Chicago historian John R. Schmidt frequently has "Then and Now" features where he shows a part of the city as it appeared when he was a kid against how it appears now. I just found a trove of historical photos produced by the Illinois Dept. of Transportation, including a few dozen from my neighborhood, so I can play the same game.
Here's the intersection of Sheridan, Broadway, and Montrose, looking west down Montrose, from March 1936, more than 80 years ago:
Here's this past Tuesday:
Though some of the details have changed, both buildings flanking the north side of Broadway still exist. But the Wilson Yard development, from 2006, has taken over most of the area between Broadway and the El tracks. And past the El, the mature trees have changed the character of Montrose.
Another thing I notice about photos of Chicago and other U.S. cities before about 1990: the haze. Starting in the 1970s in California and the 1980s elsewhere, governments cracked down on air pollution. Chicago in 1936 would have been intolerably polluted to Millennials. The top photo gives a hint of why.
Michigan Avenue at the river:
From a couple of weeks ago, when I went to a networking event by the river:
And from Sunday, on the way to perform Mahler:
I'm in Bend, Ore., today, doing nothing of value (except blogging and photographing). I'll have a few photos tomorrow or Monday. My goal for the next several hours is to get 25,000 steps in this perfect weather. (I have sunscreen.)
Wow, a Saturday post. Rare this year, yes?
Tomorrow I'll have photos from New York and Indianapolis, including the latter's monument to stupidity. Check back.
It turns out, our neighbor to the west has a better-looking capitol building than we do. I mean, gilded roof? On a hill? We have none of these things. But we also don't have Steve King, which makes up for it and then some.
That's from October 2004. I've tried to correct what the original camera did to it, but it only provided so much data.
Apparently we have two. The old one:
And the new one:
And as a bonus, here's a squirrel:
Combine a full moon, a really good camera, and a beautiful church on Christmas Eve:
(The grain is from shooting a HDR photo at ISO-12800.)
Did I mention the candlelight part?
The final piece of the service is the entire congregation singing "Silent Night" holding candles. Even as an atheist, I found it moving. And the Winnetka Congregational Church, while still a Christian church, doesn't beat people over the head with religion. I'm certain I wasn't the only atheist in the congregation.
Saturday nights are not busy at O'Hare, which lets me get better photos of the holiday decorations:
...not everywabone would look like these guys, getting in a few waves just past 9 in the morning today:
These are just some quick edits on my Surface. When I get home I'll spend some more time with the few hundred photos I've taken today and yesterday.