Bee-keeping: in Chicago it means jobs; in Evanston, jail

The North Lawndale Employment Network just won an award from the MacArthur Foundation:

http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.2026381/apps/nl/content2.asp?content_id={D8C1B15B-860D-4228-8D69-7BFDF6160021}&notoc=1

According to the Sun-Times the "MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions" comes with a grant $400,000 grant: http://www.suntimes.com/business/84215,CST-FIN-employ05.article.

You can find out where to buy their Beeline products at The North Lawndale Employment Network's main web page: http://www.nlen.org.

Meanwhile, up in Evanston the City Council votes in Monday (10/9) to enact severe restrictions on beekeeping, effectively outlawing it in most neighborhoods:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0609210134sep21,1,5867128.story?coll=chi-newslocalchicago-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true.

Unfortunately I couldn't find the proposed ordinance on the city's website, so honestly I can't say that my mentioning "jail" in the title is completely accurate.  However, if you search for "beekeeping" in the city's meeting notes archive to get a feel for the discussion: http://www.cityofevanston.org/Search/query.html?col=ccminute&col=epl&col=www&qt=beekeeping&charset=iso-8859-1&qc=ccminute+epl+www

In that discussion you'll see the same themes led to the moratorium on native habitat restoration in the Cook County Forest Preserves.  First there's the almost irrational fearfulness of the wildness inherent in nature in one segment of the community.  Then on the other side you have scientists and such who cannot comprehend that their rational arguments fail to persuade.  Inevitably the first segment gets the feeling that the scientists don't respect their opinions or intellect, while the scientists become nonplussed that their supporting facts don't seem to matter.  The final result is that the side that's won over the most hearts/ wins, and that's usually not the scientists.

It took ten years and a lot of effort from the environmental community to lift the FPD moratorium.  I'm hoping Evanstonians don't head down that same ill-considered path with beekeeping.  We need more nature in our urban areas, not less.  And here's hoping the scientific and environmental communities learn to get the better of these kinds of debates in the future.