Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Alternate Chicago - Writer's Workshop Exercise

I realized that even though I've been involved in a writer's workshop, I haven't posted any more frequently on this ol' blog'o'mine. So the most recent post is creating an alternate world, so here's my exercise. I wanted to create a subtle, slightly Clockwork Orange situation. 

The same day that Dispensational Premillenialists were supposed to be caught up with Christ in the clouds a tornado destroyed a little town called Redding and Chicago shut down Sheridan avenue. Naturally, 10 years later and it was obvious that prohibiting traffic through a 10 mile street in the northern neighborhoods was by far the most expensive of all the events that day. With the heavy debt the windy city carried, city officials mandated that shutting down damaged roads and El stops was aggrandized to paying construction workers and purchasing a new fleet of police cars with top of the line Monroe OESpectrum shocks with Twin technology control functions. Other such unfortunate thoroughfares included the better north portion of Western, 5 miles of Touhy and 10 or 12 other miles of street that were deemed unworthy of repair throughout the city. After a few months of heavy stray traffic on the emasculated avenue the city put serious proscriptions into effect by tearing up the street from Foster to Touhy and starting construction on cheap condos that didn't sell for the first two years after completion. By this time an ordinance passed that any stray vehicular devices found on the sidewalks surrounding the Sheridan Ave Condos would be impounded. When this decree passed, 85% of the 135 businesses that once existed on the strip had shut down, vandalism had increased 162%, and 40% of the residents previously living two blocks from Sheridan had moved. 10 years and over $14 million later, the city of Chicago tore down the Sheridan Ave Condos, rebuilt Sheridan, laid brick sidewalks and landscaped the medians. The day Sheridan Ave opened again, the mayor came up to cut the ribbon and give away free lemonaid, and 15 citizens arrived to nurse on 25 gallons of heavily diluted Country Time.

1 comment:

none said...

in ~300 words, i'm going to invent an alternate alternate world based quite loosely on yours and post it on my blorg, and give you props for sparking my imaginator.