Vintage YouTube

[VIDEO] As if YouTube had been 100 years old instead of 6 years old. Whoever made these videos, well this was uploaded to a profile for YouTube, they did use vintage material. Most of the other video well it was made to look vintage. I like the results of this endeavor. Below is the vintage YouTube 1911 logo.

UPDATE 11:31 PM So there is a post about this over at YouTube's official blog.

Kaskaskia: First Capital of Illinois

[VIDEO] Earlier this month the Tribune took a trip to the town of Kaskaskia, IL

As noted the town of Kaskaskia was the first state capital of Illinois located along the southwestern border of Illinois which is essentially the Mississippi River. According to the Wiki article about the town the population is only 14 as of 2010. It is the least populated area of this state.

Kaskaskia was the state capital until 1819. Illinois became a state in 1818 so it was only a year where state government was located. After 1819 thru 1839 our state capital was located in Vandalia, Illinois. As a matter of fact a State House was built in hopes that state government would remain in Vandalia.

Unfortunately for Vandalia, state government would move again to Springfield, Illinois where it has been since 1839. Also note that a future President of the United States, one Abraham Lincoln, was instrumental in moving the state capitol from Vandalia to Springfield.

More history of Illinois' state capitols can be found here. That page is part of a website @ http://www.ilstatehouse.com/ which is dedicated to promote the current state capitol building in Springfield.

The Worst Late Night Snacks

The Worst Late Night Snacks

Making a record of traversing the Chicago L

There's a Briton in town seeking to stop at all of the CTA's 144 "L" stops according the CTA Tattler blog. Then I was alerted to an FB group for those who had actually traversed the L system in the shortest amount of time. And according to that page it was roughly three hours.

As of January of this year, I have traversed all of the CTA rail lines. Athough I didn't do it in three hours. I have only done it within the last 12 years.

In 1998 I took the Blue Line all the way to O'Hare. In 1999, I not only took the Red Line from 95th all the way to Howard, but also took the Purple Line to Linden. Also I took the Blue Line to both 54th/Cermak & Forest Park. Also in 1999 I departed from both 63rd/Ashland and 63rd/Cottage Grove on the Green Line to travel downtown.

In 2001, I took the Orange Line all the way to Midway and back to the loop. In 2006 I took the Brown Line all the way to Kimball and also the Green Line to Harlem/Lake. I took the Purple Line express on the way to a temp job in Evanston in early 2008. Also in 2009, I took a ride on the Pink Line to 54/Cermak. Finally in 2011 I took the Yellow Line to Skokie.

If I was to do all that again it wouldn't take me roughly 12 years, but I'm not going to make a world-record time about it either. :P

On the train yesterday...

Pulled into 95th which was the only time I felt comfortable enough to take a picture on board the train. Before the train pulled into the station there were people who sat right at this position from when I got on the train downtown all the way to the final stop. Been wanting to ride on this train for a while.

These cars are to be the new trains the Chicago Transit Authority plans to order and offer more high tech amenities such as digital signage and displays, lighted maps, even sounds that alert you to closing train doors. In addition the seating arrangement will be similar to what you'll find in either New York or Boston. My last ride aboard these cars was heading to the north side on the Brown Line late last year. Before that several trips on board these cars as they started their testing on the Red Line.

Thing about the testing as it is now, there is no set schedule where I could know when these trains begin their runs. This trip and the trip on the Brown Line was totally by chance. Look forward to the day we will see these cars in service throughout the system.

VIDEO - Detroit: City on the Move (1965)

[VIDEO] Today we're going to take another trip to Detroit, Michigan. Just that well we're going backwards in time to 1965 when the Mayor was Jerome Cavanaugh who you see in the first few minutes of this video. It makes you wonder what happened between the 1960s to today where Detroit is seen as a declining city. Look no further than that link provided earlier to Mayor Cavanaugh's wiki profile. Duration is over 18 minutes.

Via Electronic Village!


BTW, I would to refer to this post at Urbanophile:

Gen-X and the Millennials have a much more optimistic and positive views of urban areas than baby boomers and previous generations. I think this results from the rupture that those earlier generations experienced when our urban cores declined. If you read a newspaper interview of someone in that age bracket, you always here the stories about the wonderful things they did in the city when they were younger. It was the land of good factory jobs, the downtown department store where their mothers took them in white gloves for tea, of the tidy neighborhoods, the long standing institutions and rituals – now all lost, virtually all of it. Unsurprisingly, this has turned a lot of people bitter. Many people saw everything they held dear in their communities destroyed, and they were powerless to stop it. These people are never going to be able to enter the Promised Land. 

For people about my age or younger, it’s a very different story. None of us knew any of those things. Our experience is totally different. We’ve basically never known a city that wasn’t lost. Gen-X, which Jim Russell views as the heartland of Rust Belt Chic, is a generation defined by alienation, so the alienated urban core suits our temperament perfectly. The Millennials of course have a very different attitude towards cities.

I don’t see any signs of the older generations getting through the grieving process and moving on. This makes me think that for us to fully embrace a true urban policy, even in city government itself, it is going to take generational turnover. The baby boomers are already starting to age, but they’ll be with us a lot longer. Alas, they have historically been the most suburban generation, and not shy about imposing their values, so I suspect we’ll be dealing with that legacy for a while. Still, as time goes on, we’ll have more and more people seeing the city with fresh eyes, and only knowing it when there’s reason for hope and optimism. That by itself will be a building force for change and new directions over time, until the true changing of the guard arrives.

Well let's not misunderstand here that the Village and Urbanophile are read by different audiences and Village is read mostly by a Black audience. I can only assume who reads the Urbanophile, but I'm certain there will be agreement or disagreement over the point Aaron Renn @ Urbanophile is attempting to convey.