I almost forgot to mention, my blog just passed another milestone. I started this little blog as “Summers in Peoria” on Blogspot way back on April 15, 2005. I later changed the name to “Peoria Chronicle” and set up my own WordPress site. I somehow lost all of my May 2005 posts in the transfer from Blogspot to WordPress, but all the rest of my posts are archived.
My perception — and I hope I’m accurate — is that my blog has become a place where we can have civil discourse about the issues facing Peoria. Even though we can all get pretty riled up about certain topics, for the most part I think we’ve all kept our arguments on topic and not let them devolve into personal attacks. When we’ve faltered on that count, I believe we’ve always climbed back up to the high road and continued on.
My first post started, “It’s been said that everyone’s talking these days, but no one is listening. The blogosphere is like being one voice in a roaring crowd.” As it turns out, there are people who are listening here at the Chronicle. Thank you to all my readers and commenters for listening and participating. This blog would be nothing without you.
congratulations cj! when and where is the birthday party?
Congratulations CJ. You have done a great service to our community. All your research and help into local issues has opened the eyes of a great many people. And you’ve given us an avenue to express our feelings and ask questions. We love you.
Happy Anniversary, CJ!! I’d say you reached your goal!
Keep up the good work.
I wish our local media researched issues as well as you do.
I’m sorry that I didn’t know about this blog until last year when the Wacky Wednesday argument began. I truly appreciate what C.J. is doing for our community through this mode of communication–and his very professional and informative postings.
Chris,
Congratulations on five years of blogging! Coverage of important local issues has improved markedly because of it.
Congratulations! I really appreciate all your hard work and time in fleshing out the issues. It really helps me stay connected.
Happy Birthday. And many more.
Well done!
Congrats and tell ur family thanks. This must be a time sucker.
Your blog has really given our community the ability to put the truth out and to allow a healthy dialogue!
Congratulations!
Congrats, you do a great job and your always fair. Happy Birthday
Thanks for 5 years of insightful commentary and researched reporting. Nobody in Peoria does it better than you.
Thanks for all your hard work. This blog actually inspired me to register to vote a couple of years ago. My parents are apolitical so local government wasn’t really on my radar until I started reading about the issues here.
Did I say five? I guess you did start in April 2005 🙂
Congrats on 4 years of excellent citizen journalism. Except for the “missing year”, of complete ignorance of how a database backup file works. LOL Seriously, great web site. Thanks.
CJ: Bravo! Thank you to you and your family for helping to make Peoria a better place to live, work and play!
Congratulations, C.J.! I’m a long-time reader and I continually appreciate your thought-provoking posts and the intelligent discussion they inspire. In addition, you are a skilled writer and your grammar and word usage is impeccable. All of this makes your blog a true pleasure to read. I am glad that you didn’t slow down your writing in 2009. Please keep up the great work!