Midwest Meetups

Just moved from evergreen now in wheeling ronley oh so roownry lol

Chastity and I live in Richmond, IN

I know a few SL'ers from the area.. and across the border in *shudder* ohio! There are also a few in northern KY.

South Side!!!

Northwest suburbs, Illinois here! Although not a native this is my home for now. New Hampshire/Massachusetts are where I come from.

Northern Michigan (da "UP" here, but I grew up south of Springfield, IL and in southern Illinois. (Go SIU!)

I live in Indianapolis (West Side, just south of Speedway) ! Hi everyone!

Crete IL here, 30 min south of the loop! When are we going to have a Chicago SL gathering?

Kansas City Missouri here woohoot lets get a meet going!!!!!

Well im from Naperville, 30 mins for chicago, and went to columbia of chicago

Hey there, Yooper I spend alot of time in the Soo. Alot of us Trolls do, though. Have a pastie on me, ay!

~Lefty
P.S. ever feel wierd that we drive South to Canada?

South of South Bend IN, both Val and I

I used to live with this guy, now I live under the Chicago El near the Red Line's Wilson Station.



(AP) CHICAGO Anyone who thinks it is impossible to find an affordable place on one of the city's priciest streets -- Lake Shore Drive -- should talk to Richard Dorsay.

For three or four years that's where the homeless man lived. Actually, he lived under Lake Shore Drive, in a wooden shack built into the beams and girders of the drawbridge that crosses the Chicago River.

On Sunday, Dorsay was evicted from his home after another man arrested in suburban Streamwood told police about him.

Inside, authorities found a home more elaborate than the usual warrens other homeless people have created in the city's nooks and crannies. Dorsay had tapped into the bridge's electricity to power a television, microwave, space heater and PlayStation video game system. There he could relax and, on occasions, turn on a Chicago Bears game, invite friends over and pop open some beers.

"I've never seen this," said Tom Powers, a deputy commissioner for the Chicago Department of Transportation, who was at the bridge Sunday. "Usually, it's somebody trying to get warm at night."

The home had it quirks. Whenever Dorsay heard the bells that signal the arms of the bridge would soon rise to let boats through, he held on as the bridge slowly pitched him forward.

"The first time it was scary," he said. "After that, it was almost like riding a Ferris wheel."

Coming and going was different, too. Whenever he left, he would pop his head out of the hole to look for traffic. Then he would climb out and go about his routine of panhandling or searching for items to sell at junk yards. He also collects a welfare check.

Dorsay discovered his new home when he spotted a hole in a girder in the midsection of the lower level of the double-decker bridge and climbed in. He liked what he saw and started moving his belongings, which he had been hauling around with him, inside. Then he started bringing in other things he could fit through the 1-foot-by-3-foot hole.

Two other people also moved to the same area of the bridge, and a number of wooden huts with sleeping quarters were built. Dorsay used blankets to camouflage the huts to make them harder to spot from the water below.

"You've got to be kind of agile," Dorsay said of his living arrangements. "You can't be an idiot. ... It doesn't take long to figure out what you need to do."

Dorsay's luck ran out after last week. The man who told police about him allegedly implicated Dorsay in criminal activity and said he had a gun at his home.

Police arrested Dorsay at the bridge on Thursday. He was taken to Streamwood, where he was released without being charged. He was, however, charged in Chicago with criminal trespass to property, a misdemeanor. On Sunday, authorities searched his home. No gun was found.

Dorsay's father came by the police station Sunday to take him to his home in Burr Ridge. Several calls to the home went unanswered Monday.

The discovery could lead the city to change its weekly security sweeps of the bridge and block holes in the structure, said Powers, the transportation department deputy commissioner.

Mayor Richard Daley said Dorsay illustrates the homelessness problem in the city. "They're there for a reason, for shelter," the mayor said of the homeless. "And that's the concern we share."


(© 2004 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. )

I've been trying to urge the SLCC people to host SLCC2007 in Indianapolis (great convention city) or Chicago but that is too far out in the future. SLCC 06 is just now being planned for San Fran. But perhaps in 07 there could be multiple SLCC's. Anyone want to "think about the possibility of planning for the slight chance" of an 07 CC happening in Chicago/Indy?

MM