Division Street

At the Beachwood, including:

1. Miss Manners on patriotism.
2. Kim Wilde’s Kids in America.
3. Regulated Militia Well. A poem.
4. 13 Anthems. Including The Respangled Banner, The Alphabetically-Spangled Banner, The Star-Spangled Forecast, and The Redacted Banner.

Posting here at Division Street will resume later today.

Please bear with me, dear readers, I have to take my laptop to the local Genius Bar this morning to get my Wi-Fi working properly. I also will be flying out very early to L.A. on Friday morning to help teach a session at SPJ’s Citizen Journalism Academy. So posting will be light to sporadic if at all today, though I hope to resume tomorrow and through the weekend from sunny California. Apparently they have a cool new subway system and I might just check it out.

One reader asked why I didn’t include All of the Above. Because I wanted to make you choose! Thanks, everyone.

In Studs Terkel’s Division Street: America, Division Street is a metaphor. But here in Chicago, Division Street is a living, breathing metaphor, and from time to time on this blog, I like to check in with it to see what it says about our city, our lives, our nation. Consider:

* “Division Street: Two Americas.” Straining to be rich and hip.

* “Do Division Street Fest & Sidewalk Sale 2008.” Pabst Blue Ribbon will be served based on its popularity in the ‘hood.

* “This life-work began with the best-seller Division Street: America, in which he talked to politicians and protestors, firemen and cops, actors and salesmen, saints and thieves.” From “Roger Ebert’s Journal: How Studs Helps Me Lead My Life.”

Previously:
* Division Dispatch #1: “You don’t have to worry about getting mugged on Division near Damen at 10 on Friday night like you did 10 years ago. And as folks who live there will tell you, the main drag isn’t a hooker depot anymore.”

* Division Dispatch #2: “A three-block section of [Chicago neighborhood] Wicker Park that once accommodated eight families, two vintage clothing stores, a French cleaners, and a gourmet bakery has been completely razed to make way for a private livery stable and carriage house.”

* Division Dispatch #3: “Division Street separates Wicker Park from East Village (east of Damen) and Ukrainian Village (west of Damen). In last week’s Reader, Ben Joravsky described how ‘Dan Rostenkowski kept the villages under his thumb even after he’d gone off to Congress - and jail.’”

I’m scheduled to appear on NBC5’s morning news show at 6 a.m. on Tuesday to discuss the Oregon and Kentucky primaries, as well as Hillary Clinton’s potential exit strategy. Please tune in.

Kenneth Dunkin (D-Chicago, natch) was the sole member of the Illinois House to vote against prohibiting state officeholders from plastering their names on every sign they can get their hands on.

That’s right: It was Dunkin vs. 109 of his colleagues.

“The legislation,” the Sun-Times explains, “stems from the $480,000 purchase and installation of 32 signs bearing Blagojevich’s name promoting I-Pass lanes along the Illinois tollway system. The signs were installed in the midst of the governor’s 2006 re-election campaign.”

Dunkin is an obscure legislator, but he could become a favorite here at Division Street, given that this is already his second appearance here.

You can hear Dunkin explain himself here (via Rich Miller’s Capitol Fax Blog).

Here’s where the unfortunate constituents of Dunkin live:

In Studs Terkel’s Division Street: America, Division Street is a metaphor. But here in Chicago, Division Street is a living, breathing metaphor, and from time to time on this blog, I like to check in with it to see what it says about our city, our lives, our nation.

For example, Division Street separates Wicker Park from East Village (east of Damen) and Ukrainian Village (west of Damen). In last week’s Reader, Ben Joravsky described how “Dan Rostenkowski kept the villages under his thumb even after he’d gone off to Congress - and jail.”

What could be more Chicago than that?

Joravsky wonders, though, if the Rostenkowski era has finally come to an end with the arrival of Alds. Manny Flores in the 1st Ward and Scott Waguespack in the 32nd. In both wards, it ought to be noted, Machine incumbents were ousted in large measure for “haywire development” in their wards - development done at the behest of Mayor Richard M. Daley.

Somehow, though, Daley found himself on the other side of the street when voter ferment threw the bums out.

Previously:
* Division Dispatch #1: “You don’t have to worry about getting mugged on Division near Damen at 10 on Friday night like you did 10 years ago. And as folks who live there will tell you, the main drag isn’t a hooker depot anymore.”

* Division Dispatch #2: “A three-block section of [Chicago neighborhood] Wicker Park that once accommodated eight families, two vintage clothing stores, a French cleaners, and a gourmet bakery has been completely razed to make way for a private livery stable and carriage house.”

I’ll be on Eight Forty Eight’s Month in Review panel this morning at 9 a.m. on WBEZ-FM (91.5) discussing the motherlode of a newsy April gone by. Here are my picks in the various categories we are likely to discuss.

MOST SIGNIFICANT STORY: Ali Ata! The roadmap to the governor just became a lot clearer. Second: The absolute insistence - with the backing of the Daley Administration - of the Chicago Children’s Museum in moving forward with its plans to relocate in Grant Park despite tremendous public opposition.

LOSER OF THE MONTH: Rod Blagojevich.

WINNER OF THE MONTH: Jim Hendry. Even though the mega-millions he gave to Alfonso Soriano looks increasingly idiotic, Kosuke Fukudome has been even better than advertised, Reed Johnson is a steal, and Lou Piniella is the man.

WINNER & LOSER: The Chicago Children’s Museum. A loser because everybody hates them now, but a winner because the mayor always gets what he wants.

UNDER-REPORTED: The CHA opening its voucher list up again and them being swamped with applications. If examined closely, this is further evidence that the Plan for Transformation is more about transforming valuable real estate than providing adequate housing for the poor.

OVER-REPORTED: Chicago public schools violence. Not to be insensitive, but this has been framed as somehow the fault of Chicago public schools. If I understand it, these killings are not occurring on public school property; it’s not CPS’s fault. It’s mostly gang-related, and I’m not sure if the violence - intolerable as it is - represents a spike over previous years. This is a story about poverty, socioeconomics and policing, not schools. That part of the story should be reported with even more urgency, but the school frame is overblown.

WATCH NEXT MONTH: The Chicago Children’s Museum battle will be back at full volume, but also watch the Latin School lawsuit; these are both about private use of public park land, though different in scope and circumstance. Also, Obama is obvious, but what about his political mentor Emil Jones? Will his one-man gridlock finally cave as the governor’s influence vanishes beyond the horizon?

COWARDLY ACT: The lawyers who kept their client privilege may have thought they were being courageous but they were being cowardly when they consigned Alton Logan to prison for a crime he did not commit. While we can all appreciate their dilemma, they could have found a creative way out of it, even if it meant losing their law licenses. A man’s life ought to come first.

I’ll be appearing on NBC5’s morning news show at 6:50 a.m. on Wednesday, and then taking questions via the good ol’ Internet from 7 to 8.

Among today’s developments on the Children’s Museum front:

* The Tribune editorial page today publishes a list of museum officials it holds responsible for the proposal to build in Grant Park, including the museum’s officers (Peter England and Jennifer Farrington), Board of Directors, Board of Advisors, and Past Chairman’s Council. Sixty-five names in all. Take a look and drop them a note!

* A full-page ad in the Sun-Times today lists members of the recently manufactured All Chicago Children’s Museum Committee. Eighty-four names in all. I’m sure the mayor is keeping a list.

I couldn’t find the list of names on the museum’s website to link to for you, but maybe their names will appear as sponsors of the museum’s new Astroturf exhibit.

* Division Street had the scoop! And today the Trib has “Grant Park Museum Foes Hit Liquor Request,” in which museum official Jim Law says that the language in their development application allowing for future restaurants and liquor sales on the site is “just standard.”

I’m sure he won’t mind taking it out then.