Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Thursday, August 9,2012

Carp diem

What are the leaping fish trying to tell us?

The two Old Friends (I am told) were sitting at breakfast. Old Friend No. 1 recalled the summer nights of her youth when she would join her beau on the banks of Lake Springfield, there to mix Wheaties

Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Thursday, August 2,2012

Criminal injustice

The soft case for hard time for Bill Cellini

By James Krohe Jr.

The feds want Bill Cellini to get at least six and a half years in a steel box when he is sentenced in October in Chicago. His lawyers have argued that the feds seem to forget that Cellini was not con

Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Thursday, July 26,2012

Fiscalizing land use policy

Good for the City of Springfield, yes, but for the city?

By James Krohe Jr.

“People,” goes an old political adage, “vote their pocketbooks.” That goes for people in elected office too.A diligent reader attended a Springfield Park Board meeting at which

Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Thursday, July 19,2012

The message from the graves

What do the Oneota teach us about ourselves?

By James Krohe Jr.

The other day a passing canoeist (who else?) found an unusual pottery fragment on a sandbar in the Sangamon between Springfield and Petersburg. The find prompted the usual questions? How old is it? Wh

Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Thursday, July 12,2012

The twenty acre wood

Should Griffin Woods be spared “development”?

By James Krohe Jr.

Few of our readers know the words and music to “Woodman, Spare that Tree,” a mawkish ballad that was a hit in the 1830s. Instead they are singing the blues about the destruction of Griffin

Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Thursday, July 5,2012

Kumbaya around the campfire

Jim Edgar tries to bridge the Chicago-Downstate divide

By James Krohe Jr.

Jim Edgar is the closest thing the Illinois Republican Party has to a sage. His long career in elective office made him wise – wise enough anyway to retire from elective office – and he ge

Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Thursday, June 28,2012

How zoning works

Was rezoning for another supermarket in the city’s interest?

By James Krohe Jr.

If a woods fall and eight aldermen are not listening, does it make a sound? A few days ago the Springfield city council voted 8-2 to replace Griffin Woods, the 20-acre patch of forest at Bruns Lane an

Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Thursday, June 21,2012

Who pays for what?

Considering downtown redevelopment in its metropolitan context

By James Krohe Jr.

A seven-member team of urban paramedics known as a Sustainable Design Assessment Team recently spent three days touring Springfield’s city center, greater downtown Springfield. They were charged

Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Thursday, June 14,2012

White elephant

What to do when White Oaks is gone

By James Krohe Jr.

A planned new “patioscape” on the parking lot side of the former White Oaks Cinema will provide outdoor seating for customers of the shops and eateries expected to move into the converted

Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Thursday, June 7,2012

New Beijings

Might immigrants come to America to farm our universities?

By James Krohe Jr.

I have often lamented here the continuing decline in the population of Illinois’ rural parts. (See “Devoid of life,” July 14, 2011.) Like a great many readers, I have roots in centra