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Happy Friday, Chicago. It’s supposed to be hot this weekend, which means it’s a perfect time to check out the Park District’s pools. They open for the season tomorrow. |
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Cottonwood drift. (Patty Wetli / WTTW News) |
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Patty Wetli: By the time you all read this, I’ll be on vacation, tooling around the American West, visiting friends and spending as much time outdoors and away from a computer as humanly possible.
I’m excited to see mountains and canyons and waterfalls and sweeping vistas — all the things I tend to think of as Nature with a capital N.
But the time I’ve spent reporting on the lowercase nature beat for WTTW News has given me an appreciation for subtler aspects of the environment, too.
When people say “there’s nothing to see” between Illinois and Colorado, I beg to differ. The Plains may not have the drama of the Rockies, but they have a beauty all their own if you give them a chance. On one of our more recent road trips, we marveled at the Flint Hills of Kansas and came across a very weird forest in the middle of nowheresville Nebraska that rewarded our decision to venture off the interstate.
The same is true here at home, too.
For starters, I can’t get enough of the cottonwood fluff lining my favorite path through my favorite park. I am obsessed. I filmed a “what the fluff?” video last week with my colleague Nicole Cardos, but what was on the ground then is nothing compared to what’s fallen since. There are drifts maybe 3 or 4 inches deep — enough for a snowball fight — and all of the surrounding plants are coated in the stuff, which makes them shimmer like ice when the sun hits just-so.
I tell you, it’s magical.
So yeah, I’m stoked to head out West where everything is just bigger, including Nature. But if you can’t get to the literal mountains, Chicago’s metaphorical “molehills” are a pretty great alternative. |
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Outgoing Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez appears on "Chicago Tonight" on June 17, 2025. (WTTW News) |
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Fired Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez said he has no regrets as he wraps up his tumultuous four-year tenure leading his hometown school district.
Late last year, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s handpicked school board fired Martinez without cause after he refused to take out a $300 million loan to cover the cost of a new teachers’ contract — but he remained on the job for the last six months, as dictated by his contract.
Martinez’s dismissal followed a monthslong feud with Johnson over district finances and negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union — where Johnson worked as an organizer prior to his election victory in 2023 — over a new contract.
In an interview with WTTW News on Tuesday, Martinez said his decision to defy the mayor was “one of the toughest decisions I ever made in my career.”
“I either had to decide either to play ball or to take a position and take a stand,” Martinez said. “I knew it was going to affect my family. I knew it was going to affect my team and our community, so I didn’t take that lightly. I took that stand.”
Last week, Martinez filed defamation claims against the CTU, CTU President Stacy Davis Gates and Chicago School Board President Sean Harden. Those claims added to Martinez’s existing lawsuit against a number of current and former Chicago Board of Education members over his firing.
Martinez starts a new job as Massachusetts’ state education commissioner on July 1. |
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(Wavebreakmedia / iStock) |
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Summer in Chicago is arriving with a splash. The Chicago Park District has announced that for the first time since 2020, all of the district’s 50 outdoor pools will be open seven days a week, beginning Saturday, just as temperatures are expected to soar into the 90s.
Individual pool schedules are posted online, but in general, hours of operation will be 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. A lap swim membership is required for access to lap swim sessions. People can also cool off at one of the Park District’s more than 200 water spray features and water playgrounds, which will be turned on by Saturday. Additionally, the district’s 27 indoor pools will be open six days a week. The spring schedule ends June 20.
The city’s 22 lakefront beaches opened to swimmers on Memorial Day weekend; the Humboldt Park inland beach is opening Saturday. Pools and beaches may experience intermittent closures, either for repair and maintenance or due to weather or health concerns, the Park District said in a statement. |
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More From WTTW News: |
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The Chicago City Council voted 27-22 to allow Chicago Police Department officials to preemptively impose a curfew anywhere in the city and begin enforcing it with just 30 minutes notice, but Mayor Brandon Johnson plans to veto the ordinance. It'd be the first mayoral veto in 19 years.
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The Chicago City Council agreed Wednesday to pay $23.4 million to resolve three lawsuits alleging a wide range of misconduct by Chicago police officers.
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Back in the Day: June 20, 2005 - Oasis Play Last Chicago Show for 20 Years |
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Oasis, the influential and wildly successful Brit-pop band of brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher, last played Chicago on this date 20 years ago. It had been almost a decade since the band’s breakthrough album “What’s the Story? (Morning Glory),” which featured ubiquitous hits like “Wonderwall” and “Champagne Supernova.” While the follow-up to that album, “Be Here Now,” and a b-sides compilation called “The Masterplan,” were solid, the band hadn’t matched its previous highs with a string of critically mixed LPs culminating in 2005’s “Don't Believe the Truth.” Rolling Stone said of the effort: “Watching Oasis' precipitous decline from Brit-pop superstardom has sort of been like watching the Yankees blow it last October.” Joined by Ringo Starr’s son Zak Starkey on drums, the band made a stop on the Don’t Believe Tour at the UIC Pavilion. They played a career-spanning set to a sold-out crowd. The band would break up in 2009 following a violent backstage altercation between the Gallaghers igniting a feud that would last until 2024 when Oasis reunited. They return to Chicago for a sold-out show this summer at Soldier Field on Aug. 28. |
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Nature Calls: This Week’s Outdoorsy Events and Activities
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Every Friday, WTTW News science and nature reporter Patty Wetli highlights the best ways to get outside.
Patty Wetli: Surprise, the summer solstice is on June 20 this year. Perhaps you thought it always occurred on June 21. Not so. It fluctuates between June 20-22. Check out more solstice fun facts to dazzle your friends with this weekend.
Head to Sand Ridge Nature Center in South Holland for the Cook County Forest Preserve District’s Juneteenth Jubilee, Saturday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The celebration will include storytelling, music, nature walks and presentations on the Underground Railroad in Calumet City, among other activities. Volunteers from the Afro-American Genealogical & Historical Society of Chicago will be on hand to help people begin or continue their family history research. Oh, and there will be cake.
Thanks to Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws,” a generation of Americans grew up terrified of the ocean. Confront those fears and celebrate the 50th anniversary of the movie’s release this weekend with a visit to Shedd Aquarium, where all the sharks are safely behind glass.
Check out “Winging It: A Brief History of Humanity’s Relationship with Birds,” a new exhibition at the Newberry Library, opening Friday. Drawing on the Newberry’s collection, the display looks at ways in which humans have both revered and reviled birds, and how avian species have persisted against all odds. “Winging It” is curated by Bob Dolgan, the filmmaker behind a documentary on Monty and Rose, Chicago’s beloved piping plovers.
Speaking of piping plovers, volunteers are gathering Saturday for a stewardship day at the birds’ Chicago home, Montrose Beach Dunes, 9 a.m. to noon. Help pick up trash, pull up invasive plants and generally keep the area in tip-top shape for our avian friends. RSVP to montrosedunesnaturalarea@gmail.com.
Pianos are popping up in six Chicago parks, starting Saturday and running through the end of July. Sign up for a free lesson or just sit down and tickle those ivories. |
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What’s your favorite neighborhood to visit on Chicago’s South Side? Tell us why. |
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Email DailyChicagoan@wttw.com with your responses and your answers might be published. Here's what you had to say:
My favorite South Side neighborhood is Hyde Park. I love visiting there because it's the home of the University of Chicago. The campus is beautiful and has many places worth seeing, including the Rockefeller Chapel and Robie House. It's also the home to the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, a hidden gem of a museum that features artifacts from Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, Nubia, and other areas of the Middle East. — Karen K.
Beverly because of the beautiful houses! — Mary Ann J.
Any neighborhood on the Bungalow Belt! — @queenflee.com
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Newsletter Producer: Josh Terry |
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