Chicago Location • Page 25

Thanks for the heads up!

 

I've only lived here like a week and I'm arleady mad at tourists and the CTA all the time.

PS fuck this Green Line construction. I don't know how many stops they've shut down in the Loop but it's really screwing with my commute and the CTA was no help this morning getting me to an alternate stop or telling me where to go.

 

Welcome to the city!

 

There are 2 seasons in Chicago: winter and construction

 

As of next weekend: Goodbye Chicago, hello suburbia.

 

Revolution Oktoberfest:



I can get behind this.

 

Anyone else running the Malort 5k on Saturday?

 

Oh damn.

 

Nice!

 

baha that's 100% a joke in Minnesota too

 

Day 2 is the same day as the savage tour with AM/Bleached/The NIL and just down the street.

 

I just hope there aren't any conflicts between Jeff/White Lung and some of the bands on that lineup. That'd suck.

 

I think the AM show starts at 6 and the Rev fest at 5, so unfortunately I'm anticipating it. If it was earlier I'd definitely go to RevFest but there's no way i'm missing the Nil

 

Same. Already got my tickets for the Nil so I am doing that.

 

The amount of shows between Riot Fest and Mid-October is absolutely ludicrous.

 

Yeah, it's pretty absurd to me. I have a few picked out that I'm doing , but between moving and buying furniture, I am not doing everything I would like.

 

My must sees are Riot Fest, the aforementioned AM/Bleached/Nil show, Touche/Single Mothers, and Pinegrove. The week of Sep 30th-Oct 7th alone has the AM tour, Jeff Rosenstock/Meat Wave, PUP (suburbs), Japanese Breakfast/Mannequin Pussy, the Touche show, and mewithoutyou/PBTT. Mad.

 

So far I am for sure doing AM! and then the No Warning/Backtrack/Down To Nothing/Homewrecker show. I will probably miss out on Brand New. I would like to do Riot on Saturday and Sunday and then do the NFG/Bayside show if I can swing it. The Touche show is on my list too, but we'll see how it goes.

 

can we talk about how problematic riot fest is? i've had a beef with this thing since it hit humboldt park, and now that i have a better understanding of gentrification, i hate the fest even more. its just really shitty to shove over 100k people into a small space that is home to people who've been disenfranchised by the city. they sell it as the fest being beneficial to the community--the same run-of-the-mill arguement for gentrification--but people there are still in the same condition they were in before the fest. i understand that gentrification is basically an inevitable consequence in a capitalist economy, but there are aspects of it that can alleviate the negative aspects of it. instead of pushing for hyper-gentrification in the community, there are other parks on the northside this fest could take place at, or they could move it to the suburbs. or the fest can use its money and influence to create affordable public housing.

sorry for the random rant, but i think its something that deserves some attention. it'd be cool to see fans of the fest to push its owners to doing more than just throwing a little change at some charities; they can, and should, do more for the community they occupy every year.

 

Plus the fact how shitty it leaves the park afterwards.

 

I agree with the general sentiment of your post - I despise a lot of the aspects of gentrification and the disenfranchising effects it can have on the community, but compared to other festival-promoting organizations, at least Riot Fest considers the local community as a part of their footprint. I can't remember the list of things that they've done off the top of my head, but they appear to do more and more for the community every year: temp jobs for people in an area that frankly is devoid of meaningful opportunities, waiving vendor fees for residents in the local wards, donating to various charities in the area, offering free tickets to residents within a certain distance of the festival, and other benefits I'm not remembering off the top of my head. There's also a congestion/business argument that can be brought up against the festival, but there are so many street festivals that clog up the roads and rails in the city at this point that it's just a headache I grew used to before moving to the burbs.

It leaves the park in a shitty condition after the festival, but so does every other festival held in a public space in the city. Lolla leaves Grant Park looking like a warzone after the event. Also, weather has historically not been on Riot Fest's side if I'm remembering correctly. That 2014/2015 editions of the fest were muddy shitshows. They got lucky with the weather last year.

Overall, I see it as a catch-22 that's hard to solve. I love the fact that Chicago has a large punk-focused festival that's easily accessible by public transit and not at a farm or some suburban sportsplex (looking at you, Chicago Open Air). I get the exploitative nature argument, but the fact is this brings 100k people to a neighborhood that wouldn't normally come to the area. Hell, other than Lagunitas and Riot Fest, I can't think of a single reason I'd want to go to the Douglas Park neighborhood on a normal basis.

There's no perfect solution to this, but the Riot Fest group seems to have enough self-awareness to try to smooth things out nicely.

 

I've lived here on and off for about ten years and I absolutely love it. Some of my favorite places to visit are Empty Bottle, Kuma's Corner, Longman and Eagle, Momotaro, Schuba's, second city, EZ Inn, Promontory Point, and the beach when its not crowded. I also used to get such an adrenaline rush riding my bike down Western Ave at full speed. I would never do that now but it was so fun when I was younger. So, anyone here that lives in or near Chicago or even just have visited....share some fun experiences and places!

 

Portions too small though (or maybe I'm just fat)

 

I understand they try to give back, but I believe its more for appearances than it is meant to actually help the community; the efforts that the fest makes does very little to materialize better living for the people in the community. Temp jobs have their obvious problem, and offering free tickets to a punk show to Chicago west-side residents isn't exactly a benefit. The fest requires a person requesting a free ticket for ID and two pieces of mail, which isn't always easy to provide for young people in the community, as stable housing is hard to come by, and if they are not a documented citizen, that becomes next to impossible. A fee-wavier for local vendors doesn't do much for them either, when those neighborhoods lack small businesses, let alone business that would interest the demographic of Riot Fest goers.

As far as the charity work is concerned, I can't find anything from them that says they actually donate any of their profits from the fest. I've seen them do social media campaigns ASKING for donations, but nowhere can I find evidence of them actually using their money to donate anything. The Riot Fest Foundation is a non-profit, and like many non-profits in major cities, they stand to gain more in their investments by doing little for the people they claim to be helping.

Also, the park being destroyed is different from Grant Park, because Douglas Park is not in the center of the city, and ultimately not a priority for the city; Grant Park serves mostly tourists, wealthy skyrise apartment owners, and casual passerbys, while Douglas Park is within a community that is largely ignored. The 100k people that visit the neighborhood once a year does more harm than anything else to the people there. The people employed there are mostly service industry folk who work downtown, which is difficult to get to when the majority of the public transit's resources are focused on getting people to the park.

I'm not saying the fest benefits nobody in the area, but my point is that the amount of people the fest hurts outweighs the people it helps, and that there is plenty of room to improve here. What they're doing now is the bare minimum, which is whatever it will take to protect their investment.