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?
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