{"id":148223,"date":"2025-08-15T16:17:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T16:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/148223\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T16:17:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T16:17:12","slug":"would-you-swim-in-the-chicago-river-and-should-its-canal-be-renamed-heres-what-you-told-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/148223\/","title":{"rendered":"Would you swim in the Chicago River? And should its canal be renamed? Here&#8217;s what you told us."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/chicago.suntimes.com\/news\/2025\/08\/07\/chicago-river-swim-returns-to-the-city-after-almost-a-century\" data-cms-ai=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">An open-water swim is returning to the Chicago River<\/a> for the first time in nearly a century, and, farther south, the <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/chicago.suntimes.com\/environment\/2025\/08\/12\/chicago-river-ship-sanitary-canal-reversal-lake-michigan-water\" data-cms-ai=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal could get a new name<\/a>. We asked whether you\u2019d swim in the river and what name you\u2019d suggest for the canal. Here\u2019s what you told us, lightly edited for clarity.<\/p>\n<p>Would you swim in the Chicago River?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, seeing the different types of gamefish being caught, the water quality is better than it\u2019s been for a long time. Same water as Lake Michigan.\u201d<br \/>\u2014 Billy R. Mobley<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo, because Dave Matthews.\u201d<br \/>\u2014 Pete Gibbons<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey need to turn the flow back the other way. Its natural way. Probably clear right up.<br \/>\u2014 Sharon Knoll<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNever. Rats [might] be swimming right along with you. Seen it with my own eyes while riding in a boat.\u201d<br \/>\u2014 Mary Ann Michaels<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo because of the Chicago Stockyards. If you\u2019re a native, you know better.\u201d<br \/>\u2014 Sandie Belluomini<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo. &#8230; I know that is technically clean, but I can\u2019t get past the smell.\u201d<br \/>\u2014 Jim Pabst<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaybe after a tetanus shot and a way to close every single hole in my body.\u201d<br \/>\u2014 Chris Parenti<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was against people swimming in the Chicago River because of those big turtles.\u201d<br \/>\u2014 Dan Keiner<\/p>\n<p>What should the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal be renamed?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Jake and Elwood Canal, because it goes to Joliet and back.\u201d<br \/>\u2014 Ed Floden<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Prairie Canal.\u201d<br \/>\u2014 James Melton<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. The name has worked well for over 100 years. We have eliminated plenty of historic names in Chicago: Sears Tower, John Hancock Building, Standard Oil Building, Comiskey Park, etc.\u201d<br \/>\u2014 Mark Quinn<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShips Creek.\u201d<br \/>\u2014 Tom Davy<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSchitt\u2019s Creek.\u201d<br \/>\u2014 Peter Host<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe South branch of the Chicago River. Just call it what it is.\u201d<br \/>\u2014 Jeff Wolfe<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDaley Canal.\u201d<br \/>\u2014 Tammy Villa<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSell the naming rights, and use the money for water improvements.\u201d<br \/>\u2014 Dan Keiner<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIllinois Valley Connection.\u201d<br \/>\u2014 Patricia Simmons<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChissippi. It joins the Chicago River to the Mississippi River system.\u201d<br \/>\u2014 Tony Ferracane<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An open-water swim is returning to the Chicago River for the first time in nearly a century, and,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":148224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5386,1818],"class_list":{"0":"post-148223","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-illinois"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115033686187546073","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}