A follow-up to a follow-up: I recently noted (see “Ask the kids“) that School District 186 has begun the process of devising a formal process for renaming district facilities. Is it a process that school boards lacked in the past, or gumption? In “A school by any other name” I complained about how it’s been done […]
James Krohe Jr.
Posted inOpinion
Ask the kids
I read today that the policy committee of School District 186 is considering adopting a formal process for the naming of district facilities after citizens deemed worth of the honor. You might well wish to forget it, but I addressed that issue in a 2011 column titled, “A school by any other name” in which I came […]
Posted inOpinion
Imaginary landscapes
Faithful reader Brent Hahn responded to my maunderings about natural beauty and politics, “The blossomy haw, remembered,” with this reminder that the sensible person who lives in a place bereft of scenery simply makes some up. I grew up in Springfield. and moved away, but lately I’ve been back a lot. And I’ve decided my […]
Posted inOpinion
At the corner of Someplace and Nowhere
Breaking the norm, Indian Hills subdivision street names recall the original residents of the place that is now Illinois. PHOTO BY DAVID HINE Attentive readers might have noticed my recent preoccupation with the problem of place – how people come to define a place as a “place” and what it means to the people who […]
Posted inOpinion
Distant echoes from the north
Our sister paper, Chicago’s Reader, has just published its annual Best of Chicago issue. In it are excellent pieces that echo topics recently taken up in this space. “The Thompson Center is Chicago’s endangered, postmodern Pantheon” by Deanna Isaacs outdoes my lament of April 9 for the old State of Illinois Building, which our current […]
Posted inOpinion
Planning a mess
Residents were angry and surprised by a proposal that would put a homeless shelter in their neighborhood. PHOTO BY BRUCE RUSHTON It sounded like a Seinfeld episode. The Salvation Army buys a building on Ninth Street for a new homeless shelter and spends half a mill fixing it up, only for Mayor Jim Langfelder to […]
Posted inOpinion
Lies, damn lies and governors
A useful reminder from Charles Wheeler, writing at Illinois Issues. “Speaker Madigan’s Democrats have controlled our General Assembly for more than 30 years. Speaker Madigan’s Democrats have controlled spending in our state government for more than 30 years,” Rauner said. “The Democrats have spent our state into the toilet for 30 years.” Apparently history wasn’t […]
Posted inOpinion
Pots and kettles
The late Mike Royko, Sun-Times columnist Bruce Rauner is trying to divide Downstate from Chicago over school funding. It’s a low tactic that has a long tradition, as I noted in this column from the IT of June 5, 1981. The much longer original will appear on my blog, Second Thoughts. Chicagoan Mike Royko declared […]
Posted inOpinion
Tree Cities Illinois
Bits and pieces about trees pile up on my desk like autumn leaves in the yard. Last week I mentioned Barrington, Illinois, as a Tree City USA. It is not alone. In addition to the U.S. flag that it flies at its city hall, the west-suburban town of Hinsdale proudly flies not an Illinois flag […]
Posted inOpinion
Re-treeing
My recent column calling for the re-treeing Springfield – “Something there is that doesn’t love a tree,” which of course should have been titled “Someone there is who doesn’t love a tree” – didn’t say quite everything that might have been said on that topic. A seldom unremarked-upon aspect of the history of Illinois is […]
Posted inOpinion
The blossomy haw, remembered
Paul Scott Mowrer Paul Scott Mowrer was born in Bloomington in 1887 and lived there until he was in the sixth grade. In short, everything important that can happen to a boy in the normal course of growing up happened to him in mid-Illinois. While he never came back to live, pursuing instead a career […]
Posted inOpinion
Something there is that doesn’t love a tree
Clear Lake Avenue needs more trees. PHOTO BY BRITTANY HILDERBRAND Careful readers of his paper will know that Sustainable Springfield is encouraging businesses and landowners to allow the organization to plant native and/or non-invasive tree species on their properties, starting with the Clear Lake Avenue corridor. Any proud native who wishes Springfield to make a […]
