GraniteCityGossip

Election Season Already?

Posted by opinionated <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/GraniteGossip/info/user=opinionated' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on December 5, 2024, 3:20 pm

Apparently, Granite is in for a good old slobber knocker next April. According to the good old reliable FB, three potential candidates were removed from ballot contention at a hearing yesterday.

People can only be removed from ballots if they falsify part of the documents or simply don't follow the rules on petition passing.

Man, Nellie used to drill his candidates on doing it right, but these candidates were probably still in grade school.

Should be interesting. I believe they have some type of appeal process, but I don't know if that's at the state or county level.

Either way, pop the corn, chill the beer and let's get ready to rumble. If these suspensions hold up, and they usually do, Parkinson just got a second term.

You gotta love small town politics.

Drill Baby Drill!

Re: Election Season Already?

Posted by Joe Smith <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/GraniteGossip/info/user=Joe+Smith' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on December 5, 2024, 3:51 pm, in reply to "Election Season Already?"

Anyone would be acceptable over this current mayor who doesn't even always tuck his shirt in, as long as they check enough of the Woke Boxes anyway. That is how some people will decide who they want to vote for.

Does it get any weirder than that??

Democrats Vote To PROTECT Illegal Immigrant Predators, GOP Passes Bill To SAVE KIDS.

Re: Election Season Already?

Posted by opinionated <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/GraniteGossip/info/user=opinionated' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on December 5, 2024, 9:04 pm, in reply to "Re: Election Season Already?"

Mrs. O. just showed me a picture from FB. The mayor was speaking at city hall where the Christmas decorations were on display. He had on a suit coat and dress pants. I hope Dee sees it.

Goes to show he can dress up but when he's in the trenches daily, I can understand the comfort level. In my day, it was typically a black, blue or grey suit and don't even think about loosening the knot in your tie. LOL. Oh how things have changed.

Drill Baby Drill!

Re: Election Season Already?

Posted by Dave Williams <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/GraniteGossip/info/user=Dave+Williams' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on December 6, 2024, 11:27 am, in reply to "Re: Election Season Already?"

Park is doing a good job. Unfortunately, he inherited the Titanic. The region is sinking faster than it was 20 years ago. With poverty at 25%, no pension reform on the horizon, and paying for housing and food for illegal aliens, Illinois as a whole is not going to prosper. It is important to look at the condition of Granite in relative terms.

The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits. -Thomas Jefferson

Re: Election Season Already?

Posted by Joe Smith <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/GraniteGossip/info/user=Joe+Smith' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on December 6, 2024, 1:53 pm, in reply to "Re: Election Season Already?"

Many Granite City residents want to compare Granite City with Edwardsville which is a joke. It's okay to aim high, but not that damn high. Work on improving Granite City and don't worry about anyone else.

Much of the state is a wreck, not just Granite City.

Democrats Vote To PROTECT Illegal Immigrant Predators, GOP Passes Bill To SAVE KIDS.

Re: Election Season Already?

Posted by Dave Williams <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/GraniteGossip/info/user=Dave+Williams' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on December 6, 2024, 2:35 pm, in reply to "Re: Election Season Already?"

Bingo

The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits. -Thomas Jefferson

Re: Election Season Already?

Posted by 3Dee <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/GraniteGossip/info/user=3Dee' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on December 7, 2024, 2:20 pm, in reply to "Re: Election Season Already?"

Good for him!

Good for Granite City, when it's represented well.

If you could reason with MAGA, there would be no MAGA.

Re: Election Season Already?

Aiming to be Edwardsville isn't aiming high.

But I agree....
Granite City shouldn't try to be that either.

I'm impressed with Granite City...the decline has slowed down to a degree. It is still the largest city in Madison County and the second largest south of Springfield.

That is not as good news as seems... it has been bad news for Alton and East St. Louis....whom Granite city has eclipsed. By 2020, I would have expected Edwardsville to have taken that position.

There's still hell of a lot to like about the community and indicators that the sense of community is strong.

Not only is poverty increasing, but Granite City isn't surrounded by wealth either. The closest wealth is blockaded by the bluffs or is now much farther into West County.

Being formerly connected to a vibrant downtown St. Louis and a bustling North County was good for Granite City. People could live close to their mill jobs and not be too far from goods and services that people desired.

Well, Moto Mart and Dirt Cheap are still filled with Illinois plates, but I wouldn't imagine there are any other places over there to bring home a trunkful of shopping bags.

Granite City is a community of industry and neighborhoods.....

Edwardsville.... law offices, banks, and cul-de-sacs.

Develop the neighborhoods.... I think it's a strength for Granite City.... Do for other parts of town what has been attempted in Lincoln place.

Granite City never really was a 'suburb'... in the sense of the word... but Granite City has to do Granite City...there's no other place like it and for that I'm thankful.

I wonder if there are parts of town where it is too late....but maybe that's addressed block by block....

The blight really is a block-to-block issue....at least for now. In West Granite some of those blocks seem to be increasing rapidly.

Granite City needs to keeps its focus on being a tight knit small-city blue collar community.

Edwardsville is not a direction anyone should want to go....even though that's the direction too much Granite money has gone over the years. It's just not possible...

LEt your Granite born relatives enjoy those high taxes as they come back home acting as if they're smelling $#!+ just to spend more than 15 minutes in town.

If you could reason with MAGA, there would be no MAGA.

Best Fried Rice!

Vin-Hoa...
That place is legend. No matter where I go, I still cannot get fried rice like it.

An encounter with their Fried Rice over the holiday brought great memories.

It wasn't EXACTLY as I remember it, but it was still as good of fried rice as I can get. There are a lot of 'memory' foods that aren't the same....and I think it's my changing tastes over the years.

There are still two kinds of people....Lams and VinHoa. We were Vin-Hoa folk....and those city stickers in the window..... are LEGEND! The oldest one still legible is 1982-1983.

Keep being Vin-Hoa..... prices have gone up some, but in this day and age....with the highest price on the menu being $11.80.... that's amazing.

If you could reason with MAGA, there would be no MAGA.

Dang it

I meant to make that a new post....

If you could reason with MAGA, there would be no MAGA.

Re: Election Season Already?

Posted by Dave Williams <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/GraniteGossip/info/user=Dave+Williams' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on December 7, 2024, 4:45 pm, in reply to "Re: Election Season Already?"

If you saw the area between CVS and the overpass today you wouldn't say the decline has slowed. It has been the Walking Dead today. Dozens of people just walking, stumbling, screaming at the air, etc. There was an obviously strung out gal that was throwing her purse at the old Dollar Tree store window. Another woman tried walking out of the rent to own store with a TV. There were about half a dozen middle aged men outside Ollie's riding their kids bikes (obviously stolen). NO! The slide hasn't slowed one bit.

The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits. -Thomas Jefferson

Re: Election Season Already?

Posted by Dave Williams <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/GraniteGossip/info/user=Dave+Williams' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on December 7, 2024, 4:50 pm, in reply to "Re: Election Season Already?"

I talked to a police officer I went to school with last week. He said the problems here are very reminiscent of Cahokia about 5 years ago.

The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits. -Thomas Jefferson

Re: Election Season Already?

Posted by Dave Williams <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/GraniteGossip/info/user=Dave+Williams' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on December 7, 2024, 4:51 pm, in reply to "Re: Election Season Already?"

Basically the entire flood plain from Dupo to part of Wood River is a veritable shit hole.

The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits. -Thomas Jefferson

Re: Election Season Already?

Posted by opinionated <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/GraniteGossip/info/user=opinionated' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on December 7, 2024, 7:33 pm, in reply to "Re: Election Season Already?"

Dee, I tend to agree with you. Five years ago, we almost sold the house and put the money in a trust for my son and daughter.

We decided to hold the stay of execution for a few more years and as of now, I'm glad we did. We've been offered $42,000 more than we would have taken in three years ago. The booming housing market is a good sign.

There's some truth to the points Mr. Williams makes. Yeah, there are crazies walking around town. If we eliminate the MCT busses, that will decline. They get on the busses downtown and ride out to the suburbs to share their crazy show. And of course, they make the trips around the downtown to the food banks, Kettler and the Oxford House.

These are mostly people who have mental issues caused by drugs or just an underdeveloped socialization skill.

Either way we are staying for a few more years. Can't wait to see the April elections. If one of the circus acts that apparently performed at city hall the other night gets elected, we will sell sooner. LOL. We see enough loons on the street without having one in the mayor's chair.

Drill Baby Drill!

Re: Election Season Already?

Posted by Dave Williams <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/GraniteGossip/info/user=Dave+Williams' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on December 7, 2024, 7:43 pm, in reply to "Re: Election Season Already?"

It's not just MCT. That is just a small part. There is poverty up and down the entire flood plain. Poverty isn't going to get better in Illinois. Illinois and California lead the nation in most exodus. It isn't the poverty class that is leaving.

The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits. -Thomas Jefferson

Re: Election Season Already?

Posted by opinionated <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/GraniteGossip/info/user=opinionated' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on December 7, 2024, 8:35 pm, in reply to "Re: Election Season Already?"

There is poverty up and down the entire flood plain. Poverty isn't going to get better in Illinois.

Agree. If we were thirty years younger, we may not be in Illinois.

The only issue with the MCT line is it makes the people you mentioned earlier more mobile.

Drill Baby Drill!

Re: Election Season Already?

Posted by 3Dee <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/GraniteGossip/info/user=3Dee' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on December 8, 2024, 8:37 am, in reply to "Re: Election Season Already?"

If you see a sh!+hole...then that's what it will be.

The place may have changed a lot since the 1990's, but there are still some amazing people that call the place home....some are quite brilliant, I know a few of them.

Granite City has a lot going against it. St. Louis is not the nearby thriving city it once was, and going over to North County may not offer the adjacent access to goods and services. I haven't been to Fairview Heights in years, but I hear that some of its former prosperity has moved farther to O'Fallon and even farther from Granite City.

There are people that still live there and still alive that inspired me to believe that I'm only as good as what I see for myself.

There was also a lot of other unpleasant influences that were more about 'go with the flow' and a destructive flow at that, and thank God I didn't allow their voices to keep me in that way of thinking.

People from Granite City helped me see a vision for myself and I'm glad that some of them crossed my path.

But in entering the conversation about Granite City...if that's all you see for it, then why do you post about it?

Visionaries have their place, and it takes someone to see something for Granite City that's reasonable to achieve, but beyond what it is today.

I'd hope there's one leader that has a vision that scares him/her/they/it, and perhaps eight to ten other smaller ones that could be reasonable to achieve.

1. Tuck your shirt in, go to JCP.com and stock up on Stafford Shirts.....good affordable stuff. Keep the Carhartts though, because a good leader in Granite City has to also get his/her/their/its hands dirty when appropriate.

2. Have a big vision.....something.... The 'revival' of downtown was a big vision.. It worked to a degree... all in all, it's a good vision, at least it didn't fail....it's just that people may hang out down there one night, but not every night. It still made the area better than it was ...

3. Have several practical visions....That's the block-to-block thing I was telling you about. Have some community meetings on all sides of the tracks, listen to the problems...but make room for knowing their hopes and dreams.....besides bugging out and going to some backwater red state.

There are still some great people in Granite City....find them....listen to them....use them to share their talents to reach the next generation.

On the practical side, I sometimes wonder when Granite City will be singing it's swan song....But I think it still has something to offer people...
As long as there are people willing to work for it and take pride in their community, maybe some of these trends can reverse....or at least keep the deterioration from accelerating.

I think the leaders are to be commended.... They have tried new things....some have worked better than others....but I see that they're trying and that there are still many in the community that care about its success.

If you could reason with MAGA, there would be no MAGA.

Re: Election Season Already?

Eliminating MCT buses?

I think that's one of the worst things. If there aren't connections to SWIC, SIUE, downtown St. Louis --- then that eliminates any hope for the city. To make Granite City "car only" takes away any future incentive to invest in a town that will become more disconnected.

If you could reason with MAGA, there would be no MAGA.

Re: Election Season Already?

Posted by opinionated <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/GraniteGossip/info/user=opinionated' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on December 8, 2024, 9:06 am, in reply to "Re: Election Season Already?"

That's a fair point Dee. Sadly, many people depend on those busses for legitimate travel. They do however carry those who cause disturbances, pointed out above, from one post to another.

Drill Baby Drill!

Re: Election Season Already?

Posted by Dave Williams <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/GraniteGossip/info/user=Dave+Williams' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on December 8, 2024, 1:20 pm, in reply to "Re: Election Season Already?"

The real crazy woman is running around screaming again today. She broke a window where the 5 Below is going in.

The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits. -Thomas Jefferson

Re: Election Season Already?

Posted by Dave Williams <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/GraniteGossip/info/user=Dave+Williams' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on December 8, 2024, 1:23 pm, in reply to "Re: Election Season Already?"

Like Bill Parcells said, " you are WHT your record says you are". Putting lipstick on a pig is still a pig. North city and county is now virtually all ghetto run into the ground by decades of failed government.

The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits. -Thomas Jefferson

Re: Election Season Already?

Posted by Dave Williams <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/GraniteGossip/info/user=Dave+Williams' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on December 8, 2024, 1:25 pm, in reply to "Re: Election Season Already?"

The whole state is never going to recover without pension reform. That is without a shadow of a doubt problem #1.

The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits. -Thomas Jefferson

Re: Election Season Already?

Posted by Dave Williams <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/GraniteGossip/info/user=Dave+Williams' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on December 8, 2024, 1:27 pm, in reply to "Re: Election Season Already?"

The guy that has been walking back and forth on the shopping center for a few years now often hangs out I'm the back room of Midwest Petroleum. They give him some leftovers. Tegans also gives him mistake drinks if he is sitting at the tables outside.

The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits. -Thomas Jefferson

Re: Election Season Already?

Posted by Joe Smith <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/GraniteGossip/info/user=Joe+Smith' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on December 8, 2024, 3:18 pm, in reply to "Re: Election Season Already?"

Yes, please stay out of the Red States.

I would ask what would a visionary even be doing in GC??? If someone was a visionary it seems to me the GC exit would be one to hit the gas pedal to get away from.

Even so, the city isn't any worse than many others in this wretched Blue State.

Democrats Vote To PROTECT Illegal Immigrant Predators, GOP Passes Bill To SAVE KIDS.

Re: Election Season Already?

Posted by GCAI <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/GraniteGossip/info/user=GCAI' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on December 8, 2024, 6:49 pm, in reply to "Re: Election Season Already?"

You want the buses gone. Then now I post to get to work or to a doctors appointment or to St.Louis, I can not keep calling a cab & spend $10-$25 a trip get where I am going. The buses are only a $1 & $3 if going to Metrolink. You better think before you want get rid of a thing people need. Next you will say let's get rid of GCFD.

Re: Election Season Already?

Posted by 3Dee <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/GraniteGossip/info/user=3Dee' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on December 9, 2024, 12:08 am, in reply to "Re: Election Season Already?"

So Granite City shouldn't have a leader with vision?

This is LEADERS we're talking about here. It's easy to say the 'flood plain' is doomed, and mention all the external factors about Illinois and things like that.

But if you care about Granite City, wouldn't you want a leader who sees Granite City differently and at least tries to take it in another direction?

Yeah, you would need VISION to do that.

If you could reason with MAGA, there would be no MAGA.

Re: Election Season Already?

Posted by bob <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/GraniteGossip/info/user=bob' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on December 9, 2024, 1:48 am, in reply to "Re: Election Season Already?"

I still think that Brenda Whitaker would make a great mayor.

If you don't read the papers, you're uninformed. If you read the papers, you're misinformed. - Mark Twain

Re: Election Season Already?

Posted by Dave Williams <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/GraniteGossip/info/user=Dave+Williams' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on December 9, 2024, 5:27 am, in reply to "Re: Election Season Already?"

Quit using the term "leader" when referring to government. Elected representative, yes. Leader, no. Government serves up no leaders.

The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits. -Thomas Jefferson

Re: Election Season Already?

Posted by Dave Williams <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/GraniteGossip/info/user=Dave+Williams' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on December 9, 2024, 5:29 am, in reply to "Re: Election Season Already?"

Well if you don't sum up Granite I don't know what does.

The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits. -Thomas Jefferson

Re: Election Season Already?

Posted by Joe Smith <iframe src='https://members.boardhost.com/GraniteGossip/info/user=Joe+Smith' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on December 9, 2024, 11:09 am, in reply to "Re: Election Season Already?"

He wrapped it up and put a bow on it.

Democrats Vote To PROTECT Illegal Immigrant Predators, GOP Passes Bill To SAVE KIDS.

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