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From the South Side to the Loop, Chicago’s Innovative Spirit Thrives

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From the South Side to the Loop, Chicago’s Innovative Spirit Thrives

Lacey Irby and her enterprise accomplice, Ryan Brosseau, a chef, had been planning to open a restaurant when the pandemic hit. It delayed them, however ultimately, in early 2021, they opened Expensive Margaret, a homey tribute to Mr. Brosseau’s Canadian grandmother within the Lakeview neighborhood, with takeout solely, step by step including patio eating and at last, final June, the comfortable eating room. It just lately earned a Bib Gourmand award from Michelin — signaling high quality and worth — and reservations are scarce.

“For these of us left standing, it’s a testomony to that willpower that’s inherently a part of this metropolis,” Ms. Irby mentioned.

Resilience is a degree of pleasure in Chicago, which was almost erased by the Nice Fireplace in 1871. In 2020, the pandemic chased residents out of the downtown Loop and into their properties, and although many places of work stay darkish, locals at the moment are returning to reopened golf equipment, theaters, eating places and cultural sights.

For these making the artwork, the meals and the leisure, introspection mingles with celebration.

“Throughout the pandemic, artists couldn’t assist however create and we’re seeing new, thrilling exhibits,” mentioned Katie Tuten, a co-owner of the eclectic efficiency house Hideout, recent from a weekend of back-to-back sellout exhibits. “Plus, who desires to return out of the pandemic and never have a spot to bop?”

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Watching a efficiency, not to mention dancing, was after all forbidden indoors for not less than a 12 months at unbiased music golf equipment that type the spine of the Chicago music scene. Because of $16 billion in federal Covid reduction distributed to venues nationwide, no native golf equipment closed completely, in accordance with the Chicago Unbiased Venue League, an business group of almost 50 efficiency areas.

Members of the league signify the spectrum of Chicago-made music, from the Promontory in Hyde Park, with every little thing from jazz live shows to soca dance events; to Martyrs’ on the North Facet, welcoming rising storage bands, arty collectives just like the marching band Mucca Pazza and free Sunday afternoon nation exhibits.

“Every are anchors to neighborhoods with eating places and bars and experiences,” mentioned Chris Bauman, a C.I.V.L. board member and the proprietor of two North Facet venues, Avondale Music Corridor and the Patio Theater, who credit regionally owned golf equipment as financial engines and expertise incubators. “In Chicago, we do it for the love of artwork and music and creating and retaining this tradition,” he added.

Theater, too, is again, requiring masks at main corporations, together with the Goodman, Steppenwolf and Chicago Shakespeare. The latter two additionally require vaccine playing cards.

In Lincoln Park, Steppenwolf has just lately opened its new in-the-round Ensemble Theater, the place the furthest seat is 20 toes from the stage, with “Seagull” by Anton Chekov, by means of June 12. An adaptation of Eve Ewing’s poetry assortment, “1919,” in regards to the racist homicide of a younger Black swimmer in Lake Michigan in 1919, supposed for younger grownup audiences, will observe Oct. 4 to 29.

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More durable hit had been the lots of of small theater corporations, typically occupying storefronts, which have traditionally set the bar for originality. Throughout Theater Week in February, which promotes productions with low cost tickets, the sponsoring alliance League of Chicago Theaters had about half of the entries from small theaters in comparison with prepandemic festivals, however 80 p.c of 2019 gross sales.

“Audiences had been keen to return out,” mentioned Deb Clapp, the manager director of the League, who famous the late spring return of a number of corporations producing performs with social justice themes, comparable to Story Theatre’s “Marie Antoinette and the Magical Negroes,” which mingles race historical past and the French Revolution (June 30 to July 17).

With pandemic mandates dropped, restaurateurs are nonetheless struggling to rent sufficient employees, resulting in extra darkish nights than earlier than the pandemic.

Just a few high-profile favorites didn’t survive, together with Blackbird, a classy West Loop sizzling spot with tables simply inches aside, in addition to Spiaggia and Everest.

Nonetheless, some irrepressible entrepreneurs took the leap in the course of the pandemic, together with the cooks and spouses Genie Kwon and Timothy Flores, who opened Kasama in the summertime of 2020 in Ukrainian Village as a takeaway cafe, with the objective of “making Filipino meals mainstream,” Ms. Kwon mentioned.

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Final fall, the Filipino restaurant added a 13-course tasting menu at dinner — dishes have included oyster and inexperienced mango, and lamb stomach with bagoong, a Filipino fish paste —obtainable to simply 40 diners an evening ($215 an individual) as a approach to assure revenue and ward in opposition to doable future capability restrictions. The restaurant just lately earned a Michelin star, and dinner there is without doubt one of the hardest reservations to attain.

“For Filipinos, seeing rustic meals mom-and-pop served in a 13-course tasting menu is eye-opening,” mentioned Mr. Flores.

The South Facet’s new Bronzeville Vineyard has its personal social mission, to catalyze the revival of Bronzeville, the traditionally Black enterprise and cultural district.

“I dwell in Bronzeville and I’m a foodie, however I’m at all times driving” to search out effective meals, mentioned Eric Williams, a co-owner, who, as a retailer, helped spark the regeneration of the now fashionable Wicker Park neighborhood on the North Facet. “We should always have one thing on our personal block.”

Earlier than the pandemic, the Brewers Affiliation, a nationwide commerce group, referred to as the Chicago metro space tops for breweries, and beer followers will discover faucet rooms strewn throughout the town and suburbs.

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To help a start-up, hit a brew corridor with shared manufacturing amenities, together with District Brew Yards in West City, that includes the Mexican-accented Casa Humilde, the place a hazy I.P.A. might need pineapple notes, and the incubator Pilot Challenge Brewing in Logan Sq., presently residence to the Black-owned Funkytown Brewery.

Early on, museums had been locations of solace when little was open, providing quiet reflection to the vaccinated and masked. Just a few protocols stay, together with advance ticket gross sales on the Artwork Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Up to date Artwork.

Whereas it was closed in the course of the pandemic, the Nationwide Museum of Mexican Artwork remained a significant member of the largely Latino group in Pilsen on the close to South Facet, serving as a vaccination heart. Reopened, the full of life showcase for Mexican artwork just lately debuted “Frida Kahlo, Her Images,” that includes photographs owned by the long-lasting painter that comprise what the museum calls a “photographic collage” of her life and instances (by means of Aug. 7).

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On the far South Facet, the Pullman Nationwide Monument added a brand new customer heart within the 1880 clock tower of the primary deliberate industrial city within the nation, website of a manufacturing facility producing Pullman practice automobiles in addition to lots of of close by employee’s properties, leafy parks and the shuttered Queen-Anne-style Lodge Florence. Reveals look at a seminal employee’s strike and Black employment as Pullman porters.

“The identical conversations and debates they had been having within the Eighteen Eighties and 90s about what’s a working wage, unionization and employee security are nonetheless so related right now,” mentioned Teri Gage, the superintendent of the monument.

As many staff stay distant, the downtown Loop district is quieter than earlier than, although close by Navy Pier is poised to maintain guests longer with the opening final 12 months of its first resort, Sable at Navy Pier, a Curio Assortment by Hilton, providing panoramic views of Lake Michigan and the skyline.

A full slate of summer season occasions is poised to resume curiosity within the metropolis heart, together with the Chicago Blues Competition (June 9 to 12) and the Chicago Jazz Competition (Sept. 1 to 4). Style of Chicago will take a hybrid method with a downsized meals occasion in Grant Park (July 8 to 10) together with a June sequence of neighborhood pop-ups.

At the very least one new competition is on the calendar, Pizza Metropolis Fest (July 23 to 24). Based by the meals journalist Steve Dolinsky, writer of “The Final Chicago Pizza Information,” the occasion will convey 40 pizza makers to the Plumbers Union Corridor within the West Loop to bake on website with extra discussions on subjects like the right dough and pizza-making at residence.

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“I bought uninterested in seeing folks propagate myths about Chicago pizza that weren’t true anymore,” mentioned Mr. Dolinsky, reeling off 10 types of pizza, together with the well-known deep-dish, as proof of the native urge for food to experiment. “Chicago is a metropolis of innovation.”

Elaine Glusac writes the Frugal Traveler column. Observe her on Instagram @eglusac.

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Starbucks Reverses Its Open-Door Policy for Bathroom Use and Lounging

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Starbucks Reverses Its Open-Door Policy for Bathroom Use and Lounging

Starbucks will require people visiting its coffee shops to buy something in order to stay or to use its bathrooms, the company announced in a letter sent to store managers on Monday.

The new policy, outlined in a Code of Conduct, will be enacted later this month and applies to the company’s cafes, patios and bathrooms.

“Implementing a Coffeehouse Code of Conduct is something most retailers already have and is a practical step that helps us prioritize our paying customers who want to sit and enjoy our cafes or need to use the restroom during their visit,” Jaci Anderson, a Starbucks spokeswoman, said in an emailed statement.

Ms. Anderson said that by outlining expectations for customers the company “can create a better environment for everyone.”

The Code of Conduct will be displayed in every store and prohibit behaviors including discrimination, harassment, smoking and panhandling.

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People who violate the rules will be asked to leave the store, and employees may call law enforcement, the policy says.

Before implementation of the new policy begins on Jan. 27, store managers will be given 40 hours to prepare stores and workers, according to the company. There will also be training sessions for staff.

This training time will be used to prepare for other new practices, too, including asking customers if they want their drink to stay or to go and offering unlimited free refills of hot or iced coffee to customers who order a drink to stay.

The changes are part of an attempt by the company to prioritize customers and make the stores more inviting, Sara Trilling, the president of Starbucks North America, said in a letter to store managers.

“We know from customers that access to comfortable seating and a clean, safe environment is critical to the Starbucks experience they love,” she wrote. “We’ve also heard from you, our partners, that there is a need to reset expectations for how our spaces should be used, and who uses them.”

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The changes come as the company responds to declining sales, falling stock prices and grumbling from activist investors. In August, the company appointed a new chief executive, Brian Niccol.

Mr. Niccol outlined changes the company needed to make in a video in October. “We will simplify our overly complex menu, fix our pricing architecture and ensure that every customer feels Starbucks is worth it every single time they visit,” he said.

The new purchase requirement reverses a policy Starbucks instituted in 2018 that said people could use its cafes and bathrooms even if they had not bought something.

The earlier policy was introduced a month after two Black men were arrested in a Philadelphia Starbucks while waiting to meet another man for a business meeting.

Officials said that the men had asked to use the bathroom, but that an employee had refused the request because they had not purchased anything. An employee then called the police, and part of the ensuing encounter was recorded on video and viewed by millions of people online, prompting boycotts and protests.

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In 2022, Howard Schultz, the Starbucks chief executive at the time, said that the company was reconsidering the open-bathroom policy.

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'TikTok refugees' unexpectedly turn to Chinese alternative as ban looms

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'TikTok refugees' unexpectedly turn to Chinese alternative as ban looms

TikTok users concerned about a looming ban are finding solace in a strange place.

Days ahead of a Supreme Court decision that could determine whether the popular short-video app shuts down starting Sunday, a number of users appear to be turning to an app called RedNote — more commonly known to its majority-Chinese audience by its Chinese name, Xiaohongshu.

It’s a surprising choice since Xiaohongshu is Chinese-owned, and such ties are the reason U.S. lawmakers moved to ban TikTok in the U.S., citing privacy and national security concerns.

Also Xiaohongshu is dominated by Chinese language, and its content is subject to censorship by Chinese government officials, something alien to most U.S. users.

But by embracing a Chinese social media and lifestyle app similar to Instagram, some U.S. TikTok users say they are protesting what they believe is the unfair ban of the ubiquitous app.

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“I think America is trying to bully China into selling to an American owner. A lot of us just don’t want to give in to them,” said Samantha Manassero, a 39-year-old nurse in L.A. who downloaded Xiaohongshu on Sunday night after watching content creators on TikTok pitch it as a comparable app. “I think some of it is literally just pettiness.”

Last year, Congress passed a bill that requires TikTok’s owner, Bytedance, to sell the app to a U.S.-approved owner or face a nationwide ban. As soon as Wednesday, the Supreme Court is expected to uphold the legality of the ban.

It was unclear whether Xiaohongshu, which was started in 2013, would become a viable alternative to TikTok or if the recent migration to the Chinese platform accounts for a significant share of TikTok’s 170 million U.S. users.

But a surge in new users made Xiaohongshu the top free download on Apple’s App Store this week. No. 2 on the charts was another social media app developed by Bytedance, Lemon8. It’s unclear whether either app will be subjected to the same U.S. government scrutiny as TikTok.

It is also difficult to determine exactly how many U.S. TikTok users have created accounts on Xiaohongshu or how many will stay on it. While many Xiaohongshu regulars have welcomed the influx of Americans identifying themselves as “TikTok refugees,” the app’s interface is largely in Chinese, making it difficult to navigate for non-native speakers.

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Chinese apps are subject to stringent censorship on discussions that the Chinese government deems politically sensitive. These topics can range from illegal activities to LGBTQ+ rights to Winnie the Pooh, images of which have been used to mock Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The Chinese version of TikTok, called Douyin, has different content restrictions and is only available for mobile download in China. Bytedance has argued that TikTok, which is used by the rest of the world, is a separate entity from Douyin and not beholden to the Chinese Communist Party.

That did not stop President-elect Donald Trump from proposing a ban of TikTok in 2020, or President Biden from signing it into law in 2024.

The legality of such a ban has been questioned several times. Last month, in an about-face, Trump, who has 14.8 million followers on TikTok, filed a legal brief requesting to stay the ban so he can negotiate a deal once he takes office.

As TikTok faces an uncertain future, Xiaohongshu’s latest arrivals were eager to try out the new app despite its foreign nature.

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Manassero, who posts videos about healthcare and power lifting to about 7,000 followers on TikTok, said she already has a much larger audience of 26,000 on Instagram. However, she was motivated to create an account on Xiaohongshu partly out of frustration at the U.S. government’s determination to outlaw TikTok.

“I don’t know what I’m doing, I don’t know what I’m reading, I’m just pressing buttons,” Manassero said in her first video post. The next morning, her account had received 5,000 views and 3,500 new followers. By Tuesday, the hashtag “Tiktok refugee” had received more than 90 million views and 2 million comments.

TikTokers sought each other out with introductions, follow requests and shared tips on how to navigate the app’s Chinese functions. On Monday, more than 190,000 viewers joined a live chat named “TikTok Refugees Club,” and held discussions in English about what a TikTok ban would mean and future plans for social media content. In the comments, users greeted new arrivals and lamented they could not understand each other.

“Maybe you can learn how to speak Chinese,” one user wrote in English.

“Where’s the translator?” another viewer asked in Chinese.

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On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Chinese officials had discussed the possibility of selling TikTok to a trusted non-Chinese party such as Elon Musk, who already owns social media platform X. However, analysts said that Bytedance is unlikely to agree to a sale of the underlying algorithm that powers the app, meaning the platform under a new owner could still look drastically different.

Manassero and other TikTokers expressed distaste at the prospect of migrating to U.S. tech platforms such as Instagram or X that could benefit from an influx of users if TikTok shuts down.

“We don’t want to turn around and make a bunch of billionaires even more rich,” she said. “I would honestly rather the app get shut down than be owned by Elon Musk.”

Though she is still trying to figure out how to use Xiaohongshu and message people back, Manassero said she would likely stay on the Chinese lifestyle app regardless of whether the TikTok ban goes through.

“The response has been so friendly and nice. It’s good energy,” she said. “This feels like the early TikTok days: a little more organic, so it’s fun.”

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Why TikTok Users Are Downloading ‘Red Note,’ the Chinese App

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Why TikTok Users Are Downloading ‘Red Note,’ the Chinese App

Manimatana Lee spent the past five years building one of the hottest commodities on the internet: a group of people who reliably watch her videos on TikTok.

She built an audience of nearly 10,000 followers with videos of herself vacuuming her house in Wisconsin while her youngest daughter napped in a carrier on her back. A video of Ms. Lee dancing and doing the dishes — while wearing her sleeping baby — has been watched more than one million times since November.

Now, with the Supreme Court soon to rule in a case that could determine whether TikTok could be banned in the United States over national security concerns, Ms. Lee and other Americans looking for alternatives are downloading Xiaohongshu, a social media app that is popular in China and little known outside the country.

“How funny would it be if they ban TikTok and we all just move over to this Chinese app,” Ms. Lee wrote on Monday on TikTok encouraging her followers to join her.

Xiaohongshu was the most downloaded free app in the U.S. Apple store on Tuesday. Over 300 million people, mostly in China, use the app, where they share short videos as well as still, text-based posts. People flocking to it said, in interviews and on the app, that they wanted to show they do not share Washington’s concerns about TikTok’s ties to China.

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TikTok, which is available in more than 150 countries but not China, is owned by the Chinese internet company ByteDance. American creators who post videos on TikTok say the app has been a source of connection, entertainment and information since it became a sensation during the Covid-19 pandemic. Its secret sauce is its proprietary algorithm, technology that recommends a constant stream of short videos targeted to keep people scrolling.

But lawmakers in the United States and other countries have warned that the Chinese government could use TikTok to access data about its users such as location and browsing histories. Officials in Washington say they are also concerned that China could use TikTok to spread false information among the 170 million people who use it in the United States.

Xiaohongshu means “little red book” in Mandarin. Americans new to the app said they were not put off by the reference to a book of Mao Zedong’s sayings. Many call the app “Red Note.”

“I don’t really care if I’m using a Chinese app at all,” said Ms. Lee. “It’s like a place for me to escape reality. And if it’s making me feel good, I’m here for it.”

A group of American creators have sued the government over the law that could see the TikTok app forcibly sold or banned in the United States, and TikTok is paying their legal fees. Ms. Lee and another creator said in interviews that their interest in Xiaohongshu had not been incentivized by either company. TikTok did not respond to a request for comment.

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The Americans on Xiaohongshu have rallied under the hashtag “TikTokrefugee,” which had been viewed 100 million times and sparked around 2.5 million discussion threads on the app by Tuesday.

Joining the app has put American users in closer contact with people online in China than they have ever been on TikTok. In China, people use Douyin, a very similar app that ByteDance used to develop the technology that made TikTok a worldwide hit. Douyin is difficult to access outside China.

Many shared tips on how to navigate the app, which is mainly made for and used by people who read and speak Mandarin. Some took screenshots and asked ChatGPT to translate posts, they said.

Xiaohongshu displays the city or province of Chinese users who post and comment, and the country for users outside China. “We are coming to the Chinese spies and begging them to let us stay here,” said one American user. “Approved, welcome to Red Note,” someone in Shanghai replied.

Until late December, 85 percent of Xiaohongshu traffic was from China, according to Similarweb, a data provider and website traffic tracker. The app is especially popular among women in their 20s and 30s, and its long comment threads have become a popular source of information for people to swap questions about everyday concerns, similar to Reddit.

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Xiaohongshu did not respond to requests for comment.

On Tuesday, more than 100,000 people had joined a live group chat hosted by a user named “TikTok Refugee Club,” where people from around the world chatted with Chinese users about urban safety. In another group chat, which had been viewed more than 30,000 times, participants discussed censorship and shared tips in the comments on how to avoid being banned from the platform for bringing up politically sensitive topics.

Under another video posted by someone who said they were usually on TikTok, a user in China responded with a meme of a cat with paws outstretched. “I’m your Chinese spy,” the comment said, “give me all your data.”

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