Parallel Parking

If you build it, they will…park?  Write?  Write poetry? Shop?

Back in early July, I wrote about a poetry-themed parking garage in Chicago.  Level 4 is the Emily Dickinson parking deck.  Info is HERE and HERE.

Well, on my recent trip to Chicago I also found a literary parking garage, “a mural on a highly visible blank exterior wall that encased the parking garage on the alley” at Clark and Division in the Near North area of the city.  The mural features Ernest Hemingway, James Baldwin, Upton Sinclair, Betty Smith, and Ayn Rand.

(One person online wrote, “Trying, and failing, to come up with any rationale (literary, political, cultural, Chicago) for a mural to group these five writers: Ernest Hemingway, James Baldwin, Upton Sinclair, Betty Smith, and Ayn Rand?! “

Info on the mural is HERE. 

The site linked above states, “The Sinclair pays homage to prominent author Upton Sinclair and is a reference to the buildings in the neighboring Sandburg Village named in honor of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and biographer, Carl Sandburg. Individual buildings in this bold 1960’s urban renewal project were named for celebrated American authors, such as Emily Dickinson, James Joyce, and William Faulkner.”

Say whaaa?  The Emily Dickinson building?  LOL – I had to check that out, and I found this, HERE. 

Hmm…looks like I’ll be moving to Chicago!  LOL!