Welcome home

It is one of the great lessons America has learned from Vietnam. Separate the war from the warrior. The war in Iraq should never have been fought. Its execution over the first five endless years was botched by the Bush administration. Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Cats and more cats

It is a staggering idea. That there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of stray cats calling Forest Park home. These aren't lost cats which have wandered off from loving homes. Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Who owns Forest Park's remarkable history?

It's fine to offer a gift. But there has to be someone to receive it. So we honor the impulse of Mayor Anthony Calderone to potentially donate a piece of property to the Forest Park Historical Society as a permanent home. But we ask this question sincerely: What exactly is the Forest Park Historical Society these days? Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Postal Service delivers opportunity

The long reported retreat of the U.S. Postal Service from Forest Park continues. The letter carriers have all recently been displaced from the handsome and historic post office on Desplaines Ave. to the large and modern facility hugging the Eisenhower in Oak Park. Tuesday, August 24, 2010

The End for video stores

The video store era is over in Forest Park. The Blockbuster on Harlem will soon close and with it the short span -- what 20 years? -- in which it wasn't Friday night without a trip to scope out the New Releases on VHS. Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Good news. Long wait

It's good that officials from multiple state and federal agencies made their way to Forest Park at the close of last week. Bureaucrats from FEMA as well as the state version of the emergency management agency, and the Small Business Administration, all arrived on short notice last Thursday. Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Barking up the right tree

The rec board has pluck. And we like pluck. The village's recreation board is a small advisory group existing in the odd space between the village and its small pocket parks, and the park district and its large The Park. We've always found this to be an actively screwy situation. Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Dive in to the pool

It's hard to find an upside in this summer's extreme weather. Heat. Rain. Floods. Mosquitoes. Give us autumn. But here's the hometown high spot: The pool. No one really calls it the Aquatic Center, now, do they Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Turn in flood forms

OK. Back to real life. Real summer. Flooded basements. The deadline for people to submit damage reports to the village is coming up this Monday. Already the village has collected more than 200 of the damage questionnaires. Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Thank the Energizer bunnies

It's staggering to listen to the accomplishments of the three folks the village council honored Monday night. The decades of contributions Andy Collis, Dorothy Calderone Tricoci and Rev. Frank Grady have made to our village make this a richer and warmer community. Tuesday, August 10, 2010

The blame game

Robert Marani claims he has hypertension, anxiety and depression. And that it's the village's fault. So, of course, he sued. Claims the village violated his civil rights. Poor baby. Tuesday, August 03, 2010

To its credit

If the village failed notably on the man-made disaster of the Tuscan Lofts, it's performing far better on the nature-made flooding disaster of 10 days back. The village's follow-up efforts have been quick, efficient and helpful to residents swamped by the storm. Tuesday, August 03, 2010

Good job, village hall

We're getting tired of "acts of God." How about you? On the other hand, we don't see a better explanation for this summer of flooding. Forest Park, Forest Parkers and their basements got walloped again last weekend - second time in a month - when astounding amounts of rain fell in a very short time. Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Circle prepares exit, stage left

The deal is not done but the declaration has effectively been made: Circle Theatre is leaving Forest Park. This is not a surprise, as this has been a drama unfolding over several years. We are just now reaching the climactic final scene. Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Lawyers win. Taxpayers, not so much

There's good news and there's ridiculous news. The village's out-of-pocket costs for the interminable, though recently settled, lawsuit with former commissioner Terry Steinbach were only $25,000. (Don't try to calculate how many years of your property taxes that would represent. It would only hurt.) That $25,000 is the amount of the village's insurance deductible. Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Wrecking ball for Roos

No one ever said it would be easy. And turning the decrepit Roos Building into the final phase of the crown jewel of Forest Park's park is proving an interesting challenge. The president of the Park District of Forest Park professes to be "cautiously optimistic." Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Solid appointment

Previously, we've commented on the gradual and continuous upgrading of the District 91 school board. Now, through an appointment process, the school board has seemingly made another positive addition to the school's leadership. Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Crossing safely in Forest Park

Down river in quaint, historically significant Riverside, the village and the schools may come to blows before someone breaks down and agrees to pay for school crossing guards this fall. Just across Madison Street in toney River Forest, there's a nasty he said-she said fracas over whether the village even told the schools it was pulling the plug on paying fo crossing guards. Tuesday, July 06, 2010

About that settlement

"'Transparency' - that's the big buzzword today," said Mayor Anthony Calderone Monday night in another of his ill-considered bromides intended to suggest that he's victimized by citizens, commissioners and newspapers who'd just like a straight answer. Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Ultimate Hawks fan

You know, of course, about Forest Park's connection to the mighty Blackhawks. In marketing realms, it's all about puckered lemony goodness and the Lemonhead ad board on the United Center ice. Tuesday, June 22, 2010