[VIDEO] The Pullman National Monument will open in the long shuttered Pullman Co. administration building and clock tower on 111th Street. I've listed places I'd like to share with you on this blog well this is one great place in Chicago that is part of the National Park Service that I can share with you. Hopefully I can do so before the weather really cools off.
The Grand Opening is today and tomorrow and sadly I won't be able to make it for that. However, this is a place to visit soon!
 |
| Credit: The Chicago Neighborhoods |
Tour the site of the Great Pullman Strike on its 125th anniversary https://t.co/IxFHGZDoQo pic.twitter.com/NkOtsl9jWh— Curbed Chicago (@curbedchicago) July 5, 2019
Labor history tends to get short shrift in history books.WTTW has more on the history of this strike in 1894 with regards to the perfect company town that was Pullman.
The Pullman National Monument Preservation Society, created by Barack Obama’s presidential proclamation in 2015, is trying to change that. During the Great Pullman Strike’s 125th anniversary, the group is giving guided tours each month through October.
...
The next tour is scheduled for July 13 at noon. Admission is $25, and each ticket includes post-tour reception and dessert.
The CTA will honor Metra tickets for affected riders on the Red Line from 95th to Lake and on the 1, 2, 6, J14, 28, 71, 115 and 119 buses. https://t.co/lyRUkPKgHH— Chicago Sun-Times (@Suntimes) February 22, 2019
Metra Alert ME - CTA will no longer honor Metra tickets on the Red Line (95th to Lake) and bus route 1, 2, 6, J14, 28, 71, 115 and 119— Metra Electric (@metraMED) February 22, 2019
About 2:35 a.m., officers responding to a call of shots fired found Ambriana Collins suffering from several gunshot wounds to her chest in an alley in the 10700 block of South Eberhart on the Far South Side, according to Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.An update to the incident reported by ABC 7 Chicago last Friday. Would like to share this video of the scene from the Sun-Times. You would find it in the article. [VIDEO]
Investigators were told a white truck was seen speeding from the scene of the shooting, police said.
Collins was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:51 a.m., authorities said. She lived in the neighboring West Pullman neighborhood.
Collins left behind a 4-year-old son named Angelo, according to her relative Shiela House, who said the boy’s father died from cancer last October.
“Everybody’s just so lost about it,” House said.
Another relative, Devin Williams, said Angelo might be staying with his grandmother for now.
House said Collins was a hardworking mother, noting that she was employed at both a Popeyes restaurant and a McDonald’s location at 103rd Street and Kedzie Avenue.
“We’re just so stunned,” House said. “Everybody called her Ambrii. She was loved by so many.”
Woman found shot to death in Pullman: https://t.co/7eYZIFWGcU pic.twitter.com/Ea2e0uftvk— ABC 7 Chicago (@ABC7Chicago) January 25, 2019
Police responded to a report of shots fired at about 2:35 a.m. in the 10700-block of South Eberhart Avenue. Police discovered a woman with several gunshots in her chest in an alley.
The woman was pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities have not released her identity.
Police said a truck, possibly white, was observed fleeing the scene. No one is in custody and Area South detectives are conducting a homicide investigation.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday floated a port district site on the Far Southeast Side as the possible location for a Chicago casino, if state lawmakers finally grant the city the long-sought gambling palace.Personally I'm with this, who says a proposed casino has to be in or near downtown Chicago. Put one in a neighborhood that's struggling. In this case Pullman, and then again hopefully there are other proposals.
In a meeting with the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board, Emanuel noted his “love-hate” relationship with the idea of a casino but said if the city finally builds one it should be away from the Loop and McCormick Place. Instead, he said it should bring economic development to an area of the city that needs it, before floating an Illinois International Port District site near Pullman as “an example.”
The land, just off the 111th Street exit on the Bishop Ford Freeway, currently is home to the Harborside International golf course with some harbor operations and terminals nearby on Lake Calumet. The port district that owns the land is a joint city-state entity.
“If you go down to the port authority where the golf course is, there’s enough land there for both a hotel and a casino,” Emanuel said. “That would be a big boon economically to the Southeast Side of the city.”
Emanuel made the remarks on the same day he gave a speech to aldermen on his recommendations to address the city’s pension funding shortfalls moving forward. The mayor’s plan included revenue from a proposed Chicago casino as part of the answer.
The 27-year-old was sitting in his home about 2:20 a.m. in the 9700 block of South Ingleside Avenue when a bullet was shot through his door and struck him under his arm, Chicago police said.
He was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in fair condition, according to police. No one was in custody.
After nearly a decade of planning and a frenzied round of corporate fundraising, a $20 million, 135,000-square-foot sports, recreation and educational center opened its doors at 10355 S. Woodlawn Ave.
The massive U.S. Bank Pullman Community Center is one of the largest indoor sports facilities in Illinois and the fifth-largest in the country. It includes three basketball/tennis courts and three synthetic turf fields that can be used for baseball, football and soccer.
The facility also includes community meeting rooms and classroom space.
“We’re looking at keeping 1,100 kids a week off the streets, doing something positive and constructive. A facility that’s gonna be open probably 12 to 14 hours a day. That gives people opportunity. It gives ’em hope,” Beale said Thursday.
“If you’re struggling in school and you’re enrolled in this facility, we’re gonna provide free ACT, SAT and tutoring in whatever subject that you need.”
The iconic South Side neighborhood is on the brink of a transformation.https://t.co/hDbTfQbe15— Chicago magazine (@ChicagoMag) October 26, 2018
In the coming weeks, construction crews will begin meticulously restoring the roof and upper floor windows of the landmark Pullman Clock Tower and Administration Building, the former headquarters of the company that developed the neighborhood and forever changed rail travel in the 19th century.Great to see the progress in nearby Pullman.
Nearly lost in an arson attack in 1998, the structure is being overhauled for its next life as the visitor center for the Pullman National Monument, Chicago’s first ever site in the national park system. The roof work, funded by a $2.2 million grant from the National Park Service, is expected to take six months.
Construction on the old administrative building comes more than three years after President Obama dedicated the site as a national monument, setting into motion a restoration that Pullman residents and preservationists have long called for. According to Kathleen Schneider, the first superintendent of Pullman National Monument, there are a mix of public and private funds earmarked for the restoration, including more than $13 million from the National Park Foundation.
“We’re only three years old with a staff of three people,” Schneider says of the new national monument. “Although it may appear that not a lot is happening, we’ve been working hard with the State of Illinois and community on the 2020 opening of the visitors center.”
Schneider says the site’s educational programming will center on Pullman’s legacy as a planned neighborhood and as an integral site in the labor and civil rights movements. Specifically, the visitor center will spotlight the internal clashes that led to the Pullman Strike of 1894 and formation of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.
As for community partners, Schneider highlights the Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives (CNI) group, a nonprofit developer that has helped bring investment to the greater Pullman area in recent years. While the Clock Tower’s restoration represents a symbolic rebirth of the historic district, newer facilities including a Whole Foods distribution center, an expanded greenhouse by produce supplier Gotham Greens, and soap maker Method have reinvigorated the neighborhood’s identity as an industrial hub.
On my last day at the Tribune, I went to the Far South Side where a truce between two rival gang factions has led to a neighborhood playground being built amid a newfound peace: https://t.co/2NePIfMM9Y— Tessa Weinberg (@Tessa_Weinberg) August 11, 2018
But the playground’s foundation was really laid nearly a year ago when Sherman Scullark, a member of the Risky Road gang faction, rang Detective Vivian Williams’ doorbell.Read the whole thing!
Williams, who has lived in the neighborhood for 32 years — and has spent 23 of them working as a Chicago police officer — was shocked when Scullark came to her.
“I could see in his face that he needed to talk about something. And when I opened the door he said, 'Officer Williams, I'm just tired. I'm tired,’ ” Williams said.
Scullark was tired of the violence. The conflict between Risky Road and the Maniac Fours faction had been going on since Scullark was a young boy.
And it marred the community. Kids didn’t play outside. They knew not to go to the basketball courts or the gas station — both hotspots for shootings when rival gang members found each other across the 107th Street dividing line.
So Scullark asked Williams, who’s known as the neighborhood mom, to set up a meeting between the rival gangs. Williams agreed but needed approval from the district commander.
The next day, Williams got it. But Scullark beat her to it. He had already orchestrated a truce agreement.
He had approached his rivals on their block and let them know he wasn’t carrying a firearm. Then he told them how he felt. It turned out some of them felt the same.
They agreed to put down the guns, and the neighborhood has been more peaceful ever since.
“I said, 'You didn't even give me 24 hours?’ ” Williams said. “He said, ‘Now can you introduce me to Arne Duncan?’ ”
Duncan, the former education secretary under Barack Obama and former Chicago Public Schools CEO, is the driving force behind the organization Chicago Creating Real Economic Destiny, known as Chicago CRED.
|
| Via Chicago Neighborhoods |
The $18 million Pullman Artspace Lofts will be built on land that's been vacant for 88 years.https://t.co/BlW7gLqdgk— Chicago Reader (@Chicago_Reader) July 10, 2018
 |
| sixthward.us |
|
| The Chicago Neighborhoods |
Yet one lower-income South Side neighborhood manages to defy the ironclad logic of the favored quarter: historic Pullman, a vibrant enclave in the middle of the South Side that is home to equal numbers of African Americans, Latinos, and whites. (Not all South and West neighborhoods are poor, but most of those doing well economically—Hyde Park, the Near West Side, Bridgeport, and Beverly—are predominantly white and Asian.)Read the whole thing!
Strolling down Pullman’s St. Lawrence Avenue, whose shaded sidewalks are fronted by side-by-side duplexes, you notice the same redbrick charm that characterizes the North Side. Yet in Pullman, you can land a well-kept three-bedroom duplex down the block from a cozy café and around the corner from one of the city’s top-rated public elementary schools at a price that wouldn’t go far in swank precincts across town. Residents enjoy many of the conveniences of North Side living, too. At the new Pullman Park development, there’s a Walmart (watering this former food desert), a clothing store, a Planet Fitness health club, a locally owned dry cleaners, and Pullman’s first sit-down restaurant in decades.
The relative peace and prosperity of Pullman in the midst of the hard-hit South Side highlights the promise of “asset-based” community development—the idea that focusing on the strengths of a particular place is just as important as targeting the problems. This model offers practical lessons for other neighborhoods across the country suffering from economic disinvestment and social unraveling. In Pullman’s case, a remarkable degree of resilience has arisen from these assets: high levels of civic engagement; a physical environment that encourages walking and social interaction; access to resources tied to historic preservation; and an ambitious community developer planting stakes in the neighborhood.
If the name Pullman sounds vaguely familiar, it’s likely because of the legendary railroad sleeping cars built here from 1881 to 1955. Pullman was no grimy slum, but actually one of the most celebrated urban planning projects of the nineteenth century—providing a good place to live was part of owner George Pullman’s mission to elevate the character of his workers. The London Times declared the elegant public buildings and squares flanked by single-family homes for managers and handsome brick townhouses for workers “the most perfect town in the world.” The other reason you may have heard of Pullman is that in 1894 the company’s workers responded to wage cuts with no reduction in rent at company-owned housing with a historic strike.
 |
| Red Line Extension |
In January, the city announced the final alignment for the 5.3 mile extension to 130th Street. That’s key for the CTA to secure $1 billion in federal funding needed for the project that wouldn’t see construction start until 2022. Though the city has proposed using transit TIFs (tax increment financing) to fund part of the extension, some transit advocates contend that wouldn’t be nearly enough to make a dent in the cost. And others question whether the Trump administration would give the city $1 billion for a project of this scope.A former candidate for 9th ward alderman - well not identified as such in the article - was quoted in this piece:
Some transit advocates say there is a quicker and less costly way to improve transit on the South Side by converting the Metra Electric District (MED) main line into rapid transit. Retrofitting Metra’s existing rail infrastructure to accommodate rapid transit, they say, could be completed in less time than it would take to build the extension and without displacing privately owned properties, as the Red Line extension would.
But putting the Red Line extension on the backburner where it has sat for decades would be a disservice to the Far South Side, community members say. Mayor Richard J. Daley promised to extend it beyond its 95th Street terminus when he cut the ribbon on the transit line nearly 50 years ago.
South Side resident Michael LaFargue says extending the Red Line south is all about equity – transit equity, economic equity and environmental equity. The loss of manufacturing jobs, he said has devastated the Roseland community economically while lack of rapid transit has made access to jobs and opportunities even more difficult.And what's the difference in cost?
The 111th Street station, LaFargue added, could be branded as Greater Roseland Hospital Medical District similar to the Blue Line’s Illinois Medical District. The Michigan Avenue station could reinvigorate that mile-long business corridor, making it the ‘Magnificent Mile South,’ he said.
“This is a catalyst for economic development and branding,” said LaFargue, president of the Red Line Extension Coalition, a community-based group.
Policy analyst Daniel Kay Hertz of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability says both projects are important and would have significant impact. He estimated a cost of $27 million per mile to convert the Metra Electric’s South Chicago branch into rapid transit. Hertz based that figure off a 2012 Chicago Department of Transportation report which puts the cost of converting MED’s South Chicago branch to Millennium Station — not the entire line — at $350 million. Hertz said there’s no reason the per-mile costs would differ substantially to convert the entire MED line. In comparison, the Red Line extension would cost about $434 million a mile.Finally a brief history of the Metra Electric and the advocacy for it's conversion to a CTA rapid transit line:
“It is basically logistical stuff that they need to do as opposed to the physical engineering and construction of several miles worth of new rail lines and stations,” Hertz said.
The MED originally ran as rapid transit and the line’s South Chicago branch ran every 10 minutes during the 1940s under its then-operator, Illinois Central. That frequency reduced when it became part of the Regional Transit Authority. Now the line has frequent service during peak evening and morning hours but runs every one to two hours during the mid-day.What do you all think? Metra Electric (especially serving segments within the city) converted to the "grey line" operated by CTA or the red line extension which certainly could benefit residents south of 95th through to Altgeld Gardens or perhaps there is a way to make both happen?
The idea to convert the commuter-rail into CTA-style “L” service resurfaced again when transit advocate Mike Payne touted the plan as the Gray Line in the 1990s. It has gained traction in recent years thanks to advocacy groups like Coalition for a Modern Metra Electric and Active Transportation Alliance who want the MED to run every 10-15 minutes. Last year Metra increased mid-day frequency on the line to every 20 minutes between Hyde Park and Millennium Station.
But Metra’s fare structure could create a burden for low-income riders. Metra’s fares are distance-based where CTA charges a flat fee. And since there is no fare integration between Metra and CTA, riders would have to pay two full fares. There’s no fare discount to transfer from one transit system to the other.
A look at what $250K get you in Chicago right now @ChicagoMag https://t.co/0Ih0xh7SEc— Adrian E. LaTrace, Jr. (@ajlatrace) March 27, 2018
525 E. 112th Street, PullmanNot far away from Roseland and you can get a house for almost a quarter of a million dollars. Pullman is a great neighborhood anyway of great historic value and it's no wonder it's part of a national monument!
An integral community to Chicago’s role in rail, heavy industry, and labor rights, the Pullman neighborhood has another unique designation as the city’s first and only National Monument. And for $250,000, you can purchase a historic row home (pictured above) that has been fully overhauled and updated for contemporary living. It’s worth noting that this property is currently the most expensive on the market in the neighborhood—still a fraction of the amount that wealthy rail enthusiasts are spending on restoring old Pullman Palace Cars for cross-country travel.