Talk:Decatur, Illinois

Mayor

Correction: Paul Osborne is currently mayor of Decatur Illinois

NOTE:Paul Osborne is no longer Mayor, after resigning in May, effective June 1,2008 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.182.81.66 (talk) 04:41, 1 October 2008 (UTC)

Ghost Story

Interesting, but I'm not sure it is encyclopedic or cited. (Reverted) --Dual Freq 23:39, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

Citing Ruhe1986 04:14, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

Revert, Again. Non-encyclopedic Ghost stories for an article about the city of Decatur. AND it was a direct copy and paste from a copyrighted website. Please do not copy and paste copyrighted materials. See Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not, Wikipedia:Copyrights. Stick to the topic, Decatur, IL. See the Chicago, Illinois article for a sample city article. --Dual Freq 10:58, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

Well then I suggest you remove the "Strange Animal Sightings" section cause that sure as hell has NOTHING to do with the topic at hand. Just to let you know. Ruhe1986 03:52, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

Probably right, but at least it wasn't copied directly form a copyrighted website. --Dual Freq 11:11, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

At least I cited where it came from, but at any rate you are right and Thank you for informing me. Ruhe1986 08:20, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

People from Decatur

The section on individuals from Decatur is beginning to get a bit ridiculous, especially since the rest of the article is rather underdeveloped. Furthermore, many of the names being added are not notable, the list is too long. I'm removing all the names without wikipedia biographical articles about them. This is beginning to look like a 'city vanity' section; I'm from Decatur and still don't find this relevant or encylclopedic. --The Way 03:58, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

I have added a link to the category People from Decatur in order to allow for additions without cluttering the basic article.BuffaloBob 04:51, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

Decatur Municipal Band

it's kind of an interesting fact that the decatur municipal band is the oldest non-military band in the country. it would be nice if someone could put that in in an appropriate place with an appropriate citation —Preceding unsigned comment added by Soyseñorsnibbles (talk • contribs) 01:43, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Decatur unchanged

Decatur keeps its current form of government.[1] I suggest we remove the unreferenced, 3 paragraph section about a proposition that is not notable in the history of Decatur. It appears to be a pre-election campaign spam section anyway. Less than half of the voters even bothered to vote for or against the measure, which was defeated 58% / 42%. Are we planning to have a section for each ballot proposition that has been voted on in the past or future? How do we establish notability for the other measures? How does this section establish its notability? --Dual Freq (talk) 04:09, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Since there are no objections, I assume it is safe to remove the section in question. --Dual Freq (talk) 01:48, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

Yes - sorry about the silent delete earlier, I assumed everyone in decatur realized this section was spam. --[[User:matthew62522] (User talk:matthew62522) 016:48, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

• I agree, that blurb REALLY smacked of quasi-partisan ramblings from both sides, it was not appropriate for the Wiki for sure with the way it was semi-persuasively worded. --Frenkmelk talk 22:39, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

Mueller Company and Automotive History

Could someone research the old Tribunes and add a history section on Mueller and the two automobile plants in Decatur. In fact, Paul Osborne himself may want to contribute to this page. RiverviewClock —Preceding undated comment was added at 05:11, 11 October 2008 (UTC).

ok some of this has to be fake and i am from decatur

ok SNL is a little to far and coach of the university of colorado. and where is all this information comeing from. also i think importent people needs some facts behind it. also i think that u should also add the actor who plays barney to the list. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.109.20.6 (talk) 02:18, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Rosy views of the city are uncited

I am from Decatur, born and raised. The notion that Decatur "has many scenic tree lined streets and many older restored homes and restored downtown commercial areas, with increasing numbers of upper story residential lofts" is hogwash. Upper story residential lofts are only downtown, and there's only about 20 of them. The "scenic tree lined streets" is only on the near west side of town; apparently the poster hasn't been on the east side of town. There is nothing rosy about downtown, businesses aren't running to, they're running away from downtown; apparently the poster doesn't know about Sears, or the former K's merchandise mart, or the four gas stations that closed up shop downtown. That whole section might as well have been written by a city official. Either someone source the material or I, a Decatur resident, will remove it. Tigernike1 (talk) 18:40, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

After looking at the history of the comment in question, the fact it was given in September 2008, if no one objects, it will be removed. Tigernike1 (talk) 19:01, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

And let's not forget the farm-fresh air over on the east edge of the city. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:40, 23 December 2010 (UTC)

Why is it always a battle between the optimists and pessimists? What about ADM buying the Reynolds building and Consociate-Dansig planning on building again downtown? What about the Eldo revamp or the re-bricking of West Main? What about the Nelson Park project? What about Decatur Celebration or the Farm Progress Show? You say you live here but you are decidedly ignorant to the good things we have. Stop complaining and start doing something productive! Soyseñorsnibbles^Dígame 17:44, 7 January 2011 (UTC)

Maps

• "Neighborhood Map"
• "Zoning Map"

WhisperToMe (talk) 23:23, 23 December 2010 (UTC)

2014 whitewashing

I've re-edited the article after Decaturproud (talk · contribs) removed anything negative about the city or government, even when sourced, and left everything positive even when unsourced. That user also undid restoration by another user. Specifics:

Population decline and violent crime rate

Left out. I couldn't find 1980–2010 population change, or support for "violent crime rate is twice the national average" at the given source "Decatur Metro Area, Illinois". Sperling's Best Places. Fast Forward, Inc. 2007. Retrieved 2008-09-29. I suspect that website's information uses a far different presentation than it did in 2008 when cited. They seem to give crime as "scores" now instead of statistics.

"a college town with treelined streets"

Removed. Clearly WP:PUFFERY, and no citations. Simply having higher education does not make a place a "college town" the way most people think of that term. And everywhere in the U.S. north or east of Texas has "treelined streets".

Archer Daniels Midland move-out in intro section

Returned as summary text with citation. More detail is in a subsection later.

Lincoln almost lived near here

Removed. Unsourced, and no evidence of even being about Decatur itself.

Mike McElroy liquor and Illinois Senate race

Returned to text. It's sourced and, if it's worth mentioning that the mayor is a "local businessman" it's worth explaining whether he intends to remain local, and what business he's in while running for the office that controls liquor licenses.

Ryan P. McCrady

Left out "It is his first job as a city manager." Not in source given.

2008 transitions

Returned to text. Seems to be sourced, and no reason given for removal. Looks like maybe it should be re-arranged though.

"High Crime Rate" section

Left out. Even though something like this might be appropriate in the article, the paragraph seems to be a misinterpretation, saying that crime rates are "twice" something else based on having an unexplained score instead of actual statistics.

File:Merchant St, downtown Decatur IL, July 2013.jpg

Left out. Not sure what it was supposed to be related to.

Prairie Land Competitive baseball

Removed. Seems like some 2009 advertising for a short-lived league that may or may not have ever played games.

ADM move in Economy section

Returned to text. Apparently selective removal of facts.

"Jesse Jackson protests" section

Left out. The section was way too long for the Decatur article itself: It should be merged into Eisenhower High School (Decatur, Illinois) (with appropriate edit history acknowledgments) instead.

"Firestone Tire plant closing begins turmoil" section

Left out. Major points were unsourced here for 4 years. This could probably be re-added if there are more sources.

Ferris Beuller and other pop culture references

Removed several. Merely mentioning Decatur is not significant enough to warrant inclusion.

Also, a reminder: Per WP:PROVEIT and the maintenance tags, unsourced material may be removed at any time. Some of these claims in this article are now years old without sources. It would be valid for any user to remove unsourced claims. --Closeapple (talk) 22:47, 31 January 2014 (UTC)

Mayors section

Just a question, do we really need to know EVERY mayor of Decatur? I propose adding a subsection for the list of mayors, just to help the page "flow" better.

Tigernike1 (talk) 20:56, 14 February 2014 (UTC)

A list of mayors is usually considered appropriate — it helps people date openings and other events that happened in the city. In most city articles, however, the problem is that the list is usually unsourced or includes anecdotes without citations. Fortunately, someone found a source for the Decatur list; only the mayors since 2003 are lacking sources. (I'd probably find a second source for "Terry M. Howley (1995–2003)" too, just in case his term end wasn't in the source.) It appears the list of mayors is already a subsection. If you wanted it to be under "Government" you could add another pair of equal signs around the title, which would drop it inside Government instead of just Civics. --Closeapple (talk) 22:29, 14 February 2014 (UTC)

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City Limitless Campaign

I'd like to include a mention of the City Limitless marketing campaign. It's debatable at this point whether it's a motto or slogan since it's been adopted by City Officials. The fact that it's being funded for 5 years by the Howard G. Buffett Foundation seems relevant. "We Like It Here" has not been used in any public capacity in years.

I added this and it was removed so it can be discussed: On May 7, 2015, the city unveiled the new slogan of "City Limitless", which is being funded for 5 years through the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. This replaced previous mottos: "Decatur, We Like it Here" and "The Pride of the Prairiea". "The Soybean Capital of the World" is the unofficial, but popular motto.

References

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Primary topic

If there is a primary topic for cities named "Decatur" would this most likely be it, wouldn't it? The only reason I ask is because there were some article and category titles implying that Decatur, Alabama is the primary topic (mostly created by a single editor more than ten years ago). However, aside from this city being more populous, both this city [2] and Decatur, Georgia [3] have higher daily average pageviews [4]. 146.229.240.200 (talk) 00:59, 22 November 2017 (UTC)

Update Census Data?

Quite a bit of the information on here is sourced from the 2000 Census. Does anyone object to updating this information from the 2010 Census? The information is out there. I can update the data and sources.

Here is the latest information as of the 2010 Census[5]

Tigernike1 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 15:17, 21 December 2017 (UTC)

Founded Date

The infobox says 1823, but the article header says 1829. Which is correct? Malkamaki00 (talk) 22:20, 23 June 2019 (UTC)

DEA teacher's strike 1971

Decatur has an interesting history of labor actions and strikes, for example, the DEA teacher's strike of 1971 that turned on the right to collective bargaining and that was a collective defense of 14 teachers fired without merit by the school board. This labor action is documented in: Carol McConnell & Larry Miller. Don't mourn, organize. Decatur, IL: Illinois Education Association, 1972. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/436869972 Pthistlethwaite (talk) 00:58, 30 October 2020 (UTC)pthistlethwaite

Orphaned references in Decatur, Illinois

I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of Decatur, Illinois's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "USCensusEst2021":

• From Phoenix, Arizona: "City and Town Population Totals: 2020-2021". United States Census Bureau. May 29, 2022. Retrieved May 31, 2022.
• From Wichita, Kansas: "City and Town Population Totals: 2020-2021". United States Census Bureau. May 29, 2022. Retrieved May 31, 2022.

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT⚡ 07:43, 6 September 2022 (UTC)

Howard Graham Buffett

Buffett has had considerable influence on this city, yet his name is no-where to be found in this article. Cf., e.g., https://www.levernews.com/american-oligarchy/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Graham_Buffett, https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-howard-buffett-decatur-philanthropy-0716-biz-20170713-story.html, https://theintercept.com/2020/01/11/howard-buffett-decatur-marijuana/, https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-howard-buffett-illinois-sheriff-20181208-story.html, https://pantagraph.com/news/local/buffett-foundation-investing-30-million-in-decatur-drug-treatment-campus/article_2a3efc4f-3653-5425-8338-e3b8f0579820.html, https://herald-review.com/news/local/public_safety/new-icat-police-training-building-opens-in-decatur/article_1b2fb876-f4f7-11ed-b524-13a0b15e8056.html, and https://www.wandtv.com/news/dps-announces-9-million-commitment-from-the-howard-g-buffett-foundation-for-ffa-agriculture-education/article_a2c558a8-89b5-11ec-acb1-37a4e18c38bf.html . I came to this Wik article while reading the Lever article. I was amazed that the word "Buffett" garnered zero hits here. I thought maybe the Lever article was a hoax, but with the other articles in places like the Trib, I conclude that it Lever article is no hoax, while this Wik article needs to have something about Buffett included. 2600:6C67:1C00:5F7E:C842:307C:4500:2115 (talk) 17:13, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

water

"According to the 2010 census, consisted of 42.22 square miles (109.35 km2) land and 4.69 square miles (12.15 km2) of water, together amounting to a total area of 46.91 square miles (121.50 km2), consisting of 90% land and 10% water. Lakes include Lake Decatur, an 11 km2 reservoir formed in 1923 by the damming of the Sangamon River, accounting for >90% of the state's census-designated water area."Frag: What consisted of ~46 mi^? Also, what supposedly accounts for >90% -- Lake Decatur or all the lakes (and riverwater?) of whatever is being referred to (presumably the city of Decatur)? In any case, while I don't know the definition of "census-designated water area," I find it unlikely that some 47 mi^2 is 90% of it, considering that, according to the Illinois Wikipedia article, the state's water area is 2,320 sq mi. Kdammers (talk) 17:29, 5 September 2023 (UTC)