Perspectives on Chicago
Perspectives on Chicago, an Introduction
We learned to map the city by pushing and pausing to stop and skate a plaza or find some random back alley bump. Fifteen or twenty skaters moving around at a time. The sound there was nothing like it, rolling thunder reverberating across the buildings down the streets. This was the start to my not-so-formal education…
Distant Views
As a kid I understood the scale of the city by my mother’s route into work and the perspective of her time to return us to our home. She drove us in from Indiana, often before dawn, and dropped us at my grandmother’s in the Southside neighborhood of Hegewisch so we could attend one of the many South Chicago Catholic schools. In part, you could say my first impressions of education were under the direct management of Sister Julita, who would not let anything slide, especially from a dysfunctional youth bubbling up from the darker parts of that industrial area.
My Mothers View of the City... My mother would then head downtown to work. Most days meant overtime, and she would return late, around 8:30 at night. I would imagine her in the freezing Chicago winters traversing the Loop, heels on ice, papers under her arm, steady wind in her face. At that time in our life, my older brother, my older sister, and I didn’t see her much at all.
The work kept us afloat. We learned our own rules on the Southside with very little supervision, and those small windows still shape how I understand Chicago as a whole. The contrasts were clear: Southside industrial playgrounds, summers in Indiana, long rides in cars, and the occasional trip to the tall buildings downtown.
Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city. Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty. How can you lose? The lights are much brighter there. You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares...
This Petula Clark song was always a favorite of my mother's. It offers a glimpse into what she was struggling with, keeping us afloat, her head above water, while still finding some semblance of her own identity.
First Days
When I look back at the city and my first impressions, I was 12 and taking the South Shore commuter train into the city, just a couple of friends and I. Forty-five minutes and you’re at the Randolph Street stop... The end of the line right there at Grant Park.
It blew my mind to come up from the station and see endless possibilities, everything was skateable, smooth, clean, unlike the harsh concrete of the neighborhoods. This was the era of meeting at State and Lake by the Taco Bell, skating the median islands, the stairs, the slappies, and free refills at Taco Bell. 12 year old gold rolling through the veins of the city.
This is around the time when I first met Rob Villanueva. We were both living in Hegewisch on the Southside and needed to expand what skateboarding could be for us. The Southside was pretty bleak at that time, with very little escape. Traveling to downtown Chicago offered possibilities that were lacking where we were from.
This is where we both started to fall in love with the city and the skyline. Being down there offered a completely different view—a vignette of possibilities.
Mid 90s
Rob held a door open for us into skateboarding and partying in Chicago in the mid-90s. With his persistence, always meeting people, and his drive to get the fuck out of Hegewisch, Rob started to establish an anchor for himself and some of the skaters from the Southside with the skaters in the city.
The city was like an open field for us, all possibility. Just two poor ass kids from South Chicago needing to take part in something more. The days skating the loop would stretch into the night and then we would usually scramble to make the last train out, 12:45 am then we would get back to the neighborhood around 2:00. This was the regular occurrence for a long time I think we were not much older then 16 or 17 at the time. All I know is that we need to be there and all we wanted to do was skate and be part of the shit that was happening down there and on the Northside of the city.
Rob started meeting a bunch of friends and skateboarders that would take trains in from various neighborhoods mostly from the northwest suburbs. After a while a lot of the skateboard started to migrate and get places in the city, just around this time Rob was graduating in high school and I was bouncing around with my mom moving us and all over Indiana and the area around Hegewisch. My mom did her best trying to keep me in the same schools, but we were kinda all over the place at that time.
He eventually got a place with a few roommates, and their spot became a mainstay for me to crash on the floor. I became a fixture, I'm sure I was pissing off the roommates on a regular basis. For a few summers, the Oakley house on the North Side was where everybody eventually ended up. Rob's roommates we're more than accommodating, and I was the perpetual couch pillow never buying food or paying rent.
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Dave Ruta mid 90s Chicago Skateboarding
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Vivamus sagittis lacus vel augue laoreet rutrum faucibus dolor auctor. Nullam id dolor id nibh ultricies vehicula ut id elit. Donec id elit non mi porta gravida at eget metus. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.
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Nights & Days
So many influences in my life at this time was ripping skateboards, or people making things in a way that really opened me up to being more exposed or culturally, aware kid.
Regardless, we had both landed in a situation where we could be in the city a great deal. The timing was perfect, the mid-90s exploded in Chicago from a skating perspective, and it was the best time to be skating the plazas and really being in the Loop as much as possible. Some of those summers were the best summers of my life, so good. At the same time, they gave us access to such an amazing a view into Chicago Life ([get this photo](https://www.instagram.com/chicagoskateclassicclips?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==)) that was fucking incredible.
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Tortor Mollis Cursus Nullam Amet
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Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Curabitur blandit tempus porttitor. Etiam porta sem malesuada magna mollis euismod. Vestibulum id ligula porta felis euismod semper.
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The Chicago Skyline
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Music credits:
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.
Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Aenean lacinia bibendum nulla sed consectetur. Morbi leo risus, porta ac consectetur ac, vestibulum at eros. Donec sed odio dui.
Rob: Full Story Part 1
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Rob: Full Story Part 2
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Nullam quis risus eget urna mollis ornare vel eu leo. Maecenas sed diam eget risus varius blandit sit amet non magna. Cras mattis consectetur purus sit amet fermentum. Vestibulum id ligula porta felis euismod semper. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.
Morbi leo risus, porta ac consectetur ac, vestibulum at eros. Integer posuere erat a ante venenatis dapibus posuere velit aliquet. Integer posuere erat a ante venenatis dapibus posuere velit aliquet. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Cras justo odio, dapibus ac facilisis in, egestas eget quam. Integer posuere erat a ante venenatis dapibus posuere velit aliquet.
Nulla vitae elit libero, a pharetra augue. Sed posuere consectetur est at lobortis. Aenean lacinia bibendum nulla sed consectetur. Vestibulum id ligula porta felis euismod semper. Cras justo odio, dapibus ac facilisis in, egestas eget quam. Donec ullamcorper nulla non metus auctor fringilla. Aenean lacinia bibendum nulla sed consectetur.
Duis mollis, est non commodo luctus, nisi erat porttitor ligula, eget lacinia odio sem nec elit. Duis mollis, est non commodo luctus, nisi erat porttitor ligula, eget lacinia odio sem nec elit. Curabitur blandit tempus porttitor. Vestibulum id ligula porta felis euismod semper. Donec ullamcorper nulla non metus auctor fringilla.
Duis mollis, est non commodo luctus, nisi erat porttitor ligula, eget lacinia odio sem nec elit. Duis mollis, est non commodo luctus, nisi erat porttitor ligula, eget lacinia odio sem nec elit. Curabitur blandit tempus porttitor. Vestibulum id ligula porta felis euismod semper. Donec ullamcorper nulla non metus auctor fringilla.
Rob: Full Story Part 3
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Aenean lacinia bibendum nulla sed consectetur. Maecenas faucibus mollis interdum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nullam quis risus eget urna mollis ornare vel eu leo. Cras mattis consectetur purus sit amet fermentum. Aenean lacinia bibendum nulla sed consectetur. Integer posuere erat a ante venenatis dapibus posuere velit aliquet.
Donec ullamcorper nulla non metus auctor fringilla. Integer posuere erat a ante venenatis dapibus posuere velit aliquet. Vestibulum id ligula porta felis euismod semper. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Donec ullamcorper nulla non metus auctor fringilla. Morbi leo risus, porta ac consectetur ac, vestibulum at eros. Donec ullamcorper nulla non metus auctor fringilla.
Closing in on the past
— Article and study by Mike Rusczyk
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Nullam id dolor id nibh ultricies vehicula ut id elit. Cras mattis consectetur purus sit amet fermentum. Duis mollis, est non commodo luctus, nisi erat porttitor ligula, eget lacinia odio sem nec elit.
Lin to some shit→