July 4th Fireworks

[BusHunter]

According to placards in the buses and trains there is going to be no fireworks show downtown this year at Navy Pier or Grant Park. Instead there will be two fireworks shows, one on the north side between Foster and Montrose on the Lakefront and on the south side between 63rd and prominitary point on the lakefront. Don't 3 million people show up usually to these events? How do they expect 1.5 million people (maybe more or less) to show up or more interestingly to exit an area with on the north side one rail line versus six downtown and 10 or 20 times the bus routes downtown versus a handful up north. And the South side no rail line and a few bus lines. That is going to be an interesting night as far as public transportation is concerned.

[Kevin]

There will still be a third show at Navy Pier. CTA's web site has all the details.

[busfan2847]

According to placards in the buses and trains there is going to be no fireworks show downtown this year at Navy Pier or Grant Park. Instead there will be two fireworks shows, one on the north side between Foster and Montrose on the Lakefront and on the south side between 63rd and prominitary point on the lakefront. Don't 3 million people show up usually to these events? How do they expect 1.5 million people (maybe more or less) to show up or more interestingly to exit an area with on the north side one rail line versus six downtown and 10 or 20 times the bus routes downtown versus a handful up north. And the South side no rail line and a few bus lines. That is going to be an interesting night as far as public transportation is concerned.

The website correctly states three locations including Navy Pier on 7/4. At the bottom there is the comment that there will be no fireworks on July 3 or at the Taste of Chicago which is closing at 7pm 7/3 and 6pm 7/4.

[Busjack]

Unless CTA knows something the city doesn't, that isn't correct with regard to Navy Pier, according to the city's official event site. However, the date was changed from July 3 to July 4. The Taste page has links to the north and south side ones.

According to the Sun-Times, though, the Taste one at Grant Park is off.

I personally recommend fireworks viewing at the Northbrook and Glenview Metra stations, although last year they moved the shooting spot of the Northbrook one too far south.

[BusHunter]

Unless CTA knows something the city doesn't, that isn't correct with regard to Navy Pier, according to the city's official event site. However, the date was changed from July 3 to July 4. The Taste page has links to the north and south side ones.

According to the Sun-Times, though, the Taste one at Grant Park is off.

I personally recommend fireworks viewing at the Northbrook and Glenview Metra stations, although last year they moved the shooting spot of the Northbrook one too far south.

I did see a sign on a FG bus that did say no fireworks at Grant Park, but there was one on the Red Line that stated no fireworks at Grant Park or Navy pier. That's really confusing to have two different signs floating around. Also i googled july 4th fireworks in chicago and it stated only the two shows. So is the third show a new thing this is the first i'm hearing of it.

[greenstreet]

Busfan has the correct information on the fireworks events.

The signs BusHunter has seen are correct also. However, it appears that maybe they are being read or comprehended incompletely:

According to placards in the buses and trains there is going to be no fireworks show downtown this year at Navy Pier or Grant Park. Instead there will be two fireworks shows, one on the north side between Foster and Montrose on the Lakefront and on the south side between 63rd and prominitary point on the lakefront.

There will be no fireworks display at the Taste of Chicago or Navy Pier on July 3 - the City's traditional fireworks night.

The City, through its office of Special Events, will be holding two fireworks displays - one each near 63rd Street beach and Montrose beach on July 4 - a new night for City-sponsored fireworks.

In addition, Navy Pier has rescheduled its fireworks display to July 4 from July 3.

Hence, while there will be three major fireworks displays in the City on July 4, only two are sponsored by the City while one is sponsored by Navy Pier (MPEA).

I don't understand Busjack's concern about the CTA knowing more than the City:

Unless CTA knows something the city doesn't, that isn't correct with regard to Navy Pier, according to the city's official event site. However, the date was changed from July 3 to July 4. The Taste page has links to the north and south side ones.

It seems to me that both the CTA's site and the City's site list info for all three events on July 4. (But maybe I am missing his point somehow)

Of course, despite Bushunter's comment, none of this is new news, since it was announced in January, as the link Busjack provided to the Sun-Times article of January 27 shows.

[dann]

Busfan has the correct information on the fireworks events.

The signs BusHunter has seen are correct also. However, it appears that maybe they are being read or comprehended incompletely:

There will be no fireworks display at the Taste of Chicago or Navy Pier on July 3 - the City's traditional fireworks night.

The City, through its office of Special Events, will be holding two fireworks displays - one each near 63rd Street beach and Montrose beach on July 4 - a new night for City-sponsored fireworks.

In addition, Navy Pier has rescheduled its fireworks display to July 4 from July 3.

Hence, while there will be three major fireworks displays in the City on July 4, only two are sponsored by the City while one is sponsored by Navy Pier (MPEA).

I don't understand Busjack's concern about the CTA knowing more than the City:

It seems to me that both the CTA's site and the City's site list info for all three events on July 4. (But maybe I am missing his point somehow)

Of course, despite Bushunter's comment, none of this is new news, since it was announced in January, as the link Busjack provided to the Sun-Times article of January 27 shows.

I know I'm digressing here, but holding the fireworks on the 4th makes a lot of sense, especially if the 4th falls on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

[rideonrulez]

With all the extra buses the CTA is running, you will find quite a few of them on "foreign" routes among "equipment" surprises too....

[BusHunter]

Busfan has the correct information on the fireworks events.

The signs BusHunter has seen are correct also. However, it appears that maybe they are being read or comprehended incompletely:

It seems to me that both the CTA's site and the City's site list info for all three events on July 4. (But maybe I am missing his point somehow)

Of course, despite Bushunter's comment, none of this is new news, since it was announced in January, as the link Busjack provided to the Sun-Times article of January 27 shows.

I reread the signs on the buses yesterday trying to make sense of what it said. (one's on #508) It basically states the two fireworks shows will be held this year on the 4th at the locations in the first post and then it states no fireworks shows will be on the 3rd at Navy pier or Grant Park. Even though that is true the sign is worded badly. It does not tell you there is a fireworks show at Navy pier on the 4th. Now on another subject of the same topic, still they will be expecting with three shows close to a million people at the three sites. That's still going to be a transit nightmare, the only way i'd handle that is to run artics from NP from Peterson to Irving Pk. on the north and 55th to 87th on the south from 103rd. I'd really put the buses on 63rd being they will be closer to the show than 79th but they all will need major service upgrades. Hopefully there will be alot of extra service and capacity(they'll need it) I know the #92 quits at 9 PM on a sunday and after 9:40 PM all #78's are going to the garage (pull in at Pulaski) CTA's website doesn't state there will be a later time for the buses to stop running but at least we know the Red line runs all night and I believe the "L"'s usually run deep into the night versus ending around 1 AM.

[jajuan]

The point of the matter is the traditional July 3 show that's been seen at the Taste for years is replaced by the smaller shows at the multiple lakefront locations. So I don't think they're really expected the traditional crowds to cram in at these locations. The way I understood the signs, they're letting people know they can get to the shows in question AND reflecting how the CTA bike ban on the trains has been updated to reflect the change in city sponsored shows. I think greenstreet has pretty much touched on what's going on this year. The local media first reported that the city was changing things up starting this July 4th holiday earlier this year.

On a sidenote, because July 4th falls on Sunday, if I'm not mistaken the federal holiday will be Monday and Monday's operations will likely be on the Sunday/holiday schedule. We ran into the argument of CTA running the reduced schedules last year on July 3rd when July 4th fell on Saturday and thus making July 3rd the federal holiday.

[rmadisonwi]

So, did anyone go to Navy Pier on the 3rd just to see how many people came down expecting to see fireworks?

[jajuan]

So, did anyone go to Navy Pier on the 3rd just to see how many people came down expecting to see fireworks?

Only those with short memories or who didn't pay attention to the news back in January. And looking at the responses to the article on the SunTimes' site, it's always amazing how people will let the anonimity of sitting in front of a computer screen let them digress into useless insults based on race and economic standing. How classy we've become.

[Busjack]

And looking at the responses to the article on the SunTimes' site, it's always amazing how people will let the anonimity of sitting in front of a computer screen let them digress into useless insults based on race and economic standing. How classy we've become.

That's par for the course at the Sun-Times. At least the Tribune got a new system that it appears keeps people from logging on.

My television tuner was acting up, so I rescanned, and miraculously got channel 62.1. You might want to hear what Rev. Meeks said on the subjects of Taste of Chicago and fireworks at 63rd St. Beach, but I won't be the one to say it here.

[sw4400]

OT

On the note of Busjack saying he needed to rescan his TV tuner, how many here actually like those Digital Converter Boxes? I had one and despite paying $60 for a Digital Antenna to stop it making my channels "skip" like a dirty DVD, I still lost signals and couldn't get channels 2, 5, 7, 9 and 32. I finally decided to heck with this and subscribed to Comcast. I now get clear service(despite having to pay for it and the occassional service interruptions).

[Busjack]

OT

On the note of Busjack saying he needed to rescan his TV tuner, how many here actually like those Digital Converter Boxes?

We're getting really off point, but I've had a DTV since early 2008. The govt. didn't mail me my coupon before my analog TV died.