So every sidewalk corner on the south side of 57th Street between, like, Woodlawn and Dorchester is being inexplicably torn up, leaving big taped-off asphalt canyons like some kind of ill-advised archaeology experiment gone horribly wrong. So now in addition to the parade of homeless people camped out in front of the Med and Kinko's asking you for change and trying to sell you a copy of 'Streetwise,' you have to maneuver around this series of strategically-placed battle trenches while trying not to breathe because the new hole being gouged in the sidewalk outside U Market is filling the whole block with toxic dust.

As if the ongoing construction underneath the Metra tracks on 55th Street hasn't been making my daily walk home enough of a cakewalk as it is. Hyde Park, you win again.