CITY BEAT: REMEMBER WHEN DOWNTOWN DECATUR WAS FILLED WITH SHOPPERS DURING THE HOLIDAY SEASON?
Paul Osborne
Editor/Publisher
The day after Thanksgiving is always a BIG shopping day for the holidays and is normally one of the biggest with sales galore and everyone getting into the holiday gift giving spirit — well …a lot of people.
Tom Emery has some Thanksgiving stories from the past that focus on the holiday’s history in Illinois and related subjects on pages 4 and 5 of this week’s Decatur Tribune.
The photo on the front page is one that I shot the day after Thanksgiving in 1980 — 45 years ago — and it shows shoppers on Landmark Mall in downtown Decatur anxious to make purchases at the multitude of downtown retail stores that existed then.
The photo (which is also used with the Thanksgiving stories on page 4) required only a few seconds of my time to shoot 45 years ago, but there is so much about it that brings back fond memories when downtown was alive with shoppers moving up and down Landmark Mall on North Water Street.
The photo’s perspective is looking north from the Water Street/William Street intersection.
The steel awning of the former Carson Pirie Scott multi-story building can be seen in the upper left of the photo.
Notice the globe street lights, the steel awnings that stretched across Landmark Mall and all of the Christmas decorations.
Especially notice all of the shoppers heading in both directions.
If only I had known that Landmark Mall, built to counter the attraction of shopping malls (like Hickory Point Mall) would only delay for a short time a retail exodus from downtown by most stores, I might have spent more time soaking up the atmosphere that would too soon be gone.
That’s why this photo is special — because it speaks to me of when the retail mecca we knew as downtown Decatur was living out its last days.
I still love downtown Decatur, but it definitely is a “different” downtown than the one pictured on the front page of this week’s Decatur Tribune.
• I MENTIONED in my “Viewpoint” column this week about the reaction from readers to my Nov. 12th “Scrapbook” feature on the coal mines under Decatur — and the era of coal burning stoves and furnaces.
Several of you stopped me to talk about growing up in other states where your dad worked in the coal mines and the impression it left on you.
Among those reacting was longtime Tribune supporter Brad Collins, who lives in Hillsboro, who sent me a letter to the editor (on page 2) after reading the “Scrapbook” feature.
There is no question that about all readers of this newspaper who have been around as long as I have, are well acquainted with coal furnaces and the “scent” of burning coal in the stove.
Brad has some interesting comments. Check out his letter and photo.
• LINDA Hutton of Decatur was another reader who sent me a note following the coal feature.
Linda wrote: A coal chute played a part in my childhood growing up in Kalispell, MT. One chilly autumn day a stray white cat picked his way down our coal chute to insert himself into our large family. Once cleaned up, he was a handsome gentleman who ruled our house for 10 years. No mere human ever had to open a door for Snowball; he preferred his independence via the coal chute.”
Thanks, Linda. I remember the coal chutes in our basement and the coal and cob houses at the back of my parents’ property (next to the alley) where coal and cob trucks would pull up and the drivers would then unload coal and cobs (what else?) into the respective bins.
Coal did more than heat our homes and businesses — it still warms our hearts with memories of another time and place and the people who were there with us.
• IF SHANE BECK wants to be the next Macon County Sheriff, he is going to have to do it another way than being on the Republican primary ballot.
Beck faced a tough race in trying to beat incumbent Macon County Sheriff Jim Root in the Republican primary, but a technical error on his petition papers means his name will not be on the ballot.
That’s means it is going to be a lot tougher to win the primary.
Beck, 52, is a deputy with the sheriff’s department and, last week, election officials ordered his name be removed be-cause of the incorrect way Beck’s signature petition pages were presented.
Beck has in-dicated that, at least at this point, he plans to campaign as a write-in candidate which is a really tough road to go — especially in trying to unseat Root who knows more than a thing or two about battling for the sheriff’s position.
Beck had turned in some 27 pages of supporting petition signatures as part of his election process paperwork, and Illinois law states the pages have to be numbered in order. Beck, apparently unaware of the requirement, found his filing challenged by two Decatur residents who lodged a formal protest to his petition.
The protest was reviewed by the Macon County Officers Electoral Board and the board ruled that the challenge was valid and Beck was off the ballot.
Beck faces a very tough road ahead in trying to beat an incumbent sheriff with a write-in campaign.
• ACTUALLY, the reason that Beck was booted from the ballot seems very trivial to me (numbered petition pages) but everyone has to abide by what the petition filing requirements involve — even if it seems so minor.
Over the years, I’ve seen several candidates for city council, and even mayor, disqualified from having their names on the ballot due to technical errors in filing the petitions.
One of the first things that supporters of an opponent on the ballot look for is if that opponent did not file his or her petitions correctly.
When I ran for mayor, based on my experience as an editor and seeing some candidates being thrown off of the ballot because of technicalities, I was very much aware of how my campaign could end before it started with a technically-incorrect petition filing.
I sought advice from those who had experience in filing and made very sure the paperwork was correct and complete before turning in the paperwork to get on the ballot.
• I RECALL waiting in the reception area of the City of Decatur offices, during the final hour for filing petitions for anyone wanting to run for mayor or city council seats that were up for election. (I was running for re-election to another four-year term and had filed my petitions earlier.)
I was there, waiting with the news media, to see who would be filing during the last hour before the deadline.
I remember one candidate for city council coming in to file his petitions about ten minutes before the deadline because he wanted to be the last one to file in order to get the last place on the ballot which he thought would be advantageous — and there is some evidence that is somewhat effective.
He came in, attempted to file his paperwork and was told that he needed another document from the county clerk’s office.
Unfortunately, for him, he didn’t have enough time to go back over to the county clerk’s office and get the necessary documentation and get back to the civic center before the deadline for filing arrived.
His candidacy was finished and he left the civic center a very unhappy and disappointed citizen.
• I’VE NOTICED, probably because of city and county clerks being blamed for not telling a candidate some requirement, that filing notices published in our newspaper in recent years have carried a disclaimer that the city clerk, in particular, does not give legal advice on how the petitions should be filled out. That’s probably because of some of the heat taken, especially in some city elections involving the city clerk’s role in petition acceptance, when candidates have filed incorrectly.
I remember, several years back, when a challenger to run against Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe, had her petitions declared incomplete and was taken off of the ballot.
There was a feeling that the city clerk should have “advised” her before the filing — but that’s not really the city clerk’s role and that fact is emphasized in public notices.
• MAYBE there should be a seminar for those considering a run for public office on what requirements need to be met in running for an office and filing the petitions of candidacy.
It might help to avoid a candidate’s campaign being dealt a serious blow by being taken off of the ballot before the campaign really gets going.
• I JOIN Brian Byers on WSOY’s Byers & Co. every Thursday morning at 7:00 for the “City Hall Insider”.
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