Affordable housing breaks ground: After outlasting and beating back a lawsuit reeking of NIMBYism, Community Builders has broken ground on the affordable apartment project at Oak Park Avenue and Van Buren.

After the cheering dies out, and that won't take long, Oak Park will be left to proclaim that once again the president of the Illinois state Senate is a son of the village.

There's a lot to be said for public hearing processes in Oak Park. January opened with two notable but medium-sized proposals heading to either the Plan Commission or the Zoning Board of Appeals.

In my New Orleans childhood, we lived near Young's Chinese Food, a Cantonese restaurant where I enjoyed biting into a crispy egg roll as it released a burst of steam, nibbling every speck of meat from tiny barbequed spare ribs, and sharing the delights of Egg Foo Young.