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Hypes and Gripes

• Hypes to Galloway Station for renovating their restrooms. Our only reason for not liking Galloway has now been taken care of.

• Gripes to McDonald’s for, in this day and age, not offering free wifi. Seriously…

• Gripes to the News-Leader for its editorial urging voters to vote against the February 3 tax increase in Springfield. Not only did the column simultaneously pander to the paper’s conservative (and disgruntled-since-November) core readership; it backtracked in an effort not to piss off firefighters and police offers, whose pension fund would have benefited from the tax. For a ballot measure that lost by 900 votes, this editorial likely played a crucial role. Certainly the paper is entitled to its opinion, but we think the logic was amiss. The crux of the position was that the city hadn’t done enough to explore other options, like bonds. The response, of course, is that an injection of brand new revenue is the fastest and surest way to solve any budgetary crisis… faster than budget cuts and surer than financial instruments. The city wasn’t being lazy; to delay a vote by spending time on less-effective solutions would have been a disservice to the city.

Have something you want to praise or pan? Click here to submit a Hype or Gripe via e-mail, or sound off in the comments (but we'll be watching).