16 | January 10, 2019 | The highland park landmark highland park hplandmark.com Sign up to get your local news every day and wherever you go with Subscribe today at <strong>HP</strong>Landmark.com/Plus or scan the QR for a direct link
hplandmark.com sound off the highland park landmark | January 10, 2019 | 17 Social snapshot Top stories: From hplandmark.com as of Monday, Jan. 7 1. Year in Review: Highwood Mayor looks to 2019 2. 2018 power rankings: The 10 most-viewed sports stories of 2018 at <strong>HP</strong>Landmark.com 3. New restaurants roll out the red carpet on North Shore 4. Year in Review: Year of accomplishments for NSSD112 5. Year in Review: Major projects completed by Park District in 2018 Become a member: hplandmark.com/plus from the editor What’s your resolution? Erin Yarnall Editor They’re everywhere once the New Year kicks in — people running on the streets, buying more vegetables, typing away at the local coffee shop — everyone is trying to accomplish their resolutions. And while there are naysayers who believe that resolutions are pointless — they get dropped within a few weeks anyway — I am a firm believer in resolutions. I’ve always loved trying to better myself, whether it’s making a to-do list of things I want to accomplish by the end of each day or tracking my progress throughout the year. Just as I’m sure many of you do, I spend the end of each December thinking of how I want to improve upon myself and my life in the upcoming year. One of my less-serious resolutions this year is to be a sports fan for a team. Despite having lived in the Chicagoland area for just about my entire life, the team I picked to root for throughout 2019 is the Boston Red Sox. Our Managing Editor here at 22nd Century Media, Eric DeGrechie, a Yankees fan and native New Yorker, tried to talk me out of it, but now that the new year has started I am ride-ordie for my team. Another one of my resolutions is to learn how to play the guitar. This has been one of my resolutions for years, probably more than a decade, but it’s the one that falls through the cracks as the years tick by. Sticking with guitar has always been difficult for me. Maybe I’m just lazy, but if I wasn’t motivated enough by the New Year, I am motivated to stick with this resolution after talking to Glenview resident Josh Ronen. A songwriter and musician, Ronen picked up the guitar while he was trying to be like his older brother, who also played. He took his brotherly love and turned it into a career. Ronen now lives in Nashville, working as a musician and songwriter, but recently returned back to the North Shore to perform a show at 210 Live in Highwood. My younger brother and I have been talking about starting a band for as long as I can remember — despite my inability to play instruments — and who knows, maybe 2019 will finally be the year. Or 2020. Read more about Ronen and his performance at 210 Live in Highwood on Page 21. Letter to the editor On Jan. 3 The Highland Park Public Library posted, “Challenge accepted. Check out Oliver’s 10 story card tower! Do you think you could build one in just one minute? Give it a try in the Youth Services Department.” Like The Highland Park Landmark: facebook.com/hplandmark On Jan. 4 Monica Schroeder, the Deputy Superintendent of North Shore School District 112 posted, “It’s the last day of winter break today. Enjoy the day! #112Leads” Follow The Highland Park Landmark: @hparklandmark go figure 6 An intriguing number from this week’s edition The weight, in pounds, Camila Gomez, the first baby born at NorthShore Highland Park Hospital in 2019 weighed. Read more about Gomez’s birth on Page 8. Space invaders of Highland Park No longer just your vintage video arcade game, ‘Space Invaders of Highland Park’ is a new, North Shore reality game of home invasions featuring utilities abducting customers’ private data and intellectual property. Attaching new, datacapturing devices to existing utility meters, the natural gas company has joined other utilities and Illinois municipalities in this game of invasion. Unable to continue installing their devices without being challenged, the gas company has now chosen to delay their installation campaign while falsely accusing certain customers of making their meters inaccessible and threatening them with disconnection. Citing the ‘Illinois Administrative Code’ and ‘Public Utilities Act,’ the utility is insisting that customers must jettison their basic rights into deep space as a condition of continued natural gas delivery. Any numerical representation of the private, real time consumption of natural gas within private property belongs to the resident-customer, not to the utility. To forcibly harvest and transmit such private data should be considered state and corporate overreach. Disconnection of customers’ gas supply should qualify as harassment. Pursuing a reduced ‘carbon footprint’ shouldn’t mean the utility can steal customers’ private data while unnecessarily polluting private airspace with excessive radio frequency radiation. The natural gas utility has been asked to contact the Illinois Commerce Commission and request a further review of these matters. The City of Highwood has been advised to draft a resolution discouraging disconnection of natural gas to customers not in favor of the utility gaining free access to their privately-owned data. Is it ‘game over’ for privacy and liberty? Our money, data and rights depart in ‘Space Invaders of Highland Park.’ Chad Rankin, Highwood resident The Highland Park Landmark Sound Off Policy Editorials and columns are the opinions of the author. Pieces from 22nd Century Media are the thoughts of the company as a whole. The Highland Park Landmark encourages readers to write letters to Sound Off. All letters must be signed, and names and hometowns will be published. We also ask that writers include their address and phone number for verification, not publication. Letters should be limited to 400 words. The Highland Park Landmark reserves the right to edit letters. Letters become property of The Highland Park Landmark. Letters that are published do not reflect the thoughts and views of The Highland Park Landmark. Letters can be mailed to: The Highland Park Landmark, 60 Revere Drive St. 888, Northbrook, IL, 60062. Fax letters to (847) 272- 4648 or email Editor Erin Yarnall at erin@hplandmark.com
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