Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/E. C. Alft

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep. (non-admin closure) — MarkH₂₁^talk 00:20, 13 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

E. C. Alft (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log)

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Alft was a mayor of a small city, school teacher, and author of local histories. None of the sources here would add towards passing GNG. One of them is actually a work he wrote. A search finds a few adds for books he wrote and lots of brief mentions to his works, but no substantial indepth information about him that would justify having an article.John Pack Lambert (talk) 12:48, 5 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Academics and educators-related deletion discussions. Shellwood (talk) 12:59, 5 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Politicians-related deletion discussions. Shellwood (talk) 12:59, 5 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Illinois-related deletion discussions. Shellwood (talk) 12:59, 5 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

• Keep. Passes WP:GNG. As a rule of thumb, mayors of cities (like Elgin) with populations > 100,000 have been found to warant stand-alone articles. A quick search of Newspapers.com found more than 100 articles discussing Alft, his published works, and his works as mayor, councilman, teacher, etc. A few examples of WP:SIGCOV include (1) "Elgin's in his blood: Look! Mike Alft can never learn enough", Chicago Tribune, March 31, 1991 (part 1 and part 2); (2) "Elgin marks historian's 90th birthday", Chicago Tribune,July 14, 2015 (a six-colum, in depth piece), (3) "Elgin honors former mayor, library trustee, author", Chicago Tribune, Nov 17, 2011 (part 1, part 2); (4) Dean of Elgin historians moving out of Elgin , Daily Herald, March 12, 2016; (5) this; (6) this; (7) this; and (8) this. Cbl62 (talk) 14:03, 5 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  • I question that any of these articles are published by publishers far enough from Elgin for this coverage to actually show notability. Local politicians will always get local coverage, this does not make them default notable.John Pack Lambert (talk) 17:10, 5 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Two-page, multi-column, in-depth biographical profiles in a major regional newspapers like the Chicago Tribune do not count toward a GNG analysis? There is no support whatsoever for that interpretation in WP:GNG, WP:NPERSON, or WP:BASIC. Cbl62 (talk) 22:17, 5 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

• At the time Alft was mayor of Elgin it had 56,000 people. Beyond this, Elgin is just one of many suburbs of Chicago, so its importance is not as high as it would be if it were a center of a metro area of its own.John Pack Lambert (talk) 17:12, 5 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Calling Elgin "just one of many suburbs of Chicago" reflects a striking misunderstanding of its history. Elgin is not the product of post-WWWII suburban sprawl. It is located an hour's drive from central Chicago, has a long history (by Midwest standards) dating to 1835, and was home to the Elgin Watch Company and, from the 19th century through the 1960s, the largest watchmaking complex in the world.Cbl62 (talk) 22:17, 5 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

• keep based on Cbl62 and the fact that all except 1 town in Illinois over 100k currently have a mayor article and I dont see why we should not extend this to past mayors. While maybe not known on a national level, it seems this is a person known on a local level. Coverage in Chicago Tribune also indicates passing GNG. In addition the subject also published books, even though through his local historical society. --hroest 21:16, 5 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  • Having your works published by a local history society is absolutely not in any way adding towards notability.John Pack Lambert (talk) 12:08, 6 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
• Keep based on arguments and sources provided by Cbl62.Webmaster862 (talk) 02:02, 9 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.