I received two e-mails very early this morning that Dr. Evil Briscoe, Superintendent of Schools for District 428, has ordered all the school principals not to show President Obama’s speech to schoolchildren tomorrow morning. However, according to recorded school auto-calls placed to district families a bit after 10 a.m., the speech will be shown throughout…
P.E.T. Does It. Why Won’t ReNew?
Last week I submitted a FOIA request to the City of DeKalb to review meeting minutes from the Preservation of the Egyptian Theater (P.E.T.) organization. Today I stopped by the Municipal Building to pick up two years’ worth, which translated to minutes of 17 meetings. Such accessibility is made possible by a provision of P.E.T.’s…
Redistricting Open Thread
A couple people asked, “How do we get more of the community to attend these [redistricting] meetings?” It’s a tall order in view of the recent past. For what it’s worth, though, I will tell people that the discussion so far appears to be generally open to input of all sorts and free of predetermined…
Stone Corner Farm
John and Cindy Barnhart bought an abandoned 7-acre farm southeast of Oregon and began growing vegetables on it. Open for business four years now and certified organic, Barnhart’s Stone Corner Farm Market is certainly about the land and the food, but it’s also about stewardship of a singular piece of local history. Photography by Janet…
“Lagaan” = Land Tax
In (dis)honor of the looming property tax deadline, I am watching the Bollywood movie “Lagaan” again this weekend.
‘Grade’ the “Northern Star” Editorial
“Human services organizations should not be cut from funding”, by the Editorial Board of the Northern Star, Friday, August 28, 2009 Cartoon A Theme A Persuasion A Accuracy of Price Tag on Sidewalk from Nowhere to Nowhere B+ (Well, look what they have to use for a source!) Knowledge of How City Budget/TIF Works C…
Congrats to Our Firefighters
Congrats to our firefighters on reversing the lay offs! I decided I would keep running the DeKalb Rescue Me Now blog anyway because the Fire and Police Departments seem below a skating rink, a sidewalk from nowhere to nowhere, the brick building mania, spending TIF money like drunken gamblers, and the airport in priorities. When…
Another Meeting Marathon to Nowhere
City Council’s most damaging flaw is its low overall level of intellectual curiosity. Between the grandstanding and the gotchas and the preening and pomposity, there is little time or inclination left for understanding the fundamental shifts necessary for our continued well-being, much less prosperity. Whatever energy might have been devoted to real study of big-picture…
“Make Whole”
For the record, I was not the first person to bring up the “make whole” agreement between the schools and the city over TIF. Here are some links, newest first: “Adapt, improvize… probably not,” January 14, 2009 “District 428: Defining Moment in Local History,” January 9, 2009 January 27, 2008 letter to the editor from…
Fire Fighter Open Thread
From Monday’s City Council meeting agenda: 2) RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR OF THE CITY OF DEKALB, ILLINOIS TO EXECUTE A VARIANCE AGREEMENT TO THE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT WITH THE DEKALB INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FIREFIGHTERS, LOCAL 1236, AFL-CIO FOR THE PERIOD OF JULY 1, 2008 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2011. The City and IAFF Local 1236 have…