Hodgepodge

Every month jgaleckas and I go downtown to meet some of here ex-coworkers (she is retired) for lunch. We go to different places near her old workplace on Wabash and Jackson. Afterward we usually stroll around Millennium Park looking at the gardens. During our walk today we went by Buckingham Fountain and whoa! - the pink gravel is gone. It was replaced by pink concrete pavers.

In fact there are 235,000 square feet of pavers around the fountain making it the largest decorative permeable installation in the U.S.
I think it looks nice and it certainly will be easier for wheelchairs, scooters and power chairs to get around the area.

For more technical details see this.

For a picture and some pro and con about it see this.

The second surprise was at the Harold Washington Library stop on the CTA Pink Line. As we reached the top of the stairs and looked toward the lake to see if the train was coming, I spied a couple of flat screen digital displays cycling through advertisements and public service info hanging from the roof of the platform.

It appears it is a way for the CTA to raise money in these tough times for city finances - to the tune of $100 million over the next ten years. My question is how long will the displays stay there before some delinquent figures it will look better on their wall than the CTA's.

More info here.