I guess a fake email went out recently to undergraduates of the University of Illinois stating the negative aspects of fraternity life and rush week. Since it has been some time since I’ve been in school, I can’t necessarily say what rush week or frat life is like anymore. What I can do is relate my own frat experience in this article.
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.
FedEx Ground states that it doesn’t have employees as drivers, but rather independent contractors who are free to manage their own business. However, here are some rules that have to be followed:
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?
As I stated in my last article, FedEx Ground and FedEx Home Delivery do not hire drivers to deliver packages to homes and businesses. Instead, contractors are used to get the job done. This means that ordinary men and women have to purchase a vehicle and possibly purchase their own route if they want to start their own business. This can be quite costly, or quite profitable . . .
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.
Thailand smuggles a sock in its underwear.
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.
You finally put together enough money to purchase an iPod. You go online, place your order and proceed to checkout. You enter all your credit card information and then you have to select your method of delivery. Even though you want to get your toy ASAP, you realize how much you are spending, so you select the standard delivery option of FedEx Ground and you impatiently wait three to five days.
Ed. Note: This is the first installment of a three-part series which will run the next three Tuesdays.
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On a Sunday afternoon in June, nearly 50 people gathered at Urbana’s Independent Media Center to commemorate “Grandpa.” Robert Wahlfeldt died in March at the age of 83. In his working life he was a labor leader and political radical. In retirement, he was a mentor and unofficial grandfather for the close-knit community of political activists in Champaign-Urbana. Almost everyone called him “Grandpa.”
I profiled Mr. Wahlfeldt one month before he died as part of a series on political activists in the area. At the IMC event, his friends and family dedicated a basement meeting room as “The Grandpa Wahlfeldt Family Room”.
Earlier this month, Urbana became home to a new restaurant/dueling piano bar named 88 Broadway. After two years of planning, owner Doug Larson was finally able to bring his vision to fruition. Located inside the south entrance of Lincoln Square Mall, the restaurant seems to galvanize the otherwise dormant mall once the retailers shut down for the night.
I sat down with Larson and his general manager, Luke Henry, to ask them about the newest addition to downtown Urbana’s nightlife. Larson’s idea was to create a contemporary atmosphere that would be accessible for business lunches, casual dinners and raucous sing-a-longs late into the night. They also desired to create a diverse atmosphere that would be accessible to all age groups. “We would like to have a dinner atmosphere similar to Biaggi’s, but not out of reach as far as prices go,” Larson stated. Henry added that most mixed drinks and drafts are only $3, so that no one feels that 88 Broadway isn’t affordable.
William: The Illini Glider Club sits on the outskirts of Monticello: a grassy airstrip, a hangar with five gliders and a tow plane, a couple of folding chairs and an ocean of sky. Only some distant trees and a few rusted barns intrude on the vista.
The day we visited to take a ride, a morning shower had just blown over, and the sky was piled high with ivory cumulonimbus — a good sign for gliders.
Cristy: When William asked me if I wanted to go gliding, I hesitated. Did glider mean hang glider? I laughed nervously, not really saying yes or no. When William tried to reassure me that a glider was enclosed, I broke into a panicky, cold sweat. Immediate thoughts of nosediving into a field came to mind.
We hear them moaning in the dead of night, curse if they cross our paths when we are driving, or make a wish if they pass over us.
Freight trains are a part of our landscape.
I had an opportunity to take a trip on one of those monsters and talk to the engineer about life on the rails. This reporting took place under-the-radar of the train company, so I have blurred certain facts, places and names. Other than that, everything reported here is truth, exaggeration or hearsay.
Stepping out of the car by the railroad crossing, I find myself alone, surrounded by hectares of horizon. Awkwardly, I stand by the side of the two-lane country road and pretend to be a corn photographer as the occasional truck driver passes and looks me over.
The holiday shopping season is well underway. And sure, everybody loves a sale with extra discount coupons, right? But how about purchasing from stores that are locally owned or operated, affordable and unique to our two towns? Some of them even have their own sales going on right now! Where are these places, you might ask?
Well, we here at Smile Politely have put together a small list of local joints that are chock-full of great gifts for a variety of those who made your "nice" list. We even found a place in town for those who've made the naughty list too!
So, get out your preferred method of payment and shop away! Your local economy will thank you.
Ask anyone from Champaign-Urbana about Vriner’s Confectionary, and the answers you receive will vary, as does the history of the local company itself. Most townie folk remember it well, as it has not been that long since the nationally renowned candy makers had their own building in Downtown Champaign to work out of and create their sugary canes and brittles.
As recently as 1997, Vriner’s was open at their East Main Street location. The building, now occupied by Memphis on Main, is a country music-themed bar.
I fell into an invitation to come and see how candy canes come to life by accident. I wanted to see and hear about what goes into the candy cane making process, and to find out about where the company has been and where it is going.
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