For starters...

I love this town.  There are things I get really annoyed with, but for the most part, there is and always has been something about Elgin that has always appealed to me.  When I was a child growing up in nearby Hoffman Estates, Elgin was the closest place to go to do any real shopping and recreational activities.  It was a satellite city of Chicago, a larger city out to the northwest.  Eventually, it became wrapped into suburbia due to the urban sprawl, but it managed to retain its unique character.

I longed to move here, and finally managed to do so 25 years ago, a period in which Elgin, due to changing times, had sunk to its lowest point of existence.  The city suffered from a lack of progressive vision, mired in its past and letting its institutions go without thought of planning and adapting for the future.  Major industries left.  The Downtown area became a ghost town.  The older housing began to decay.  It was suffering from severe culture shock with new populations moving in due to the low housing costs.

It was not an attractive place to be anymore, but I saw something here.  I saw the glorious ghosts of the past, and I saw the potential of the future.  Since I've been here, I have seen a renaissance occur.  The city lagged behind others in its urban renewal ideas, but it finally came around.  It's been a slow struggle due to the timing of the collapse of the economy, but the city is inching its way forward.  There is an excitement I see and feel all the time.

My intent, now, is to chronicle things as they strike me, as I see them.  I only hope I can make it interesting.