An Unabashed Promotion for Upcoming Logan Square Preservation House Walk

This spectacular structure was the home of bicycle legend Ignaz Schwinn, founder of the Chicago-based Schwinn Bicycle Co. St. Sylvester School now stands on the site.

By Edward M. Bury, APR, MA (aka The PRDude)

For many years, Susan and I have been supporters of Logan Square Preservation, a truly great and vital community organization.  Now, every two years, LSP hosts a day-long event where those interested in historic homes can take docent-led tours.

This year, I worked with volunteers to increase awareness for the 2025 House Walk on September 20 by drafting a news story.  Here’s the final version. 

35^th Logan Square House Walk Steps off Sept. 20 in Palmer Square Park

For the 35^th year, Logan Square Preservation invites the public to walk through historic homes that represent the best of Logan’s Square’s diverse architectural style on Saturday, September 20. For the first time, the seven houses — and the accompanying vintage car show — are all clustered within easy walking distance around Palmer Square Park.

The biannual House Walk kicks off with will-call and day-of ticket sales at the historic Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Church, 3062 W. Palmer Square. Open for tours from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., the homes are prime examples of Prairie School, American Craftsman, Chicago Bungalow and other architectural styles. Many have distinctive components such as wrap-around porches, brick columns with Ionic capitals, porte cochère entrances, and dormers that add an Oriental influence.

Visitors will receive an interior tour of the homes led by trained docents and a collectable House Walk guide containing many historical photos of Palmer Square as it originally appeared. Also on view will be a historic house currently undergoing exterior restoration, with information on the process available.

Vehicle traffic will be restricted during the event, allowing for easy pedestrian access to the tour and outdoor points of interest, including several related to the Schwinn Bicycle empire. Palmer Square Park, a 7.69-acre green space that’s part of the city’s historic Boulevard System, has a storied history from the early 1900s as an avenue for cycling enthusiasts and clubs.

Ignaz Schwinn, founder of the Chicago-based Schwinn Bicycle Co., resided in a mansion at the east end of Palmer Square where the St. Sylvester School now stands. He also built the Shakespeare Flats apartment building, which can still be seen on the west end of the square. Look for the volunteer docents with vintage Schwinn bikes to hear more about Palmer Square’s Schwinn history.

And in homage to greater Logan Square’s Norwegian heritage, master woodcarver Jock Holmen, owner of Norwegian Termite, will provide woodcarving demonstrations. An artist trained in traditional carving techniques, Holman will display a carving he is making for a new Logan Square park to be dedicated to the memory of Emil Biorn, a Norwegian artist who was active in the community from 1917–1935. Biorn’s work can be seen inside several Logan Square buildings, and the land for Biorn Park, located off Logan Blvd. on Albany Ave., was donated to Logan Square Preservation, which hopes to have the site open to the public in 2026.

Other points of interest along the route include a vintage car show, where more than 50 hot rods, coupes, and sedans of various types will be on display from two local car clubs: LAMBDA Car Club (Lake Michigan Region) and City Wide Classics.

Some of the neighborhood’s many community organizations will also be on hand in Palmer Square during the House Walk to showcase the area’s many unique programs, including The Workers Cottage Initiative and the Palmer Square Park Council.

“This is our organization’s biggest event,” said Andy Schneider, President of Logan Square Preservation. “It’s a reflection of the dedication and commitment members of the Logan Square community have toward maintaining this truly unique and vibrant part of Chicago for generations to come.”

Discounted early bird tickets for the 2025 Logan Square Preservation House Walk are $35 through Sept. 14. Day-of tickets are $50 and are available at Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Church. Attendees can purchase a VIP Fast Pass for expedited admission to all houses for an early bird price of $115, or $150 on the day of the event.

To register for the House Walk, visit: logansquarepreservation.org/house—garden-walk.

A map of the historic Palmer Square, site of the 2025 Logan Square Preservation House Walk.

An early image of Palmer Square.

Vintage cars, like this red Chevy Corvair, will be on display during the House Walk.

The cars on display range from modern muscle to the truly vintage.

Yes, they don’t build them like this any more.

What the Future Holds for Public Relations?

Courtesy of Adobe Stock.

By Edward M. Bury, APR, MA (aka The PRDude)

Last week I took in a very informative and somewhat eye-opening webinar hosted by the Public Relations Society of America.  The presentation, “Future Watch 2025: Key Trends Every PR Professional Should Have on Their Radar Screen in the Coming Year,” offered me a perspective on a wide range of topics, issues, and developments that are projected to be a significant part of the national dialogue in the year ahead.

And, of course, the hour I spent online provided greater insight on the profession and resulted in the poignant subject for this post.

Led by an engaging communicator and futurist named Stephen DuPont, APR, Fellow PRSA, the focus of the conversation centered on a broad scope of what will be making news from today through December 31.  (Learn more about Mr. DuPont from his website.)

Early on, Mr. DuPont advised communicators to work on anticipating upcoming events and developments — a sound practice for sure– and noted that futurists need to be storytellers.  An aside: As I noted in this 2022 post, I am still struggling with the “evolution” of the profession into storytelling.  But let me continue. 

I scribbled down notes during the talk, and in no particular order of importance, here are some topics addressed by Mr. DuPont:

• Divisive politics and an uncertain economy driven by the potential impact of tariffs. 
• A possible resurgence of the pandemic and the stubborn bird flu. 
• How to screen for threats following the brazen murder of a healthcare executive. 
• Energy and climate change, technology, technology and more technology.  And, of course the role of AI. 
• The potential dismantling of diversity/equity/inclusion initiatives. 
• The impact on the agriculture industry if undocumented immigrants are deported.
• Cyber wars, more robots, the emergence of the alpha generation, and the decline in the number of high school students. 
• The dawn of the greatest transfer of money from Boomers to other generations. 
• One more: The explosion of weight loss drugs that are now available!

There were other topics presented, but the above provides a solid perspective of what’s ahead. For communicators, these can be considered as highly specialized areas that I believe may require advanced education and solid practical experience should one be charged with managing strategic communications. 

The question that arose following the webinar: Will the incoming generation of public relations professionals need specialized education and work experience to effectively serve clients or the companies or organizations who employ them?  Or from another perspective, is the age of the public relations “generalist” truly over?

Reflecting back on my career, the vast majority of clients I served or organizations I worked for concentrated in commercial real estate and urban affairs; now, I manage communications for a university transportation research unit.  My “experience” in real estate centered on living and working in Chicago for most of my life, and as for transportation, I was — and still am — an active rider on Chicago Transit Authority trains and buses. 

When I served on the Universal Accreditation Board, an initiative was advanced to award a new accreditation to those charged with military public affairs. The result was the APR+M designation. And, if memory serves correctly, there were UAB discussions years ago regarding similar specialized accreditation programs for communicators in large-scale industries like healthcare and business. 

Perhaps it’s time to hold that kind of discussion again with educators and on an industry-wide level.  Now it’s your turn: Does the public relations profession need to cultivate communicators who have the specialized skills and knowledge needed to serve in this rapidly changing world? 

The floor is yours. 

Washington, DC: A Travelogue (and Commentary of Sorts) 2025

By Edward M. Bury, APR, MA (aka The PRDude)

For the past decade or so, the first PRDude post of the year has centered on my trip to Washington, DC for the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting.  Well, on New Year’s Day 2025 I tried something else, as noted in this post.

What follows is a combination of some thoughts and images from my visit last week to the TRB conference in the nation’s capital, which had to cope with some unseasonable winter weather while preparing for a monumental change due to the new administration that will take over next week.

Yes, I could use this space to offer thoughts on where the nation may be heading, but I’ll save those posts for another time. What the images and captions that follow do demonstrate is that Washington — an amazing city which contains the very foundation of our democracy — is a way cool place to visit.  Yes, even after a snowfall. 

The rare snowfall January 6 and 7 resulted in reduced traffic here along K Street across from Franklin Park. The scene is more akin to a northern city rather than Washington, but still beautiful and serene.

Historic St. John’s Church is a short walk from my hotel. On my recent visit, I noticed this plaque on the back pew along the far right. Yes, I sat there for a while.

Another compelling moment while in St. John’s Church: Someone played the pipe organ, filling the small church with beautiful and powerful music — just for me.

With the Washington Monument in the distance and the U.S. Treasury on the right, I had this evening vision of a major thoroughfare in the nation’s capitol to myself.

Much of Lafayette Square across from the White House was cordoned off as workers prepared for the January 20 presidential inaugural. A little snow wasn’t going to stop the construction work. And, the White House was open to visitors.

On a bright, sunny morning, the Washington Monument stood majestically. Walkways were cleared of snow, testimony to the efficiency of the men and women responsible for providing access to our great public spaces across the District.

One presentation that’s on my must attend list: The TRB awards for recognizing excellence in Communicating Concepts with the Public. This year’s top awards focused on programs that addressed safety in transportation.

As I’ve noted often, one great benefit of my current position is the opportunity to meet and work with tremendous people from all over the world. My friend Dr. Takanori Sakai is one of those people.

The giant TRB letters in the Washington Convention Center main lobby offered an ideal photo platform. For some reason, I found this rear view more captivating.

Looking down Pennsylvania Avenue, the U.S. Capitol stands in the distance and flags were at half staff in respect of the recent passing of the 39th President of the United States.

One excellent temporary exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery featured compelling black and white images of Hollywood movie stars from a bygone era. Okay, who is this blond bombshell?

In the Presidential Portraits room at the National Portrait Gallery, purple bunting draped across the portrait of the late Jimmy Carter. History has shown that regardless of how he was viewed as a president, his life was one of honor, service and dedication.

Remembering Royko: Inspired by Well-Deserved Newberry Library Exhibit

The main gallery in the Newberry Library housing the tribute to columnist Mike Royko.

By Edward M. Bury, APR, MA (aka The PRDude)

A resolution came to me earlier this year:  Each week try to do something you haven’t done before, or visit someplace you have visited ever or in a long time. 

The post that follows provides an account of achieving both.  I haven’t visited the Newberry Library in years, make that decades, even though this world-renowned research library is a short drive or public transit trip from home.  And, although I’ve been through its doors, I don’t recall really enjoying an exhibit or using the library’s resources. So I made a commitment to visit the building on West Walton Street on the Near North Side.

But my primary reason last week for heading to the grand facility across from Washington Square Park (known colloquially as Bughouse Square) was to revel in the temporary tribute to a true icon of Chicago journalism.

The Mike Royko Exhibit at the Newberry provided visitors with a visual perspective of a print journalist who for decades chronicled all that defined Chicago — its people and politics, its graft and greatness, its neighborhoods and place in the national conversation, and lots more.  While I gained a lot from the one-aisle display, I would have enjoyed a stream of audio/visual recordings of Royko offering thoughts on an election night or even one of the television commercials promoting the columnist and his work.  One Royko TV spot that comes to mind — probably from the early 1970s and in black and white as I recall — had the tag line, “The guys from the old neighborhood were right. Once a bum, always a bum.”

For the record, I regularly read his columns in the long-gone Chicago Daily News, Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune, and Royko and I actually met one time — more on that to follow.  But after visiting the Newberry exhibit, I was inspired to share perspectives on these commonalities.

• Born in Chicago, Love for Chicago.  Both of us were born in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood, and both of us lived most of our lives in the city. We grew to recognize and accept the city’s flaws and its fascination.
• The News Business. Well, it goes without saying that we both were part of the news industry, with Royko staying a newsman his entire career. And, as noted in the graphic below, we both had careers at the legendary wire service City News Bureau of Chicago.  We probably used the same typewriter; manual of course.
• Chicago Style Softball.  I know he played played 16-inch Chicago softball, and I’m sure he wrote columns on the subject.  Me, I played as a kid on sandlot fields and through college; I have two broken fingers on my left hand as proof. 
• Eastern European Ancestry. His biography states that Royko was of Polish and Ukrainian heritage. Me? My ancestors immigrated here from Poland. His parents owned a tavern in the old neighborhood, and the family lived upstairs, making Royko a “flat-above-a-tavern” kid.  My maternal grandfather owned a tavern on Carpenter Street, and my mother and her siblings were raised in, you guessed it, the flat above the tavern. 
• Enjoying a Few at the Bar. Here’s my “Royko in Person” story.  Way back around 1978, I was having one at the Billy Goat on a summer evening, and who comes down the stairs?  Yes, Royko.  He sat one stool away to my right. We nodded.  He ordered a beer (and probably a shot), and we got to talking about the Cubs, who were on the little TV in the corner above the bar.  We both agreed they had lousy pitching, especially in relief. He finished his drink, paid, and left.  Yes, that’s it.  Sorry if you expected an account of a deep conversation over Chicago politics.

Now, enjoy a few images from my visit to the Royko exhibit.  It runs through September 28; but his perspectives on Chicago and life are eternal. 

Royko and I have these two traits in common: We are Chicago born and raised, and we worked at the City News Bureau of Chicago.

A corner bar near the el. Hey, I’ve been to a few of those. A Gold Star if you know the reference to Slats in this cartoon.

Ah, the staples of a reporter back in the day. Did Royko really smoke Carltons? Thought he would have been a Pall Mall kind of guy.

Good late night or any time reading. For the record, I have read “Boss” and too many of his columns to count.