as part of the never-ending schedule of chores that i must do as part and parcel of moving to a new apartment in a new neighborhood, i made the acquaintance of my new aldermanic offices today. telephonically-speaking, that is.

of course the city of chicago’s aldermanic maps (PDF, naturally!) are such crap — and not labeled with, oh, say, street names — that i had to guess which ward i was going to be in, and then call them to ask. like a dumbass. (which i am, but i don’t like to advertise it.) because, you see, yesterday when i drove up there to pick up the keys and then go look at paint chips on walls, i discovered that my street has permit parking. not zoned parking, apparently, but permit parking. i have no idea what the difference is other than terminology and signage — as any chicagoan knows the sight of a zoned parking sign, with its two red stuck-on-looking numbers, insisting that flouters of the zone shall be towed, crushed for scrap, and melted. no, my street has signs that say in rather polite small letters that between certain hours you must have permit 800 to park here. also, zoned parking signs will have the same number for blocks around, but the next block south of mine had a different permit number. the price of a permit seems to be the same. i find myself a little confused. nonetheless, it was as good an excuse to begin taking advantage of the public services available to me as a new resident of the ward. this led me to perusing the Flores’ 1st Ward web site a little more, trying to see what i have to do to update my voter registration. (ladies and gentlemen, i would cry if not allowed to vote for the better complete loser in the upcoming gubernatorial race!) and while doing that, i discovered that not only does alderman manny flores provide his residents with a handy little website — pretty standard these days, anyways, i should think — a public access television show, and an email list, but he has podcasts as well. podcasts, people. my alderman podcasts. i am not making this up. he’s apparently very concerned about our green space and participatory art, and evidently doesn’t mind being accompanied by awful smooth “jazz” music. i’m feeling a little bit uneasy. of course, i am glad to know that the first ward has formed a Grocery Task Force. my tax dollars at work, baby!