TROLLEY TALES
Red cable cars rumble through the hilly streets of
San Francisco, and even around Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, on a daily
basis. On Sunday, one of our own downtown trolleys will make a
special appearance in Harvard Park.
The Springfield neighborhood celebrates its 100th anniversary
with trolley tours of its historical architecture, including brick
bungalows and the Springfield Mine Rescue Station, beginning at 1 p.m. and
3 p.m. at Harvard Park Baptist Church, 2401 S. Ninth St.
Fellow centenarian Paris Cleaners, 1013 E. Ash St.,
hosts an end-of-the-line get-together and shares the story of its business
and unusual storage vault.
Event organizers request a $5 donation from
participants.
DOG GONE
Barkers beware – the residents in Ward 8 are
sick and tired of your racket.
Ald. Kris Theilen says howling hounds caught a lot of
complaints during his campaign, and when he decided to look into the issue,
he was surprised by what he found. Someone decided in 1988 that a dog can
bark (or yap) for 15 consecutive minutes before they’re considered a
nuisance. So if an animal control officer is hiding in the bushes, ready to
haul Spot off to the pound, but Spot stops to take a drink, the count
returns to zero.
Like Ward 1 Ald. Frank Edwards and Ward 6 Ald. Mark
Mahoney, Theilen decided an animal control code update was in order. He
introduced an ordinance this week that limits the barking allowance to 10
minutes; it’s up for discussion at the Sept. 15 meeting of the public
affairs and safety committee.
Should we consider a similar ordinance for aldermen?
GRAMMER SCHOOL
Unless libations are somehow involved, weights and
measures just isn’t our thing. Nor is home improvement — or
anything that requires a hacksaw, really. So when Cap City reported last
week that an industrious homeowner could capture 625 gallons of water with
the installation of a rain barrel, Austin
Grammer, the man who donated three rain
barrels to a state-sponsored giveaway contest, was kind enough to correct
us. “One inch of rain on a 1,000-square-foot roof equals 625 gallons
of rain water,” Grammer alerted us (we omitted the part about the
roof).
“Without that, your statement does not make sense.”
DRESS FOR SUCCESS
Last year, per District 186’s Informational and Discipline Handbook for Students and
Parents, “clothing that exposes the
chest, abdomen, genital area or buttocks, [or] undergarments” were
verboten at Springfield schools. But, hey, it’s a new year. Barack Obama is now officially
his party’s nominee, Andre Iguodala inked a new contract, and we’ve avoided World
War III with Russia (for now). So before telling Junior he couldn’t
wear crotchless chaps on the first day of school, like any good parent
would, we consulted the district’s 2008-2009 handbook to make sure
the policy hadn’t changed.
Curiously, on page four of the booklet — where
the student dress code policy should appear, according to the table of
contents — there’s just a blank page. Which means, our teenager
surmised, that there technically is no dress code. Not exactly, says Charles Medley, director of school
support for Springfield schools. Medley, who claims that we probably just
got a defective copy, says that ignorance is no excuse as the dress code is
posted on the district’s Web site. No ‘net access at home?
Schools hold discipline assemblies at the beginning of the year, complete
with a dress code do’s and don’ts fashion show. He adds:
“The key to this is how you convey information to young
people.”
This article appears in Sep 4-10, 2008.
