Letters to the Editor

CARTOON BY CHRIS BRITT BUREAUCY BOTCHES PAPERS Bruce Rushton’s analysis of the ongoing crisis at the Papers of Abraham Lincoln was well-written and informative (“Shredding Lincoln,” June 9). If government mismanagement of the Papers Project continues on its present course, we can expect the entire project to move out of state, as did the Grant […]

THE MAGIC OF CITY PLANNING Paul O’Shea makes a convincing case for a city planner for the City of Springfield (“Springfield needs a city planner,” June 2). I attended the Citizens Club Breakfast May 27 – a forum on urban planning with O’Shea; Rob Kowalski, city planner in Champaign; and Norm Sims, director of the Springfield-Sangamon County […]

Letter writer asks, “Why not… make good community investments across the entire picture” instead of just downtown? PHOTO BY DAVID HINE   THE TIF PUZZLEIf you’re wondering who, if anybody, will make an argument against extending the downtown TIF, Sen. Andy Manar has been making a strong and convincing one since he got to the […]

LETTERSWe welcome letters. Please include your full name, address and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to editor@illinoistimes.com. —– A SPIRITED STROLL You don’t usually think of a cemetery as a place to have fun, but this Saturday our own Oak Ridge Cemetery will be just that at the annual “Spirited Stroll” from 1 to 4 […]

The Springfield City Council hosts the city’s first CWLP public process meeting on Thursday, May 19, 6:30pm, at the Springfield City Council chambers. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE   ILLINOIS CLEAN JOBSThanks to Pat Yeagle for covering the Illinois NAACP’s “Just Energy Policy” roundtable at the Springfield Boys and Girls Club on May 5. The NAACP […]

TOUGH CHOICES The 2016 election is going to be determined by whether Republicans who hate Trump outnumber Democrats who hate Hillary. Democracy is premised philosophically on voting for candidates, ideologies and ideas which will prevail by majority vote going forward. This is almost reminiscent of 2012 when 3 million fundamentalists walked into the voting booth and asked […]

  RAIL RELOCATION PROBLEMSHere are some of the problems with the agreement between the city and the Illinois Department of Transportation regarding relocating rail traffic off the Third Street tracks. Mayor Langfelder and the city council should have held out for a better agreement instead of voting passage on April 26. The administration rushed the […]

RETIREE INCOME TAX I note that there seems to be a concern that retirees would flee the state of Illinois in droves if the state were to tax retirement income in excess of $50,000. I am wondering if low-income Illinoisans would also flee the state if only their income in excess of $50,000 was taxed. […]

  WHY GENES MUTATEA few remarks from left field on Jim Krohe’s April 7 column, “Being all you can be.” The instant I came upon “…accumulating scientific evidence suggests gayness is genetic in origin,” I was transported back to an intro course I’d taken in anthropology many years back. The following is verbatim from the […]

Downtown Springfield, Inc. continues to push for affordable housing downtown and public spaces that encourage fun, a healthy lifestyle and integrity. ILLUSTRATION BY SW PARRA/TNS GREEN SPACE DOWNTOWN Downtown Springfield, Inc. director Lisa Clemmons Stott continues to make an excellent point in citing housing downtown as key in revitalizing the downtown area. Drawing residents by creating spaces […]

These are panels from last week’s cartoon by Jen Sorensen. For the full cartoon go to www.illinoistimes.com.   GOD AND NORTH CAROLINA This is in response to the recent posting of Jen Sorensen’s nationally syndicated cartoon published in the March 31 edition of Illinois Times. The cartoon was a sarcastic repudiation of North Carolina’s recent […]

CARTOON BY CHRIS BRITT LAVISH CAMPAIGN SPENDING I don’t know how many people thoroughly read Bruce Rushton’s excellent, exhaustively detailed, informative and somewhat surprising piece on how our state legislators lavishly spend (and disclose the spending) of their campaign funds (“Lifestyles of the rich and elected,” March 17). I for one, found it to be […]