Our entry on Wikipedia.

It's been a little slow in the office here since the city council is out of session, so I've been having my assistant Marisha update my page on the city council's website. While she was putting together some links for the Links page, she came across Armitage Heights' entry on Wikipedia. (For those of you that don't know, "Wikipedia" is a free encyclopedia on the Internet written by regular people.)

Now, I'm always glad to see the "web community" working together to increase people's knowledge and awareness of this great neighborhood. However, I wanted to point out that the page is completely riddled with inaccuracies. It would be great if some of you amateur historians out there could pitch in and clean up certain parts.

For example, the article claims the bear that inspired the voice of Chewbacca in Star Wars once lived at the Kendall Park Zoo. I am pretty certain that is not verifiable. Furthermore, the claim that old Stanton Avenue Deli that stood at Stanton and 33rd Street for many years is the inspiration for the Mos Eisley Cantina is dubious, at best. As far as I know, George Lucas has never even visited this area.

Additionally, it makes a similarly dubious that the lyrics to the Human League's 1981 hit "Don't You Want Me?" was inspired by a local waitress that worked at the old Lakesider, back when it was a cocktail bar.

Also, the old Holy Sceptre Vestments, Ltd. company in the Cassock District primarily made cassocks for Anglican priests, not Jesuits.

It also claims that the underage gang of skaters known collectively as the Armitage Heights Kaos Krew is a well-respected group of street artists that are having their debut show at a high-end gallery in London, England next month. That had better not be true. I'm going to have Marisha look into this right away.

Anyway, if anyone out there in the neighborhood could double-check these facts, that would be very helpful. Our Wikipedia page gets more hits than the official individual pages of each member of the city council put together, so it would be good if people's first impression of the neighborhood was accurate.

On the other hand, I had no idea just how many times the neighborhood has been referenced on The Simpsons. Four times, apparently.

Also, the list of punk, garage and new-wave songs that mention Armitage Avenue in the lyrics is very well-researched, as well. These are the sorts of interesting things that distinguish our neighborhood from any other.