Talk:Champaign, Illinois

Champaign City Building

Users who consult http://archive.ci.champaign.il.us/archive/dscgi/ds.py/Get/File-1546/2003-10-21_Pre-Council_Study_Session_Minutes.pdf will see that the Champaign City Council itself refers to the City Building as the City Building and not as the Municipal Building. The building does not serve as a courthouse. My edit was accurate and not damaging, and I am reverting the revert. Rather than have an edit war, it would be nice if those opposed to my formulation would present evidence to support their point, instead of just calling my edit "damaging". -- Bhuck 30 June 2005 06:51 (UTC)

Cham-Bana

Dual Freq, why do you keep removing this reference? I lived in Champaign for 20 years and I know this is a common name for the area. Please stop reverting the changes.

Alright, give me a cited reference of this name. I am removing it until you give me one. You may have lived there for 20 years, but it has to have been mentioned in say a newspaper for example.--Kranar drogin 22:11, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

Is this enough?

http://media.www.dailyillini.com/media/storage/paper736/news/2007/02/06/HousingGuide/Chambana.Offers.Internships.Activities.For.Students.On.Campus.During.Summer-2700093.shtml

http://www.news-gazette.com/calendar/event/print/6295

Well, 90% of those sites can't be in the wikipedia, so I will remove the links that aren't acceptable, blogs for example. I will reinclude the term, but like I said before, you have to have references in order to add stuff. Most pages aren't policed, so anyone can add anything. Thanks for these those.--Kranar drogin 21:13, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

It's not hard to find proper newspaper references. A quick search of the Factiva media database turns up many examples, such as this quote from the Chicago Sun-Times (Zay N. Smith, "Whole lotta shaking," 29 June 2006):

Jan Callahan, a Wyoming, Ill., reader, regarding the confusion over whether it should be Champaign-Urbana or Urbana-Champaign, writes: "You misspelled the nickname for Champaign-Urbana. When I lived in Danville, we referred to the twin towns as Chambana, not Champana.' Both nicknames exist. But you and a number of other readers are right. Chambana is used far more often than Champana.

—Steven G. Johnson 04:52, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

That is fine if people want to put in stuff into an article, I shouldn't have to go looking to where they find the information. If I see something that is added that seems far fetched, and not cited when it is included I will remove it. What you have to remember is that most people that see the article are not from Champaign County, so we don't know what the heck you guys are calling each other.--Kranar drogin 05:09, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

If you don't know much about the subject of an article, you should generally make at least a minimal effort to check before you remove information. In this case, the nickname "Chambana" is hardly far-fetched --- two seconds to make a Google search for "Chambana Champaign Urbana" turns up almost 100,000 hits. Requesting a reference to a reputable print source is fine, but when the fact is so obviously credible (and especially if you don't know about the subject), you should request a reference on the Talk page and/or by adding a {{citationneeded}} template. —Steven G. Johnson 15:02, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

After nearly 10 years of living in the area, I've never heard a single person say the word chambana or champana before. Maybe its commonly used in grade secondary schools, or by adjacent communities such as Danville or Bloomington-Normal, but I don't believe it is common or widely accepted. It certainly isn't a prevalent or recognizable as the "windy city" is to Chicago, the "big apple" is to New York, "low country" is to Charleston, SC area or "first coast" is to the Jacksonville, FL metro area. Wikipedia doesn't need to find and list every colloquialism for any given area then claim they are widely used. Shouldn't we be focused on referencing actual content, like the remaining 3/4 of the article that is unreferenced, instead of alleged slang terms for areas. --Dual Freq 15:35, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

I am from Bloomington, my brother goes to UIUC, I have a friend who lives there. This Chambana crap isn't commonly used. Google doesn't prove anything, most of the references on google are blogs, hell even the urban dictionary (not reliable) says this is a nickname for the university not the cities. Produce a reliable source then its inclusion can be discussed, as of now such a thing doesn't exist. IvoShandor 16:47, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

I lived in Piatt County for 20 years, the cities of Champaign and Urbana for over 20 years and I am an alumn of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The term "Chambana" is a common nickname for the twin cities, and has been for many decades. Your brother is hardly a reliable source, given that most University students have little contact with the locals. Spend a little more time in the area and talk to the locals - "Chambana" will become evident. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.64.0.252 (talk) 20:31, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Depends what one means by "commonly"--I've certainly heard the term often enough. While it is probably not the preferred term of most local residents, it is sometimes used wryly or satirically and no one is confused or mystified by what it means. "Frisco" for San Francisco is also common enough, even if not preferred by locals. The press articles and Google references above seem to me to be reliable enough to warrant the term's inclusion here.--Bhuck 06:10, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

I am a local and, yes, Chambana is used wryly as a name for the area. Also, as a weird term of endearment. It is the area's moniker on craigslist: http://chambana.craigslist.org/. Also, there is a recent Daily Illini reference: http://www.dailyillini.com/blogs/di-sports-wrap-up/2009/05/05/attempting-to-define-‘illini-pride’. However, I think it's mainly local vernacular and not often utilized in print. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.198.208.106 (talk) 22:18, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

References

Open Space

My error on the open space: it's Champaign County that apparently has a very low amount of open space per capita compared to the rest of the state (and Illinois already ranks 48th in the nation in that category.) The figure I've seen is 19 acres per 1000 population.

I didn't think the information regarding the order of the two cities in the name was inappropriate, although I can see an argument for moving it to the C-U Metro page.

Well the problem is, other than maybe one or two places, they are not called the "Twin Cities", but "CU, UC, Champaign-Urbana, Urbana-Champaign, or Chambana". I know of a business or two which uses "Twin Cities" in their name, but the locals typically don't. As far as the open space, Champaign-Urbana has a lot.

History

So one of the three notable events in the history of Champaign is hosting the National Science Olympiad in 2005. Yikes. --Terryn3 04:50, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

Media addition

There is also an outdoor advertising company in Champaign, IL which should be added to the Media section.

Adams Outdoor Advertising 704 N. Neil St. Champaign, IL 61820 217-352-4460

66.195.223.70 20:40, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

I don't see why this company should be added to the media section. Is the company sufficiently notable to have its own Wikipedia article? Is it one of the top ten employers in the region? The Wikipedia article on a city is not meant to be a "Business Yellow Pages" that lists every single business, complete with address and telephone number. Maybe if we had more information on the significance of the business, the request could be more favorably considered.--Bhuck 06:10, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

Adams Outdoor is a media company in town-along with the radio, tv and news stations that are mentioned. It is the 4th largest out of home advertising company in the US and the largest privately owned out of home advertising company in the US. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.252.87.98 (talk) 19:23, August 29, 2007 (UTC)

You will need to corroborate said information through an independent, reliable, published source before it is even considered here. IvoShandor 21:22, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Art Theatre

This edit strikes me as replacing a version which was biased towards criticism with a version that is biased towards being sanitized. Unfortunately, I am not sufficiently familiar with the situation on the ground to take a definitive stance, but there are certainly some questions that arise: 1) has the selection of films showed switched from being obscurely artsy to being more mainstream? 2) how well did the renovation respect historic architecture? 3) what made the pre-renovation architecture "historic"? 4) what modern technology was installed? 5) why can't a bit more of the history of the theater be given, for example, when was it used as an adult theater?

If we could get two or three viewpoints in this discussion here, that would be helpful. --Bhuck 06:18, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

Here are the problems I had with the edit. 1) The business name is Boardman's Art Theatre. 2) It says the Park Theater showed only adult films. This is incorrect, it was the Art Theatre. 3) From what I can tell from Ebertfest's webpage, the Virginia Theatre has always the festival home and the only year this theatre was involved was in 2004 when it had changed to Boardman's Art Theatre. 4) Showing The Rocky Horror Picture Show for nine years seems irrelevant. 5) The amount of architecture changed is not very specific. 6) "Many citizens of Champaign, loyal patrons of The New Art Theatre for years, were disappointed with the shift." - This seems biased.

As to your questions the only one I can answer in a way is the first one (due to having worked at all three movies theaters which I will admit could lead to some bias on my part.) While it was the New Art and the Beverly only had 12 screens, the Savoy had a dedicated screen for art films. When the Beverly expanded to 18 screens, they had a dedicated screen for art films and Savoy dropped theirs. Since changing to Boardman's Art Theatre, the Beverly has dropped its dedicated screen for art films. When competing head-to-head-to-head with the chains the Boardman's Art Theatre would beat their sales for such movies as March of the Penguins, Brokeback Mountain, and Little Miss Sunshine. There were complaints for showing two "more mainstream movies": King Kong and Mission Impossible III. King Kong was to set precedent with the major studios to show blockbuster movies, since the chains complained to the studio when Boardman's Art Theatre was supposed to get The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Mission Impossible III was shown because there were no art movies out at that time that would be able to cover the basic costs of being open.

If I get some time I will try to work on a timeline of the open and closing dates of each theater and the type of movies they showed. --Aspects 17:11, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Picture of "Champaign"

Not to be a party pooper, but less than 10% of the main picture at the top of the page is of Champaign. It would be a good picture for the article on Urbana or on the University, but not much at all of Champaign is pictured there. I don't frequent here enough to really do anything about it, but I just thought I'd put it out in the open and maybe somebody could get the old picture back up there. Thanks guys Mattt1986 03:20, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Also, the "View Wider Image" link still goes to the old image. I think it would be a good idea to put the old one back until somebody gets a more accurate new picture. Mattt1986 03:22, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

world's largest steam factory??

I'm from Champaign and have never heard of Champaign having the "world's largest steam factory." I can't find any reference to this anywhere else online, either (other than wikipedia and sites that have copied it from wikipedia).

If we can't get verification of this, it should be removed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jlalande3 (talk • contribs) 18:51, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

I deleted "the world's largest steam factory, " I'm not sure what this means. There is no reference to support this. If there is such a thing as a steam factory, I have not heard of it in Champaign. It may be a reference to the University of Illinois power station, which is coal fired and does produce a great deal of steam, but not more than anywhere else in the world.SchreiberBike (talk) 18:08, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Fortune 500 companies

The lead notes that Champaign is home to seven Fortune 500 companies with two more planned to arrive soon. What are the companies and when is soon?--Bhuck (talk) 10:51, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

75,254?

It says on the US Census Bereau website its almost 80,000 now

http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFPopulation?_event=ChangeGeoContext&geo_id=16000US1712385&_geoContext=&_street=&_county=Champaign&_cityTown=Champaign&_state=&_zip=&_lang=en&_sse=on&ActiveGeoDiv=geoSelect&_useEV=&pctxt=fph&pgsl=010&_submenuId=population_0&ds_name=null&_ci_nbr=null&qr_name=null&reg=null:null&_keyword=&_industry=

Your link shows 'estimates' while the City of Champaign's website article is citing official figures of a 2007 special census.

Kkemper (talk) 00:49, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

population vs "urban" population?

in the info box, what does population = 82,517 , and "urban" = 145,361 mean? T-303 (talk) 00:30, 20 June 2014 (UTC)

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