EXTRA: Happy 182nd!

Once again, Chicago celebrates the anniversary of its incorporation.

It literally has been 182 years since the date that officials officially declared Chicago to be a full-fledged city. One that the state's big-wigs in Southern Illinois (the kind of people who thought Cairo would be a significant city at 20,000 people, instead of shrinking to its current level of barely 2,000) never thought would amount to much. After all, it's so far from the Mississippi River and from what was supposed to be the dominant regional city -- St. Louis.

BUT WE GREW, oh so much. Recovered from the Great Fire of 1871 to the point there was once a time when some people thought Chicago would become the Number One city in the nation, sprouting out even larger than New York.

But that never happened, and in fact we now face a situation where we'll probably shrink to even smaller than Houston some time in the next decade. By the time we reach our city Bicentennial, the Second City will be Number Four in size.

But not in spirit. For I don't care what anyone else says; a part of me will always regard Chicago as the greatest place to live on Planet Earth. And as for anybody who'd leave Chicago for petty partisan political reasons? Well, they deserve to live in a place like Indianapolis (and I don't mean the boulevard)!

So here's some video snippets about our wonderful city; from the Burnham Plan that set our city's image to the river/great lake combination that are the reason our city is where it is, down to a National Geographic take on our city. And even a bit of phony Chicago history that far too many people take as serious scholarship. Enjoy!

  -30-

Chicago makes 1st Amazon.com cut, but does that mean one makes the team

I wonder if Chicago, along with places such as St. Louis, Detroit and Gary, Ind., felt the same way I did some nearly four decades ago when I actually tried to make the baseball team back in high school.

Could the one-time Michael Reese Hospital on the South Side become the site of Amazon.com corporate dream?

I still remember the day a bunch of us would-be ballplayers were lined up outside a coach’s office, checking out the list to see which of us were still in the running to be on the team and which of us just weren’t deemed worthy enough to play.

FOR THE RECORD, I didn’t make the cut (which really wasn’t surprising, since I was never much of a ballplayer in my youth).

Which means perhaps I can identify with what is going through the mindset of some of the other Midwestern U.S. states that learned Thursday that Amazon.com’s dreams of building a second corporate headquarters do not include them.

Chicago learned that it is among the 20 municipalities still under consideration, as is Indianapolis. But the other places that had hoped they could get an economic boost learned they were out of the running.

Detroit’s rejection had many observers somewhat surprised. It was speculated that Amazon.com might find it a challenge to be a part of the revitalization of a major city – which would put that city’s officials in eternal indebtedness to their corporate priorities.

THE ONE REJECTION that caught my eye was that of St. Louis. Since that was the bid that had the endorsement of Gov. Bruce Rauner, who supposedly also was backing the Illinois-based bid of the Chicago area – which officially says there are 10 possible sites within the city or suburbs that Amazon.com could choose from.

Which means we’re not setting up the chance of an Illinois political civil war, with a governor trying to figure out whether his best interests involve supporting his state’s major city or the portion of another state’s major metropolitan area that happens to fall within Illinois’ borders.

Sears used to be retail giant; could structure regain significance by becoming part of Amazon.com complex downtown?

There are those who wonder if Rauner secretly would have rather seen a St. Louis bid prevail because he could take some credit amongst Southern Illinois voters while undermining the Chicago interests he sees as his politically partisan enemy.

The fact that Chicago made the cut means Mayor Rahm Emanuel was able to boast of “Chicago’s great strengths, access to talent, transportation, higher education, affordability and quality of life, which are the keys to growth and prosperity.”

WHETHER THOSE ISSUES will remain relevant as Chicago now has to go up against 19 other municipalities (three of which are the District of Columbia and nearby suburbs in both Virginia and Maryland) will remain to be seen.

As I recall from several decades ago, there were still several somewhat talented ballplayers who made that first cut, but wound up not making the roster when springtime came around and the baseball season began.

Personally, I wonder if the fact the city hasn’t united behind one single location may be a factor that goes against us (although I know the conservative ideologues amongst us are determined to believe that it will be Chicago’s Democratic leanings that will harm our city’s bid in the end).

Oak Brook campus that used to train McDonald's managers could become part of Amazon

If we can’t even decide where it should be, why should we expect Amazon.com officials to be capable of picking a place. Maybe they really will want proximity to the nation’s capital city, or a spot in Atlanta, Austin (as in Texas) or Boston for the headquarters campus they want to supplement the existing facilities in Seattle, Wash.

BUT FOR THE time being, Chicago can still dream about the possibility of a downtown complex that might even incorporate part of the formerly-known-as Sears Tower. Or maybe the old Michael Reese Hospital, or the suburban Oak Brook campus that once served McDonald’s.

U.S. Steel still dominant presence in Gary, Ind.

Unlike St. Louis or Detroit, who now will have to move on to other projects to dream about as a way of revitalizing their communities and creating jobs.

Or a place like Gary, which although Hoosier-based is close enough to the Illinois/Indiana border that Chicago could dream of some spillover benefits.

But instead will now have to set new ambitions for their existence, just as many a failed athlete has had to accept the fact he wasn’t good enough to make the team.

  -30-

EXTRA: Amazon to Chgo – Forget it?

If it's true, will it be governor or speaker ...

There are many municipalities across the nation, including Chicago and even nearby Gary, Ind., banking their economic futures on being able to sway Amazon.com to build their proposed second corporate headquarters building within their city limits.

The Boston Globe reported that it has learned of ongoing talks to lease 500,000 square feet of offices in a Boston neighborhood that already has many other tech companies located there.

... who takes the blame for Amazon loss?

THE LEASE ALSO would have options to double the amount of space in the future. Which the newspaper points out would be enough space for the early phases of the corporate structure Amazon.com wants to build somewhere to supplement their existing headquarters in Seattle.

Would this make an announcement that Boston will be the site of Amazon.com’s dream campus an inevitable event? Can we forget the talk of an Amazon campus being built somewhere along the north branch of the Chicago River? Or at the site of the one-time Michael Reese Hospital? Or anywhere in northwest Indiana or St. Louis (with gubernatorial help)?

And will we soon be getting overdoses of the cheap political rhetoric about how our state’s unsettling partisanship scared off Amazon from even thinking of Illinois?

Will talk of turning the one-time downtown Post Office become yet another Chicago fantasy that never will be?

Which, of course, leads to the next topic of political debate. Who’s to blame – Gov. Bruce Rauner, or Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan! As if we don’t argue that point enough on so many other issues.

  -30-

What’s going to kill Amazon.com chances? We can’t make up our minds

The more I think about it, the more I’m starting to believe that Amazon.com is likely to pick some place other than Chicago to be the site of the new second headquarters they want to build somewhere in the United States.

Could the Amazon.com logo become a part ...

As much as I think the Seattle-based Amazon types would be total lunkheads if they can’t appreciate how wonderful Chicago would be for their corporate needs, I also think we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves for the eventual failure.

FOR IT SEEMS that our political people who ultimately are going to have to put together some sort of package of incentives to entice Amazon.com types to come here are going to get undone by their own indecisiveness.

For it seems we can’t even agree on where we would want to have such a headquarters built – and the various interests who are each touting individual sites seem to think that “compromise” is defined as “Everybody else ought to shut up and do what we think is right!”

Within Chicago alone, there are supposedly six locations under consideration, and I’ve also heard from assorted interest groups who can easily tout locations that aren’t on the unofficial list of a half-dozen prospective sites.

I know that in my own home part of Chicago (the 10^th Ward, or southeast corner of the city), there are people who are getting all worked up that they think the knuckleheads at City Hall aren’t united by trying to entice Amazon.com with the site of the old U.S. Steel South Works plant along Lake Michigan.

THAT’S THE SITE where many developers have talked about trying to develop upscale neighborhoods taking advantage of the lake’s proximity. Although I suspect many of those city officials trying to put together a Chicago proposal want a location more potentially upscale than something at 79^th Street and the lakefront.

... of Chicago cityscape like Walgreen's?

Their idea of a waterfront site for Amazon.com usually talks about the Chicago River, specifically the north branch. Where there are some architectural drawings in existence that show an artistically-spectacular structure that could be erected for Amazon.com.

Or others talk about turning the Old Post Office building in the South Loop into a headquarters – citing how it is historically significant, would be a nice re-use and also would be within walking distance of other prominent downtown Chicago structures and businesses.

Some even speculate about a suburban site, such as the Oak Brook location where McDonald's used to have its 'Hamburger U' where it trained franchise managers. We can't even get our own thoughts together united behind a proposal. Which makes me wonder if the Amazon.com types will just write us off altogether.

YET IT’S NOT just the city trying to get itself involved in the Amazon.com battle.

Gov. Bruce Rauner admits Illinois will be working with St. Louis officials who are trying to entice Amazon.com to come to their city. Rauner figures that it would benefit the Illinois residents of Madison and St. Clair counties (which are this state’s portion of the St. Louis metropolitan area) if the plant were to be located there.

Could Kankakee or Gary, Ind., ...

Yet that may not be the only Illinois alternate interest.

The Capitol Fax newsletter reported this week that Kankakee County officials are trying to persuade Rauner to include their area in any state proposal to try to get Amazon.com to come to Illinois.

A KANKAKEE-AREA based facility would have proximity to the far south end of the Chicago area, while also being not that far from the University of Illinois campus in Urbana.

Then, there’s also the potential political battle evolving just over the state line in Indiana, where Lake County business officials are trying to put together a proposal to try to entice Amazon.com to locate in the Hoosier state, while Gary, Ind., city officials are putting together their own proposal – one that they advertised earlier this week in the New York Times.

... bring Amazon.com into proximity of Chicago?

Both of those groups are claiming their proximity to Chicago means Amazon.com could get the Chicago-area labor without having to actually locate in Chicago.

That’s a lot of confusion, and there’s always the chance of more groups trying to tout themselves between now and Oct. 25 – the date that Amazon.com supposedly wants to have proposals submitted by. Enough confusion that the Seattle types could easily wind up deciding that the New York Times was right in recommending Denver as the best site.

  -30-

Amazon in Chicago – how can they seriously consider any other HQ site?

I have a biased opinion – I think very highly of my home city of Chicago, and think that if the people who run Amazon.com seriously want the best possible location for the new second headquarters they want to build, it’s only a natural they will come here.

Could the 'smile' be on Chicago faces in future?

As in, if they don’t have the sense to realize how wonderful Chicago is, then who needs them anyway?!?

BUT I REALIZE there are a variety of perspectives, and the Seattle-based people who run Amazon.com likely are going to have a variety of communities offering up all the goodies they can envision to try to attract the facility.

Seriously, Chicago officials are eager to have the plant, because it would be a nationally-renowned business that would bring significant attraction to the city’s public image. In addition to the actual jobs that would be created by the need for such a facility to have employees based there.

Not that any of this means a thing to the person who, because they live in the middle of nowhere, finds it easiest to shop for goods through Amazon.com. They’ll buy their products regardless of where the plant they’re dealing with is located.

Now I don’t know what the chances are that Chicago will wind up getting the facility, even though so-called experts can rattle off a list of a half-dozen potential sites – and activist-types can come up with other locations they think are being overlooked.

INCLUDING THOSE PEOPLE who seriously say that Chicago ought to work with people in Gary, Ind., to make the latter a site for an Amazon.com facility. Gary certainly could use a jolt, since there are times when it seems like the only kind of business that Northwest Indiana city can attract are used-car lots.

Some dream of turning Old Post Office building into Amazon.com HQ

I’m sure there are those who will rattle off a “laundry list” of flaws about Chicago and the state political people that they think will scare off the Seattle boys into considering their own preferred site.

I’m also aware of that analysis the New York Times concocted that cited our political flaws and concluded that Denver, Colo., is the logical place for Amazon.com to locate.

I found it a little intriguing to learn that Gov. Bruce Rauner on Monday admitted he’s working with Missouri officials who’d like to see St. Louis become the actual site of the new facility.

Could 21st Century take include Amazon.com logo?

BECAUSE THERE ARE parts of Illinois that lie right across the Mississippi River from downtown St. Louis. The decrepit city of East St. Louis, Ill., is literally in the shadow of the Gateway Arch – that city’s great landmark and supposedly the entry-way to the western United States.

Meaning that if Amazon.com were to locate there, it would be possible for some Illinois residents to gain jobs. Even though I’m sure that Missouri officials would love to concoct some sort of deal that would treat the river as an impenetrable barrier to prevent any of the economic benefits from flowing eastward.

But I’m also sure if Rauner comes out too strong in favor of a Chicago site (or even hinting at cooperation with Hoosier officials to get a Gary site), those people of rural Illinois who always rant and rage about Chicago taking everything would complain. Maybe even turn on the governor at a time when he’s trying to build up a strong “urban vs. rural” dichotomy to get himself re-elected.

So Rauner has to offer up some way of bringing downstate Illinois into the debate. Even if it’s probably a long-shot, and it would be more likely that Chicago would get serious consideration – that is, unless Amazon.com ultimately decides there’s nothing about the Midwestern U.S. that appeals to them.

WHICH WOULD BE a mistake.

Amazon.com retail in Chicago wouldn't be a new concept for the city

The reality is that Chicago has the potential for significant economic benefit due to its location. Major airports, along with highways and railroad lines that all treat Chicago as the national hub. It’s about as close to a central location as one gets.

And anybody who claims we’re too political in Chicago or Illinois ought to realize the ridiculousness of their argument if they’re also amongst those who are talking up the District of Columbia as a potential site.

Besides, just as there was a time in the 20^th Century when people shopped mail-order through the Sears catalog, it enhanced the city’s image that Sears, Roebuck & Co. was located here. Maybe Amazon.com in Chicago is the perfect 21^st Century continuation of that character.

  -30-

Some of us don't have the sense to see Chicago's wonders; we're losing people

It seems not everybody shares the love I have for this magical land built along the southwestern shores of Lake Michigan – the Census Bureau reported this week the Chicago metropolitan area is nearly 20,000 residents smaller than it was a year ago.

Long-standing cultural institutions not enough to bring people to Chicago, ...

That would be the equivalent of an entire suburban community being suddenly obliterated from the map – although I’m sure urban development types would tell me it is people fleeing the city proper to go live in those suburbs.

FOR THE RECORD, the Census Bureau estimates that the Chicago-area population (including the portions that spill over the state lines into Indiana and Wisconsin) is 9.513 million.

Officially, the last Census count in 2010 showed the Chicago area at 9.461 million people. So we’re still bigger than we were a few years ago.

But the reality is that the estimated population count for this year is a 19,570 person drop compared to last year, which was an 11,324 person drop from the year before that.

It seems that when compared to other cities across the Great Lakes region and Midwest, we’re typical. Technically, the word out of Detroit, Cleveland and St. Louis is worse.

BUT WE IN Chicago have always thought of ourselves as worthy of being held to a higher standard. Hence, we notice that places like New York and Los Angeles experienced population hikes of 2-3 percent.

... nor are the newer novelties such as 'Cloud Gate'

Not huge, but not insignificant either.

Now I’m not about to claim that the Midwest is somehow dragging Chicago down, making the city that blue dot on a red sea as way too many politically-motivated maps depict these days. If anything, I always thought Chicago was the spiritual capital of this vast region that thinks the Atlantic and Pacific oceans have nothing on that great body of water known as the Great Lakes, and that one-time Chicago Tribune publisher Robert R. McCormick sort of had the right idea that “Chicagoland” was truly unique – even if his reasons why were a little half-cocked (or maybe were ahead of his time in predicting much of the region's political support for Donald J. Trump).

Corncobs along the Chicago River ...

I did notice the one demographer who told Crain’s Chicago Business that the Chicago area population is “flatlining,” as in we’ve dropped about as low as we can get and this is the bottom.

ALTHOUGH ANYBODY WITH sense knows we don’t bottom out until we literally become a ghost town – a place of long-abandoned structures just waiting for Mother Nature to whack the one-time site of the Second City with a massive tornado that causes everything to come tumbling down.

... and a gaudier structure located upstream

Now I’m sure some people are going to want to claim the politically partisan bickering that has occurred the past few years is somehow scaring people away.

I doubt it.

Largely because I think many people have enough sense to disregard the blowhard tendencies of the government officials they elect. Besides, most of the people who want to make that line of attack are more interested in blaming the “other side” for the population loss.

This shoreline of Lake Calumet is firmly located within the city limits

THEY WANT TO lambast somebody, rather than try to figure out the solution to our problems; which, admittedly, do include the fact that a significant number of people are willing to up and leave what I will always regard as the most wonderful city on Planet Earth.

Where else will you find streets named for Goethe?

Even if there are some people, particularly of African-American persuasion, who’d rather move back South to the lands their grandparents fled. Segregation isn’t what it once was down there, and our land of opportunity has fallen off as well.

Or there may be all those other individuals who push themselves out further and further away from Chicago’s downtown core to the point where they don’t want to think of themselves as being part of the metropolitan area.

Although I’m always inclined to think those people ultimately will be “punished” for their lack of faith by finding themselves so far out in the middle of “nowhere” that they’ll wind up longing for the days when they were a part of that wondrous urban area that gave us deep dish pizza, electrified blues music and a century’s worth of mediocre-to-bad baseball – both South and North sides!

  -30-

Rams to L.A. don’t mean nuthin’ to Bears, but maybe to pro baseball?

Let me say up-front that all those professional football fans from the greater St. Louis area who now are in search of a new team to root for aren’t going to mean diddly-squat to the Chicago Bears.

St. Louis' football history came from Sout' Side ...

In fact, while I have heard from many St. Louis sports fans speculating on a new team to root for now that their ‘home town’ team has moved to Los Angeles beginning this season and some say they’re considering shifting their allegiances to the Bears, I just can’t see it happening.

PERHAPS IT’S MY own experience in living in downstate Illinois where the two major cities near that region are Chicago and St. Louis. There are those people who are willing to root for a Chicago ball club. But others who will NEVER consider doing such an overt act.

Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if many of those former St. Louis Rams football fans now take on the Green Bay Packers just so they can explicitly say the root against Da Bearz!

So if anybody is delusional enough to think the Chicago Bears franchise now gains a larger territory that includes the entirety of Illinois and Missouri, guess again.

It’s funny the way things work with professional sports franchises, who operate under the illusion that the represent the populace of the communities in which they are located.

WHEN THE BEARS won that championship for the 1985 season and the Super Bowl for 1986 (Super Bowl XX, in preferred NFL-speak), it was a victory for Chicago! It was evidence of how superior our city was – or so said any of those people who used to bark like dogs while going on and on and on about “The Refrigerator.”

So the fact that an NFL franchise was so eager to dump all over the city that would like to think it is the major focal point of the Midwestern U.S. becomes evidence to some, and a slur to others, on the very place that Redd Foxx’ “Fred Sanford” character used to pine on and on about.

... and from Los Angeles. ...

Personally, I don’t think it’s a blow to St. Louis’ reputation. If anything, it may show that city officials had enough sense to not be blackmailed by professional football.

If only more cities would stand up to their sports teams’ demands, perhaps we’d all be better off.

ALTHOUGH IT IS humorous that the city whose own professional football history was based on stealing teams away from Chicago and Los Angeles (the Rams are merely returning where some think they belonged all along) is now getting all worked up over the loss of the Rams.

Perhaps there is something to be learned from the Chicago Cardinals, who left for St. Louis in the early 1960s before relocating to the suburbs of Phoenix, Ariz., some three decades ago.

... Maybe they'll try to take from N.Y. next?

There used to be a phenomenon of Green Bay Packers fans in Chicago because the Cardinals fans of old couldn’t bring themselves to “bear down” for the Chicago Bears, and blamed George Halas for strong-arming their preferred franchise out of existence.

By now, however, those people are long gone – either deceased or perhaps suffering from Alzheimer’s disease to the point where they can’t even remember what football was.

OR MAYBE IN their own minds, the Cardinals are still roaming the grounds of Comiskey Park and continuing to fail in their drive to bring a championship to our city’s Sout’ Side.

I don’t know what those St. Louis sports fans are going to wind up doing in the long-run. Maybe they’ll continue on with some other team – or maybe even a few will want to keep rooting for the Rams until all the current players have moved on.

There may even be those people who will take the loss of football as continued evidence of the dominance of the St. Louis Cardinals fans in baseball and the idea that the “Gateway to West” is the ultimate baseball town.

A fact that ought to further infuriate Chicago Cubs fans, and may become the ultimate local impact of the Rams’ return to the City of the Angels.

  -30-

Why can’t we all just get along? It seems like such a naive thought

What we really need is to figure out a way that our society can figure out how people of color can feel less threatened by the police who are supposed to be protecting all of us.


Because names such as Michael Brown and Eric Garner already are ancient history – the people who are quarrelling over whether the police are singling out black people for abuse have already moved on to fresher incidents.

EVEN THOUGH THOSE incidents are less than a month old!

For it was just last weekend that a black man, feeling a sense of disgust because of the deaths of those two men and contempt for law enforcement in general, traveled to New York and opened fire on two uniformed police officers who happened to be sitting in a squad car in the Brooklyn borough.

Then on Tuesday in Berkeley, Mo., (just about five miles from the town where Brown was killed by police officers), a teenage boy was shot to death by a local cop.

There is evidence that the boy, when confronted by police, reached for something resembling a pistol – thereby giving the officer in question the legal justification to feel threatened and respond with gunfire.

YET THAT DIDN’T stop local residents from gathering early Wednesday at the gas station where the boy’s death took place and begin protests that at times threatened to grow out of hand.


Combine this with another incident during the weekend in which a rural Florida police officer was shot at, and we just seem to have an endless streak of incidents in which public mistrust of the police is at stake.

More than two decades after Rodney King uttered his words about his preferred state of police/public relations, it seems we’re nowhere near to achieving them.

Now I had hoped to avoid writing much of anything about the New York police slayings, largely because I’m already sick of hearing about them elsewhere. A part of me regrets that I’m adding to the level of rhetoric.

ALTHOUGH WHAT ALSO bothers me is the fact that I have read way too much Internet commentary from people who want to perceive the shootings of the two New York police officers as some sort of evidence that both Brown and Garner were a pair of “(Insert preferred racial slur here) who got what they deserved.”

I don’t doubt that the two officers (who were of Chinese and Puerto Rican ethnic origins, and not white) were caught off guard and weren't threatening anyone at the time they were shot.

But I’m more repulsed by the New York police officers who pulled their symbolic gesture of contempt of turning their backs on on Mayor Bill de Blasio, claiming he was wrong with his past comments implying that perhaps people who were protesting Garner’s death at the hands of New York police just a few weeks ago were justified in their feelings – despite the grand jury that refused to return an indictment against the officers involved.

Perhaps they’re going to be eager to believe the latest police-related death in the St. Louis suburbs is yet another incident of brave law enforcement officers sparing society from yet another person who would have turned out to be a thug. Which is why I'm not enthused that the Chicago Police Department has its officers wearing black bands on their uniforms as a tribute to their New York law enforcement brethren.

THAT KIND OF attitude of knee-jerk support for cops is offensive on so many levels. While I can understand the legal reasons why prosecutors are reluctant to go after police, I also fully comprehend why people feel nothing but contempt for such an attitude.

As though they’re being singled out for abuse by people committing what can amount to criminal acts and are using the authority granted by their badges to avoid facing the consequences.

Personally, I feel fortunate we haven’t had any such police/black people conflicts in the Chicago area anytime in the recent past. But we shouldn’t presume that we’re above such bad behavior.

Because that level of tension seems to be something universal to our society, and we can only hope our public officials figure out how to handle such circumstances better than other cities have done so.

  -30-

EXTRA: Quinn on hand for tribute to a Cardinal; How will the Cubs fans react?

Now, he's a bridge

I realize that the greater St. Louis metro area spills over into Illinois (similar to how metro Chicago includes a piece of Indiana). Yet I can’t help but think it a bit odd that our governor was among the dignitaries on hand Saturday for the opening of a new bridge that pays tribute, in part, to the St. Louis Cardinals’ great Stan Musial.

Would a Missouri governor feel compelled to be on hand if something were named for Chicago Cubs great Ernie Banks? At least in his case, it could be justified by saying he once played for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro leagues of old.

BUT QUINN WAS among the political people who showed up for the ceremonies marking the new bridge that connects St. Louis to East St. Louis – which makes it a major entryway to people entering Illinois from the southwest.

And Quinn justifies the appearance by saying it’s the first new bridge built in that area in four decades. A “catalyst for business development and job creation for the future?,” as Quinn phrased it.

Let’s only hope so. Because I wonder how many people hear the name “East St. Louis” and automatically envision the Griswold family driving through town on their way to Walley World (remember “National Lampoon’s Vacation”)?

Officially, the new bridge is the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge, which means it pays tribute to the military veterans that Quinn likes to honor any chance he gets.

IT’S TOO BAD that this wasn’t a bridge named (for whatever reason) for Lou Brock. He was, after all, both a Cardinal and a Cub.

Although I suspect that reminding Cubs fans of that deal would probably kill off any chance that they would consider voting for him in the November general election.

Can we pretend it didn't happen?

Then again, if he hadn’t shown up on Saturday, he might well have been accused of snubbing those baseball fans of Madison and St. Clair counties – which are among the few places outside of metro Chicago where Quinn might actually get significant numbers of votes.

How quickly the trivial gestures our political people make take on actual substantive results!

PART OF WHAT amuses me about this particular move is that putting Musial’s name on the bridge is supposed to make us forget how Cardinals fans in the Missouri Legislature actually named a nearby highway for Mark McGwire.

Oops, wrong team!!!

It was in the aftermath of 1998 and everybody was drunk with the spirit of those 70 home runs and Interstate 70 does pass through St. Louis. I remember people cheering at the sight of McGwire meeting personally with Pope John Paul II when the latter was in St. Louis early in 1999.

Of course, now that even McGwire admits he was using certain questionable substances to help bulk up his body to give him added strength for those “dingers” (remember The Simpsons? That’s what people really want to see), it seemed embarrassing.

Local officials actually went back to calling it the “Mark Twain Highway.”

NOW, CARDINALS FANS can still have a ballplayer’s name prominently displayed in the area near downtown St. Louis. And considering that Musial hasn’t played ball in 50 years (and died last year), it is unlikely he could do anything that would bring added shame on the St. Louis area.

Which may be the one way in which Chicago Cubs fans showed some restraint. To my knowledge, too many people got absolutely stupid in their worship of Sosa and his home runs all those years ago, but we don’t have anything named after him.

Except for those people who actually shelled out $19.95 (plus tax) to get a “Sammy Sosa Drive” sign. Which they can now use to whack themselves upside the heads while asking, “What was I thinking?!?”

  -30-

Did Pat Quinn just give St. Louis a jolt in their desires to attract ADM?

Perhaps Pat Quinn thinks his gubernatorial re-election bid will benefit with solid voter turnout from Madison and St. Clair counties – the parts of Illinois that also are part of the St. Louis metropolitan area.

QUINN: A dangerous political mix

That’s about the only line of logic I can think of that would make me comprehend why the governor would create a link between the issue of trying to keep Archer Daniels Midland Co. in Illinois AND trying to fix the funding flaws in pension programs overseen by state government.

FOR THE RECORD, ADM officials have said they want to move their world headquarters from Decatur to a large Midwestern city. They have hinted Chicago is their preference, but St. Louis and Minneapolis also have been mentioned in the mix.

To the goal of ensuring that Chicago comes out on top, the Illinois General Assembly is contemplating whether they should approve something resembling tax breaks for ADM IF they stay in an Illinois city. Such tax credits could come up for consideration during the veto session that begins later this month.

But Quinn is telling the Associated Press that he’ll use his veto power to kill off any such tax breaks – UNLESS the state Legislature also manages to approve an adequate plan for fixing pension funding mechanisms.

Whether or not pension funding will be addressed is questionable – some legislators are confident it can be addressed during the same veto session, while others say the sides are too far apart and that nothing will happen until next year AT THE SOONEST!!!

HOW WOULD IT play if Quinn wound up killing off a bid to keep one of rural Illinois’ major companies within the state, while also giving Chicago’s corporate presence another major player?

CULLERTON: A political balance?

Would it seem like Quinn is playing politics in ways that would encourage ADM to give one of those other cities more serious consideration?

The presence of O’Hare International Airport may be a major advantage, but if it meant avoiding the political games, I suspect ADM officials would learn to live with Lambert Airport in St. Louis.

Which might somehow mean that a few of those ADM executives who leave Decatur for the new world headquarters would wind up living in the St. Louis Metro East area. Or maybe not. Maybe they’ll all decide to live on the Missouri side of the Mississippi River? Or maybe Quinn fantasizes that they'll use high-speed rail to commute from Chicago TO St. Louis?

I COULD EASILY see this issue being spun into a negative that Quinn was willing to let a rural-based company leave the state, AND into a negative by Chicago interests that he thwarted local efforts to try to attract that company.

Could political gamesmanship make Lambert look better?

The last time I checked, Madison and St. Clair counties had solid Democratic Party organizations, but not strong enough to overcome opposition everywhere else in Illinois.

Which is why state Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, is trying to make an appeal to both regions; what with his talk that the estimated $20 million worth of tax breaks being sought by ADM to move to Chicago should be balanced off with something to compensate Decatur for any jobs it loses due to the move.

I’m not sure I see what Quinn gains by linking the two issues – particularly since the General Assembly has made it clear on so many occasions that they’re not willing to do the political heavy-lifting required to resolve the pension problems.

HOW MANY “DEADLINES,” how many drop-dead dates, have come and gone with nothing being done on the issue? There’s plenty of blame to go around the General Assembly on this issue.

Quinn’s latest tactic comes across as the governor himself trying to grab a share of the blame, rather than letting the Legislature take the hits!

Which further convinces me that if Quinn prevails in next year’s election cycle, it’s going to be more due to the incompetence of his potential opponents than it will be anything positive the governor does himself.

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Are we a step closer to high-speed rail?

High-speed rail fans envision these IL routes

I got my kicks on Monday not from Route 66, but from the potential future of the railroad tracks that parallel pretty closely to the Mother Road of old in Illinois.

Transportation Department officials distributed another $2 billion to various states meant to pay for work needed to advance local rail systems to the point where they could someday accommodate high-speed rail trains.

OF THAT AMOUNT, Illinois is getting $238 million (or just over 10 percent of the total).

Now a part of the reason our state is getting that extra money is because of the political games played by Republican types who wanted to think they could sandbag this idea with their actions.

They took a pass on accepting a share of the money, saying they’re not interested in having high-speed rail in their states. Perhaps they think they can kill off the concept if they turn the United States into a virtual checkerboard, with certain blotches that can’t accommodate the trains that could turn a Chicago-to-St. Louis trip from a five-hour drive to a two-hour train ride.

One of those states is our neighbor to the north – Wisconsin. But the state that contributed to the latest cash disbursement is Florida.

FOR THOSE OF us whose memories extend beyond the past 15 minutes, Florida is the state that managed to impact a presidential election in favor of the candidate who “lost” the popular vote. Perhaps that kind of action made Florida political people giddy enough to think they could kill off this project.

Instead, Illinois got part of the cash they should have received.  It will go toward upgrades on the tracks between Chicago and St. Louis – particularly the portion between Dwight and Joliet. Although I have to think that the bulk of attention on any high-speed rail route that cuts across Illinois and connects the state’s residents to its two urban areas ought to be in those freight yards in Cook County just outside of downtown Chicago.

Anybody who has ever taken an Amtrak train in its current form knows that is where the trains have to creep along at a turtle’s pace. That is going to be the place that needs a serious reconfiguration if the idea of a Chicago-to-St. Louis journey in just over 2 hours is ever to become reality.

Now I will be honest. It has been just over five years since I last rode an Amtrak train on that particular route.

IT CAN BE a pleasant-enough ride if one has time to spare for leisure. Although the Spartan conditions of contemporary Amtrak trains makes the idea of a “leisurely train trip” through the Midwestern United States seem to be an absurd concept.

My point being that while I like the idea of travel by train in theory, the reality doesn’t live up to the image many of us would like to create in our minds.

Giving a boost to the idea of high-speed rail could be the step that helps move inter-city train travel somewhere in the direction of becoming that mental image we’d like to have.

Heck, perhaps I’d even be tempted to take a train trip up into Michigan (the Chicago-to-Detroit routes could also benefit from some of the federal funding that was awarded by Transportation Department officials on Monday).

IT’S TOO BAD that I can’t contemplate a Chicago-to-Milwaukee or Chicago-to-Madison, Wis., trip in the same way – since Wisconsin state officials are among those who want to play ideological games with the idea of high-speed rail.

Because that is what much of the opposition to the idea has become.

Some people just want to have their automobiles and want to be able to ride up and down Interstate 55 (which is what becomes of the Stevenson Expressway once you get outside of Chicago) and want to instill some sort of ideological purity to the idea of not having to travel on a schedule.

I can almost buy that concept.

THE ONES WHO I find to be most ridiculous are the ones who try to claim that riding trains somehow undermines persona l freedom by having so many people ride together. As though the very concept of mass transit somehow undermines the democratic ideals of the United States of America!

I have even heard some ideological crackpots try citing the fact that high-speed rail is so popular in other countries as evidence that the idea is “too foreign” to work in the United States.

We even get some of that kind of ridiculous rhetoric from the states that tried turning away federal funds.

My guess is that they thought they’d be allowed to keep the money and apply it to some other project of their choice – or at the very least some sort of transportation-related project. Road repairs?

INSTEAD, THE MONEY goes to the people who are willing to play ball, so to speak, on high-speed rail.

Which may mean that Monday’s grants are a purely partisan political move by the current administration. I’m not complaining. If it helps make the experience of a train trip more convenient and pleasant, it may very well let me get out more often.

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