Why I Oughta...

The lighting of the trees around City Hall and the County Building happen every Fall and I've been documenting it on my walks to work for the past few years.  Here's the lights going up this year in the photo above.  I took this photo more than a week ago, so despite me posting it on the 26th, they technically started the lighting the trees in mid-October.  Here's the post from 2017 showing the lights going up  on October 27th. In 2016, the lights went up in early October . And in 2015, the lights went up in September . This raises the age-old question about Christmas Creep when it comes to holiday decorations:  Is this genuine Christmas Creep?  Or is it just good planning?  

It's - beginning - to - look - a - lot - like - Christmas....  At least if you walk down Randolph Street outside of the Daley Center.  I took this photo on a recent walk and you can see the guys in the bucket trucks stringing little white twinkle lights on the Ginko trees that are perched in the raised beds right along Randolph.  I covered this same thing the past few years. In 2016, the lights went up in early October . And in 2015, the lights went up in September . So, the trend continues to creep back towards Halloween.    And, I for one, don't consider this Christmas creep.  They don't keep them on once the installation is done.  Let's just count this as flat out good weather planning, right?

If you get a chance, take a walk by the Elmhurst Police Station on First Street and get a view of a newly installed/created 'demonstration rain garden' that they've recently built out front.  As of the past few days, the construction fence was still up around the project, but it appears that all of the work is complete and now they're just wrapping up the project.  The City of Elmhurst is - kind of - putting their money where their mouth is on this.  I say 'kind of' because they, ummm, didn't use their own money I don't think; they got a grant.  Details on the garden can be found here on the Elmhurst Storm Water Plan site  where they describe the project: The Project Involves the construction and maintenance of a rain garden, sized between 800 and 1,200 square feet, to include an engineered soil mix to promote infiltration, as well as a variety of native shrubs, grasses, and forbs, immediately south of the Police Station. The goal is to reduce...

If you live in Elmhurst and opened your utility bill recently, you probably saw this notice in the envelope that calls out the tax increases you're about to be hit with.  They call it a 'Utility Bill Rate Increase', but let's all call it what it is:  Government reaching into your pocket and taking more of your money for no new services. This increase is a 12.6% increase for this year, but if you read closely, they say that there are EVEN MORE tax increases coming in the next few years.  They say, they *might* not be all the way up to 12.6%, but you can bet they'll be near 10% next year and the year after and the year after. Don't even get me started with the sewer costs.  How does the City figure your sewer bill?  Welp, they just take the consumption amount of water and charge you that rate for sewer fees.  Even if it all doesn't go down the drain.  Water your grass or garden?  That water isn't going in the sewer is it?  Nope.  Do...

Thanks to Alderman Dannee Polomsky who posted this above on her public Facebook Fan Page, I stumbled onto the new City of Elmhurst website . At first blush, it appears to be a pretty big improvement in terms of pure looks, but they've also added some nice functionality and elevated the 'search box' to speed up the user experience and get people where they want to go faster.  Also...they've made the new site responsive, so when you are heading there on your mobile device - as we are all wont to do more and more these days - the site responds to your device size and presents you with a format that works on mobile.  That *would* have been a big miss in this redesign if they didn't get right, imho. The photography they're using on the page is neat - as there's a few drone shots showing a pretty unique perspective to town and they've done a good job of highlighting the town. Also, you can see some highlighted items across the main part of the site inc...

Elmhurst 3rd Ward Alderman Danne Polomsky posted this update above to her public Facebook page that links to this document that was delivered last week  by the City Manager that shows a series of development updates around town.    I'm not sure if this was just delivered to the Board, but it is a good document for all residents. But, in addition to the info here, it is notable to discuss the nature of how this was shared.  This is a great example of a public servant sharing info and being transparent with her constituents.  I'm sure that this document could have been 'found' by someone searching the archives on the City's site somewhere, but Alderman Polomsky has made open communication with residents a top priority.  It was part of her pledge as a candidate that she's worked to deliver on during her term.  And this (and just the fact that she's active on social media!) is further proof that she's living up to that promise. Importantly, this is a...

There's a nice sign up on the east side of the market explaining what the big giant light-up "A" is all about. It isn't....for the "Roll Tide" folks.  It is for the Atheists and agnostics and it's aim is to 'encourage the non-religious to come out of the closet, eradicate the negative stereotypes of non-believers, promote rational thinking over superstition' and more.  Good luck with that.   There's nothing quite like the so-called "War on Christmas" that gets a certain slice of the population up in arms.  Well...there are other things like marriage equality and other things that happen inside people's bedrooms.  But...let's just agree that the same folks who consider this an 'assault' on Christmas are likely the same folks who consider marriage equality an 'assault' on marriage. Sadly...there's no aluminum pole for the Festivus celebrants.  Guess those folks are too busy prepping for the 'air...

There's a BIG set of scaffolding up around the Plass Appliance building this week as it appears that it is about to turn into a giant construction site.  As part of that process, it appears that the much-maligned Nu Crepes signage issue has a solve of sorts:  They have this sandwich board sign up right on the sidewalk.  Will it last?  Who knows! If you're trying to figure out what is going on with the Plass store, check out this post that shows the rendering of the new structure .

Not sure of what he's targeting, but I'm seeing this promoted account from Kurt Summers - the new City of Chicago Treasurer - on Twitter A LOT these days.  I finally caved and added him.  Have to say...it feels a bit like the wrong move right now?  I'd be spending my money promoting the content instead of the account?  Driving people to a landing page to take some action?  But...perhaps...much like we learned with the State Treasurer's race....this campaign will get NO interest and barely any attention.  So...building up your own base of followers might be useful?

The folks over at Illinois Homeowners Unite have posted a warning to a few communities about the coming of Pulte Homes to their towns. Elmhurst tops their list.  A quick look on Google shows that Pulte is *already* here in Elmhurst with a development that is south of Butterfield, north of I-88 that contains a choice of just three models .  They're calling it their "Premier Collection". The reason I bring this up is because we've started to hear some rumors about the redevelopment of the old Elmhurst Hospital property and one of the names of builders that keeps coming up is Pulte Homes. Why does it matter?  W ell...some info out there points to some negatives with Pulte . As the economy has modestly improved we have seen an incremental rise in home values, yet nothing compared to the skyrocketing revenues of PulteGroup, which continues to produce homes using cheap labor to enhance its bottom line while showing little consideration for current homeowners, fut...

The City of Elmhurst has an important election coming up on April 9, 2013.  In addition to electing a new Mayor (our Mayor won a seat on the County Board and is resigning from the City post in December), we're also going to be electing Alderman across all 7 Wards, City Clerk and the City Treasurer. After hearing from residents and neighbors as well as talking with my wife, I've begun weighing the decision to get back involved in local government.   Last week, I went to City Hall and picked up a packet and have begun to circulate the petitions to 3rd Ward residents. I've long believed in "Citizen-Government" where individuals from every walk of life stand up to serve our government - at all levels - for a period of time, upon which they go back to their chose professions.  The idea of a career politician was never considered by the founders of our country.  I've served as a Trustee in the Village of Frankfort for six years and on the Frankfort Park Dist...