Adventures of the Former Elginista

I was feeling restless this evening, so I set off for a stroll. I meandered through quiet west side neighborhood streets before crossing the Chicago Street bridge into downtown. I passed bars and restaurants, where people were on their way to dinner or drinks. I turned up Villa and back down Division towards the river, into the sunset. I circled Walton Island before settling on the steps, watching the sun set as Iron and Wine flowed through my earbuds.

This evening, from Walton Island, as families and couples strolled and played at sunset.

As I reluctantly headed home through Festival Park, I was thinking of a recent BocaJump column by Mike Bailey. The piece, which has been rattling around my brain since I saw it two months ago , cited vibrancy as the missing piece to Elgin’s revitalization. Bailey explained,

“Vibrancy is hard to quantify and harder to define; you know it when you see it.

Vibrancy is an energy, a sense of purpose that pulsates through the community and, in many successful cities, through the central business district. Vibrancy is a quiet energy, a drive, a feeling of impending success. It is an expectation of excellence that one contributes to and benefits from.”

As I wandered this evening I paid attention to the people I passed. It’s something I’ve been watching ever since I first read Bailey’s piece, because vibrancy comes from people.

On this warm, sticky night, I saw people out walking dogs. Families with young children wobbling on training wheels. Strollers. Serious bikers flying down the bike path. Couples wandering, hand in hand. Solo runners. People fishing at the dam. An older guy watching a heron-like bird. Homeless people. Townhouse dwellers walking after dinner. Casino patrons.

Together, these people contribute to the vibrancy, the energy, that’s beginning to permeate our town.

Bailey pointed to youth as the bringer of the vibrancy we need to nurture. And he’s largely right about the need for a young, energetic populace:

“It is not more parking decks or condominiums. It is not pedestrian malls, covered malls, mini-malls, enclosed walkways, better lighting, dollar days, more fairs and festivals, brick paved crosswalks or tax incremental financing districts.

It is youth. Young people. People who have hope and expectations and embrace hard work and the rewards they believe should come with it. Young families, young college students, young businessmen.”

While Bailey cited the virtues of college towns, that’s only part of the story. Despite ECC and Judson, Elgin isn’t a college town. But we do have young families and young professionals – just the type of people with the energy, the drive, the desire to create and foster that vibrancy. I see them on nights like tonight, or while walking home from my office in the Tower, as mothers lead children to karate or 20-somethings play frisbee or football in Festival Park.

But in some ways, we fight them.

We raise taxes. We focus on the wrong things, battling over bison and pavers, buying crumbling buildings that we can’t afford to fix. Meanwhile, as we’ve debated here, we need to improve our schools and their image. We pay big incentives to international companies after they’ve already decided to locate here, while requiring fledgling start-ups to pay for a license to do business.

We need to court more young families and professionals who will plant roots in Elgin and invest time in neighborhoods, schools and businesses. We’ve got some here, but by making Elgin a great place to raise families and nurture businesses, we can attract even more. How can we take this vibrancy – this energy – and harness it?

Today is my sixth housiversary! I closed on this 120-year-old beauty – full of hidden charm and stories – six years ago today. Last year’s fifth housiversary felt like a bigger deal, but I’m still feeling nostalgic today.

As I sit at my desk, I hear train horns echoing across the river as they rattle into Elgin. I chose my location in part for its proximity to such trains, as the 7-minute walk to the Metra station is easy. (While I now only commute one day a week, I have made that walk hundreds of times in six years, from sunrise to sleetset.)

I grew fascinated by the people on the trains, watching the same people interact day in, day out.  I even came up with standard descriptors for the late-night crowd.

I’ve really been surprised by how many other people are intrigued by trains. Sure, little kids’ eyes widen when the see the train, but there are quite a few grown-ups who are also captivated.

Which brings me to the 2015 Lincoln Funeral Train. A group is building a replica of the train that carried President Lincoln back home to Illinois after his 1865 death. Lincoln’s funeral procession traveled 1600 miles from Washington, DC to Springfield, IL, stopping in 12 major cities for memorial services.

President Lincoln played a major role in promoting railroads, and was instrumental in making the transcontinental railroad a reality. And Illinois, of course, was the crossroads of the system. You can still observe this, riding a Metra train as it slithers through the railyards on the west side of Chicago.

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the funeral train procession, the 2015 Lincoln Funeral Train group is preparing to embark on a similar procession with a replica train in April 2015.

Right now, there’s a replica of the 1860s locomotive, the Leviathan63, available for viewing at Elgin’s Gail Borden Library on Saturday, April 21. The group is also hosting a fundraising dinner – complete with an Abraham Lincoln impersonator – that evening to raise funds for the project.

Tickets are available online or at Ace Hardware (Spring and Lillian locations), the Elgin Historical Society, and Miller Insurance Services at 1108 Larkin.

I’m eager to see how the procession unfolds.

Fireworks are about more than just the explosions

While sitting at the Council meeting last week, listening to Mayor Kaptain explain the rationale behind partnering with Hoffman Estates for fireworks, I was reminded of one of his campaign themes:

“Build community, not things.“

One of the things I’ve always loved about Elgin is the sense of community. For a town of 108,000, it sure feels like a small town in that people know and look out for each other.

That’s not easy to say these days. More and more, people are isolated from their neighbors, or skeptical of neighbors with good intentions.

So do fireworks build community? And if so, can we build Elgin’s community spirit by having “Elgin” fireworks in Hoffman Estates?

I was relieved to hear that the proposed cost was relatively low – $15,000 was pledged during the meeting, which works out to less than 14 cents per Elginite. (Staff time, including police to direct traffic, has not been calculated yet.)

A community-planned and run event, such as the Jaycees were proposing, would definitely foster community. Volunteers who invest time and effort build relationships with each other, but also expand their community. They reach out through their extended networks to get additional help and to draw people to the festival. News of such events travels via social networks and through word-of-mouth. People are often proud of their contributions and want to share it with others.

While partnering with Hoffman Estates achieves the goal of blowing things up, I hope that the planners engage community groups to really bring Elgin into the event. Because that’s the point of any festival: providing a place for neighbors to come together and celebrate the community they share.

Any of us could go attend another community’s fireworks, but if we’re paying part of the bill, let’s make sure it’s truly an Elgin festival.

Fireworks rock. But are they worth the taxpayer dollars?

Last week, Facebook was lighting up with the possibility of Elgin-sponsored fireworks. As proposed, Elgin might partner with Hoffman Estates (and possibly Hanover Park) to put on an Independence Day display at the Sears Center.

We lost our city-sponsored pyrotechnics in 2008, when projections warned of looming budget trouble. At that time, I remember the discussion being framed in terms of necessities vs. nice-to-haves. City officials mused about what citizens would prefer: fireworks or trash pickup. Of course, most rationally chose trash pickup, a “core service.”

I love fireworks. They’re magical, and they inspire awe and wonder.

But we’re broke. Elgin has been refreshingly transparent about just how broke we actually are. We went through a very open, very painful budget process in December that even affected core services. Effective January 1, we’re paying for trash pickup, with $13.25 added to our water bills every month. Older neighborhoods like mine now pay for leaf removal, too. And yet now, barely three months later, we’re looking at spending money on a nice-to-have?

More frustrating is that the news of new spending comes on the heels of January layoffs that eliminated 22 full-time and seven part-time positions. While some of the posts were already vacant, 19 people lost their job to help save $1.8 million.

Granted, partnering with other communities is a step in the right direction. Rather than competing with our neighboring towns, pooling resources can benefit both sides. We just partnered with Hoffman Estates to spend $53,865 on a dog park. (While the dog park will be nice to have, it won’t actually be in Elgin. The money will be spent in Hoffman Estates, instead of in some of our own dilapidated parks.)

There is another way. The Elgin Jaycees are spearheading an effort to fund a fireworks festival privately, through donations, sponsorships and community donations.

Let’s give the Jaycees a shot. If they have the organization and gumption to run this, let them. Rather than spending tax dollars, let’s see if some of our local businesses – say, perhaps the ones getting incentives from the city – might be willing to chip in a bit.

What do you think? How should we pay for fireworks? Or are fireworks even worth paying for? Take the poll below.

The Council will consider the fireworks question at the March 21 Committee of the Whole meeting. I’m eager to hear the discussion.

UPDATE 3/22: At the March 21 meeting, the Council unanimously approved committing $15,000 towards “enhancing” Hoffman Estates’ fireworks display and cooperating on their festival. No cost estimates were given for staff time or potential police time. 

My recent Perceptions & Pawnshops post has gotten a lot of attention, with several great comments. (Thank you!) A lot of the comments touched on a common theme: when there are bigger, deeper, systemic problems, image is moot.

Commenter Beth, a non-Elginite looking in, summed it up best with an analogy:

“While I think aesthetics are extremely important, they are merely the frosting on the cake and we all know that you need to bake a good cake first before you put on the frosting. Frosting an old piece of bread is not going to fool anyone once they take the first bite.”

She’s right, and I wholeheartedly agree. I’ve written before about some of the bigger, structural issues that affect our city and its image. Indeed, I make my living creating, massaging and maintaining images. Marketers know that if the product is crap, the best marketing plan in the world is for naught.

We do have our problems, but we can’t neglect our image as we work to fix things.

We have a large low-income population, which is why we have pawnshops, payday loans and their ilk. As commenter Chris pointed out, pawnshops are a better option than payday loans for people in financial distress.

Our schools continue to struggle mightily. To really shine, a city needs good schools. For families with children, the local school’s reputation and test scores can be one of the biggest factors when picking a home. And having poor schools often presents a “hidden tax” when families feel they must pay for private school on top of property taxes.

But crime isn’t nearly as bad as it used to be – in fact, we’re now statistically safer than Schaumburg. As we slowly turn the corner on the recession, businesses are cautiously launching or expanding – sometimes even without government incentives.

Another commenter on the pawnshop post, Chuck, was right when he argued, “The pretense that we can buff our image up into a gleaming city on a hill is delusional.”

However, I’ll argue that we still must be mindful of how our actions affect that image. The bread may be stale, but we shouldn’t sprinkle it with arsenic. Presentation matters. And a decent image will entice people to take a bite or investigate further.

Chuck also mentioned a disparity at the recent special city council session:

“[A]t one time, the discussion was focused on just letting Elgin be Elgin, we are what we are. But in minutes, the discussion was how to improve our image.”

And there’s the rub. Elgin can’t just be Elgin. Elgin’s very soul isn’t content with stagnation and just being. Elgin is an urban city amidst the suburban sprawl, an old industrial city trying to reinvent itself. That reinvention is the key. Long after the factories left, we’re no longer settling. We’re reaching and striving for more.

As Paul Challacombe recently wrote, “[S]omething incremental but fantastic is going on here in downtown Elgin. A ghostly canyon of bricks is being animated, through restoration, human imagination and something resolutely American— entrepreneurs.”

That reinvention entails – requires – crafting a new image rather than accepting the image of who we used to be.

We do have to fix the core. The focus on image won’t fix our schools, and we still have residents who need the services provided by pawnshops and their kin. But talking about our low crime rate and celebrating the good do help bolster our image – which, in turn, attracts more people willing to work to improve our town.

So let’s keep crowing about the good and working to cultivate the kind of image that attracts good, solid residents who will help our town thrive. But at the same time, let’s roll up our sleeves and help solve those structural problems.

We’ve got the ingredients. Let’s make some cake.