The Day After, Locally

It has become apparent that in Northwest Illinois we are staunchly Republican on the local level. The overwhelming victories by Sen. Bivins, Congressman Sacia, and U.S. Representative Manzullo. The election in Stephenson County mirrored the national percentages in voting for Sen. Obama over Sen. McCain. This is the first time that I am aware of that our county has voted in favor of a Democratic presidential nominee over a Republican.

The City of Freeport, which is extremely slow to change or to accept new concepts and ideas, voted overwhelmingly (65% to 35%) to stay with the Mayor-Council form of government instead of looking toward the future of our economic livelihood and strongly consider a City Manager-Mayor-Council form. We either embrace our candidates for their outgoing personality, even if the city is eroding around us, or kick them out if our taxes are raised to an uncomfortable level.

What does any of this portend for our local economy in a time when our major employers, such as MetLife, let more employees go, including ones that had been there for more than 40 years and had dedicated their lives to the company? We see the bright and shiny new retail stores like Wal-Mart, Menards, and the refurbished Farm and Fleet, but these are not "new" businesses to our area. These are expanded companies, who are now letting their new hires go as the economy continues to slide and the stores reach a point of balanced business (the initial traffic flow has leveled off).

We are landlocked in Freeport with no major expressways nearby (think Rochelle and I-88 and I-39) and no four-lane highway to our West. This has severely limited our ability to grow in population or in business. We are now at a 6.9% unemployment rate compared with 4.8% one year ago, as of September. Of course, this isn't helped by the 8.9% rate in Winnebago County, where many of our residents work. How many more unemployed do we have that are now on other forms of subsidized income who no longer qualify for unemployment benefits?

There are many aspects of our city and county that are in need of assistance, whether through the government or local business initiatives. There is definitely a need for the two to be working together for the area and not have people so consumed with personal approval ratings or image, but who get things done with the general good of the economy and standard of living not taking a backseat to the next election.

Where Does One Draw the Line?

The yellow lines are painted, quickly, along the south side of Empire Street. Three blocks of No Parking should solve any sight line issues along the street, until someone else is hit, like the accident on Friday or worse. No Parking for 12 months of the year and 24 hours a day, seven days a week in order to allow people to cross over to the baseball diamonds seems a bit excessive, me thinks. Could there have been some dialogue before putting this up for a vote and implementing the No Parking zone to such an extent? Sure, it was presented to the Council, but if you are like me, I don't read The J-S cover to cover and much of the agenda is not even included in the paper. I also don't regularly attend City Council meetings, but perhaps I should start.

I was speaking with a civil servant the other day, also known as a mail carrier, and this person informed me about the same type of situation along Harlem, south of Cannova's and the surrounding businesses. The mail carriers now have to park half-way up the street in order to deliver to the businesses and most often have to transport mail from these establishments back to the truck. The carrier thought that it was to discourage street parking for Cannova's, but it also affected those serving the area throughout the entire day, even when the restaurant was closed.

I'm not sure that I understand this need to overcompensate for these types of situations. Why can't there be compromise as to the times that these ordinances are in affect, much like what happens in Chicago. Is it that difficult to put the times on the signs when an parking ordinance is in effect in order to allow for greater productivity? It doesn't appear to work that way, apparently.

We want a beautiful city, but some only want to do it one way, their way. There has to be an attempt at compromise when trying to establish new entities without infringing on the rights of local business owners or homeowners. So far, we're still waiting for that to happen.

Currently Writing without a Home

I want to start off by saying how much I appreciate all of the people that read my column, "For the Love of Community" for offering your support. I find it difficult to understand how the local daily newspaper can receive dozens of letters and even more phone calls about the cancellation of my weekly column and only print one of the letters. I have spoken with numerous people who told me they called the paper and are now being put through to a voice mail. No one will talk with them, except one reader who was called back after his second letter and was informed that I "wasn't fired," but that the paper had decided to use some "new voices." So far, it sounds mostly like the proverbial ostrich with its head in the sand. They won't let this become a public discussion because of the heat that they will take.

So, in the meantime, until I find another home in the print world, I'll continue to try and keep up some semblance of writing skill with our "Pretzel City Logic" blog site. The following is the column that was to appear in The J-S on July 2, 2007 about the demise of the Germania Club.

Can We Fix It? No, We Can't!

By

Roland Tolliver

The room within is the great fact about the building. --Frank Lloyd Wright

Good morning, everyone. I hear there was some brouhaha about a beloved building here in Freeport recently. There has been word on the street about some conspiracies, though Oliver Stone hasn’t been here to film anything, yet. There is no grassy knoll, so I guess it didn’t peak his interest.

Another star has come to town, though, with dreams of filming a new television show. The producers are planning on calling it: G.S.I.: Germania Scene Investigation. A few of the show’s cast sat down for an interview with our curmudgeonly correspondent, Al Bebach, recently.

Al: Welcome, gang. I understand that you’ve taken your new roles quite seriously. I’d like to introduce some of the actors who’ll be in the show. There’s Bob T. Builder; his best friend,

Wendy; Scoop; Muck; Dizzy; Roley; and Lofty. These construction crime scene investigators leave no stone unturned. Let’s start with Bob. What attracted you to this show?

Bob: Well, Al, I really like to build things. I’ve been doing it most of my life. It is also fun to tear things down and rebuild them. I don’t know much about the Germania, but there have been some interesting theories about it. We want to get to the bottom of the collapse. Not literally, mind you, though!

Al: Wendy, you seem to be more than just another pretty face. You’re even wearing a hard hat to the interview. What do you do on the show?

Wendy: I’m there to make sure that Bob does his job properly. I get the permits, manage the crew and basically get the work done. Of course, I also make sure that our pets Pilchar and Scruffy are fed.

Al: Doesn’t leave much work for Bob, does it?

Wendy: No and that’s the way he likes it. Uh, huh! I work closely with Lofty to find out if any of these theories are true. Scoop, Muck and Roley are really the workhorses in this show, though.

Al: What theories are being bantered about?

Lofty: We’ll look into whether construction of the Lindo expansion weakened the Germania building or possibly that the sound from ‘Music on Chicago’ was too loud.

Roley: Yeah, and we’re going to see if the Mayor or the Publisher were anywhere near the site before the building collapsed. Everyone is a suspect on this show. Except us, of course!

Al: What about the citizens. They have a number of ideas about what happened and all of those memories.

Bob: The producers and writers have thought about that. They’ll incorporate those memories into flashback scenes. We’ll use Big Band music and try to recreate the interior from old photos and people’s stories.

Al: Will this be a reality show, documentary or a serialized drama?

Wendy: Well, Bill Kurtis isn’t narrating, so it won’t be on A&E. We’re hoping to be a companion show to CSI on CBS if that’s A OK with the CEO. We’re hoping to last long enough to be syndicated. That’s where we, as actors, we’ll make some extra money.

Al: Will you focus on any other structures for the show?

Muck: We’re thinking about looking into Cheaters and Super 8, but we like the history of the Germania building. We couldn’t help but notice how people feel connected to the building and the memories. The collapse is more of a mystery, which should keep the show interesting. We want to eventually solve the puzzle so that other historic buildings don’t suffer the same fate.

Al: So, what you’re saying is that the show is basically about preservation?

Bob: Of course, that’s why we’re mostly builders. Even we can’t save every structure, though. Didn’t you guys used to have an historic courthouse?

Al: Hey, that’s not fair!

Bob: Just trying to have some fun with you, Al. We heard there is a Carnegie Library that may need our help, though.

Al: Well, our time is just about up. We want to wish you good luck with the show and hope that you solve this mystery next season. I think we’ve heard from everyone but you, Scoop. Do you have any last thoughts for us?

Scoop: Not really, Al. I’m just here to pick up the pieces and put them into the trucks. I just do my job and hope we can find some answers.

Al: So do we, Scoop. So do we.