Mayor Tim Davlin early this month announced his appointments to the City of Springfield’s new Citizens Infrastructure Review Board, intended to obtain citizen input and guidance in prioritizing needed streets and sidewalks improvements. Priorities must be set when one has more needs than one has money, which is the case in the capital city. At […]
Illinois – James Krohe Jr
Posted inOpinion
Living in three dimensions
Dave Bakke, who usually observes the world from the upper slopes of the State Journal-Register, the other day looked at it from an even higher vantage point – the cenotaph that stands on the edge of the bluff above Chandlerville. The view down the Sangamon valley from that spot, he wrote, is the most beautiful […]
Posted inOpinion
Taking the Christian out of the YMCA
The American public tends to be ignorant of any history that hasn’t been the subject of a TV series, and so it was no surprise when market detectives hired by the national YMCA found members of that public to be “confused” about what it is, exactly, that a Young Men’s Christian Association is. That is […]
Posted inOpinion
Slower than a speeding bullet
Illinoisans often feel like a space traveler who, having intercepted the TV signals that escaped from Earth a generation ago, sees the past when it was still the present. On July 20, authorities announced a further step in the development of Illinois’ slightly faster passenger rail corridor. Some 90 miles of tracks from roughly Alton […]
Posted inOpinion
It’s not the heat but the stupidity
“Springfield,” wrote the St. Louis Republican 120 years ago, “offers a pleasant retreat during the hot summer months to those living in the cities of the South.” This is perhaps the single most astonishing assertion about Springfield that I have encountered in 40 years of reading about the city. “Sultry,” my Beardstown grandmother used to […]
Posted inOpinion
Careless with heroes
We can all be grateful that when a heavy bomber visits our city, it is an occasion for a family outing. In June the “Sentimental Journey,” a restored B-17 Flying Fortress, spent a couple of days at Capital Airport. Crowds gather whenever one of these old beauties from World War II comes to town. Children […]
Posted inOpinion
Illinois’ Imelda
First, the public confession. “My name is Milorad Blagojevich, and I’m a shopaholic.” Next comes the recovery, and the book recounting how he hit bottom – a landing cushioned by piles of $200 neckties but painful nonetheless – and then the announcement that he’s been named host of the daytime talk show on Lifetime. Finally. […]
Posted inOpinion
Fury like Armageddon
The foundations of Springfield institutions will crack and sway. Structures long thought impregnable will topple; a long-familiar landscape with be altered beyond recognition. No, it is not the conviction of Bill Cellini that might cause this calamity, but the major earthquake that is almost certain to strike Springfield and the rest of this part of […]
Posted inOpinion
Talk to me
It is a rare human being who does not enjoy being read to. The soothing tones of the mother at the bedside, reading us to sleep, the soothing tones of the politician, reading from a teleprompter, reading us to sleep – our appetite for the spoken word is instinctual. Happily, technology and big government have […]
Posted inOpinion
Reinventing the past
Building new businesses based on new ideas is the central axiom of the near-science of economic development. Sangamon County’s would-be Edisons in the medical field recently were invited to submit ideas for the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce’s Project Innovation, intended to encourage local entrepreneurs in health care. The finalist ideas, announced in May, included […]
Posted inOpinion
Something about a man in uniform
You wouldn’t think it was possible for a soldier to shoot himself in the back while marching toward the front line, but Congressman Mark “Don’t Get Fooled Again” Kirk has managed to do it several times. By all accounts a capable intelligence officer in the Navy Reserve, Mr. Kirk felt compelled to make himself out […]
Posted inOpinion
Cheeseparing in the Capitol complex
The William G. Stratton Building – eyesore, health risk, money trap – has gotten a reprieve. It has been sitting on Death Row since 2007, when the State of Illinois launched an inquiry and found the 56-year-old office building to be guilty, and began the process that would lead to its execution by bulldozer. Turns […]
