Archive for April 28th, 2008
April 28th, 2008
Today we are pulling old photos from our archives and sending photographers out to shoot new ones. That’s for a photo gallery we’ll post online that will look at Then & Now of the city’s west side. I love to linger over photographs of years past and I know readers do, too.
We’ll start the project by talking about some of the changes on the city’s west side over the last three decades. This morning before work, I drove around the west side. I wanted to be sure the project launch stories capture the right tone. My quick reconnaissance told me they do, mostly because of Judy Emerson’s deft touch on the keyboard.
April 28th, 2008
I’ve never understood why so many people are so down on this community. I moved here eight years ago. Figured I would stay two and move on to another news organization. Ended up falling in love with the people and the town. Mostly, it’s the people who are from here who dis it the most. Why is that? I don’t have bad things to say about Peoria (my hometown) or Cedarburg, Wis. (a town just north of Milwaukee where I lived through middle and high school).
(Just look at what people had to say about Rockford after Rolling Stone blasted the town.)
You hear about “that school system,” the crime rate, the lack of jobs and so on. These are all things we can do something about.
There was a big push last year to be positive about Rockford and the surrounding area when consultant Rebecca Ryan visited. She presented a report that highlighted ways our region could be more vital. She encouraged Rockfordians to sign a pledge. By signing, you agreed to be positive about Rockford. I signed it way back when. (Unfortunately, the pledge appears to be offline now.)
ALAN LEON | RRSTAR.COM FILE PHOTO
Rebecca Ryan (right) of Next Generation Consulting answers a question posed by Linda Grist Cunningham, Register Star executive editor, during an Editorial Board meeting held Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2007, at the News Tower. Ryan answered questions regarding the results of her study: “Attracting and Retaining Young Talent to the Rockford Area.”
I feel I am being positive about Rockford with this project: 180 Degrees: Solutions for a Better Rockford. Want to find ways to make Rockford a better place. Reduce crime. Improve education. Promote our community. Not simple things to achieve. But if we truly make this a campaign and we all get on board, we could make a difference.
Will you join the movement?
April 28th, 2008
This 180-degree project came out of a lightly attended Editorial Board meeting. Linda Cunningham, Judy Emerson and I were the only ones who met that day.
Judy mentioned she had talked to an attorney who said he could set up an interview with Karl Fort, the leader of the Gangster Disciples in the early ’90s.
Fort’s name had us reminiscing about the “Rout at dawn” headline that led the newspaper on July 29, 1993 and how a similar arrest a few years ago hardly grabbed our attention and didn’t even make it to Page 1.
Linda talked about Fort’s influence on the drug trade, gangs and crime in general. We talked about how much Rockford has changed over the years. Linda said it’s time we took a look at how Winnebago County came to have the highest crime rate in the state. The seed for the project was planted and started to take root over the next few weeks.
Since then there has been a lot of conversation, brainstorming and hard work by Judy and others on the reporting staff. We started talking about crime, but the project has grown to envelop all aspects of life in the Rock River Valley.
The project ties in closely to our Editorial Agenda. Lots of work needs to be done yet, but stories should be available soon.
We eagerly await your reaction and suggestions.
April 28th, 2008
My role in this projects is to collect numbers. Just in this morning is a bevy of religious data from The Glenmary Research Center.
According to Glenmary, the number of religious bodies with churches in Boone, Ogle and Winnebago counties grew from 38 in 1980 to 47 in 1990 and to 53 in 2000.
These numbers do not include historically African American churches who rarely respond to Glenmary’s surveys.
Among the religious groups now with churches in the Rock River Valley that didn’t have a presence here in 1980:
American Baptist Association, American Carpatho-Russion Orthodox Greek Catholic Church, Apostolic Christian Church of America Inc., Baha’i, Buddhism, Church of God of Prophecy, Community of Christ, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, Muslim, National Association of Free Will Baptists, New Testament Association of Independent Baptist Churches, Serbian Orthodox Church in the U.S.A. and The Wesleyan Church.
The Catholic Church remains the single largest religious body with 78,151 adherents as of 2000. That was up from 47,880 in 1980.
April 28th, 2008
… a lot of discussion, that’s for sure.
this project started out being called “how we got here” in very informal terms when a few members of the editorial board came up with the idea around the holidays. (i’ll let them write more about the genesis of the project themselves.)
for a while, the project was dubbed “save rockford,” playing off the “heroes” theme, but some staffers thought it was overly dramatic. i liked it, in part because our tv partner, wrex-13, airs the show, so it could have been a nice tie-in, albeit slight.
other names we proposed include “building a better rockford,” “pressing forward,” “root for rockford” and “making a good neighborhood.”
it’s hard for a dozen people to agree on anything — and characterize the large scope of what we’re trying to achieve in just a few words.
we ended up with “180 degrees: solutions for a better rockford” as a hybrid from a number of suggestions.
