentioned bees native to the larger Chicago space, reminiscent of bumblebees, are nonetheless struggling. [Chicago Sun-Times]
Right here’s what else is occurring
- The White Home is cracking down on financial institution overdraft charges. [AP]
- Time journal named President-elect Donald Trump its Individual of the Yr. [NPR]
- Right here’s what to learn about an effort to make school in Illinois extra reasonably priced. [WBEZ]
- Michael Jordan’s Highland Park mansion offered for $9.5 million. [Chicago Sun-Times]
Oh, and yet another factor …
My colleagues distilled some Chicago information highlights right into a crossword puzzle.
And, this being the season of pleasure, the station is providing profitable solvers an opportunity to win $100.
Pleased fixing! [WBEZ]
Inform me one thing good …
What encounters have you ever had with wild animals within the Chicago space?
Colette writes:
“When builders had been on the point of construct The Cooper residence constructing at 720 S Wells in 2016, they dug up outdated concrete from the lot and piled it up close to the river. It created an ideal den for coyotes. There was a complete fleet residing there for months. We noticed only a few rabbits and rats that yr. The coyotes have since moved throughout the river by the principle put up workplace, however we don’t hear them as usually.”
Deb writes:
“I reside alongside the Chicago River and see fantastic proof of how it’s turning into extra wholesome by the animals swimming, flying, and searching there, together with a bald eagle final winter! My favourite are the transient sightings of these wiley coyotes and their haunting howling some nights. However probably the most shocking was after I was strolling in Horner Park at nightfall and heard a loud swooping and swishing so shut by my head I really ducked. It was a fantastic horned owl flying previous, not three even three toes above me!”
And Liz writes:
“As I drove house close to Central and Caldwell after darkish final week, a pair of frolicking foxes had been chasing one another backwards and forwards throughout the highway at lightning pace. At first they moved so quick i couldn’t make out what creatures they had been. As I received nearer I acknowledged they had been foxes, and the one in entrance had one thing in its mouth. It was an epic recreation of keep-away!”
Be at liberty to e mail me, and your response could also be included within the e-newsletter this week.
