January 2, 2012 – 57,365 times, someone somewhere clicked on a news story at Marina City Online last year. 195 articles were published. 612 images were added. And a news story about a professional bowler being fined for an incident at 10pin Bowling Lounge was MCO’s most-viewed story in 2011.

The Professional Bowlers Association fined 28-year-old Chicago resident Sean Rash an undisclosed amount for a burst of profanity at the GEICO PBA Team Shootout. The event was held at Marina City May 29 through June 1 and videotaped for broadcast on ESPN.

(Above) In this video frame, PBA bowler Sean Rash (in upper right) is directing harsh words to Jason Belmonte, seen at far left drinking from a controversial water bottle.

In second place was a story in September about The Art Institute of Chicago unveiling its long-awaited exhibition, Bertrand Goldberg: Architecture of Invention. The retrospective of the architect’s work continues through January 15.

Marina City Online’s top ten most-viewed stories of 2011…

1. PBA bowler fined for incident at 10pin
2. Goldberg exhibit opens at Modern Wing
3. AMLI tower groundbreaking scheduled for October
4. Broadcast museum unrolls floor plans
5. Panhandler loses shoving match with River North resident
6. Trump influence towers over River North
7. Sax searches for nation’s best bikini models
8. Investigation “ongoing” in State Street Bridge shooting
9. Video follows Transformers wingsuits off Loop towers
10. Photo: Chicago Code actors patrol neighborhood

Officially, the least viewed story was about WTTW producer/host Geoffrey Baer answering a viewer’s question about Marina City on his Chicago Tonight Ask Geoffrey segment.

New news page name

To reflect a growing interest in the world outside Marina City, MCO has changed the name of its news page to Loop North News. While focused on Marina City, MCO covers news of interest to anyone living and/or working in River North as well as the north side of Chicago’s Loop.