Is NASCAR worth it for the city?

🍋 Plus: Chief Keef & more at Summer Smash. [View this email in your browser]( [READER Logo]( Daily Reader | June 12, 2024 Last week, [2nd Ward alderperson Brian Hopkins announced]( his intention to extend the current curfew for unaccompanied minors in the “central business district” downtown to 8 PM. Earlier this week, [Ida B. Wells Drive closed]( between Michigan Avenue and Columbus Drive so NASCAR could begin construction on next month’s street race. Increasingly, I wonder how many more days will pass before I am unwelcome downtown unless I can successfully pitch local elected officials on a big money-making scheme. Are the only folks welcome in this city’s central public space those who can, and will, spend several hundred dollars on whatever ticketed event can claim Grant Park first? I’ve aired these criticisms before now in this newsletter. And I am thankful to the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board [for specifically criticizing the NASCAR Street Race and the city’s shaky arguments for maintaining its contract](. I can’t help but wonder what kind of public pushback might force the city to change course on this continued trend of renting out our public spaces for private events. ◈ [“The Curious Case Of The Underselling Arena Tours,”]( by Zach Schonfeld (Stereogum) ◈ [“There’s no beat, no lyrics. You can’t dance to it. But cicada music is the coolest music you know,”]( by Christopher Borrelli (Tribune) ◈ Charli XCX, [Brat]( ◈ J.P., [Coming Out Party]( ◈ Planetary Peace, [Planetary Peace]( ◈ Noah Kesey, [Holding Hands Around the World]( [Oddball hip-hop band Mother Fortune hit the stage to celebrate a new EP]( Plus: Music journalist Tara C. Mahadevan throws an IRL birthday party for her online interview show. by [Leor Galil]( | [Read more]( → [a collage of different photos of different rappers]( [The Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash scores a historic headliner: Chief Keef]( Fri 6/14-Sun 6/16 at SeatGeek Stadium by [Leor Galil]( | [Read more]( → [a man wearing a cowboy hat sitting on the back of a truck]( [Orville Peck’s outlaw country spectacle stampedes into Chicago]( Thu 6/13 at Aragon Ballroom by [Selena Fragassi]( | [Read more]( → [a group of people sitting in the street]( [Hip-hop polymath Rich Robbins celebrates a year of Soft and Tender with a big hometown show]( Fri 6/14 at Metro by [Cristalle Bowen]( | [Read more]( → 💵 Run a business? Need marketing help? Sign up for our advertising newsletter for information on the upcoming issues, rates, deals and discounts - coming directly from Associate Publisher Amber Nettles. [SIGN UP FOR OUR ADVERTISING NEWSLETTER!]( Get the latest issue of the Chicago Reader Thursday, June 6, 2024 [READ ONLINE: VOL. 53, NO. 18]( [VIEW/DOWNLOAD ISSUE (PDF)]( [Donate to the Chicago Reader.]( [Facebook icon]( [Instagram icon]( [Twitter icon]( [LinkedIn icon]( [YouTube icon]( [Website icon]( [Logo] You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from the Chicago Reader. Want fewer emails from us? [Click here to choose what you want us to send you](. Or, [unsubscribe from all Reader emails](. We’ll miss you! [Sign up for emails from the Chicago Reader]( | [Forward this e-mail to a friend]( © 2024 Chicago Reader. All rights reserved. Chicago Reader, 2930 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 102, Chicago, IL 60616