Posts filed under 'Uncategorized'
June 18th, 2008
The first question when we broke into small groups during last night’s Community Viewpoints Board meeting was “How has crime affected you.”
“It’s raised my taxes,” Joyce Higgins said.
How true. Even if you haven’t been a direct victim of a robbery or burglary you still pay the price. Not only do our tax dollars go to pay for police patrols and administration costs, we have that 1 cent jail tax to support Winnebago County’s College for Criminals, among other things.
Later, when we gathered as a big group again, Ben Holmstrom asked whether we’d complain about our taxes if the local crime rate was more like Naperville’s. If we saw value in how the tax dollars were spent, would we be as concerned about how much we paid?
What do you think?
Community Viewpoints Board members have their own blog, “Viewpoints Board.” Check it out to read what they think.
June 17th, 2008
Tonight members of our Community Viewpoints Board will be here in the second of its quarterly meetings. On the agenda is the 180 Degrees project. We want to know what CVB members think of what we’ve done so far and are seeking their help as we explore solutions.
They may not come up with any thing tonight, but keep an eye out on the Viewpoints Board blog.
June 11th, 2008
Tomorrow members of the steering committee of the Year of Innovation will visit the Editorial Board.
The Year of Innovation programs will focus on:
Entrepreneurship (Creativity, Courage, Leadership)
Environment (Stewardship, Responsibility, Sustainability)
Engagement (Involvement, Mentoring, Community)
These efforts might help with the solutions segment of the 180 Degrees project. You’ll read about the Year of Innovation in the next few days.
June 9th, 2008
Part of the name for this 180 Degrees project is “Solutions for a Better Rockford.” We haven’t explored solutions yet. The first parts of the series are setting up the where we are and how we got here. This will be at least a yearlong effort, so there’s much, much more coming.
We are serious about exploring solutions. That will be the most difficult part as we go forward.
June 6th, 2008
As part of our crime package, we’ll have a database of reported offenses in Rockford’s ten beats from 1988 through 2005.There were lots of interesting things out of the data. Here’s a few.Crime is way down since peaking in the early 1990s. So much so that it got me wondering why the county built such a massive jail. In the future we’ll have to keep an eye on how many inmates are in it. Unless there was a large jump in crime in surrounding towns — which is possible since Loves Park, Machesney Park, Cherry Valley, Winnebago, Rockton, Roscoe and South Beloit have grown tremendously — we may have overbuilt. (Below: Winnebago County Criminal Justice Center) 
Interesting numbers from within the data:*
In beat 6, which includes the Seventh St. and Broadway corridor, sex offenses grew from 30 in 1988 to 275 by 1998, the highest total for any beat in any year. Then sex offenses dropped every year after, falling to 85 by 2005. But as reported sex offenses fell, the number of deadly weapons offenses rose.
In 1998, there were 68 reported deadly weapons offenses and that grew to 90 by 2005.*
Controlled substance offenses have fallen this decade. In 1996, there were 690 of these offenses and 663 in 1999. In 2001, that had fallen to 448 and in 2005 it was all the way down to 398.
But while those reports have dropped, there has been a marked increase in cannabis cases. In 1989, there were just 65 cannabis offenses reported. The 1990s ranged from 64 in 1990 to 468 in 1998. This decade, there have been at least 402 cannabis reports each year, including 522 in 2003. In fact, in 2003 and 2005, there were more cannabis reports than controlled substance reports. Why?* Couples appear to be getting along better.
In 1994 police responded to 8,690 domestic disputes. That fell to 4,012 by 2000 and was at 5,013 in 2005.There’s a lot more to look at.
Check out the database here.
June 6th, 2008
If you haven’t been able to read the 180 Degrees stories online this week, the entire package will be in Sunday’s Opinions section.
180 Degrees will appear on five of the six Opinions pages.
June 3rd, 2008
The first part of the second part (make sense?) of our 180 degrees project has been posted this morning. This installment focuses on crime, which is the reason we started this endeavor.
How did Winnebago County get to the point of having the highest crime rate per capita in the state? It’s not just Rockford. Rockford by itself has a high crime rate by usually is behind (ahead of?) at least East St. Louis.
We’re trying to answer that question, among others, as we go forward. We see 180 degrees as a continuing effort. We’re serious about finding solutions. We know there are no easy answers. If there were, there’d be no need for this project.
May 30th, 2008
Rockford needs good jobs to turn its economy around. But economic development leaders and local politicians continue to “think small.” Meanwhile, Rochelle leads the way in innovation, resulting in an ever-expanding array of prestigious firms locating in that city.
Key to success there is the excellent infrastructure of two, Interstate highways and two transcontinental railroads. Rochelle also provides municipally-owned electric service and wired itself for fibre optics.
(A crane transfers a trailer from a carriage to a rail car at the Union Pacific intermodal hub in Rochelle. Photo by Eddy Montville | Rockford Register Star)
However, until the visionary Ken Wise became economic czar in the 1980s, the natural advantages were unexploited. Ken decided it would be a great idea to build a city-owned railroad connecting what now are the BNSF and UP mainlines. That way, companies locating on the 2 mile line could bargain between the two railroads for lower freight rates. Now, the industrial park bustles with activity and the city actually makes money from their railroad.
Rochelle has many lessons to teach. Rockfordians, though, are a hard lot to teach.
May 29th, 2008
Judy Emerson is leaving the Register Star after 22 years.
Judy is one of six newsroom employees who applied and were accepted for a buyout. She has been an award-winning writer, a wonderful writing coach and a joy to work with. All of us here at the News Tower will miss her. I tell her daily that she can still change her mind, but she insists she won’t. Her last day will be June 5.
The reason I post this on this blog is because Judy is the reason that we started the 180 degrees project. It all started at an Editorial Board meeting where she, Lind Grist Cunningham and I were the only members who could attend.
Judy talked about an opportunity to interview Karl Fort, who was the leader of the Black Gangster Disciples in the early 1990s and who is blamed for bringing crack cocaine to Rockford.
The three of us then talked somewhat nostalgically about how Rockford used to be before the drug trade corrupted everything. That was the seed that began 180 degrees, the next installment of which probably will be ready for publication online next week and in print June 8.
The project will continue — it continues to grow as reporters find out more — despite the fact that we’ll have to do it without Judy.
It will be much more difficult without her.
May 22nd, 2008
I posted on another blog about a “pay-it-forward” experience I had last night at Dairy Queen.
It reminded me that there are a lot of good people in this community who do a lot of good things. Paying someone else’s tab is nice, but I’m talking about the tons of volunteers who do everything from help at soup kitchens to coaching youth sports to organizing fundraisers.
However, those dedicated volunteers could use some help. It seems like a core group — no matter what the organization — does 90 percent of the work. More folks need to step up to keep worthy causes going.
Previous Posts
