Car Chases, Code Violations and Presidential Vacations: Feedback Friday

First of all, we've reached a lovely 541 fans on the Chicago Heights Patch Facebook page, and we hope to keep growing. Thanks for the support, and please keep telling your friends about us!

Now for the most important part of every Feedback Friday: You.

As we ease out of August and start another school year, the relaxation vibe of the summer is fleeing fast, and it showed in the amount of intense debates sparking up on the site.

We had plenty of discussions this week about two of the most argued-about aspects of society: politics and public safety.

Let's take a look back at this week's most notable talks.

Safety, Politics and Code Enforcement

Chicago Heights resident Arthur W. Wiggins Jr. probably didn't know what kind of conversation would come from his decision to post more than 30 photos of vacant houses and sidewalks to Patch.

Art said he was initially upset that someone had called on him when he believes there are so many other issues in his neighborhood, but the conversation ended up going in several other directions.

Here's what readers had to say about Art's not-so-pretty photo gallery and blog post:

: No fire hydrant and inaccessible sidewalks. If the city doesn't maintain the area how do they expect homeowners to value anything?

: Oh my gosh! Those pictures are horrendous! Talk about dangerous! A child could get seriously injured (or worse!) just riding a bike there. Shame on C.H. for not addressing problems like that! Art, your dilemma sounds highly political! And that is a shame in itself. Good luck to you!

Teena Long: I applaud you for trying to fix your house. Shame on the code enforcement officer for making you stop. I seen the pictures and those houses need to be taken care of and those side walks also . . .

David: The problem with this article/whine fest is that Mr. Wiggins has no idea (if) code enforcement violation citations are being written against the properties in the photographs . . .

Car Chase Down a Side Street: Readers React

After we reported on an eventful car chase up Western Avenue and east on 209th Street, we immediately got a comment from Patch user Mahdee, who has proven in past articles not to be a the biggest fan of the .

Here's what Mahdee had to say:

Once more O-F is serving and protection! Now they were racing up and down the street after this nut because he did not stop right; it just make(s) me wonder what is going on in O-F. Some will say that all they were doing was doing their job, and I have to say that when did the major job of the police become traffic cops?

Well this started a debate about the circumstances of the chase, with a few other Patch users weighing in:

David: Its silly for you to say that the cops chased him because he "did not stop right." Not making a stop correctly was just a sign that he was drunk driving (which he admits to in this article). Cops are trained to recognize all potential signs of drunk driving and act on them. Running away from a cop making a routine traffic stop is another sign of drunkenness or some other kind of illegality going on.

Voices are heard: As for this report, I can only assume, as I was not there nor were you, that the officer suspected the driver of DUI, which the driver admitted. But, the driver fled the scene in order to avoid prosecution of DUI and came back later, it is hard to charge someone of DUI when they fled, considering he could say that he drank in between being picked up and going to the Matteson P.D.

Do you think Mahdee is over reacting? Did the police make a bad decision to pursue the driver?

Sunday Comic Racks Up Comments

For some reason Chuck Ingwersen's comic about President Obama's stay-cation hit a nerve.

We got more than 70 comments throughout the week, and it hasn't slowed down much. Chuck's comics typically have a political joke in them, but this time our readers dived on the opportunity to debate presidential vacations, the job market and past leaders.

I'm not going to even attempt to pull two or three comments from this political conversation.

Thanks again for continuing to support Chicago Heights Patch. Look out for more great stories next week!