Happy New Year!

digitalblasphemy.com

Top Ten Reasons To Read PRU
in the New Year!

10) We don't accept advertising; advertisers can't call our Editor and raise holy hell about a story they didn't like and threaten to pull their advertising dollars.

9.) We offer an interactive experience on local issues with nearly unlimited space for your comments.

8.) We've got nothing to lose by ratting out the rotten apples in local government, and neither do you.

7.) We don't give a shit who you know, how long you've lived in Park Ridge, how much money you make, what club(s) you belong to, or what ivory tower gave you a degree; as a resident and/or taxpayer you are entitled to open, honest, transparent, and representative government, and that's what we are pushing for.

6.) If we know something and can verify its authenticity, we will tell it to you whether you want to read it or not; we refuse to infantilize the adult population of Park Ridge.

5.) We aren't politicians and we will never ask you for your $upport.

4.) We are a fun and entertaining alternative to the local presszzzzzzzzzzz...

3.) Where else can you see a picture of Howard Frimark in thigh-high fishnets and hooker heels?

2.) Admit it, you like seeing arrogant politicians and stupid kool-aid drinkers being made fun of.

And the number one reason to read PRU...

1.) You don't have to press "1" for English.

Have A Merry Christmas!

digitalblasphemy.com

An Interesting and Different Perspective.

M.C.Escher Puddle

Perhaps some of you noticed the new link we added to our list: Time Tells.

It is a blog billed as, "...a project of FNewsmagazine, the student news publication at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago."

Topics center around architectural history, preservation, and related issues.

We found it interesting. We also found some discussions we thought folks here may want to take a look at.

Time Tells » Huge Fact

Time Tells » A Tragedy in Park Ridge

Time Tells » Park Ridge: a Fistful of Dollars

If we'd had our act together, we would have sought permission to print 'Huge Fact' as a guest essay for today. But we're slackers.

Park Ridge Wonderland!

Our inspiration: 'Typo' or zoning loophole? - Park Ridge Herald-Advocate

For desired accompaniment: Winter Wonderland
(Click on traditional arrangement)

Hey, Park Ridge
Are you listening
In Uptown
Steel is glistening
A beautiful sight
If you're a builder tonight
Walking in a Park Ridge Wonderland

Gone away is the green space
In its place is a disgrace
A four-story hulk
With way too much bulk
Looming in a Park Ridge Wonderland

In the future we can build more condos
Then pretend that density is good
Why not build them higher?
Call them "Mondos"!
And you can say good-bye
To your old 'hood

Once again
They'll conspire
To go up even higher
And face unafraid
The zoning code that we've made
Building in a Park Ridge Wonderland

In the Uptown we can spend TIF dollars
And pretend that we are flush with cash
We'll have lots of fun with those TIF dollars
Unless a downturn bites us in the ass

Years from now
Reminiscing
Open space we'll be missing
What will we say
About back in the day
Living in a Park Ridge Wonderland

What will we say
About back in the day
Walking in a Park Ridge Wonderland

Our 10,000th Visitor!

A little less than two months ago, the Journal & Topics gave us some coverage in an article titled: Beware Of Blogger. That coverage served to boost our readership significantly.

The article contained the following:

"Ald. Rich DiPietro, the widely respected current alderman serving the second ward, was sharply critical of the website. "I didn't read much of Mad Magazine when I was growing up, and I gave up shortly after reading one or two of these blogs," he said. "It's negative, nothing constructive, it doesn't serve any purpose." He added that he doesn't know who the author is, but he offered that "is probably someone well known in the city."

Oh! That hurt! How could the Lord of the Manor not love us!? That's so negative!

In a bit of cosmic irony, we welcomed our 10,000th visitor to PRU early last week. Guess who it was.

That's right folks! The one! The only!

Lord of the Manor!



VISITOR ANALYSIS
Referring Link - No referring link
Host Name - adsl-75-51-60-73.dsl.chcgil.sbcglobal.net
IP Address - 75.51.60.73 Rich DiPietro [Edit Label]
Country - United States
Region - Texas
City - Plano
ISP - Crosstech Communications
Returning Visits - 6
Visit Length - 0 seconds

VISITOR SYSTEM SPECS
Browser - MSIE 5.0
Operating System - PPC
Resolution - 1024x768
Javascript - Enabled

No referring link? Awwww, did you put us in your "favorites" list?

800 lb Gorilla in City Council!

Tonight's City Council meeting agenda includes an action item that may give carte blanche to Mayor Frimark to participate in debate and discussion at City Council Meetings, by changing the City Council Procedures manual.

Currently, the City Council must entertain a motion to set aside the rules and allow the Mayor to participate in debate - this is one of the procedures expressly outlined in Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised; the meeting procedure long-ago adopted by the City Council. Though adherence has been far less formal than the language contained in RONR would suggest.

According to the mandate in Robert's Rules of Order - and not so subtly supported by a memo from the City Attorney quoting, "the chair of a meeting should have nothing to say on the merits of a pending question" - it is the role of the chairman to efficiently run the meeting and to see to it the rights of all assembly members are protected; in short, impartiality is required of Mayor Frimark in his role as the presiding officer.

~~~ We pause now for a moment of hysterical laughter ~~~

We feel this is a very poorly considered change to procedure on the part of the City Council, no matter who occupies the chairman's seat.

And from what many have reported, and we have witnessed, Mayor Frimark is barely capable of efficiently running City Council meetings now. We are almost certain his desire to protect the rights of all assembly members is non-existent. His conduct as the City Council chairman has particularly deteriorated over the last several months, and that has been under the proscribed constraints of RONR.

Releasing Mayor Frimark from the requirement of at least appearing to be an impartial presiding officer is like giving an 800 lb. gorilla free rein of a banana plantation.

And we think that is exactly what the City Council will be doing tonight.

HO-HO-HO!

Thanks to the Pub-dogs for the numbers.

Have a warm weekend.