Creating custom cookies for neighbors, a booming business
Roger Gomez is pursuing an accounting degree while working as a doorperson at the Aqua Tower, but that does not mean he intends to move on after graduation.
When not battling blazes,
Architect, real estate developer and Magellan Development Group Chairman Emeritus Jim Loewenberg passed away from cancer on October 14. A Chicago-born graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Loewenberg helped transform a former rail yard into what is now the city’s Lakeshore E…
Renee Moore dedicated her career to helping others when she decided to leave nursing school and launch her own caregiving business nearly two decades ago. “I made it all the way to clinicals (the hands-on phase of the nursing program), but I would come home crying because there wasn’t enough…
For New Eastside resident Gail Zelitzky, launching a podcast that celebrates the lives and accomplishments of senior women was the fulfillment of a dream.
New Eastside resident Richard Hirschl has been a cellist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) for more than 30 years.
AON Center Guest Services Representative Alexandria Ward combines charm and authority with the best of them. Greeting visitors, checking IDs, and issuing passes, she is part of a team effort to guide people through one of America’s tallest buildings. But that’s just the start.
New Eastside resident Alan Goldman will run something of a victory lap on Sept. 13. A prostate cancer survivor, he will be competing in the virtual SEA Blue Prostate Cancer Walk and Run.
Derrick Wynn adds a winning dose of camaraderie to the service he provides at Lake Shore Plaza, where he has been a member of the door staff since 1993.
“We were very close,” he said. “We all lived in a three-flat with my grandma in the basement, my family on the main floor, and my aunts and uncles on the second floor with my cousins.”
With most summer camps closed, children’s playgrounds still locked, and many of the normal recreational programs delayed or cancelled, people of all ages have been making the best of it using the open green grass of our beautiful neighborhood parks.
The coronavirus pandemic has teenagers getting set for Zoom classes while facing a variety of challenges such as cancelled summer plans and uncertainty about the upcoming school year.
With COVID-19 restrictions preventing large in-person gatherings, charitable fundraisers in Streeterville and New Eastside are exploring alternatives to their traditional annual events.
A group of New Eastside kids recently traded rocks for charitable donations.
Irene Pettus radiates charm throughout the lobby of the Shoreham Apartments. Working the night shift, her kind, optimistic and helpful manner seems to exude a natural instinct for graciousness.
The crowd multiplied as the weather improved Wednesday for Navy Pier’s grand reopening, the first time that the historic Chicago attraction has welcomed the public since it was closed for pandemic reasons in March.
Most 21-year-olds have big dreams, but not on the same level as Ablavi Ayikpo.
The damage from Saturday night’s George Floyd protests on Michigan Avenue has diminished slightly thanks to residents and workers who are determined to clean up and show their love for Chicago.
The citywide lockdown has forced people to be resourceful in jobs that require interacting with crowds. By Doug Rapp, May 5, 2020 The citywide lockdown has forced people to be resourceful in jobs that require interacting with crowds. With a lack of a live audience, comedians are becoming cre…
Bernard Green goes above and beyond his professional duties to make life better for residents of The Lancaster. Working the overnight shift as a member of the building’s door staff, he has helped fuel inspirations that have reverberated throughout the city. “Knowing your clients and helping …
By Daniel Patton, April 27, 2020 At 8 p.m. on April 24, New Eastside residents helped Chicago score a victory against coronavirus by joining a celebration to honor the workers fighting against it. They clapped and hooted from their balconies while lights and music filled Lakeshore East Park …
By Daniel Patton, April 21, 2020 Angela Moss begins every day of the week by strategizing with nearly a hundred front-line workers about how to protect Chicago’s homeless population from COVID-19. As the Assistant Dean of Faculty Practice at Rush Hospital, she brings a compassionate personal…
By Mat Cohen, April 1, 2020 Nicholas Watts is a firm believer in human decency. He displays it everyday at Marina City, and that’s one of the reasons he’s the New Eastside Doorperson of the Month. Despite being new to Marina City, he’s been in the security industry for nearly 25 years and …
New Eastside resident Karin Long has added a unique voice to the ongoing dialogue about the current national health crisis: she’s offering to help. Whether it is fetching groceries, waiting in line at the pharmacy, or completing some other small task, the Loyola law student recently posted h…
Hours before President Trump declared a national health emergency in response to the coronavirus pandemic on Friday, March 13, Chicago appeared to be about half full. Although the streets and the sidewalks did not carry their normal load of rush-hour cars and pedestrians, there was still ple…
Local writer Richard Rose thought his screenplay would never get off the ground.
by Mat Cohen Despite his Texas roots, Zack Gardner has been able to work through the shock of the Chicago winter to become New Eastside News Doorperson of the Month. Gardner has been working at Park Millennium for nearly six years, but he still misses the Texas heat. “I still haven’t gotten …
by Mat Cohen No one knows love more than the people who have been pierced by Cupid’s arrow and withstood the test of time. Two couples in the Streeterville neighborhood offered their stories and advice for others. Bill and D Clancy, married 60 years, went on the most epic first date you can …
by Mat Cohen For Alonzo, there’s nothing better than a great football game, jazz music and his family, which includes the people at 400 E. Randolph. “Everyone is special at 400 E. Randolph,” he said. “I make sure they feel special. I try to make the family at 400 feel as I would want to feel…
by Mat Cohen The 1920s was a decade unfamiliar to most. But Wanda Bridgeforth remembers it well. Bridgeforth saw the Great Depression, World War II and lived in Chicago when the tallest building was eight stories high. As the year 2020 begins, she’s ready to welcome the changes that a second…
by Mat Cohen It’s been a long journey for Doorperson Marek Sit to get to 400 E. Randolph. Actually, about 4,500 miles. Sit was born in Poland. In 1981, at 24 years old, he followed his mother to New York City, and then to Chicago. “First I wanted to go to Canada, but I decided to go to Chi…
by Jacqueline Covey The best young voices in Chicago perform with the Chicago Children’s Choir in storied locations like the grand glass-roofed third floor of the Chicago Cultural Center. Members of the Voice of Chicago choir, the Chicago Children’s Choir’s premier mixed-voice ensemble, have…
by Mat Cohen The most genuine, enthusiastic fist bump in New Eastside has been found. At The Shoreham at Lakeshore East is Fred Crocker, behind the desk with a smile, dishing out fist bumps to kids setting off for school. “Once you get to know people, it’s al- most like a family,” he said.…
By Doug Rapp Kobe Stanton has a long commute, but for her, it’s worth it. “I love what I do,” Stanton said of her job as a security resource officer at GEMS World Academy on East South Water St. “I can say I wake up and look forward to seeing these kids.” Stanton heads into New Eastside from…
By Elisa Shoenberger Chicago has been known as a cow town, a town of bootlegging gangsters, and even a town with long-winded politicians but few people know that Chicago was also a place for all things magic. At the turn of the 20th century, famous magicians, such as Harry Houdini and Howar…
By Jesse Wright Jesus Rosario, doorperson at the Chandler Condominiums, is newer to the building than some of the other door staff. “I’ve been at this building for a year and a half,” he said. But, Rosario said he loves the building and the neighborhood. Before the Chandler, he was a bike de…
(Published Aug. 31, 2019) By Jesse Wright New Eastsider Randy Martens wasn’t always interested in street photography. Growing up in the country, down in Mendota, Illinois, Martens said he got his start taking sports photographs for the local paper and then photos of barns and cows for fun. H…
(Published Aug. 31, 2019) By Jesse Wright For the last 21 years Jerome Bell has worked at the Park Shore as doorman and he said he has no plans to go anywhere anytime soon. “It’s a great building,” Bell said. “The residents are great, it’s a classy building, it’s luxury and it’s an all-aroun…
(Published July 31, 2019) By Jesse Wright Wade King is approaching his 10th year as doorperson at the Aqua. It’s his first job as a doorperson and he said he’s not going anywhere anytime soon. “They treat me right and they pay me good,” he said with a laugh. King said a friend referred him t…
(Published July 30, 2019) By Jesse Wright The Chicago Air and Water show may be famous for its display of high powered state-of-the art aircraft, but one airplane featured this year is not like the others. Chicago-based pilot Susan Dacy’s biplane is a throwback to pre-war piloting, to a tim…
(Published June 30, 2019) Nick Damus, a doorperson at 340 On the Park, has lived several lifetimes. Born in Haiti, he emigrated with his parents to New York City as a boy. When he grew up, he joined the Air Force, studied electronics and lived overseas in Italy. He learned to speak Italian, …
(Published June 30, 2019) By Jesse Wright Anna Dominguez is the queen of tape. It’s a self-proclaimed monicker but it’s also something she can back up. Not video tape nor audio tape. Sticky tape. The sort of stuff people use to seal packages and paint walls. She is a tape artist; at once th…
(Published May 30, 2019) By Jesse Wright Johnny Anderson has been the doorperson at The Bunckingham since July 10, 1999. The Buckingham, 360 E. Randolph St., is one of the original residential towers in New Eastside and it remains popular, with 305 units and, Anderson estimates, about 650 re…
(Published May 6, 2019) By Jesse Wright, Staff Writer The Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership, will honor Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg with the musical “Notorious RBG in Song.” The musical will be performed once, May 19 at 2 p.m. Ginsburg has served on the high …
(Published April 30, 2019 By Jesse Wright, staff writer Doorperson Brandon Brown, at the Coast since 2017, works to make the humans feel at home as well as the dogs. Not only does he know the names of residents, he knows what sort of treats the dogs like and he hands them out accordingly. “W…
(Published March 31, 2019) By Jesse Wright, Staff Writer The Tides isn’t Sircraig Lykes’ first building he has worked at as a doorman but he says it is the best. In his six years at the Tides, Lykes has seen the building develop and change. “The tides has basically transitioned to a family-s…
By Jesse Wright, Staff Writer Bob Lempa wanted to do something big for Peggy Baker, his longtime girlfriend. They’d been dating for years and he knew she was special and he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. It was just a matter of finding the right time and place to ask her to m…
By Jesse Wright, Staff Writer Joshua Harris has worked at the Aqua at Lakeshore East for 10 years, starting his job just a year after the building opened. Harris said he got in because a friend, one of the building’s first employees, thought Harris would be a good fit at the 225 N. Columbus …
By Elizabeth Czapski | Staff Writer When Park Millennium doorperson Reginald Turner was a boy, he was in foster care. “I was a foster kid for a long time,” he said. “Coming from foster homes, it was a struggle.” He grew up and out of the foster care system and, as an adult, found himself wor…
By Jesse Wright, Staff Writer Gail Rogers is the doorperson at the Park Millennium building at 222 N. Columbus Drive in the New Eastside. But she’s more than a doorperson. When she is not helping residents, Rogers said she enjoys bowling. “I’m a bowler and I’ve been doing it for years,” she …
