What most have on Christmas morning others may not have and this struck me as very sad.
Here are some tweets to share from news outlets and the Chicago Fire Dept.
GET WELL SOON, BILL! Our beloved former colleague Bill Campbell is recovering from a stroke: https://t.co/g1dkWDFjPE pic.twitter.com/sD65e5FdXY— ABC 7 Chicago (@ABC7Chicago) December 7, 2017
Although Bill is recovering, he still needs vital rehab and care, much of which is not covered by his insurance.
"Friends of Bill Campbell" have generated a GoFundMe page if you'd like to contribute to his care. We wish Bill a speedy and full recovery.
Suspect charged in shooting of officer during foot chase https://t.co/ZtAKECrCOl pic.twitter.com/JhBkhGQRg5— ABC 7 Chicago (@ABC7Chicago) December 8, 2017
The wounded officer will thankfully be OK!Anthony Woodridge, 25, was charged with two felony counts of attempted first degree murder, one felony count of aggravated discharge of a firearm, and one felony count of aggravated battery by discharge of a firearm.
The Chicago police officer was shot late Wednesday night while trying to catch up with the suspect, who was on the run on the city's South Side.
Plainclothes officers from the Calumet District were conducting a street stop just before 11:30 p.m. near East 95th Street and South Martin Luther King Drive in Chicago's Rosemoor neighborhood, police said. That led to a foot chase.
During the pursuit, Woodridge allegedly turned in the direction of the officers and fired, hitting one of the officers in the hand. Officials say Woodridge continued firing while the officer was on the ground. The injured officer and partner returned fire, and Woodridge was unhurt.
Police were able to catch the suspect, and a gun was found at the scene.
Nearly five years after Emanuel closed 50 schools could he repeat with another 50? https://t.co/6oq9W9iqCK— WBEZeducation (@WBEZeducation) November 26, 2017
SMG Chatham is located at 210 W. 87th Street.Saturday, November 18th. Come join SMG Chatham as we host a free LIVE watch party of Saturday Night Live to support our friend and community partner, Chance the Rapper. He’s done so much for our community, so let's rally around him and celebrate his successes. Doors open at 9:00 pm with DJ performance in the lobby from 9:00 pm to 11:00 pm.
Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell, in characteristically heartfelt fashion, recently asked why this shooting was different. A part-time Chicago Public Schools employee died a few days later, shot while sitting on her front porch, another innocent victim. It pierced the news cycle and then faded. Mary asked why the Rogers Park murder carried a jolt that the ceaseless stream of others have not.Will Joe Ferguson step up to the plate to face Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2019? Will the city's violence be a cornerstone of his campaign? Read the whole thing!
Because it was an unintended wound to privilege – my privilege.
A white teacher was cut down in a place and under circumstances we do not associate with such occurrences. It stood out as not normal, even in a city in which we have internalized and compartmentalized the soul-grinding carnage on our streets as utterly normal. It is, in fact, a daily, at times hourly, occurrence in other parts of Chicago.
The children in those parts of our city never get to see the world as good, and are relentlessly exposed to brutal violence and the threat of violence such as to have them grow up in modified states of traumatic stress. This is not normal, either. If Chicago’s gun-murder rate was the same as New York’s, our annual murder tally would be 150 — about one-fifth of last year’s total and less than a quarter of this year’s likely total.
Can this be turned around? Hell, yes. Can it be turned around tomorrow? Hell, no.
www.ward09.com |
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Division of Self-Help FCU |
Photo taken in April 2016 |
Photos taken Sept. 2017 |
CTA Red Line extension |
Chicago Board of Education |
It brings to mind a recent column written by John Ruberry of Marathon Pundit
Tapped-out Chicago property owners would face yet another tax hit for teacher pensions — but their aldermen would escape another difficult vote — under a historic new statewide school funding deal now headed to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s desk.
That “compromise” bill — approved by Illinois lawmakers this week — authorizes the Chicago Board of Education, comprised of mayoral appointees, to impose a property-tax hike worth $125 million without any involvement whatsoever from the Chicago City Council, whose members are elected.
The Board of Education does indeed plan to approve the increase, enabling the Chicago Public Schools to walk away with a total of $450 million in new state and local money for the 2017-18 school year once Rauner puts his signature on the bill, school officials said.
Rauner plans a bill-signing ceremony on Thursday, his office said.
It’s unclear when the city’s school board will take up the property-tax increase.
This hike would amount to a 2.5 percent increase in the tax bill for an average Chicago homeowner. The owner of a home worth $200,000 would pay an additional $83 in property taxes, records show.
In Chicago it’s great to be part of the ruling class. But Chicago’s roads are crumbling, barely one out of four of its students in its government schools read at grade level, its bond rating is the lowest among major cities, and businesses lack confidence in Chicago and Illinois as a whole. If you are part of Chicago’s ruling class you might view high taxes as a downpayment on your next paycheck or your retirement, but Chicagoans endure the nation’s highest sales tax rate and they were slugged with the highest property tax increase in the city’s history to fund public-worker pensions.h/t Newsalert
Yet Chicago’s public pensions are the worst-funded among America’s biggest cities--at a rate of just 25 percent of its obligations. But the cruel joke may be on these well-compensated public-servants. Despite the strong pension protection clause in the Illinois constitution, a pension “haircut” seems unavoidable for retirees. Michigan has similar wording it its constitution, yet Detroit municipal retirees saw their pension checks cut after the Motor City declared bankruptcy.
CTA says it has ‘no plans’ to restore Green Line service to Jackson Park https://t.co/sKDda8kfWS— Curbed Chicago (@curbedchicago) August 21, 2017
Thanks. This one's for all of us. It's time to make plans and get community input in the proper order: https://t.co/HeCwRIaZ39— Restore the #63rdL (@63rdStL) August 22, 2017
From The Chicago Neighborhoods |
There are two Chicagos, one Black and one White. There are two districts in the city – the White one north and the Black one combining the South and West Sides.And then it goes on:
By the time Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s term is up in 2019, the city will be revamped, the redesign of Chicago will be complete, and the divide will be greater than ever through economic maneuvers.
The Black community, the Black vote, as usual is being taken for granted by the Democrats and ignored by the Republicans. You can see it everywhere and the Black community is losing as the renaissance of the city goes forth before your very eyes.
Taxes are increasing, housing is changing, and the cranes in the south loop and downtown Chicago are erecting condos and hotels as fast as possible. Hyde Park is a new community with high-rise rentals and new stores as they prepare for the Obama library.
The Black community is asleep, a sleeping giant, the voting elephant in a room where Black lives don’t matter in reality. Wake up, if you please, and look at the surroundings.I excerpted a lot more than I should've but read the whole thing & let me know what you think. Whenever the subject of the decline of Black Chicago comes up on this blog, there is a recurring theme. Blacks are leaving the city of Chicago and going to the burbs or out of state - perhaps to the south. Also we're losing population, however, there is a construction boom near downtown Chicago or in Hyde Park.
The neighborhoods are changing rapidly and Black folk don’t matter and we don’t know the plan. Hopefully we will look through the political talk and hold the politicians accountable.
Crime is rampant in our neighborhoods that will change soon, bringing new land development and new populations. Displacement abounds. New schools are coming. New stores are coming. New restaurants are coming, but they are not for the Black community that is currently in those neighborhoods now. Economic development is not coming our way. The newest innovation is pianos in the park, where Blacks are afraid to play, ride bicycles or picnic for fear of being shot, while listening to the tinkling piano music, I suppose.
GO FALCONS |
Javondlynn Dunagan, came up with the idea of gun training classes geared toward women, and for the "Ladies of Steel" gun club -- after successful training, the women gather twice a month to practice their skills.As for the answer to women who are scared of guns:
Dunagan served as a parole officer for 25 years before finishing her career in January, but had rarely held a gun when dealing with convicts.
She said she started carrying one after divorcing her police officer husband.
"I was at home by myself with my daughter, and I was used to having a firearm in a home with my ex-husband," she explained. "So, I wanted to make sure that we were safe."
But Dunagan noticed something curious when she visited gun ranges around Chicago to practice.
"I noticed that I never saw two women at the range together or a group of ladies," she recounted.
That answer prompted her to start JMD Defense & Investigations, offering gun training programs geared towards women. The "investigations" side of the business will debut next year.If you'd like follow JMD (visit their website) on ig. Their offices are located in Beverly at 1447 W. 103rd Street
Dunagan also offers classes such as the "Mommy & Me Self-Defense Class," where women can bring their daughters, ages 8-18 years, to learn hand-to-hand combat.
"That came about because my daughter was going to college four years ago and she couldn't find a self-defense class on the south side of Chicago," Dunagan said.
Her clients are from the predominantly African-American communities in Chicago's south side, in or near neighborhoods struggling with runaway gun violence.
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Austin's population has dropped dramatically as retaliatory gang violence persists https://t.co/fPIxIjoMeJ pic.twitter.com/b6bOfrT6uQ— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) July 17, 2017
Home to nearly 118,000 people in 2000, Austin has seen its population drop to 97,600, according to an average of census data collected between 2011 and 2015. It has been overtaken by the North Side's Lakeview neighborhood, whose population has remained steady since the 1980s and currently has about 98,200 residents.Now the reasons Austin is losing population is not much different than a number of neighborhoods on the south side or even the west side. Better yet not much different than why many are leaving Chicago, period.
In a neighborhood as large as Austin, each block can be its own world.Of course there is more to this story so I suggest you give this a read. And check out the video with the Trib article. If only many of us has signs like this to rep our neighborhoods. For example I <3 Chatham or I <3 Roseland or I <3 Englewood.
The tree-lined ones, with restored Victorian homes or brick two-flats and kids playing in polished gardens, are what residents call good blocks. They're free of the shootings and drug deals that plague others. But those other blocks, dotted with boarded-up houses and vacant lots with overgrown weeds, are often down the street or around the corner.
Austin is the city's largest community area geographically, and was the most populated for 45 years. But as the West Side neighborhood's gun violence has increased, so too has families' realization that at any moment the shootings can creep into their blocks — even the good blocks. Austin's residents are leaving, with some saying goodbye to the place they've called home their entire lives.
...
Chicago's violence is at its highest since the drug wars of the 1990s, and Austin is center stage to many of the shootings and homicides: As of July 13, there were 258 shootings in the area in 2017 and 44 homicides, according to Tribune data. More than 1,900 people have been shot in Chicago so far this year.
The city as a whole is losing residents, and Chicago last year was the only city of the country's 10 largest to lose population. Residents who've packed up and left Chicago have cited a variety of reasons — high taxes, the state budget stalemate and the weather.
Those in Austin have a different list of concerns. More than 30 percent live in poverty. Storefronts are shuttered, and grocery stores are few and far between. The neighborhood high schools that remain open are under-resourced.
But in a neighborhood where retaliatory shootings mean unending violence, many residents say safety is the biggest issue.
President Trump |
Crime and killings in Chicago have reached such epidemic proportions that I am sending in Federal help. 1714 shootings in Chicago this year!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 30, 2017
If Chicago doesn't fix the horrible "carnage" going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017
Twenty federal gun agents have been assigned to Chicago to join a newly formed task force aimed at cutting the flow of illegal guns into the city and cracking down on people repeatedly arrested on gun charges.In addition to the federal angle help from the Cook County Sheriff is coming to the south side also announced late last month:
Hours after the Chicago police department sent out a news release about the task force, President Donald Trump claimed credit for sending in the agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
...
The roughly 40-person strike force, which consists of Chicago police officers, ATF agents and Illinois State Police, will be working on unsolved shootings and gun-related homicides and combating illegal gun trafficking, officials said Friday.
The sheriff's office announced Wednesday that 55 to 60 sheriff's police and staff members would "supplement" the work already done by Chicago police in the Calumet and Gresham police districts.Will additional law enforcement help from the federal government or the sheriff be enough to curb violent crime in the many low-income neighborhoods of Chicago?
Sheriff's officers and staff will help with patrol units, special operations, crime suppression tactical teams, evictions and other services.
Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) asked the sheriff's police to help "to create a safer, healthier environment," according to a news release.
347 E. 95th Street - June 2017 |
107 E. 95th Street - June 2017 |
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After a lifetime of living in Chicago, my husband is seriously talking about moving away.6th Ward Alderman Roderick Sawyer was quoted:
It’s not just one thing that is spurring him to pack up and leave, he explained; it’s a combination of things.
He cited high taxes, crime and bad politics, but he’s obviously not alone. Black people are fleeing the city’s predominantly black neighborhoods on the South and West Sides.
Meanwhile, according to recent U.S. Census data, white people are flocking to neighborhoods near Downtown.
Chicago, once a haven for the black middle class, is no longer seen as a place of economic opportunity for African Americans.
Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th) argues that white people are moving in as black people abandon these neighborhoods.Conclusion:
“I’m in Woodlawn right now, and there are white people walking down the street, walking dogs and jogging. People don’t mess with white people. If I walked up and down the street over here, I would probably get hit in the head, and that’s an awful thing to say,” Sawyer conceded.
“But we can make it better by staying and putting in the time and work and getting involved in your neighborhood. You can’t complain about it while you are locked up in your house,” he said.
...
“We may lose another black alderman as some of our wards are teetering around 60 percent black. In fact, Walter Burnett’s ward is not black. We lost the second ward in the last redistricting,” Sawyer said.
Still, the alderman is wary of the Census data.
“I don’t think as many people are leaving, as they are not being counted,” he said.
This latest Census data shows black residents want the same things other people want: employment, fair government, safe neighborhoods and good schools.Employment, fair gov't, safe neighborhoods, & good schools. How do we get any of those?
Unfortunately, too few African-Americans in Chicago can say they have any of those things.
Go Falcons! |
Chicago Mag illustration Richard Mia |
Since the early ’80s, blacks in South and West Side neighborhoods have been steadily leaving the city, resettling at first largely in the Cook County suburbs. But over the past 15 years, more and more have been leaving the area entirely for northwest Indiana, Iowa’s Quad Cities, and Sun Belt states, says Alden Loury, the director of research and evaluation at the Metropolitan Planning Council. Today there are roughly 850,000 blacks in Chicago, down from 1.2 million in 1980.How does Chicago send the message that the city cares about its Black residents?
The reasons for this are varied: The foreclosure crisis saw blacks evicted disproportionately from their rental apartments and houses; the Chicago Housing Authority leveled high-rises like the Robert Taylor Homes, scattering public housing residents; the lack of stable employment in South and West Side neighborhoods continues to force residents to look elsewhere for jobs; and school closures further disenfranchise communities. “There are not a lot of messages that Chicago cares about its black residents,” says Mary Pattillo, a sociology and African American studies professor at Northwestern University and author of the book Black Picket Fences. “When you lose the institutions that cultivate attachment, it makes it a lot easier to pick up and leave.”
Today’s most-read story: The Real Problem with Chicago's Shrinking Population https://t.co/JEVokZHtIS pic.twitter.com/AXOFYvXdMn— Chicago magazine (@ChicagoMag) May 9, 2017
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Mother watches paramedics treat dying gunshot victim, then gets a call that it's her daughter https://t.co/yIxOVnVF6f pic.twitter.com/pVVCNRazVv— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) April 19, 2017