In an area flourishing with independent nail salons, the owner of Hollywood Nails manages to craft a unique experience that keeps customers coming back. Customers say it’s Nancy Pham’s cheerful demeanor that keeps them visiting her small Lakeview shop. But one might not guess that this entrepreneur with a go-getter attitude survived a tragic...
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The Wilson Red Line train station is in dire need of rehabilitation — there aren’t any elevators for the handicapped and, overall, the rusty station has seen better days. The Chicago Transit Authority realized this and plans to start renovating the station later this year. But for the owners of four stores who have...
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When federal regulators seized Park National Bank and its parent company last October and turned operations over to US Bank, it caused outcry through Chicago’s West Side and into Oak Park. And the fight is not over. On Saturday, March 13 at 10 a.m., the Coalition to Save Community Banking will meet at the...
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Bad credit? No credit? No problem. With Illinois’ unemployment rate at a staggering 11 percent, employers can afford to be more selective in whom they hire. But a new bill could give job seekers with bad credit a fighting chance in landing a position. Rep. Jack Franks (D-Woodstock) has introduced a bill, HB4658, creating...
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City leaders’ dreams that the 2016 Olympics would come to Chicago ended in October, but their hopes for the economic development, job creation and neighborhood expansion the Games would have brought to the city are alive and well. On a snowy afternoon on Feb. 9 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Chicago’s Neighborhood Development Awards...
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Gritty storefronts, boarded-up gas station windows, graffiti-covered pavement and a plethora of fast food restaurants are the sights that will meet your eyes on a drive through one of Chicago’s toughest neighborhoods. Located on the city’s West Side, Austin’s population is nearing 130,000, and as the population rises in what community activists call Chicago’s...
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The Chicago Transit Authority voted last week to put a vacant, historically significant property in the Armitage-Halsted Landmark District at 939 W. Armitage Ave. back on the real estate market. The Queen Anne-style property in Lincoln Park, which is adjacent to the Armitage station’s east side, was partially demolished in 2006 as part of...
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As Jennifer T. Lacey reports, Santa Claus has arrived in Austin on the West Side, and it was a huge, community-wide event that brought out kids of all ages. The new parade and tradition means a lot to the neighborhood, as you will see here.
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By Curtis Black, Newstips Editor, Community Media Workshop With neighborhood economic development groups objecting to a major reduction in city funding at a time of growing job loss, 22 aldermen have submitted a resolution ordering the Mayor’s Office of Budget and Management to restore the funds in the city’s proposed 2010 budget. The resolution...
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A barren Ravenswood parking lot may soon be home to a grocery store, parking garage, condo complex and more — if the developer’s “plan B” manages to appease the community that gave a cold shoulder to his first attempt earlier this year. The “Ravenswood Station” mixed-use development would be built on a now-vacant Sears parking...
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