After letting at least 24 hours pass before I wrote this editorial reply I thought of a number of ways to respond to Kevin Lyons’ piece on the “North-south battle rages on.” Here are a number of approaches.

The first would be to congratulate both him and the paper for the obvious depth of research and rigor of technique he employed in creation his questionnaire. It is obvious that by interviewing a number of local Chicago transplants in their new DeKalb setting and limiting his field interviews to a couple of bars that he lent a true air of authenticity to the formulation of his survey.

The second would be to marvel at the number of Chicago locales, both north and south side, that he visited in researching out his survey paradigm. Obviously the west side communities were overlooked in order to limit the tremendous amount of data he intended to accumulate before presenting his survey findings.

The third would be to marvel at the level of sophistication employed in creating his questions. It’s amazing what can be done without exerting much effort or spending much time.

Finally, to acknowledge that this article represents the “deep” understanding and urbane, post-sophomoric wit needed to both gather data and guide someone in their quest for quality living in a city as diverse as the city of Chicago.

Wrong-Wrong-Wrong and Wrong. Kevin, get off you duff and talk to some real Chicagoans about their diverse neighborhoods before you formulate a survey, even a mock one that is designed to give a platform for your sophisticated humor. Better yet, invite Chicagoans (students here at Northern maybe) to enlighten would-be Chicagoans about the wonderful diversity of neighborhoods available to them when considering living in Chicago.

Thomas A. Lifvendahl

Doctoral Student

Adult Continuing Education