Chicago invaded by Bunim-Murray Productions.

May 9, 2001 1:17 PM

Chicago invaded by Bunim-Murray Productions. Well, we can either take this opportunity to culture jam, or spend the next several months griping about camera crews taking up too much space on the El during rush hour. Any bets on what neighborhood they'll be in?
posted by gsh (34 comments total)

Easy: Wicker Park/Bucktown. I heard a rumor that MTV was looking into a place there months ago.
posted by dnash at 1:36 PM on May 9, 2001

wicker park/bucktown is my guess too; that or the belmont/clark area, though that may be too crowded.
posted by smich at 1:39 PM on May 9, 2001

Damn, dnash: you beat me to it....but then again, might Wicker Park run the risk of being a bit too colorful for MTV? You know, with all the working class Hispanic and Polish residents who still haven't been forced out through gentrification?



Maybe they will opt instead for the plasticine sheen of Lincoln Park.



By the way, here's a fab site on the total vapidity of Lincoln Park, for those who don't know it. I swear this is satire, though I have been told otherwise.
posted by mapalm at 1:42 PM on May 9, 2001

Wicker Park/Bucktown would be the obvious hipster choice for MTV. Although the LP Trixie angle could work.

mapalm: the LP Trixie site is hysterical... its satire, but its not that far from the truth.
posted by jbelshaw at 1:48 PM on May 9, 2001

>Damn, dnash: you beat me to it....but then again, might >Wicker Park run the risk of being a bit too colorful for MTV?

well, mtv tries to be "edgy," and lincoln park isn't that, which is why belmont/clark could be a contender. all the punk-rock suburbanites hang out up there and make it seem almost edgy.
posted by smich at 1:48 PM on May 9, 2001

Put 'em down by Comiskey! That's as real world as you can get.

But seriously, yeah, Lakeview or Lincoln Park seems extremely likely. I'm glad they're finally shooting something here... imagine the RWers hangin' out at Navy Pier! Wooooow.
posted by hijinx at 1:48 PM on May 9, 2001

unfortunately, the distinction between belmont/clark and lincoln park is quickly fading (except for the teenagers who hang at the dunkin' donuts, glaring at the nervous "trixies" as they stroll past - by the way, smich, a fair number of those kids are actually runaways who live at a nearby shelter.)
posted by mapalm at 1:53 PM on May 9, 2001

well, mtv tries to be "edgy," and lincoln park isn't that, which is why belmont/clark could be a contender. all the punk-rock suburbanites hang out up there and make it seem almost edgy

As mapalm pointed out... Belmont/Clark ain't really that "edgy." Yeah, the punk rock suburbanites hang out there by the Dunkin' Donuts and The Alley, but they don't live there - especially in all those new condos. I think it's a safe bet the area will show up on the show quite a bit, though. Especially when the obligatory gay guy in the cast discovers "Boystown" on Halsted.
posted by dnash at 2:13 PM on May 9, 2001

But even "Boys Town" is being squashed. It used to run from Diversey to Addison, Broadway to Clark. Now it's about half that size, and mostly north of Belmont.
posted by mapalm at 2:17 PM on May 9, 2001

>by the way, smich, a fair number of those kids are actually >runaways who live at a nearby shelter.

yowsa. sorry about my previous comment. no harm intended.
posted by smich at 2:19 PM on May 9, 2001

even "Boys Town" is being squashed.

Yeah...though, it's been pretty much consistent for the 6 or so years I've been in the area: Halsted and Broadway from Belmont north to where they meet. But that's just the main "business district" of it - residential it spreads all over lakeview, Andersonville, and increasingly Rogers Park. I don't think the Halsted/Broadway part will change too much - I think the "rainbow pylons" and (moreso) the new Gay & Lesbian Community Center on Halsted should keep the community anchored there.

Actually, even at the size it is now it's a bit larger than the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco - and everyone thinks of that as gay Mecca.
posted by dnash at 2:25 PM on May 9, 2001

The Keepin' It Real World: Cabrini Green

(Is any of it even left???)
posted by brantstrand at 2:26 PM on May 9, 2001

Ah, brannstrand, Cabrini Green is a whole other thread in itself...Actually, give it 3-5 more years, and the area of Cabrini will be just another extension of Lincoln Park/Gold Coast. Daley got his wish.

Yeah...though, it's been pretty much consistent for the 6 or so years I've been in the area:Halsted and Broadway from Belmont north to where they meet.

Yeah, I remember when I lived on Broadway and Oakdale in the mid 80s, in high shool...walking home from a party late at night, getting scoped by the tv/ts hookers in front of the old Burger King. Ah, those were the days...
posted by mapalm at 2:37 PM on May 9, 2001

I think these days it would have to be "The Keepin' It Real World: Robert Taylor Homes."
posted by dnash at 2:41 PM on May 9, 2001

Well, they definitely won't be coming to my neck of the woods -- Hyde Park -- predominantly black, yet quite gentrified. As Kurt Vonnegut put it: Hyde Park is "black and whites united...against the poor".

South Side, representin'!!
posted by ktheory at 2:42 PM on May 9, 2001

ktheory: great quote from Vonnegut.

My last hope for Chicago is still Uptown (my humble abode), which does actually hold a few vestiges of diversity, both racial and class-based. But even that is slowly fading.

All the above aside, MTV, I'm sure, will give us the packaged, tourist bureau version of the city. But I guess that little Midwesterner in me will nonetheless get a thrill when I see the fly-overs of my fair city popping up on the screen.
posted by mapalm at 2:49 PM on May 9, 2001

Well, if Boston's any indication, they won't hesitate to place the kids in a neighborhood completely alienated from their demographic. They placed 'em in the ultraswank Beacon Hill / Charles St. area -- practically the only place NOT overrun with twentynothings.
posted by whuppy at 3:18 PM on May 9, 2001

bucktown/wicker park. they have to have the obligatory milwaukee/damen el shots.

it's crazy, isn't it? how overrun it's all becoming? i've been living in my neighborhood (roscoe village) for 6 years and it's a completely different place from when i moved here. i saw townhouses behind the Jewel on ashland are going for 900k! behind the Jewel!

but i guess this is just what happens, right? the ebb and tide of populations? eventually there will be so many people crammed into one place that the crime will become rampant and then it will become vacant again. unfortunately it's going to be too expensive for me to stay until that happens.

(ps--hey dhartung! where'd that link for a chicago group gathering go?)
posted by thc at 3:29 PM on May 9, 2001

i'd heard they were looking into buying out part of the Coyote Tower or the old Urbus Orbis building. i hope neither is true; it's spittin' distance from my roommate's company.

glad i moved out of the neighborhood a few years ago. logan square's much cozier.
posted by patricking at 3:40 PM on May 9, 2001

900 k, thc? Now that is just plain ludicrous. Funny thing is, tho, that there are people who will pay. Wow...
posted by mapalm at 3:44 PM on May 9, 2001

One thing that always made me smirk was hearing people refer to Hyde Park as the "south side." Sure, it's south of the loop, but I had to take one bus north, and then continue north on the red line just to get there. No, the south side as I'll always know it consists of streets numbered in the hundreds.

I think it would be perfect if the Real World took place in Mt. Greenwood. That way, one well placed missile could take out all of the obnoxious people in the city with as few non-obnoxious casualties as possible.

Of course, now I've transferred into school in Champaign/Urbana (2 hours south of the city), and it seems like half of my high school (Morgan Park High) is down here. I just can't shake these people.
posted by Eamon at 3:50 PM on May 9, 2001

Got to be South Side...Real World: Washington Park. The most entertainment for the money.
posted by wantwit at 4:33 PM on May 9, 2001

All this talk about Chicago is making me homesick. I grew up in Albany park.
posted by john at 4:42 PM on May 9, 2001

waitaminnit, who'd buy a townhouse for 900k? they don't even go for that much down on wabansia/damen, and that's total cherry real estate right now. you sure about those numbers?

(said he who is tentatively sticking his tootsies into the real estate shopping spree)
posted by patricking at 8:53 PM on May 9, 2001

thc: Chicago MeFi gathering.
posted by dhartung at 9:03 PM on May 9, 2001

It will soon be quite clear to all of us where the Real World folks ultimately settle (gotta be Wicker Park - they'll remodel the Flatiron building, and move them all in). As this is unavoidable, I suggest that we start making plans to jam the thing as much as possible.

Anyone want to help organize things, and perhaps build a site to help keep folks together and on track?

Here's a thought, we might document the whole thing and stream our own "reality" programming over the net. Do drop me an e-mail if interested. I'll compile the names and will get the ball rolling.
posted by aladfar at 1:01 AM on May 10, 2001

that would be amusing...
posted by wantwit at 8:20 AM on May 10, 2001

What do you mean by jam?
posted by thirteen at 8:37 AM on May 10, 2001

Culture Jam - follow them around with signs, pester them on the train, basically inject a bit of "reality" into the rather scripted and HEAVILY edited Real World.

That sort of thing.
posted by aladfar at 12:39 PM on May 10, 2001

Everyone thinks of the Castro as a gay Mecca because of the people not the amount of land.
posted by brian at 12:40 PM on May 10, 2001

Ahhhhh. That is funny.
posted by thirteen at 12:59 PM on May 10, 2001

>>waitaminnit, who'd buy a townhouse for 900k? they don't even go for that much down on wabansia/damen, and that's total cherry real estate right now. you sure about those numbers?

My bad, I was off a bit. There is a "development" going in. Townhouses lining four sides of a block with a middle area like a courtyard. The townhouses are going for $750K. Now inside the block of townhomes will be single family homes--in the courtyard I guess--which are going for $900K. Views of the backs of townhouses...behind the grocery store. So essentially, we have a yuppie ghetto springing out of the ground in that nasty pink brick box architecture which has ruined the neighborhoods. I mean half of the charm of Chicago is the architecture! These beastly things are popping up and they just have no soul at all!
posted by thc at 3:45 PM on May 10, 2001

UPDATE: mrray/bunim productions began redevelopment of all three floors of the flat iron building at milwaukee/damen/north. scaffolding went up this morning.

this, dearies, is the final nail in wicker park's coffin.
posted by patricking at 1:17 AM on May 13, 2001

Holy crap, patric!

I think a blog for this is needed. aladfar, will it be you?
posted by hijinx at 8:23 AM on May 13, 2001