Letters to the Editor

The City of Springfield’s first and only traffic roundabout opened in 2011, at the intersection of 12th Street and Capitol Avenue. PHOTO BY NAN BULLI ROUNDABOUTS Several years ago, the recently retired and greatly missed Dave Bakke of The State Journal-Register wrote an article expressing his concern about what he considered to be the excessive […]

Map of proposed Hunter Lake   ANOTHER INCONVENIENT TRUTHAt the May 17 CWLP electricity generation public forum, Mayor Langfelder said the proposed Hunter/Lake II is more about economic development than the need for more water in a severe drought. He may have revealed an inconvenient truth to the Army Corps of Engineers and USEPA, who […]

The Clinton Power Station, operated by Exelon Nuclear. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE SUPPORT CLEAN ENERGY Illinois is at grave risk of losing its status as one of America’s clean energy leaders. If it shuts down two of its high-performing nuclear plants, they will be replaced by out-of-state methane gas from fracking. (“After the atom,” by […]

CARTOON BY CHRIS BRITT BUREAUCY BOTCHES PAPERS Bruce Rushton’s analysis of the ongoing crisis at the Papers of Abraham Lincoln was well-written and informative (“Shredding Lincoln,” June 9). If government mismanagement of the Papers Project continues on its present course, we can expect the entire project to move out of state, as did the Grant […]

THE MAGIC OF CITY PLANNING Paul O’Shea makes a convincing case for a city planner for the City of Springfield (“Springfield needs a city planner,” June 2). I attended the Citizens Club Breakfast May 27 – a forum on urban planning with O’Shea; Rob Kowalski, city planner in Champaign; and Norm Sims, director of the Springfield-Sangamon County […]

Letter writer asks, “Why not… make good community investments across the entire picture” instead of just downtown? PHOTO BY DAVID HINE   THE TIF PUZZLEIf you’re wondering who, if anybody, will make an argument against extending the downtown TIF, Sen. Andy Manar has been making a strong and convincing one since he got to the […]

LETTERSWe welcome letters. Please include your full name, address and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to editor@illinoistimes.com. —– A SPIRITED STROLL You don’t usually think of a cemetery as a place to have fun, but this Saturday our own Oak Ridge Cemetery will be just that at the annual “Spirited Stroll” from 1 to 4 […]

The Springfield City Council hosts the city’s first CWLP public process meeting on Thursday, May 19, 6:30pm, at the Springfield City Council chambers. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE   ILLINOIS CLEAN JOBSThanks to Pat Yeagle for covering the Illinois NAACP’s “Just Energy Policy” roundtable at the Springfield Boys and Girls Club on May 5. The NAACP […]

TOUGH CHOICES The 2016 election is going to be determined by whether Republicans who hate Trump outnumber Democrats who hate Hillary. Democracy is premised philosophically on voting for candidates, ideologies and ideas which will prevail by majority vote going forward. This is almost reminiscent of 2012 when 3 million fundamentalists walked into the voting booth and asked […]

  RAIL RELOCATION PROBLEMSHere are some of the problems with the agreement between the city and the Illinois Department of Transportation regarding relocating rail traffic off the Third Street tracks. Mayor Langfelder and the city council should have held out for a better agreement instead of voting passage on April 26. The administration rushed the […]

RETIREE INCOME TAX I note that there seems to be a concern that retirees would flee the state of Illinois in droves if the state were to tax retirement income in excess of $50,000. I am wondering if low-income Illinoisans would also flee the state if only their income in excess of $50,000 was taxed. […]

  WHY GENES MUTATEA few remarks from left field on Jim Krohe’s April 7 column, “Being all you can be.” The instant I came upon “…accumulating scientific evidence suggests gayness is genetic in origin,” I was transported back to an intro course I’d taken in anthropology many years back. The following is verbatim from the […]