Men from the Urban League’s Male Involvement Program are getting construction training while rehabbing this home on North Fifth Street in the Enos Park neighborhood. Back row, from left to right, are Joseph Yeley, Montrell Isom, Troy Sullivan and S PHOTO BY DAVID HINE In the 1000 block of North Fifth Street, a tall, former […]
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Engineered to succeed
What does the future hold for Springfield? That depends largely on what happens with the proposal to consolidate rail traffic on the 10th Street rail corridor. If the project withers without funding, downtown Springfield may be doomed to choke on a twofold increase in trains hemming in the city’s core. Relocating the Third Street rail […]
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Crushed
Angela McGonigle tried to do everything right. Born and raised in Springfield, she had saved $5,000 to attend Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville but used the money to study abroad instead. Despite the slight indulgence, she still had a plan. McGonigle worked as a resident assistant to pay for her housing. Starting in 1994, she […]
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Going the mile
It is, really, very simple. Apply throttle, turn left every 10 seconds or so and forget about the brakes. Boiled down, that is the essence of racing motorcycles on dirt tracks. You don’t have to be big or tall. “It’s fingertips and toes,” says Steve Morehead, a retired racer who works as a race director […]
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Reviving a tradition at Clayville
Close your eyes and drift back in time. There are no cars, no cellphones, no computers, no electric grid. Not a film in a theater or a movie on TV and not one single musical recording via iTunes, albums, eight-track or Mp3. Only through direct human involvement, right before your eyes and ears, can entertainment […]
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More than vegetables
An idea that is a good one never quite goes away. Instead it rides the waves of interest, research and possibilities – it grows and melds with the times. Such is the idea of community gardens and urban agriculture. The aspirations for food production within an urban setting have always gone beyond the desire for […]
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Extreme school makeover
What would cause parents to be excited about sending their children to a 102-year-old school building where 82 percent of the students come from low-income homes? The answer is an outpouring of generosity from a community intent on seeing the school succeed. Ever since the summer of 2011, Springfield’s Harvard Park Elementary School has seen […]
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Get out of jail clean
It is Friday, and drug court is back in session on the seventh floor of the Sangamon County courthouse. As on every Friday at 11 a.m., two dozen or so participants in the county’s fledgling drug court wait for the judge, discussing results of tests that determine whether they’ve been drinking or doping. Pass and […]
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Citizen rockers
“I was born here but I can’t die here / And all my dreams, they all dried up a long time ago” – lyric from “Dignity” by The Seething Coast Playing in a rock and roll band is never a casual proposition. Investments of time and money for rehearsal and equipment can be sizable, while […]
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Building bigger, better hospitals
What’s the official bird of St. John’s Hospital? The crane. That silly joke popped up shortly after the towering construction crane began hoisting materials around the hospital in June 2012. The construction is part of the hospital’s ongoing expansion project, and two other major health care providers in Springfield – Memorial Medical Center and Springfield […]
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Smackdown
Outlawed since 1924, heroin bumped along from the Jazz Age through the Vietnam War, mostly as someone else’s problem, at least so far as most folks outside large metropolitan areas were concerned. Penalties are tough. Heroin possession in Illinois can fetch four to 60 years in prison, depending on the amount. The threat of prison […]
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Summer movie guide 2013
Like a gambling addict who continues to lay large wagers against the house despite mixed results, Hollywood studios keep spending insane amounts of money in the hopes of delivering a film that not only appeals to American audiences but to those overseas as well. If it’s a property that will spawn sequels, all the better. […]
