As you can see from these photos... well, you can't see much at this point, because now the front of the ballpark, the west side of the ballpark, the bottom half of the plaza building, the area around Gate K/J on Waveland and the area underneath the scoreboard (where a new patio is being built) are all shrouded with tarps. These photos are from Saturday afternoon, January 30, around midday.
Nevertheless, progress is being made. In addition to the work at the ballpark itself, you can see here the beginnings of work on what is going to become Addison Park on Clark, a project unconnected with the Cubs that's going to be constructed on the south side of Addison. The Starbucks on Addison -- where visiting rookies have been sent in uniform to get coffee -- is closed. You can see in photos 34 and 35 that they plan to reopen soon. A friend of mine who worked at the now-closed Starbucks on Addison says they've all been sent to work at other Starbucks stores for a few weeks and plan to reopen "nearby" soon. (Note in photo 35, you can see David Sameshima's reflection in the window.)
David also sent these comments:
The only comment I want to make is that when I was walking on the sidewalk in front of Bernie's, my shoes were making crunching sounds. There was so much grit on the sidewalk, that it was making noise when I stepped on it. Just an indication of how much residue is around the area. The contractor had a street sweeper back on duty, attempting to keep the streets clean. Don't wear your good clothes if you intend on visiting the ballpark right now. The neighborhood is covered in dust.
We hope to have more photos here later in the week.