Students, welcome! While sometimes we may casually lament about the difficulty in getting around campus when you’re here, or do a little celebrating about the summer pace when you’re not, ultimately, your presence is very …
Posts by Editorial Board:
Let’s leave our suburban landscaping habits in the past
As the summer winds down to make way for autumn, it’s almost time to dust off the old leaf blower and rake and get ready for fall yard work. Or is it? It turns out …
The Village of Savoy wants to build a downtown
Earlier this summer, the Village of Savoy put out a request for expression of interest (REI) from developers to build out a “postcard worthy” downtown at the intersection of Church and Dunlap. In theory, this …
We can no longer ignore this climate emergency
The realities of climate change are more apparent each year, and this summer, it has been particularly real around here. For two days at the end of June, smoke from wildfires in Canada enveloped the …
Reflecting on public decency in Champaign County
In the midst of the climate emergency, the stripping away of rights to certain groups, crumbling Democracy, gun violence, and the other routine horrors of the 21st century, we want to take a moment to …
We’re now in our post-COVID future
In April 2020, a handful of weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, we published an article thinking about what life could be like after the emergent nature of the pandemic subsided. We asked two questions: …
A renewed focus on rebuilding through small venues
In 2018, we wrote about the death of active music venues in Champaign, a few years after the beloved Mike N Molly’s shuttered. When MNM’s closed, many were devastated by the loss, which was just …
The state of LGBTQ+ rights in our community
You may have seen this graphic circulating in your social media feeds recently. It was created by journalist Erin Reed, a trans woman, for the Los Angeles Blade. It depicts the level of anti-trans legislation …
Six years later, we still need a queer performance space in C-U
Three years ago, we published an article lamenting how three years after the 2017 closure of the iconic Chester Street Bar (C Street), Champaign-Urbana still lacks a dedicated queer performance space. So now six years …
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Smile Politely is committed to providing passionate, trustworthy, and informed points of view on a variety of topics that are important to our community. We rely on contributions from community members to write about how …