Money money money: We've got priorities
Plenty of money to make the parks pretty
The city is giving Grant Park an expensive makeover: A dog park with a doggy fountain, a skate park, a headless sculpture park, and a children's museum are all in the plans. The cost? Officials say they still are totaling up the figures.
In the meantime, the CTA keeps raising fares and the schools are cutting teaching positions to balance budgets.
Candidates for governor have plenty of cash
Gov. Rod Blagojevich has almost $2 million in his campaign fund; his top Republican challenger, Judy Baar Topinka, has $460,000.
Democratic Edwin Eisendrath has $185,000, $125,000 from himself and family members. Republican Ron Gidwitz has more than $2.5 million, including $1.7 from himself and family members.
Meanwhile, voters are wondering if their voices will be heard.
George Ryan got cash from employees
As the former governor's racketeering and fraud trial continues, his defense starts with a witness who says Ryan got cash from employees every Christmas.
According to his secretary, he received between $1,500 and $3,000 in cash from his office employees in a normal Christmas season.
This explains why my boss never liked me: Always expecting a bonus (and never getting one), I never realized that I was the one who was supposed to stuff an envelope with cash.
posted by teacherman @ 5:40 AM
11 Comments:
I believe you neglected to look at an important part of the story.
"As was the case with Millennium Park, a public-private partnership will pay for the cosmetic transformation, with the private sector picking up most of the bill."
I feel you're making it seem that the city is in the biz of opening dog parks to serve the rich.
I looked into setting up a dog park.To get it going, you need to raise a certain level of money ($50,000?)and then the city matches it. It's a good trade off.
On one hand I agree with Mr. Molitor because getting dogs into dog parks keeps them out of other public areas. I love dogs, but you never know what kind of temperment they have when you see them running unleashed in public parks near kids. Dog parks give those non-curbers places to run their pets.
On the other hand, it's insane that the city spends ANY money on beautifying dog parks as long as there is a budget problem and schools face cuts of even $1. The dogs could care less how nice the park is -- give them a bit of space and they're just fine.
I believe the plan was "creating not beautifying" a dog park. I agree dogs care more about the space not the aesthetics. As long as it creates space you're fine.
Anyway If you look at it a dog park, look at the long term effects...A dog park creates interest in a neighborhood which bring more residents. More residents bring additional tax revenue which means more taxes from Sales Tax or increased property taxes. That means more money for schools
They're doing more than putting in a darned dog park! And the point here is this: Who gives a crap where the money comes from! Why are they so interested in beautifying/creating/making things for tourists and dogs to enjoy while there are all sorts of budget woes? Why isn't the city looking for creative ways to finance schools and public transportation?
and let's not forget that Millennium Park was built with private funds, but who is stuck with the cost of buffing the bean and maintaining the whole thing?
Millenium Park has certainly proven to be a very successful tourist attraction and if the city is only paying for the maintenance I think we're getting a bargain.
I agree that schools are underfunded and more creative ways would be good.
I also think there needs to be a shakeup in union management if the President is seems to show a complete disregard to improving efficiencies.
I think there has a to be shakeup to prove to the taxpayer that the monies are necessary. As a taxpayer I'd be happy to put pay more if the results would be there.
I think they should build dog parks in the schools. Then the locals could drop off the dogs in the school and pay a fee (which the city can match) which goes to pay for books or whatever at that school. < /snark>
Also, Millennium Park could be making the city money if Daley did not give a friend of his a cushy deal to run the restuarant and they put no money into the city coffers even though they make loads of money (I read about this in the Chicago Reader about a year ago). In the end, Daley and his cronies are the problem and not the parks or the dogs
That's not that crazy of an idea. they have auto shop class why couldn't the combine this with a veterinary type of class.
That would:
1. increase money to the school
2. provide a service for the community
and most importantly:
3.Teach responsibility to children. Interesting fact: I may be off a little bit but I believe that 4 out of 10 schoolchildren in chicago have attended an organized dog fight before they reach 4th grade.
Ok, one reason not to let my kid go to a chicago school! just kidding.
What about dropping the dogs off in the local jail? Don't they have programs like that, where inmates take care of and train dogs that will be adopted by families? I have heard they are really successful, and it could be an alternative to doggy day care!
See now we have a creative "out of the box" dialogue that government and politics frowns upon. There is a lot of red tape to overcome. While it's easy to criticize or blame others for reasons why or why not something is being funded, it's certainly not easy to take a risk and try to come up with a solution that may upset someone.
Or here's an idea ...
Let the dogs run the school halls during classtime. This would eliminate all the students who walk the halls or show up tardy to class each period. (And, yes, there are kids that walk around for entire class periods so they don't have to go to a class they hate.)
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