DeKalb Mayor Greg Sparrow should try finishing his term in Disneyworld, where there is plenty of beautiful landscaping for him to gape at because his costly schemes aren’t going to work here.

At the DeKalb City Council meeting last week, Sparrow broke a 3-3 tie and voted for a plan to reconstruct Lucinda Avenue, which calls for NIU to toss out $535,000 to $355,000 more than the original NIU contribution of $180,000. Sparrow’s rationalization is that the aesthetics of the completed project would outweigh the cost and that the decision should not be based only on economics.

Eddie Williams, NIU vice president of Finance and Planning, said NIU is planning on siphoning the money from NIU’s revenue bonds, which are supposedly going to be refinanced soon. The construction plan chosen would be done in two phases and consists of two 15-foot through lanes and a 16-foot landscaped median from Annie Glidden Road to Normal Road.

Well, maybe in the Magic Kingdom decisions are made without looking at economics, but in the land of NIU, matters are looked at entirely differently.

Seventh Ward Alderman Jordan Kagan was right on the money, so to speak, when he said the difference could be used to repair other streets and the plan would also limit access to Lucinda. Traffic would become even more backed up, and there would be no way for people in Neptune and the new apartments to turn left.

Perhaps Sparrow should stop taking spoonfuls of sugar and look at reality. Students will trample the shrubbery when they head for classes, not to mention that a tree-lined median is totally unnecessary in the first place.