Lifestyles: August 2009 Archives

Waukegan Mayor Robert Sabonjian has the pedal to the metal working on getting some sort of motorsports road race to his city next year or more likely in 2011. The Hound hears all those Waukeganites backing the mayor: "Go, speed racer, go!"

Sabonjian and city minions appear farther along the trail than most originally thought. They have a map of the 1.9-mile course which uses the Amstutz Expressway (or is that the Bobby Thompson Expressway which state Rep. Eddie Washington, D-Waukegan, unilaterally christened two years ago?) and downtown streets. Anybody check with the County of Lake, which has a pretty large presence in Waukegan's downtown for their input? They've also had preliminary talks with race organizers and they have a steering committee, Waukegan Grand Prix LLC.

What they don't have is money. Estimates run between $12 to $15 million for the initial rally; about a $9 million ante every year after. The bet is the seed money will generate millions more. Other cities have done it and been successful. It is within the realm of possibility for Waukegan.

So far, the city's populace has been eerily silent on the topic. Perhaps they're stunned or they haven't caught up to speed on what the impact could be on the city both in quality of life issues and financial gain or loss. Or they are a silent majority, riding in the back seat with the new mayor on this issue.

The Hound like's Sabonjian's attitude about landing any sort of road race: "We can be world class, but we have to do it right." So for right now, it's full speed ahead!

It would appear the Zion City Council has gotten themselves in a bit of a bind by rejecting a special-use permit for the Dungeon of Doom, a creepy haunted house set to open next month in the old Warwick Building of Deborah Avenue. It certainly would be a better tale if the building was once the Warlock Building, don't you think?

But such naming would never happen in Zion because the Warwick Building dates back to Alexander Dowie and the founding of Zion City, if The Hound recalls what the geezers were talking about the other day. One question for the good burghers of Zion, though: Why did you reject something you originally sought to lure into the city? Yes, before the city's religious leaders caught wind of the black magic being brought to Zion, the planning and zoning commission endorsed the Dungeon of Doom with a 5-to-1 vote. It was a conditional vote, meaning that officials would see how things went this fall and the promoters would have to come back next year for permanent approval.

Forsooth, the city's economic development commisson actually pursued the developers to bring the fright house to Zion, which may leave a gap in the City Council's rejection of the Dungeon of Doom. If the economic development commission was pursuing bringing this attraction into Zion to inject some zombie-like life into the Warwick Building, then The Hound would only conjure the mayor and members of the City Council had an inkling what was going on. Especially since the application was filed in April. Nobody raised red flags about demonic goings on back then.

Mayor Lane Harrison saying he was urging rejection of the special permit because of traffic and neighborhood concerns in a neighborhood once surrounded by traffic generated from the Warwick Building and the nearby nuclear plant rings hollow to The Hound. A good lawyer might have a nice argument that a contract had been entered into with the economic development folks reaching out to the dungeon's promoters. Then again, who knows?

One thing The Hound knows: If Six Flags was in Zion, there wouldn't be a Fright Fest this year --- or in eternity. Hope The Fielders don't have a bat night next year. Bats could be equated to Dracula and you know what could happen then: Boo!

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has made the Land of Lincoln's highways extremely safer this week by signing into law two bills. One bans texting while driving, the other bans using a cell phone while driving in a construction zone or school zone. Do we have enough cops, judges or jail space to accomodate all these criminals? The Hound doesn't think so.

Matter of fact, The Hound is LOL that the governor thinks a swipe of the pen will change what has become common place not only here but the rest of the nation. It's obvious police will tag on the no texting or no cell phone use charge if a person is involved in an accident, but seldom do people not wearing seat belts get ticketed. So how are they going to track down these miscreants?

The Hound agrees that texting while driving is dangerous. So is reading, watching videos, reading a GPS, painting one's nails when behind the wheel. Those that do it just make the term "weakened gene pool" the more relevant. Unfortunately, when they are involved in wrecks caused by texting or talking on the cell, they hurt others. One driving study maintains mobile phone distractions can increase the risk of crashes 23 times.

Fourteen other states have partial or complete bans on text messaging and cell phone usage while driving. The frequency of arrests is underwhelming. Chicago has had a law banning the use of cell phones while driving. That has worked quite well --- not. Poor cops, they get stuck with everyone of society's dirty details.

The Hound hopes Gov. Quinn isn't using these bills as the linchpin of his campaign to get elected governor next year. Not exactly stuff legacies are made.