Friday, May 10, 2013
More than a year after the death knell was sounded by a certain former Patch columnist, downtown Geneva is showing resurgence, tenacity and good health.
Geneva developer and landlord Joe Stanton says the death of downtown Geneva was greatly exaggerated. Former Geneva Patch columnist Jeff Ward started sounding the death knell of the downtown in a column that ran in October 2011 headlined, "Why I Think Our Downtown Will Disappear." As late as mid 2012, three of the four corners of Third Street and State Street were vacant—the State Bank building on the southwest corner, the Merra-Lee building on the southeast corner and the Erday building on the northwest corner, which was vacated by Kiss the Sky on June 30, 2012. Only Starbucks remained on the corner that defines Geneva's two major downtown business thoroughfares. Then came news that Grunwald Jewelers was leaving, due to retirement, and …
Thursday, January 31, 2013
When it comes to Geneva elections, I'm sure you all want to know my opinion.
As we slouch toward the April consolidated elections, we’ll start our political analysis with the now-never-ending saga of long-time Genevan Jay Moffat. He’s the fascinating candidate who decided to run for Geneva park, library and school boards all at the same time. Of course, the attorney general sank his District 304 ambitions, and even though we noted that you can’t serve two political masters, Moffat settled on the park and library boards. But even that duality has come under scrutiny. Unlike the folks at Geneva Township who consider the voters to be a mere annoyance, the Library Board and Library Director Matt Teske sought both a state’s attorney and county clerk ruling input as to the legality of serving on both boards. Their point …
Monday, January 28, 2013
Jim Oberweis' heart may be in the right place, but we've still got to work on his head.
One of my very favorites things in life is when, soon after writing a series of columns on a sensitive subject, a reader or reality comes around to prove my point. This time, my point is proven by Geneva’s brand new 25th District state Sen. Jim Oberweis. The topic we’ve been occupied with is how the wackiest elements of the Republican Party insist upon dooming its prospects by wielding social issues as the kind of cudgel that makes most of us cringe. Of course, Mr. Oberweis made me look good when he called on preposterous Illinois Republican Chairman Pat Brady to resign. Considering Mr. Brady’s questionable judgment and abysmal track record, I’m right behind the senator, but the problem is he issued the proclamation based on Brady’s sudden…
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Here's how you can tell a real conservative from the overabundant fake kind!
If you listen to half of the Patch commenters, you’d think I’m a flaming liberal, radical progressive or whatever pejorative term Fox News is using this for people who think for themselves. But those commenters' comments could not be further from the truth. I challenge you to find one column where I’ve defended the left, or God forbid, Democrats. In fact, I’ll be willing to stipulate that the only thing worse than an Illinois Republican is an Illinois Democrat. There’s a really good reason they’re the party of the jackass! If that doesn’t convince you, if I’m the leftist poster child you insist I am, then please explain my consistent support for Kane County Board Chairman Chris Lauzen. I’ll wait … Can’t do it, can ya? Here’s the truth! …
Sunday, January 20, 2013
In a response to Jeff Ward's Jan. 17 column, Geneva resident Andrea Cladis defends the Pledge of Allegiance and says "disdain for America is perpetuated by a far-left mentality."
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Sunday, January 20
Mr. Jeff Ward: Thank you for making me a Patch news headline. Thank you for chastising my letter to the editor. Thank you for demonstrating to my students that bullying is ambient outside of the classroom, as well. And most importantly, thank you for so graciously proving my point that disdain for America is perpetuated by a far-left mentality. The progressive model of education requires that students take courses to address the challenges of bullying in our schools. Not only do they learn how to fight bullies, but they learn how to be bullies. This backward logic aimed to be an infallible solution to the problem is abominable and has only served to increase the severity and frequency of bullying. For this wonderful development, we can …
Thursday, January 17, 2013
This is my response to aspiring teacher Andrea Cladis' letter to the editor. The rote recitation of any pledge quickly becomes a meaningless act.
C’mon! Admit it. We expect our schools to perform miracles! Aside from the monumental task of educating a variety of children with what often amounts to a minimum of parental support, teachers are somehow supposed to instill a sense of discipline, spirituality and patriotism in their young charges at the very same time. Despite the entirely impractical nature of that dynamic, we tend to get really cranky when it reaches its inevitable disappointing conclusion. So I was rather surprised to read aspiring teacher Andrea Cladis’ letter to the Patch editor lamenting our area schools’ frequent failures in the patriotism regard. Not only does she support Colin McGroarty’s absurd Mill Creek outburst and subsequent District 304 email threat, but …
Monday, January 14, 2013
It's time to stand up to conservative bullies, and it can start with the arrest of the parent who disrupted a Mill Creek kindergarten class in a dispute over the Pledge of Allegiance.
When I read about last week’s Mill Creek Elementary School incident, I desperately wanted to chalk it up to an extreme example of conservatism run amok, but I couldn’t. You see, the sad truth is, when a plurality of Americans insist upon shrieking socialism, birth certificate, secession, and taking back our country, a parent verbally assaulting a kindergarten class blends right in. And please don’t try and tell me that the left is just as bad, because they aren’t. Yes! There are real conservatives who refuse to regularly succumb to that uncontrollable urge to control other peoples’ lives, but their capacity to ignore and even subtly encourage their bitter and overzealous brethren is unparalleled. Incensed over a perceived Pledge of …
Thursday, January 10, 2013
And Geneva Township Trustee Robert Kovacs' recent pronouncement is the best reason to do it!
In eight years of facing down that glowering keyboard, I’ve never heard anything quite like this. And remember, I’ve caught ‘em in outright lies, I’ve caught ‘em with their hand in the cookie jar, and I’ve caught ‘em making remarks that’d make Mel Gibson blush. Art Linkletter was wrong: It’s politicians who say the darndest things, not kids! When attempting to explain why he was trying to throw the only township clerk candidate off the ballot by a petition challenge, Geneva Township Trustee Robert Kovacs provided the Chronicle with this fascinating logic: “I found 19 problems (signatures), and I am contesting it. I want him off the ballot. I don’t know him personally; I don’t know if he is good, bad or mediocre. If I can remove him from …
Monday, January 7, 2013
Challenger Bob McQuillan is approaching the mayoral race in textbook fashion.
Last time we discussed how Jay Moffatt’s odd choice to simultaneously run for school, library and park board can and will be used against him at the polling place. Though he has since dropped out of the District 304 contest, giving voters the impression that you can’t make up your mind is never a good thing. As I pointed out in that previous column, if you’re going to expend the energy necessary to make the leap from couch to cause, then you may as well act like you’ve been there. Because if you don’t, you’ll discover you’re dead in the water before you make it out of the harbor. Ah! But there is one Geneva candidate who appears to be taking that sage advice to heart: Bob McQuillan. Don’t worry! I’ll pause while your significant other gets…
Friday, January 4, 2013
Just because you can run for three electoral offices at the same time, that doesn't mean you should!
A few years ago, current mayoral hopeful Bob McQuillan chastised me for encouraging people to get involved and then scolding them when they did. But that’s exactly what a reasonable opinion columnist should do. Ya gotta keep ‘em honest, coming and going. Call me crazy, but once you make that superlative leap from the couch to a cause, a higher standard automatically applies. Sadly, as a mutual friend of Bob’s and mine likes to say, “When people run for office, they immediately lose 30 to 50 percent of their working brain cells.” And I’ve seen it happen over and over again. Don’t believe me? Then please explain the plethora of GOP hopefuls who went down in electoral flames due to their insistence on sharing their unevolved thoughts on rape …
Jan
4:01 pm on Friday, May 17, 2013
Jeff; SERIOUSLY? You have not heard of Bien Trucha? Under a rock you are, perhaps? It it the ONLY restaurant i can recall in MY recent lifetime that has a WAITING line on the front sidewalk. It's even been on Check Please! more ›