Smile Politely. Speak Directly. A Champaign-Urbana Culture Blog

In the southeast corner of Champaign, the black soil plowed for generations into small wave-like rows is being cleared to make way for housing and office space. A number of prim, attractive and similar looking houses line the roads. Brick walls with stone trusses and beige siding enclose them. Their walkways cut through neatly trimmed lawns to stately front door steps surrounded by woodchips or small seas of carefully selected pebbles. There are no thick, stout trees here — only saplings. The neighborhoods are too new for them to have grown tall.

People will commute to and from these homes. They’ll raise children, and take out mortgages to live in them. But these houses are also ground zero for a thorny issue facing growing cities throughout the U.S.: sprawl.

During the 1990s, the invisible hand of the free market gave Champaign the finger. Buildings were abandoned as businesses fled to more profitable areas on the city’s periphery. Downtown became a ghost town. Blight and decay marked much of the city’s core, until the city stepped in.

Although the city of Champaign continues to approve a number of subdivisions on its periphery, it has steadily wooed developers into investing and re-investing in the core of the city. Champaign is following the lead of many cities by encouraging urban infill, which is the redevelopment of existing lots and buildings. However, the revitalization of the city core hasn’t been cheap.

• Contractors can only use their delivery vehicle for other commercial purposes only if the company’s decals are covered up.
• If a contractor’s truck has FedEx Ground packages on it, then that vehicle can’t leave FedEx property.
• Contractors can’t repair their vehicles because they are the company’s property.
• Contractors are reprimanded by management if packages aren’t delivered or picked up on time.
• Contractors can’t add on new vehicles without the company’s permission, regardless of whether the addition of another vehicle would benefit the contractor.
• FedEx doesn’t recruit drivers for contractors, but they can employ temporary drivers, who can then work for a contractor.
• Contractors must wear a FedEx uniform.

Now, just think about this: if you were a contractor and you were told when you needed to start your day, when you needed to have a package delivered by, when you had to have a package picked up and that you can’t take your vehicle home, wouldn’t you feel like an employee?

A month and a half ago, my wife and I canceled our cell-phone plans and became a cell-phone-free household. I related our initial impressions to the Smile Politely audience on July 1 (Simplifying Life: One Phone at a Time).

Reactions to our decision are still mixed more than a month later. Some people seem to assume that we’ll break down and have shiny new phones in time for Halloween. A surprising number, though, are supportive. Supportive in the way people are supportive when you lose thirty extra pounds, or study abroad, or participate in any other life-altering, difficult endeavor: “Wow. That is phenomenal — I wish I could pull it off.”

Once a potential contractor is approved for a loan, then they can purchase a vehicle. FedEx can help point the contractor in the right direction, but they can’t participate in the purchase or in the negotiation of the purchase. Once the contractor has acquired a vehicle, the company will give the contractor FedEx decals that must be strategically placed on the vehicle. The contractor must pay someone to install them. After the truck is decorated, a safety inspection is performed. If the inspection goes well, the vehicle will be cleared to start operating as a package delivery vehicle, but only after the contractor has also been able to get a commercial driver’s license.

Ed. note: The concluding entry of this three-part series will appear next Tuesday.

And while many of the country’s cross-dressers may take a different, more literal approach to attraction, I’m speaking more metaphorically about their tourist economy. Thailand is the world’s largest exporter of rice, host to more than 115 different newspapers, and a land devoted to their noble king and humble Buddha. There are virtually no traces of the Western world, yet they so heavily rely on tourism to help them survive day-to-day. For one month, I backpacked with my friend, Charlie, through the jungles, across the beaches, and in the most touristy and non-touristy parts of Thailand. They can’t afford a sock, yet they make sure to keep one stuffed in their pants to impress tourists. And as a visibly noticeable tourist, experiencing the backwardness of their society helped to bring issues of our Western world to the forefront.

If you know someone who would be a good subject for this feature, email me at joelgillespie@smilepolitely.com

Jeff Hunt zigzagged through a pick-up game on the basketball court with 15 pizza boxes in his arms. The Douglass Community Center on Champaign’s northwest side usually closes at 7 p.m., but on a Friday night this spring, Hunt and several volunteers served pizza and Gatorade to more than 60 young people until almost midnight.

Hunt is a Christian and a youth mentor. He runs Mission 180, a faith-based non-profit that works with “at-risk” young people ages ten to seventeen. The Friday night basketball games offer a fun, safe environment for the young people. None of the Mission 180 volunteers talked about Christianity with the young people on the night I visited, but Christianity drives Hunt’s work.

Ed. Note: This is the first installment of a three-part series which will run the next three Tuesdays.