Promoting safe and livable neighborhoods throughout our community should be the number one priority of city government. Embracing that priority must not only include the wise investment of our limited resources but also a willingness to seek solutions to neighborhood problems. That commitment is lacking. Nowhere is it more evident than in our older neighborhoods […]
Opinion
Posted inOpinion
Unicorns on the Sangamon
When asked by new acquaintances which of my many achievements I am most proud, I do not mention my bird imitations or my role (admittedly peripheral) in the Great Bran Flake Robbery in 1967. I tell them I am proudest of having won the Harvard Prize Book. I do not tell them — it being […]
Posted inOpinion
Better boxes
Having resolved to build new high school facilities it can’t pay for, the board of School District 186 is exploring several tax hike proposals that the voters won’t approve. The board’s preferred plan to bring Springfield’s public high schools into the late 20th century is likely to cost nearly a quarter-billion dollars. Some $57 million […]
Posted inOpinion
Discovering moon rocks in Illinois
I am a criminal justice graduate student whose professor assigns students the task of investigating and hunting down the whereabouts of the Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 moon rocks, given to the 50 states, Puerto Rico and the nations of the world. My professor at the University of Phoenix, Joseph Gutheinz, is a retired senior […]
Posted inOpinion
Video gambling is the new crack
Becoming law in July 2009, the Illinois Video Gambling Act allowed Illinois more gambling and more video gambling/slot machines (VGMs) than Nevada. This legislation permitted any licensed establishments pouring alcohol to have “mini-casinos” with video gambling — including not just bars, but also truck stops, restaurants, bowling alleys, airport lounges, entertainment parlors, fraternal clubs and […]
Posted inOpinion
Going ’round and ’round:
For years the noise of vehicles colliding has been making the cats nervous around the intersection of MacArthur Boulevard and Lawrence Avenue. And for years the City of Springfield and residents on Springfield’s near west side have disputed how best to reduce the number of accidents. The city’s traffic engineers, like most of their guild, […]
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Just extra money
For a day or two in late November, it was just like the old days on Wall Street — well, like 2008, anyway. The National Association of Realtors had reported that house sales had risen 10.1 percent in October, several times higher than predicted, and that sent stock prices up. Only a few days before […]
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The Illinois budget is broken
The day after Veterans Day, we were reminded of another long-running war of attrition, in which clueless elected officials have been squandering resources in ways that threaten our security over the long term. No, not the fighting in Helmand Province, but in the General Assembly. On Nov. 12 the Pew Center on the States, a […]
Posted inOpinion
How to prevent breast cancer
One simple test could end up saving thousands of women’s lives. Yet, for those without health insurance, the test comes too late. According to the American Cancer Society, this year alone an estimated 40,170 women will lose their lives to breast cancer. Meanwhile, it is estimated that 4,000 breast cancer deaths could be prevented just […]
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All is not well forever
All but a few members of the Springfield High School Hall of Fame are not in the least bit famous in Springfield. In the English-speaking bookish community, however, one of those anointed is celebrated. Robert Stuart Fitzgerald’s reworking into English verse of the Aeneid, The Odyssey and The Iliad are not only admired but loved. […]
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My fond farewell to this year’s farmers’ marke
This past August, I came to Springfield, beginning my life as a college student at UIS. One of the first things my English class did was take a field trip to the Old Capitol Farmers’ Market. I was instantly enthralled by the abundance of fruits and vegetables and the sweet aromas of pastries and kettle […]
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Underground movements
Watching TV around Halloween — when so many rotting corpses rise from the grave to threaten the unwary that it is easy to think that it is an election year — reminded me that dead people are a waste disposal problem. Call them corruptible or call them putrescible, they rot. Frontier-era settlers learned to their […]
