Sunday, February 8, 2015

Live your dream life at beautiful Edgewater Plaza


      Conveniently nestled in the heart of the scenic 48th ward, the Edgewater Plaza is a 39 floor condominium tower at 5455 N. Sheridan Road.
      Now I will admit that stretch of Sheridan Road, lined with similar high rise buildings, has never been my favorite corner of Chicago. I think if it as a neighborhood of Miami Beach that came unmoored and drifted northward, where it has to content with three months of warm weather every year instead of 11 and a 1/2.
      But that was before Edgewater Plaza Chief Engineer Thomas V. Hedeen requested one of my new blog posters, to display on the bulletin board where Edgewater Plaza's happy residents, in Tom's words, "post notices of sales and events, and performers and artists post information about their upcoming shows."
Pool at Edgewater Plaza, 5455 N. Sheridan Rd.
     See? That's why you can't form preconceptions about a place just by driving by. For years I've passed Edgewater Plaza, never imagining the dynamic social and creative life buzzing within its 465 well-maintained units and cheery public areas. It's practically Florence at the dawn of the Renaissance. The building has a 24-hour doorman, a rooftop deck, a business center, two party rooms,  a library, and this beautiful tile-bordered Olympic-sized outdoor pool. 
     Built on the site of the historic Edgewater Beach Hotel, the Edgewater Plaza is only steps from the welcoming shores of Lake Michigan. You can bike the lakeshore, stroll over to Andersonville,  or grab a late dinner at Little Vietnam.
     But I saved the best for last. You can have pets. Other nearby buildings don't allow it. They hate pets. Next door, at 5445 N. Sheridan, which also calls itself "Edgewater Plaza," attempting to sow confusion and steal a bit of 5455 N. Sheridan's glory, brazenly announces "No Pets" on their web site, so that prospective residents will know that their lives will be wasted dwelling among similarly joyless and selfish individuals who can't so much as to put themselves out to care for a cat. Who are so busy making whatever botch job of their lives and sowing misery wherever they go that dumping a half cup of kibble into a bowl is just too great of a demand for them to even consider, forget the deep personal commitment that walking a dog three times a day, the highlight of my life, involves.
     But enough of them. Just make sure, when you go look at your future home, that you visit the pet-friendly, pool-graced Edgewater Plaza at 5455 N. Sheridan, and not its arid, poolless, petless, joyless doppleganger just to the south.
     But hurry, if you plan to see my poster, as Tom has affixed it rather tenuously, and not, as I would have done, cemented the poster with epoxy and then covered it with a sheet of Lexan screwed into the wall.  
     Enough. If you have a place of public accommodation you'd like to see featured here, merely request a poster, put it up, then send me a picture, and perhaps I'll write something about it.

19 comments:

  1. I hope "dopplegagger" was intentional

    John

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    1. Why, because otherwise you'd have to come to grips with the possibility that I make mistakes? It's true. I just grabbed at the term and didn't check it. Fixed now. Thanks.

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  2. Why are you walking the dog 3x a day? You son that's still at home can help. Or if you have a fenced yard, put him there sometimes for his business, especially if weather is bad. I have a dog and I know. Also, you should take a day off and recharge your batteries from your blog. Call it almost every day... and sounds like you go to bed late and get up too early. What would Ben Franklin say? Anyway, get more sleep.

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    1. And maybe the Mrs. can help with dog at times too. Besides,taking care of any pet, even a cat is more than just giving it kibble.

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    2. Best to get a small dog. They don't need as much walking.

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    3. But I like to walk the dog. And post stuff to my blog.

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    4. Anonymous, why should he cut down on what he describes as "the highlight of my day"?

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  3. Technically, Neil, the apartments were part of the original Edgewater Beach Hotel complex - you can see it in old aerial photographs.

    It's the heartless, dogless, animal frei zone building to the south that was built on the former hotel grounds.

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  4. you leave out the key question--how much does it cost to rent there?

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    1. It's been quite a while since I've been up that way, but it seems to me that Sheridan is beyond my means and Kenmore and Winthrop, the streets just West, are just too mean period.

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  5. They're actually co-ops, which means they're quite reasonable in price, but the monthly assessments, which cover a lot, including property taxes, are really high.

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  6. Exactly why does anyone build outdoor swimming pools in Chicago?
    They're used only 4 months a year.
    Put a building around it & it can be used 12 months a year!

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  7. I realize that a lot of this was tongue-in-cheek and that I may be ridiculed for putting a serious spin on the topic of pets. But, hey, I'm gonna do it, anyway! Look, I've always loved dogs a lot, and have resided with a few in my day, though they were never "mine", per se. And I can even warm up to selected cats, on occasion, though they never seem to warm up to me.

    But I reject the characterization of the pet-less as "joyless and selfish." It's far from selfish to not want to participate in some of the wanton excesses perpetrated to prop up the pet-industrial complex, and there are plenty of things to take joy in in the world that don't require a little four-legged buddy.

    And for those who consider climate change a problem, there's also this:

    "A 2009 study by New Zealand’s Victoria University of Wellington concluded that pet dogs have carbon paw prints double that of a typical SUV." "The average carbon paw print of our dog or cat is higher than an average human from countries like Haiti or Afghanistan."
    http://www.salon.com/2014/11/20/the_surprisingly_large_carbon_paw_print_of_your_beloved_pet_partner/

    I live in a pet-friendly building myself. If the residents are ipso facto more friendly and/or cheerful than they would be otherwise, I shudder to think what they'd be like without their pets... I do get to hear dogs barking fairly regularly, though, along with getting to engage in the fun sport of dodging occasional joyful messes left on the sidewalk, not to mention the gamesmanship of parrying random lunges in the elevator!

    So, there! If I can somehow do a better job of indicating my evident joylessness and crabbiness, let me know! ; )

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    1. Nope, I'd say you pretty much nailed it, no additional commentary needed!

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    2. Well said, Jakash. Bob Y

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    3. There's some truth to the old joke about when life begins: when the kids go away to college and the dog dies. But it's not entirely funny. We've owned three dogs, each one lovable in a different way. But no more. As someone (maybe Larry McMurtry) once said: "When you get a dog you're signing up for heartbreak."

      Tom Evans

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  8. I hate seeing the description of pools as 'Olympic sized'....not sure where they get that, but it certainly isn't a 50 meter length pool (which is standard OL now). Maybe it's measured in meters (but only 20) so they feel entitled to attach that moniker? And if you are into swimming you probably know it's not actually OL - and if you aren't, why would you care?

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  9. I like pets, as long as they're other people's.

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  10. Hey, that's where I live! I know that bulletin board. I wonder when the poster went up. I was down there a few days ago and it wasn't.

    Yes, there are many dogs here. There's one a couple of doors down that barks every morning at 2 am when its owner comes home. Delightful.

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