Blathr Wayne Lorentz

This morning the big story on WGN-TV news was another mugging in Chicagoʼs Lincoln Park neighborhood, as illustrated by the screenshot above.

Why is yet another mugging in the nationʼs third-largest city a big news story? As a former television news producer, I can answer that.

• Itʼs part of a series of muggings that appear to be caused by the same group of people.
• It happened in a part of the city that is generally considered safe.
• It happened in the middle of the day.
• The mugger threatened to shoot the victimʼs dog.
• There was video available of the crime.

I canʼt speak to what happened in the WGN-TV newsroom when this story was written. I can, however, state that if I had aired this story in any of the cities where I produced TV news — Chicago, Houston, Cincinnati, and even Green Bay — the newsroom would have gotten complaint calls from people claiming that the only reason we aired the story is because it happened in a “white” neighborhood.

This is incorrect.

While itʼs true that muggings happen all the time Chicago neighborhoods that are more “diverse” and impoverished than Lincoln Park, the reason this was a big story is because it was the intersection of the five factors listed above. And of all those factors, the last one is the most important: There was video.

Television is a visual medium. TV without pictures is called “radio.”

Lincoln Park is a rich neighborhood, which means more people can afford personal security cameras, which means more video of crime is available. Englewood, as a random example, is a poorer neighborhood, which means fewer people can afford personal security cameras. Therefore, thereʼs less video of crime from that area, and thus itʼs less likely to be the main story of the newscast, unless itʼs made into a larger piece with crime statistics and interviews with cops, politicians, criminologists, residents, and whoever else is available.

I canʼt count the number of times Iʼve had to weigh two news stories, and chose the lesser one simply because video was available. If the news program isnʼt visually compelling, itʼs an important factor in people tuning out, ratings going down, and the next thing you know, youʼre on the street.

Struggling to make important, but non-visual, stories more palatable to a television audience is the reason that TV stations put all kinds of text on the screen. A still picture with a caption over the anchorʼs shoulder. A list of bullet points on one side of the screen. Even putting text between two anchors sitting in front of a chroma wall. And sometimes all the visual tricks in the book canʼt make a non-visual story work on TV and Iʼve said, “Let radio have it.”

Race is often an easy answer to not understanding how things work, but in local news it is seldom the right answer.

On a side note, Iʼve noticed that reporters in Chicago now call muggings “robberies.” The common term for a mugging when I lived in Chicago was “strong-arm robbery.” Itʼs a very Chicago term with a long history. I suspect the problem is too many people working in Chicago TV who are not from Chicago, and not thoughtful enough to adopt the local customs.

Anyone visiting Chicago can bring home a box of Fannie May, or a Drake Hotel flask. It takes a real professional tourist to hunt down a copy of both newspapers.

If your radio station is actually an analog signal at 87.75 Mhz, muxed with a low-power ATSC 3.0 digital TV channel at the ass-end of the FM dial, and you still manage to come in #13 in the ratings, youʼre doing something right.

I used to live in a state where prostitution is legal, and even Iʼm not sure what a “ham quicke” is.

Iʼm pretty sure I recognize all of this dirt from the last time I lived in Chicago about eight years ago.

Thereʼs no reason for any CTA station to look like this, especially considering that it has fewer passengers now than in recent years.

If the CTA canʼt handle basic sanitation, how poorly run are the rest of its operations? More to the point — How are passengers supposed to feel safe, if they canʼt even feel clean?

This is an example of wayfinding done right.

With a mere glance out the door of a subway train, I can see three signs telling me that this is the Lake station.

The signs are large, clean, and clear, with very high contrast.

Itʼs remarkable how many transit agencies and airports, large and small, forget the importance of wayfinding, communication, and consistent design.

I was surprised to learn recently that a good number of people in Chicago donʼt know what this is. And many people donʼt even notice that theyʼre there.

Iʼm old enough to remember when these underground kiosks thrived at CTA stations all over Chicago. Some were newsstands. Some were Dunkinʼ Donuts shops. Some sold other kinds of food to passengers. I always thought that was funny, because at the time, you werenʼt allowed to eat or drink on a CTA train. But the CTA was happy to sell you both inside its own stations.

I remember lines at the Dunkinʼ Donuts kiosks would sometimes be long enough to block the turnstiles.

Today, theyʼre all boarded up with stainless steel plates. Some, like this one, are decorated. As if to pretend that they never existed at all.

It was just a decade ago that newspapers were fighting for space in Chicagoʼs downtown newspaper racks. Now, nobody cares.

The racks were installed by the second Mayor Daley as part of his efforts to clean up downtown, where busy street corners would sometimes have ten, 15, or even 20 newspaper boxes all chained together, spilling out into the street and blocking both pedestrians and traffic.

The new street furniture brought order, but also controversy. Small and marginal publication accused the city of playing favorites. There was always room for a Tribune drawer, or a Sun-Times drawer, or a Crainʼs Chicago Business drawer; but neighborhood, non-English, classified advertising, and pornography publications couldn't always get in.

Lawsuits were threatened, but I donʼt know if they ever went anywhere. Perhaps simply because right around the same time, people en masse decided to get their news from the internet for free, instead of paying for dead trees. It didn't help that both of the big newspapers doubled their prices (or more) as the internet ate their revenue.

Today, about the only place to get a newspaper in downtown Chicago is in a drug store. And even then, you might have to go to two or three different stores to find one, since so few are printed. There's no need, since work-from-home has made a 2022 weekday lunchtime on LaSalle Street feel like the same location at 6am on a Sunday in 2012.

Chicago has better graffiti than Houston has legitimate murals.

This sign at Midway Airport helpfully lists 18 coffee options in the gate area. I had a couple of hours to kill, so I went looking for a cup of joe. No luck.

More than half of the locations were closed, either temporarily or permanently. Most of the rest had lines 30 people deep. Probably because so many of the other restaurants were closed.

When I did finally find a place with a reasonably-sized line, they had no coffee. Didn't know they were supposed to have coffee. And were surprised to see their location listed on an official airport sign as having coffee.

Big city mayors like to talk about promoting the health and welfare of their people. Then they allow the airport to sell passengers hamburgers for $4.00, while the healthy snacks cost $17.50 plus tax.

Southwest Airlines encourages people to download its app for a “contactless day of travel.” You know what else is contactless? The way it was done up to now.

There's nothing about using an app that is more contactless than using a home-printed ticket, or even the old-style paper tickets. Both are read by a contactless scanner. It's not like the gate agent is going to lick your face because youʼre not using an app.

There are more disadvantages to using an app for your boarding pass than using a piece of paper:

• Ask any janitor — people drop their phones in toilets all the time.
• Restrooms, bars, restaurants, payment kiosks — there are a thousand ways to lose your phone in an airport.
• Phones run out of battery.
• Phone apps crash.
• Phone apps malfunction.
• Internet connectivity is required, but not guaranteed.
• Internet connectivity in airports is notoriously slow and unreliable.
• People run out of data on their mobile plans while waiting for their planes.
• Screens time out and turn off just when someone gets to the gate agent. It happens constantly.

My observation waiting in line behind people using app-based boarding passes is that the paper passes scan more quickly, and more reliably than the phone-based equivalents.

The only reason to use an app-based boarding pass is if you enjoy forking over even more of your personal information to an airline so that it can sell that information to other people.

I am a paying passenger. I am not your recurring revenue stream.

And by “peace and quiet” Southwest Airlines means “listening to the simultaneous FaceTime calls of half-a-dozen people who think pajamas and flip-flips are appropriate attire for a flight across the country.”

I know Southwest is trying to be folksy and humorous by having the status sign at the airport gate tell me I have plenty of time to read magazines. But I canʼt help but think, “No kidding. My flight has already been delayed six times tonight.”

This LED pylon was a big deal when it debuted 20 years ago. Even though it only showed promos for WLS-TV news, it was considered a major work of public art, which is why it was allowed to take up space on a public sidewalk.

The last time I checked on it was in 2017. It was broken then. It was also broken today, when I checked on it again in 2022. I can only hope that I just have bad timing, and it hasn't been broken for five years. State Street is already a lot shabbier than when I lived a few blocks away.

When you leave the airside of Midway Airport, this is what greets you. On the surface, itʼs a nice welcome message from the Mayor of Chicago. Sweet.

The cynic in me immediately starts thinking itʼs a shameless promotion, and another way for her to get her face out there, like all those craptastic little towns scattered across America with signs reading “Welcome to Gripplebunk; Population 3,122; Cleetus McFasterberry, Mayor.”

But the more I think about it, thereʼs more to this sign. Itʼs Mayor Lightfoot taking pride in her city. More importantly, itʼs hizzonor putting her neck out there and telling people “If your visit sucks, thatʼs my fault. If the train brakes down, thatʼs my fault. If you get mugged on Wabash, thatʼs my fault.”

It's also saying, “If you have an awesome time at Oak Street Beach, thatʼs my fault, too!” But few people seem to associate good things with the people responsible for them. Itʼs much easier to assign blame when thing go wrong.

Lightfoot is far from my favorite Chicago mayor, especially among this new generation. I disagree with a bunch of the things sheʼs done. But at least sheʼs trying to do things. And in ways big and small, she doesnʼt run from controversy or responsibility. Which makes her an old-style Chicago mayor.

I know that Mayor Lightfoot put a lot of work into the retail experience at Chicagoʼs airports. One of her big successes was populating them almost exclusively with local restaurants. Great idea. But you can't highlight local businesses, if those businesses aren't open.

This photo was taken at on a Tuesday at 5:37pm. It does a pretty good job of illustrating the retail situation at Midway Airport. Even though this was prime time for travelers, very few of the shops were open.

First impressions count. And millions of people will have this as their first impression of Chicago when arriving at Midway.

I have a bad habit of holding on to transportation cards; especially if they have leftover money still loaded on them.

• Ventra (Chicago)

  The grey Ventra card was the first one. It also functioned as a MasterCard debit card with the idea that it could be of benefit to poor people and the many thousands of Chicagoans who canʼt or donʼt have a bank account. That didn't really work out, and eventually it was migrated into the more common blue transit card.

  Amazingly, I was able to use the blue Ventra card on my most recent trip to Chicago. It had about eight dollars on it when I last used it, and 11 years later, that money was still available, and it worked fine. It turns out that it doesnʼt expire for 25 years.

• Akbil (Istanbul)

  More durable than a card, and you can hang it on a keychain, I got an akbil to get around Istanbul. The akbil system has since transitioned to a boring plastic card like most of the rest of the world, and the money that I had left on this has now expired.

• Amtrak (United States)

  This was just a rewards card, like a frequent flyer card. I earned quite a few points going back-and-forth between Chicago and Saint Louis; Seattle and Vancouver; Saint Paul and Chicago. But since Amtrak discontinued service to Las Vegas, I stopped using it and the points expired.

• Oyster (London)

  I think this is the oldest of the bunch. I have no idea if thereʼs any money left on it.

• Orca (Seattle)

  Orca bills itself as a single payment solution for getting around the entire Puget Sound area. But I seem to recall that it wasn't actually accepted everywhere. That may have been fixed by now, but I seem to recall that when I was using it, it was only valid on ferries, and Sound Transit buses and trains. I remember using paper transfer tickets on Seattle city buses.

  I have no idea if thereʼs any money on this one, either.

• Do It All (Singapore)

  This card is supposed to do it all. I don't know if it did. I only used it on trains, and perhaps a cable car to Sentosa Island.

  Thereʼs probably money left on it, if it hasnʼt expired.

• Octopus (Hong Kong)

  I've noticed that a lot of transit cards are named after sea creatures.

  I had money on it, but that was probably forcibly expired as Hong Kong was crushed under the mainlandʼs thumb. At least I still have my Hong Kong money with the image of Queen Elizabeth Ⅱ on it.

• T-Money (Seoul)

  A good number of transit cards are also positioned as general-purpose payment cards. My observation was that T-Money achieved this most thoroughly, and early.

  It seemed like you could use T-Money anywhere in Seoul. Its acceptance was probably wider than even Visa or MasterCard.

  Since T-Money is more like a bank account than a transit card, there's probably money left on it.

• Suica (Japan)

  Suica is one of two major transportation cards in use in Tokyo, and adjacent areas of Japan. The other one is Pasmo.

  How to choose between the two? Easy — Pick the one with the cute penguin on it.

  Suica has a unique set-up process, where you can create your account and login at the ticket vending machine, and it prints your name on the back of the card. Pretty nifty.

  Thereʼs very likely money on this one, since itʼs not that old.

• Zipcard (United States)

  When I lived in cities where I didnʼt need a car all the time, I used ZipCar to bring home major purchases that wouldnʼt fit on transit, or to take longer trips.

  The interesting thing about the ZipCar process is that you tap the card on the car to unlock it and get the keys.

I feel a little sad that I went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science to see the Egyptian artifacts, and only ended up taking the same old photograph that every other tourist does.

I think I just didnʼt feel inspired.

I can see that the HMNS tries hard. But it all comes off as very Disney-fied. Not real. Plastic shrink-wrapped for my protection. I know itʼs done to get children interested in the exhibits. But too often, museums forget that adults go, too.

I wonder if Iʼd still feel this way if I hadnʼt been to some other really amazing museums featuring Middle Eastern and North African artifacts. The Oriental Institute in Chicago is the best one Iʼve been to so far, with the Eski Şark Eserleri Müzesi in Istanbul a very close second.

The University of Chicagoʼs Oriental Institute feels like walking into Indiana Jonesʼ alma matter, and visiting it makes watching the Raiders of the Lost Ark movies a bit richer. The Jones characterʼs background includes ties to the University of Chicago. And George Lucas is also very fond of Chicago, where he tried to build a museum, but was rebuffed by special interest groups who believed a parking lot was a better use for land in a public park.

Eski Şark Eserleri has better stuff, but the facility is really run down from decades of what is euphemistically called “deferred maintenance.” Ordinary people call it just plain neglect. But itʼs certainly worth seeing, if youʼre in Istanbul, where there is absolutely no shortage of fabulous musea.

This weekʼs coffee is Caribou Blend from Caribou Coffee.

I was introduced to Caribou when it came to Chicago. There was a shop down the street from my apartment, and next door to the place where Darcie worked. Darcie already knew about it because it originated in Minnesota. Now itʼs owned by an Arab government fund, which is why the only stores are in the upper Midwest, and the U.A.E.

I got the Keurig cups simply for convenience. If I feel like having a fifth or sixth cup of coffee during the day, I probably no longer have the patience to deal with grounds and brewing. I guess the Keurig machine is good for something, after all. Which makes sense because I like my coffee the way I like my women: Easy, and ready to go.

Five nuns walk into a pizza shop…

Nope, itʼs not a joke. Itʼs what happened when I was waiting for my wife at Beggarʼs Pizza.

Itʼs good luck when thereʼs a priest on your plane or train. With five nuns in attendance, this is going to be the luckiest meal of my life.

I got this photo in the mail this week. Sharon, one of my former Summer interns recently won her first Emmy, and was so proud of her achievement, she sent me a picture of it. And her.

Her letter was brief, but gracious, grateful, and a bit gushing in her gratitude for my guidance. Iʼm not sure how much of what I did counts as “guidance” and how much was “throwing her to the wolves.”

A body bludgeoned bloody in a barrel on a barren boulevard? Send Sharon.

A gang gunfight on Grand? Send Sharon.

Mayhem on the march? Send Sharon.

She came back from a house fire once reeking of soot and ash and sweat, and I thought, “Good. She probably learned something today.”

I guess she learned enough to earn an Emmy for her work at KOAA-TV in Colorado Springs.

Ironically, in her letter she never told me exactly what story or show she won the Emmy for. If the letter had been a script she wrote for my show, I would have sent it back to her. You forgot the “Why.”

In what can be fairly described as the newsroom equivalent of a snipe hunt, the assignment desk manager likes to send new interns into the deep archive to pull video of the Civil War.

Considering how long it takes some of the interns to come back to the newsroom, Iʼm not convinced that Northwestern is sending us its best and brightest.

Well, I guess Iʼm officially a big time TV producer. No more small markets. No more medium markets. No more large markets. Iʼm officially in a major market and a verifiable employee of Tribune Broadcasting. The official certification came this morning when I arrived at my desk and found a box of business cards with my name and the WGN-TV logo. Aside from an employment contract, it doesnʼt get more official than that.

This is important to me in two ways:

1. I didnʼt have to beg and plead and cajole and worry about how the expense of a box of business cards might wreck the stationʼs finances.
2. It just automatically happened. People in Chicago seem to have an interest in getting things done, rather than inventing excuses for why things canʼt be done.

It wasnʼt that many years ago when I had to go all the way up to the president of the West Virginia Radio Corporation to get permission to have business cards so I could do my job as a reporter. He said it was perfectly fine, and to order them that day. So I did. A week later, they were ready. A week after that I was confronted by the station manager freaking out about the $34 bill for my business cards.

I donʼt know what WGN-TV business cards cost, but I doubt anyone in this building cares.

We finally made it. Six hundred miles. Twelve hours. Five bathroom breaks, and an unknowable amount of Blue consumed, D.A., Tanya, Delphi, and I are finally in Chicago. The Windy City. The City of… clouds, and snow flurries, and getting yelled at by a cop at 7am.

Naturally, I was driving D.A.ʼs Cadillac when the police cruiser cruised up behind us at a red light on an abandoned, wind-swept street corner near Lake Michigan. I was certain we were busted for the mayhem perpetrated at the rest stops along I-80 in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana.

The cop crawled to a stop behind us.

Everybody be cool!

The cop turned on his pair of rooftop red swirly fishbowl lights.

Donʼt look! Donʼt look suspicious!

Then, the squad carʼs P.A. cracked to life and echoed across the landscape: “Make the turn!”

I had the blinker on. I was sitting at a red light. Right turn on red must be legal in Chicago, so I carefully pressed the accelerator, and as the beast swayed around the corner southward, the Chicago black-and-white (well, apparently blue-and-white in Chicago) glided around us and warped off into dawnʼs early light.

After that near run-in with the fuzz, we needed to calm down. So I pulled up in the most remote parking spaces I could find quickly, and we all chugged more Blue.

It turns out, we were in front of the Adler Planetarium. This would have been a great place to visit, but weʼre all hopped up on sugar water, subsiding fear, lack of sleep, and the knowledge that school is 12 hours away, and some of us have classes Monday morning.

I took a few quick photos with my camera. Tanya took many dozens with hers. We hugged ourselves against the cold and ignored the snowflakes and took in the grayness of it all. Then we piled back into the boat to sail back to Lock Haven.