Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/12/11/how-icy-is-chicago-salt-truck.html
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It’s so icy because of the nearing historically high lake levels.
See that the bike path has standing water on it? Yeah, it actually was higher over the summer. Waves were breaking over Lakeshore Drive at times.
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It’s bonkers. Five years ago, the lower section of concrete by that path was at least three feet above the water level, and waves only came over the top if the wind was out of the NE and the pressure was right. Now the water level is even with the concrete on a still day, and all the fixed piers are at or below water level.
I don’t know what the city’s plan is if there’s no such thing as “normal” any more and the lake goes up another three or four feet in the next few years, but I hope there is one.
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Now all they need to fix that mess, a big truck carrying hypertension medication to fall into the lake.
You’re Welcome!
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That is an excellent question what they are going to do if the water gets any higher? I have a really long-handled fishing net which I don’t bother to bring anymore. If I get into anything decently big, I can just lean down off the seawall or pier and gill it.*
*Not that I ever catch anything sizable from the lake, because I am a terrible big water fisherman.
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tRump says to stop flushing the toilet so much, he’s onto something there.
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I guess we’ll find out of this country has the engineering aptitude to build a seawall sufficient to save downtown, and the city has the nerve to continue business as usual sitting below lake level. Doesn’t seem to be something I’d like to find out, to be honest.
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This is what climate change looks like here in Chicago: higher highs, lower lows, lakeshore erosion, more stress on infrastructure, lake rising with less buffer zone.
And the provocative suggestion:
http://www.chicagomag.com/city-life/October-2019/Get-Rid-of-Lake-Shore-Drive
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So a little off topic, but Trump Tower is a big polluter in that stretch of the North Loop river.
Not the only polluter, since the city’s sewers still overflow periodically into the river there. (But the city are working on it…)
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Chicago can be the Venice of the Mid-West, the canals lining the streets, the gondolas passing romanticly by, the vendor’s selling hip waders…
BTW: That cannabis cookie I had at lunch is really kicking in…
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…why is there no barrier along the waterfront there?
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Normal water level is 5-6’ below the level of the walkway.
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That would be the reason for MORE barriers, not less, no? 
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Oh, I get it. Barriers to keep people from going off the walkway/bike path, not to protect the path from the lake. Yeah, that would make sense. Though it was fun last time I was there to watch fish swimming around in the crystal-clear water right up to the edge of the path.
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It is a public beach use area. People swim and sunbathe and there’s a bunch of beach area to the north and south of the stretch of concrete. Usually it’s quite pleasant to sit on the edge of the concrete and dangle your tootsies.
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The shoreline from Chicago to Waukegan was a site of considerable erosion in the 19th century. The suburb of Highland Park, for example, was formed from two settlements, Port Clinton and St. John. The latter is completely underwater. The Army Corps of Engineers was brought in at some point to shore up the shore, probably mainly to protect Fort Sheridan, and the big rocks they moved in helped with the erosion for most of the 20th century.
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Whoa! thanks for that. I was wondering how in the world there was no railing or curb or bollards or anything along the edge.
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Wouldn’t be the first time:
The 1893 Columbian Exposition (World’s Fair) in Chicago in what is now Jackson Park included an entire area that was flooded and filled with gondolas from Venice.
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Still, if that’s normally a six-foot drop, I’d expect some sort of people protection, no?
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We pull a page from the 1860s playbook and raise the streets again!
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