Recent Smile Politely Entries
- The Overture: December 1 – December 7, 200812/01/08 - Brian McGovern
- Gift Time Begins12/01/08 - Rose Marshack
- Now Hear This! Vince Guaraldi Trio — "Little Birdie" (1972)12/01/08 - Seth Fein
- Happy Thanksgiving — Regular Content Returns on Monday11/26/08 - Smile Politely Editors
- Baking Bread Is a Revolutionary Act11/26/08 - Lisa Bralts-Kelly
- Little House on the Arctic Circle11/26/08 - Lindy Wheatley
- The Polite Power Rankings: Week 1311/26/08 - Chris Maier
- Y'all Must Be Trippin': Illini Head to South Padre Island11/26/08 - Rob McColley
- Now That's What I Call a Compilation CD!11/26/08 - Brian McGovern
- How Do They Get Away with It?11/26/08 - Ryan Neaveill
About Tim Green
Tim Green
Tim Green has lived in Champaign for four years, having moved here from Washington D.C. to study urban planning at the University of Illinois. While in Champaign, he has played in bands, helped to run a community art space, and spent an inordinate number of hours watching city meetings on local public television. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Illinois Disciples Foundation and OPENSOURCE Art.
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Every Election Counts
Last Tuesday, City of Champaign Township voters had the opportunity to vote on a referendum to ask the City of Champaign Township trustees to restore the level of general assistance funding by “any and all means available to them.” In the crazy patchwork of overlapping jurisdictions and taxing bodies that is Illinois local government, the townships are the ones who provide general assistance — a type of welfare for the poorest of the poor.
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Ideas Fly at Local Landfill Meeting
Driving west out of Champaign on Bloomington Road takes you past a 90-acre tract of land surrounded by chain link fence — the site of an old landfill owned by the City of Champaign. No one has dumped garbage at the site since 1975, but a number of groups have used the site for various purposes in the years since.
On Tuesday night, the Champaign Planning Department and the Champaign Park District held a public meeting at the Springer Cultural Center to discuss the future of the old landfill.
Lovely Rita?
People are up in arms about parking.
Or, at least, about parking meters. And they measure their frustration in quarters and hours.
At the heart of the issue is the upcoming vote by the Champaign City Council on whether or not to increase parking rates in downtown Champaign, and to extend the hours that the meters are enforced. While the city stands to see a not-insubstantial windfall from these measures, it also hoists the burden into the pocketbooks of the people who park downtown.
Working the Angles in Downtown Champaign
Angles dominate the city. From ten-story buildings to six-inch curbs, human-built landscapes are mazes of interlocking planes. And no type of angle dominates more than that famous heavyweight from high-school geometry: the right angle.
Vertically, we see these angles everywhere: in the high corners of buildings and window frames and doors. But right angles are horizontal creatures as well, and on the ground level the quintessential right angle is the street corner.
