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Smile Politely’s culture team sets its sights on the places, faces, attitudes and idiosyncrasies that give Champaign–Urbana its own special flavor.
During the 1990s, the invisible hand of the free market gave Champaign the finger. Buildings were abandoned as businesses fled to more profitable areas on the city’s periphery. Downtown became a ghost town. Blight and decay marked much of the city’s core, until the city stepped in.
Although the city of Champaign continues to approve a number of subdivisions on its periphery, it has steadily wooed developers into investing and re-investing in the core of the city. Champaign is following the lead of many cities by encouraging urban infill, which is the redevelopment of existing lots and buildings. However, the revitalization of the city core hasn’t been cheap.
FedEx Ground states that it doesn’t have employees as drivers, but rather independent contractors who are free to manage their own business. However, here are some rules that have to be followed:
Now, just think about this: if you were a contractor and you were told when you needed to start your day, when you needed to have a package delivered by, when you had to have a package picked up and that you can’t take your vehicle home, wouldn’t you feel like an employee?
A month and a half ago, my wife and I canceled our cell-phone plans and became a cell-phone-free household. I related our initial impressions to the Smile Politely audience on July 1 (Simplifying Life: One Phone at a Time).
Reactions to our decision are still mixed more than a month later. Some people seem to assume that we’ll break down and have shiny new phones in time for Halloween. A surprising number, though, are supportive. Supportive in the way people are supportive when you lose thirty extra pounds, or study abroad, or participate in any other life-altering, difficult endeavor: “Wow. That is phenomenal — I wish I could pull it off.”
As I stated in my last article, FedEx Ground and FedEx Home Delivery do not hire drivers to deliver packages to homes and businesses. Instead, contractors are used to get the job done. This means that ordinary men and women have to purchase a vehicle and possibly purchase their own route if they want to start their own business. This can be quite costly, or quite profitable . . .
Once a potential contractor is approved for a loan, then they can purchase a vehicle. FedEx can help point the contractor in the right direction, but they can’t participate in the purchase or in the negotiation of the purchase. Once the contractor has acquired a vehicle, the company will give the contractor FedEx decals that must be strategically placed on the vehicle. The contractor must pay someone to install them. After the truck is decorated, a safety inspection is performed. If the inspection goes well, the vehicle will be cleared to start operating as a package delivery vehicle, but only after the contractor has also been able to get a commercial driver’s license.
Ed. note: The concluding entry of this three-part series will appear next Tuesday.
Thailand smuggles a sock in its underwear.
And while many of the country’s cross-dressers may take a different, more literal approach to attraction, I’m speaking more metaphorically about their tourist economy. Thailand is the world’s largest exporter of rice, host to more than 115 different newspapers, and a land devoted to their noble king and humble Buddha. There are virtually no traces of the Western world, yet they so heavily rely on tourism to help them survive day-to-day. For one month, I backpacked with my friend, Charlie, through the jungles, across the beaches, and in the most touristy and non-touristy parts of Thailand. They can’t afford a sock, yet they make sure to keep one stuffed in their pants to impress tourists. And as a visibly noticeable tourist, experiencing the backwardness of their society helped to bring issues of our Western world to the forefront.
With so much happening in the bicycling community in Champaign-Urbana, it's easy to get lost in the hustle and bustle and lose sight of the people who work hard to keep things between the ditches. So from now on, hopefully on a monthly basis, I'm going to take time out to help you get to know someone in C-U who's involved with local bike activities. It's called Get to Know 'Em! To kick things off, I cornered Tony Cherolis, a mechanical engineer who's relatively new to C-U (he moved to Urbana about a year ago from the East Coast), but who's already knee-deep in the bike scene.
If you know someone who would be a good subject for this feature, email me at joelgillespie@smilepolitely.com
Jeff Hunt zigzagged through a pick-up game on the basketball court with 15 pizza boxes in his arms. The Douglass Community Center on Champaign’s northwest side usually closes at 7 p.m., but on a Friday night this spring, Hunt and several volunteers served pizza and Gatorade to more than 60 young people until almost midnight.
Hunt is a Christian and a youth mentor. He runs Mission 180, a faith-based non-profit that works with “at-risk” young people ages ten to seventeen. The Friday night basketball games offer a fun, safe environment for the young people. None of the Mission 180 volunteers talked about Christianity with the young people on the night I visited, but Christianity drives Hunt’s work.
You finally put together enough money to purchase an iPod. You go online, place your order and proceed to checkout. You enter all your credit card information and then you have to select your method of delivery. Even though you want to get your toy ASAP, you realize how much you are spending, so you select the standard delivery option of FedEx Ground and you impatiently wait three to five days.
Ed. Note: This is the first installment of a three-part series which will run the next three Tuesdays.
Chris Carlsson is the author of the recent book, Nowtopia: How Pirate Programmers, Outlaw Bicyclists and Vacant-Lot Gardeners are Inventing the Future Today! He also writes a blog for Lip Magazine called The Nowtopian. In one section of his book, he examines the progress that underground bicycle culture has made toward improving their communities. He also profiles people who make their own biodiesel, as well as the other pursuits mentioned in the lengthy subtitle. For this very special bonus edition of I've Got a Bike, he was gracious enough to ignore the poor construction of my questions (actually, he seemed a bit annoyed) and gave some thoughtful answers.
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On a Sunday afternoon in June, nearly 50 people gathered at Urbana’s Independent Media Center to commemorate “Grandpa.” Robert Wahlfeldt died in March at the age of 83. In his working life he was a labor leader and political radical. In retirement, he was a mentor and unofficial grandfather for the close-knit community of political activists in Champaign-Urbana. Almost everyone called him “Grandpa.”
I profiled Mr. Wahlfeldt one month before he died as part of a series on political activists in the area. At the IMC event, his friends and family dedicated a basement meeting room as “The Grandpa Wahlfeldt Family Room”.
It’s time for apple pie.
Curtis Orchard opened up shop for the season last week, and that can only mean one thing: apples. Well, actually it means a few things: Apricots, blueberries, Rehaven peaches, watermelon, sweet corn, tomatoes, yellow squash and zucchini.
Curtis Orchard, near the brand-new I-57 Curtis Road interchange — grows 5000 apple trees and 20 acres of pumpkins on their 80-acre farm just west of Windsor Road.
Earlier this month, Urbana became home to a new restaurant/dueling piano bar named 88 Broadway. After two years of planning, owner Doug Larson was finally able to bring his vision to fruition. Located inside the south entrance of Lincoln Square Mall, the restaurant seems to galvanize the otherwise dormant mall once the retailers shut down for the night.
I sat down with Larson and his general manager, Luke Henry, to ask them about the newest addition to downtown Urbana’s nightlife. Larson’s idea was to create a contemporary atmosphere that would be accessible for business lunches, casual dinners and raucous sing-a-longs late into the night. They also desired to create a diverse atmosphere that would be accessible to all age groups. “We would like to have a dinner atmosphere similar to Biaggi’s, but not out of reach as far as prices go,” Larson stated. Henry added that most mixed drinks and drafts are only $3, so that no one feels that 88 Broadway isn’t affordable.
I traveled to Seattle for my brother's wedding this past weekend. While I was a little bummed that I would miss Critical Mass in Champaign-Urbana, it never occurred to me to attend the Seattle equivalent. It was the same time as the wedding anyway, but it looks like I really missed out. Here's the mainstream media account and the indymedia version.
It's going to be pretty tough to get an accurate picture of what really went down from those stories. After spending a few days in Seattle, though, I can see where commuting tension would be high. There's a ton of traffic of both the car and bike variety, and even a lot of the arterial roads are narrow and curvy.
You're moving soon, and you're not taking that never-used mini Crock-Pot with you. Or those dead batteries. Same with that pile of clothes, a foot-tall stack of old magazines, and the busted microwave.
You don't have time for a garage sale, but your conscience says you can't throw it away, either.
Champaign-Urbana is home to plenty of places that will gladly and quickly take this stuff off your hands. True, it's a little annoying to haul it around town, but beneficial to your new apartment and the community if you can donate it or properly dispose of it. And if you're leaving town, what better excuse to take a farewell tour
through C-U than to deposit your unwanted goods at sites infinitely more useful than its dumps?
I recently had a meeting near Carle Hospital. I didn’t have enough change to satiate the parking meters for three hours, so I turned off of Lincoln Avenue, onto Hill Street and found a parking space on the street.
After the meeting, I returned to my car. As I approached my driver's side door, I discerned an orange envelope beneath my wipers. “There is no way I have a ticket,” I said out loud. Sure enough, when I opened that little envelope, I found a fifteen dollar ticket for BLOCKING/OBSTRUCTING DRIVEWAY (within 5 feet of driveway entrance). I then yelled, “No f-ing way.”
When I think about my high school counselor, I can’t really recall him being influential to me. I think he had glasses and I think I was slightly attracted to his daughter, but that’s about it. I’m sure that he would hate to read this article, but if he had done a better job guiding me, then I could have given him more encomiums in this commentary.
I don’t think I’m alone here. Am I? I think that guidance counselors should spend less time fantasizing with students and more time working on the rudiments of finding employment, such as how to dress for an interview.
Interviewing can be one of the most stressful experiences in life, depending on the desirability of the job. The anticipation of an interview can be intense: you might not sleep the night before, you might not be able to eat all day and chances are you might say something in the interview that you will regret.
I think everyone has gone through this at some time or another. If you haven’t, you will. Eventually you might even land a job that requires you to interview, and then you will know what it’s like to be me. So far this year, I have interviewed over 150 people, and most of the interviews are stereotypically boring. However, now and again I get the opportunity to interview some pretty “special people”.
( Ed. note: Thomas will have more interesting HR stories to tell in future editions of this regular column. )
Growing up in southwest Champaign, my family made a weekly trek to either Jerry’s IGA or Roundbarn IGA (depending on if Mom or Dad were driving) for our grocery shopping.
Hardware needs were fulfilled at the Roundbarn TrueValue. For a bookstore, Pages for All Ages was conveniently located in the newly built Old Farm shopping center, with a video store and ice-cream shop at the strip mall on the other side of Mattis.
Champaign was a small place for me. Market Place might as well have been in Indiana for as often as we went there, and how far away it seemed when we did. Everything that was needed — parks, school, church, groceries, ice cream and VHS rentals — was within no more than a few miles from home.
William: The Illini Glider Club sits on the outskirts of Monticello: a grassy airstrip, a hangar with five gliders and a tow plane, a couple of folding chairs and an ocean of sky. Only some distant trees and a few rusted barns intrude on the vista.
The day we visited to take a ride, a morning shower had just blown over, and the sky was piled high with ivory cumulonimbus — a good sign for gliders.
Cristy: When William asked me if I wanted to go gliding, I hesitated. Did glider mean hang glider? I laughed nervously, not really saying yes or no. When William tried to reassure me that a glider was enclosed, I broke into a panicky, cold sweat. Immediate thoughts of nosediving into a field came to mind.
If you’re thinking about getting a bike, absolutely do it. I can’t think of very many excuses for not owning a bike in this town. I know I waited entirely too long to finally get a bike. It was part laziness, part intimidation and part ignorance. Where do I get a bike? What kind of bike? Can I even ride one? Before I took the plunge, I hadn’t been on a bike in years. Growing up in Chicago, I took the "L" everywhere, or just walked. My bicycle knowledge was limited to the fuchsia Huffy I rode as child. My quest for a bicycle was full of anguish that I would be chastised for my complete and utter ignorance in the field of cycling.
We hear them moaning in the dead of night, curse if they cross our paths when we are driving, or make a wish if they pass over us.
Freight trains are a part of our landscape.
I had an opportunity to take a trip on one of those monsters and talk to the engineer about life on the rails. This reporting took place under-the-radar of the train company, so I have blurred certain facts, places and names. Other than that, everything reported here is truth, exaggeration or hearsay.
Stepping out of the car by the railroad crossing, I find myself alone, surrounded by hectares of horizon. Awkwardly, I stand by the side of the two-lane country road and pretend to be a corn photographer as the occasional truck driver passes and looks me over.
For literature lovers on a budget, used book sales can become something of an obsession. The slippery slope begins somewhere around early registration, moves through waiting outside libraries and churches at eight in the morning on a Saturday, and ends at elbowing grandmothers and Ebay booksellers out of the fiction section.
I first noticed a pair in the parking lot at Parkland College, hanging from the back of a fire-engine red Ford F150. If you’ve been paying attention to the trucks on the road, you may have seen them too — in between all the two-dimensional vinyl ribbons and the Calvins urinating on rival sports teams and other truck brands — a pair of bull testicles, uncannily realistic, hanging from a truck’s hitch, right below the license plate.
Depending on the manufacturer, these backside decorations are called "bulls balls," "truck balls," "bumper nuts" or "truck nutz," and they come in a surprising variety of colors and sizes.
At Smile Politely, we're interested in what the people of Champaign- Urbana think about this place we call home. So how do we find out what they think? Simple. We ask them.
Name: Larry Ecker
Occupation/Education: Director, Creative Services, The U
Original Hometown: Buckley, Ill.
Current Hometown: Champaign
Number of Years Living in the C-U Area: 30
Age: 56
"You used to be able to spend an entire day on campus," Geoff Merritt ruminates with me over coffee. "It's not a destination anymore." That's a shocking realization, but hard to deny, coming from the owner of the last remaining cultural hub in the bar, restaurant, and new monolithic apartment building zone that once hosted a movie theater, record stores, bookstores, a video arcade, and numerous other fun places to stop. Now Merritt's store, That's Rentertainment — an excellent video store featuring foreign films, music videos, independent films, documentaries, and everything Blockbuster doesn't and does stock — seems to be the last oasis of intelligent consumption left in what was once a thriving cultural center.
Many women will have a moment in their life where they will take a pregnancy test. The results will bring different reactions for everyone. One thought may be, "Am I ready for this?" Another might be, "Will it be a boy or a girl?" And yet another, more common thought will undoubtedly be, "What the hell am I going to wear for the next nine months?"
Well, look no further than Bella Bambini, the new maternity and early childhood store for you, me and everyone else.
Getting your green thumb on is not as easy as it seems. As a new homeowner, I lack the confidence to feel anything more than a little uneasy about planting — and tending — a garden of vegetables and herbs. That, however, won’t stop me from giving it my best shot. After all, there’s nothing quite like fresh Roma tomatoes from your own garden.
This Saturday, May 10, Common Ground Food Co-op gives us another reason to bow at its altar. In addition to providing the community’s only truly organic and local food store, the co-op is also hosting its annual plant sale in the store’s parking lot at the corner of Fourth and Springfield in Champaign. The sale will run this weekend from 8 a.m.–12 p.m.
CGFC is touting its heirloom vegetables and herbs as the freshest around, so expect these newly sprouted plants to be just as delectable as the co-op’s popular cashew butter and zucchini.
Common Ground Food Co-op will remain in its current location at 610 E. Springfield Ave. in Champaign until July 1, when it’ll move to Lincoln Square Village.
Orange and blue? Not quite, but close enough. School colors are sprouting up on campus as the University of Illinois gets ready for graduation weekend. This year's commencement speaker is Mannie Jackson, current owner of the Harlem Globetrotters and a 1960 Illinois grad. Check out the university’s website for a full commencement calendar.
Are you itching to work at Urban Outfitters? Now here's your chance. Today in my inbox, I received an e-mail with the subject of "Urban Outfitters Champaign - Now Hiring." How did Urban Outfitters know that I live in Champaign and would like to know about job openings as a manager, display artist or merchandiser? Well, I'm not quite sure and I really don't want to work there. But perhaps you do?
At Smile Politely, we're interested in what the people of Champaign-Urbana think about this place we call home. So how do we find out what they think? Simple. We ask them.
Name: Kevin Barthelemy
Occupation/Education: Smattering of community college; clerk at U of I
Original Hometown: Champaign
Current Hometown: Ditto
Number of Years Living in the C-U Area: 40
Age: 48
When Julian Burger takes the lectern at the University of Illinois tonight, he’ll turn his attention to one question: What’s the state of human rights in today’s world?
As the guest speaker at the 17th Annual Daniel S. Sanders Peace & Social Justice Lecture, Burger will deliver a talk titled, “After 60 Years of Human Rights: Is there Cause for Celebration?” Burger is well qualified to address this topic; he currently serves as the coordinator of the Indigenous and Minorities Unit at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, which his based in Geneva, Switzerland. He’s also an internationally renowned authority on indigenous cultures and human rights.
At Smile Politely, we're interested in what the people of Champaign- Urbana think about this place we call home. So how do we find out what they think? Simple. We ask them.
Name: Jessica Paris, aka DJ Hellcat
Occupation/Education: Strategic Project Coordinator at Wolfram Research, DJ at Mike 'n Molly's (Fridays), Photographer, retro culture geek
Original Hometown: Philadelphia, PA
Current Hometown: Champaign, IL
Number of Years Living in the C-U Area: 13 (I tried to move away a few times but always end up coming back.)
Age: 32
Five things I really like about C-U:
Five things I really don’t like about C-U:
... otherwise, no complaints!
DJ Hellcat will be spinning tonight at the Grand Opening of Artists Against AIDS at Orpheum Children's Science Museum (346 N. Neil St., Champaign) and again on Sunday, during the artists' meet and greet.
Every tree has a story to tell. Some have been planted merely to beautify to land, others have been planted to provide refuge from the sun and on Arbor Day, more trees are planted than any other day of the year. Tomorrow, Friday, April 25 is Arbor Day and Parkland College will honor and remember friends and loved ones of local supporters by planting several trees on the south side of the campus in the Memorial Grove. Each tree planted is a part of the Living Tree Program, where each tree is adopted and maintained for life by the college. A dedication plaque will accompany the tree.
The tree planting ceremony will be held in the Donald and Alice Dodds, Jr. multi-purpose room within the campus' Child Development Center at 10 a.m. Parkland College is located at 2400 West Bradley Ave. in Champaign.
A message to all you homeowners out there.
Your chance to get all that winterized gunk out of your yard could end as early as today, depending on where you live. The city of Champaign authorizes Spring and Fall collections of yard waste each year, and according to this map, May 2, next Friday, will be the last day that you can take advantage of the service.
I've got $100 dollars on the notion that west Champaign neighborhoods in the B–5 zone are subject to midnight drop-offs from procrastinating citizens come Thursday night.
For those who miss the deadline, there is always the Landscape Recycling Center in Urbana that operates year-round.
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