It’s that time of year again! City street cleaning starts on Monday, March 30th and runs through November. During street cleaning days, you cannot park your car on a specific side of the street in order to accommodate the street cleaner.
The way the city communicates the schedule varies by neighborhood. In parts of the Gold Coast for example, you are notified of street cleaning by permanent signs. In other areas, temporary bright orange cardboard signs are posted one day before the street will be cleaned. The problem with both methods is that depending on where you park, your view of the sign may be obstructed. So, if you notice an entire block of mostly open parking, look carefully before deciding that the parking gods must be shining upon you.
Just to be safe, you can view your street cleaning schedule ahead of time at the Streets and Sanitation webpage here. Schedules are organized by ward, and if you don’t know your ward, you can look it up at the Civic Footprint website. Alternatively, you can simply contact your alderman’s office for more information. Knowing these schedules before hand is especially important if you travel or sometimes leave your car parked on the street for more than a couple of days.
The alternative to respecting the cleaning times is a $50 ticket. Now that the city has equipped 100 street cleaners with cameras to photograph the license plates of offending cars, the Department of Revenue will be more efficient than ever in doling these out.
So, mark your calendars and make sure it’s your curb, not your wallet, that’s swept clean this season.
Hollywood may be known as the movie capital of the world, but thanks to Chicago’s unique character (and some Illinois tax credits), our city is playing an increasing role in major film productions.
Recently, The Windy City stood in for the fictional Gotham City in Christopher Nolan’s new Batman film series. While I was not able to catch the latest installment, The Dark Knight, in theaters, it was hard to miss the crew as they were filming around town in the summer of 2007. According to the Chicago Tribune, The Dark Knight crew shot for a total of 65 days in 35 different Chicago area locations.
Spring is on its way, a welcome change after a brisk Chicago winter. Bulbs are starting to sprout, buds are on the trees, and nature’s marvelous rebirth is right around the corner. Historically, spring is also that time of year when our real estate market comes alive, often with vigor. In years past, my residential real estate sales team and I averaged approximately 40% of our total year’s sales during Chicago’s “spring market.”
Believe it or not, our spring market is off to a healthy start this year. We have now written about the same amount of dollar volume as we did at this time last year, possibly a bit more. I attribute the fact that we are on course to our constant attention to pricing. All the beautiful brochures and online photos in the world won’t sell a home in this market if the asking price is too high. So, we have shifted how we communicate with our seller clients, and spot-on pricing is a frequent topic of discussion. While we are rarely getting the prices we would prefer, our clients who sell are relieved to be out from under their home and able to get on with their lives.
But our spring is not all joyful…
When I think about Africa, my mind goes straight to the “Big Five.” These are the “trophy” animals that visitors often hope to see while on safari. They include the rhinoceros, elephant, leopard, buffalo and lion.
Here in Chicago’s urban “jungle” we may not have thousand pound mammals roaming our streets, but we do have what I call my own “Big Five.” Many of my favorite childhood memories tie back to the time I spent in each of these places. Whether you are a lifelong resident or a tourist in our fair city, be sure to explore these world-class institutions when you have the chance.
Last weekend marked the beginning of spring in our household. My three boys (all under four years old) spent the last few days digging and playing outside. My oldest has a new specialty, “mud sandwiches” comprised of dirt squeezed between two rocks, and he informed me that he is planning to “grow things” from the dirt that he piled in the back of his toy fire truck. It is such a pleasure to see them discovering their environment.
We recently moved into a new house, and we have a bare patch of soil in our backyard. I assumed I would call a landscaper and plant some large low maintenance bushes once the ground thaws, but now I have had a change of heart. I want to plant a small garden with my boys so they can enjoy the process of nurturing something and watching it grow.
I am an award-winning residential real estate agent in Chicago specializing in the city's North Side market.
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