The fat lady sings again…and again… Lyric Opera of Chicago reports that it concluded its 1989-90 season “at an historic 102.7% of box office capacity.”
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A racist city deserves a pair of racist newspapers. Number of racially motivated (“bias”) crimes in Chicago from July 1, 1988, to June 30, 1989, according to the Chicago Commission on Human Relations as reported by David Protess of Northwestern University in Chicago, March 1990: 227. Number of bias crimes reported in both the Sun-Times and the Tribune: 3. Number of victims of all bias crimes who were black: about 150. Number of victims of the widely reported bias crimes who were black: 0.
Burn, baby, burn II: “Aerial photos taken between 1938 and 1980, before we started burning, show advancing brush and retreating prairie,” writes Steve Packard in the Twelfth Year Report of the North Branch Prairie Project. “Since 1980 that degradation has halted–and the apparently inexorable trend has been dramatically reversed–in those areas where we have been able to employ vigorous fires. Some of the prairie and savanna openings have almost doubled in size since 1977…. Our regularly burned areas show dramatic increases in such plants as blue-eyed grass, golden alexanders and rattlesnake master”–on the north side of Chicago and in nearby suburbs. “This is a field where dedicated amateurs from all walks of life [1,146 last year] can make a real contribution. We invite every person with a generous spirit and good muscles to join in on the workdays.”
The poor are more oriented to business ownership than the rest of the population, according to Roosevelt University economist Steven Balkin, who has just published Self-Employment for Low Income People. “They must consider self-employment because that is their last refuge for a job. They are resourceful, too, as demonstrated by their ability to survive on welfare payments or minimum wage jobs.”
