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Smile Politely Reports: Obama and Biden Descend on Illinois

2008-08-25T13:00:00Z

Like all major campaign events in recent years, Saturday’s rally in Springfield where Barack Obama introduced Senator Joseph Biden as his choice for the Democratic vice-presidential nominee was meticulously covered by the media. This was, of course, no surprise. But I was surprised by my response to attending the rally. News coverage devotes so much time to the logistics, stagecraft and “messaging” of campaign events that I felt strangely disconnected witnessing one in person.

]]> As I prepared for bed the night before the rally, CNN’s John King reported that two Democratic sources had confirmed Obama’s choice of Biden. I received the much-touted text message announcement from the Obama campaign at 2:37am. How anti-climactic. As my companions and I packed up for the trip to Springfield, Fox provided live shots from a helicopter above Biden’s home in Delaware. During our drive, the radio reported early reactions to the choice of Biden.

Springfield’s streets were quiet and mostly empty. The blocks surrounding the Old State Capitol are sparsely developed, mostly small business and light industry. The area seemed far from a natural fit for an appearance by a politician derided for his rock star status and international appeal.

I expected massive traffic delays. Cars were backed up only to 11th and Jefferson streets, roughly one mile from the rally site at the Old State Capitol. Heat substituted for congestion, however. The temperature was 90 degrees when we parked our car at a deserted Catholic charity office. The weather report predicted thunderstorms but the sun was bright and relentless.

The line to enter the rally snaked around two city blocks. We joined it just after 12:30 p.m., 90 minutes before the rally. Peddlers hawked merchandise along the route: Obama buttons, T-shirts, baseball caps, even a Teddy Bear. A trio of folk singers performed with guitars and fiddle under the precious shade of a small tree. The Springfield Fire Department had opened hydrants and sprayed one of their truck hoses into the street. Children played in the cascade, and the occasional adult also cooled off in the water.

At the entrance to the rally site the volunteers (who appeared to be sweltering in the campaign’s standard issue navy blue T-shirts) directed us to empty water bottles and leave our umbrellas in a nearby clump of bushes. This was the big time—security was tight. The Secret Service worked the make-shift gates, searching bags and directing each person through metal detectors. Snipers were visible on the rooftops around the capitol complex.

My companions and I staked out a position on 6th Street, between the Old State Capitol building and the bank. The stage was obscured by the crowd that pressed against the police barricades. Campaign volunteers told me that a long line of people had already assembled when they arrived for duty at 9 a.m.

Behind us, a four-story American flag was draped over an office building at the corner of 6th and Washington streets. To our left, a large group from the Illinois Association of Fire Firefighters stood with their families, all clad in yellow union T-shirts. As we waited for the rally to begin, a cloud moved in front of the sun, drawing cheers and applause from the crowd.

Standing next to me was Terri Evans, who had brought her 18 year-old daughter to see Obama and Biden. Evans, from southeast Wisconsin, had an Obama button pinned to her shirt and a bright red Obama T-shirt tucked into the backside of her belt. She had been “torn during the [primary] debates” but now supported Obama “100 percent”.

The previous day Evans had closed her office early and driven five hours to Springfield. Her daughter recently graduated from high school and moved to the area. Evans hoped the event would spur her daughter’s political engagement.

“I wanted her to see the stuff that’s not on TV,” Evans told me.

But television viewers could see much more than the crowd from its street-level view. While I was talking to Evans my mother called from Pennsylvania. She was watching on C-SPAN and informed me that Michelle Obama was at the base of the stage greeting the crowd. Minutes later we heard the voice of the Springfield’s mayor, Tim Davlin, as he began the rally.

“Is it a great day to be an American?” Davlin asked, drawing cheers. The crowd filled in tight behind us. Davlin introduced Jim Frazier, a former Marine and advocate for veterans’ care. Frazier, whose son Jacob was killed in Iraq while serving with the Illinois Air National Guard, led the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance. “[Obama will] lead our nation in a new day and we should all, all, be glad for that,” Frazier told the crowd.

Then a local Lutheran pastor offered the invocation. His prayer began relatively neutral (“We pray for leaders who will lead a transition in our country”) and ended with a wish list of Democratic policy prescriptions relating to taxes, the environment, and food safety.

After the invocation, I talked to Kathy Gossard, a Bloomington resident. Gossard attended the rally with her husband, daughter and three grandchildren. The three children fidgeted at Gossard’s feet while she talked, their sweaty, blond hair matted to their foreheads. Gossard has supported Obama since before the primaries. “We’re true blue Democrats,” she said.

Gossard began to follow Obama after his speech at the 2004 Democratic convention. “We’re excited about this campaign and excited to have someone with a different skin color,” Gossard explained. “It shows movement in the country.”

The mayor returned to the podium to introduce Obama as the sun came back out. The crowd had filled in behind us. The only things visible above the wall of people were the occasional toddler on someone’s shoulders and numerous cameras held high over head.

“It’s good to be back in Springfield,” Obama said over the cheers. “It feels like I’m coming home again.” He launched into an abbreviated version of his standard stump speech. Then Obama led up to his introduction of Biden by described his last year of campaigning.

“For months I searched for a leader to continue this journey with me,” Obama said. “Today I came back to Springfield to tell you that I found that leader.”

I stopped taking notes for a short time to shade my balding head with my notebook. Sweat was stinging my eyes. A woman next to us seemed ready to faint. Several people helped her to a seat at the curb. A young boy nearby began to cry.

Biden took the microphone. Three teenage girls in front of us jumped up and down, trying to catch a glimpse of Obama. They shrieked when one of them succeeded and became indignant when a man nearby hushed them.

Biden praised Obama, slammed the Bush administration and affirmed the decency of ordinary Americans. “When have Americans ever let their country down when they had a leader to guide them?” he bellowed.

After acknowledging his friendship with McCain, Biden took several jabs at the Republican nominee.
“These times call for more than a good soldier,” he said, “they call for a wise leader.”

Biden concluded by taking aim at Obama’s reputation for naiveté and inexperience. Obama, said Biden, is a “clear-eyed pragmatist who will get the job done.”

The sound system played U2’s“Beautiful Day”. The crowd quickly fled the heat. From our spot, it was
impossible to see how long the candidates stayed to shake hands.

At the corner of 6th and Washington streets I found Elaine McGregory and Alice McBride, two Obama volunteers from Chicago’s south suburbs. They had left home at 6 a.m. to work the event and now rested amid the departing chaos. Nearby the fire department had opened another hydrant. People circled around the spout, filling bottles or drinking straight from the stream.

McGregory said Saturday was her birthday. She had collected volunteer forms from the crowd during the rally. McGregory told me that weather did not slow down her volunteering. “I was in the cold and snow in Iowa,” she told me, recalling her work during the January caucuses in that state.

A small crowd gathered near the stage, gaping as television correspondents filed their reports. A BBC reporter fielded questions from two women but CNN’s Candy Crowley was the crowd favorite.

She drew multiple shouts of affection from passersby. Several people photographed Crowley as she addressed the camera from a platform above the sidewalk. In a tent on 6th Street next, several news people hunched over a laptop and monitor, watching footage of Biden’s speech.

Behind them, a long line of satellite trucks filled both lanes of the street. An Asian film crew interviewed an Obama impersonator across the street.

I didn’t catch a glimpse of the real Obama, or the real Biden. But I did get a backstage look at the people who help make them famous. As we drove back to Champaign the radio played highlights of the rally.
Later that night I watched clips of the speeches on television.

Photos by Kat Schwartz

Neil Street Starbucks Among 600 U.S. Locations to be Closed

2008-07-18T20:30:00Z

Starbucks released the full list of locations to be closed yesterday, and Store #10365, located at 2000 N. Neil St. at the Market Place Mall in Champaign, is on the list. The shift manager on duty at the store today had no comment, and a message left with the corporate media hotline was not immediately returned. Starbucks has not yet announced a closure date for the store. The Neil Street store is the only Champaign-Urbana location slated to be shuttered, but it is among 25 in Illinois. Other area Starbucks slated for closure include stores in Danville and Peoria, among others.

Delivery for Representative Tim Johnson

2008-07-17T16:00:00Z

Last Wednesday, July 9, voters from in the Champaign-Urbana area made their way to 15th Congressional District Rep. Tim Johnson's office to present their community collected scrapbook petitions. These creative petitions express concern about the threat global warming poses to Illinois' environment and way-of-life in the form of hand-written letters, post cards, photographs and video testimonials. Those who participated in the petitioning asked Rep. Johnson to work towards real solutions against global warming in Congress.

]]> “The people of central Illinois understand the threat of global warming and are calling on the leadership in Congress to have a plan to address it, “ said Drew Thomas, Urbana resident and Greenpeace field organizer.

One participant, Lindsay Millett, explains how she believes creative petitions can be more effective than pre-printed ones, "It is not just a collection of names. Johnson can see his constituents' faces, their handwriting, their words that they've chosen to say to him. In fact when I made a delivery last week, a man in the office was like, 'I wonder how many of our neighbors we'll recognize in this one.' So already, people in Johnson's office are aware that these scrapbooks are from the community. I believe this will have a much stronger effect than pre-printed petitions ever could have had."

Greenpeace would like to invite more people to come out to Rep. Johnson's office on 2004 Fox Dr. in Champaign and deliver more petitions through the week of Wednesday, July 23. For more information please contact, Drew, your local Greenpeace organizer.

The Reality of Retaliatory Eviction, Part 2

2008-06-18T16:00:00Z

(This is the second in a two-part series regarding retaliatory eviction issues relating to tenants and landlords in the greater Champaign-Urbana area. The previous part is featured here on Smile Politely.)

Lindsay Bever spent last winter trying to heat her apartment in Champaign with her oven. Her heat stopped working. She had complained to her landlord, who Bever said, did nothing about it.

Four years prior to Bever’s experience with her landlord, the Illinois General Assembly had passed the Residential Tenants’ Right to Repair Act, which was meant to give tenants a way to sidestep inept landlords.

However, tenants like Bever still have little recourse.

]]> Across Illinois, and the nation, tenants grapple with recalcitrant landlords who drag their feet in making repairs while pocketing checks from tenants. In Champaign-Urbana, where the number of renters is above the national and state average, things aren’t much different.

Tenants have few remedies against negligent landlords. State laws, like the Right to Repair Act, are weak due to Illinois’ powerful real estate lobby, and local building inspectors give plenty of leeway to landlords.

The Right to Repair Act allows tenants faced with negligent landlords to deduct half their rent or $500 (whichever is the lesser amount) to pay for a repair to their rental.

With a serious problem, like a broken heating system, the law probably would have done little for someone in Bever’s situation.

In a university town like Champaign-Urbana, tenant issues are particularly salient due to the large number of renters. The 2006 U.S. Census estimates that about half of Champaign’s 31,050 housing units are renter occupied. In Urbana, 63 percent of the city’s 15,300 units are renter occupied, according to the same data.

About 33 percent of housing in the U.S. is renter occupied according to 2006 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Illinois has about the same percentage statewide.

The cities also have large swaths of aging property, which are prone to breaking down and becoming dangerous. In Champaign, almost 22,000 housing units were built before 1989, according to 2000 census data. In Urbana, that number is nearly 13,000.

“The number one problem tenants face all over the country would be repair problems,” says Esther Patt, the coordinator of the Tenant Union at the University of Illinois. “I often find myself saying to a client ‘there is no swift effective remedy under the law for repairs.’”

Patt explains that the act isn’t very helpful when a tenant is confronted with a potentially serious maintenance issue and a landlord who drags their feet about repairing it. Because the law caps the amount a tenant can deduct for a repair, they may be able to fix something like a leaky toilet, but would have no real way to address a problem like a collapsed roof or a severely clogged chimney, says Patt.

“The repairs that people get the most upset about are ones that a tenant couldn’t hire anyone to do,” notes Patt.

She also adds that building maintenance workers are unlikely to make any invasive repairs solely at the behest of a tenant, and she suspects that landlords are often aware of the weakness of this law.

“I don’t know anyone yet who has tested it,” says Mick Woolf, a counselor with the Champaign-Urbana Tenant Union, of the law in an interview.

Woolf says that sometimes he mentions the law to clients, but he always points out to them that using it is “a narrow road.” Woolf explains that the law is accompanied by a litany of very specific conditions under which it can be applied. He also says that he makes a point of explaining to clients that using the law could stir up more trouble with a landlord who doesn’t see eye-to-eye on the repair.

Julie Eckard, executive director of the Illinois Rental Property Owners Association, told me in a telephone interview that her organization opposes the law.

She said that she is uneasy with the idea of a tenant bringing in someone she didn’t know to work on a problem she was unsure was serious enough.

“I would rather have my own people work on it,” says Eckard, of making a repair on one of her rentals.

She also added that members of her association are good about expediting repairs.

Dan Hamelberg, of the University Group apartment rental company and member of the Central Illinois Apartment Association, stated in an e-mail that the association doesn’t have a stance on the law.

Several other landlords were interviewed for this article. They all said that they had never had a tenant attempt to use the act, nor had they heard of anyone attempting to use it. None of them even knew the law existed.

“I have yet to hear of someone actually using it,” says Kate Walz a senior staff attorney at the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, in a telephone interview.

Walz explains that it is extremely difficult to pass any comprehensive legislation aimed at strengthening the remedies of tenants in Illinois due the strength of the Illinois Association of Realtors.

Walz says that the bill’s primary sponsor, state Senator Jacqueline Collins (D-Chicago), negotiated heavily with the association to prevent them from attempting to block it.

On the floor of the Illinois State Senate, Collins mentioned that the IAR had approached “some issues” concerning the legislation. However, Collins continued proclaiming that steps were taken to “…appease the concerns levied by the concerns levied by the realtors…”

“It’s a tenant’s right,” said Rep. Naomi Jakobsson (D-Urbana) of the law she helped wrangle through the legislature in a telephone interview. “Sometimes tenants report things and they wait and they wait.”

Jakobsson didn’t recall the influence of the association when the bill was passed, nor did she recall anyone claiming the act was weak in protecting tenants.

Looking at transcripts of the Illinois House of Representatives debate on the bill the question of how effective it would be protecting tenants never did not come up, nor were any concerns raised in the senate. Instead, a chorus of concerns over the technicalities of the bill rose from legislators who owned rental property.

The Residential Tenants’ Right to Repair Act is not the only avenue tenants have to remedy problems in their rental. Often times the building inspector is the first resort to getting something repaired in their rental, but getting action can be a drawn-out process.

“We try to keep confrontation to a minimum,” says Susan Salzman, Champaign’s property maintenance supervisor, of the conciliatory approach the city takes toward landlords in a telephone interview.

Salzman serves as city liaison to the Central Illinois Apartment Association, an organization that seeks to advance landlord interests. She said in an interview that she helps advise the organization on landlord responsibilities and the work of inspectors.

Urbana has a liaison as well.

Salzman says that when a tenant complains to building inspectors an inspection is scheduled. Following the inspection a notice of any violations is sent to a landlord who is given 30 days to fix any problems, says Salzman.

If no action is taken, a landlord gets an additional 14 days to remedy the situation. After that, a landlord can be granted further extensions before it is passed over to the city’s legal department, says Salzman. However, if a maintenance issue jeopardizes the physical safety of a tenant, the city takes much more pressing action.

According to Stephen Chrisman, a building inspector with the City of Urbana, the process is nearly identical in Urbana.

“It is quite a process,” says Woolf, of getting a building inspector to apply leverage to landlord.

"They want to make kissy face with people who violate the law," sneers Patt, who finds the conciliatory attitude of Champaign and Urbana building inspectors "vulgar and disgusting."

Patt points out that if a tenant gets behind in their rent payments they are often slapped with late fees or outright eviction and finds it “very inequitable” that landlords are afforded so much leeway.

Despite what Patt characterized as weaknesses in both the Residential Tenants’ Right to Repair Act and the inspections process, she still says that it’s still good that tenants have them.

"Anytime something is codified in law, this is a good thing for tenants. They have a piece of paper they can wave around,” said Patt, who says that the threat of invoking the law can be enough to spur a landlord to fixing a repair.

Instant Runoff Voting Given Stay Of Execution At Council Meeting

2008-06-17T15:30:00Z

Last night at the Cunningham Town Board meeting, proponents of instant runoff voting, a controversial method of election where voters are able to rank their preference of candidates on the ballot, scored a small victory when the board deferred a move that could have quashed their efforts to have an advisory referendum placed on the November ballot.

During the last few years activists have used the Cunningham Town meeting, where citizens are able to place to place advisory referendum on the November ballot largely free of elected officials, to push issues ranging from the withdrawal of troops from Iraq to the impeachment of President Bush.

]]> In April, activists seeking to place an advisory referendum on instant runoff voting on the November ballot were given a black eye when members of the local Democratic Party establishment flooded the annual Township meeting and clobbered their efforts.

Still smarting from the April meeting, IRV proponents cleared the necessary hurdles to have a Special Town meeting held on June 30 to reconsider placing the issue on the ballot, in addition to another calling for greater financial disclosure from the city of Urbana.

Only three questions can be placed on the ballot any year. Last night’s regular Township meeting (where only the Urbana mayor and alderman can vote) could have crushed their efforts by placing three different advisory referendums on the November ballot, rendering the outcome of the June 30 meeting moot.

The proposed referenda would have addressed:

The current system of voting.
The issue of Urbana’s fiscal transparency.
The issue of drivers using cell phones.

The primary point of contention throughout much of the evening was the issue of instant runoff voting. For the better part of an hour, citizens of Urbana passionately blasted the effort to hinder the June 30 meeting during the public comment section.

Citizens of Urbana heaped scorn on Mayor Laurel Prussing and her push to nullify the issue of IRV deriding it as “elitist,” “undemocratic,” and “arrogant.” One went so far as to compare the actions of the board to the “machinations” seen in the state level.

During the meeting, board members stressed that the city goes to great efforts to post financial information on the city’s website and satisfy any requests for information. At one point, Alderman Charlie Smyth (D-Ward 1) suggested that the city would have to pay someone just to post documents on the website to maintain complete transparency.

“We are looking for an honest-to-god discussion of IRV,” Dianna Visek chair of the Champaign County Libertarian Party and member of Urbana Citizens for IRV, who was pleased to see the issue advance. Visek was also “pleased” that the board expressed interested in fiscal transparency.

Citizens for IRV also complained about the lack of notice given for the meeting. An agenda was not placed neither the city of Urbana nor the township’s website.

Many citizens who came out last night were confused by what had transpired. Very little information was made available before or after the meeting.

“I’m very confused about what just happened,” said Gary Storm of Urbana Citizens for IRV about the vague descriptions of the referenda on the agenda.

Calls to Mayor Prussing and Alderman Smyth were not returned as of 11 a.m. this morning.

The Reality of Retaliatory Eviction, Part 1

2008-06-10T16:00:00Z

(This is the first in a two-part series regarding retaliatory eviction issues relating to tenants and landlords in the greater Champaign-Urbana area. The second part will appear next Tuesday at the same time.)

In downstate Illinois, a law aimed at protecting tenants from landlords who might retaliate against them for calling in a building inspector is almost never used.

Does this mean that landlord-tenant relations are just peachy in the land south of Chicago?

]]> Not really, say tenant advocates and lawyers who encounter the issue. The reason the law is so seldom used is because its application is so narrow that it doesn’t always have bearing on real-life situations. Additionally, proving that retaliation has actually occurred can be a hefty burden for tenants.

Because of the way the law is structured, finding landlord retaliation is extremely difficult to find and prove, according to lawyers who handle the issue.

Almost every state offers some sort of protection to tenants from landlord in this capacity, but because Illinois’ law only works under such a specific set of circumstances it offers renters little protection downstate, according to lawyers who handle tenant law. In Chicago, tenants are afforded broader protection by a citywide ordinance.

The Retaliatory Eviction Act is only meant to apply to a very specific scenario: something breaks in a tenant’s rental. The tenant complains to a building inspector. The landlord retaliates by evicting the tenant. The tenant goes to court to contest the eviction, claiming retaliation as a defense.

While the text of the law seem to strike a conciliatory accord, tenant advocates say that the issues with the law is that the sequence almost never occurs in precisely this order. There is more than one way a landlord can retaliate, and the bar for proving that retaliation has actually occurred is a high one.

“It’s not a very broad law. It doesn’t cover much. It just isn’t terribly helpful,” says Esther Patt, coordinator of the Tenant Union of the University of Illinois in a telephone interview. “There are other ways landlords can retaliate.”

John Roska, a staff attorney for Land of Lincoln Legal Foundation, said in a telephone interview that the reason that the law is almost never invoked is because there are often a number of other issues at play.

Roska also said that sometimes a tenant might be behind on rent and reluctant to call the building inspector about a problem with their rental.

“If a tenant is a dollar short then the landlord has every right to give a notice of eviction,” says Roska.

Mick Woolf, a housing counselor at the Champaign-Urbana Tenant Union, says in an interview that tenants who might be behind on their rent or have been less than perfect tenants receive less protection under the law.

Woolf explains that a landlord could retaliate against a tenant and then produce a perfectly legitimate reason, such as non-payment of rent or past noise complaints, for the eviction.

However, Roska and Woolf both say they are confident that retaliation does occur, but often outside of the specific circumstances outlined in the act.

Giving a tenant the boot isn’t the only way a landlord can retaliate. They can also put an annoying tenant at the bottom of the list for repairs, try to find a way to withhold their deposit when they move out, or increase their rent, says Woolf.

Urbana has an ordinance that offers a bit more protection than state law. Under the ordinance, a landlord can’t evict a tenant for complaining to an advocacy group.

Lisa Vandermark, a housing counselor at the Champaign-Urbana Tenant Union, said that the ordinance is still quite narrow and doesn’t know of anyone actually invoking it.

“Most landlords are not stupid enough to do something overt enough to establish a retaliatory eviction,” says Tom Betz, a staff attorney with the University of Illinois Student Legal Service, in an interview.

Betz says that "since the act has such a specific application landlords often have a very clear understanding of what will open themselves up to retaliation claims, and take care not to do those things."

There is a flipside, however. Julie Eckard, the executive director of the Illinois Rental Properties Owners Association, told me in a telephone interview that her organization opposes the law and any efforts to strengthen it, since landlords typically have legitimate reasons for evicting tenants.

Dan Hamelberg, a local landlord and representative of the Central Illinois Apartment Association, said that his organization does not have a stance on the law.

Several landlords interviewed for this article were unfamiliar with the law. And that is no surprise says Patt. "If a tenant contests their eviction on grounds that it was retaliatory they would have to do so in court, which would almost certainly require a tenant to hire a lawyer."

And if a tenant is unsuccessful in trying to invoke the law?

“You really are screwed,” says Betz.

Plus if a tenant loses their case in court they’re stuck with attorney fees. They would still have to move out shouldering any moving costs, and the eviction will remain as a blemish on their rental record.

The burden to prove retaliation puts poor people at a particular disadvantage. They may forgo fighting a retaliatory eviction due to lack of money for a lawyer, and may be reluctant to risk losing their case and having to eat attorney’s fees in addition to moving costs.

"Tenants who are under a month-to-month rental agreement have very little protection under the act," notes Patt. "Unlike a lease, which would require a landlord to provide a reason for evicting the tenant, either party can end such an agreement. No reason for doing so needs to be given."

Under a month-to-month lease, a tenant would have to essentially prove the unspoken intentions of the landlord in a retaliation case. If a tenant under such an agreement did take an eviction to court, the landlord could cite any other reason other than retaliation and be in the clear.

"The whole purpose of a month to month is to be able to end the relationship with the tenant," says Patt. “If they retaliate, they can get away with it.”

Betz explained that the law can sometimes be used as leverage on a landlord to settle if it is obvious that retaliation has occurred.

However, he added that he has no doubt that retaliation does take place in Champaign-Urbana. It’s just extremely difficult to find and prove.

Kathleen K. Clark, the executive director for the Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing, says that her organization rarely uses the state law when defending a Chicago tenant, instead opting for the city’s ordinance, which she described as significantly stronger.

The city ordinance defines actions protected against retaliation more broadly to include: complaining to elected representatives or other public officials, complaining to the media or a community organization, testifying against a landlord in court, complaining to the landlord, joining a tenants’ union, or using “any right or remedy provided by law.”

Conversely, the ordinance broadly defines what constitutes retaliation by the landlord to include: increasing rent, terminating the rental agreement, and bringing or threatening to bring a lawsuit against the tenant.

If a tenant pursues any of these protected actions, and their landlord does anything defined as retaliation, it is presumed in court that the landlord has retaliated against the tenant. This reduces the burden the tenant has to shoulder to prove retaliation, said Clark.

“The Chicago tenant ordinance makes it much easier for tenants to feel safe about protecting themselves and enforcing their remedies,” said Lawrence Wood, a supervisory attorney for the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago, in a telephone interview. Wood echoed Clark by saying that trying to prove retaliation outside of Chicago would be “very difficult” because the tenant has to meet such a high bar.

“It’s important because housing is vital to a family’s well being. Families would be homeless at the whim of their landlord regardless of wrong doing,” said Clark of the importance of the issue.

Patt said that defining the act more broadly could provide better protection.

However, Betz suggested that reforming the Retaliatory Eviction Act might not be the most effective remedy to better protect tenant rights.

Betz said that if the law allowed tenants to freeze rent if their unit was not up to code it would goad landlords into making repairs more rapidly.

“If you really believed in having in property that meets code you would do that, and property would meet code,” sneered Betz. “You wouldn’t have the risk of retaliation.”

Happy Birthday to the Brass Rail, Which Celebrates Its 75th Tonight

2008-06-05T16:00:03Z

Downtown Champaign's oldest bar--as old as the end of Prohibition — is throwing itself a party, with bands, birthday presents and, of course, cheap beer.

Three dollars gets you in to see Dottie and the Rail (a ragtag country band fronted by a smoky-voiced singer whose beau, Foty Backey, is the 'Rail's owner) and The Golden Quality (a rock band with a Brass Rail bartender in the lineup).

]]> Admission automatically includes entry in a raffle for surprise swag from sponsoring downtown business such as Furniture Lounge, Dandelion, Jennifer North, Cafe Kopi, Circles, Exile on Main Street, Boardman's Art Theatre, The Esquire and Mike 'n' Molly's (only to name a few).

The Brass Rail is located at 15 E. University Avenue in Champaign. The party starts at 9 p.m., and bands go on around 10.

Urbana Votes Down Historic Designation For Lincoln Hotel

2008-06-04T20:53:06Z

Urbana City Council voted down an ordinance Monday night to make Urbana's Lincoln Hotel a historic landmark, a measure that would have secured the original 1923 structure built by local architect Joseph W. Royer.

Built in the Tudor-style, the downtown Urbana hotel has seen considerable ups and downs in its 85-year history along with a major addition constructed in a Bavarian-style aesthetic in the early 1980s by the Jumer's hotel brand.

]]> Normal, Ill.-based hotel developer Fred Rotermund of Global Hotel Management recently acquired the property and is currently shopping out the site to major hotel brands. According to Rotermund, the historic landmark designation hinders his ability to attract large, upscale hotel chains.

Many citizens came out — including members of the Urbana Preservation Commission — in support of the landmark designation like Urbana resident Carolyn Baxley.

"I think it would be a disservice to the community; I think it would be in opposition to the community values in Urbana if we jeopardize this property," Baxley says. "This building has been the heart and soul of downtown Urbana. It has been for years"

Although Rotermund says he does not have plans to demolish the original Royer-designed wing, he admitted he could not speak for the owner so therefore he cannot make that commitment.

"Our intention is to reverse what Mr. Jumer did, and that is he tried to add his Bavarian style into the Royer design," Rotermund says. "We want to reverse that and try to bring the Royer design in to the addition."

Although the council voted down the measure to designate Lincoln Hotel as a historic landmark, they to want to see the Royer portion of the hotel remain intact.

Hopes of the council, including Alderman Dennis Roberts who voted alone for the landmark designation, are to have the best of both worlds: a downtown hotel that flourishes and keeps the historic portion in tact.

"The key piece here is preserving the 1923 Royer exterior," Alderman Charlie Smyth says.

The council voted against the ordinance 4-1. Alderman Robert Lewis and Alderwoman Heather Stevenson were absent. The council passed a motion to remain in talks with Rotermund about the plans for the Royer portion's exterior.

Currently the hotel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Global Warming on the Hot Seat

2008-06-02T17:30:00Z

On Sunday afternoon, a few dozen people gathered at Champaign’s West Side Park to send a clear message to Rep. Tim Johnson, the Republican congressman who represents Illinois’s 15th Congressional District. The message: It’s time to prioritize legislation that addresses the causes and effects of global warming.

]]> The event marked the local kickoff of Project Hot Seat, a nationwide initiative sponsored by Greenpeace and intended to compel members of the U.S. Congress to take a more active role in solving the problems associated with climate change.

With a bullhorn in hand, Tom Abrams, the 2006 Green Party candidate for Illinois state representative in the 103rd District, encouraged the crowd to “continue to do (its) part to stop global warming.”

But for the people at West Side Park, doing their “part” meant more than just showing up or signing a piece of paper. In order to send a strong message to Johnson, the activists put together “creative petitions,” as Greenpeace field organizer and C-U resident Drew Thomas calls them.

Participants moved among various “stations,” each one featuring a different means of communicating a message to Johnson. At one station, videos were being recorded. At another, letters were being composed. Elsewhere, children and adults crouched over a table painting pictograph messages on squares of fabric and a few feet away people made speech bubbles that would then be photographed next to their heads.

“Creative petitions can tell a story and deliver a more personal, visual message than names on a sheet of paper,” Thomas says.

Thomas says that Greenpeace, which opened its office in Urbana’s Independent Media Center about a month ago, has found particularly fertile ground in C-U.

“Greenpeace has had a long presence of loyal membership and strong activism during campaign pushes,” he says. “It’s very apparent that this community understands the threat of global warming and is eager to do something about it.”

At the end of June, the Project Hot Seat crew will “deliver all the creative petitions gathered at Sunday’s event” to Johnson’s office, Thomas says. Those interested in participating in this or any other Project Hot Seat event — or simply learning more about the initiative — can attend any of the weekly meetings held every Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Independent Media Center.

Faces in the Crowd

“I firmly believe in the power of people organizing,” says Ron Morrison, above, a University of Illinois senior. “I feel that a lot of times in order to create a change in a system of government you need to use a form of coercion.”

“I think it’s important to think about our future,” explains University of Illinois undergrad Rachael Levine, above. “And if we need to show support for Rep. Tim Johnson to allow him to show his support (for the cause of global warming), then we should.”

Green Table: Illinois Food Task Force Discusses Local and Organic

2008-05-28T17:30:50Z

Local and organic food has made a surge in the last few years with a growing number of American families putting local and organic grub on the dinner table. Tonight, the Illinois Local and Organic Food and Farm Task Force is coming for you. Not to hand out slaps on the wrist for your food infractions, but rather to get some feedback on how the public views Illinois’ food systems.

]]> In Champaign-Urbana, health-conscious folks can pick up organic and local goods at Urbana’s Market at the Square (Lincoln Square Village) every Saturday morning, or everyday at Common Ground Food Co-op (Springfield Avenue and Sixth Street), a local cooperatively-owned grocery store slated to move into new, larger digs this summer.

Meet up tonight at the Urbana Civic Center to talk about what you’ve been putting on your fork. Topics range from consumer access to local and organic foods and its production in Illinois. If you eat food, the task force wants your opinions.

Speakers at tonight’s discussion include Urbana Mayor Laurel Prussing, and Dr. Wesley Jarrell from University of Illinois, along with Debbie Hillman and Jim Braun from Illinois Local and Organic Food and Farm Task Force.

The session begins at 7 p.m. and is located at the Urbana Civic Center at 108 E. Water St. in downtown Urbana.

Memorial Day Announcement

2008-05-26T12:00:00Z

Champaign Takes Steps to Link Downtown and Campustown

2008-05-21T17:30:11Z

Champaign City Council took steps last night to connect the popular downtown district with Campustown by adopting the University District Plan — which was recently updated in 2007 — as council policy for the next ten years.

Along with adopting the plan, the council agreed to an intergovernmental agreement with the Champaign Park District to maintain a park along the Boneyard Creek corridor from First Street to Wright Street.

]]> The University Plan, which council has taken on, includes issues such as security in apartment complexes, parking, transportation and implementing an urban design, among others.

The action plans feature improvements large and small. With transportation, the plan discusses several items such as increased enforcement of pedestrian jaywalking, strobe light turn signals on all MTD buses and high visibility crosswalks on Wright and Fifth streets.

The Boneyard Corridor, through Scott Park, would allow students and residents to walk through the area, and questions arose about the closing time of the park. Alderman Tom Bruno proposed working with the city to establish a realistic closing time, if there is going to be one.

“I see this as a pathway between a downtown and a Campustown that have both become nocturnal in the middle of a group of citizens who are basically nocturnal, and all the reasons why we close parks at dusk may not apply to Scott Park,” Bruno says.

Bruno voiced concerns about the park closing at a time that residents and students wouldn’t expect it close, causing someone walking finding themselves subject to arrest.

University Skyline Grows Up Right on Schedule

2008-05-19T16:00:55Z

As development continues on a number of buildings in and around Campustown, the University of Illinois’s skyline begins to take new shape.

Among the construction projects slated for late-summer completion are the Urban Outfitters/office building at 507 E. Green Street and the Burnham310 residences on Springfield Avenue (both pictured).

]]> The construction on the Urban Outfitters retail space is expected to be completed by Aug. 1 and the store will open with a soft launch approximately ten days later, says Jill Guth of JSM Management, the developer. Urban Outfitters will occupy the first two floors of the seven-story building. The top five floors will house University of Illinois and University of Illinois Foundation offices.

Around the same time that Urban Outfitters opens its doors, the new Burnham310 apartments and studios will be welcoming their first occupants. The project remains on schedule for the Aug. 4 move-in date.

According to Theresa Kamerer at Burnham310, around 60 percent of the buildings units have been leased. She said they hope to see that percentage increase during the summer months.

On Thursday morning at 10 a.m., Burnham310 will be holding a capping ceremony. “The last stone will be laid,” says Kamerer. The ceremony, which will take place at the corner of Springfield Avenue and Third Street, will mark the end of all major external construction on the building.

Books to Prisoners: Literacy as a Right

2008-05-16T17:30:57Z

In 2007, the Federal Bureau of Prisons made the decision to expunge all religious materials from prison libraries nationwide in an effort to prevent prisons from becoming potential “recruiting grounds” for terrorists. Amid public outcry and inmate lawsuits, the bureau was forced to reverse its initiative.

One-year prior, Pennsylvania was forced to justify, in court, its statewide ban on all news, magazines, and photographs to a sizable portion of the state’s inmate population.

]]> Though the line between constructive rehabilitation and vengeful punishment has been one constantly negotiated in our prison system since its inception, the uniquely bizarre national climate, the swing in national discourse towards a more punitive penal system has made organizations like the Urbana-Champaign Books to Prisoners program, a necessity for inmates in the state of Illinois.

The UC Books to Prisoners project began with one University of Illinois Library and Information Science graduate a few years ago, who began with a few donations and an example, set by other books to prisoners programs in the state. Since then the organization has swelled to distribute nearly 24,000 books to almost four thousand inmates in Illinois.

For an all-volunteer organization, the project is fairly ambitious. The program offers books by mail to all Illinois inmates, staffs lending libraries in the two local Champaign County jails and publishes a ‘zine of inmate-authored words and art.

According to Suzanne Linder from Books to Prisoners, the inmates’ reactions were, “Largely appreciative. We’ve grown from serving 20 inmates to three to four thousand inmates that we contact with regularly. There is a tremendous need for reading materials in prisons.”

Indeed, decreases funding for prison libraries has positioned programs like this one as sometimes the sole source of literature for inmates.

“These books go directly to prisoners and become their personal property,” Linder says, “Increasingly, funding for libraries is being cut…and often we find prisons use access to the library as a form of control. One of the things we believe is that literacy is a right.”

Another function of the organization is to provide a venue for prisoners to tell their stories. Prisoners write letters to the organization requesting books, which are then read by volunteers. The process of giving a voice to these inmates eventually grew to encompass a yearly ‘zine consisting of poetry, photography, art, prose and other artistic contributions from Illinois inmates. According to Linder, the effort came about as a result of a volunteer several years ago that was interested in publishing inmate art and poetry. Books for Prisoners publish the ‘zine as volunteer time allows.

Volunteers at the program have an opportunity to participate in a number of different activities. “Pack-a-thons” are held several times a week where requested literature is packed up and shipped off to Illinois prisons. Volunteers can sign up to work a few shifts at Champaign County jail lending libraries, where the program staffs, stocks, and operates these libraries. The organization’s book sales remain the sole method of covering the $400-600 a month shipping costs.

“We have a core group of about 10-15 [volunteers] who manage day to day operations,” Linder says. “With everyone from middle schoolers through retired people who work with us regularly. During the school year several student organizations volunteer a few times a month.”

As Linder points out, the unique nature of the work keeps volunteers coming back for more.

“When people get involved it’s a pretty rewarding volunteer experience,” Linder says. They find it sort of takes over more of their life than they had necessarily planned it to.”

Take Two Wheels Tomorrow for National Bike to Work Day

2008-05-15T20:30:00Z

If rusty chains, blown-out tubes or any other cycle malady has been keeping you from participating in this week's Bike to Work Week (May 12–16), and you feel like you don't have the tools or know-how for a DIY fix, The Bike Project of Urbana- Champaign can help (and before the big Bike to Work Day tomorrow, May 16).

]]> The Bike Project (a member-run co-op) opens its downtown Urbana repair shop three days a week to the community, offering the co-op's tools, repair guides and staffers' expertise to people looking to learn to fix their bikes themselves.

The repair shop is open to the public on Wednesdays from 6:30–8:30 p.m.; Thursdays from 6 –9 p.m.; and Sundays from 4–5 p.m. A free repair class, for all levels of experience, is also held every Sunday at 2 p.m.

The Bike Project is located in room 24 of the Independent Media Center building, at 202 S. Broadway in Urbana. For more information about the co-op's open hours, workshops and events, or membership benefits, go to The Bike Project's website.