Late Night Culture in Chicago - Present vs. Past? (Grant Park: transplants, apartments)

[chet everett]

Late 70s / into the mid 80s there was a signifcant amount of white-collarish shift work in the Loop and nearby business districts -- financial services once relied not on realtime data processing but "batch operations" that did much of the gruntier things like check processing and cash counting after business hours. The financial markets were far more reliant on physical paper that was a huge clerical mess involving LOTS of low skilled people moving around the "stuff" that these days only gets used for confetti...

Originally Posted by snoylekim

Thinking back .. the era of 1979 until about 1987-88 ( fondly remembered as the 'Slacker Years') .. Some of the corridors were pretty well established ( Lincoln Avenue bars, North Broadway) ; River North was just getting started , although the Ontario and Ohio Street strips were first . North Clark Street and Hubbard Street were kind of seedy. The West Loop and most of the South Loop were basically desolate in terms of nightlife, but the empty streets were perfect for Rat-hunting via a Honda Accord. . There were a lot more neighborhood places around; there was a conscious attempt by City Hall to reduce the number of bars starting with the Daley era . The late night greasy spoons were thriving ( Golden Nugget, White Palace,the original Ronnies Steak palace in the Bus Station, etc) , plus Chinatown had a few places open until 0300 or so . Fewer ATMs and White Hens , and no Starbucks, but lots of bars had 'carry out' licenses and/or provided the styrofoam 'to go' cup for the 'coffee' . There wasn't a lack of places for cheap food or liquor if one was in the right neighborhood .

[marothisu]

What do you guys think about some current practices? The number of blue collar jobs, at least ones with shifts all through the night, seem to be waning, but there are some other "white collar" type of jobs that can have long hours. Certain types of traders for example. In my job in tech, I don't technically have hours, or depending on the project I am on - not really. Some IT people (i.e. programmers) work pretty late hours sometimes and stay up late (if you have ever programmed and enjoyed it, you understand why).

I don't want a paragraph on the business of Motorola Mobility, but when they do move into Merchandise Mart next year, I am expecting some more traffic later at night in that area due to working habits of some people. Not everyone though or not the majority - just some more.

It is interesting though and something I am very interested in. One of the draws of the city is being able to do some things at any hour of the day.

[tollfree]

Club XL was fun back in the day.

[chet everett]

There really is not much of a culture of true "round the clock" business approved functional programming in any non-startup businesses. This is well recognized by many people, more than a few who work for google -- http://goo.gl/K1NneX

Further the fact is that even "the googleplex" and other such hives of late-night programmers are a lot more like the SUBURBAN campus that Motorola is leaving behind. It is flat out safer / smarter to have a couple of late night tacos and some Mt. Dew or Five Hr Energy and drive home than it is to encourage any kind of "hit the bar scene and take your chances on public transit" mindset...

[marothisu]

Your link is broken.

As far as what you said, I know what you mean, but in the end I don't 100% agree. There are many folks who work from home at least once or more per week (myself included) or work close to an office (myself included). I am more talking about a growing area (i.e. River North) with residential, along with people choosing to live semi close to work or just plain working from home (which is more now certainly than years past). I do partially agree with your statement, but not 100%. The reason why Google is moving MM down to River North is that many of the young employees want to live near there or not far away on the train.

[jonnynonos]

There is no past or present for me because I still hang out at Berlin. It's all blended into one; time has stood still since the mid-90s.

[snoylekim]

Ahh , the memories of Late Night programming . in the days before work-from-home , I was on several large projects where we spent long hours and a few all-nighters in the office or in a data center somewhere in or near 'The Loop'.. lukewarm Thai food, White Hen Subs, and diesel-fuel coffee . Because of space constraints, and an accelerated project schedule, we instituted a 'dual shift/bunk cube' schedule for the development team ( this was in the days before Mumbai) on one of my projects . All the kids ( mostly AC and 20-30something employees) wanted on the late shift; no ties, managers had hit the trains, and bar/club hours made it possible to work, head out, and be back in in reasonable shape the next day . Work from home and offshoring have ended a lot of that. My last project did 'follow the sun' , where most of the tech/grunt development happens 10.5 hours ahead .

[jonnynonos]

Loop is eeeeeempty after midnight. I walk home through it a couple times a month after midnight and you could roll a bowling ball until you cross the river. Actually it is so empty it is not very smart to walk through at that hour.

[Lookout Kid]

I often worked late in the Loop as late as 2007, and never had any problems. I was near the Art Institute and the Symphony Center, and would often walk out between 9:00 p.m. and midnight, or sometimes as late as 2:00 a.m. This was (and is) common in architecture firms. I usually saw a decent number of people on the street, and was always able to hail a cab very quickly any day of the week (which was always expensed).

[jonnynonos]

That is right off Michigan Ave. I'm talking about from Union Station walking north/northeast.

Different ball game.