Willy Street Blog @ “2”

Neighborhood blog to continue hyper-focus

What do you give the neighborhood that has everything? Well certainly not another person with an opinion. When you start a blog, its like any good essay, pick a few central themes and nurture them with attribution and reasoned analysis. But it is no small challenge to write about by far the most engaged, opinionated, funky, and cool neighborhood in the nation.

Willy Street Blog was born in March 2012, in the midst of the recall drive, but soon turned away from state politics as plenty of great voices were already speaking to the issue. In a city that features stupendous local reporting from numerous outlets, why should anyone bother to read some random blog?

The key is to really not care.

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A Terrorist Gave Me Lemonade

The ubiquitous Loose Juice cart, once owned and operated by Karl Armstrong. Courtesy: City of Madison

A man was arrested in May by Illinois State Police following a traffic stop after finding $815,000 in heat-sealed bags in the motor home he was driving. The cash smelled strongly of cannabis and while most people saw a 65 year-old man arrested for possible drug trafficking; I noticed that he was a convicted terrorist and he used to give me free lemonade.  Continue reading