Posts Tagged ‘carol stream parks’

» This is Not a Park

Sunday, March 28th, 2010

There is a well know work of art that was painted in 1928 by the Belgian surrealist artist, Rene Magritte. He became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images. His intended goal for his work was to challenge observers’ preconditioned perceptions of reality and force viewers to become hypersensitive to their surroundings. The painting is entitled “Ceci n’est pas une pipe.” Translated this means “this is not a pipe.”  It is, of course not a pipe but an image of a pipe.

So if you live anywhere near Carol Stream Illinois, you may have driven by this small little park located at Gary Avenue and Lies Road. Although it looks like an archeological find, the park was recently built, about five years ago, but has fallen into disrepair. It is hardly visible anymore due to the uncontrolled growth of foliage. This was a formerly vacant corner, and it must have been an expensive build, new trees and landscaping, new retaining walls with masonry, new benches, a memorial plaque, and sidewalk pavers, conservatively maybe $50,000.  But every time I drive by I wonder why it was built in the first place. I have never seen a person anywhere near this park, there is no bus stop, and it is completely isolated from any sort of human activity. In fact in order to reach the park I had to park about a half mile away, and walk through mud, culverts, and tall weeds. But if you could reach it, why would you want to. Why would you want to sit in a park that faces a major intersection? Maybe just watch some traffic on a nice Sunday afternoon?

The problem is, like the painting, the park is not really a park but an image of a park. It is a three dimensional billboard put up by the misguided Village of Carol Stream to spoon-feed passers by a calculated image. But the message it really sends is that the Village of Carol Stream is more concerned about an image than actually providing amenities for their residents. It is sad that our elected officials make these kinds of decisions with our tax dollars. Build parks that nobody can use, what a waste.

So what’s the bid deal, why I am making such a fuss over such a little park? Well, a park is not meant to be enjoyed from a car as you go whizzing by, it’s meant to be a place for rest, to enjoy the outdoors and connect with nature, to nurture your soul and recharge. This park is teasing you and not letting you have those things. We chose the image over the real thing. This is a cultural decision that should be questioned. Why have we chosen to replace a real experience with the image that represents it as a substitute? The idea of an image as a representation or substitute for the real is a denial of human experience. What is worse is that it is so readily accepted, and we are confused, we don’t know what’s real.

Ceci n’est pas un jardin .” This is not a park.

» The Windy City

Monday, March 15th, 2010

The windy city.  There are three different theories why Chicago is called the Windy City. The first is: The Cincinnati and Chicago rivalries, the second: 1890’s World Fair and the third is the weather. 

Cincinnati and Chicago were rival cities in the 1860s and 1870s. Cincinnati was well known in the meatpacking trade and it was called “Porkopolis” from at least 1843. Starting from the early 1860s, Chicago surpassed Cincinnati in this trade and proudly claimed the very same “Porkopolis” nickname. The baseball inter-city matches were especially intense. The 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings were the pride of all of baseball, so Chicago came up with a rival team called the White Stockings to defeat them. “Windy City” often appeared in the Cincinnati sporting news of the 1870s and 1880s. For the Cincinnati papers, “Windy City” had meant a Chicago that was full of bluster.

In 1890, Chicago won the bid to host the World’s Fair, also known as the World’s Colombian Exposition. Many prominent New Yorkers were extremely irritated that a “frontier town” could beat them.

We are going to focus on the weather theory.  With Chicago being located on Lake Michigan, the city has a tendency to cool breezes blowing off the lake.  And with its unique city layout and the wind tunnels that form from the tall buildings make some areas a gold mine of untapped free wind power.

To harness that power Wind turbines can be employed.  These wind turbines can typically connect to your home via a 220 volt line run under ground from the turbine to a safety disconnect switch the into the main breaker.  There are typically no changes required in the home.  By using some of these wind turbines your power will first be drawn from your turbine and then the power grid.  If you make more than you use the power can be credit back to the utility company.  There are great software packages out there that help monitor your production.

The downfall of these turbine systems is the price.  They can range from $8,000 all the way up to $20,000 installed.  However there are federal tax incentives and sometime local utility companies will give credits for it use. The duration of time that it takes to offset the initial cost depends greatly on your location.

It is not for everybody but it is a good place to start harnessing the power of the wind.