Legislature's decisions have local impact

05/16/2012

The last weeks of the state legislative session hold dire consequences for our neighborhoods. As usual, more decisions are being made in backroom deals than by meaningful debate and votes in public. Legislative decisions that will affect us include university budgets, pensions, and Medicaid cutbacks in addition to shredding the social safety net, closing mental health facilities, cutting funding for the homeless and shutting prisons.
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Columnist vs. the vegetables

05/09/2012

There’s a grungy alley on Green just south of Randolph. If the wind is right, the aroma wafting from the kitchen of Girl & The Goat is pure heaven. I avoided that spot last month. For 30 days, I lived as a vegan. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I was feeling particularly puffy. During a checkup, my internist suggested a diet change after reviewing my elevated blood pressure reading. My neighbor Stella Guererro had just started the vegan challenge as a cleansing experience, so I decided to give it a shot.
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Voters support Rahm for now

04/18/2012

Mayor Rahm Emanuel has support of at least 57 percent of residents as of the latest poll by the University of Illinois at Chicago. Most citizens are also satisfied with city services, including the police department despite the rise in the murder rate. They are, unsurprisingly, dissatisfied with the public schools and support the proposed longer school day as a possible remedy.
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'L' of a controversy in the South Loop

03/28/2012

Since when did proximity to ‘L’ stations become the latest civil right? All everyone is talking about in the South Loop these days is the new proposed and soon to be begun new Green Line stop at Cermak, just east of State. Everyone has an opinion. And even if you don’t care if the stop goes there or not because, perhaps, you already have a stop (or stops) in your life like I do at Roosevelt and State — or you don’t mind walking a few blocks in one direction or another to the nearest stop — you are bound to offend and alienate one neighbor or another if you weigh in.
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Back to the barks

03/21/2012

My first visit this year to Mary Bartelme Park’s dog play area came last month. As we entered, my wife Mary looked at me with concern and asked, “You OK? Is it too soon?”
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Send the auto show to the suburbs

02/22/2012

At some point walking to the Chicago Auto Show last week I came up with a profound question: What’s it doing in a neighborhood where cars aren’t necessary? Many of us carless people in the South Loop may want to look at automobiles for old time’s sake, or to see what it feels like to sit in a car again. But as much as I like having the enormous 101-year-old spectacle perking up the South Loop environment, it’s a fish out of water. A hubcap off the wheel.
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Changing our corrupt city's course

02/15/2012

For many years, Chicago has been known as the most segregated city in North America. It is a source of shame. For just as many years, but more intently since the colorful Blagojevich trials, we have also been known the most corrupt city. Now based on a study by political scientists from the University of Illinois at Chicago, we have the statistics to confirm our dishonorable and notorious reputation.
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Riding off the beaten tracks

02/08/2012

One great thing about hockey is the camaraderie. I’ve met some really interesting people through the league including a theater director, an economist, a franchisee, some teachers, as well as guys in pharma, auto and steel pipe sales.
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Sorting out the new ward boundaries

01/25/2012

I’ve never seen my South Loop neighbors as emotional as they’ve been since the City of Chicago ward remap passed the city council 41 to 8 last week. The levels of both elation and despair have reached heights unsurpassed by the grandest of the grand opera. You can hear both cheers and the wails on the streets of Big Bill Dawson’s old stomping grounds.
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Judges for sale in Cook County

01/18/2012

Hey bud, would you like to buy a judge? Judges in Illinois can be bought by cash or votes. The Central Committee of the Democratic Party of Cook County buys judges with the promise of votes, naming them to the party’s official slate in exchange for implicit support.
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