Publications & Sites 
Western Springs website spurs some . . . ideas
Viki Gonia
Updated: February 25, 2013 11:31AM
WESTERN SPRINGS — A few weeks ago, I mentioned the village of Western Springs would be launching a newly redesigned website at www.wsprings.com at the beginning of the year, and I’ve finally had a chance to poke around.
It’s pretty terrific. Some new features (or, at least, new to me since they’re now prominently placed on the front page) are the “Notify Me” area, where you can sign up to receive news and alerts via email or text message from several different village departments; the “Report a Concern” area, where you can quickly and easily request some action on anything from a zoning issue to a dead animal to sidewalk repair (there’s even a companion iPhone app you can use to report and track responses to issues requiring village action); and what could potentially end up being my favorite area of the new site, “Community Voice.”
Create an account on the site, and you can submit your own ideas for community activities, economic development or suggestions and improvements for the web site itself. Users can also comment and vote upon the ideas of others within the Community Voice area. There aren’t any ideas posted there as of this writing, but I’ll be sifting through all of my columns over the last five-plus years for all of my awesome (alright, some of them have verged on cockamamie, I suppose) ideas for improving the Western Springs community and submit them.
A dog park at Spring Rock! Tearing down the Tischler’s building and making it a giant community garden! Anything at all regarding the Tischler’s building! Banning hordes of sweaty bicyclists from Starbucks! Surrounding the entire village with an electrified fence to keep out interlopers! Free villagewide WiFi!
OK, some of those ideas are more doable than others, I admit. Others are probably less than necessary (at least one is perhaps a bit unkind). But I hope the Community Voice section of the new website catches on, because it’d be fun, as well as interesting, to read and discuss the ideas my fellow residents have for improving our already great town.
If you read my column last week, you know that my son is now learning to drive. I must report that no one has sustained any life-threatening injuries as a result his practice drives around town (and by that, I mean that I have not had any reason to hurtle myself out the passenger window of a moving vehicle).
It may be that he’s a better driver right out of the box than his sister was, though he did say that he noted everything that caused me to clutch the door handle and scream while Grace was learning to drive and had promised himself that he wouldn’t do any of those things. Smart kid.
More likely, it’s just a fact that many things about parenting the second child (or, I’d imagine, the third, fourth, and so on) is easier. At least, that’s been my experience. I don’t think it’s due to the kids themselves or their personalities or temperaments. It’s all me. If I could just learn how to take a deep breath and relax the first go-round, we’d all suffer a lot less. You’d think it would have taken me fewer than 17 years to figure this out.
Readers can contact Viki Gonia by leaving a message at (312) 880-8550 or by sending an email to doingsnews@pioneerlocal.com.
