By Maria Pappas, Cook County Treasurer Every year, my office mails more than 1.8 million tax bills to property owners across Cook County. If you have a mortgage, your lender may collect money from you each month and put it in an escrow account to pay your bill. But don’t[Read More…]
Opinion
Column: No Kings protest draws hundreds to Beverly intersection to oppose growing federal authoritarianism
Rain made the ink run on some of the signs held by early-bird protesters at the intersection of 103rd Street and Western Avenue in Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood on Saturday, Oct. 18, but the growing crowd did not let the weather stop it from making their opposition to the Trump administration[Read More…]
The Good Stuff: Ruth Coles Harris, pioneering professor
Note: The Good Stuff is an occasional series of stories in various media of the people, local and from elsewhere, who capture the attention of Flossmoor resident and Grammy winner Juan Woodbury during his travels. In this installment, he features Ruth Coles Harris, the first Black woman CPA in Virginia,[Read More…]
Mobility Matters | Oct. 12: Dixie Highway viaduct, Kedzie corridor, Leavitt Park path, new speed beacons
On Tuesday morning, Oct. 7, it rained in Homewood. As is often the case, the Dixie Highway viaduct quickly became the Dixie Highway lake and was closed to traffic. The viaduct floods so easily because a portion of the drainage pipe north of the structure collapsed long ago, a problem[Read More…]
Column: A ‘road diet’ by any other name would save the street
Words matter, and even accurate terms, if they conjure the wrong connotations, are not the best fit. Take “road diet,” for example. I’ve been advocating for Homewood to prioritize its plan to convert 183rd Street east of Dixie Highway from four lanes to three (two travel lanes, a turn lane[Read More…]
Column: Road diet complements village’s vision for downtown; local singer plans to record more originals with Wind Creek contest winnings
The Homewood Board of Trustees has been on board with the plan to convert 183rd Street east of Dixie Highway from four traffic lanes to two with one center turn lane and two bicycle lanes. The board endorsed that plan in 2007 when it adopted the Bike Plan and again,[Read More…]
Column: Books Without Borders reading club starts Sept. 11, plus the benefits of meandering
I remember talking with an older white man in front of Homewood village hall about five years ago. He had just tried to persuade Mayor Rich Hofeld to include in the village 4th of July festivities a reading of Frederick Douglass’s famous 1852 speech, “What to the Slave is the[Read More…]
Column: Don’t pay for what you can get for free: How to claim your property tax refunds
Every year, many Cook County homeowners are bombarded with letters, emails and phone calls from vendors offering to help secure property tax refunds — for a fee. But here’s the truth: You don’t need to pay anyone to get money that’s already yours. My office has $122 million in potential[Read More…]
Democracy Watch: Gerrymandering off the chain, 2nd District and Senate campaign updates
All-star gerrymandering throw down Gerrymandering is a time-honored American sport, but it doesn’t always create the kind of buzz it’s getting this week. Texas legislators, on orders from President Donald Trump, are proposing to redraw districts five years early in order to basically acquire all districts in the state for[Read More…]
Page 4: Making the community safe from shooters and speeders
Public safety and quality of life are intertwined values that are top priorities in our community, but achieving both is complicated by a powerful force: American culture, specifically its preferences for guns and speed. Of course, Homewood and Flossmoor are very safe villages. We have much less crime than many[Read More…]
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