Good afternoon! It’s Thursday, and today I learned some of the CTA’s heat lamps used to operate with potbellied stoves. The amenity is now on for the season (even if November temperatures are still mild). Here’s what you need to know today.
1. A Chicago house tied to the city’s early preservation movement could receive landmark status
The Commission on Chicago Landmarks will decide today whether to recommend designating the Lake View residence and studio of longtime architect and preservationist John Vinci. If approved, the move likely would be the first step in a process in which the commission asks the City Council to grant the property permanent landmark status.
In addition to the two-flat building’s architecture, the designation would also honor Vinci’s groundbreaking preservation work and his architectural firm that was founded in the two-story home’s dining room in 1969.
Vinci, 89, could become the second Chicago architect to have his house landmarked while he’s still residing there, my colleague Lee Bey reports. A city spokesperson said the first was likely William Keck, who was 85 and living in the modernist Keck-Gottschalk-Keck Apartments, 5551 S. University Ave., when the building he designed with his brother, George, was designated in 1994.
Vinci bought the house in 1969. It immediately became the headquarters for his architecture firm, then called John Vinci-Lawrence Kenny, founded with partner Lawrence “Larry” Kenny. Their work included saving and restoring endangered buildings designed by Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, Burnham & Root and other important Chicago architects. The home was frequented by a coterie of architects, preservationists and professionals such as architectural conservator and paint specialist Bob Furhoff, who died in September at 87.
“To be honest, I’m sort of embarrassed,” Vinci said of his home’s designation. “But I think the house is worth it.” [Chicago Sun-Times]
2. Gov. JB Pritzker takes personal pride in Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s defeat
In 2011, when Abbott signed into law an abortion ban at six weeks of pregnancy, Pritzker sent letters to corporate executives with ties to Texas, advising them to reconsider doing business in a state that “strips its residents of their dignity.”
As my colleague Tina Sfondeles writes, Abbott opened the floodgates the following year, sending thousands of migrants to Chicago and saying he would continue to do so until then-President Joe Biden secured the border. The tension boiled over in January 2024, when the Illinois governor pleaded with the Texas governor to halt migrant drop-offs in the dead of Chicago winter.
Abbott then sent Texas National Guard troops to Illinois as part of President Donald Trump’s Operation Midway Blitz, although the guardsmen were never deployed after a protracted court battle.
Pritzker, the billionaire heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune, responded to all of the ire with his dollars — contributing $1.2 million to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa and $100,000 to U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico through the super PAC Lone Star Rising. Pritzker was Hinojosa’s second-largest donor, behind only the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which gave $1.49 million. Pritzker also hosted a Chicago fundraiser for Talarico last year.
He gave $25,000 each to the Texas House Democratic Caucus and the Texas House Democratic Party Campaign Committee. And he helped Texas Railroad Commissioner Democratic candidate Don Rosenthal with a $25,000 contribution and gave $10,000 each to Travis County Judge Andy Brown and Bexar County Judge Ron Nirenburg.
All the Texas candidates Pritzker supported won Tuesday night. [Chicago Sun-Times]
3. Most Chicago voters said they want ShotSpotter back, but that’s unlikely to sway Mayor Johnson
More than 70% of Chicagoans expressed in an advisory referendum Tuesday that they want to bring back gunshot detection technology to fight violent crime and speed up emergency response time to gunshot victims — but the vote is unlikely to pressure Mayor Brandon Johnson into reviving it.
Three years ago, Johnson honored a campaign promise to progressive supporters by canceling the city’s contract with ShotSpotter, the technology he derisively called a “walkie-talkie on a stick.” As my colleagues Fran Spielman and Sophie Sherry report, Johnson and his backers viewed the technology as costly, ineffective and a contributor to overpolicing in Black and Brown communities where the majority of gun violence occurs.
Since then, the city has announced an open competition to replace ShotSpotter, and the last two city budgets set aside a combined $13.9 million for replacement technology. City Council hearings have done nothing to pressure the mayor to deliver a new contract.
Chief Procurement Officer Sharla Roberts sent alderpersons a letter about a pilot program about to begin in six police districts: Wentworth, Calumet, Englewood, Deering, Ogden and Harrison. The mystery program will test a variety of ideas, including more violence intervention, “drone-based situational awareness, license plate recognition and incident response systems for evidence preservation.” Gunshot detection technology is only part of the pilot, officials said. [Chicago Sun-Times]
Newhart’s face did not age well, my colleague Stefano Esposito writes. But in the deepening lines, hollowing cheeks and weary eyes, audiences were reminded of what had always made his comedy so irresistible, so universal: a look that said, “I can’t believe I’m having to deal with this crap.”
“That was the genius of Bob Newhart, who managed to stay ‘in vogue’ throughout his long career … because he appealed to so many different segments of society without ever altering the ingredients that were mixed into his recipe for success — that magical mélange of humility, gentle humor, and grace that endeared him to his admirers,” writes the book’s author, Michael Seth Starr, a former New York Post reporter and columnist who has penned biographies of numerous celebrities, including Ringo Starr, William Shatner and Rodney Dangerfield.
Newhart’s life in comedy is meticulously chronicled in “Bob Newhart: The Life and Laughter of an American Treasure,” out now. [Chicago Sun-Times]
At 49, Johnson is one of the biggest names in contemporary American art, WBEZ contributor Elly Fishman writes. Since emerging on the New York art scene in the early aughts, the Chicago-area native has built a career using unconventional materials — shea butter, houseplants — to explore the complexities of Black diasporic life. In his “Cosmic Slop” paintings, for example, Johnson melts black soap and wax to create textured, almost topographical abstractions on canvas.
His art now sells for as much as $3 million at auction, and the Whitney, the Guggenheim and the LA County Museum of Contemporary Art are among the many museums that have acquired his work for their permanent collections. Johnson also counts LeBron James and Jay-Z among his collectors, and President Barack Obama is a fan too. Johnson was among the 30 artists tapped to make new, site-specific work for the new Obama Presidential Center on the city’s South Side.
This month, the artist returns to his hometown — and to the Museum of Contemporary Art, which helped launch his career — with “A Poem for Deep Thinkers,” his largest show to date.
“Rashid’s work remixes all these references, visual cues, codes and materials,” said Naomi Beckwith, a Chicago native and MCA alum who is now the Guggenheim’s chief curator and one of the exhibition’s organizing curators. “And he takes those references and makes work about affect, about personal feelings, and his desire to look for solace, peace and home. His search for safety.” [WBEZ]
Here’s what else is happening
Juliana Stratton and Tammy Duckworth mark a historic milestone for Illinois as the first state with two women of color serving simultaneously in the U.S. Senate. [Chicago Sun-Times]The blue wave that struck Tuesday night nationwide also hit in parts of normally red Indiana, with Democrats picking up a congressional seat and winning the party’s first statewide race in 14 years. [WBEZ]The S&P 500 saw its largest daily drop in a year as investors worry about weaknesses in the artificial intelligence industry. [New York Times]Pope Leo XIV received a visit from singer-songwriter and poet Bob Dylan. [AP]
Oh, and one more thing …
Chicago prepared for the homecoming of the Soul Train Awards with style and star power, hosting a vibrant dance party and a special event with Queen Latifah yesterday, my colleague Erica Thompson reports.
The official ceremony will be taped tonight at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance and broadcast Nov. 27 on BET and CBS at 7 p.m.
But the festivities kicked off yesterday afternoon with the free “Soul in the City” event at the Chicago Cultural Center. Attendees showed off their colorful duds and afros, inspired by the classic ‘70s fashion of the Chicago-born “Soul Train” TV show. They danced to R&B hits spun by DJ Ca$h Era, took in live performances and enjoyed interactive art activities.
Later that night, presenters BET and Procter & Gamble welcomed Queen Latifah to the Obama Presidential Center, where she showed clips from the documentary “You Can Go Home Again,” which she produced. [Chicago Sun-Times]
Tell me something good …
What’s something that brought you joy recently?
Paul writes:
“My recent wedding and reception brought me a lot of joy. Not only did I become a late-in-life newlywed, I got to celebrate with many relatives and friends from different parts of our lives. A jam-packed honeymoon the following weekend in the Big Apple also brought us much happiness.”
Bill writes:
“Walking through a nearby neighborhood on Halloween, seeing so many kids in costume collecting candy, led by parents that celebrated right along with them. Lots of Happy Halloween greetings and smiles all around! Just a wonderful collective joy!”
Feel free to email me, and your response may be included in the newsletter this week.