Late in the afternoon of May 27, James Wilson was sitting on a bench outside the Major Robert A. Byrd high-rise on 13th Street. The public-housing complex had been Wilson’s home for five years, but then a large brick section of the southern façade suddenly crumbled. “Just like that–boom!” Wilson says. “There was noise and […]
IT PICKS
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Capital improvements
When out-of-town developers called Joe Gooden, Springfield’s building and zoning administrator for the last eight years, they’d usually ask for the city’s landscaping code. But up until two years ago, Gooden says, Springfield didn’t require builders to plant trees or to landscape their projects. “I used to have to tell them we didn’t have any […]
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FIRED
Reggie is a Democrat. He was working at the Illinois State Lottery when Governor Jim Thompson took it away from the Department of Revenue in 1986. He says it’s always been a pleasant place to work, but especially for the politically connected. The 29-year-old enterprise has always provided cushy jobs for folks like Joan Fawell, […]
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Roadblocks
Builders and city officials agree there has to be a better way to encourage development in Springfield. The sticking point has always been deciding who picks up the tab for a better looking city and quality roads. Last week, Mayor Tim Davlin’s transition committee presented their take on the topic inside their wide-ranging report. They […]
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The governor’s most dangerous game
Last week was a public relations nightmare for Rod Blagojevich. A few months after freezing the wages of nonunion state employees and deducting 4 percent from their checks to pay for their pension contributions, a month after vetoing pay raises for legislators and judges, two weeks after unilaterally slashing the operating budgets of two statewide […]
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Lights! Camera! Confess!
Illinois law enforcement groups opposed legislation requiring police to tape their interrogations of suspects. But just before a watered-down version of the bill became law last week, they discovered the practice makes their work easier and more credible. For instance, in one of Kankakee County’s first attempts at videotaping the interrogation of a suspect, Christopher […]
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Checking you out
Ed Yohnka could always count on the “knee-jerk, I-hate-Ashcroft types” to fill the seats for his talks on civil-rights abuses by the U.S. government in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But lately he’s seeing a new crowd: well-read, conservative citizens concerned about their rights ever since the Patriot Act took effect. […]
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Marc Sigoloff’s last shot
SCENE ONE: SCREEN DREAMS Marc Sigoloff has always loved movies. As a boy, he fell for Snow White and the Three Stooges, an unlikely pairing of concepts, starring 1960 Olympic figure skater Carol Heiss and the Stooges’ final replacement for Curly, Joe DeRita. In 1967, at the age of 11, Sigoloff was “completely overwhelmed” by […]
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Moving target
The way Charlie Salvo describes it, he woke up one morning and realized he owned five acres within the Springfield Medical District. Now he’s planning to build a state-of-the-art, 50,000-square-foot medical office complex on North Grand Avenue near Walnut Street. Salvo, who owns the property with his brother Peter, says he expects to start demolishing […]
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Downtown exodus? Says who?
In the past year, downtown Springfield has witnessed an exodus of state workers. Whether due to retirement, layoffs, or transfers, the reduced number of state employees has worried some business leaders. Mike Boer, president of the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce, says if the exodus keeps up downtown Springfield will resemble what he heard it […]
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Chemical detectives
Water Well Road is a gravelly, bumpy lane 20 miles east of Springfield. It descends from the main road connecting I-72 to Mt. Auburn, then curves behind heavy woods. Small huts mark the numerous wells that line the lane and provide the area with drinking water. Residents keep a close eye on the road because […]
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Prison Uprising
Last Sunday a few dozen people from the Pleasant Grove Baptist Church gathered at the Sangamon County Jail on Ninth Street. They were waiting for Enos Brents to lead them to the prison gym, where they were going to baptize 20 male inmates. Normally, visitors must remove their earrings, said Brents, the assistant superintendent for […]
