IT readers and Springfield residents in general have lost a good friend with the untimely passing of Illinois Times guest columnist Phil Bradley. Bradley, 72, of Chatham, died June 27. At one time he headed the Illinois Dept. of Public Aid and was once director of the Illinois Dept. of Rehabilitation Services. He was a […]
Opinion
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Naming right
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 […]
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Work? What work?
Sen. Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood There is courage in politics, they say, and there is also chutzpah. And then there is state Sen. Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood. State comptroller Leslie Munger stopped issuing paychecks to lawmakers in April, figuring that they should have to wait for their money along with private vendors, universities and tons of other […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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Unsocial media
President Eisenhower said, “If you aren’t in the middle of the road, you are in the gutter.” What he expressed 60-plus years ago applies to today’s Facebook. Sure, there are lots of pictures of happy family gatherings, new babies, memories of past good times. But increasingly my newsfeed is filled with hatred, largely from the […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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The fight over the Illinois State Museum
One of the many casualties of the state budget disaster has been the closure of the Illinois State Museum, which is scheduled to reopen next month, with an admission charge. It is not the only time in its history that the state museum has been subjected to such treatment. In 1887, the museum was thrown […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
