Reader Feedback

We don't have a dog, or any homework that the dog ate, but rest assured that our minds were not on the Pipeline this past week and we are going to email out a bare bones "just the facts" newsletter soon.

Life was calling, asking us all sorts of existential questions. While packing up and/or giving away seven years of accumulation (yes, we are hoarders, ask us about Blue Cross Blue Shield plan details from 1998! Or a receipt for a $2.32 yogurt parfait from a McDonald's in Grand Rapids, Michigan, circa 2007! Or piles of ghostwriting and brittle yellowed newspaper clips! Journals dating back to 1985!), and feeling rather emotional/sad/cautiously optimistic, we received a message from a reader that immediately put us back on track and helped us to remember why we do what we do.

Cynthia was added to our e-list in November of 2009. Like many people on our list, we do not know who they personally are, or we met them once or twice and would definitely recognize their faces but not their emails. From time to time a reader will write in with a friendly message and give us encouragement to "keep on keeping on."

Cynthia's email came at the perfect time. It's almost as if she could have seen us at the paper shredder parting ways with bank statements from days when we made about 20X more, and though we were still writing, stories like this one, among others, we weren't nearly as happy or as fulfilled as we are today, writing local stories about the neighborhood.

Yikes, we blather and blabber, don't we? Moving on, here's the note that made our week and possibly year, below. Thank you so much, Cynthia!

Hi Alisa,

I have been meaning to send you this email for a while now. I just wanted to say thanks. My fiancee and I moved to Bucktown two years ago from other Chicago neighborhoods. I have to admit I wasn't a big fan of the 'hood for the first few months. I lived closer to Western than I had realized when looking to buy our home (so much traffic noise), and the area right outside our house was a lot 'grittier' and crime ridden and griffiti ridden than I had expected it to be or realized that it was.

Fast forward two years later. I love Bucktown for what it is. I still have my qualms with some things (which I try to be a part of making better). But honestly, one of the biggest factors that has made me love Bucktown is the Pipeline, and the sense of community it creates in my inbox every week. It gives me ways to get involved and keeps me up to date on what's going on with my neighbors. You all do an awesome job. I don't think I can say thanks in a big enough way for all the heart that you clearly put into it.

Keep up the amazing work! You are a real asset to our community.

Cindy H.