Slice of Life: Peaceful Night

A peaceful night in Erie Park (630 North Kingsbury Street -- officially called Park 511), along the banks of the North Branch of the Chicago River.

Follow Up: Who Is Fitzgibbons?

Some eagle-eyed readers of our article about the demolition of the old CBS Studios Building in Streeterville noticed some writing in the rubble and asked what it says.

The writing is stenciled letters about two-feet tall on a giant tank in the basement of the CBS Building.  It reads "The Fitzgibbons Boiler."

We don't know who Fitzgibbons is, or why he has his own boiler.  But we've sent an e-mail to WBBM and if we get a response, we'll let you know.

Keep Your Eye On The Rubble

If you blinked, you missed it.  It didn't take long for demolition crews to converge on the old CBS Building in Streeterville after the eye network moved to its gleaming new home at Block 37 in The Loop.

All that's left now is a pit of debris and the cranes emptying it.

For those of you who don't know, this building had quite a history.

• It was originally the headquarters and stables of the Chicago Riding Club.
  
• It then became an ice skating rink.
• It was then used as a roller skating rink.
• Then it became the home of WBBM, WBBM-TV and WBBM-FM, along with the Midwest headquarters of CBS News and CBS Newspath.
• This was where the Donahue talk show was produced for a time after it moved out of WGN-TV's north side studios.
• This is where the Siskel & Ebert movie review show was first produced.
• But most importantly -- in 1960, this was the location of the world's first televised presidential debate.  It was between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy.  It is a debate that is still studied by journalism and media students to this day for many reasons that are beyond the scope of this humble blog.

Slice of Life: Godless Communists Secret Headquarters

OK, so it's not exactly secret.  But this building and its occupants certainly aren't drawing any attention to themselves.  The bunker-like structure is the consulate of the People's Republic of China.  Of course it makes sense that a city the size of Chicago would have a Chinese consulate.  But you wouldn't expect it to be across the street from the Walgreen's next to the Flagship McDonald's .

The strange location probably made sense back when this building opened.  River north was a far more tourist- and resident-hostile area back then.  And if you were going to build a bunker, plopping it amid the working warehouses and light industry of the area was a pretty good way to not draw attention to one's self.

The only way you can tell what this building is these days is by the Chinese flag flying from the roof, the crowd control barriers that sometimes pop up around it, and the paper notes in Chinese that are often taped to the front door glass listing times and days that visa applications are taken.

(Oh, and before anyone gets their undies in a bundle about the "Godless Communist" quip in the title, by law everyone in China is a member of the Communist party, and China is officially an atheist state.  So "Godless Communist" is factual.  And yes, I've been there.  I've got four stamps in my passport from China.  Don't bother hassling me unless you have more.)

State Street Gets Popular

Ontario Place is getting a little Puerto Rican flavor.  Not, it's not another hot-today-gone-tomorrow gastrospot.  It's a branch of Banco Popular.  The bank branch has opened on the corner of State Street and Erie Street that used to house part of Ontario Place's leasing office. The leasing office has shrunk, but maintains a presence in the building on the Erie Street side.