Now Playing 4-10-03
Head ’em up and move ’em out. Get along little dogies–it’s time to boogie-woogie and mean it. Open mics are all the rage. A few months ago there were only a couple of spots available to expose yourself (careful) to the public. Now there are no less than ten venues on four different nights of…
The right tracks
Last January, a small team of city planners from across the U.S.–known as the Regional/Urban Design Assistance Team (R/UDAT)–spent a weekend in Springfield sizing up the city. It then released a beautification scheme that included pulling up the Third Street tracks and consolidating them onto the railroad corridor that runs along 10th Street. The Third…
Your Turn 4-10-03
UIS against sweatshops To the editor: This is a response to a letter from Hytham Kilani in your April 3-9 issue. Hytham stated that a majority of the clothing sold at UIS is made by sweatshop workers. Hytham’s allegation is not true, and I want to correct the record. We have documentation from our supplier,…
Men on the street?
A few weeks ago, a small band of workers fanned out across Springfield with flashlights and clipboards and spent two hours looking for the very folks most of us would cross the street to avoid–the homeless. It was the first time such an extensive search had been conducted in Springfield, says Rita Tarr, supervisor of…
Taking stock in the statehouse
Last week a new source of cash fell into the laps of Springfield lobbyists. Several New York securities firms hired statehouse lobbyists, but not for their help with legislation. What stock traders wanted was information, which, in the right hands, could be worth millions. Philip Morris has been rebelling against a court order to post…
Going to waste
Days before the April 1 mayoral election, Tim Davlin dismissed the notion of using CWLP’s billing system to charge residents for waste hauling, a proposal supported by a city solid-waste task force, Mayor Karen Hasara’s 2020 vision plan, and The Springfield Project. Also in January Ward 4 Alderman Chuck Redpath, who backed Davlin, proposed eliminating…
Native son
Tucked deep within Joe Williams’ wallet is a yellowed scrap of paper with seven names and seven strings of numbers scrawled in bold handwriting but faded by time. These names and numbers are all Williams has of his family history. This week Williams–who has sky blue eyes and blond hair, now white with age–talked with…
Still teaching tolerance
Don’t worry: he’s just going to make a speech and leave. Morris Dees, the famous civil rights attorney who co-founded the Southern Poverty Law Center, will deliver an address titled “A Passion for Justice” Monday night at Sangamon Auditorium. But he’s not going to hang around long enough to poke into any racial problems Springfield…
The War at Home
On Sunday, March 16, George W. Bush flew home from the Azores Islands for a “last day of diplomacy” before starting his war against Iraq. The next day in Peoria, Illinois, Robert Wood faced a war of his own. “There are no jobs,” complained Wood, a 41-year-old general contractor, as he stood outside the office…
Young Americans
“Consider the life of a teenager: You have parents, teachers, telling you what to do. You have movies, magazines, and TV telling you what to do. But you know what you have to do. Your job, your purpose, is to get accepted.” So said Harry H., the nastily-nicknamed, wizened-beyond-his-years pirate radio jock in the 1990…
