What’s an Amy Winehouse?

10 comments July 30th, 2008

Please tell me, someone, why I should care about Amy Winehouse? Who the hell is Amy Winehouse, anyway? Sounds like the latest Lindsay Lohan.

Machesney Park is getting a good deal with sheriff’s policing contract

8 comments July 29th, 2008

 Machesney Park Trustees Mike Luke and Stan Wentland are questioning the sheriff’s department’s $2.6 million contract for policing the village.

Does anyone really think that it would make more sense to start a police department, at a cost estimated by Trustee Mark Sorrentino at from $4 million to $6 million, with mushrooming union contracts forever after??????

Does anyone think another bidder would have the capabilities to police MP? Roscoe, perhaps? Get real.

I urge Luke and Wentland to do cost comparisons.  Consult Loves Park, which insists on doing everything (except bus service) all by itself. I’ll have more to say on this in my Thursday column, and intend to look at the cost of running a full-service police department in comparably-sized cities Belvidere and Loves Park.

There’s no way MP could provide the same level of police protection as the sheriff for anywhere near the price.

Why do we rail against “big government” at the national level, only to create exactly that at the local level? MP’s founders in 1981 had the wisdom to establish a village cheaply and efficiently by hiring out municipal services. It’s worked well over the years.

Other villages and cities should be consolidating services instead of building municipal empires just so they can have their own, shiny squad cars. What’s the cost of squad cars with vintage airplane symbols on the side? Too danged much.

Spiff up N. 2nd roadside at Sinnissippi Rose Garden

Add comment July 29th, 2008

The Rose Garden at Sinnissippi Park survived the flood and the roses are gorgeous. But  southbound motorists on North Second Street can hardly see them for the scruffiness near the street. The grass needs serious mowing and the ground cover hedges need to be trimmed back. This used to be done routinely. What gives?

People driving in from out of town don’t know that the area is going to be changed in 2009, so it at least should be kept up to snuff now.

Relief in sight

Add comment July 29th, 2008

Out on Falcon Road at the airport, there’s a “Speed Zone Ahead” sign. However, a merry prankster has painted over the letters “S” and “d” on the word “speed.”

Now it reads, well, you figure it out.

Is Rockford a banana republic?

4 comments July 29th, 2008

I used to talk a lot about CAVE people, you know, the Citizens Against Virtually Everything. Well, Rockford has a mutant strain that seems to be gaining strength — the BANANA — Build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone. Everything that is proposed to bring jobs to Rockford is opposed by this group. The latest is a property owner’s attempt to get her nearly 900 acres of land southeast of the airport annexed to Rockford. This is not forced — she wants in. The problem with the Banana people in the rural area is that Rockford wants to develop the site for industry. Which makes a whole lot of sense: We need jobs badly. This site is near the railroad. It’s near the airport. It’s near Interstate 39. Those are the kinds of places where industry locates.

I’ve toured the site and not all of it is condusive to development. Some of it must  be preserved. But the “conversation” about the property on local talk radio shows has been hysterical, as if Martian invaders are about to take over.

Perhaps Ald. Lenny Jacobson, D-6th, who seems to be the lead skeptic in questioning this project, has a better idea about how and where to create jobs? If so, he should let us know.Or maybe everyone in the 6th ward is swimming in all the highly paid work they can handle. I toured the ward recently — much of it is in bad shape.

If Rockfordians put one-tenth the effort into supporting economic development as they do opposing everything, we’d be a world class city by now. Lenny, don’t be a Banana.

I’m now a City of Excellence Everywhere resident!

6 comments July 22nd, 2008

It’s official. I’m now a city of Rockford resident for the first time since 1992, when I moved to a subdivision just north of the city. I didn’t move there specifically to escape Rockford, I just liked the place.

There’s been a lot of development up my way, and city annexations gradually surrounded our 30 acre sub. Monday night, they got me. The City Council voted 10-3 to annex my neighborhood.

Although I knew this would eventually happen, I didn’t think it would be for about 5 years. Oh well, that’s progress, and isn’t it grand!

We’re not getting city streets out of this, we’re not really getting anything anybody wants. And we’re getting something we don’t want — a bigger tax bill — a lot bigger tax bill.

Oh, except I am eligible for a library card. The way I reckon it, the card costs $1,500 a year, which is roughly how much my taxes are going up. That’s more than I’ve ever spent at Barnes & Noble and Borders combined. Those are the places I go to browse the book stacks, do some work on my laptop, and have cofee — not the main library, which is cold, antiseptic and totally uninviting, perhaps on purpose.

Oh, we’re also being required to pay city taxes for all of 2008, even though we were not in the city for more than half the year.

This, of course, is taxation without representation, but hey, isn’t everything? The way I look at it, this is a small price to pay for living in the City of Excellence Everywhere. I’m just thrilled.

As I said in an earlier post, I think it’s just ducky that the city can force me into the city, but it can’t force police and firefighters to live here. Want proof? Just drive around the area countryside and look for the 276-6 signs!

What a country!

Morrissey’s money shows he’ll be hard to beat in 09

3 comments July 21st, 2008

The campaign finance news from our own Aaron Chambers says that Mayor Larry Morrissey’s mayoral campaign fund had $125,441 on hand as of June 30. That’s according to the semi-annual report required by the state election board.

Morrissey, according to Chambers, says he hasn’t decided whether to seek re-election in 2009.

I believe that Morrissey is running in 2009. The kinds of things he talks about will take more than one, or even two terms to accomplish. And you don’t maintain a permanent campaign fundraising apparatus unless you intend to use the money.

Morrissey, like any politician, deserves to have to fight for re-election, but as of today, I have not heard any credible names of possible opponents. Sure, someone or someones will run, but will they have the organization and money to make a race of it?

Now they’re pouring cold water on McCain veep pick for this week

2 comments July 21st, 2008

I’ve been watching the cable blab shows tonight, and now the pundits are saying they don’t think McCain will pick a veep candidate this week. They seem to think that the initial speculation, fueled by a Bob Novak column, is overrated, or something thrown out by McCain’s campaign to take media coverage off of Obama.

They are saying on a CNN panel that McCain would be better advised to pick a veep after the Democratic convention, when the GOP will know who Obama’s veep will be.

Some more specualtion from the pundits on McCain veep maybes: Tim Pawlenty, governor of Minnesota, Carly Fiorina. former head of HP.

Will McCain choose Bobby Jindal as running mate on Thursday? Stay tuned.

Add comment July 21st, 2008

With Barack Obama getting major press coverage on his Mid-East and Europe tour, John McCain has been left in the lurch. The New York Times wouldn’t publish his op-ed piece about Iraq (it published a piece by Obama) and McCain has been  reduced to criticizing Obama instead of presenting his own initiatives.

So, what’s McCain going to do about it?

Here’s what:  On Thursday, the day Obama gives a big speech to perhaps a million people in Berlin, McCain is likely to name his vice presidential pick. That’s a big story the media have to cover with prominent positioning — equal to the treatment of Obama.

SO, who will it be? McCain could play it safe by choosing Mitt Romney, or even Rudy Giuliani, but if he wants to be really daring, he’ll go to Baton Rouge and in a dramatic news conference, announce that he’s choosing Louisiana Gov. Piush “Bobby” Jindal, the new, corruption buster from the land that vice built.

With Jindal, we’d have the first Indian-American candidate for vice president. Jindal was born in the U.S. of Indian immigrants. He’s young, still in his 30s, and he’s Roman Catholic, always an important constituency. And he’s both a social and economic conservative.

One downside to Jindal: He’s inexperienced. Jindal was elected governor in October 2007. McCain would be 72 if were to take office in 2008, and people will have to have confidence that Jindal could step into the top job with ease.

If Jindal were to be McCain’s VP, the transformation of American presidential politics would be even more remarkable than it already is, with both an African-American and an Indian American on the respective tickets.

Mandating prepay gas idea getting cool reaction

9 comments July 19th, 2008

In Thursday’s column I wrote about a proposal to make everyone pre-pay when they get gas. Read it here:

I was of two minds about this government intrusion into private business, and  surprised that the lawmaker proposing mandatory prepay  was Sen. Dave Syverson, who positions himself as a conservative Republican. He’s usually for less government.

He insisted that “business wanted this.”

One of those businesses is RoadRanger, where Chief Ranger Dan Arnold made a good argument in favor of prepay — cops spend too much time on gas drive-off calls that could be better spent, and stations that go prepay voluntarily lose business to those that don’t.

So, I sided with Ranger Dan, although I didn’t really care one way or another because I always pay at the pump with plastic.

Well, the reaction, both to my column and to a news story in Thursday’s paper about a plan to enact a county prepay ordinance, was totally negative. Our own editorial board, of which I’m a member, was dead set against it, as were e-mailers. Calls to Ken DeCoster and Doug McDuff on WNTA were universally opposed, too.

So, I told Dave Syverson , there’s no support for this in the public. I suggested an alternative plan: If there are too many calls (we’d have to set a number) to police about drive-offs from a certain station, the owners would be charged for additional calls above the limit.

We do the same for malfunctioning fire alarms.

Not perfect, I know, but it does provide an incentive to go pre-pay.