School closings vote

Yesterday the Chicago Board of Education voted to close 49 schools down from the initial 53 to be closed. Here's a listing of schools that the board voted to close for next year. Is a school near you on that list?

Capitol Fax: Senators call for Hamos ouster

Our state Senator Donne Trotter has attached his name to a letter posted to the Capitol Fax blog that express the lack of confident in the leadership of  the state Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) Director Julie Hamos. His name is attached along with his colleague Sen. Martin Sandoval in speaking for the "unified sentiment of our respective caucuses". The respective caucuses being the Black and Latino Caucuses of the IL state Senate. The letter mainly cites the budget cutting that has claimed many healthcare and mental health services and their affect on the Black and Latino communities of this state.

How was your experience with the Red Line Reconstruction?

So how was your ride on the Red Line this morning (and/or this afternoon)?

Reader Melanie Payne shared with us (on our Facebook page) her experience this morning. (Included are our questions):

Melanie Payne It worked, i got to work 40 minutes early. As long as they keep the shuttles coming and the trains are running no more than 3 minutes apart then people should be good.

Unlike · Reply · 1 · 8 hours ago

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  The Sixth Ward That's great to know. Can we post your comments on a blog post? Also -- my wife is concerned about safety at Garfield (as well as the potential chaos there). How was it this morning? And how does it work for the ride home? (Also, feel free to e-mail us or give us a link to any photo you would like us to use, if any. THANKS (jp)

  Like · 7 hours ago
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  Melanie Payne I have to get back to you for the ride home part. As far as chaos going..im not going to say she is right or wrong but there was ALOT of security over there. Now maybe long term thinking she maybe correct. Im not one for being on that side town either. They have the red line running on the same track as the green line. So its the same type of redline people as before. The redline goes in the tunnel if you she/you need to get off downtown (like me) or even go up north. Sure you can use my quote. Now I might come back to you all a month later and say whether not its the same. :)

  Unlike · 1 · 7 hours ago
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  The Sixth Ward So you're saying you don't have to change at Roosevelt (where the Green Line and Red Line link up)? You can hop on at Garfield, and stay in your seat, until, say, Washington or even up to Howard? (jp)
  
  And if you come back with a very different opinion about the reconstruction, we will have no problem with that (well, we WILL have a problem, but no problem to post about it ;) ). We wonder if the effort will be maintained, or like Wal-Mart, once the hype has died down, the quality sinks.
  
  Thanks so much -- and feel free to send anything (or even your very own guest post) to blog@thesixthward.us

  Like · 7 hours ago
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  Melanie Payne Yes at Garfield they have the Red/Howard and the green line running on the same track. So if you need to head underground and get off at LAKE or JACKSON you can stay seated.

  Like · 7 hours ago
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  Melanie Payne On the Red/Howard train

  Like · 7 hours ago
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  The Sixth Ward So far no big bens on King drive or Cottage Grove. As far as security, now that UC owns a building over there (Washington Park Arts Incubator), you have the transit detail and UC patrolling. wg

  Like · 6 hours ago

We will update this entry when Melanie reports back this evening!

Progress IL: Englewood Renters Left Without Electricity, Gas Due To Foreclosure: 'We Were Left In The Dark'

This is a very unfortunate story. Unless you follow real estate you may not realize that foreclosures is still affecting people almost five or so years after they really became headline news. We can talk about people who own homes that they couldn't afford, but let's bear in mind there are foreclosed properties involving renters. We take a look at the couple above Shantisha & Ezekiel Shaw whose family are exactly in that situation.

The Shaw’s landlord was foreclosed upon last year and Freedom Mortgage Corp. took over the deed for the building on December 14, as indicated by the Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court.

But neither Shantisha, nor her husband, Ezekiel Shaw, said they were notified the building was being foreclosed upon. They said they were not given a 90-day notice to vacate, nor were they provided any instructions indicating where they should send their monthly $550 rent — which includes utilities — following the foreclosure.

The Shaws say they were not provided with any landlord or contact information pertaining to who would be responsible for maintaining the property after the foreclosure.

“We’ve been left in the dark, literally,” said Ezekiel, 45. “What are we supposed to do?”
...
In February the Shaws received an eviction notice from Pierce & Associates, a leading Chicago-based foreclosure law firm.

“Demand is hereby made upon you for immediate surrender of possession of the above premises,” the February 4 letter, identifying Pierce & Associates as attorneys for Freedom Mortgage, states.

“But we don’t have any money, I don’t know what they expect us to do,” said Shantisha.

I don't want to excerpt more from this article, but you should read the whole thing. We should bear in mind one thing when it comes to foreclosures. Banks do not want to be landlords, they have to maintain the properties they have to take.

I'm not sure of the entire situation involving the Shaws, but there's a problem if they're making this family leave their building because they don't want to be landlords and therefore responsible for maintaining this property. The Shaws had also reported that their utilities were shut off who knows if it's because the company that took over their property did it to make them move. Also recognize that if true shutting off utilities or other actions to make people leave a property is called "constructive eviction" and it's an illegal practice.

Anyway, I'm curious what everyone thinks of this story.

Black-owned banks faces challenges...

When you read this article you note this paragraph:

In the past few years, several Black-owned banks, including the $2 billion-asset ShoreBank, one of the most active lenders on Chicago’s South Side, Covenant Bank and Highland Community Bank have closed or been absorbed into another institution.

Covenant Bank has been absored into the New Orleans, LA based black-owned Liberty Bank earlier this year. However ShoreBank and it's successor Urban Partnership Bank weren't/aren't considered Black-owned. Highland Community Bank well they're not yet closed although I understand that they've been on the brink of closure for a while. In fact, Highland is being courted for purchase by an investment group and I meant to share this article from DNA Info earlier.

Now that we got those qualifiers out of the way, this article is more than appropriate since Chatham at least is home to two Black-owned financial institutions namely Seaway Bank which is headquartered in Chathan and Illinois Service Federal which is headquartered in Bronzeville. In mentioning Seaway here's another thing to note:

“It’s going to be nonbanking-related services that’s going to help them to survive,” he said, citing Chicago’s Seaway Bank & Trust Co., which provides currency exchange services at the airport.

Seaway Bank provides FOREIGN currency exchange services at both O'Hare & Midway airports. Makes sense right? If you're traveling to a foreign nation more than likely you would need to exchange American money for the money of the nations you're traveling to. Whereas a currency exchange, well many of us have different ideas of services offered.

Anyway, we see the history of Black banks their general mission and how they've had to adapt to many changes. Also what can Black banks do to continue to survive and whether or not the idea of a Black-owned bank is considered obsolete. I'm curious to know what you all think.

Sun-Times: Red Line rehab will affect 98,000 CPS students’ commute to school

Visit Red Line South for more info

This article sort of puts these proposed school closings into perspective although it doesn't mention that. The Red Line will be closed down from May to October and right now parents are concerned about how their children will be able to at the very least travel from school to home. I wonder if this article gives parents even little ease.

The CTA said 98,000 students at 370 CPS schools will be affected by the Red Line construction, including elementary and secondary schools, spokeswoman Tammy Chase said. Students from 12 Catholic schools also take the Red Line to and from school.

Outreach to students began in April, when an alernative service flier was sent out along with report cards, Chase said. And robocalls to homes of CPS students began May 1. Another round of robocalls will begin Friday.

Reader: Mayor Rahm's Chicago—in black and white

Ben Joravsky is looking at how Chicagoans view the job performance of Mayor Emanuel. This look is broken down according to race, ethnicity, or even class. How do you think the Mayor is doing as he's halfway through his term as Mayor of Chicago?

Did Liberation Christian Center Disrespect The Park Manor Community

Talking about religion or more specifically a church is consider taboo but in this case it's necessary. This past Monday evening I attended the Park Manor Neighbors Community Council (PMNCC) monthly meeting. There was a full agenda, but most of the 100+ attendees came out for one issue. Only through communication through PMNCC were they notified that an organization Unity Parenting and Counseling had approach the Alderman about signing off on a special use permit. The need for the permit was to establish a shelter for homeless teens. In most cases the PMNCC meeting attendees are even tempered but this subject angered the attendees. The shelter wanted to open inside what was once a small elementary school operated by St. Peter Lutheran Church. The building is being leased by a Liberation Christian Center. The church is new to the community and little was known or communicated about the church to the community. As the representatives of Unity attempted to make their case, the temperature in the room was going to start to boil over and both representatives from Unity and attendees became upset. No answer that Unity gave was or would have persuaded the members of the 74th,73rd Wabash and Michigan block club members who were in attendance. The bottom line was and is that 7400 S Michigan is the wrong location and YES, this is definitely the wrong time. On May 19th, the Red Line train line will shut down for 6-9 months and limit transportation options including several bus lines to the community and require possible walking through the community to get to alternative routes. So to state that the shelter would have no impact on the community is a very shortsighted and somewhat delusional.  Per Unity, if someone is expelled for not following the rules they are not allowed to loiter around the building . This would lead the individuals to walk up to 75th street where there are stores and several nightclubs. 75th Street is the dividing line for the Chicago Police Department 3rd and 6th districts. Both districts already have their hands full and having homeless teens loitering is just a problem the y do not need. While it became very apparent that the community was not going to support the special use permit, what did become apparent the church and pastor attempted to pimp both groups. During the presentation, Unity stated the pastor Bishop James E. Dukes offered the space to them, and never mentioned he had any conversations with the community. The church and pastor certainly didn't make any friends by blowing off this meeting or ever coming out to introduce themselves to the community. Sources characterize the pastor as "Shady". Per Unity representatives, the pastor was out of town. I and many others question the timing of this proposal. In a time when our city and state government are suppose to be broke, where is the money coming from to pay for this shelter? In a time when city services such as Mental health facilities that serve this community are being eliminated or consolidated to other areas why is there such an urgency to open this facility? Lastly, why did this group not notify any of the other social service agencies that service the community of their intentions to open this facility? So the bottom line is the Liberation Church feels that they can do what they want and not answer to anyone, such as engage in construction work without obtaining permits. So is this what churches are suppose to do? Is this what men of god suppose to do? So it will be interesting to see if the pastor steps up and apologizes to the community and work with community.

Ward Room: Are Casinos "City Ruiners"?

This issue has come up in the city from time to time. It's often viewed as a way to gain more revenue for the city especially for the public schools. This opinion from Ward Room argues that a casino could be a "city ruiner" and cites an urbanist who's fighting a casino in the other second city: Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

To be sure, the only reason I would support a casino is if it went to a struggling city neighborhood so they could reap any potential benefits although current proposals I've seen seeks a casino in downtown Chicago. Certainly it's understandable to keep tax dollars in the city as residents who do visit the casinos are likely to go to Indiana or nearby cities such as Aurora or Joliet.

All the same I'm curious how people would view a Chicago casino. Do you think a casino in this city could be a "ruiner"?

DNAinfo: Izola's Replaced by New Soul Food Restaurant

Izola's as seen in April 2011

It appears the space formerly occupied by Izola's has a new tenant that recognizes the legacy of the previous establishment:

Brothers Anthony and Michael Cherry opened a soul food restaurant Saturday in the former home of the legendary Izola's.

Occupying 20,000 square feet at 522 E. 79th St. is Luversia's, a family restaurant that Anthony Cherry said was named after his late mother, Luversia Faye-Cherry, who died in 2008.

"She was a good person who taught us a lot about life," recalled Anthony Cherry, who grew up in Englewood but now lives in South Shore. "Five years from now I want to expand the restaurant to have a location on the West Side, North Side and downtown. I know those are ambitious goals, but I am an ambitious person."

Izola's, named after Izola White, opened in 1940 and closed in 2011. Luversia's has continued in part to use the former restaurant's identity by offering an "Izola's Ole-Skool Burger" for $6.99.

BTW, let's not forget not long after announcing for Mayor in 2010 Rahm Emanuel paid a visit to Izola's.

Who plans to pay a visit in the near future? And who has paid a visit and what are your thoughts on your experience there?

Are you planning your alternatives to the Red Line starting May 19th?

If you check out the Red Line South project website, you will see that there will be "ambassadors" who will be at the affected locations through May 16th. You may want to talk to them about all the details regarding the alternatives as the Dan Ryan line is shut down for five months. As a matter of fact on May 1, you may have had the chance to talk to an ambassador at 95th Street who just so happens to be Forrest Claypool President of the CTA which is what you see in the photo below.

Courtesy of @RedLineSouth

Anyway, in spite of that brief intro, we're here to discuss this recent article from the Sun-Times about how Red Line riders are planning to cope with this project. Some apparently are still unaware of the alternatives, discounts, and service levels that will be provided by CTA during the next 5 months. Also add to that the shuttles that will be used in lieu of the trains are free!

Crain's: Why Sears sees salvation in servers

Photo by ZOL87

 It seems Sears has an idea for the store that they plan to close on 79th Street:

Parent Sears Holdings Corp. has formed a subsidiary, Ubiquity Critical Environments LLC, tasked with converting some of the more than 2,500 Sears and Kmart properties to data storage facilities with servers, chillers and backup generators. It also plans to top all of its buildings with telecommunications towers that would serve a wide range of needs, including, ironically, those of the e-commerce rivals that Sears is struggling to match.

First up: a Sears store along the Chicago Skyway that will close in July.

If you'd like to read the whole article, there may be registration required. Hopefully there will still be some room for another business or businesses to move in. We recently got an email about another business who could utilize this building if they were interesting in expansion: Mariano's.