I'm not sure which category of ethical transgression the Reader committed in its front-page photo for the January 12 cover story on East Garfield Park, but whatever the case, it looks like someone over there got incredibly lazy.

The photo does a swell job of capturing the neighborhood idyll sure to be trampled by the county's new courthouse, but one detail nags: the Department of Public Works sign in the lower right-hand corner of the picture clearly reads "Harold Washington, Mayor."

Either the city has developed a new brand of indestructible sign that shines brightest white after 15 years in the elements, or you're foisting a 1980s file photo on us.

This is mind-blowingly disingenuous. Even if the block looks exactly the same today as it did when you snapped this picture a decade and a half ago, slapping an old photo on the front page without identification is inexcusable. How did this happen?

Marc Doussard

Wicker Park

Marc PoKempner replies:

I made the photo in question on Sunday, January 7, 2001. The sign, with Mayor Washington's name prominently displayed, caught my attention--maybe it also caught the attention of those planning to tear the block down?