Chicagood is an online magazine launched by The Chi-Town Project. It is a magazine for social conscious Chicagoans that focuses on social awareness issues and those who step up to make Chicago a better place for tomorrow. We also like to have fun and celebrate what it means to be Chicagoan and what is good in our city. Be Chicagood.
We love saying that we live in the greatest city in the world. The beautiful skylines, innovative monuments and strong-willed spirits that dwell within the city gives us more reason to boast about Chicago’s greatness. However, as we progress into a rapidly changing future, many of our great city’s downfalls become glaringly obvious as we strive to become a world class city. Poverty, corruption, education and gang violence are only few of the many social awareness issues that have surfaced within Chicago’s inner walls.
That’s where The Chi-Town Project steps in. We serve as a platform of fresh ideas, as a series of projects with the ability to ignite passion, discussion and action among Chicagoans for the greater good. Together we can strive for one ultimate goal: guiding Chicago to a better tomorrow. As a curation of social goodness, we celebrate not only the city’s identity but also the achievements that define what makes Chicagood.
Join us as we inspIre. dreAM. aCHIeve.
Bored? Want to learn about doing your own craftbeer? Want to learn how to code html? What about cooking or painting? Yea we know, it’s something we’d all love to learn someday but signing up for classes is a big commitment, time and can get pretty costly.
What if there was a website where you can find classes in just about anything for a low price of $20 that’s near you. Heck yea, SIGN ME UP!
From red to green, Chicago’s “The Plant” goes from being a meatpacking plant and slaughterhouse in the Union Stock Yards to Chicago’s first self-sustaining “vertical farm”.
The former mass meat producing brick building has been re imagined to become a green space for urban farming without waste!
The warm weather is here in Chicago meaning the annual spring cleaning rituals are kicking into full gear. This year why not do some spring cleaning with purpose? There are several ways you can ensure the items you don’t need find homes and be put to good use.
Open City is a great civic startup. Periodically they release a new app that aims to bring open gov and open source apps to your hands that make our city work better. A few of their past apps includes:
Vacant Building Finder- an app that locates all vacant buildings in Chicago.
ClearStreets- see where snow plows have been patrolling
Chicago Lobbyist- aims to bring transparency of how government and lobbyists interact
Look at Cook- explore Cook County’s budget from 1993 to 2011 and learn how the money is being spent.
Metra Schedule- a look at how trains and schedules are effected by Metra’s budget cuts
Now they are introducing a new App called Chicago Public School Tiers which simply lets parents know what tier they live in, information they need when applying for one of Chicago’s top selective schools. Selective schools in Chicago are required to reserve the same number of spots for the students from each of the four tiers that the Chicago Public School divides the city up into. Tier 4 areas make more money and have more education. Tier 1 areas make less money have less education. This is a great and simple app that Open City has added to their list of great apps that makes information and our lives better in Chicago.
Home to one of the largest and oldest transit systems in the country, the Chicago metropolitan region has long been a national transportation hub, moving 2 million bus and rail riders each day and 2.31 billion tons of freight each year. GO TO 2040, the regional plan of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning(CMAP), is guiding the area toward affordable and innovative ways to increase transit, fleet and freight efficiency, earning the region a place among the top 15 Smarter Cities for transportation.
Chicago was named one of 15 cities for Transporation in the 2011 Smarter Cities, a project launched by National Resource and Defense Council. Chicago was also named a smarter city for Energy in 2010.
Home to the world’s first skyscraper, today Chicago is rising to the forefront in green architecture, boasting more Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified buildings than any other city in the U.S.
Smarter Cities highlights 3 of Chicago’s transportation innovation that has helped it be named the honors of 2011:
What do skyscrapers, twinkies and softball have in common? All have their origins in the great city of Chicago. Chicago celebrates 175 years of being incorporated and during those 175 years, Chicago saw a huge share of firsts and innovations that has become a part of American culture and history.
Neil Steinberg of the Chicago Sun Times celebrates 175 years of inventions and innovations born in Chicago.
Here’s a glance of some notable contributions Chicago made to the world.
Social media is forever changing the way we communicate and share information. It’s also having a positive effect in sharing vital information that keeps Chicagoans safe and helping each other. Chicago is quickly embracing technology as it aims to be the next Tech Hub of tomorrow.
Chicago’s winters are unpredictable as evident from last year when mother nature decided to dump more than 20 inches on us. For many of us, it caught us off guard as the snow came fast and hard. But luckily Chicagoans were there to help each other, especially those who needed help clearing snow on their driveways and businesses. Chicagoans are awesome.
Chicago is the home of some of the best architecture in the world. There’s no doubt about it. Chicago has always been at the forefront in great architecture and now The Chicago Architectural Foundation has launched a free online tool for aspiring young architects and designers.
I had the opportunity to hit up Technori Pitch, a monthly showcase of Chicago’s most innovative companies, pitching their latest technologies, at the end of January. It began with a bang with a keynote from Kevin Willer of not-for-profit Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center. Earlier for months, an announcement was made that a giant 50,000 sq ft tech center was in the works for Chicago. That news sent shock-waves around the Midwest tech start-up community. With financial backings by J.B. Pritzker, an individual worth over $1 billion, providing it with a firm financial footing and three other founders: Matt Moog (Built in Chicago), Troy Henikoff (Excelerate Labs), and Kevin Willer (Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center), this a real deal.
Chicago wants to be a tech hub of America, but many of the city’s infrastructures and services don’t offer mobility or apps for your convenience. Leaves us scratching our heads a bit. Luckily we have third party apps and today we want to show you Embark, which is quite possibly the most beautiful and engaging transit app. Formerly known as Pandav, they developed an app for the metra and L for Chicago on the iphone. It’s accurate, reliable and easy to use with impressive ratings. Many Chicagoans are relying on Ride Metra and Ride the L for their transit needs. But it gets better.