Solar panels were installed in 2012 at the parking lot of Taft High School in Woodland Hills, California. The state schools are turning to solar in hopes of saving billions state-wide on energy. PHOTO BY ANNE CUSACK/TNS Me and parking lots, we go back a long way. I’ve written at least seven columns over the […]
James Krohe Jr.
Posted inOpinion
Next time you’re out of town . . . .
As I noted in my previous post – yes, this is a blog, not a column, in spite of what our menu says – I considered the demise of the American diner in my column to be published on September 10. Springfield might have lost most of its diners and coffee shops, but they are […]
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The diner’s demise
This week I take up the subject of the demise of the American diner. There are lots of reasons why this is happening, which I didn’t have space to examine in my column. In the big cities the problem is rents. from big-city rents — Chicago’s fondly remembered Cambridge Inn at Ohio and St. Clair […]
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Aggressive behavior
Karen Otterson (left) and Don Norton (right) hold signs used by panhandlers at a July 2 Springfield City Council meeting. The pair successfully sued the city in a federal class action lawsuit over the citys anti-panhandling ordinance. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE Nobody likes being bullied. Nobody likes being called names. Nobody likes being asked for […]
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Lincoln’s Union problem
The Quartet by Joseph Ellis Bells in Springfield – church bells, hand bells, even cell phone ringers – rang at 2:15 p.m. on April 9 to mark the 150th anniversary of the end of major Civil War fighting. Except, as I explored in part in “Naming rights and wrongs” (July 9, 2015), the Civil War […]
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Plenty of parking
Downtown parking was in the news for about five minutes the other day, as it usually is this time of year when the annual Central Area Parking Survey is released by the Springfield-Sangamon County Regional Planning Commission. As has been the case for the past several years, the survey found that greater downtown boasts 27,489 […]
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Mirror, mirror . . .
I have occasionally used my space in this paper to remark on the dearth of the scenic in most of central Illinois. In “Living in three dimensions” I observed in a helpful tone that whatever good the glaciers did for the central Illinois farmer, “they did no favors at all for the central Illinois sightseer. […]
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Taking the dopes out of doping
In “The needle and the records won“ I tried to make a case that doping in sports in inevitable and unavoidable, and that only cure is, in effect, to make it legal. We don’t have rules in politics or business or war in this country, why be squeamish about playing our games that way? […]
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Reforming what matters
PHOTO COURTESY OF AFSCME Tell me, brother, don’t you understandWe’re all working for the Pharaoh “Pharaoh” Richard Thompson© BMG Rights Management US, LLC Reform. Our problem is not that everybody talks about it but no one ever does anything about it. Our problem is that everybody talks about it but only a few people get […]
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A place for business to live
PHOTO BY DAVID HINE On July 28, Mayor Langfelder 2.0 made good a campaign promise and appointed the members of a new Economic Development Commission that will advise the city’s – which is to say the mayor’s – Office of Planning and Economic Development. Major development projects, such as the bungled Bluffstone proposal to build […]
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Historic commitments
No loyal son or daughter of Illinois can ignore this pleas from Tara Winter, the Director of Development for the Illinois State Historical Society. The Illinois State Historical Society (ISHS) was founded in 1899. Our mission is to foster awareness, understanding, research, preservation, and recognition of history in Illinois. In order to meet our mission and provide services in our communities, […]
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You say
Words are to a writer what nails are to carpenter or lies to a diplomat. To do your job well you must choose just the right one for the job. I was chagrined today to learn, some 60 years late, that the standard plural of “octopus” is not “octopi,” as I always assumed. The Oxford […]
