Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Chicago/Archive 2

This is an archive of past discussions about Wikipedia:WikiProject Chicago. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Archive 1

Archive 2

Archive 3

Archive 4

Archive 5

Chicago Humanities Festival

Hi, Chicago Humanities Festival is up for[[Wikipedia_talk:Articles_for_deletion/Chicago_Humanities_Festival deletion]. — goethean ॐ 03:53, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

City Boundaries Map

On the Chicago city boundaries map you have up (the one with the city drawn inside Cook County), it shows O'Hare Airport as being in Cook County. It's actually in DuPage County (the only part of the city that is). I'll see if I can find a map that accurately shows it but in the meantime it's misleading to have up. Lollipop09 23:59, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Not quite. Devon Avenue is the boundary between Cook and DuPage counties, and the part of the airport north of Devon is in Cook County [Elk Grove emigre]

Deletionist at large

Maybe some Chicagoans could help keep an eye on (and maybe help expand) the Balaban and Katz article which had to be recreated after being deleted by a trigger-happy admin without warning or discussion. I've expanded it a bit and added a few links, but I don't know if it will be enough to placate the deletionist (who I'm guessing is not from Chicago, or he wouldn't have assumed that B&K lack importance.) Whyaduck 05:41, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

Institute of Design IIT

This article is now nominated for copyvio deletion.--Samuel Curtis^{Shinichian-Hirokian}-- _{TALK·CONTRIBS} 19:41, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Park Place Tower (Chicago)

Could someone from this project check and confirm the notability of this building? WjBscribe 18:29, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

It's definately the tallest building in the area. I have a friend that lives there. They have nice condos. I don't know if it's particularlly notable or worth having an article. I don't know if any Chicago Cubs live there.--Twintone 19:58, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

It is definitely the tallest building in Lakeview but apart from that, it has no real notability to deserve its own article. --Gerald Farinas 21:35, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

Frank Lloyd Wright collaboration

Some of us at Wikipedia:WikiProject National Register of Historic Places are working on a Frank Lloyd Wright collaboration. I thought that since he did so much work in the Chicago area, some people from this project would be interested. I'll copy/paste the nice invitation box:

Check out the new WikiProject National Register of Historic Places Frank Lloyd Wright Collaboration. An effort to expand Wikipedia's coverage of Registered Historic Places designed by this most important architect.

To join the collaboration or help out you can visit the collaboration subpage or the collaboration talk page.

--Elkman ^(Elkspeak) 20:27, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Parameterization

I have parameterized {{ChicagoWikiProject}} and created all the categories and subcategories in Category:WikiProject Chicago. Let me know if you have any trouble using it. TonyTheTiger (talk/cont/bio) 17:24, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

We now need someone to create a page like WP:BIOs assessment page TonyTheTiger (talk/cont/bio) 17:29, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

I greatly appreciate the enthusiasm of anyone who has started to add parameters. In order for the template to be useful, we have to be very strict. One way to think about a top importance tag is as an analogy to an FA tag. Basically, less than 1/1000 articles are FAs. A top article could loosely be thought of as the articles we as Chicagoans think would best represent us as FAs. I.E., if we were to get our fair share of FAs which articles would we think would be most interesting to the international Wikipedia world. I have chosen 5 for starters that are up for debate: Barack Obama, Michael Jordan, Sears Tower, Wrigley Field, & Chicago. However, I am open for debate. Once I get an assessment guidelines page up I will have a more formal explanation of the ratings. Read Wikipedia:WikiProject_Biography/Assessment to see one of the better assessment guideline pages. Note that they have over 300,000 articles and 199 top articles. We want to be as strict as they are. In short, less than 1 in 1000 article should be rated as top. I believe that the 5 I have chosen are our top 5. I am open for debate, however. We probably should delete a top for everyone we add until we have 6000 articles tagged in our project. I will have to work on a page similar to theirs for our project. I have to talk to their assessment guy Ozgod about what percentages should be used for other articles.

Until I create a page explaining the approximate guidelines, it would be more helpful if you would just add the {{ChicagoWikiProject}} to as many pages as you can and encourage others to do so as well. TonyTheTiger (talk/cont/bio) 00:10, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

For those of you wondering HOW CAN I HELP?. I would suggest looking for Chicago categories and just start tagging articles with {{ChicagoWikiProject}}. Among the categories where you are sure to find a lot of Chicago articles in need of project tags: Category:People from Chicago, Category:Chicago stubs, Category:Chicago culture Category:Chicago politicians, Category:Chicago Bears players, Category:Chicago Bulls players, Category:Chicago Cubs players, Category:Chicago White Sox players, Category:Chicago Blackhawks players. Check other teams and players for teams on Template:Chicagosports. Most of them probably have categories. Make sure to check sub categories. Think of lists and categories of Chicago related topics and go start tagging things. Many Chicago related templates will lead us to lists of articles in need of tags. Where possible tag with {{ChicagoWikiProject|class=stub}} or whatever appropriate quality class. If you see other templates that already have a class generally you will want to use approximately the same class unless they were wrong or the article has changed significantly.

Proposed South Suburban Airport

Abraham Lincoln National Airport and South Suburban Airport articles seem to cover the same concept of a third regional airport south of Chicago in the Peotone, Illinois vicinity. I'd like to get these merged, but I need assistance with the appropriate name for the article. It is clear that they are both proposed plans in nearly the same location, SSA seems like the more generic name and the one that the FAA seems to prefer SSA to describe the concept, but using a world view most every major city could have a south suburban airport, so maybe Chicago South Suburban Airport would be better than just SSA. It's an Illinois political football, and a new user seems offended by the current main article's name of Abraham Lincoln National Airport creating the newer, unsourced, SSA article. Any advice or input is appreciated. See also Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Airports#Chicago_South_Suburban_Airport. --Dual Freq 20:01, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

I've moved them to Proposed Chicago south suburban airport, but the article still needs work. --Dual Freq 22:16, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

Top Importance

We will need to assess and tag our articles. A good example of an assessment system is at Wikipedia:WikiProject_Biography/Assessment. I believe we want to be as strict as they are. In short, less than 1 in 1000 article should be rated as top. I have started working on an assesment page for our group. If we were to agree to limit ourselves to the greater of top 0.1% or top 5 articles (folowing Wikipedia:WikiProject_Biography/Assessment), we need to have a discourse. Please give me your feedback if you have an thoughts on what the top Chicago articles are. I have chosen 5 that are our top 5 for now Barack Obama, Michael Jordan, Sears Tower, Wrigley Field, & Chicago. I am open for debate, however. We probably should delete a top for everyone we add until we have 6000 articles tagged in our project. I am thinking that I might replace Wrigley with Art Institute of Chicago despite its short article. I am also thinking that the major sports teams should be seriously considered for top importance. Also, given my preliminary definitions Oprah Winfrey and Jesse Jackson might be top importance. Who are are most important non-athletic entertainment celbrities?

Some projects have much larger proportion of top articles. WikiProject Architecture has about 6%. WikiProject Math has about 12%. There are a few reasons why other projects may have extremely high top proportions.

They are wrong and classifying too many things as top.
They are right, which could be caused by the fact that their mid and low importance articles are not getting the attention they deserve.
1. Consider Wikipedia:WikiProject Architecture and look at the redlinks on the Chicago Landmark page.
2. Consider whether they are aggressively tagging their low importance articles (they could be in a situation like us where we know many top priority articles that should be tagged and have not yet tagged other articles).
Looking at Math it may be the case that if your assessments are able to keep pace with article creation and tagging the percentage might be higher.
There could be other dynamics I do not understand.

I personally believe that all projects should be capped at .1% top importance articles. This would force them to go out and create stubs and tag all low importance articles. Keep in mind that since most FAs have multiple tags the fact that .075% of article are FAs means would imply that fewer than .075% all articles should be top if top meant the subject of the article has a level of importance that this project thinks time should be spent to make it an FA. Suppose the average FA should have 3 tags with top importance. Then .025% of all articles should be top. If the average FA should have 5 top importance tags then .015% of all articles should be top. Of course, tagging efforts are always behind so almost no articles will be fully tagged. The closest I seen to a fully tagged article is Talk:Andy Warhol. However, even it is not fully assessed. TonyTheTiger (talk/cont/bio) 17:19, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

Importance response

Moved from [[Talk:WP:WPChi]] --kingboyk 20:08, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

portions have been presented to TonyTheTiger previously: i would agree that restraint needs to be shown regarding article ratings and ratings should be reviewed/discussed. however, i would offer that a project focusing on the broad subject matter of a city could have more than 1:1000 top class articles. in providing broad coverage, top importance articles regarding art, history, industy, architecture, politics, and sports among others will be created and/or improved. five top-rated articles in each category may not be too much. however, the focus of the project is likely to be building a large base of low and medium importance articles. using statistics as a guideline over time to maintain a focus is an excellent idea.

i agree STRONGLY with the following portions of criteria blatantly plagarized from WikiProject Biograpgy: High probability that non-Chicagoans would look this up. Must have had a large impact outside of their main discipline, across several generations, and in the majority of the world. my opinion of a top importance article is historical content that "forms the basis of knowledge".

related ideas for how to define top importance for the chiproject include:

items designated as BOTH chicago landmarks and national historic landmarks are likely worth at least medium importance. the historical significance and notariety is already proven, given the NHL status. for example, selected items from the Chicago Landmarks list.
articles previously rated as top importance by other projects should be considered for high and top importance, especially if other criteria are met. for example, the CBOT building is top importance for architecture, is of significance to business, etc and meets other criteria.
an article such as Chicago school (architecture) forms the foundation of knowledge for the entire type of specific architecture and forms the basis of content for many Chciago architecture articles. this article would merit strong consideration for top importance, specifically if enough articles reference to this article.
historical value would be valued more than recentism. for example, Al Capone would likely merit top importance due to notariety and strong ties to the gangster era, chicago history, and prohibition. michael jordan would likely merit top importance due to notariety in college athletics, pro athletics, strong tie to city, and global prominence. barack obama might not merit top importance, primarily due to the nature of content being recent, not forming a basis of knowledge, and not having comparable global recognition.
the importance rating should reflect the "fabric of the city", e.g. does the subject strongly contribute to the identity of the city? is the subject known to be unique to the city? subjective questions, for sure, but ones that should be able to be answered by the references in an article and prominence in related articles.
select articles will merit high or top importance due to being a focus of the project over time. expansion and maintenance of the article for Chicago's 2016 bid might fall into this category. obama might merit top importance given the upcoming election and rising prominence. if the project selects a monthly, fortnight, or yearly effort for an article, the article may merit top importance. these articles will be extremely few in number, perhaps 1-3 articles.
encourage discussion of ratings on talk pages. encourage discussion for prominent articles on the primary project page. individual ratings are best when supported by a few points in key areas: prominence, historical value, etc.

high importance articles are lesser degrees of the above, which isn't precise. many wikiprojects have assessment guidelines, and i suggest combining selected portions of 3-5 projects to best fit our broad effort.

other articles that may be worthy of consideration, based on the above criteria, for top importance include: Chicago school (architecture, Sears Tower, Chicago Board of Trade building, Soldier Field, Lincoln Park, Wrigley Field, Chicago Theatre, the developing Featured List for Chicago Landmarks, O'Hare airport, CTA, Lake Michigan, etc. not all of these articles will be judged as worthy for top importance.

relatedly, the same discussion should occur for class ratings, which for me, are more important. personally, i am a reference addict, NPOV dictator, prose/grammar nerd when reviewing articles for GA status, much less FA status. many projects have a blanket guideline that the article can only be rated B-class until following a rough process such as: peer review, GA review, GA pass, another peer review, FA review, etc.

others add, subtract, modify, and wordsmith as necessary. ChicagoPimp 20:07, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

Assistance requested!

I am requesting assistance on improving Donald Stephens (who, as many of you no doubt know, died yesterday). While Rosemont is not Chicago, Stephens is Chicago-born and Rosemont certainly is within Chicago's sphere of influence. Any assistance in improving this article (and also improving Rosemont, Illinois, which has issues too) would be appreciated. (I will also be making this request at WikiProject Illinois.) Kelly Martin (talk) 15:25, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Tagging Progress

For those of you wishing to monitor the progress of {{ChicagoWikiProject}} tagging, you can see everything here. We are attempting to tag articles in cats and subcats of Category:Chicago, Illinois. See the list of subcats at Wikipedia:WikiProject Chicago/Categories. Many railroad subcats have been excluded from the tagging. Things to do now.

Make sure we have all the cats in Category:Chicago, Illinois that we should.
Consider adding Category:Cook County, Illinois cats. (voice your opinion)
Look through all {{ChicagoWikiProject}} tagged pages. See if some articles got tagged that shouldn't have. Be careful though because an article like City of San Francisco may not seem like it belongs at first.
Make sure any article that should be in our list has one of the Category:Chicago, Illinois subcats so that it can get added to the articles with {{ChicagoWikiProject}} that show up in Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Chicago articles by quality statistics.
Make sure any article that should be a stub has at least one tag from WP:STUBS so we can get the bot to tag our unassessed articles as stubs where appropriate. TonyTheTiger (talk/cont/bio) 18:29, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

POTD notification

Hi WPChi folks,

Just to let you know that the Featured Picture Image:Livestock chicago 1947.jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on June 2, 2007. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2007-06-02. howcheng {chat} 18:53, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Talk:Chicagoland#Requested move

Opinions welcome... Zagalejo 23:03, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Note

I should point out that since we're all volunteers here and Wikipedia does not have a formal hierarchy, WikiProjects don't have ranks, directors, or any other kind of official figures. >Radiant< 10:39, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

Thank you. TonyTheTiger (talk/cont/bio) 15:29, 10 May 2007 (UTC) (Volunteer known as the contributor formerly known as WikiProject Chicago Director, but who is now confused on what to call himself as the leader of the project since other project leaders refer to themselves as Directors, Coordinators, Leaders and Managers or tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM for short).

Some Art Coverage?

I just added the page List of Museums and Cultural Institutions in Chicago, following the example of NYC and after I realized how little there is about any Chicago art anywhere on Wikipedia. Frankly I was shocked how little there was (just look at all those red links). I know it's not a terrific encyclopedia entry, but I thought it might be a helpful central point and pointer to articles that need writing. Artemis-Arethusa 14:37, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for your contributions. Note that some of these places - like the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows - are included on Wikipedia under slightly different titles (eg, drop the initial "The" in certain links.) Zagalejo 22:53, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

Also, note that the Martin D'Arcy Museum moved from its Sheridan Road location in 2006 and is now part of the Loyola University Museum of Art. I'll move the article to its proper location. Zagalejo 23:24, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. I was able to compile the list but not to check every link. Artemis-Arethusa 14:59, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

I also note that Culture of Chicago is an article with a "High" importance in the Chicago wikiproject. But its coverage of visual arts is, frankly, pathetic (I should know, I wrote all of it). I feel like I shouldn't be the only authority on this matter -- Chicago has lots of art and artists, maybe disregarded but they are there and worth noting. Surely somebody else has something to add? Artemis-Arethusa 21:36, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Naming conventions for Chicago Public Schools

For schools named after people, is it customary to include that person's first name in the article title? Eg, is "Carl Schurz High School" preferrable to "Schurz High School"? Looking through Category:Chicago Public Schools, it doesn't seem as if we are very consistent. Zagalejo 23:53, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

I think as with most things on wikipedia it goes by common usage. Just like people named Robert Smith could have articles using Robert Smith, Rob Smith, Robby Smith, Robbie Smith, Bob Smith, Bobby Smith or a nickname like Moose Smith, a school would go by common usage. Sometimes the full name is the common usage and sometimes not. Recall that we want article named the way people would enter the wiki search term so common usage guides. Redirects are probably appropriate for alternate names however. TonyTheTiger <;small>(talk/cont/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 19:43, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

Chicago Tornadoes

Would anyone be willing to rate this article for the project? Thanks a lot.--Eva ^bd 02:32, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

You wanted Parks?

I just added a lot of Chicago parks on the Parks of Chicago page, as per your request. It's not a complete list; I kind of stuck to eyeballing parks above a certain size, and my map is ten years old. Still, it's way better, I hope. Artemis-Arethusa 20:24, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

One thing that may help you find them, is go to Google Earth, and set it to parks, and it will show you all the park names in Chicago. Might help you compile the complete list and then you can do your research from there.--Kranar drogin 23:23, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Median income in infoboxes

There seems to be a problem with the neighborhood infoboxes. While I really appreciate seeing income figures for each neighborhood, the infoboxes do not specify which type of income they use; I assume it is household income. One cannot simply say "Median income" but has to specify which type of median income is being used. For example, the median household income in the US is $46,000, the median personal income (how much people themselves make) is $33,000, the median income per household member is $24,000. Keep in mind that 42% of American households have two or more income earners so the discrepancy between personal and household income stats can be quite large. So please, add the type of income being used to the infoboxes. I have already done so for the Hyde Park article. Regards, Signature ^brendel 00:52, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

What do you base your assumption on? TonyTheTiger 17:43, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

Well, two things: a) household income is most commonly used in press publications and b) the figures are a bit too high to be individual income or Per capita income. Of course, my assumption could be wrong which is why the type of income needs to be added to each infobox. Regards, Signature ^brendel 06:39, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Chicago and North Shore Photos

Hello, at last I have found a place for all the photos I take whenever I spend time in Chicago. I've been uploading to Wikicommons any good scenic picture I have, and have now been specifically taking photos for pages such as Cool Globes and Bike the Drive. I have not found a page yet for Bike the Drive and may write it soon if another cyclist doesn't do it first. Also, found the List of Registered Historic Places in Cook County, Illinois and have begun to supply some links. Lot's of work to be done here.--I'm Nonpartisan 03:59, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

Many Chicago-related photographs to identify

If you want to help out, see commons:Category:Identify! Cheers, Iamunknown 20:56, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Box inflation?

Does it really help to tag Talk:Richard A. Jorgensen's with the Chicago box just because he hold an M.S. from Northwestern University? I've seen this trend on other articles; if we keep adding project boxes like that, we'll soon have to skip several screens to get to the first actual talk message. Now for this project, you may want to consider adding your box not above the more generic boxes and maybe use {{WikiProjectBannerShell}}. Rl 07:00, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for your query. I am the WP:WPChi Director. Yes, we currently tag all articles with any categories listed at Wikipedia:WikiProject Chicago/Categories. Generally, all WP:GA, WP:FA articles and those that someone has taken enough interest in to assign a quality rating are given a priority rating. Even low importance articles are part of the project. We have actually taken action to promote and demote several GAs even though they were mid and low priority articles. Also, on low priority pages it is just as easy for us to add a {{ArticleHistory}} or {{WikiProjectBanners}} template. If you feel that the category which is causing the article to be tagged should not be on the article you can remove it and then remove the tag. TonyTheTiger 17:56, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for your answer. I am just extrapolating a trend I've been observing for a while now. In this case, a scholar was tagged as belonging to WP:WPChi only because he happend to get one of his early degrees from a university that happens to be in the same county as Chicago. If articles are associated with projects based on such flimsy connections, we'll soon have many articles associated with dozens of projects, for no discernable gain. I don't think it's a big deal, but I do question the wisdom of such wide-ranging tagging campaigns. Rl 08:26, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

Basically, we tag all articles bearing any of these categories. In many cases, the connection is less strong than one might want. However, we have in the course of following this procedure chanced upon several articles we were able to help. We have guided some toward WP:GA (Hillary Clinton and raised in Cook County, Illinois). We have delisted some GAs such as Bertrand Russell. We have also placed some articles at WP:FAR such as Pioneer Zephyr. In addition, we have taken to adding {{ArticleHistory}} or {{WikiProjectBanners}} to articles like Bobby Fischer. We are another set of eyes on even low importance and loosely affiliated articles. There is no harm to an article to have our tag with an importance=low parameter. There is benefit to additional oversight on an article. This topic almost went to WP:DR over Jon Corzine, which was the only hotly contested subject of our domain. TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 23:40, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for the interesting context, and good luck with your project! Rl 06:26, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

Blackstone Hotel

I posted this here but in case you didn't notice.

(I have added on a bit to the end)

I have made some preliminary tweaks, including removing the pop culture section to the talk page here. I will be expanding the article's architecture section significantly as well as discussing the significance of the building in its own section. I have already removed and added some stuff, never fear if something you think is important is gone right now, this is a work in progress.

In the meantime I would suggest that someone work on an article for the architect, Benjamin Marshall (architect) would be the page to put it on. We have a Marshall and Fox article, so that might be a good place to start. This little project may take me a couple days because if I go too long without writing something about Prairie School or Frank Lloyd Wright my head asplodes. ; )

I need to find a book, do a bit more reading and then I will tackle the architecture section in earnest. The source disagreement as to the style of architecture is fairly widespread, I have backed up this statement: Sources vary as to the precise style in which Marshall designed the building. with four citations to reliable sources. As said, I will add a significance section which will be partly based on the significance statement on the NRHP form. IvoShandor 19:09, 16 June 2007 (UTC)

Chicago Buildings/ Chicago Architecture

I have noticed with a smidge of irony that although Chicago's architecture is rated as being of high importance which it definitely should be, many architecturally significant buildings are classified as being of low importance such as St. Mary of the Angels or St. Stanislaus Kostka, which are both found in the American Institute of Architects architectural guide to Chicago as well as a slew of architectural books. Isn't this a little inconsistent? I think that if a building is seen as distinguished by the AIA it ought to at least merit a 'mid' on the importance scale.--Orestek 06:02, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

If you feel that a particular building deserves to be Mid class rather than Low, just change it. Consult the assessment scale when in doubt. Speciate 06:08, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

I would be cautious with just changing importance ratings merely because of AIA inclusion. By default an individual building listed on the National Register of Historic Places gets a "mid" and those not but listed as Chicago Landmarks by the city are listed as low. Chicago architecture represents the cumulative importance of all the individual buildings, archictects, styles, techniques, etc. Many individual buildings may be high for international cultural reasons. However, don't go down a road similar to the WP:ILIKEIT used in deletion discussions for changing our ratings. Review our assessment scale for more info as suggested above. TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 18:10, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

I feel a litle leery of changing the importance of an article that I myself wrote so I am posting the following to bring the subject into discussion on this page:

Assessment

I would like to draw attention to an assessment that I think is off. St. John Cantius in Chicago has been rated as a stub of low importance. Although I am biased since I am the author of the article, I think this is clearly not the case because of the following:

The church is featured in a key part of Nelson Algren's Never Come Morning which merited its inclusion in the Nelson Algren section of the guide to Literary Chicago by Greg Holden

It was the site of the first visit of the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Poland to Chicago (the largest Polish city outside of Poland) right after the fall of the communist government who was also a leader of Solidarity

It was featured in two films, among them one starring John Candy

The church's main altar, as well as its matching two side altars reputedly originate from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition of the legendary 'White City' fame

In 2003, work was completed on a replica of the Veit Stoss Altar. Carved by artist Michał Batkiewicz over an eight year period, this imposing one-third scale copy is the largest and most detailed of work of its kind.

It was featured in a number of books on Chicago architecture, most notably "The AIA Guide to Chicago" by Alice Sinkevitch (Harvest Books 2004)

St. John Cantius is also found in a number of books on church architecture, among them "Heavenly City: The Architectural Tradition of Catholic Chicago" by Denis R. McNamara (Liturgy Training Publications 2005)and "The Archdiocese of Chicago: A Journey of Faith" by Edward R. Kantowicz (Booklink 2007).

The church is included in the itinerary of a number of Chicago area tours http://www.accentingchicago.com/tours.html "Polish Spires and Steeples Tour" http://www.chicagoneighborhoodtours.com/specialInterest/index.html 'Polish Chicago Tour".

Is this really a low importance stub? --Orestek 05:23, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

Aurora, IL

I would like to know why the article on Aurora, IL is totally overlooked compared to cities similar in size. Elgin, IL, Naperville, IL, and Rockford, IL all are much larger and more detailed. Seeing as Aurora is the second largest city in IL, it deserves a much nicer wiki page. I contacted WP Illinois and they said to bring it up here. --71.194.25.150 00:13, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Some articles just fall through the cracks. I'm not sure what else to say, really. You can try expanding the Aurora article yourself. Zagalejo 01:40, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Max Robinson

The article claims that Max Robinson died from Aids in a hospital. People don't die from Aids, they die from complications due to AIDS. I don't know what he really died of and so I didn't edit it. But I hope someone finds out and changes that.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.161.3.97 (talk • contribs) 07:10, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

I have fixed it. Feel free to make such changes yourself. --TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 14:10, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

Merge Proposal

There has been a proposal to merge Ada Everleigh, Minna Everleigh and Everleigh Club into a single article. Shsilver 18:32, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

I have just posted it at WP:CHICAGO--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 14:16, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

Merge Dilemma

I have begun cleaning up/ merging some of the 'orphaned' neighborhoods with the community areas that they are a part of; How would we go about doing this w/ the Villa District, a part of the Irving Park, Chicago community area which is a Chicago Landmark? Precedent indicates that neighborhoods are a part of the community area, but how do we arrange it when its a chicago landmark and avoid confusion since only this part of Irving Park enjoy this status?--Orestek 05:18, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

These mergers have been posted in the discussion section at WP:CHICAGO although it seems Villa District was never proposed for merger. I personally think official Chicago Landmark or National Historic Landmark Historic Districts in Chicago should have their own pages wherever possible.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 14:20, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

Illinois Portal

Just wanted to let you all since a lot of you are part of the Illinois Project, the Portal:Illinois has been created. It is also going for Feature Portal and comments/support/dislike is being taken here Wikipedia:Featured portal candidates/Portal:Illinois.--Kranar drogin 04:29, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Chicago#Historical_tallest_in_Chicago

What is the source for this section? According to the Chicago Landmarks site, the Pittsfield Building was the tallest in Chicago at the time of completion. I don't see it on our "historical tallest" list, however. Zagalejo 02:25, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

There are multiple definitions, (including steeples, including rooftop sculptures, tallest habitable structure, fully habitable, etc.). I am not sure what the source is for the list.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 00:34, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Cool Globes: Hot Ideas for a Cooler Planet

The refs presently associated with this article were published before the opening of the exhibit, which is something like the 1999 Cows public art exhibit, but is a hundred or so 5 foot fiberglass globes decorated and modified by well known artists to illustrate ways of fighting global warming. Refs which are since the opening of the exhibit are needed. There was an illustration added, then deleted on the basis that it is forbidden to take a picture of public art. That in itself sounds questionable. I expect that the directors of the exhibit would give permission to illustrate the article with a photo someone took for the purpose, in accord with the purposes of the exhibit. Edison 03:36, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

I currently count 1514 characters in the main text. The WP:CHICOTW limit is usually 1500. I will nominated it and hope to spend some time with it in the future.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 06:19, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Collaboration of the week template

A dispute has arisen over the placement of this project's "Collaboration of the Week" template on the Chicago Marathon article. I've posted a comment on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject about it in order to reach a broader audience, and would like to invite comment from members of this project. Cheers! -- MisterHand (Talk to the Hand|Contribs) 20:22, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Duly noted at Wikipedia:WikiProject_Chicago/Discussions--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 06:23, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Non-Profit Organizations

Will there be any Non-Profit organizations based in chicago make it to the Collaboration of the Week? The article I started for Inner City Computer Stars can really use some third party help! Ishmael Rufus 19:19, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Nominate your article and see what happens.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 00:24, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Parades

Shouldn't there be a subsection under Culture of Chicago for parades such as the St. Patrick's Day, Columbus Day or Bud Billiken parades?--Orestek 06:21, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

They'll be fine categorized as Category:Festivals in Chicago. Speciate 19:47, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm sorry I should have made myself clearer; What I'd meant was that shouldn't there be mention of Chicago parades within the article on Culture of Chicago within a subsection of the article?--Orestek 03:32, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Sure, just watch out for page bloat--a brief mention for those events that have their own pages is best. Speciate 03:36, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Orphaned Page

I just discovered the page River North Gallery District, Near North Side, Chicago. It says this neighborhood has "the largest concentration of art galleries in the United States outside of Manhattan", yet it had no regular article links to it until I found it! Please help me improve this article and maybe something to link to it (like the magazine Chicago Gallery News, based there, or some of the galleries -- the Ann Nathan Gallery, Judy A. Saslow Gallery, Byron Roche Gallery, Jean Albano Gallery, Gwenda Jay/Addington Gallery, Carl Hammer Gallery, Printworks, Zolla/Lieberman Gallery and many, many, many others) Artemis-Arethusa 19:44, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

That is a good start. Careful with the redlinks. I don't know much about gallery notability, and I am not sure how many of those you name here deserve links on WP.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 17:34, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. By "careful with the redlinks", do you mean not to write down so many things as links? I don't have any objection to editing my immediately above post to remove them. Some of those galleries are relatively major players, but not all of them. Artemis-Arethusa 18:19, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

LDS temple photo

Hi! We are currently lacking a photo for the article Chicago Illinois Temple. I was wondering if there's a Wikipedian living in Chicago that would be willing to take a picture for us. —Remember the dot ^(talk) 05:03, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

If you are not in a hurry, I can do it. My youngest son plays several of his middle school football games in Glenview and they will be starting in a couple of weeks. -- DS1953 ^talk 05:10, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

That'd be great! —Remember the dot ^(talk) 16:39, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

I loaded three similar but slightly different shots of the Temple to Commons Image:Chicago_Illinois_Temple1.jpg, Image:Chicago_Illinois_Temple2.jpg, and Image:Chicago_Illinois_Temple3.jpg. -- DS1953 ^talk 04:41, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

The Reputation Good Article review

One of this project's Good Articles, The Reputation, is under Good Article review (here). Members of this project are welcome to contribute to the discussion and hopefully edit the article to avoid it being delisted form GA status. Drewcifer3000 22:13, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

Jody Wagner

An article I recently created on Virginia Secretary of Finance Jody Wagner was recently added to WikiProject Chicago. I am curious about this since she has no apparent connection to Chicago. As a matter of fact, the only connection she has to the state of Illinois is that she graduated from the Northwestern University campus in Evanston, Illinois. I would appreciate it if someone from WikiProject Chicago could contact me with an answer on my UserTalk page. --TommyBoy 16:54, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

Following up on my earlier comments, I have contacted the owner of the bot (SatyrBot) that added Jody Wagner to WikiProject Chicago and asked him to comment on this matter. --TommyBoy 23:37, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

(copy of reply at User talk:TommyBoy) Sorry about the delayed response. We do track by article space categories. If you believe that being a Northwestern Alumni is an important enough topic to be included in an article, then WP:CHICAGO wants to keep tabs on the article. If this category is unimportant to the article, you can remove it and then remove {{ChicagoWikiProject}}. If you leave it in we will keep retagging (we tag our categories twice a week looking for untagged articles) the article with our template. This helps us to monitor the progress of an article and at times make editorial contributions. If you look at WP:CHICAGO#Reviewed_content you will see a broad assortment of closely and loosely associated articles and get a flavor of what we monitor.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 21:26, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

P.S. We don't interfere too much, but we do do things like this all the time.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 21:44, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

New Chicago pictures!

I took 335 pictures this weekend at the Accenture Triathlon, and uploaded 15 of them to Commons today. Feel free to find uses for them on any relevant Chicago (or otherwise) articles. (The other 320 are on Flickr; if there's something there you think would be useful on a Wikimedia project, email me and I'll upload it to Commons too.) Kelly Martin (talk) 23:36, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! Zagalejo 04:05, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Great Job.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 22:38, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

The Field Museum, as seen from the north in pre-dawn light.
The Shedd Aquarium, as seen from the northwest in early dawn light.
The Sears Tower, as seen from the Chicago lakeshore southeast of the Tower
One Museum Park, as seen from the Chicago Lakeshore from the northeast.
Triathlete swimmers in Chicago's Monroe Harbor (Lake Michigan), participating in the 2007 Accenture Chicago Triathlon
The Sears Tower, as seen from the Chicago lakeshore southeast of the Tower
The Shedd Aquarium, as seen from the northwest.
A triathlon runner accepting water from an aid volunteer during the 2007 Accenture Chicago Triathlon.
Public art along Lakeshore Drive in Chicago
The Sears Tower, as seen from the east along Lake Shore Drive
The Field Museum, seen from the north along Lake Shore Drive
Canadian geese flying in a flock above Lake Michigan
A Chicago Police Department helicopter over Lake Michigan during the 2007 Accenture Triathlon
The Sears Tower, as seen from the east along Lake Shore Drive
Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park, as seen from the south along Balbo Drive

Open Elections

We are finally building a critical enough mass of activity where it is becoming appropriate to validate ourselves as a project. I think we should hold discussions on a format of the project going forward and the election of officers. My first thought are that WP:CHICOTW and WP:CHIASSESS should have leading officers. I am thinking we may want to be organized differently than some other projects. I think images are a very different animal than editorial content and that we should have a photo master. This persons responsibility would be to help tag all Chicago related images found in articles and to add images to articles. I guess this person should be expert at WP:CAP, WP:FU, Wikipedia:Wikimedia Commons, Category:Images of Chicago, Illinois and WP:IMAGE. Since we may have 15000 articles by year end, it should be clear that the most important responsibilities are to WP:FC and WP:GA articles. It is possible that we could use a categorist and a templatist as well. Ideas for offices and project format are welcome.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 16:47, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Manteno, Illinois

Not sure if this one's in your remit - it's the wrong side of the Cook County border - but can someone who knows Illinois better than I do cast an eye over it? I've just reverted some multiple-account vandalism, and I don't know the town well enough (more accurately, don't know it at all) to be sure I've caught all of it — iridescent (talk to me!) 23:43, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

You need to talk to WP:Illinois.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 00:01, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

I am WP:IL! Haha. ; ) IvoShandor 08:16, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

Cool tool

I believe that the project could use more technology. Check out this cool thing the guys at WP:Dinosaurs have: Wikipedia:WikiProject_Dinosaurs/dinosaur_articles_by_size. Let's get one for WP:Chicago. 129.252.89.184 02:32, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

Just to cross-post: over at WP:DINO we started a size list early in the year, based on a CatScan report which we then maintained by hand. We switched to a bot this summer, first from the now-departed AndroidMouse, and currently Betacommand has got a replacement pretty much ready to go. Such a list is certainly a useful thing for an active project to have, even when maintained by hand. J. Spencer 02:09, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Layout of main page

I'm just experimenting. What I'd really like to do is build an infobox like some WikiProjects have to reduce the clutter bigtime. Any comments? Speciate 09:35, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

Looking good, a couple thoughts/comments/suggestions. Recommend checking out the scrolling boxes and subpages they use at WP:NRHP, this is a good method for compiling the lists of articles together without taking up too much space. It shouldn't be a problem using them on a WikiProject page, even though they were essentially banned from the main space (for good reasons). Another thought, that you can incorporate, even without the scrolling boxes, is the use of subpages in appropriate places. For instance, items like participants, GAs, FAs etc could have there own pages, which would reduce clutter too, and still make them easily accessible with a simple click. Just a couple thoughts, that's all. IvoShandor 13:24, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

Metra template merger

I am proposing to merge {{Metra Line Index}} into {{Metra Lines}}. If anyone has any objections please discuss at Template talk:Metra Lines. Thanks, —Jeremy (talk) 01:56, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

The proper way to do this is at WP:TFD.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 23:59, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

Idea re talk page tag

If you want to tag a page and the editors of that page don't want it tagged, here is a suggestion for you: you could make a little template that doesn't display anything (or not anything much) but which puts the article into a category, and put it on the talk page of the article, perhaps within an ordinary talk page comment. (It might get archived, though.) This is just an idea I thought you might find helpful. The idea is that the editors of such a page might not mind a little template like that. --Coppertwig 23:58, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

Stanley Fish

The discussion page for Stanley Fish does not need a template for WP Chicago. First, he is neither a native or a resident of the city of Chicago. Second, he is no longer employed by UIC, and hasn't been for a couple of years now. Third, the article itself mentions Chicago in passing, and is not directly related to Chicago in any way other than the aforementioned fact. The template should be removed accordingly. Ryecatcher773 16:18, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Satyrbot

This bot was making its way through all your articles. You may want to go through the numbers, As, and Bs to get rid of the double tags.--Kranar drogin 23:02, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

The BarlowGirl article already had this WikiProject tag but it was nested. I have reverted the bot's action. Royalbroil 13:11, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

List of Chicago articles by size

Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Chicago/Chicago articles by size
We now have a list of Chicago-related articles by size, with FAs and GAs marked as such. A useful tool. Speciate 05:42, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject Illinois Post Census Report

The WikiProject Illinois Newsletter (Beta)
"Post Census Report"
Vol. I, No. 1, Issue 1, October 2007
If you would like to delete this message, the original is at Wikipedia:WikiProject Illinois/Newsletter/Post Census Report

Census results

On October 4, 2007 WikiProject Illinois embarked on a membership census. The census was the project's first since its establishment on September 24, 2005. Due to the nature of the wiki, and the two years that had passed, it seemed likely that many of the project's older members were no longer active. The project page had grown stagnant and the census provided an opportunity to see who was still around, slaving away in their own corner of the encylopedia, unknown to the rest of the Illinois editing world. Well, now, the tabulation is complete, and after a notice at the Community Portal, we have gained a couple new members amongst the cluster of project veterans who returned to sign up.

Of the 55 members listed on the project membership list on October 4, 26 editors returned to the list to "resign up," thus, confirming their current activity within project areas. If you received this message, you were one of those editors. The List of Participants has now been updated to reflect the results of this membership survey, with members who failed to respond highlighted as "inactive." Now, as a group of editors, we have a core list of individuals, that will hopefully grow in size as the project strives to become a better organized central collaboration space for editors working on Illinois related topics.

What's next?

The big question, where does the project go from here? Well there are a few proposals being floated at this project page. Little discussion has occurred thus far, and participation would be key to all of them. Some ideas include:

An A-class review system, under the WP:ILLINOIS banner, to serve the Illinois and Chicago WikiProjects.
A project newsletter, of which this is a beta version.
Project restructuring, to include regional and specific discipline task forces.
A monthly project collaboration to grow out of our currently idle collaboration division.

From the Editors

Welcome new members: Laleena, Omnedon and Rickvaughn
Interested in helping building and developing a project newsletter? See, start and join in on the proposal discussion.
The table is back up at the List of Participants and it has several blanks you can fill in if you have not done so already. They are: where you are originally from, where you live, the project areas you work in, your join date, and now, your status (which has been filled in for you).

News & Notes

Don't forget to add the project page to your watchlist so you can monitor the project talk page for relevant discussion.
As a note: WP:ILLINOIS is the project page shortcut and WT:ILLINOIS is the project talk page shortcut.
Kranar drogin essentially single-handedly cleared out the massive backlog in Category:Unassessed WikiProject Illinois articles, feel free to sprinkle his page with barnstars and thank yous, he deserves it. Everyone can help keep it cleared out by checking it for unassessed articles. For more information see the Assessment division of the project, though it isn't as project specific as it should be, it has enough info to give assessors an idea of what to do. Be aware that classes A, GA and FA can only be imposed by outside review processes.
The AlexNewArtBot dumps new Illinois related articles on this page periodically. You can help monitor new material by watchlisting the page, and combing new Illinois articles for clean up, referencing and other needed editing work.

Contributors to this Issue

IvoShandor

IvoShandor 06:05, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Map needed

Someone needs to draw up a replacement for Image:US-IL-Chicagoland-Park Ridge.png or modify the template in Park Ridge, Illinois to not show a redlink for the locator map. --Carnildo 18:06, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Edward Teller FAR

Edward Teller is currently being subjected to a Featured Article Review. If you want to contribute to this discussion, please do. Regards, Daimanta 20:28, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

Edward Teller has been nominated for a featured article review. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to featured quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, articles are moved onto the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article from featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Reviewers' concerns are here. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 00:08, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

GA review from WikiProject Chicago?

Great job all on Rainbow/PUSH, which I recently reviewed. Just put up a GA nom for Cult Awareness Network, originally a Chicago-based organization which moved to Los Angeles after it was bought out in bankruptcy court by a Scientologist. I know, I know, it's a long article, but if any of you feel like reviewing it, I'd be much obliged, and hopefully it should be an interesting read for you if you don't know about the organization's history. Cheers, Curt Wilhelm VonSavage 10:17, 30 October 2007 (UTC).

Categories?

Hi, All! A user has questioned whether all members of Category:University of Chicago alumni should be bannered using the project's banner - specifically George Morrison (director, acting teacher). I know you've had the same question about Jon Corzine. Perhaps that category should go? -- 5SatyrTN (talk | contribs) 05:03, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

I've talked on the article's talk page. Speciate 18:24, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Antonin Scalia

I removed the WikiProjectChicago tag from the Antonin Scalia talk page, but a bot put it back on and said I had to come here. His connection to Chicago is pretty tenuous (he taught at UChicago for a few years, but wasn't born there or anything). Thoughts?--Velvet elvis81 (talk) 18:02, 7 December 2007 (UTC)