Holy cow, Rob Taylor is STILL involved in Carbondale politics?! He ran for Mayor as a student back when I was at SIUC in the 90's.
Last time I went back it looked like the strip had suffered a lot. I'm not sure I get why anyone would think Brad Cole will suddenly make Carbondale more fun again. Anyway, it makes sense for someone in a college town to use facebook and myspace for their campaign. It would be foolish not to at this point.
Yellow Dog Democrat
· 2 years ago
I'd love to know how many employees at BSquare, founded by this blogger, are African American.
His company doesn't even have a policy on race or gender diversity on its website.
Team Sleep
· 2 years ago
Carbondale will sink or swim based on the college and what President Poshard does with the school. It's a college town in the same breath as Chambana, DeKalb, Columbia, Macomb, Lexington, etc. If the college keeps its image up, the town will do well. If Poshard runs the school into the ground, the town will suffer. End of story.
Carbondale is booming and so is Marion. But how much of that is tied to the I-57 and Illinois 13 expansion? They are both nice places to live, and the easy through access for companies, tourists and students make the two-city locations (not to mention Murphysboro) an attractive locale.
decaturboy
· 2 years ago
Mitchell should be worried about his own district. He was worried about getting involved in the Decatur mayor contest 4 years between 2 republicans.
Saloukee
· 2 years ago
Carbondale is the BEST college town Ousting Cole would be a plus Maybe Cross should send that dreamey state rep from Peoria to try to save Cole. What does Mitchell add to the effort
Levois
· 2 years ago
Well this is the second time today Facebook has wound up on The Capitol Fax Blog.
Robbie
· 2 years ago
How many people that join that facebook group will even vote in Carbondale? I would assume most of the students aren't registered voters in the city, and that most who are, won't vote anyways.
Southern Illinois Voter
· 2 years ago
Brad Cole has been an excellent mayor for Carbondale. He has done more for that city in 4 years than the previous one did in 16 years. If he's not re-elected, it will be a shame.
leigh
· 2 years ago
Cole is a good mayor and Simon would probably be fine. Lucky for Carbondale they have some good choices. Wish the same could be said for the statewide elections!
so ill
· 2 years ago
Hey you can't spell Carbondale without C-O-L-E!
Seriously, Cole has been good for the city and should get a medal for his ability to put Carbondale on the map in Illinois, despite the kicking and screaming of certain residents who still think it's the 1970s.
It's too bad that this election has been made out to be a partisan race. And the same people who vote blindly for their political party (cough, Democrats; cough, cough, Blagojevich) are probably going to ruin a good thing for our city.
But one the bright side, people in So. Ill are familiar with being disappointed. Which is why this region of the is so easy to ignore.
Said Blogger
· 2 years ago
I was noting the comment about Bsquare's racial policies. When I was there we hired 100% of the programmers we interviewed, that were black. Which was exactly 1 person. Black programmers are in high demand and generally are hired up by the federal government or the Fortune 50. In truth there might have been more, but they didn't survive the phone screen or didn't apply.
Of course, we had 15 or 20 Vietnamese, 50 to 100 Indians, 25 to 75 Chinese. I bet we had about as many Caucasian employees then as we had non-Caucasian. The only thing we cared about is if you could perform. We would have hired a one legged Martian if they could program and had a green card.
I had a management team working for me that was over half women, in a business that has maybe 15% women in total. I couldn't help it, they had more people skills and deserved the promotions. But that doesn't count in Illinois does it?
Capitalists have a racial policy that involves green and performance. If you don't have government contracts, you just hire the best people you can. I guess Bsquare still doesn't have government contracts.
It is fun to live on the West Coast, you quickly forget about discrimination. You hear nothing about it. There are black, white, brown, gay, straight, liberal, conservative, pretty and ugly all searching for success. Everyone is so busy working, we forget to look for our entitlements.
It was so shocking to move back to Southern Illinois and step right back into the snake pit of racial problem. It is sad.
Said Blogger
· 2 years ago
I disagree with Team Sleep's comment. Carbondale has little in common with the other cities listed. We have no outside industry at all. We have lots of service jobs and the regional hospital, but we make nothing, beyond training students. This is because Carbondale's city government has been broken for many years.
In the last 4 years, there has been real progress. Our store fronts are filling up. Rental prices are up. Property values are up.
I bought a commercial building on Highway 13 (our main drag) in Carbondale a little over 5 years ago. It had been sitting empty for a couple of years, I bought it for half of asking. Now people stop in and try to buy it from me when I'm there. I'm fairly sure I can sell it for headed toward 3 times what I bought it for.
This is the power of a pro-business mayor in office for 4 years.
One of the great problems SIU faces is a lack of local businesses to interact with. There is simply nothing here, no internships, no funded research, there is just nothing here.
We wish we were like those other cities listed, but electing an anti-business mayor will not do it.
Gadfly
· 2 years ago
How do you get that Simon is anti-business? She is anything but.
As to Facebook, the naughty language has been cleaned up but the fabrication of Simon's record remains. Brad is still an administrator there and the clean-up obviously shows he's paying attention. If he has done so much, its not clear as to why he needs to lie to people to get their votes.
All Comments
Last time I went back it looked like the strip had suffered a lot. I'm not sure I get why anyone would think Brad Cole will suddenly make Carbondale more fun again.
Anyway, it makes sense for someone in a college town to use facebook and myspace for their campaign. It would be foolish not to at this point.
His company doesn't even have a policy on race or gender diversity on its website.
Carbondale is booming and so is Marion. But how much of that is tied to the I-57 and Illinois 13 expansion? They are both nice places to live, and the easy through access for companies, tourists and students make the two-city locations (not to mention Murphysboro) an attractive locale.
Ousting Cole would be a plus
Maybe Cross should send that dreamey state rep from Peoria to try to save Cole. What does Mitchell add to the effort
Seriously, Cole has been good for the city and should get a medal for his ability to put Carbondale on the map in Illinois, despite the kicking and screaming of certain residents who still think it's the 1970s.
It's too bad that this election has been made out to be a partisan race. And the same people who vote blindly for their political party (cough, Democrats; cough, cough, Blagojevich) are probably going to ruin a good thing for our city.
But one the bright side, people in So. Ill are familiar with being disappointed. Which is why this region of the is so easy to ignore.
Of course, we had 15 or 20 Vietnamese, 50 to 100 Indians, 25 to 75 Chinese. I bet we had about as many Caucasian employees then as we had non-Caucasian. The only thing we cared about is if you could perform. We would have hired a one legged Martian if they could program and had a green card.
I had a management team working for me that was over half women, in a business that has maybe 15% women in total. I couldn't help it, they had more people skills and deserved the promotions. But that doesn't count in Illinois does it?
Capitalists have a racial policy that involves green and performance. If you don't have government contracts, you just hire the best people you can. I guess Bsquare still doesn't have government contracts.
It is fun to live on the West Coast, you quickly forget about discrimination. You hear nothing about it. There are black, white, brown, gay, straight, liberal, conservative, pretty and ugly all searching for success. Everyone is so busy working, we forget to look for our entitlements.
It was so shocking to move back to Southern Illinois and step right back into the snake pit of racial problem. It is sad.
In the last 4 years, there has been real progress. Our store fronts are filling up. Rental prices are up. Property values are up.
I bought a commercial building on Highway 13 (our main drag) in Carbondale a little over 5 years ago. It had been sitting empty for a couple of years, I bought it for half of asking. Now people stop in and try to buy it from me when I'm there. I'm fairly sure I can sell it for headed toward 3 times what I bought it for.
This is the power of a pro-business mayor in office for 4 years.
One of the great problems SIU faces is a lack of local businesses to interact with. There is simply nothing here, no internships, no funded research, there is just nothing here.
We wish we were like those other cities listed, but electing an anti-business mayor will not do it.
As to Facebook, the naughty language has been cleaned up but the fabrication of Simon's record remains. Brad is still an administrator there and the clean-up obviously shows he's paying attention. If he has done so much, its not clear as to why he needs to lie to people to get their votes.