The mirror of the suburbs reflects a diverse range of images
A prime objective of a good local newspaper is to serve as a mirror of the community it covers. Achieving that goal involves a variety of approaches, and it occurs over the course of multiple days, weeks and months. While every edition should reflect certain aspects of a community and its life, no single edition can provide the entire diverse picture, especially for a region as broad as the Daily Herald’s suburban coverage area.
Over the past weekend, I was interested to note how two stories in particular provided insights into who we are in the suburbs and with vastly different, almost polar opposite, images.
On Sunday, Barbara Vitello offered a portrait of the McAninch Arts Center at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn on the occasion of its 40th anniversary.
The story reviewed a history of the venue named for former COD President Harold McAninch and informally known as The MAC that is quintessentially suburban. The center began as a new arts education building for the college, which then was nearly 20 years old and growing with the region.
Over the years it would add attractions like the residency of The New Philharmonic orchestra and the Buffalo Theatre Ensemble, both of which would themselves become major, award-winning regional draws. It would grow and diversify to become what Executive Director Diana Martinez now describes as a cultural town square whose diverse attractions have included hugely popular exhibitions of works by Frida Kahlo, Andy Warhol and Japanese Ukiyo-e masters.
It is a sophisticated story of growth and expanding cultural horizons, a vision almost stereotypically suburban.
Then on Monday, Mick Zawislak offered a very different picture. He described a 534-acre parcel near the northern border of the suburbs in central Lake County that was modified more than 100 years ago to accommodate farming and is now being returned to its natural state along with nonfarm portions of the 794-acre Dutch Gap Forest Preserve.
The project, a joint venture of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Chicago District and the Lake County Forest Preserve District, will remove non-native plant species and regrade into a natural stream a canal that had been artificially altered to promote farming. It is expected to attract the return of native insects, plants, birds and wildlife while becoming what Zawislak described as “a giant sponge” that will help reduce flooding in the area.
This is not your everyday image of suburban life, but it is a vivid portrait of a significant portion of our region, its history and its future.
An arts center that has evolved over four decades into a major regional cultural attraction. A vast tract of once-modified land that is being transformed back into a natural prairie environment. They are two very different pictures of the suburban region beyond the city of Chicago, but both vivid and important reflections of this area we call home.
• Jim Slusher, jslusher@dailyherald.com, is managing editor for opinion at the Daily Herald. Follow him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jim.slusher1 and on X at @JimSlusher. His book “To Nudge The World: Conversations, community and the role of the local newspaper” is a 2025 Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year and is available at eckhartzpress.com.