by admin | Jul 12, 2015 | Chicago, Climate, Education, Environment, Public policy, Public safety, Resilience, Science, Urban Planning, Water
I grew up in suburban Cleveland. After a seven-year hiatus in Iowa and briefly in Nebraska, my wife’s home state, we ended up in Chicago. I am unquestionably a Midwesterner with most of my life lived near the Great Lakes. It will therefore not be surprising that for...
by admin | Jul 8, 2015 | Books, Chicago, Economic development, Education, Government, Political philosophy
A very curious op-ed article appeared Monday (July 6) in the Chicago Tribune. Tom Geoghegan, best known as a liberal lawyer who represents labor unions, made a plea for more taxes. Not just any taxes for any reason, but “Tax me, please, so Illinois can compete.” Let...
by admin | Jun 8, 2015 | Chicago, Public health, Recreation, Urban Planning
More than a century ago, the City of Chicago settled a neighborhood dispute by forcing the elevation of a railroad bed for a 2.7-mile spur line that served a variety of small factories on its North Side that provided jobs for a string of neighborhoods in or near...
by admin | May 3, 2015 | Books, Chicago, History, Journalism, Writing
Yesterday (May 2), a modest crowd celebrated 100 years of the Society of Midland Authors with speakers, panel discussions, and readings of authors past at the end of Society of Midland Authors Week, as declared by the Chicago City Council. Unfortunately, the event had...
by admin | Apr 12, 2015 | Chicago, Environment, Urban forest
Chicago is not terribly old, as world-class cities go. It was incorporated only in 1837. The area was essentially devoid of European settlers until the 19th century. In the preceding centuries, the resident Indians, including the Potawatomi, had created a landscape...
by admin | Feb 24, 2015 | Activism, Chicago, Homeless
If, like me, you work in the central business district of a major city, you probably cannot escape it. On the way from the CTA train station to the office, a four-block walk, it seems that I pass the homeless on every street corner. One part of me would like to do...
