Archive for November, 2007

IL-14 Special Election: Thanks, Denny

Author: yinn

Nov 30

[Update 12/4: The special primary will be February 5 along with the regular primary, as we thought it would be; the special general is scheduled for March 8.]

It’s funny (albeit in that kind of lip-curling way) that Denny Hastert says he resigned the way he did so we could have the special primary on the same day as the regular primary to save us taxpayers money. That’s hogwash. If he really wanted to save us money he’d finish his term. We still need to have the special general election, one more than we bargained for this year, and as far as I can tell it will cost the county about $45,000 to put on that extra show. Denny does not appear to have resigned because of health issues, which in my book is one of few legitimate reasons for packing up early; indeed, he seems miffed that the nasty partisan Congress wouldn’t let him influence energy policy. Boo hoo hoo. Read the rest of this entry

8 Comments
Filed under: National Campaigns, Payment Due?, Political Campaigns

Route 23

Author: yinn

Nov 29

There was a transportation meeting at Kishwaukee College on Tuesday. It reminded me of an idea I’d heard and would like to throw out to you.

At the meeting, they remarked that non-local truck traffic was decreasing on Route 38 and holding steady on Route 23 so there is no reason to pursue costly bypasses. Well, there is one road in DeKalb where truck traffic must be increasing and that is Peace Road.

The county maintains Peace Road but building proper roads for heavy truck traffic is much more expensive than for regular roads. Should this perhaps be a job for IDOT? What if the part of Gurler that runs east from 4th to Peace (which eventually will be inhabited by industrial and commercial interests), then Peace Road all the way north to Plank Road in Sycamore, were designated Route 23?

It’s true that the city wants to tackle the South 4th Street revitalization with the help of IDOT, but the other idea clearly has merit as well. I thank M. for bringing it up.

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Filed under: Plans & Surveys

I Need a Tax Abatement

Author: yinn

Nov 28

I try not to gripe about logistics (the lowest of low-hanging industrial fruits for a city on Route 88) as long as they stay in the designated warehousing “district” of Park 88. I make no such effort when it comes to the give-aways, especially coming on the heels of the hideous maneater called “Tax Assessment 2007,” another school referendum on the way and a recession looming.

DeKalb City Council Resolution 07-98:

DECLARING INTENT TO PROVIDE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FOR DEVELOPMENT OF PROPERTY LOCATED ON LOT 11 OF PARK 88.

The City Council passed this on Monday. It means that they are going to “play ball” by supplying tax abatements and fee waivers to a company that probably chose us months ago but that we don’t even get to know the name of yet.

Ah, for the day that someone says: “Fee waivers? Doesn’t that mean we’d need to raise fees for the residents? I don’t think so.”

Or: “If you care about our schools, you’ll pay your full freight from Day One.”

It’s tough to keep up morale. Some days, seems we cling to our middle-class dreams by the ravaged edges of our fingernails.

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Filed under: Council/City Watch, Payment Due?

American Way of Protest

Author: yinn

Nov 24

Looks like the bridge team may be allowed to play again:

U.S. Bridge Team in Shanghai

Who knew so many people cared about bridge? A nearly record-breaking number of comments piled beneath on Wednesday’s column about the U.S. women’s bridge team’s anti-Bush protest, most of them supporting the ladies.

“We did not vote for Bush,” read the sign they held up during the team’s victory ceremony at the world bridge championships in Shanghai last month.

Commenters on the article pointed out that they feel compelled to do the same when they travel internationally. I know the feeling, kind of. As a teenager and foreign exchange student I had to field inquiries regarding then-President Jimmy Carter and development of the neutron bomb, as well as to accept condolences upon the death of Elvis. Read the rest of this entry

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Filed under: National/International

Milkman Ignores the Troops

Author: yinn

Nov 17

Today I received two mailers from IL-14 congressional candidate Jim Oberweis. Bet you did too–did you read them? I did, and just have to ask:

In what strange dimension does one have to reside, to run for the U.S. Congress in 2008 and send out two detailed campaign mailers that do not even mention IRAQ?!

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Filed under: National Campaigns, Political Campaigns

Wasting Heat

Author: yinn

Nov 12

From Bill McKibben in the latest issue of Orion Magazine:

From his desk in an office in Chicago, Jeff Smith has a bird’s-eye view of the American landscape. Combing through a huge database of information compiled by the EPA, he can, almost literally, peer down every smokestack in the nation and figure out what’s going on inside.

And what he sees is heat. Waste heat—one of the country’s largest potential sources of power, pouring up out of those smokestacks. If it could be recycled into electricity, that heat would generate immense amounts of power without our having to burn any new fossil fuels. By immense, I mean, speaking technically, humongous. Even after he’s winnowed the nation’s half a million smokestacks down to the most likely customers, that leaves twenty-five thousand stacks. “An astronomical number,” Smith says.

Read the rest of this entry

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Filed under: Energy & Environment

City Barbs at Two

Author: yinn

Nov 11

City Barbs has just turned two years old. I send my eternal gratitude to Joe for starting it, tip my hat to Tom who suggested the project in the first place, and thank treesfieldssky for contributing original–investigative, even!–content. This is the bestest pastime ever, better than TV or even genealogy. And I really like genealogy.

If this blogging gig paid anything, I’d quit some of my day jobs and recruit like crazy. Since it doesn’t, let me just say that I hope some of the lurkers become commenters someday and that some of the commenters become contributors of articles some day.

Make the jump for some Joe. Read the rest of this entry

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Filed under: Site News

Wogen, Neighbors & the Women’s Center

Author: yinn

Nov 10

This is to update the post of October 29 concerning Victor Wogen, the Neighbors Helping Neighbors group (NHN) and the DeKalb Area Women’s Center (DAWC).

Victor Wogen did indeed obtain use of a lift for the DAWC paint job after all. (We had a chuckle over the lift belonging to Irving Construction. Made us wonder about somebody’s golf pass too. But I digress.) Volunteers associated with NHN and others who had heard about the project showed up. Most of the day was spent on the north side of the building replacing siding, priming and painting. Since only two people could use the lift at one time, others worked at raking and pulling weeds from the garden.

I do not know the particulars on any work after Saturday, but did want to help get the word out about ongoing plans:

  • NHN has decided not to confine its membership or its neighborliness necessarily to the 3rd Ward;
  • they will work on indoor projects at DAWC one Saturday per month during the winter; and
  • the group currently is organizing help for a family beset with catastrophic medical bills to provide a Christmas for their young children.

    • As always, click on the NHN link on the right to vist the group and to make further inquiries.

    We send our best wishes for tomorrow’s Finnish Culture Day concert at DAWC.

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    Filed under: Community Resources, Council/City Watch