Children's Museum Quote of the Week

I know its only Wednesday, but its going to be tough to top this one:

“They [our museum’s patrons] feel comfortable coming downtown….it has the distinction of not being on The Westside, The Southside, The Northside. Those distinctions do carry weight. They do mean that it’s in somebody’s neighborhood in a way that may make families feel like it’s not a place for them.” - Jennifer Farrington, Union League Club, May 6th

You've got to go 48 minutes in to actually here it, but yes, she actually said it.

Is this statement is overtly racist, covertly racist or does it simply reflect Ms. Farrington's ignorance of the fact that the Museum of Science and Industry located on the Southside and had 1.67 MILLION visitors in 2007, and 175 MILLION visitors in its 75 year history?

The Sun-Times ran this Zinger today:

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In Defense of the Chicago Children's "museum"

Capitolfax took some heat last week for referring to the controversial project in Grant Park as a "museum." I was on an early fishing trip trying to catch the trout while they are running, so let me offer him a little defense.

1. The Chicago Children's "museum" is not accredited by the American Association of Museums.

2. While many argue the "museum" is unique, it is one of only 15 in Illinois, including 9 in the Chicago area.

3. The Chicago Children's "museum" ranks 31st in the country, according to Parents.com, far behind the children's museums in Decatur & Bourbonnais and The Magic House in St. Louis. Just two slots below the Ollie Mae Moen Discovery Center in Waco, Texas.

4. CapitolFax points to a couple of exhibits that remind him of a McDonald's Playland. When this debate fired up, the "museum" ended its practice of renting out space for $500 birthday parties, so I guess I'll have to stop calling it "Chuck-E-Cheese for Rich People." Still, there's some irony in this permanent exhibit, BIG Backyard (funded by Illinois FIRST):

Art meets technology in BIG Backyard, a wondrous urban garden, filled with enormous insects, giggling flowers, giant toadstools and other fantasy creations that stir the senses and make imaginations bloom. Through innovative technology, you can immerse yourself in the action and discover what it's like to be part of the city's landscape.

Done laughing yet?

Chicago Children's "museum" supporters have bristled lately about comparisons to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis. "Chicago's not Indianapolis," they say. That's an understatement. Here's the lowdown on the Children's Museum of Indianapolis:

1. Accredited by the American Association of Museums.
2. Rated #1 by Parents.com.
3. Rated largest and most popular in the U.S., with 1 million visitors per year.
4. Permanent exhibits include:

• over 10,000 artifacts from around the world, like toys from different cultures,
  
• the largest Chihuly glass sculpture in the world,
  
• its own planetarium,
  
• dinosaur bones galore,
  
• its own public library branch, with free laptop computers,
• an interpretive history of Indy's black community,
• even their own 185 acre nature preserve where kids can camp.

And...get ready for this....the Children's Museum of Indianapolis is located 6 miles from the city's center, in a predominantly African American neighborhood that's mixed income, where it employs 400 people full and part-time, and generates nearly $60 million a year in economic development.

This debate isn't about race, but it should be. The race of the neighborhoods that the Chicago Children's "museum" refuses to consider - Garfield Park, Logan Square, Bronzeville, Washington Park, Uptown - that have been suggested as alternative locations. Given the success of the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, there's every reason to believe a real Museum would be successful in any of those neighborhoods.

FOOTNOTE: It was astounding to here Mayor Daley rant about a lack of school funding in one breath and the need for a "museum" in Grant Park in the next. The "museum" was created by the Junior League to provide private support for education in response to cuts in CPS funding in 1982. But from what I can tell now using a lot of forensic accounting and a little guesswork, they currently get about 20% of their annual revenue from our tax coffers, before you even consider their taxpayer-subsidized free rent of 57,000 sq. ft. at Navy Pier. Now, Da Mayor wants to give them a $90 million plot of land, $1 million a year for 99 years, plus free utilities, legal services and trash pick-up for life at taxpayer expense. That's Daley for ya.

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Ceasefire, Chicago

Capitolfax asked what government can do to stop teen violence in Chicago. I took the challenge as a Democrat to come up with a list of ideas that didn't include gun control.

Why did I leave tougher gun control out? Mayor Daley is dogged when he really wants something, like the children's museum. But he's been talking about tougher gun control laws once a year now for atleast 10 years. I figure he must like talking about them more than he likes passing them.

I know some conservatives want to deny there's a link between crime and poverty. Just as some liberals want to deny there's a link between juvenile delinquency and single-family households. I'm told there are also people who still think the Earth is flat and the Moon is made of bleu cheese.

I think we can all agree poverty and broken families put kids and communities at greater risk. The root causes of crime are so complex and individualized that they are extremely difficult to prove, with many contribution factors, so its time to stop offering Magic Bullet solutions like one more gun law. At the same time, we shouldn't shirk from our responsibility to provide a comprehensive plan just because we're not sure of all the answers yet. That's why it took us 50 years to take on Big Tobacco and we still haven't addressed global warming.

So, here's my list:

1. Stop closing schools in Chicago without community input. Much of the escalating violence can be traced directly back to Mayor Daley’s decision to close schools, shifting kids with different gang allegiances to different schools.

2. Decrease classroom sizes and increase the number of teaching assistants. Disorder in the classroom leads to chaos outside the classroom, and class sizes are completely unmanageable.

3. Reinvest in extra-curricular programs, arts, music, and physical education. These programs are proven to motivate academically challenged kids and lift their performance. They also keep kids off the streets and away from gangs during after-school hours.

4. Strengthen community policing in troubled neighborhoods, and invest in a “Weed and Seed” program. East St. Louis’ “Weed and Seed” program is a cooperative effort between local, state and federal law enforcement that relies on a local community policing as its backbone, cracks down on career criminals (weeds) by going after them for everything from jaywalking on up, disrupting criminal networks.

5. Restore public faith in the police. Police can’t do it alone, they need community support, but Chicago has done everything possible to undermine public support, from John Burge on down.

6. Invest in communities. Unemployment in Chicago’s struggling neighborhoods is off the charts, especially among teenage black men. Black and Latino neighborhoods are shortchanged on everything from parks to schools to streets to police to economic investment.

7. Increase TANF payments. Public assistance payments (TANF) haven’t been increased since the 80’s, inviting crime into poor neighborhoods.

8. Reform our juvenile justice system. Many parents see their kids headed down the wrong path, but there’s nowhere for them to turn for help. If they go to the police, their son goes right to the juvenile detention center, and while the JDC is making progress down the road to reform, most people think their kids would be better off on the streets.

9. Reform DCFS. If parents turn to DCFS, they worry about having all of their kids taken away from them, and then having their parental rights severed.

10. Pass a Living Wage Law in Illinois. No parent should have to work two or even three jobs just to pay the rent and put food on the table, and we can’t expect anyone to be much of a parent if they are working 16 hour days seven days a week. Most are doing a heroic job of juggling it all, but something inevitably is going to fall.

11. Strengthen our child support enforcement. Last time I checked, more than 50% of court-ordered child support goes uncollected, and 2/3 of Illinois employers weren’t complying with a law requiring them to report new hires. Let’s increase fines for employers who aren’t in compliance and allow enforcement lawyers to go after them for treble damages if they’re sheltering a delinquent parent. And lets create interstate agreements with our neighbors so deadbeats can’t simply shirk their responsibility by going to work in Indiana.

12. Boarding schools. (Hattip: Ghost)

13. Comprehensive sex education and free contraception. (Can't remember who said it. sorry:D)

14. More police on the streets. (Hattip: North of I-80) NYC has twice as many patrol officers per square mile.

15. Fully fund drug treatment programs. Illinois has a waiting list of 10,000 addicts seeking treatment. The wait is six months. Telling a crack addict to come back in six months is idiotic.

16. Use smart technology. Flashing lights and cameras on light posts don't deter crime, they just move it a block. But Philadelphia has implemented new data-mining software that analyzes juvenile arrest records to target preventative services to kids that are most likely to commit homicides.

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Mayor Daley Said What?!?

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Vacant lots employ no one

The former Dominick's grocery store on the left employs no one. Just as the vacant lot at 83rd and Stewart on Chicago's South Side doesn't have anyone on its payroll.

Wal-Mart, the world's largest corporation, wants to build a store at 83rd and Stewart, and help revitalize an area that has few if any large grocery stores--a "food desert."

And some people want to keep it that way.

The Chicago Tribune, free registration may be required for the link, has an editorial today that about that lot. It's part of the Chatham Market redevelopment plan, and a clause in that plan calls for Chicago City Council approval for any store selling groceries with over 100,000 square feet. Two years ago, the council passed an ordinance, which was vetoed by Mayor Richard Daley, that would've forced any store with over 100,000 square feet of retail space, a "Big Box," to pay its workers more than smaller retailers. If that bill had becoome law, it would've been a disaster for Chicagoans. Fewer jobs, higher prices for goods.

From the Tribune editorial:

Despite the size trigger in the Chatham Market development and the now-defunct Big Box ordinance, this controversy has always been more about what's on the shelves than how many shelves there are. Wal-Mart is the nation's largest retailer—and the nation's largest grocer. Organized labor is determined to protect its unionized ranks at area Jewel and Dominick's grocery stores. That means it's determined to keep Wal-Mart and its big grocery departments out of Chicago.

Like Wal-Mart's employees, Lowe's workers also are non-union. Lowe's opened its 117,000-square-foot store in Chatham Market in December. Nobody protested. Lowe's doesn't sell groceries.

The city's latest rejection may not be the last turn of this wheel. Wal-Mart hasn't given up and neither has Ald. Howard Brookins (21st), who represents this area and knows how eager his constituents are for the hundreds of jobs and shopping convenience Wal-Mart would bring. But making this happen requires political courage from the mayor and from aldermen not beholden to labor. And there isn't much evidence of that.

The original developers of Chatham Market, Monroe Investment Partners LLC, vowed four years ago that "Wal-Mart is not now, and will not be, a part of our development." They might have added: A vacant lot is so much better.

Meanwhile, the food desert problem persists in Chicago and other large cities. The City of Chicago is aware of the problem, and as I noted in the related post, they are working to recruit medium-sized grocers (that means not Wal-Mart or Target) into the deserts.

Some people just don't get it.

Related Marathon Pundit posts:

Food deserts continue to plague Chicago
Obama's Wal-Mart connection: Wife served on board of big Wal-Mart supplier
Chicago's "food deserts" well known to Obama
My book report: The Wal-Mart Revolution: How Big Box Stores Benefit Consumers, Workers, and the Economy
The good life of working for the UFCW
Union leaders don't share their members pain
Chicago food desert update: Hyde Park Co-op to close
Big-box shy Chicago facing "food desert"

To comment on this post, please visit Marathon Pundit.

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Laski on Mayor Daley: a paranoid politician

Laski's convinced me to buy,

Laski described Daley as a "paranoid," one-way-street of a politician who "blows hot and cold" with other elected officials and is "always thinking somebody's out to get him, somebody's out to run against him."

"He never trusted anybody," the clerk said.

Mayoral press secretary Jacquelyn Heard countered:

"What is the motivation for saying these things now? And where is the proof?" She added, "I know it takes intrigue, scandal and/or controversy to sell books. And I wholeheartedly believe that's what Mr. Laski is trying to do."

Laski, 54, pleaded guilty in 2006 to accepting $48,000 in bribes in exchange for steering Hired Truck business to lifelong friend Mike Jones. He also admitted that he coached a witness to lie to a grand jury. Laski's self-published book is titled My Fall From Grace: City Hall to Prison Walls.

Mark Pera should have been handing out advanced copies instead of advocating Fed Funds for embryonic stem cell research.

The former clerk also implicated former Congressman Bill Lipinski, Laski's mentor-turned-nemesis, even more deeply in the ghost payrolling that went on during Laski's days as 23rd Ward alderman.

Laski said he hired a handful of employees at the congressmen's direction who did remodeling work at Lipinski's home and congressional office.

Also Levois's earlier post: Mayor Daley, Personal Buffer, Illegal Activities

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Mayor Daley, Personal Buffer, Illegal Activities

I saw this on Newsalert tonight. From a book by disgraced city clerk James Laski. Here's a brief excerpt from Michael Sneed...

• • Daley schmooze: In his book, Laski claims Daley invited him into his private City Hall conference room and asked if he'd heard "from anybody down the street." -- Hizzoner's reference to the feds -- during a probe of alleged time-sheet fraud at City Hall.

• • The upshot: When Laski said, "No!" Daley offered to give him some advice.

• • Quoth Laski: "He spoke quietly as if we were being bugged. He told me, in a very serious tone of voice, that, in order to survive in this business, I had to have a buffer.

"At that point, he reminded me of Captain Queeg in The Caine Mutiny, when he warned me that everyone would be trying to get me, especially the press.

"He basically told me that I needed someone to protect me, and that where the buck would stop, everything would end there with that person.

"In my opinion, Daley was forever surrounding himself with his own personal buffers.

"Even today, I still hear the Mayor, over and over, pleading ignorance about the latest Chicago political scandal.

"I was in government service for about twenty-seven years, sixteen of those as an elected official, and, in my opinion, the mayor knows everything that goes on in City Hall."

Check out these websites from Sneed's column with regards to Laski's book.

From the publisher, Author House. And Laski's website, My Fall From Grace. The book itself is titled, My Fall from Grace: City Hall to Prison Walls.

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Taxpayer's Shouldn't be on the Hook for Wrigley Deal

Not long after Mayor Daley soundly rejected the publicly-financed purchase of Wrigley Field, someone over at Zell Corp. is floating a new trial balloon.

They are putting naming rights on the table, which the city could then turn around and sell and us the proceeds to pay off the bond. Presumably, the city will be left with a little extra annual cash windfall from the deal. Member initiative money for the members of the City Council to fulfill their annual wishlist.

If such a deal is struck, the city and its taxpayers should not be left on the hook for needed capital repairs of the stadium.

Read the Crain's Chicago Business story here. Nice work by Mike Colias and Ann Saphir.

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“It Was Wrigley, Not Some Goat, Who Cursed the Cubs”

That was the title of the last column that Mike Royko ever wrote. March 21^st, 1997.

His epitomical work seems like a good epitaph today.

Mike Royko had opinions – about a lot of things – and he was of the opinion that P.K. Wrigley, who owned The Cubs until 1977 when they were sold to the Tribune Company, was responsible for a 22 year skid that began in 1947.

Royko wrote:

…all that could have been overcome in 1947 – two years after the Cubs’ last World Series [appearance] and the end of the war.

That was when Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers knocked down the racial wall in baseball by signing ex-Army officer Jackie Robinson.

And later continues:

Had Wrigley followed Rickey’s lead, he could instantly have a competitive team. And depending on how many black players he could have tolerated, maybe a great team.

He didn’t. His players made their feelings clear, voting not to play if other teams boycotted Robinson. And his team’s front office wouldn’t listen to those who urged them to sign black players.

It wasn’t a momentary hesitation. It was not until September 1953 – nearly seven full seasons after Robinson arrived – that Wrigley signed two black players.

Mike Royko was born September 19^th, 1932, and penned his first newspaper column for the anti-Machine Chicago Daily News on September 6^th, 1963. Readers took to him instantly. Royko’s career spanned four decades and three major dailies, through the death of the Chicago Daily News, the sale of the Chicago Sun-Times to Rupert Murdoch, and the unlikely union between Royko and a reformed Chicago Tribune at the end of his career.

For all of those years, Royko was the voice, the reason, the conscience of Chicago. No one was considered above reproach, he shed light on the truth, and he spoke his mind.

Some one ought to name September 19^th, 2008 in Mike Royko’s honor, and every year thereafter. He should be required reading in every Illinois history class in Chicago, and “One More Time” should be available in every public library.

The Chicago Cubs will likely be under new ownership sometime soon. Instead of dwelling on whose responsible for the last 30 years of World Series drought, what would you give a new owner to bring a World Series Championship to the Northside?

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Racists for Obama?

I think that part of the reason that the attacks by Mayor Daley and the Children's Museum on residents of Chicago's New East Side (bordered by Michigan Ave - Randolph - Wacker Dr. - Lake Michigan) have been so soundly rejected is that it ran so contrary to people's perceptions of downtown residents.

Racist? New East Side? It just so happens that Barack Obama's former fundraiser lives in that neighborhood, so I went back to check how Obama did in his primary race there in 2004:

Pct. 6 - 60%
Pct. 13 - 67%
Pct. 50 - 68%
Pct. 51 - 73%
Pct. 52 - 84%

Average: 70%

I'd say Obama did pretty good with the "racists", especially since then Democratic Committeeman Burt Natarus and Mayor Daley both backed Obama's opponent, Dan Hynes.

Just for comparison, Obama got 15% of the vote in Daley's 11th Ward.

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Downtown Moms Rip Daley a New One

Mark Konkol at the Sun-Times offers what is probably the best "woman-on-the-street" interviews regarding the Children's Museum move. I think it probably illustrates just how bad of a misstep the Mayor and the Children's Museum have made.

Moms vs. mayor

A bunch of mommies from the New East Side want Mayor Daley to walk his "large tuchus" over to their neighborhood and call them racists to their face

....

"I'm really pissed off and I'm kind of heartbroken the mayor would say something like that about us," says Susana Cuadros, a New East Side mommy.

....

"Who is he to say we're racist. He grew up in Bridgeport. Please. Give me a friggin' break," say Ariel Elliott, a black mother of three girls. "He owes the neighborhood an apology, or better yet, me personally."

Elliott, a former Chicago public school teacher, says she moved to the New East Side from the South Loop so her girls could grow up in a more accepting environment.

"We lived down the street from the mayor. We walked past his little sleeping cop parked outside his window, and we moved because it was so uncomfortable," she says. "My kids will tell you: The white kids played with the white kids, and the black kids played with the black kids over there. That's why we moved here."

....

It's where Katsue Katattira comes to socialize, find out the scoop on the best schools and park programs. It's not all white. She's Japanese and loves the neighborhood's diversity.

"You see so much a mix down here, and he call us racist. The mayor not study much. Do we look racist?" Katattira says, while heading to the park with her rainbow coalition of pals.

Alderman Reilly has been quick to point out the New East Side's racial diversity, and Konkol adds this important point:

The 60601 ZIP code, which includes the New East Side, is 65 percent white, 14 percent Asian, 11 percent black and 8 percent Hispanic. It's the second-richest postal district with more than 200 residents in the city, according to Claritas, Inc., a demographic research firm. (The richest is 60606, in the Loop.) Claritas defines the 60601 "lifestyle" as a healthy mix of working class bohemians, young over-achievers and wealthy empty-nesters. You can buy a condo in the sky for more than a million bucks, or rent a modest place for about $1,000 a month. (Emphasis added)

So, Mayor Pritzker, you just called downtown residents - the richest, best-educated but also one of the most racially diverse neighborhoods in the city - a bunch of racists. I don't even know how to quantify that political and public relations blunder. But one things for certain, you probably shouldn't be counting on these downtown moms to visit the Children's Museum for the next decade or so. Of course, by then their kids will be old enough to vote. Oops.

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Many (Better) Children's Museums, Only One Grant Park

To date, the argument being advanced by Mayor Daley and the Chicago Children's Museum is that the museum is a one-of-a-kind, world-class civic institution committed to serving minority kids. They want to locate in Grant Park so they can remain accessible by public transportation to minority children throughout the city, and anyone who opposes their construction of a 100,000 sq ft facility in Grant Park must be a racist child-hater.

That argument has some big holes in it.

First, as the Sun-Times editorial points out today, the typical visitor to the Chicago Children's Museum (700,000 a year), is a white 6 year-old accompanied by a parent who arrives by car.

Oops. There goes serving minority kids, and there goes the need for public transportation.

And as Sun-Times columnist Delia O'Hara points out today, the Chicago Children's Museum is neither one-of-a-kind or world class:

"The Chicago area has three major children's museums. The DuPage Children's Museum in Naperville and the Kohl Children's Museum in Glenview leave the Chicago museum in the dust."

"the Chicago Children's Museum, which at $8 has the highest non-member admission of the three, plus hefty parking fees on Navy Pier, books one unimaginative commercial traveling exhibit after another, often with licensed characters children are expected to recognize from television."

That's not just O'Hara's opinion. According to Parents Magazine, which ranks children's museums throughout the country, the Chicago Children's Museum ranks 31st in the country, behind not only museums in Boston and New York, but also behind children's museums in Rockford, Bourbonnais and Decatur, Illinois.

The Chicago Children's Museum's 31st place ranking puts it two spots below Waco, Texas and just above Little Rock, Arkansas.

The Association of Children's Museums, to which the Chicago Children's Museum belongs, has 160 museums among its membership across the country, and a quick search of the Internet reveals as many as 300 children's museums in the U.S.

With so many (better) children's museums in the country, the state and the region, and only one Grant Park, why are we even having this debate?



Real Racism

Most of the phony arguments about racism in this debate have been laid bare by local residents, reporters and editorial boards. But the real racism in this case has been ignored.

As O'Hara points out in her column, the Chicago Children's Museum was founded in 1982 in response to cuts to the Chicago Public Schools.

Um, who's fault is it that Chicago's kids need to pay $8 a head to learn basic math skills, art, and play with building blocks?

Another argument advanced by Children's Museum backers is that Grant Park is the only place in the city that's really accessible by public transportation. They actually make a decent point there, but whose fault is it that we have a public transportation system that is adept at moving low-wage workers to and from the city's center, but is terrible at allowing residents to move from one Chicago neighborhood to eat, shop, or visit neighborhood cultural attractions? Why are buses so antiquated, overcrowded, unreliable and infrequent? Why does it take a resident of Uptown nearly an hour to travel by train to the up-and-coming restaurants in Logan Square, or a half hour by bus, when the four mile trip is only 15 minutes by car?

Perhaps CTA head and Children's Museum board member Carole Brown should spend a little less time pointing the finger at Grant Park backers and a little more time working with Mayor Daley to help solve this conundrum, on top of all of the other problems the CTA has.

But to me, the sickest thing about this whole debate was Mayor Daley calling for Chicago's business leaders and religious leaders to rise up in the name of racial equality and fight for a museum in Grant Park.

What the %$#&?

Where was that rally cry for racial equality when we were debating education funding reform in Springfield, Mr. Mayor? Where was that rally cry in the fight for funding public transportation? Where isn't your "moral authority" exerted more appropriately to fight for good paying jobs, or affordable housing? What could be more racist than ignoring or downplaying these problems so that you can help your good friend and political supporter, billionaire heiress Gigi Pritzker have her way?


Oh, the Irony

My favorite, most ironic exhibits at the Chicago Children's Museum:

BIG Backyard
Art meets technology in BIG Backyard, a wondrous urban garden, filled with enormous insects, giggling flowers, giant toadstools and other fantasy creations that stir the senses and make imaginations bloom. Through innovative technology, you can immerse yourself in the action and discover what it's like to be part of the city's landscape.

Treehouse Trails
Camp out, climb a tree and explore a cave in this enchanted forest setting. Designed for children ages five and under, Treehouse Trails magically transports the youngest visitors to the great outdoors and encourages them to use their boundless imaginations. Canoe or fish in the pretend blue river; splash in a mountain waterfall; explore the natural landscape; play in an enormous tree house; prepare vegetables from the garden and serve them in the old-fashioned log cabin. Infants can crawl over giant logs and play peek-a-boo with reflective mirrors in the waterless, cushioned Baby Pond.

Oh, the irony of building on an open park so that kids can explore the wonders of nature, visit the great outdoors, and "discover what is like to be part of the city's landscape" three stories underground.

And for those of you who still believe that the Children's Museum is a one-of-a-kind cultural institution that serves Chicago's minority children, check this out:

Birthday Bashes - $350
Amazing art activities, awesome add-ons and affordable party packages make birthdays at Chicago Children's Museum truly memorable! Your guests will celebrate in style in our festive, private party rooms

Birthday Bonanza - $450
Birthday Bash plus your choice of:
•Tremendous T-Shirt Party (ages 3+): Great for all ages! Children create their own works of art, which is transferred to high-quality cotton T-shirts (all sizes available) to take home as party favors.
•Jazzy Jewelry Party (ages 4+): Fun for girls and boys! Children design beads to create necklaces, bracelets, key chains and other wearable art to take home as party favors.
•Fun with Puppets (ages 5+): Put on a puppet show! Children will have the opportunity to create "sock" or "rod" puppets for their enjoyment.
•Making Music (ages 5+): What's a party without music! Your child and their friends will design their own musical instruments to take home.

Artabounds Extravaganza - $500
Birthday Bash, plus one of these art adventures:

•Painting Party (ages 2+): Children learn how to "foot-paint" in a wacky canvas activity and make colorful hand-painted t-shirts!
•Tie-Dye Party (ages 6+): Children tie and dye their own cotton t-shirts to take home as party favors. Tell us the birthday child's favorite colors, and we'll make them available for dyeing fun. This party is especially popular with big kids.

IMAX Adventure - $500
Birthday Bash plus 35 IMAX tickets.

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Chicago claim: Just 24 homeless living downtown

A recently concluded City of Chicago census of homeless people living downtown states that there are only 24 homeless people living in the section of the city locally known as "The Loop." Rich at Capitol Fax included this story in his "Morning Shorts."

Take it from me, that number is a little low.

The next number is too high. From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Homeless advocates maintain the actual nightly homeless population is 21,078 because of an "invisible" group that includes people "doubled-up" with relatives and friends.

If you are living somewhere--other than a shelter or in an alley--then you are not homeless. Financially secure? Definitely not. But again, not homeless.

Chicago has an excellent chance of landing the 2016 Summer Olympics, Mayor Richard Daley is clearly trying to spruce up the city's image before the International Olympic Committee selects its host city.

Chicago is just not "The Loop." Every Sunday morning I drive through the northern end of Lincoln Park. I've never counted the sleeping bodies I see camped out there, but 24 seems like a reasonable number. If I got out of my car, I'm sure I'd find more.

To comment on this post, or to read about my recent trip to Kansas, click here.

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Wal-Mart, Chicago, might compromise on "living wages"

Now that Chicago's municipal elections are over, it appears to be time for Wal-Mart and the City to revisit the big-box "living wage" debate.

Last year, in a bill sponsored by Alderman Joe Moore, the Chicago City Council passed a "living wage" ordinance that would've effected only "big box" stores such as Wal-Mart, Target, and Home Depot. Mayor Richard M. Daley vetoed that bill, and the Council failed to in its attempt to override.

From Crain's Chicago Business, free registration may be required:

Despite post-election chest thumping, the first signs of a potential compromise are emerging in the political war between Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and union-led advocates of a big-box minimum wage bill.

Sources on both sides say they're willing to sit down and talk at length, and they raise the possibility of a deal in which Wal-Mart would get zoning approval needed for more Chicago stores in exchange for agreeing to support a wider minimum wage bill that applies to more than the super-sized retail outlets known as big boxes.

Wal-Mart recently backed a similar law in Maryland, and while such a proposal would stir intense opposition from some partisans on either side of the fray, it might also provide a starting point for substantive discussions, sources say.

But sometimes, as with Palestinian extremists, people prefer to fight. When responding to the possibility of adding other retailers to the "living wage" battle, Madeline Talbott of ACORN said:

I don't know if you want every Walgreens and CVS on your case," Ms. Talbott says. "Wal-Mart is a great political enemy to have.

To comment on this post, or vote in the Pajamas Media presidential straw poll, click here.

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Everyone stop exhaling, Please.

Yes, if we all stopped exhaling, it would reduce the level of CO2 emissions in the atmosphere. Fortunately, putting the brakes on the global climate crisis won't require that level of self-sacrifice. In fact, helping to save the planet has never been so painless.

Newsweek offers a special series on the environment, in the lead-up to Earth Day, and buried in there are some good, common sense nuggets that we can apply in Illinois:

Switch all stop lights from incandescent to LED. "One of the easiest measures is one of the most effective. That's converting stoplights from incandescent bulbs to LEDs...the conversion demands a major investment upfront...But since LEDs use 80 percent less energy than standard lights - and last six to ten times longer - they pay for themselves in several years...The Big Apple - which has replaced 80,000 incandescent bulbs in 12,000 intersections - will realize savings of $6.3 million a year once the initial investment of $28 million is paid off." (Did you hear that, Mayor Daley?)

Switch your household from incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescents. "If every household in America switched out one compact fluorescent bulb, it would reduce energy consumption as much as taking a million cars off the road." There are only 4.7 million households in Illinois, but luckily for us, compact fluorescents are sold in five-packs. If everyone in Illinois buys a pack, it will be the equivalent of taking 200,000 cars off the road. You can join global efforts and pledge to switch your bulbs through Project Switch here.

Bonus! Last time I checked, the Citizen's Utility Board was distributing compact fluorescent bulbs for free.

Unplug your chargers. I know this sounds crazy, but when your cell phone charger, I-Pod charger, laptop charger, or whatever-charger are plugged in, they continue to draw electricity and just bleed it out into the ozone, even when not charging anything. The average household draws 10 watts an hour through their chargers, which adds 87.6 Kilowatt hours per year to your electric bill. Illinoisans are spending a combined $70 million a year and burning an unnecessary 412 million Kilowatt hours of electricity just to leave their chargers plugged in all of the time.

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When you're relaxing in a bar, when you're relaxing in a church.... you should not use physical force against anyone because of an argument

The Police beat citizens. Afterwords the Police threaten citizens with retaliation if they complain. So the Mayor turns Police brutality into an opportunity to lecture the citizenry thus,

"The responsibility of every citizen is not have a fight with their neighbors and with their family. How is that? That is very, very simple," the mayor told reporters after dedicating a pair of new homes in Englewood.

"When you're relaxing in a bar, when you're relaxing in a church, when you're relaxing walking down the street and when you're in your home, you should not use physical force against anyone because of an argument about the White Sox or the Cubs or the Tribune or the Sun-Times."

Read the Taguba Report on Abu Garib. You'll find this citation,

4. (U) The individual Soldiers and Sailors that we observed and believe should be favorably noted include:

a. (U) Master-at-Arms First Class William J. Kimbro, US Navy Dog Handler, knew his duties and refused to participate in improper interrogations despite significant pressure from the MI personnel at Abu Ghraib.

b. (U) SPC Joseph M. Darby, 372nd MP Company discovered evidence of abuse and turned it over to military law enforcement.

c. (U) 1LT David O. Sutton, 229th MP Company, took immediate action and stopped an abuse, then reported the incident to the chain of command.

The US Army policed itself, investigated, and disciplined well before CBS broke the story. I don't see anyone in CPD who took immediate action, stopped an abuse, and reported it to the chain of command.

Instead mumbo jumbo from the Mayor about what citizens should do in Church. What an insult to Chicagoans who have to think twice now about asking a cop for help.

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