Briefly, on a few items in this week’s Chicago Journal:

We have little doubt that funds will be raised — eventually — to pay for the restoration of artist Edgar Miller’s incredible Depression Era sculptures, installed into a Near West side public housing project in 1938 and removed three years ago. Six of the seven sculptures are sitting in Andrzej Dajnowski’s Forest Park art studio awaiting restoration, and they are simply too stunning to ignore forever. But while those dollars are found, the Chicago Housing Authority and Related Midwest, the developer behind the stalled Roosevelt Square project, need to work with philanthropic partners, historians and the art community to, at the very least, pay the very patient Dajnowski monthly storage costs. He’s doing the entire city a service by keeping the sculptures safe. The least that all stakeholders interested in the sculptures can do is pay him for that service.

Give city clerk Miguel del Valle credit for what appears to be a diligent effort to improve how information about city council is released to the public on his Web site. Monday’s announcement of an online archive of council meetings is a welcome one. The next step is broadcasting more local government on television — the city’s cable channels are a logical place.

The Medill News Service story we’re publishing this week about Aqua, a new residential building (and, we hope, hotel), suggests that the tower is faring better than other structures put up during the downtown real estate boom. Unlike many of those buildings, which now are seeking buyers and renters, Aqua’s architecture is nothing short of stunning. Let that be a lesson to the city, the aldermen and, most importantly, to the developers. Should the real estate market ever pick back up, good design equals good business.

The Chicago Public Schools’ budget deficit is simply staggering, and there’s much shadowboxing, negotiating, fighting and discussion still to be had on how to fix it. Cuts, perhaps inevitably, are coming down the pike. At Skinner, full-day kindergarten for West Loop students is facing the ax. We called for an income tax increase in last week’s paper to support education and other essential services. Some of you vehemently disagreed with that take, and we’ll publish those views next week. But we can’t help but feel that this week’s piece about Skinner makes the case. Again. And there are many more stories yet to come similar to this one. It’s a hard time.