There is a nice artical and a video that I had not seen about the drain projects, on the LSJ.com. The video featured views of the testing of the water works back on a nice day in Nov. I am so happy to see this project is going to be a real beautiful asset and benefit to our city.
I went over to Old Town yesterday, I really like to get out of EL and go somewhere that reminds me we live in a big city with many different neighborhoods to visit. I took a walk up the River Trail to take a look at the new playground which is really great despite vandals having already dumped one of the heavy metal picnic tables in the river. On the way I was very surprised and happy to hear the un-urban sounds of several different songbirds, and the calls of geese and ducks. I had to stop for a minute to figure out that another loud sound I was hearing was scores of bullfrogs croaking out their mating calls. They were all along the newly formed banks of the river. The banks have formed a more natural looking river and provided areas for wildlife and all the frogs indicates the water is clean enough to support animals that require clean water to live in the river. Growing up here that seems miraculous! The flowering trees were also so beautiful over by the playground. I also noticed that a crew may have been preparing [I am not sure] to move the sculpture that has been in Riverfront Park since the '70s. I have to wonder why, I know that it will be placed on Michigan Avenue, in the median where it will only get drive by glances. I think it would have been better to leave the sculpture where it had been for 50 years and create another for the new boulevard. Not a big deal but I wonder who came up with this plan and will there be another artwork to replace the riverside sculpture.
I hadn't heard about moving any sculpture, you're talking the one in Adado? I'm also not a huge fan, at least initially, of moving a sculpture from its place next to the River Trail in a prime downtown park to a median.
I too have been impressed with the cleaner water in recent years. I was on the River Trail a lot as a kid in the late 90's, I remember the river frequently smelling horrible and looking a milky brown. After a long hiatus I've been on the trail more than ever the past few years, the rivers rarely smell notably bad and are often fairly clear, there's even sandy bottom showing in many spots.
Yes I am not sure that they were removing the riverside sculpture, as I saw what looked like perpetrations to do so. I remember the sculpture being part it the plan of the new Michigan Ave median.
You should have seen the condition of the river in the '60s! The BWL would pour hot water from the Eckert plant directly into the river creating this awful smell this combined with the smoke from the old short stacks made a day at the pool kind of sickening, above the dam was a bit better, but we were still told never to even touch the water. I truly love the fact that I can see the bottom of the river seeing freshwater clam shells, fish, and turtles, even kingfisher birds swooping down to catch a fish.
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I too have been impressed with the cleaner water in recent years. I was on the River Trail a lot as a kid in the late 90's, I remember the river frequently smelling horrible and looking a milky brown. After a long hiatus I've been on the trail more than ever the past few years, the rivers rarely smell notably bad and are often fairly clear, there's even sandy bottom showing in many spots.
You should have seen the condition of the river in the '60s! The BWL would pour hot water from the Eckert plant directly into the river creating this awful smell this combined with the smoke from the old short stacks made a day at the pool kind of sickening, above the dam was a bit better, but we were still told never to even touch the water. I truly love the fact that I can see the bottom of the river seeing freshwater clam shells, fish, and turtles, even kingfisher birds swooping down to catch a fish.