Category: City File

“Is it fair to ask the Inuit to give up snowmobiles and return to dog sleds or the Chinese to go back to bicycles when even the environmentalists won’t give up their global gallivanting?” asks Nicols Fox in an approving review of recent alarmist books by Mark Lynas (High Tide) and Paul and Anne Ehrlich […]

In a sentence. Alice Camille, writing in U.S. Catholic (August): “The deadliest sin in America is probably avarice, but it’s also the least confessed according to every priest I’ve ever talked to.” “My wealth is not only a product of my own hard work,” successful software entrepreneur Martin Rothenberg (Syracuse Language Systems) is quoted as […]

“Most people in the Chicago area have no idea where their river is located,” writes Laurene von Klan, executive director of Friends of the Chicago River, in the group’s newsletter, “River Reporter” (Spring). “They don’t know that the little ‘ditch’ next to highway 94 up north near Deerfield is a branch of the river. Who […]

What do you call a town where most new jobs pay around $25,000 and most homes are for people making $100,000? Naperville. According to “The Metropolis Housing Index: Housing as Opportunity,” published in July by Chicago Metropolis 2020, Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics figures reveal that in 2000 Naperville had 11,728 new jobs […]

“A great chance to educate the public has been botched in Chicago,” fumes Jed Perl in the New Republic (July 26), panning the video-intensive Art Institute exhibit “Seurat and the Making of La Grande Jatte.” He blames marketing. “The video screens, the digitalized rehashings of the painting, the photo murals, the jazzed-up gallery architecture, and […]

As others see our mayor. From Lisa Chamberlain’s report “Mayor Daley’s Green Crusade” in the July issue of Metropolis: “Seated at a long conference table surrounded by reports and memos, Daley’s locution ricochets from a grand vision of environmentalism to the vexing minutiae of urban life: the damaging effects of rock salt, poor drainage, abandoned […]

“We pay orthodontists an average of $350,000, and no one would say that their impact on the lives of kids is greater than a teacher’s,” writes Dave Eggers in Mother Jones (May/June). “I vividly remember, while growing up in the Chicago suburbs in the ’70s, knowing that my sixth-grade math teacher was also–even during the […]

Get rich quick–no financing needed. “The lure of ‘quick dollars,’ according to [west-side charter-school teacher Toni] Billingsley, was one of the most crucial issues facing the kids she taught,” writes Gregory Michie in Teacher Magazine (May). “‘They see kids their age who aren’t even in school making big money,’ she explained. ‘So they’re thinking, “You’re […]

As others see our mayor. Roxanne Qualls, former mayor of Cincinnati and board member of the Congress for the New Urbanism, speaking to a June 26 session of the Chicago-based group’s annual meeting: “Richard Daley is perhaps the greatest mayor this country has seen in decades. I’m not aware of any other city that has […]

Indicators that inspire. That’s what Center for Neighborhood Technology senior vice president Stephen Perkins found at a recent planning meeting in McHenry County (Chicago Wilderness Journal, March). The participants wanted to find indicators of the quality and extent of natural habitats. When they realized that the best areas were home to sandhill cranes, writes Perkins, […]

Maybe there aren’t any Catholic senators. That’s one lesson an objective observer might draw from Senator Dick Durbin’s 14-page June 2 press release, which lists the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ positions on legislation and compares them to the votes of the 14 Democratic and 10 Republican senators who are Catholics. Votes are divided into […]

“I’ve seen some teachers who have had some wonderful lesson plans, who would be outstanding teachers, but one of the things that hurt them in the classroom was that they were white,” west-side middle-school teacher Toni Billingsley tells Gregory Michie (Teacher Magazine, May). “One guy had a lot of liberal ideas that the kids were […]

A Republican with a brain. “Ten years ago, in 1994, Republicans won control of both houses of Congress,” Senator John McCain told a Washington, D.C., forum on May 18 (ndol.org). “For one brief shining moment, we employed true fiscal restraint and eventually managed to balance the budget and even attain that which had seemed unattainable–a […]

“Debate is catching fire in urban school districts around the country,” writes Maureen Kelleher in Catalyst Chicago (February), “and nowhere more so than in CPS [the Chicago Public Schools], which now has the largest league; 31 schools have teams, and 19 offer an elective course in debate.” Analogy of the week. From Steve Buchtel’s account […]

The Chicago Housing Authority no longer considers itself the housing provider of last resort, but someone has to be. Mary Nelson of Bethel New Life tells Angela Caputo of the Chicago Reporter (March) that her organization is seeing “an influx from CHA, [and] people are just desperate.” Let the states try toll roads, argues the […]