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

The World Wildlife Fund has asked the world to pledge just a single hour of the day to turn off all their lights. Now a global movement, called Earth Hour, they are hoping to send out a powerful statement about taking action against climate change. It was created last year by the WWF in Sydney and the image above is of the Sydney Harbour Bridge before and during last year's Earth Hour.

Urbana Alderman Charlie Smyth introduced an ordinance last night — to a packed council chamber — that would ban cell phone usage while driving in Urbana.

After much discussion and public input, the council opted to further the conversation and allow City Attorney Ronald O’Neal to draft a new ordinance reflecting questions raised at last night’s meeting.

Smyth’s proposal included most mobile electronic devices, including hands-free sets such as Bluetooth devices. Council members voiced concerns over banning two-way cell phone devices for businesses such as towing services: how the ordinance would be enforced and how to educate the public about the ban.

The stretch of Springfield Avenue that runs through campus, between Neil Street and Lincoln Avenue, has never been about great heights. From Am-Ko to several-story apartment buildings to the regal but relatively low-lying Grainger Library and Uni High, Springfield has long been, to a degree, a vertically modest road.

But the Springfield landscape is changing with the erection of Burnham310, an 18-story residential structure on Springfield between Third and Fourth streets.

After Mayor Gerald Schweighart read the resolution providing funds to the reconstruction of three residential redevelopments on North Neil and West Church streets, Council Member Michael La Due took time to note that the incentive deserves a little fanfare in what he called “a small step for the city, but a giant step for preservation and integrity of our downtown.”

The resolution grants $225,000 from the city to go towards expenditures incurred in reconstruction of the properties at 219 N. Neil St., 223 N. Neil St. and 109 W. Church St. The buildings would provide more residential living in the downtown area.

Over the past eight months, Urbana's Public Arts Task Force (encompassing seventeen local working artists), with the support of Urbana's Art Coordinator, Anna Hochhalter, have developed a Public Arts Program for Urbana. In order to directly support the arts in our community, the new program calls for the creation of a permanent Public Arts Commission and Public Arts Trust Fund, with an allocation of $4 per capita going into the fund to support an Arts Director and Annual Grants. One percent of any city building construction or renovation project over a half a million dollars will be put aside for project costs for the arts as well. Their mission statement is as follows: "The Urbana Public Arts Commission is established to recognize the arts as essential to the vitality of our city. The commission fosters a dynamic, innovative Urbana, where all residents — emerging artists, established artists, and 'non-artists' alike — may engage with the arts in its many forms and where artists thrive and are valued."

Attention all Insight customers in Champaign County: you can say goodbye to your Insight prices. Comcast, the nation's largest cable company, bought out the other half of their partnership with Insight Communications and has fully moved into town. With over 24 million cable customers, Comcast now serves Champaign-Urbana, Peoria, Quincy-Macomb, Rockford-Dixon, and Springfield cable television systems in Illinois.

Urbana City Council passed a resolution last night to join an intergovernmental agreement to fight against AmerenIP’s rate hike. The council voted to revise the budget to include funds to protest in front of the Illinois Commerce Commission alongside other downstate Illinois cities.

According to Mayor Laurel Prussing, who laid out the issue last week in her “Mayor’s Report,” the electricity hike could cost the city more than $100,000 in street lighting alone. AmerenIP is currently proposing a 14 percent increase in rates over a two-year period along with an 11 percent increase in natural gas rates.

Downtown Champaign will be suffering yet another Italian restaurant closing this year. First, Dom's closed at the end of 2007 and now, The Great Impasta, a downtown tradition for more than 25 years, will be shutting its doors at the end of 2008.

"It's not established, for me, if this is a closing or if it's another move. It might just be another part of the saga," Harold Allston, the former chef and now owner of The Great Impasta says. In years past, the restaurant occupied a space in the building three doors away, at 132 W. Church St., where Sushi Kame is currently located.

For more than ten years, a small company located on Danville's east side has been making a significant impact on the way we clean.

EnvirOx originally started in 1995 as a research project with the primary objective of developing a cleaning technology that would reduce toxicity in a meaningful way. As the company grew in recent years, a line of environmentally friendly home-cleaning products was launched, and now employees at EnvirOx are pulling double duty to produce 44,000 household cleaning kits before its national debut on the QVC shopping channel on March 18.