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Space is for everyone. That’s the message a Logan Square couple pushed as they connected with outer space from their apartment closet.

“A lot of astronauts and NASA employees are sharing their stories of how they began and how it’s not just the top people in their class that get to work for NASA,” said Meredith Stepien, podcast co-host, actress and Adler Planetarium content developer. “Space is for everyone. Nobody owns space.”

Stepien and her husband, Brian Holden, co-hosts of “REACH: A Space Podcast for Kids,” livestreamed Sept. 1 with NASA astronauts Megan MacArthur and Mark Vande Hei aboard the International Space Station. The astronauts are on Expedition 65, and one of their current experiments concerns regolith, the surface of planetary bodies — terrestrial soil, essentially.

The experiment takes simulated regolith and prints building materials in the hopes that structures built in space will be just as strong with less than Earth’s gravitational pull. If the experiment is successful, astronauts will be able to build habitats on the moon one day, said MacArthur, an astronaut since 2000 and an oceanographer.

Along with the in-depth description of current experiments and space exploration came the explanation of what life is like in zero gravity, away from friends, family and fresh food — a response to questions the podcast hosts solicited from their audience before the livestream.

“The nice thing about being on a spacewalk is that in every direction you look, you can see incredible distances,” said Vande Hei, an astronaut since 2009 and a retired Army officer. “So, there’s these beautiful views — kind of hard to get your head wrapped around the scales that you’re seeing. At the same time, you’ve got to pay very close attention to your job and make sure you stay safe.”

MacArthur has marveled at the photographs her and fellow astronauts have taken while aboard the station, some of the places they’ve lived and others of phenomena on Earth like large wildfires and hurricanes — which they’ve seen a lot of lately.

“Those photographs have also helped in emergency response planning, as well as even identifying leaks from oil pipelines, a very valuable resource that was made from [people] living here on the space station for about five years,” MacArthur said.

Much of the podcast hosts’ mission was to bring attention to the responsibilities people on Earth have to protect the planet but also create more equitable futures for later generations. They found that middle schoolers, those of Gen Z or older Gen Alpha, are interested in the ethics of space travel.

“They are a generation that is particularly more aware of what’s going on in the world, as far as government and social issues, than I may have been when growing up,” said Nate DuFort, co-creator of the podcast and founder of Soundsington Media, which produces it. “Because of the big news items relating to space right now in the modern day space race with millionaires going into orbit, there may be a perception that space belongs to the wealthy. That is absolutely not true.”

The podcast’s first episode went live in June 2020. DuFort noticed a gap in space exploration learning in his 12-year-old daughter and Stepien, through her work at the planetarium, noticed people of all ages really didn’t know much about what lies beyond Earth. That’s why the podcast was created, to meet children and their parents at home in an accessible, fast-paced learning environment.

Now, the show has two seasons and over 30 episodes, encouraging kids to find their own sources of information and make smart choices based on real science.

“Thinking about just what is out there and what we are and how we’re all just connected by this sky and by space, it’s just grounding,” Stepien said. “And it’s a really nice place to go, especially if you’re feeling stressed or worried about our Earthling problems.”

The episode of REACH featuring NASA astronauts MacArthur and Vande Hei will be released Sept. 14 on Apple podcasts and other streaming platforms.

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The NHL plans to punish unvaccinated players more harshly if they test positive for the coronavirus as part of new protocols for the upcoming season.

Teams will be able to suspend unvaccinated players without pay if they cannot participate in hockey activities as part of the protocols, according to a person with knowledge of the new rules. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Friday because the protocols had not been announced.

Fully vaccinated players will have any COVID-19 positives treated as hockey injuries and still be paid. Coaches and other team staff who closely interact with players are required to be fully vaccinated.

Unvaccinated players also will have their movements restricted when on the road. There will still be regular coronavirus testing for vaccinated players.

League officials earlier this summer estimated that close to 90% of players would be fully vaccinated before training camps begin later this month.

Teams were informed this week of the rules for 2021-22, which were first reported by Sportsnet in Canada. It’s not clear yet how crossing the U.S.-Canada border will affect the season.

The NHL realigned last season to take the border out of the equation until late in the playoffs. The seven Canada-based teams only faced off against each other, and the 24 in the U.S. played a division-only 56-game schedule.

When the Canadiens faced Vegas and Tampa Bay in the final two rounds, players and staff traveling back and forth were put in a quarantined bubble when in Montreal, as part of an agreement with the Canadian federal government. The NHL held the entire 2020 playoffs in bubbles in Toronto and Edmonton, Alberta, because of low virus case rates in those cities at the time.

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NEW YORK — Novak Djokovic missed an overhead along the way to getting broken for the only time Thursday night and stared at a man in the Arthur Ashe Stadium stands who made noise during the point.

After breaking right back in the next game of his second-round victory at the U.S. Open, Djokovic glared in that direction again, as if to say, “How you like me now?” Miffed as the distractions persisted, he later spoke to the chair umpire about what’s considered a no-no in tennis.

That, then, is pretty much what provided some intrigue and interest in this one, because the ultimate outcome — a 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 victory for Djokovic over Tallon Griekspoor — seemed fairly obvious after all of about 15 minutes. Or maybe even before the No. 1-ranked Djokovic and his 121st-ranked opponent stepped on court on a cool, breezy evening.

“That guy, for some reason, was calling, raising the sound and kind of screaming just before I would hit my smash, which was a big point. Before that, he would do it a few times. After that, again,” Djokovic said. “That wasn’t nice. That’s all. I don’t mind the noise. Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s important for the entertainment, for the crowds, the music. I get it. But if someone does it over and over again … he knows why he’s doing it. The guy that I pointed out, he knew exactly what he was doing, and that’s all.”

If that bothered Djokovic, his shot-making and serving boosted his mood as he took another step toward completing the first calendar-year Grand Slam in men’s tennis since 1969 and claiming a 21st major championship to eclipse the mark he shares with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

“All in all very good, very good. I’m very pleased with the level of my tennis,” Djokovic said. “All is going in the right direction.”

He considered this a better performance than in his win Tuesday, when he dropped a set and was taken aback by hearing what he thought were boos but actually were last-name chants of “Ruuuuune!” for his 18-year-old foe, Holger Vitus Nodskov Rune.

Here’s what matters the most: Djokovic is 2-0 at Flushing Meadows this week and 23-0 in Grand Slam tournaments this year, with five more wins standing between him and history.

“I am motivated as ever to do well,” said Djokovic, a 34-year-old from Serbia who will face 2014 U.S. Open finalist Kei Nishikori next. “I am trying to be the best I can be every single day and let’s see what happens.”

Djokovic has won their past 16 matchups, including at the Tokyo Olympics in July, although Nishikori’s last head-to-head victory came in New York seven years ago.

This was only the fourth Slam match for Griekspoor, a 25-year-old Dutchman who tends to appear on the lower-level ATP Challenger Tour. And he never really stood much of a chance against Djokovic, who broke to lead 3-1 and was on his way.

Djokovic dominated every statistical category. He served well, to the tune of 13 aces. He serve-and-volleyed occasionally. He returned well enough to win half of Griekspoor’s service games. He dominated baseline exchanges.

Maybe that’s why ESPN’s telecast cut away in the third set.

About the only problems No. 1 Ash Barty and other top women encountered earlier Thursday came in the delays trying to get to Flushing Meadows in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida’s remnants blowing through the Northeast a night earlier.

Barty, a two-time major champion including at Wimbledon in July, three-time Grand Slam champ Angelique Kerber, Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic, double Wimbledon title winner Petra Kvitova and other seeded women including No. 14 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, No. 17 Maria Sakkari, No. 23 Jessica Pegula and No. 28 Anett Kontaveit all won in two sets during the afternoon to reach the third round.

At night, 2019 U.S. Open champion Bianca Andreescu improved her tournament record to 9-0 by defeating Lauren Davis 6-4, 6-4.

Among the men’s winners were Summer Games gold medalist and 2020 U.S. Open runner-up Alexander Zverev, 2021 Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini, No. 17 Gael Monfils and No. 22 seed Reilly Opelka of the U.S. But No. 10 Hubert Hurkacz, a Wimbledon semifinalist, lost to Andreas Seppi of Italy, and No. 31 Alexander Bublik was beaten by American wild-card recipient Jack Sock 7-6 (3), 6-7 (2), 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

Another U.S. man who got a wild card, 20-year-old Jenson Brooksby, won an all-Californian matchup against Taylor Fritz 6-7 (7), 7-6 (10), 7-5, 6-2.

With nary a cloud around, play in second-round matches on the outer courts was pushed back from 11 a.m. to noon to allow the U.S. Tennis Association time to clean up downed tree branches and other scattered debris and make sure everything was ready for competition on Day 4 of the year’s last Grand Slam tournament.

Once all was ready to go, it was just a matter of players’ transportation navigating traffic delays caused by road closures and vehicles that were abandoned overnight; a trip from Manhattan to Queens that normally might take 30-45 minutes took 1 1/2 hours or longer for some.

“Trying to grasp what was happening here on-site was quite unbelievable, and I know that there has been a lot of flash flooding and a lot of people in trouble,” Barty said. “Hopefully, a lot of people from site got home safely, and New Yorkers in general were able to get home, because it was quite a wild storm. It did wreak some havoc; obviously there was a later start today, I think, because of, obviously, the damage to the site.”

“It took us a while to get in this morning, but we kind of allowed for that time,” she added, “expecting there would be a little bit more of an issue than just a normal commute coming in.”

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Jessica Vilaythong, 24, was attacked Wednesday morning “after having a brief conversation” with a man inside the Chase Bank branch at 600 N. Dearborn St.

By

Dan Haar

Sep 3, 2021, 9:53am CDT

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Before he retired, John Drake had been selling automobile parts to repair shops for years.

But he never stopped singing, not since the 1960s, when he had a hit with the Amboy Dukes and bandmate Ted Nugent on the acid-flavored, psychedelic rock classic “Journey to the Center of the Mind.”

Mr. Drake, who joined the Amboy Dukes when they were based in Chicago and moved with the band to Detroit, died Aug. 29 in hospice care of complications from cancer, according to his wife Mary Ann Fosco. He was 74 and lived in Downers Grove.

His voice was in perfect sync with the band’s sound, which, fueled by Nugent’s lead guitar, was as propulsive as a Detroit muscle car.

“Journey to the Center of the Mind,” released in 1968, captured the times with lyrics including:

“Take a ride to the land inside of your mind

But please realize you’ll probably be surprised

For it’s the land unknown to man

Where fantasy is fact

So if you can, please understand

You might not come back”

John Drake sent handwritten lyrics for the Amboy Dukes’ “Journey to the Center of the Mind” to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

After Mr. Drake’s death, Nugent posted a Facebook tribute, calling him “one of the founding fathers of Detroit rock ‘n’ roll.”

John Drake (far left) and the Amboy Dukes.Provided

After the Amboy Dukes, Mr. Drake fronted the John Drake Shakedown, appearing on bills with performers including Rod Stewart, the Faces, Bob Seger, MC5, the Stooges and Ten Years After.

He later worked as a radio DJ at WZZM in Michigan, for Diversified Management Agency, where he booked performers including Roy Orbison and Gene Pitney, two of his favorite singers, and for Continental Motors, where his wife said he sold auto parts to repair shops for years. He retired from Continental in 2017.

But he always kept singing, including playing the 2013 Detroit Music Awards, where he did a duet with bassist Suzi Quatro, a fellow Detroit native.

John Drake rehearsing with Suzi Quatro for their duet at the 2013 Detroit Music Awards.Provided

Quatro, who also played Leather Tuscadero on the TV sitcom “Happy Days,” described the music scene that formed Mr. Drake:

“Us rock groups tried to incorporate the soul and the moves that Motown acts had down pat. And the Motown acts tried to emulate the foot-on-the-gas energy us rock groups had. He was a ‘give it all’ type of singer and performer.”

John Drake (left foreground in sleeveless shirt) reunited with members of the Amboy Dukes — including Ted Nugent (center, in the cowboy hat) at the 2009 Detroit Music Awards.Scott Legato / www.ScottLegato.com

He was born John Brake. But his wife said he usually went by John Drake.

Growing up, he sang doo-wop and the harmonies of the Everly Brothers and Dion and the Belmonts. He was about 14 when a kid who’d been taking guitar lessons showed up at a neighborhood band rehearsal, he said in a memoir: “He came down that basement with a tiny Supro amp and when he opened that guitar case, there laid a beautiful red and white Fender Mustang guitar.”

The kid was Nugent. They started played together in the Royal High Boys and later the Lourds.

After graduating from Detroit’s Redford High School, Mr. Drake served as an Army medic at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas.

The Amboy Dukes in their heyday, including John Drake (center, in white suit) and Ted Nugent (at right, also in white).Provided

“He joined Ted in Chicago, where Ted had started the Amboy Dukes,” later moving back to Detroit, Fosco said.

Deena Weinstein, a DePaul University sociology professor who writes about rock music, had him come speak with her students.

“He was besotted with music,” Weinstein said. “One of the songs that he performed was ‘Baby Please Don’t Go.’ He would go sing that at the drop of a hat anywhere.”

Mr. Drake didn’t stay with the Amboy Dukes for long after “Journey to the Center of the Mind.” He was out the next year.

Weinstein said he spoke to her students about power dynamics in a rock band.

“He taught me about how somebody who writes the music is totally different than the singers,” she said. “And when you have power freaks in a band, if you’re not somebody who is also a power freak, you get stepped on.”

His first wife Kate died in 2006.

At his and Fosco’s 2013 wedding celebration, he sang her The Reflections hit “Can’t You Tell By The Look In My Eyes.” She sang him Barbra Streisand’s “I’ve Dreamed of You.”

In hospice, his wife played the songs they’d sung to each other at their wedding.

“I said to the nurse, ‘I would just love to give him a hug,’ ” Fosco said. “She said, ‘Why don’t you get in bed with him?’ I did, and I fell asleep. When I woke, he had passed.”

He is also survived by his sister Linda Kennedy. His wife said a celebration of life will be held next year.

John Drake and his wife Mary Ann Fosco.Provided

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DEAR ABBY: I have been married for nearly 10 years. I guess I never noticed this while we were dating, but as our marriage has progressed, it’s becoming increasingly apparent he’s a complete “mama’s boy.” He calls the mother constantly with updates (some I’d prefer she didn’t know about) and invites her over frequently without consulting me.

I have tried to express gently that sometimes it’s a bit much (especially because he tells her things before he tells me), but he becomes defensive and accuses me of not liking her. It doesn’t help that his father died five years ago, leaving her a rather young widow. I feel his protectiveness over her has accelerated because he fears she will be alone too much.

My mother-in-law is a nice person, but I need my space. After work, I want to come home and spend time with my husband and children without another person always being there. It has reached the point that I’m starting to resent her, and that’s not fair to her. Please help. — CROWDED IN WISCONSIN

DEAR CROWDED: You’re right, it isn’t fair that you are aiming your resentment at your mother-in-law. The person who should be the target of your displeasure is your husband. I assume you have already tried communicating to him the legitimate complaints you listed in your letter. It may require help from a marriage counselor to get him to understand that you don’t dislike his mother, but that certain things between a husband and wife should remain private. Yes, she is his mother, but common courtesy would dictate that the two of you agree about how often you will come home after a hard day’s work to find her sitting there.

DEAR ABBY: I’ve been married for more than 30 years. Our marriage isn’t wonderful, but it’s better than most. I love my husband, but I’m not sure I am “in love” with him. I have had an off-and-on friendship with my ex-boyfriend for the past 40 years. We’re not intimate — just friends. We meet occasionally for coffee or dinner to talk. He is divorced.

Logically, I know he isn’t the right one, but my heart still feels strongly for him. This in spite of a 20-year gap when we didn’t see or hear from each other. I ran into him three years ago and we started talking, but a year went by before we saw each other again. No matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to get him out of my heart. He says he will always love me, but I don’t think he means “in love.”

He has been with someone for five years whom he cares for and is thinking of marrying because he is getting older and wants the companionship. He claims not to be in love with her. I hurt when I don’t hear from him regularly. My heart aches when I think about not having him in my life at all. How do I get over him? — EMOTIONALLY INVESTED

DEAR INVESTED: Wake up and accept that if your ex-boyfriend were in love with you, he would have demonstrated it by now. He appears to be very comfortable with the companion he’s involved with — regardless of the fact he says he isn’t in love with her, either. A surefire way to get over this lingering crush would be to start counting the many blessings you have with your husband of 30 years, and if there is something “missing,” begin a dialogue and work to improve it.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

To receive a collection of Abby’s most memorable — and most frequently requested — poems and essays, send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $8 (U.S. funds), to: Dear Abby — Keepers Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)

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At least 15 people were shot, three fatally, in Chicago Thursday.

One of the fatal attacks occurred in Gage Park on the Southwest Side. Kevin Julian Velasquez, 27, was driving south in the 2500 block of West 54th Street when someone got out of their car, approached and began firing about 9:25 a.m., police said.

He was struck multiple times and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

In Old Town on the Near North Side, a man was killed and a woman seriously wounded about 10:45 p.m. in the 1300 block of North Cleveland Avenue, police said. They were walking toward a residence when three people chased them and one opened fire, police said.

Mohammad Habib, 24, was pronounced dead at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, police said. The woman was taken to Stroger Hospital in serious condition, police said.

In West Englewood, a man was found fatally shot in a parked car in the 2000 block of West 71st Street about 11:20 p.m., police said. James Williams, 27, had gunshot wounds to the face, head and chest. He was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Other attacks:

A SWAT team responded to Chicago Lawn around 4:30 p.m. after a person suspected of shooting and critically wounding a man barricaded himself inside a home. The person was suspected of shooting a 69-year-old man in the 5900 block of South Richmond Street, police said. The man was struck in the neck and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition, police said. The suspect was taken into custody about 8:55 p.m., police said. Charges are pending.
An 18-year-old man was wounded in Austin on the West Side. About 5:45 p.m., he walked up to a Chicago police car in the 300 block of North Central Avenue, with a gunshot wound to his neck, police said. Officers rendered aid and called an ambulance, police said. The man was taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition.

Nine others were wounded in shootings in Chicago Thursday.

Thirteen were shot, three fatally, including a 13-year-old, in citywide shootings Wednesday.

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Ask any 10 firefighters to name the best movie about their profession and I’ll bet seven or eight immediately would cite the Chicago-set “Backdraft,” which to this day sets the bar for the most impressive staging of raging, roaring, realistic fires, accomplished primarily through practical effects on controlled sets, with the addition of some spectacular blending of visual effects courtesy of Industrial Light & Magic.

Ron Howard’s admittedly sentimental and sometimes bloated love letter to the heroes who run into burning buildings traffics heavily in cliches about Chicago firefighters and in particular those of Irish-American descent, and the melodrama often gets soapy — but every time there’s a fire in a warehouse or an apartment building or an old auditorium or a private home, we can practically feel the heat and smell the smoke as the flames lick the walls and roar all around. Some 30 years after its initial release and with a theatrical re-release right around the corner, “Backdraft” still packs a wallop — and it’s a great showcase for the city of Chicago in all its industrial, gritty, neighborhood glory.

Kurt Russell is one of those actors we tend to take for granted because he’s been so solid for so long — he has 102 acting credits on IMDB, dating back to guest spots on 1960s TV series such as “The Virginian” and “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” — and he delivers some of the finest work of his career as Lt. Stephen “Bull” McCaffrey. We believe every inch of Russell’s performance as a throwback Chicago tough guy with a heart of gold.

Kurt Russell carries himself with swagger as the highly regarded Lt. Stephen “Bull” McCaffrey.Universal Pictures

Sporting a modified military haircut and carrying himself with swagger, Stephen is the son of a fallen firefighter (also played by Russell in a 1971 flashback prologue) who never doubted he’d carry on the family tradition. Stephen is separated from his wife Helen (Rebecca De Mornay, back in Chicago eight years after “Risky Business”) but he still shows up to patch the roofing on the house and would do anything to win her back. You know guys like Stephen. He’s fixing up his father’s old boat, he’s a shot-and-a-beer kind of guy and he’s forever at odds with his younger brother Brian (William Baldwin) — but if YOU say something about Brian, he’ll pop you right in the snout. (There are a LOT of fight scenes in “Backdraft.” Stephen and Brian even get into a brawl outside the hospital room where a colleague has been badly burned and is barely clinging to life. Come on boys, take it outside!)

Set in and around the fictional Engine 17 and Truck 46 firehouse with filming taking place in a number of real-life Chicago Fire Department stations, “Backdraft” tells the story of those McCaffrey brothers: Stephen, who has achieved legendary status as a firefighter and leader, and Brian, who washed out on his first attempt to become a firefighter and is now a “probie” for a second time, much to his brother’s chagrin. (Stephen is convinced Brian is careless and will get himself killed one day.) Brian isn’t four minutes on the job when Chicago is plagued by a series of fires that appear to be the work of an arsonist who is using some sort of formula to create blazes with backdrafts, i.e., the sudden introduction of air into a fire that causes powerful and deadly explosions. Director Howard films the fire scenes as if the flames are like the shark in “Jaws”; we can hear hissing sounds as if a giant snake is in the buildings before there’s an explosion of horrific proportions.

Fire department rookie Brian (William Baldwin, left) hasn’t earned the trust of his big brother, Stephen (Kurt Russell).Universal Pictures

Here’s how Robert De Niro’s Inspector Rimgale puts it: “It’s a living thing, Brian. It breathes, it eats and it hates. … This flame will spread this way across the door and up across the ceiling not because of the flammable liquids, but because it WANTS to. … The only way to truly kill it is to love it a little.” Only the great Bobby D could pull off a hokey monologue like that, and even then, just barely.

The supporting cast in “Backdraft” is magnificent, from J.T. Walsh as a corrupt Chicago alderman (how dare they!) to Jennifer Jason Leigh as the alderman’s ambitious assistant and Brian’s ex, to Scott Glenn as John “Axe” Adcock, a veteran firefighter and Stephen’s best friend, to Donald Sutherland in a truly chilling turn as a convicted arsonist who wants to burn the whole world down and only agrees to provide his insight to investigators in exchange for a look at the files of these recent fires. He’s the arsonist Hannibal Lecter.

We also get glimpses and hear the sounds of Chicago Irish-American staples such as the Drovers, the Emerald Society’s Drums & Bagpipes and the Trinity Academy of Irish Dance — and late in the film, there’s a deeply moving scene when thousands of uniformed firefighters (many of them real firefighters) march in a funeral procession down a rain-soaked Michigan Avenue, after which we cut to the burial at Graceland Cemetery.

Three decades after “Backdraft” first hit theaters, that sequence is still a beautiful and moving tribute to firefighters in Chicago and around the world.

For a list of Chicago area theaters screening “Backdraft” on Sunday and Wednesday, go to www.fathomevents.com.

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As a developer, Bob Dunn is accustomed to obsessing over spreadsheets, diagrams and the need to raise money from other people. But developers can dream as well, and for his multibillion-dollar proposition here, Dunn would like others to dream with him.

Whether he — or we — can afford his expedition into the mists of future Chicago is to be decided.

The president of Landmark Development, Dunn wants all Chicago to embrace his One Central project, which foresees a new neighborhood of more than 9,000 homes mostly in high-rises west of Soldier Field, built on 31 acres and covering Metra tracks in a development pattern known well here. Above all, he needs backing from political leaders and the transit agencies. the latter of which is in process.

To that end, Dunn is releasing numbers from a transit study he commissioned that he says demonstrates the feasibility and sense of his proposal. “At its core, it’s a transit project,” Dunn said. He said beneficiaries include the museums, McCormick Place and the Bears or whoever else uses Soldier Field.

The development, he said, also would put Chicago at the forefront of trends. Chicago would get a transit center that unites four systems, potentially making it the envy of other cities. Only New York has that at its Grand Central Station, said Joe Willhite, Midwest district leader for engineering firm WSP, which is assisting on the project.

“Every time we peel away the layers on this project, we come to understand better how impactful it is,” Dunn said, insisting that better transit will help job prospects for South Siders by cutting commute times.

“You are able to build an international-caliber transit hub connecting all four systems that creates unprecedented growth in ridership, driven by private investment, in a location where you get tens of millions of people that intersect in the city day after day after day,” Dunn said.

The nub of this transit hub is a $3.8 billion package Dunn wants taxpayers to buy. By four systems, he means that it would serve Metra, the CTA, Amtrak and a tram-like circulator he calls the CHI-Line that would whisk people from McCormick Place to downtown and Navy Pier. It would use a busway now limited to conventioneers and VIPs. Dunn said his financial partners include the union-backed insurance firm Ullico; JLC Infrastructure, which is part of Loop Capital; and Johnson Controls. His high-rises might cost $20 billion, but estimates at this point are guesses.

The state would purchase the transit part by paying an estimated $6.5 billion to redeem bonds over 20 years. Dunn’s argument is that sales taxes from the restaurants, shops and what-not that go into this new gathering spot would pay off the bonds. The criticism is that if the high-rises don’t get built, the crowds don’t come and taxpayers get stuck with an infrastructure white elephant.

The transit study by WSP, Knight and TransSmart/EJM show that at full buildout in 2040, the One Central hub would account for nearly 100,000 daily boardings, about twice that of Union Station. The development could yield another 200,000 daily boardings at other downtown stations, the study said.

The 2040 timetable seems optimistic. We worry today about COVID-19, crime, high taxes and have a hard time conceiving of a city as an evolving organism. Can any long-range development survive obstacles now and in the future?

Dunn said One Central can’t be viewed in a three- to five-year time frame. “You look at a project like this as being transformative for the next generation,” he said. He juxtaposed overhead photos of Chicago in 1980 versus today. In the older photo, there’s the S-curve. There’s no Millennium Park. No Lakeshore East. Downtown looks relatively de-forested. The U.S. has had six recessions since 1980 and Chicago has prospered.

“It’s time for Chicago to recognize the opportunity that is on its doorstep,” Dunn said, meaning his property. “I can’t say it strongly enough: One Central needs to be thought of as a civic project before it’s thought of as a vertical real estate development.”

The Chicago Bears are dabbling with a move to Arlington Heights, possibly leaving a vacancy in Soldier Field. Dunn declined to comment on that, except to say the Bears are aware of his plans. He is one of the country’s leading experts on economic improvement around a football stadium having been involved in projects for the Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings, every Bears rival in the NFC North. He could leverage One Central into an assignment for Soldier Field improvements.

But his venture will take decades, well beyond most attention spans. Will he hand it off to someone else? “No, I will not be handing this off. I have made a major commitment to Chicago. My investors have made a major commitment to Chicago.”

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