On a recent pleasure trip to San Francisco, I took a ride on one of the many historic streetcars that ply that city’s waterfront. Car 1058 is one of the kinds of cars that made up the fleets of such big-city transit agencies as Chicago’s CTA and the old St. Louis Public Service Co. I […]
James Krohe Jr.
Posted inOpinion
Driving the east side mad
Road crews, I see, will be spending the summer making the intersection of Dirksen Parkway and Clear Lake Avenue safe for the out of sorts. It’s been years since I’ve driven through it on a regular basis, but apparently at rush hours that spot is more congested than a legislative calendar in May. No wonder. […]
Posted inOpinion
No stickers
I will not be able to take Western religions seriously until they explain the sand burr. The plant’s very existence suggests that the universe is a creation of malevolent design. Even devout Christians come close to agreeing with me. While enjoying a balmy day, one believer writes, “And I thought, Father, this is so amazing, […]
Posted inOpinion
Taking to the streets
A people’s willingness to walk determines the shape of their towns – and their towns have a lot to do in determining the shape of the people who live in them. University of Tennessee researchers strapped pedometers on 1,136 American adults of various ages living in different kinds of places and compared the results to […]
Posted inOpinion
Give and take
Our lives and our politics are dominated by money, yet our thinking about the most basic number of them all – how much we earn – doesn’t add up. You’d think that people would at least know how much they are paid on the job, but most people underestimate how much they are compensated by […]
Posted inOpinion
All history is personal
The Sangamon County Historical Society turns 50 years old this year. Judged by such new initiatives as a Web-based encyclopedia of area history, the Society is – it pains me to say this – more spry than most of its members who, like me, were already well out of diapers when the Society was founded […]
Posted inOpinion
Betting the farm
Central Illinois farmland doesn’t usually return a fat harvest until the fall. These days it’s doing so all year long. Sales prices for prime farm acreage around Springfield rose roughly one fifth in 2010, to as much as $9,000 an acre for the best stuff, and they’re still rising. That’s faster than since the 1970s, […]
Posted inOpinion
Celebrating success
Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s modern pharaoh, and his two sons were “detained” in mid-April for questioning about corruption and abuse of power by Egyptian prosecutors. No one knows how much the longtime Egyptian strongman and his family have skimmed from the Egyptian economy during his rule. Estimates of $40-$70 billion appear absurdly high, but even $5 […]
Posted inOpinion
The bridges of Sangamon County
Usually, making a Top 10 list is cause for congratulation, but not when it’s Landmarks Illinois’ annual list of most endangered historic sites. In March, the preservationist group named to this year’s list the 110-year-old bridge that carries Bolivia Road from near Lanesville in Sangamon County south across the Sangamon River to the hamlet of […]
Posted inOpinion
Undercount
Forget one-person-one vote; we are moving toward a one election-one vote future. The turnout of registered voters in Peoria for April’s municipal elections — and remember that not all qualified voters are registered — was a bit more than 17 percent. In Chicago’s collar counties, turnout ranged from around 12 percent to 16.4 percent. In […]
Posted inOpinion
Relying on Senator Santa
The prospect of free money leaves even a Republican Chamber of Commerce stalwart like Mike Houston sounding like a spoils-oriented ward alderman. “Sen. [Dick] Durbin is a very powerful senator,” said former mayor Houston to the State Journal-Register the other day. “I think that he will eventually be able to provide the federal funds to […]
Posted inOpinion
Big deals about little games
Finally. The Springfield High girls beat Glenwood at soccer the other night, after nearly a decade during which Chatham girls played Mike Madigan to the conference’s legislative rank and file. The win was especially good news to your favorite columnist, who is a proud uncle of the goal-scorer and a nearly proud alum of SHS. […]
