From our dear village authorities :

Sidewalk shoveling required

Village ordinance requires property owners to remove snow and ice from the public sidewalk within 24 hours following any snow, sleet or freezing rain. Being a good neighbor is important, too, so property owners are urged to help those who may need help clearing a sidewalk. For more information on the shoveling requirement or help resources, call 708.358.5700 or email publicworks.

Being an inveterate walker, I have a dog in this fight. Do it!

Was most impressed the other night, Feb. 25 ? at the county board candidates forum ? oddly enough by Ike Carothers, who got caught, took a plea, and at the forum defended himself plausibly (news accounts not reliable, ?I paid the price?) and lessrelevantly (?I have been contrite . . . I believe in a God that believes in forgiveness?). If elected, he will demonstrate Democratic Party honesty about itself.

Was least impressed by Blake Sercye ? Fenwick Fresh Face, Rahmfather’s pick, a glib fellow whose unbridled confidence oozes from every pore.

Only 27 years old? No problem: He withstood Rahm to his face, he implied. About what? Where? When? Publicly? Was it reported? Who else knows about it? He’s ?young, not new,? has been involved in ? what? politics? the community? ? his ?entire life.? He brings ?new energy to the table.?

He’s master of the talking…

Oak Park’s new econ development creature to be headed for now by John Hedges :

Wes Venteicher of Chi Trib:

“My expectation for the next months is I don’t want to miss a heartbeat,” Abu-Taleb said. . . .

Phil Rockrohr of Oak L:

Hedges was the unanimous selection of the EDC’s executive committee, [its] release said. He will assume the position on Feb. 24, but only serve until the agency appoints a permanent executive director in a few months, it said.

Hedges was one of nearly 12 candidates reviewed by the board and the executive committee, the release said.

Like Holiday Inn, no surprises here. Businesslike boiler-plate report as befits business-development people.

Phil Rockrohr of Oak L at Sat. 2/22 Anan forum: Nice video coverage here.

Oak Park Newspapers (me) at same session:

Anan, asked by woman who hesitated to put it but finally asked why Hedges, whom…

A pessimistic view of today’s Catholic liturgy:

The [post-Vatican 2] Pauline rite [Paul VI’s] is so radical a deconstruction and reconstruction of the Roman liturgy that it does not exist in the same tradition of organic development. It is a new departure, a new thing, not a revision of the old thing that had been handed down over the centuries.

As an artificial liturgical entity constructed out of pieces of the Roman heritage combined with modern scholarly inventions, any future reform of it would be no more than a variation on the new theme. The only way forward is not to tinker any more with this “fabrication, a banal on-the-spot product” (as Ratzinger called it in 1992), but to return steadfastly and stalwartly to the Catholic and Roman liturgical tradition embodied in the preconciliar Missal.

Indeed, only in this way can the deepest aims and aspirations of the Second Vatican…

Don Harmon is on a tear, is he not? Has he not been preternaturally active leading up to this election season, when he’s running unopposed (fancy that!) for relection to his automatic senate post?

There were town hall meetings last spring and summer, in which he exposed himself in unprecedented fashion to slings and arrows as the state writhed in fiscal agony; a meeting he called and promoted with multiple robocalls about the Eisenhower expansion; multiple letters to Wed. Journal in the shape of guest columns (again exposing himself, this time to online-comment scrums); more recently rallying his troops for call-athons to promote his and presumably others’ candidacies; and most recently an “urgent” Saturday-morning meeting (tomorrow) to endorse a county board candidate.

This last is part of an all-hands-on-board effort to block the candidacy of the felonious former alderman Ike Carothers, two years out of federal prison and eager to…

Anyone have a problem with this?

The village hired HOPE Fair Housing Center to study discrimination in Oak Park housing in 2013. The organization conducted “paired testing” by sending African-American and white renters to eight local management companies to ask about rentals.

The village hired people to be its agents with a view to work undercover to check up on citizens who rent housing in the village?

It’s come to that?

Here’s a thought about findings of racial and other discrimination in housing rental in Oak Park, based on this from the findings:

Despite the village’s reputation as “one of the truly integrated communities in the Chicago Metro area,” significant discrimination persists, the study states.

The thought? That being a truly integrated community calls for a certain amount of such discrimination, assuming, as the village board apparently did, that the findings are credible.

Historically, the village faced accusations of unduly “managing” integration in the ’70s, presumably lest “resegregation” be the norm. Consider Maywood.

I feel free to make this observation — admitting that I have not read the report but only about it and being opposed to unfair discrimination — because as a liberal community we are committed to considering all aspects of most issues.