Good afternoon. Here’s the latest news you need to know in Chicago. It’s about a five-minute read that will brief you on today’s biggest stories.
This afternoon will be sunny with a high near 47 degrees. Tonight will be partly cloudy with a low near 34. Tomorrow will be mostly sunny with a high near 57.
Top story
Sun-Times/WBEZ Poll: Voters all over the field on Bears’ Arlington play — but almost half would sack any taxpayer dollar request
Illinoisans are calling conflicting plays on a potential Chicago Bears move to Arlington Heights, split among those who favor spiking Soldier Field for a new suburban stadium, others who want the team to hold the line on the lakefront — and a large chunk who are punting on the issue.
But an outsized portion of them agree on one point: They don’t want to see any of their tax dollars thrown at the potential suburban mega-development.
That’s according to a Chicago Sun-Times/WBEZ Poll that found a little under half of Illinois voters don’t want a cent of public money going to the team’s $5 billion plan — not even to chip in for infrastructure costs, the kind of subsidies that Bears executives have already acknowledged they’d seek.
The survey last week of 770 likely general election voters across the state underscores the difficulty the team faces in lining up support for its sprawling proposal to transform the shuttered Arlington International Racecourse into a stadium campus accompanied by scores of new restaurants, businesses and residential buildings.
About 31% of people who took part in the phone and text message survey conducted by Public Policy Polling said they think the Bears should move from Soldier Field to Arlington Heights, compared to 29% who said they think the team should stay put. About 39% said they weren’t sure.
Perhaps not surprisingly, suburban fans are more excited about the potential move, the Sun-Times/WBEZ Poll suggests, as 51% of respondents from suburban Cook County and the collar counties said the team should break ground in the suburbs. Only 19% of Chicago respondents said the team should leave the city, 44% opposed the move, and 37% were unsure. Voters outside the Chicago area were lukewarm on the entire issue. Only 14% of downstate voters supported the move to Arlington Heights, 27% opposed it, and 59% didn’t know one way or the other.
But in a follow-up question, regardless of where they lived, 45% of all respondents said they would oppose any government funding being used for the stadium or any of the sewers, roads and other infrastructure costs needed to make the massive mixed-use development a reality.
Mitchell Armentrout has more on where voters stand here.
More news you need
- Four times last weekend, armed robbers approached people on the street near Wrigley Field, forced them into waiting cars, stole their wallets and phones and then dropped them off, police said. No injuries were reported in the robberies, which occurred on a half-mile stretch of Clark Street between Addison and Roscoe streets south of Wrigley, according to police.
- In the second and final debate between the two gubernatorial rivals last night, both Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Sen. Darren Bailey came prepared for combat. Our Tina Sfondeles breaks down how the two nominees did and where their performances put them ahead of the Nov. 8 midterms.
- Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough tomorrow will launch a “help desk” to provide free legal help with basic property paperwork, answer residents’ questions and fight back against real estate fraud. Our Andy Grimm has more on what the desk will aim to provide for residents here.
- A new Field Museum exhibit links life and death in an exploration of how different cultures and animals experience the “connective fabric” between all beings. Our Zack Miller has more on “Death: Life’s Greatest Mystery,” which opens Friday.
A bright one
Greg Wade’s passion for making bread yields his first cookbook
There’s just something about the aroma of baking bread, whether in the home or a neighborhood bakery, that makes many of us smile. Call it the warm and fuzzy factor.
Does it transport you to your grandma’s kitchen? Your parents’? Your own? Whatever the feeling, it’s clear that bread — in whatever style and culture — is, on some level, the essence of life. It’s that perfect marriage of crust and crumb that satisfies the soul and the stomach.
Talk to award-winning baker Greg Wade, the managing partner at Chicago’s Publican Quality Bread (an arm of the One Off Hospitality group with partners Donnie Madia, Paul Kahan, Terry Alexander and Eduard Seitan), and his passion for all things bread is palpable.
Though never “formally trained” as a baker, Wade is a graduate of the Illinois Institute of Art’s Culinary Program. He says he learned the art of baking the old-fashioned way — by watching and practicing, and making mistakes and learning from them.
That passion is at the heart of Wade’s first cookbook, “Bread Head: Baking for the Road Less Traveled” ($45; W.W. Norton & Co., Inc).
“I didn’t set out to have it be the Publican Bread Book. I set out to have it be really a good breadth of knowledge for people to make their own bread. To understand what they’re doing and why they’re doing it,” Wade said during a recent chat.
The book is a source of all things bread and breadmaking — from key equipment and precise measurements to sourcing locally and understanding grains to milling and fermenting and proofing and more. Yes, there are “formulas” and ingredient percentages to learn, but they go hand-in-hand with what Wade says is getting to know the way a proper doughfeelsandbehaves. It’s instinctual, he says, but it’s something every baker comes to know with time and patience.
And patience, he says, is the key to successful baking. It takes time for each step in the process to do what it needs to do. In a fast-paced world, making bread is all about slowing down.
Miriam Di Nunzio has more with Wade and his book here.
From the press box
- Bulls guard Zach LaVine will be out for the team’s season opener against Miami tonight due to what’s being deemed “left knee management.”
- The Cubs are reducing ticket prices by an average of 5.1% for the 2023 season after this year saw the team’s lowest paid attendance in a non-pandemic impacted season since 1997.
- Joe Maddon fears that overreliance on analytics is watering down managers’ influence in the game. The former Cubs skipper spoke about his perception of the direction of the game and the role of managers with Laurence Holmes.
- Young basketball standout Skylar Jones, the top senior in the Public League, has committed to play college hoops at Missouri.
Your daily question☕
What’s something every Chicago bar should have?
Send us an email at newsletters@suntimes.com and we might feature your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.
Yesterday, we asked you: What’s a Chicago-related urban legend or myth you grew up hearing about?
Here’s what some of you said ...
“The ghost of Mary who walked the fence line of Resurrection Cemetery.” — Bradley Nawara
“Born and raised in Brighton Park, I grew up hearing about Resurrection Mary and the Grimes sisters.” — Barb Frenzel
“Someone or people live under the Aragon Ballroom.” — Omar Ramos
“Candyman.” — Jordan Kreme
“H.H. Holmes had a ‘castle’ in Englewood. Was built so that no one knew their way around, not even contractors. Soaked the bodies down in acid and sold the skeletons to the University. When they tore the building down they built a post office. Post office is supposedly haunted.” — Nicole S. Woods
“LaBagh Woods is haunted.” — Ismael Hernandez
“Two Gun Pete.” — Kevin McAllen
“The legend of Mrs. O’Leary’s cow that started the Chicago Fire.” — Norma O’Leary
“House of crosses.” — Cristino Garcia
“The mob money left behind by Al Capone.” — Ken Mosley
“Chicago is called the Windy City because of the wind but actually it is called the Windy City because of all the blowhard politicians.” — Kelly Gustafson
“The Our Lady of Angels School Fire was started by a student.” — Nick Esposito
“The legend of the Palmer House ghosts — some friendly, and some not so friendly.” — Clayton Jirak
“Peabody’s Tomb in Oak Brook.” — Marty Malinowski
“I was in late high school or college when a suburban cousin told me stories of Peabody’s Tomb. What’s left of the estate of Francis Peabody is currently Mayslake park in Oak Brook. He was the owner of Peabody Coal and was not well-liked. Rumors abound of his body being buried in an unmarked grave on the estate, guarded by monks, what would happen to you if you were caught on the grounds at night, and many others....” — Greg Valent
“The magic healing water pump on Irving Park road at Schiller Woods.” — Layne Arens
“The ghosts of Excalibur nightclub.” — Ruben Santos Claveria
“Homey the Clown luring kids into a van with the promise of candy. I believe this was sometime in the 1990s.” — Cathy Drake Johnson
“‘The Bears finally got a quarterback!’” — Brendan Murphy
Thanks for reading the Chicago Sun-Times Afternoon Edition. Got a story you think we missed? Email us here.
