City Cast Chicago

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A 100-Year-Old Theater Needs a Makeover. Meet the Person Doing It Oct 19, 2021

Show notes

The Avalon Regal Theater in South Shore pays homage to two old venues that served as entertainment hubs for Black Chicagoans. From the 1920s to the 1960s, the Regal Theater was where the biggest names in music, from Louis Armstrong to Aretha Franklin, performed. The Bronzeville venue closed in 1968, and the building was demolished five years later. And, the Avalon Theater in South Shore has been everything from a Church to a movie theater. Jerald Gary is the entrepreneur and neighborhood booster who is trying to bring the excitement of those former spots into one, new destination for music, comedy, and live theater. It’s a pricey venture, but Gary tells us why he thinks it’s so critical.

Guest: Jerald Gary— Owner, The Avalon Regal Theater

New Bears Stadium a Likely ‘Loser’ No Matter Where It Is Oct 18, 2021

Show notes

Now that the Bears have inked a deal to buy the old Arlington racetrack in suburban Arlington Heights, fans are waiting to see if the football team will really move. The Bears ultimately want a new stadium — either on the lake or in the burbs —and it’s estimated a new stadium could cost about $2 billion. Most, if not all, of that would likely fall on taxpayers. But football stadiums don’t actually make money for cities, according to University of Chicago sports economist Allen Sanderson. In fact, he calls them “economic losers.” He explains why and what we can learn from past changes to Soldier Field.

Guest: Allen Sanderson — Professor, University of Chicago

Gun Violence in Schools, Scooters Return to Chi, and Why Jacoby Hates Halloween Oct 15, 2021

Show notes

A 14-year-old student and a 45-year-old security officer were shot and injured Tuesday as classes were letting out at Wendell Phillips Academy High School in Bronzeville. The shooting is prompting renewed questions about school resource officers. Host Jacoby Cochran reflects on that along with Block Club Chicago’s Jamie Nesbitt Golden and WCIU’s Brandon Pope. They also look at the rest of the week’s news, including electric scooters coming back to Chicago, the continued success of the Chicago Sky, and their opinions on scary movies ahead of Halloween.

Guests: Jamie Nesbitt Golden — Bronzeville and Near South Side reporter, Block Club Chicago

Brandon Pope — Reporter/Anchor, WCIU

Let's Take a Moment to Remember Timuel Black Oct 14, 2021

Show notes

Timuel Black died yesterday at the age of 102, and while 102 seems like a lot, his accomplishments could fill multiple lifetimes. Black’s family migrated to Chicago during the first wave of the Great Migration, something he spoke about extensively and even wrote about in his first book. His family’s journey, his upbringing in Chicago, and his encounter with Nazi camps during World War II inspired a life of activism and work that helped the movement towards desegregation and civil rights in Chicago. Host Jacoby Cochran sat down with WBEZ's Natalie Moore to talk about Black’s legacy, the intersection of scholarship and his lived experience, and her personal connection to one of the city’s most prominent Chicagoans.

Guest: Natalie Moore — Reporter, WBEZ

To learn more about Black's life and legacy, check out his 2019 memoir "Sacred Ground: The Chicago Streets of Timuel Black"

WhatsApp is Essential for Many, Including in Chicago Oct 13, 2021

Show notes

Facebook’s outage on Oct. 4 was one of the longest in company history. But it wasn’t just memes and Insta stories that users lost for nearly six hours. People around the world rely on the messaging service WhatsApp to talk with family and even to do business. We hear from an international student at the University of Illinois and a woman living in Ecuador who has family in the Chicago area about how the outage affected them. And TechCrunch reporter Amanda Silberling explains what happened, how WhatsApp became so integral to international communication, and what we can learn from the outage.

Guests: Amanda Silberling — Reporter, TechCrunch

Brooke Stevenson and Tarkan Bolat — WhatsApp users

Why Mister Kelly's was Home to the Stars Oct 12, 2021

Show notes

In 1953, brothers George and Oscar Marienthal opened Mister Kelly’s, a jazz and comedy nightclub on Chicago’s Rush Street. Over the next two decades, the club would help nourish the careers of legends like Herbie Hancock, Barbra Streisand, Richard Pryor, Ella Fitzgerald, and more. The documentary “Live at Mister Kelly’s” tells the story of this iconic Chicago club that also broke racial barriers on and off stage. Host Jacoby Cochran talks with Executive Producer David Marienthal about growing up visiting his dad and uncle's club and the impact Mister Kelly's had on Chicago's culture. The documentary is now available on Apple TV, Amazon and other streaming platforms.

Guest: David Marienthal—Executive Producer, “Live at Mister Kelly’s”

Playoff Buzz, El Milagro Walkout, and 'No Goofiez Allowed' Oct 08, 2021

Show notes

It’s Friday, and while the week has been mostly rain and clouds, there were some important stories we want to look back on. City Cast’s Jacoby Cochran and Simone Alicea are joined byfreelance journalist Kelly Garcia to discuss workers walking out of El Milagro in Little Village and dwindling options for affordable housing. The trio also share some moments of joy, including Chicago’s playoff buzz as the Sox and Sky keep their eye on bringing championships back to Chicago!

Guest: Kelly Garcia— Freelance journalist

What TV Gets Right and Wrong About Chi Oct 07, 2021

Show notes

TV shows and movies love to set their stories in Chicago, but they don’t always get the city right. Sometimes they lean too hard into stereotypes, like Netflix’s highly anticipated animated show, “Chicago Party Aunt.” Other times, like in the movie “Holidate,” Chicago recedes into the background, making us wonder why it’s set here at all. And still, more shows fail to capture Chicago’s complexity, like the anthology series “Easy.” (Man, Netflix seems to do Chicago dirty a lot.) Other cities (cough, New York) don’t seem to have this problem, so what gives? Vulture’s Rachel Handler talks with host Jacoby Cochran about some of these problematic depictions. Jacoby and lead producer Carrie Shepherd also share which shows they think do a good job.

Guest: Rachel Handler—Features writer, Vulture

Links:

Why Does Netflix Hate Chicago?

South Side

Work in Progress

Chicago Marathon route

Inside the Mike Madigan Machine Oct 06, 2021

Show notes

If you’ve lived in Illinois for even a short period of time, you’ve heard the name Michael J. Madigan. But you’ve probably just heard the name because he rarely gives interviews. For nearly 40 years, Madigan served as Speaker of the Illinois House, and during that time, practically every piece of legislation passed in Springfield had to get his approval. In 2016, at the Speaker’s request, then-President Barack Obama came to Illinois to campaign for a state representative who was hand-picked by Madigan. And why did Madigan want this new candidate in office? Because she was running against incumbent state Rep. Ken Dunkin, who had voted against Madigan. Dunkin lost. But now Madigan is out as House Speaker and out of the state legislature. A podcast out today from the Better Government Association digs into the rise of Madigan and how the power he built started to weaken.

Guest: Justin Kaufmann — Host, “The Madigan Rule”

Some good news to get you through: Today is the last day to register for the South Side Pie Challenge. The bake-off starts at 2 p.m. Saturday at Nichols Park.

The Chicago of 1871 Was Built to Burn Oct 05, 2021

Show notes

It’s been 150 years and the origin story of the Great Chicago Fire still relies on Catherine O’Leary’s cow kicking over a lantern and setting the city ablaze. While there’s still some mystery around what actually happened that fateful October day, what is clear is that the bias against Irish Catholic immigrants served as a perfect scapegoat for the fire, and it parallels the way some populations are affected more negatively than others in natural disasters. Host Jacoby Cochran spoke with Julius Jones, curator of Chicago History Museum’s new exhibit “City on Fire: Chicago 1871,” about what the city was like in 1871 and who the 100,000 residents who lost their homes were.

Guest: Julius Jones — Assistant Curator, Chicago History Museum

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