On Monday, Local 881UFCW will host a free training session for those working or looking to find employment in the retail industry.

The OSHA Health and Safety training will be held at the South Austin Coalition office, 5660 W. Madison St., at 6 p.m. and is open to all West Side residents. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is a government agency created to ensure the safety of workers on the job.

Kristen Ryan, a member of Local 881UFCW, will join forces with Elce Redmond of the South Austin Coalition to provide free education training and certificates for those who complete the session.

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Members of Hope Community Church pray before going out to help nearby residents. Photo/AustinTalks.org

Throughout the summer, the Austin community has taken steps to clean up the streets, fight violence and provide services to neighbors in need.

So far, programs like 100 blocks, 100 churches, organized by the 15th District CAPS office, and the Fight Against Foreclosure and US Bank, organized by theCoalition to Save Community Banking, Westside Health Authority and South Austin Coalition, have left their marks.

Those efforts gave Hope Community Church, 5900 W. Iowa, the idea to reconnect with the community surrounding its congregation through its recently created Block Ministry.

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Dorothy Daniel, 78, never asked the government for a bailout like Bank of America did. But after making payments on time every month for her home of 40 years, she asked for help before she needed it, and now, Daniels, an amputee, is not only fighting for her life but to save her home from foreclosure.

Daniel is just one of thousands of West Side residents fighting for their homes or businesses. This time, the fight is with Bank of America, which has the greatest number of foreclosures in the country, in Chicago and in Austin, according to a new report released Wednesday by National People’s Action.

Elce Redmond and Rev. Sirchester Jackson hang a sign on one foreclosed home in Austin. Photo/Barb Duckett

Richard Simon, a spokesman for Bank of America, said the company’s policy is to exhaust all options before taking action to remove residents from their homes.

“When we have exhausted viable home ownership retention solutions, Bank of America is increasing efforts to provide customers with dignified and less stressful alternatives to foreclosure, with streamlined programs for shorts sales and deeds in lieu,” Simon said.

National People’s Action, which originally started in Austin, joined forces with the South Austin Coalition to release the report “Bank of America Forecloses on Chicago.” After announcing the major findings Wednesday, organizers led residents on a walking tour to hang signs and point out the number of Bank of America foreclosures on two streets.

Gordon Mayer of National People’s Action said within a 1-mile radius of theAustin Senior Satellite Center at 5701 W. Congress Parkway, there are more than 50 foreclosed homes.

“Bank of America is creating eyesores throughout Chicago,” he said. “And right here in the community of Austin the problem is bad – and only getting worse. They have a responsibility to help these home owners and work with this community to keep the people in these homes and keep the streets safe.”

The report shows that in Chicago, there have been more than 8,000 foreclosure filings since 2008, and Bank of America is on track to file 3,000 foreclosures before the end of this year.

In Austin alone, there were 151 Bank of America foreclosure filings in 2009, and since January 2009, there have been 50 completed residential foreclosure auctions by the bank.

Simon said his company has employed several special, even unique, initiatives in Chicago to address home ownership preservation and community issues arising from the foreclosure crisis.

“Bank of America is committed to helping mortgage customers remain in their homes through the federal government’s Home Affordable Modification Program, various proprietary programs and individualized solutions,” Simon said. “As the largest mortgage servicer in the country, we recognize and have taken our position as an industry leader in home ownership retention and foreclosure prevention solutions.”

That’s not what the advocacy groups concluded in their report.

Over 1 million of the foreclosed homes that Bank of America services are eligible for modification under the federal modification program, yet Bank of America has offered permanent loan modifications to only 5.8 percent, or less than 70,000 of those eligible, according to National People’s Action.

Simon disagreed with the report. He said since January 2008, Bank of America has completed 630,000 modifications through all available programs.

Rev. Sirchester Jackson of Mandel United Methodist Church said the foreclosure crisis is hitting lower-income communities the hardest, and in Austin, there is rarely a block that doesn’t have a vacant or boarded-up home.

“Over a year ago, the people and the government bailed out the banks, but today it seems like the banks have bailed on the people,” he said. “They took all this money from the government, from our pockets to cover themselves, and they can’t find a way to cover the people in these communities who need them. That’s not right.”

Theresa Welch-Davis tells the story of Dorothy Daniel who is fighting to keep her home of 40 years out of foreclosure. Photo/Barb Duckett

Daniel is one of those people. She was diagnosed with diabetes two years ago, and anticipating tough times, she made her first attempt to modify her loan through Bank of America. Daniel’s illness, which took one of her legs, forced her to quit her job, and after filing at least seven applications for loan modification – each one denied – she finds herself close to foreclosure.

Theresa Welch-Davis, housing coordinator for the South Austin Coalition, helped Daniel file nearly all of her applications, noting that Daniel asked for help before times got bad. But Bank of America workers either said they didn’t have enough information or they didn’t have the right information, Welch-Davis said.

“They had the information; they just didn’t want to help,” she said. “These banks, all of them, they aren’t playing around with foreclosure, they are playing with people’s lives and destroying this community. What they are doing isn’t right, and we won’t let them get away with it.”

Raymond Guy, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.), said the congressman’s staff stands ready to help fight the banks. Welch-Davis and Juanita Rutues, vice president of South Austin Coalition, pushed Guy to appeal to everyone at the city and state level. He responded: We will appeal to the entire Illinois congressional delegation.

The purpose of Wednesday’s walking tour was to hang signs on Bank of America-owned homes. Signs reading “Another Foreclosure Brought to You by Bank of America” were hung on several properties. Each sign nailed to a board or taped to a door drew neighborhood crowds and more outrage about foreclosures.

Phillip Barnes, 44, who lives near a foreclosed property at 4854 W. Gladys Ave., said the home has been vacant for 10 years. The back of the house, weed covered and burnt with black soot from a recent fire, was littered with trash and contained an abandoned vehicle.

“It’s been a real eyesore on this block for years,” Barnes said. “It wasn’t until recently that they put the boards up, but people still breaking in and causing problems. I mow the front yard and keep the sidewalk clear as much as I can, but somebody needs to do something.”

Photo/Barb Duckett

Between 4800 and 4900 West Gladys, there are 14 foreclosed homes, some boarded, most just vacant with letters taped on the doors and personal belongings still inside.

Elce Redmond of the South Austin Coalition said it’s not just Bank of America that’s destroying communities, it’s every bank.

“Unfortunately, what is happening is the equity in the community is being drained completely, and this is a major social catastrophe,” he said. “People are getting poorer, and our banks are getting richer. Our society has become the tale of two cities.”

Noting that Bank of America is the largest mortgage servicer in the country, Simon said the company is working hard to address the housing crisis at all of its branches.

“Foreclosure is a sad and damaging result for the homeowners; a very costly result for the servicer and mortgage investor; and a detriment to the surrounding community,” he said. “While we cannot avoid foreclosure in some cases, particularly in today’s economy, Bank of America considers foreclosure only as a last resort.”

Rev. Jackson said foreclosure nationwide is a crisis – an epidemic, really – and it’s time the banks come to the table and work with communities to put people back in their homes and prevent others from being thrown out.

“This tour shows what is taking place right here in our community; this tour shows the impact it has had on Austin’s community,” he said.

“These vacant homes bring in crime, criminals and violence to the neighborhood. They drive property value down, and they take away from this beautiful community we live in. Somewhere along the line the banks have dropped the ball, and it is our obligation to hold their feet to the fire.”

Cigarette butts, beer bottles and cans, fast-food wrappers and trash line many of the baseball fields in Austin, and some residents say the Chicago Parks District is striking out in maintaining fields at Levin Park, Amundsen Park, La Follette Park and Columbus Park.

Ray Jones practices fielding June 22nd at Levin Park with his Wolfpack team. No benches are provided for spectators. (Photo/Karen Kring)

Thomas Bowling, president of the Westside Youth League, said the bleachers are ripped to shreds, most fields have no dugouts and the coaching staff often arrives early to pick up trash before the kids arrive.

“We have asked the Park District to come out and straighten the diamonds up,” he said.

“But there is an overall lack of concern. These are not true baseball fields. They are not lined with chalk like traditional fields, most don’t have outfield fences and if they have dugouts, the benches are broken. The facilities on the West Side are in very poor shape.”

Gregg Mason, park supervisor at Amundsen Park, disagrees. He said his fields are in great shape and his staff works hard to keep them that way.

“Nothing is wrong with my fields,” he said. “We have between 70 to 90 youth that play on these fields, and honestly, mine are the best in the city on the Austin side. Other parks may have problems, but I don’t because I keep my fields in shape.”

But David Laxton, who coaches the Wolfpacks, a summer traveling team in its eighth year on the West Side, insists the Austin fields are sub-par, and Chicago Parks District and elected officials in the community are letting the kids down.

“This fields are a disgrace, they have trash on them and beer bottles. This is not an environment that you want your son or daughter playing in,” he said. “The fields themselves are just a dirt diamond; they don’t have dugouts, benches; they aren’t chalked; they don’t have bleachers; they are weed-covered; and there is just no upkeep.”

Regina Hayes, communications manager for Chicago Park District’s Central Region, which includes Austin parks, said landscape staff work hard to clean up the parks but cannot be on-site at all hours.

“Sometimes there are a couple hundred or thousand people at these parks, and our people work hard to get out and clean the parks first thing in the morning,” she said. “It is the summer time there is an increased traffic at these parks because of the warm weather, but our landscape people are there at 6 a.m. every morning. Sometimes the parks’ cleanliness is based on the time that you are at the park. . . . There are maintenance crews at the parks every morning, but we can’t be there all the time.”

Dirt clods are found throughout the infield at Levin Park, where the Wolfpack team practices. (Photo/Karen Kring)

Bowling, who also coaches one of the five Wolfpack baseball teams, said the poor conditions have forced his league’s teams to play only road games.

“We shouldn’t have to go outside of the community to play baseball everyday,” he said. “It is difficult on the kids, and it’s hard on their families who have to either leave work early, or sadly enough, not make it to the game at all to watch their son play.”

Bowling said the only positive about playing in the suburbs is the boys get to play on a “real baseball field.”

“You should see the look on these kids’ faces when we get to other parks. They are stunned and elated to play baseball in stadiums and on perfectly manicured field,” he said. “These fields have bright green grass and have just been mowed, the dirt is smooth and recently dragged with fresh white chalk lining the fields. The fields have dugouts with roofs, outfield fences and scoreboards.”

He said there isn’t a day that goes by that he doesn’t get the question: “Coach, why can’t we have fields like they do?” To which he answers, “I don’t know.”

Austin resident Dwayne Truss said it’s not right that there isn’t even one genuine baseball diamond on the West Side.

“This is an ongoing problem here, and the only way to get real results is to continue to push the Park District,” said Truss, who officiates in the suburbs. “It’s sad that the youth on the West Side don’t have the opportunity to play on real ball diamonds. The Park District wouldn’t get away with this in other, more affluent communities. That’s why we need to stand up to them and force the issue.

“It’s not just a totally different field, it is a totally different world for these kids playing in the suburbs,” he said. “These kids haven’t seen anything like that in their community, and it is sad. It is sad that the youth on the West Side don’t have the same opportunities.”

Truss said he doesn’t blame only the Chicago Park District but also elected officials who he said aren’t fighting for their communities and getting the job done.

Ald. Emma Mitts (37th) said the parks in Austin are generally in good shape and the Park District strives to maintain the “physical integrity of the parks.”

Mitts said she encourages anyone with a specific Chicago Park District issue or request to contact her office at 773-745-2894. She said communication is key, and if she doesn’t know about the problems, she can’t address them.

“In addition, I am committing that my staff will increase their joint observation patrols of our local parks and baseball fields, working to monitor the status of areas where Chicagoans can freely relax, play and learn.”

Ald. Deborah Graham (29th) and Ald. Ed Smith (28th) were unavailable for comment.

Laxton and others hope things improve for their West Side players.

“The Park District needs to put more emphasis on helping out these kids and giving them the opportunities they deserve,” he said. “It is unfair how they treat these kids and this community. It’s not right.”

As the theater reached near capacity, a spin on Jodi Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” written and performed by i.O. alum Matt Besser was played on a projector screen. Besser, best known for his work with the Upright Citizens Brigade and his sketches on Comedy Central, used sharp lyrics in the song titled “Big Corporate Mess” or “Ann Sather’s Food Tastes like Rat Poop”:

“Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know whatcha got till it’s gone,” he sang. “They paved the i.O and built a big corporate mess. Chicago’s known for improv, not for Dominick’s, but now the neighborhood is run by a bunch of dicks. Tunney, don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know whatcha you got till it’s gone. Come on, Tunney, it ain’t all about the money.”

Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) at last Thursday’s final community meeting endorsed a controversial, $100-million mixed-use development project planned for across the street from Wrigley Field. The alderman, owner of Ann Sather’s Restaurant, said that developer Anthony Rossi’s project was “a good development for the neighborhood.”

If passed, the development, “Addison Park on Clark,” would level roughly eight neighborhood businesses to make way for a 137-room Hyatt Hotel, 135 residential units, 145,000 square feet of retail space and 399 underground parking spaces.

The displaced include Red Ivy, 3519 N. Clark St.; Goose Island Beer Co., 3535 N. Clark St.; Salt & Pepper Diner, 3537 N. Clark St.; Bar Louie, 3545 N. Clark St.;  and i.O., 3541 N. Clark St., once home to comedy legend Del Close and stars Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers.

After Tunney voiced his support last week, Tara DeFrancisco, a member of i.O., created a Facebook group to mobilize a movement in an attempt to halt the project. The group, People Against the “Malling of Wrigleyville,” in just under a week has garnered support from over 7,100 members.

“We want people to be aware of an eclectic neighborhood facing what we feel is a detrimental change,” DeFrancisco said. “This development would take some of the spark and liveliness out of a great neighborhood, and we are here to get the word out, and there has been a bigger outpouring of support that we could have ever imagined.”

Tunney said he wasn’t aware of the growing Facebook movement against the project, but was aware of the 20 community meetings in the Lakeview neighborhood over the past three years. Tunney said he had representatives at Sunday night’s meeting, but said this is not a new issue for the community.

“I am sure that they are concerned, as am I, about making sure these businesses have a way to stay in the community. But this isn’t a new issue and we have had three years worth of meetings to address concerns,” he said.

But when plans were announced in 2008 for the 3500 block of North Clark Street, Charna Halpern, owner and director of i.O., said she was told that i.O. would get a temporary location just behind its current spot, and after completion of the project they would have a new theater in the new development. After all, the developer, who also owns several of the buildings on the block, Steven Schultz, is her cousin.

Schultz couldn’t be reached for comment.

Halpern said that through the two-plus-year process, Schultz assured and reassured her that she had nothing to worry about. That ended last week.

“He told me last week, ‘Sorry you’re out, don’t take it personally, it’s just business,’” she said. “Now I am fighting for my life. I am fighting for my theater family, and the neighborhood I have worked in for 35 years and love.”

The meeting Sunday, more of an open forum, drew dozens of suggestions from an active audience who wanted answers and results, and were willing to try anything to save what they called their “livelihood, in a neighborhood they love and don’t want to leave.”

Paul Meyd, 24, who moved to Chicago seven months ago from Maryland, said he made the 700-mile trek to be a part of Chicago’s improv scene and be a part of what he called an historic and beautiful neighborhood.

“There is so much character in this community,” Meyd said. “On a day that the Cubs win or lose, I can’t imagine leaving the stadium and seeing a mall and a hotel. That’s not conducive to this neighborhood, we don’t need it. It doesn’t lend anything to this atmosphere or to the people that live here.”

Lyndsay Hailey, 29, a resident of Lincoln Park, agreed with Meyd, and said it is “silly to think anyone wants to leave a Cubs game and go buy a book.”

“It doesn’t make any sense for an actual mall to be right here in Wrigleyville, across from Wrigley Field,” she said. “People like to come to Wrigley to enjoy the theater, the neighborhood, the Cubs and the nightlife, and there is no reason to change that or take it away.”

Last week, M&R Development revealed that prospective tenants include Best Buy, Dominick’s, an Apple Store and a CVS Pharmacy.

No date is set yet, but Tunney said the next step will be to present the proposal to the Chicago Plan Commission in June.

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Two US Bank representatives joined locally elected officials and community activists in search of a partnership that appeared to be a way’s off.

After listening to several people speak, Robert McGhee, vice president of Community Development for US Bank, said the foreclosure situation affects every neighborhood in Chicago.

McGhee said US Bank, which took over Park National Bank last fall after federal regulators seized it. wants to form a partnership with the community. But when pressed on when the two parties could “come to the table,” McGhee couldn’t give a definite answer.

“We are here to work ,and we want to find a constructive way to work with the community,” he said. “We are willing to do pretty much whatever it takes to slow this problem down, but it is going to take time. We can’t just slam the breaks and stop it overnight.”

Virgil Crawford of the Westside Health Authority continued to push McGhee on a partnership, saying that this is a “right now issue.”

“It is time for you to step up, US Bank,” he said. “We want to form a partnership, and we want to come to the table and get to work. But we need both sides at the table.”

McGhee’s response: whenever the call has come through, we’ve answered. We are here tonight, I am here tonight, but these things take time.

Steven McCullough, president and chief executive officer of Bethel New Lifeand a member of the Coalition to Save Community Banking, repeated the coalition’s desire for US Bank to establish a $25 million foreclosure pool to be used for rehabbing foreclosed properties that families can then live in.

“We need somebody that will go to the wire for us,” he said. “We need a partner that believes in our community, in our residents, in our schools and business. In order to have a partnership, we need to have terms, and that is what we are trying to establish.”

McCullough shared some alarming statistics – facts like in the last 16 months, US Bank has been involved in 366 foreclosures on Chicago’s West Side and neighboring suburb of Oak Park. And in 2009, US Bank filed 1,927 foreclosures citywide, the third highest for any financial institution, but he said it is not all US Bank.

“US Bank is what we are talking about today, but they are not the only bank,” he said. “All banks need to be held accountable, and today it’s US Bank; tomorrow it’s going to be Wells Fargo, and then it’s going to be Chase. We are going to go after all banks, everyone in the food chain that has hurt our families and our communities.”

A study by the Chicago Rehab Network found that in March 2010 alone, there were 1,763 newly filed foreclosures and 1,896 completed foreclosures in Chicago. In Austin’s three wards – the 28th, 29th and 37th – there were 102 newly filed foreclosures and 128 completed foreclosures.

According to the same Chicago Rehab Network study, JP Chase Morgan leads all banks in Chicago with 235 forecloses, followed by Deutsche Bank National Trust Co. with 171, US Bank with 167, Wells Fargo Bank with 110 andCitiMortgage Inc. with 109.

A common theme of the night was praise for Park National Bank and its long record of serving and investing in the community.

David Pope, president of the Village of Oak Park, said there needs to be a financial institution that will continue the commitment Park National Bank had to the residents, businesses and communities of the West Side.

“The takeover of Park National Bank amounts to the largest bank robbery in the United States,” Pope said. “The foreclosure crisis is killing these communities, and it’s profoundly harming the Austin neighborhood. We need a partnership with US Bank to bring back the community banking that these neighborhoods used to grow and need to survive.”

McGhee said US Bank is very away of the positive impact Park National Bank had on the community.

Jacqueline Reed, president and chief executive officer of the Westside Health Authority, said the West Side used to have a banker in the neighborhood who understood the needs of the residents and invested in the needs of the community.

“Now we have streets that are lined with boarded-up houses and a banker who is not taking stepping up to help the residents who need help,” she said. “The government gives handouts to the banks, the banks ought to give handouts to the people. When they don’t, something ain’t right.”

Delia Ewing, 84, who lives in the 5300 block of West Congress Parkway, pleaded with McGhee to clean up the property located next to her house, recounting how just last week someone carried a dead dog out of the foreclosed home that is not boarded up.

“I look out my window and can see the abandoned house next door with weeds as tall as I am. There are nights when dogs are barking all night, and people are going in and out of the building at all times,” Ewing said.

“My husband and I are 86 and 84 years old. We have tried to clean up the property, but we can’t do it anymore. All I am asking for is help, we just need help. I don’t know what is going on over there, but I am scared.”

Reed pushed McGhee to make a commitment to deal with the property today, and he assured the lively crowd that something would be done Wednesday morning.

The Westside Health Authority’s Crawford then interrupted McGhee, insisting these are “right now issues” and asked McGhee if US Bank is willing to commit the $25 million to a community stabilization.

McGhee sidestepped the question, saying “that’s an unrealistic question.”

Ald. Deborah Graham (29th Ward) challenged the audience to commit to taking money out of US Bank if a partnership and a plan of action is not reached.

“We want to work with you (US Bank). But if the issue isn’t resolved, we need to take our money out of the bank,” she said.

Rep. Karen Yarbrough (D-Chicago) said US Bank has to do better for the West Side community and communities all across the city. She said the community standard set by Park National Bank will not be forgotten and it’s time for US Bank to “step up and become a community banking leader.”

“We need you to step up US Bank, and let me tell you, the people in the room aren’t going away,” she said.

Article cutesy of AustinTalks.org.

If you missed it, check out Tuesday’s story: Elected Officials Take Foreclosure Tour on West Side

More than 30 people took part in the “tour” and heard Steven McCullough, chief executive officer and president of Bethel New Life present alarming statistics – facts like in the last 16 months, US Bank has been involved in 366 foreclosures on Chicago’s West Side and neighboring suburb of Oak Park.

McCullough also noted that in all of 2009, US Bank filed 1,927 foreclosures citywide, the third highest for any financial institution.

A representative from US Bank could not be reached for comment.

Elce Redmond of the South Austin Coalition, a grassroots community group that advocates for the area’s low-income residents, said no one seemed surprised by the numbers. That’s because when driving the streets of Austin, Redmond noted, there’s rarely a block that doesn’t have at least one boarded up or abandoned house – a tell-tale sign of foreclosure.

“’Do Not Enter’ signs and ‘Foreclosed’ signs are becoming a commonality in this community, and that is where the problem lies,” Redmond said. “This is what is happening in the community, and the elected officials, as much as the residents, want to put an end to foreclosures and start the next step, which is getting people back into their homes.”

McCullough said abandoned and boarded-up buildings are a dire problem on the West Side because vacant spaces get taken over by drug dealers and gangs.

“These vacant homes lead to increased gang activity and violence,” he said. “It is time for US Bank to be held accountable, and we want them to meet the same community standards and the same level of community involvement that we had with Park National Bank.

Park National Bank was seized by federal regulators in October, and its operations were turned over to US Bank. Park National was widely praised for its relationship with the community and its residents.

A study by the Chicago Rehab Network found that in March 2010 alone, there were 1,763 newly filed foreclosures and 1,896 completed foreclosures in Chicago. In Austin’s three wards – the 28th, 29th and 37th – there were 102 newly filed foreclosures and 128 completed foreclosures.

According to the same Chicago Rehab Network study, JP Morgan Chase Bank leads all banks in Chicago with 235 forecloses, followed by Deutsche Bank National Trust Co. with 171, US Bank with 167, Wells Fargo Bank with 110 and CitiMortgage Inc. with 109.

The Coalition to Save Community Banking and McCullough are asking US Bank to establish a $25 million foreclosure pool that would go directly to rehabbing foreclosed properties so families can live in them.

“Basically, we are asking them to create a community stabilization fund for families on the West Side,” he said. “In addition to rehabbing foreclosed properties, we are asking US Bank to provide more support for our residents in the form of counseling and also using loan modification to give families a chance to stay in their homes.”

Redmond said elected officials and everyday residents need to know what’s happening in their community.

“We live in this community, and we drive the streets of this community, but it is rare to stop and look around at what is happening in this community,” he said. “It was important for us to get out on the streets and take a walk and realize what is happening.”

McCullough said Austin residents must speak up and be heard. He said the livelihood of the West Side community is relying on a partnership with US Bank that doesn’t exist, and without it the foreclosure problem will only continue to get worse.

“They can do more,” he said. “The meeting is about putting a face on the problem and putting the pressure on the bank to step up and be accountable.”

US Bank and locally elected officials have been invited by the Coalition to Save Community Banking to a town hall tonight at 6:30 in Hope Community Church, 5900 W. Iowa.

The meeting is designed to put pressure on US Bank to work with the community and the residents of Austin on the foreclosure problem, Redmond said.

Article curtsey of  AustinTalks.org

House Bill 4647, which passed the House 112-1 last month and is currently awaiting a vote in the Senate, would force Chicago Public Schools to start a hotline to collect anonymous tips from people who might otherwise fear reporting crimes to the police. The hotline would be run by the Chicago Police Department, which would investigate each call.

Rep. Chapin Rose (R-Charleston), the only representative to vote against the bill, said this is just another unnecessary expense the state can’t afford.

“We already have this program. It is called 911 and Crime Stoppers,” Rose said. “The state of Illinois is broke. We don’t have enough money to pay our teachers. Our school districts are broke and waiting on back payments. We don’t need this. If there is an immediate threat to someone’s life, we should be dialing 911, not some 1-800 number.”

Davis disagreed. She said students will not call 911; they will not seek out a police officer because they are afraid of the repercussions of being a “snitch.”

“There must be a way for students to call and anonymously report any incidents of violence that they have heard about,” Davis said. “We need to have a way for our children to reach out and report violence without being afraid for their safety.”

Nineteen CPS students have been killed this year, 15 by gunshot, said CPS spokesman Bob Otter.

Ken Trump, president of National School Safety and Services, said there is no guarantee that a hotline will work, but said it will be largely dependent on how well the hotline is promoted.

“School hotlines are just another piece of the puzzle. They are an extra tool for school officials and law enforcement,” Trump said.

If passed, Illinois will join 10 other states that have similar violence prevention hotlines within their cities, including Florida, Michigan and Georgia. Rochelle Finzel, program manager at the National Conference of State Legislators, said besides Colorado, there is no state that has passed legislation on a statewide hotline.

Illinois, along with most states, doesn’t necessarily need a hotline, said Elena Calafell, executive director of Illinois Center for Violence Prevention. Instead, the state needs to implement a comprehensive plan that involves all entities working together to curb violence, she said.

“The statistics are clear: Youth do not turn to adults, instead they turn to their peers,” she said. “Having a mechanism or vehicle for the students to report violence anonymously is a great idea, but it is a very small part of the puzzle and one that I don’t think will be utilized a great deal.”

Some supports say an anonymous tip line would help get around a community “code of silence” that often stifles law enforcement efforts.

“There is a fear that young men and women have and they won’t break the code of silence, even if it’s anonymous,” Tio Hardiman, director of Ceasefire Illinois said. “They are always afraid someone is going to find out that they snitched. We have to change those mindsets before these programs will work.”

Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie (D-Chicago) didn’t agree. She said if there was concern, the bill wouldn’t have overwhelmingly passed.

“If this is something that the Chicago Police Department and Chicago Public Schools, among other entities, don’t agree with, it would be a surprise to me,” she said. “I would have thought they would have made their concern known to someone. Obviously they didn’t. The vote was 112-1.”

The Chicago Police Department and Chicago Public Schools declined repeated requests for comment.

Trump said ensuring students’ safety needs to become a priority again.

“We have to put our money where our mouth is,” he said. “It is one thing to say that school safety and violence prevention is the top priority, but that has to be reflected in the budget, otherwise it is more rhetoric than priority.”

Ron Holmes, a spokesman for Sen. Jacqueline Collins (D-Chicago), a co-sponsor for the bill in the Senate, said there has been a lot of support for the bill, and they expect it to see it on the calendar this week.

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Brooks-Rodriguez and Bond both live on Chicago’s South Side, both have raised families and placed their dreams of becoming a teacher on the back burner. That was until they applied for Illinois’ Grow Your Own Teachers, an initiative funded by the state.

“I have been a special education teacher’s assistant for 21 years at Daley Elementary Academy School, and I am ready to be the teacher,” Brooks-Rodriguez said. “This is an awesome opportunity. I have wanted it for so many years, but couldn’t afford it.”

Grow Your Own, which recruits candidates from low-income neighborhoods where schools struggle to retain a qualified staff, provides financial assistance in the form of tuition, books and childcare so each individual can earn a bachelors degree and obtain a teaching license in Illinois.

This program, which to date has graduated and placed 11 teachers, is fighting for survival as the state slashes funding. Rep. Esther Golar (D-Chicago) said education is an area that is being hit the hardest.

Golar, who is an advocate of the program, introduced House Bill 391 on Tuesday. If passed, the bill would pour $4.5 million into the state’s education fund.

“We, in education, cannot withstand any more cuts,” she said. “If Grow Your Own doesn’t get the funding, the program will not survive. The real life and breath of any individual is education and we have to always fund these types of programs in low-income communities that need the programs the most.”

Attending Northeastern Illinois University, with four children at home and one in college, Bonds said Grow Your Own is “like the best scholarship you could ever have. They pay tuition, books and even child care so I can follow my dream.”

“If the funding for this program is cut, my heart will be broken and this great opportunity will be taken away,” she said.

Last year, the state cut the program’s funding by almost 40 percent, but Gov. Pat Quinn kept it alive by funneling $1.2 million to it. Steve Andrews, resource coordinator for Grow Your Own, said the program is not asking for additional money; they are simply asking for flat funding.

But House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago) said it would be irresponsible to promise funding to any organization with the current budget shortfall of $12.8 billion.

“We are all concerned about education and we want to continue to produce teachers that live in the neighborhoods where they work so they will know the children and understand the problems of the neighborhood,” Madigan said. “But the general approach for all state programs is to stay afloat. Eventually the economy will come back. If these programs are still online, we will be in a good position to provide them with funding.”

Sen. Kimberly Lightford (D-Westchester), also an advocate for Grow Your Own, said although the program has been great and should be at the top of the list in the future, it is unlikely the program will find funding next year.

“The budget will recoup itself. It will turn around and when it does, this is the type of program that we need to look at for long-term funding,” Lightford said.

Nearly 90 percent of Grow Your Own candidates are people of color with strong ties to their communities. Golar said it’s these candidates that are in tune with the neighborhoods’ cultures and challenges.

Andrews said it is a disastrous time for the state and every program is in danger.

“They are talking about cutting programs completely or by 50 percent,” he said. “If that happens to Grow Your Own, over 90 percent of our candidates could not continue because they do not have financial capabilities to find their education.”

Brooks-Rodriguez is also attending Northeastern Illinois University, with her three children in college. She said the program has been a gift from God.

“This is an opportunity of a lifetime, but it has been challenging because I work full-time,” she said. “But I am excited for this chance and can’t wait until the day I walk into Daley Elementary Academy with my teaching certificate. It will be one of the greatest days of my life.”

Chicago Public Radio’s City Room reports on the effects of the state budget crisis on the University of Illinois.

For the past three years, Shivers has spent her nights bouncing from one homeless shelter to the next. On the “really bad nights,” she scrounged up $2.25 for a CTA pass to ride up and down the Red Line.

Shivers is just one of 12,685 students  who have been identified as homeless in Chicago Public Schools. That number has jumped 30 percent in just two years, said CPS spokesman Malon Edwards.

It’s these numbers that pushed the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless to reach out to Rep. Cynthia Soto (D-Chicago) to re-introduce House Bill 4755, which would budget grant money for homeless youth education programs in Illinois.

Soto introduced a similar bill two years ago, but after it passed both the House and Senate, then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich vetoed the bill.

“This bill would create a grant for the schools to ensure that we have the funding to identify and care for each of the homeless students in Illinois,” Soto said.

In 2008, for the first time, the state Board of Education allocated $3 million toward educating homeless students. But this year, the board eliminated the funds, saying districts should use federal money instead.

Mary Fergus, spokeswoman for the Illinois State Board of Education, said the budget was cut by more than $500 million and the board has had to make some very difficult decisions.

“We hear the outcry of needs from all across the state and each of these needs is compelling and important, but the funding is not there,” she said.

Shivers is a story that is all too familiar to Rene Heybach, director of the Law Project of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. There has been a huge spike in homeless youth in Illinois and not enough is being done, she said.

“More needs to be done for these kids that are in horrible and traumatic situations. We can’t let them slip through the system,” she said.

Fergus said there is federal money available through the McKinney-Vento law, enacted in 2002, which requires districts to waive all student fees for homeless children and provide transportation.

Shivers, who is attending Prologue Early College High School in West Town and is set to graduate in June, choked up when she recalled the years she spent on the streets.

“It is a real dark, lonely feeling,” she said. “When you ride the train all night, nobody knows what you are doing until you see the person next to you doing the same thing and you realize you are not the only one.”

More than a year ago, a six-month-pregnant Shivers was standing near the Red Line on a cold, rainy night, when a member of the Night Ministry’s Youth Outreach Program approached. The volunteer offered her a bed that night. Shivers said this was the moment that changed her life.

Now the mother of 5-month-old Naveah, Shivers is a part of the Transitional Living Program at the Open Door Shelter in West Town, a two-year program for youth ages 16 to 20.

“I don’t know where I would be today. It actually scares me and my heart dropped when you asked that,” she said.

Shivers said having a constant living situation at the shelter and somewhere to go at the end of the day makes everything, including school, a lot easier. But she said at the end of the day, it is about not giving up.

“You can’t give up, just don’t give up because it’s your life and you only have once chance at living it,” she said. “My goal is to walk across the stage at graduation with my daughter and give her a better life than I had.”

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These are the facts that we read in the news — but how much do we really know about what is happening in Haiti in the aftermath of this crisis? Can we trust the news reports now coming out of this long-forgotten nation? And what does it mean about the state of journalism that we have to ask these questions?

These questions were the topic of a heated debate Thursday evening at the National Association of Black Journalists’ monthly meeting. Mary Mitchell, columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, joined state Sen. Kwame Raoul, Evanston Ald. Lionel Jean-Baptiste of the Haitian Congress to Fortify Haiti,and Patrick Brutus, co-founder of the Haitian-American Professionals Network to discuss media coverage of Haiti in comparison to other disasters.

Mitchell said she was disappointed with the immediate coverage of the earthquake, which she referred to as a disaster “unprecedented in this hemisphere.”

“We were really ill-prepared to tell the story because we had ignored Haiti for so long,” she said. “If you are not familiar with your beat, if you don’t know background, history or culture, you won’t be able to do your job.”

Jean-Baptiste said there was an imbalance in media coverage of Haiti because of who was telling the story.

“Here you have CNN, NBC and big stars like Anderson Cooper telling what they think is Haiti’s story,” he said. “It wasn’t until last week, when the black media arrived, that you got the projection of will and the resilience of the Haitian people. We need to tell our own story.”

Mitchell said the media couldn’t cover the story immediately because Haiti was off the radar for most journalists. She then held up the front page of the Sun-Times from the day after the disaster. On the cover was a story about Ron Huberman, chief executive officer of Chicago Public Schools.

It wasn’t until two days after the tragedy that the media started their blitz, but with it came front pages plastered with pictures of death. It’s these horrifying photographs that upset Mitchell, who said showing pictures of “rotting, bloated, dead people is an injustice to journalism.”

“I was disappointed in all media outlets that ran pictures of dead bodies,” she said. “Covers of papers with pictures of rotting bodies, where is the dignity in that? We didn’t do it with Katrina, we don’t do it in a war zone, but in Haiti it seemed alright to show bloated, rotting dead bodies.”

Marielle Sainvilus, spokeswoman for Illinois State Department, said the media has ignored Haiti for so long that readers have been left ignorant and afraid of the unknown.

“Anything that was negative has been put on Haiti,” she said. “As a result, any time that Haiti came up in the media in the past was negative. Therefore Haiti became this pit in the media. As a result, now that this earthquake has happened, it has uncovered this Pandora’s box of complexity of this small island that nobody knew about.”

Mitchell, at the same time she criticized some media coverage, gave journalists credit for “getting up-to-speed so quickly.”

“Haiti is no different than any subject we cover. Someone has to have a heart for Haiti,” she said. “In the newsroom someone has to have a heart for the South Side and the West Side. Someone has to have a heart for Haiti, someone has to want to cover it.”

The panel agreed on one thing: The media hasn’t dug deep enough, and there are far too many stories to tell.

Sainvilus said this is the first time that Haiti is getting the media attention they deserve. She said the media can bring light to the issues and bring attention to the history and the culture and can help Haitians rebuild.

“I appreciate the media overkill that has been given to Haiti,” she said. “It has given Haiti a platform that they have never had in the media before, it has given a platform to Haitians who have never been portrayed in the right light.”

To fight this growing problem, Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago) introduced House Bill 4672, which would require teachers, principals, guidance counselors and all personnel who work with students in grades 7 through 12 to be trained in suicide prevention two hours each year.

Harris joined forces with the Jason Foundation, which was founded by Clark Flatt after his son, Jason, committed suicide at 16. Harris said youth suicide is preventable — if teachers and school officials know what to look out for.

“When it comes to our schools, youth organizations and various programs, suicide just isn’t on the radar as something that a 12-year-old could be planning,” Harris said. “Ninety percent of the time, these kids are reaching out. We just don’t know how to recognize it.”

In the case of 10-year-old Aquan Lewis, the Evanston student who hanged himself by his shirt collar on a hook in an Oakton Elementary School restroom stall on Feb. 2, 2009, officials said the fifth-grader had made threats about killing himself.

Dr. Ron Davidson, professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago, agreed that there are almost always warning signs leading up to a suicide. In the case of Lewis, Davidson said he had serious concerns.

“It seemed this was a situation that could have been avoided. The boy made some kind of statement announcing his plans and how he was feeling, and it either wasn’t listened to or he wasn’t taken seriously,” he said.

Relatives of Lewis have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the school district alleging that Evanston-Skokie School District 65 was negligent. Attorney Todd Smith, who is representing the family, couldn’t be reached for comment.

Oakton Elementary school officials also couldn’t be reached for comment.

If passed, Illinois would be the fifth state to pass legislation requiring in-service training for all school officials. In 2007, Tennessee became the first state to pass the Jason Flatt Act, followed by Louisiana, Mississippi and California. The Jason Foundation has trained 117,000 teachers so far and is currently working with five other states to pass legislation.

“It is not the only thing any state should do, but it is the single most important thing any state should do,” said Clark Flatt, chief executive officer of the Jason Flatt Foundation. “The single most important aspect of suicide prevention is training and specifically training the teachers and school officials to be able to recognize at-risk behavior.”

Davidson said he “whole-heartedly” agrees that the bill should be passed.

“It is absolutely necessary,” he said.

Flatt said the Jason Foundation, along with all organizations involved with suicide prevention, would provide free training to all school personnel.

Mary Kay Dawson, a legislative volunteer for the Jason Foundation who is working with state legislators to get the bill passed, said suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people and “is a real problem.”

“There has been great support in Illinois,” she said. “Everyone agrees with the bill in theory. We are just working on language so when we bring the bill to the table everyone is in agreement. We want this to be a team effort.”

Davidson said he is concerned when he hears any kind of objection to this type of bill.

“Lay the body of a dead child next to the issues people have against this bill, and I am certain the body of a dead child trumps any sort of irresponsible response to not taking immediate action,” he said.

Harris said he hopes there will be vote on the bill next month.

On a snowy afternoon on Feb. 9 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Chicago’s Neighborhood Development Awards hosted a “Back to the Future” panel in which experts discussed the opportunities and challenges that Chicago must meet head-on to achieve economic development.

Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th), the newly nominated Democratic candidate for Cook County Board president, joined Scott Myers of World Sport Chicago, Raul Raymundo of the Resurrection Project, and Robert Weissbourd of RW Ventures in a discussion about what Chicago will look like in 2016 and what needs to be done to address job development and neighborhood restructuring.

It didn’t take long for education to rise to the forefront of the discussion. Preckwinkle, a former high school teacher, made it very clear that education needs to become a top priority in Chicago.

“It reflects very badly on the adults and the city that we have let the problem come to this,” she said. “Less than half of our young people graduate high school, and not having a diploma makes their future very difficult.”

Raymundo agreed. He said the graduation rate for the Hispanic population is significantly worse.

“Education is critical for our young people,” he said. “Education is critical to economic growth and development. We need to take a serious look at our education system. Reform and real action are necessary.”

Greg Hinz, the moderator for the event, noted quickly that everyone used the word “education” in their opening addresses. He then asked the panel if that was an indication of what Chicago’s most fundamental problem is: Are our young people not prepared for the workforce? Are they not educated?

Preckwinkle quickly took the question. She said she didn’t mean to “be a broken record,” but all children should receive a quality education and it is this education that is critical for all business growth.

“One of the complaints I hear from local businesses is that it is hard to find good employees,” she said. “The implication being that kids who come looking for jobs couldn’t read very well and didn’t have basic math skills. The most important factor to business growth is education.”

Weissbourd said education is vital to the success of any economy. His example: a half-percent increase in the college education rate of an area’s population would mean a 1 percent increase in regional profit.

“The single biggest impact on economic growth is human capital, and that is expressed in education,” he said. “If you have one investment in your economy, education is it.”

Raymundo said the Hispanic high school drop out rate is near 75 percent and less than 10 percent attend post-secondary school. But he said the Hispanic population is doing more in terms of opening their own businesses.

“Not everyone’s life path is to college,” he said. “We need to do more with workforce training; we need to prepare our young people for the workforce.”

Midway through the panel discussion, Hinz said, “We need money to survive.” He then said Chicago is not keeping up with the nation and asked if there was indeed a positive legacy to 2016.

Preckwinkle, a self-proclaimed “avid supporter” of the 2016 bid, said she, like the rest of Chicagoans, was disappointed when Chicago lost the Olympic bid, but she said the focus needs to shift to what’s next.

“We need to focus on the aftermath of the 2016 bid,” she said. “We need to figure out what our own 2016 should be. We have to find some consensus around this effort to have our own plan as a city, as a business community, as neighborhoods, as economic development organizations to transform the communities that we live in.”

Raymundo stressed that the key factor in real economic development has been the growth of the immigrant population in Chicago. He said comprehensive immigration reform, which, he noted, President Barack Obama supported during his campaign, is necessary.

“We need to unleash some of the talent that is out there, but so many people are unable because of their immigration status,” he said. “In Illinois in 2008, the Hispanic population generated $40 billion; $370 million of that was in Chicago. This is important information to understand how to build a strong economy.”

In the late ’80s and early ’90s, Chicago turned into a global economy and did well, Weissbourd said. But in the past 10 years, Chicago has become “stagnant” and is trailing behind most other cities.

“It is very important to get more strategic about what we are going to do with our metropolitan economy,” Weissbourd said. “Until the crash, our neighborhoods were by and large coming back, but the crash really knocked the neighborhoods out. Regional development is dependent on neighborhoods. You have to understand that these key components work together.”

Myers, who was a part of the the city’s Olympic bid team, said there are alternative routes to building the economy in Chicago. He said sports is one of the tools that Chicago can use to bring people and business into the city.

“By expanding on some of the strengths and capabilities here in the city, we can develop innovative programs that are not only good for our kids, but can also help be a foundation to strengthen our neighborhoods and attract further business into our neighborhoods,” Myers said.

There was no clear solution to the stalling economic development in Chicago, but Weissbourd said there is no reason for every neighborhood to reinvent the wheel.

“A lot of the same problems apply in every neighborhood,” he said. “It is time we start planning for both the short term and long term. We are headed in the right direction, but we still have a long way to go.”

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It was the first time Burke had faced a challenge in a primary in nearly two decades of representing the 23rd House District in Southwest Chicago. Lozano, son of a slain Hispanic political activist, garnered nearly 45 percent of the vote to the lawmaker’s 50 percent, according to unofficial results.

Dick Simpson, head of the political science department at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said Tuesday before the polls closed that if the race was close, it would be a major statement indicating the machine’s strength weakening.

“If (Rudy) Lozano gets more than 40 percent of the vote, it would mean that (Dan) Burke can be defeated in a future election, if not the next election,” Simpson said. “It will mean the reform candidate can take back districts from the machine candidates. I see this race as a battle over the future of Latino politics.”

Lozano came close, willing 3,980 votes, while Burke had 4,414.

“The Latino population is growing at a rapid rate and is almost a third of the population in Chicago,” Simpson said. “This race will be a good indication about what the future of Chicago politics will look like and a tight race would be serious change in the future for machine candidates.”

Simpson said the 23rd District, a majority of which is in the 14th Ward, is over 70 percent Hispanic.

Burke hails from a powerful Irish family. His father, Joseph Burke, and brother, Edward, have served the 14th Ward in the Chicago City Council for a combined 55 years. Ald. Ed Burke is the longtime chair of the powerful Finance Committee and is married to Illinois Supreme Court 1st District Justice Anne Burke.

“This race has been entirely different for me,” Burke said in an interview just a day before Tuesday’s win. “In the past, if I voted I was elected. This is a new experience. I have ran a more than fair campaign. It has been a very positive experience, but I think I got what I anticipated.”

In addition to Lozano, there were two other Hispanic candidates in the race: Martin Meza-Zevala and Rene Diaz. These candidates kept a low profile, but may have taken some key votes away from Lozano. Meza-Zevala and Diaz combined received 5 percent of the vote.

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Illinois has reduced funding for early childhood education, including before- and after-school programs, by 10 percent, said a spokesman for state Sen. Heather Steans (D-Chicago), who is the vice chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee. This could result in as many as 15,000 Chicago children losing eligibility for these programs.

The state’s budget deficit is up to $12.8 billion, forcing lawmakers to cut state funding. It’s these cuts that are destroying before-and-after school programs in Chicago, said Harry Wells, president of Chicago Youth Centers.

David Sinski, executive director for After School Matters in Chicago, said the cuts have significantly affected all nonprofit programs, and it doesn’t appear that the problem will be fixed any time soon.

“Given the current economic climate, After School Matters, like many nonprofit organizations, has experienced difficulty relying on continuous funding from all sources,” he said in an e-mail. “At the same time, challenging financial circumstances have escalated demand for and reinforced the need to expand out-of-school program opportunities for Chicago teens.”

After School Matters is a nonprofit organization that offers 25,000 program opportunities to Chicago teens. Sinski said the long-term goal is to double the capacity to 50,000 programs, which would be enough to accommodate about one-half of all Chicago public high school teens, specifically on the South and West Sides.

Wells said in the past year, his nonprofit organization has lost over $1 million in financial support.

“We have seven centers in Chicago that are for early childhood through teen education programs,” he said. “We lost $400,000 in state funding thus far, and it looks like that will double next year.

“That would be devastating to our program.”

Chicago Youth Centers serve eight neighborhoods: Altgeld Gardens, Riverdale, Roseland, South Shore, Grand Boulevard, Bridgeport, Humboldt Park and North Lawndale.

“Our goal was to expand our centers throughout Chicago, but right now we have to focus on finding funding to keep the doors open,” he said. “This program and others like it are vital in Chicago. The young people that come to us would otherwise be on the street after school and would be subject to drug and gang violence on the streets or they would drop out of school entirely.”

Ralph Martire, director at the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, said the problem is just going to get worse unless state taxes are raised.

“All these elected officials seem to think they can solve the program without raising taxes, but they can’t say how,” he said. “The numbers are pretty simple, and they are staggering. It is impossible to solve this without a tax increase.”

Martire said the state’s financial situation is grave at best, and it’s just the start. Next year, he warned, these education programs are going to take a serious hit, receiving significantly less money, if any at all.

“This year, these programs can expect that they will get anywhere from 10 to 50 percent less than they thought they would get,” he said. “The following year, all bets are off. If you don’t have money, you don’t have programs.”

Jack Kaplan, director of public policy for the United Way, said his organization sent a survey to over 1,000 nonprofit organizations in Chicago. Of the 500-plus that have responded, 59 percent report they’re waiting on back payments from the state.

“These organizations were reporting over $80 million in back pay that is due to them,” he said. “The state has been slow paying any service they think they can do away with. The state feels these agencies can be a lower priority, when in fact they are necessity in Chicago.”

Kaplan said he doesn’t even want to think about what next year could bring.

“This is not a scare tactic or a ‘chicken little the sky’s falling’ thing,” he said. “The state needs a wake-up call. These before- and after-school programs, along with early childhood education, are absolutely critical for Chicago. If the state does away with the funding for these programs, the impact will be unspeakable.”

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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 “forgotten child,” so do the number of fast food restaurants in a neighborhood that already lacks grocery stores and healthy sit-down options.

Elce Redmond, assistant director of the South Austin Coalition, said business owners, specifically fast food restaurant owners, decided Austin wasn’t a community that wanted or would support anything but fast food.

“For some reason, people have this idea that Austin can only sustain fast food restaurants,” he said. “I mean, no matter where you are in Austin, all you see are fast food joints. In this community, all we have are horrible fast food restaurants with their greasy, fried and deeper fried foods.”

Redmond estimates that there are well over 100 fast food restaurants in Austin and less than five family dining options.

Lavern Herron, co-owner of Caramel Café, a sandwich shop that opened at 5941 W. Madison St. just over a year ago, said Austin can sustain restaurants with healthy options and hers is one of them.

“We don’t offer the standard deep fried everything and fries,” she said. “Instead, we offer healthy options like soup and salad and sandwiches. We offer a sit-down restaurant in a warm, clean environment, and that’s something the community really needs more of.”

Woodrow Taylor, a 35-year resident of Austin, said the number of fast food restaurants has grown every year and the number of grocery stores has decreased.

“One of the biggest problems in Austin is we have no grocery stores and that is the main reason for all the fast food restaurants,” he said. “The owners of the fast food restaurants have taken advantage of the fact that it is easier for people to walk over and grab a burger and fries than it is to travel and try to find a grocery store.”

It’s not just Austin, as journalist Eric Schlosser points out in his 2001 best-seller, “Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal.” He wrote that every city across the United States is being taken over by fast food chains.

“A generation ago, three-quarters of the money used to buy food in the U.S. was spent to prepare meals at home,” Schlosser said in his book. “Today, about half of that same money is spent in restaurants – mainly fast food restaurants. In 1968, McDonald’s had 1,000 restaurants – today it has about 30,000, and 2,000 new ones are opening each year. The number of fast food restaurants that are taking over cities everywhere is alarming.”

Camille Lilly, president of the Austin Chamber of Commerce, said Austin has more than 900 businesses, but it’s been difficult to bring in family-style dining and chain restaurants like Applebee’s and TGIF.

“It is difficult to change the culture of a community,” she said. “Austin is landlocked, so it is difficult to build in Austin. That, coupled with the idea or stereotype that family dining options won’t succeed in Austin, are the biggest problems.”

One family-style option, open since 1997, MacArthur’s, located at 5412 W. Madison St., has done very well with the concept of homestyle cooking and a sit-down, family environment.

“This is a family-style restaurant that has reasonable prices and offers the food that people in the community want,” MacArthur’s Manager Sharon McKennie said. “Austin has a lot of fast food restaurants, and we offer the alternative. We offer good, everyday, full-course meals at a reasonable price.”

Malcolm Crawford, president of the Austin African American Business Networking Association, said there is a strong need for healthy options in the community, but with all the other problems, it is difficult to force the issue.

“There has been some discussion about focusing on bringing in more family restaurants,” he said. “But let’s face it, there are so many other serious issues in Austin that I don’t really think people see the lack of sit-down restaurants, and the overabundance of fast food restaurants, as a pressing issue.”

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The forum, Violence Against Women, held at Loyola University, is one of the first chances the candidates have had to delve deep into issues of rape, domestic violence, discrimination against people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and queer (LGBTQ), and sex trafficking in Chicago.

With the primary 11 days away, the candidates in attendance took every opportunity to steal time from one another and bring their platforms into the discussion.

All seven candidates running for Cook County Board president confirmed their attendance, but only four actually were present: Cook County Board President Todd Stroger, Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th), Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court Dorothy Brown and Green Party candidate Tom Tresser.

Tresser came out swinging in his opening statement, addressing corruption in Chicago politics and calling out each candidate on issues he said are “unacceptable.”

“I don’t have as much experience as the other candidates up here,” Tresser said. “But I also don’t have the experience in hiring my cousins, getting cash from my workers for events and parties or making money from businesses I am supposed to regulate.”

Not one candidate responded to his claims, causing Tresser to smile and the audience to whisper amongst themselves.

Tresser was on a roll from the get-go, throwing punches in his opening statement and jabbing at each of his opponents throughout debate.

“Issues of violence against women and sexual assault are a big problem, but worthless spending and behind closed door meetings and corruption prevent the attention these programs need,” he said.

Tresser said these forums are necessary now more than ever.

“We have had years and years of Democratic rule in Cook County,” he said. “And we have nothing to show for it; nothing got done.”

As Tresser was stuck on the issue of corruption, Preckwinkle stayed on point, appearing confident and well-prepared to discuss the issue at hand.

“When I think about violence against women, I begin with rape,” she said. “In 2007, there were 5,600 reported rapes in Illinois, but only 30 percent result in arrests, and less than half that end in convictions. We need to focus our resources on these types of programs and bring these people to justice.”

Stroger offered unfocused, off-topic answers to some questions related to the forum’s theme.

When asked, “In your first 90 days how would you address violence against women, girls and LGBTQ?”

He answered: “What I have done in the three years I have been president; I have tried to reach out to everyone in all parts of the county. I have asked them how can we help. I recently had a meeting with the LGBTQ community, I asked what the county can do, and I hope to solidify what the county can do.”

Moderator Kimbriell Kelly asked Stroger the same question in the next round of questioning to try to get a more “clear and concise answer.”

Stroger again didn’t answer the question; instead he said: “We have 29 departments, and in 16 of those, we have women as deputies. We have helped open 35 businesses that are run by minorities, and 10 percent that are run by women. I have voted for pay equity for women and fought for human rights, but more work needs to be done.”

Tresser also didn’t answer the question. Instead he held up the front page of the Chicago Tribune and pointed to the headline: Madigan Rules.

“Until we get the corruption out of our government we will not be able to give you the true programs that the the citizens of Cook County need,” he said. “If you want to know you elected someone who is unbossed and unbought, you have to look to a new source of government.”

Preckwinkle stayed focused and on point as she answered questions, as if reading off a teleprompter.

“We need to create an environment where people feel safe so they can come forward and report crimes,” she said. “Then we need to make sure we get those offenders prosecuted. We need to focus our resources on violent offenders, sexual offenders, and we have to start to focus on the predators.”

When asked about the pending lawsuits against Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart for keeping pregnant inmates shackled while giving birth, Stroger was caught off guard and had no idea of the charges.

“I had no idea. I am surprised the sheriff would do anything that is against the law,” Stroger said, and when asked if he would look into the situation, he said, “Oh, yeah, I am the president.”

Brown, the clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court, also seemed to be shocked by the news of the pending lawsuits.

“I really cannot believe Sheriff Dart knew this was going on,” she said. When asked what she would do about the situation if she were president, Brown said, “I would send a strong letter to the sheriff letting him know under no circumstances should the practice be occurring. And as far as the pending litigation, I would recommend immediate settlement.”

At the end of the night it was Tresser who challenged the audience and challenged the “old ways of doing business.”

“The best predictor of the future is a person’s history,” he said. “You know they say the definition on insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Pauline Lipman, policy studies professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said the elimination of local school councils are negatively affecting South Side and West Side communities by taking away their involvement in public education.

“In the Austin neighborhood particularly, this is a major issue,” she said. “The charter schools in Austin are public schools; the people who live in Austin are the public, and they no longer have any say of what happens in the community, and this is happening all over Chicago.”

In June 2004, Mayor Richard M. Daley launched Renaissance 2010 with the goal of increasing the number of high quality educational options in communities across Chicago by 2010 by opening 100 new schools. In order to open these turnaround schools, CPS would have to shut the doors on schools with low performance.

To date, Chicago has 94 Renaissance schools, with plans to open seven more in the Fall of 2010, said Malon Edwards, spokesman for CPS. He said each of the Renaissance schools works hard to achieve community involvement.

Edwards said Renaissance 2010 schools are still required by law to have governing boards that include parental and community involvement.

Austin High School was one of those schools. It closed four years ago, and in its place are two charter schools: Austin Business and Entrepreneurship Academy and VOISE Academy High School, and one performance school, Austin Polytechnical School. These are three examples of schools in a community that do not have local school councils, Lipman said.

In 1988, the Illinois General Assembly created Chicago’s local school councils, which are elected, decision-making councils that have significant power over each of Chicago’s schools, such as the ability to hire and fire principals, plan the schools curriculum and oversee all activities for the school, similar to what the school board does.

At the high school level, the local school council consists of 12 voting members, including the principal, six parent representatives, two community representatives, two teacher representatives and one student representative.

However, Chicago Public Schools officials, who are hand-selected by Mayor Daley, have never been supporters of the councils, Lipman said. In an October 2007 speech, Rufus Williams, then-CPS board president, said it was one of his administration’s main goals to eliminate local school councils.

“Not all local school councils are bad, but this is a flawed system,” Williams said in the speech. “There are many examples of adults getting in the way of the progress of children. Those of us who are responsible for the schools simply ask that we have the authority because we have the accountability for them.”

Williams said CPS is known for its leading reform.

“But this is one of the reform efforts that not one group, system or area has bothered to replicate,” he said. “We are the only system in the world that has this kind of governing structure; it must be fixed; it must be changed so that we can best operate our system for the benefit of our children.”

Rosemaria Genova, press secretary for Marilyn Stewart, president of Chicago Teachers Union, said it is these sentiments and non-transparent ideas that are hurting community involvement in public education.

“We are losing the public in Chicago Public Schools,” she said. “We have too much privatization going on in Chicago, and it is taking away any and all parent and community involvement.”

Julie Woestehoff, executive director of Parents United for Responsible Education said CPS is not fighting for community involvement, and they never have.

“Taking away local school councils drives a stake right through the heart of community involvement,” she said. “As a parent organization, we will continue to stand up against CPS’s total disregard for community and parent involvement. These are our children; we should have a say in their education.”

Woestehoff noted that most of the schools which have closed due to Renaissance 2010 are on the city’s South and West Sides.

“They are closing schools in neighborhoods and communities that are already struggling with being heard and finding their voice,” she said. “This is disempowering people who are historically disempowered anyway.”

Mike Klonsky, director of Small School Workshops, a non-profit organization, said in a community like Austin, the district’s complete disregard for the community has been devastating.

Klonsky, a professor in the College of Education at DePaul University, said in a community like Austin where parent involvement is limited, the loss of a local school council is immense.

“These new schools for the most part are run by private boards that are usually made up by business people,” he said. “There is little to no input from the community, and that must change.”

“The governing boards serve as local school councils, to ensure community involvement,” he said.

But Klonsky disagreed. He said Renaissance 2010 was originally created to open 100 new schools in Chicago and take a “serious stance on the value of our education.”

“But what Renaissance 2010 has turned into is basically a school-closing initiative,” he said. “The closing of schools means the end of local school councils, which means a lack of community voice and community power over how schools and education should operate.”

Check out these related stories from Chicago Public Radio WBEZ: Daley Says School Closings Are Necessary and Education Reporter Linda Lutton Talks School Closings with Host Melba Lara.

Austin High School, the only public school in the community, shut its doors four years ago. Its successor, Austin Community Academy, which was open for one year, was shut down by Mayor Richard M. Daley and converted into three small high schools with an attendance of 1,038 students, compared to the 6,000 students the academy held.

Austin officials worry that rising crime rates will climb even higher if CPS officials don’t take action to bring back Austin High School.

About 14,000 high school-age kids live in Austin, which has a population of 117,000, making it the largest community in Chicago. But less than half the 14,000 students can attend a high school in their neighborhood. Austin has no public option for high school, forcing students to travel long distances, apply for selective magnet schools to which they have little chance of acceptance, or their final option – drop out of school entirely.

Ald. Emma Mitts (37th) and Ald. Ed Smith (28th) have said their community needs one high school to accommodate students who live in Austin. Mitts said youth on the West Side have no high school, forcing too many of them to spend their days on the street.

On the contrary, says Kathryn McCabe, director of the Cluster Tutoring Program in Austin, a non-profit group that works with about 100 Austin students in after-school programs. She said the former Austin High School was a “horrible school” and provided “no real educational value for the students.”

“I am not sure there was much of a negative impact in shutting down a lousy school,” she said. “It was a bad school, and I am not sorry to see it go, but now we have a real problem in Austin because there aren’t enough seats for the students that live in the community.”

Malon Edwards, spokesman for Chicago Public Schools, said the district has no plans in the works for opening another school in Austin.

“Austin students have opportunities at several charter and magnet schools within the community,” he said. The public options are the three Renaissance 2010 high schools: Austin Business and Entrepreneurship Academy, VOISE Academy High School and Austin Polytechnical School.

“We have other neighborhoods that need schools as well – this is not just a problem within Austin, and we cannot approach it that way,” said Edwards.

But Mitts said there was money for a new school, noting that funding for a new school was secured through Mike Kelly, former president at Park National Bank. Since federal officials closed the bank late last year, the funds are in limbo, and Mitts isn’t sure US Bank, who took over, will honor the agreement made with Kelly.

Ald. Smith, however, said Park National Bank never committed any money for a new high school in Austin. He said the community bank was interested in funding a new YMCA on the same lot as the school.

“Park National Bank was never going to give any sum of money for a new school in Austin,” Smith said. “They wanted a collaboration with the city; basically, if the city built a new school they wanted to build a new YMCA on the same land.”

Mitts is clear on what she believes is the answer: She wants one high school open to all students in the community, and she wants it built at 1450 N. Cicero Ave.

“The answer is finding the funding and opening a school,” she said. “We need a new high school, and we need to get the process going now.”

Edwards said CPS officials have met with community members in search of a solution but said, “This is a problem that cannot be solved overnight.”

But McCabe feels differently. She said CPS’s agenda does not include building or adding schools in the Austin neighborhood, meaning they are not addressing the problem.

“There are no plans to open additional charter schools in the Renaissance 2010 plan,” she said. “There are no plans for a new high school. These kids have no where to go. It is pretty sad.”

McCabe doesn’t think one big high school is the solution; instead, she said there has been great success in charter schools.

“The emergence of these schools has been very positive,” she said. “I think the charter schools have worked well for this community because they are smaller and these students need extra help and support.”

Smith said the solution is one school for all students. He said the location is set, “the only problem now is money.”

Check out our related story: Renaissance 2010 High Schools in Austin Fight to Provide a More Quality Education for Students

Kelsey Duckett interviews Todd Stroger at the event (Photo: Thom Clark)

Cook County Board President Todd Stroger has spent the majority of his time over the last year clearing up what he considers misinformation about his platform and defending himself from what he said are daily attacks by the media, as well as attacks by his Democratic competition.

Stroger, who was elected as board president on Nov. 7, 2006, hasn’t been the most popular political figure in Chicago since he approved the penny-on-the-dollar sales tax hike in February 2008.

He has defended the tax since the 10-7 vote of approval by the Cook County Board of Commissioners, but has been criticized every step of the way.

“Everyone is talking about how they want to rollback the tax, but no one talked about how they are going to keep the government running,” he said. “No one said, ‘I am going to fill that $2 million hole with something else.’ They are offering no plans on how they are going to fill the void that would be created if they rollback the tax.”

Stroger said the Cook County budget hasn’t been increased during his time in office, and he said he has been forced to make difficult cuts. But he said rolling back the tax is a mistake.

“We have to look at this realistically and not just go for the emotional jolt that you can get from the newspapers when you say, ‘I am going to rollback taxes,’” he said.

It’s these same newspapers that Stroger said are being “biased and unfair” in their coverage of the race. He said he is “constantly being portrayed in a negative light.”

“The media has most definitely had me out in a negative light by saying sales tax, sales tax, sales tax,” he said. “They aren’t running the mayor’s face when he’s raising property taxes. They have treated me in a totally different fashion, and I am upset. They don’t have their facts straight on most issues; I work hard, and they only tell half the story.”

Stroger also said he is upset by the lack of support by the Democratic Party, specifically Mayor Richard M. Daley. He said there is no reason for the mayor not to “sign on in full support.”

“The mayor should say the county is running well,” Stroger said during the Jan. 9 debate, saying that county finances are in good shape. “If you look at the history of politics when an incumbent has done what I have done, which is balance the budget and make sure the services are intact, they have always endorsed the candidate for re-election.”

Defending and defining have become Stroger’s main objectives in this heated political race, and when asked about his plans if re-elected, he smiled, as if he hasn’t had the opportunity to answer this question in some time.

“We want to continue to bring new efficiency to the government,” he said. “I have put together a new committee that is working with an outside vendor to go into every department to find at least two percent of an efficiency rating out of their offices. Two percent doesn’t sound like a lot, but two percent out of $3 million is a lot of money.”

He said the biggest thing he will fight for is health care. He vows to make sure the “health care system stays intact.”

“Unfortunately it is always under attack, and part of it has been that the larger media doesn’t report the system as the safety net it is for people,” he said. “We need these clinics and hospitals to keep their doors open, and we need funding to provide them with the staff and equipment they need to provide the best treatment.”

The third point on his agenda is to continue to work towards reducing the jail population.

Stroger was clear in stating he has a solid agenda that has worked. He said there are no new ideas being put on the table by his competitors, and he is ready to serve the county for the next four years.

“When I look at county government in Chicago, I look at a government that is doing well,” he said. “We made significant changes during my first three years, and I am ready to get to work and continue to make positive changes for a better government in the next four years.”

Read Chicago Talks’ coverage of the Jan. 9 Cook County Board president candidates forum here.

Election websites of Stroger’s Democratic challengers:

Dorothy Brown, clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court

Terrence O’Brien, president of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District

Toni Preckwinkle, alderman from Chicago’s 4th Ward

After each candidate presented their resume and qualifications to guests in attendance and a live radio audience, the debate quickly shifted to the dominant issue of sales tax. Candidates spent over half of the allotted 90-minute time frame on the issue, with the three challengers attacking incumbent Cook County Board President Todd Stroger’s penny-on-the-dollar sales tax hike.

Stroger has defended the tax hike since it was approved in February 2008. He said the tax is necessary to accommodate a budget that hasn’t been increased since he took office three years ago.

“The sales tax increase is only one cent on the dollar in the county,” Stroger said. “This helps pay for what this county needs: safety and health care.”

South Side Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th) said she would repeal the tax within four years, but when asked after the debate how she would continue to pay for the three hospitals and 14 clinics in Cook County, she didn’t provide specifics in her answer.

“The county needs to look at how it can get non-county resources to do the things we are going to do anyway, like provide health care,” she said. “So there is a combination of looking for additional resources and then trying to figure out how you can reasonably cut waste and consolidate services and programs and offices.”

Terrence O’Brien, president of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, who spent much of the debate under attack by Preckwinkle and Stroger, said he would repeal the tax immediately if elected.

“If you wait four years to repeal the tax, you will become dependent and will never repeal the tax,” he said. “I have said from day one that I will repeal the tax immediately. The economy is in horrendous shape in Cook County, and this tax is driving businesses and consumers away.”

O’Brien said that retail sales are down 14 percent in Cook County because of the regressive tax, and we “have to roll it back.”

Stroger continued to defend the tax and said, “Retail sales are down across the country, this is not just a problem in Cook County, it is a problem everywhere.”

Dorothy Brown also said she would repeal the tax, but remained quiet for much of the debate as she couldn’t get a word in edgewise and rarely continued an argument after being interrupted.

“I brought $260 million new dollars in revenue without raising taxes,” Brown said. “I am going to raise revenue in the county without raising taxes. I believe in new ideas, not new taxes.”

But Brown, clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, like Preckwinkle and O’Brien, failed to list specifically how she would make up for the deficit that the tax rollback would create in the county, Stroger said.

And it was Stroger who spent much of the debate on the defensive, responding to attacks and addressing his concerns about the lack of support by Mayor Richard M. Daley and the negative portrayal of what he called the “bias media.”

“The mayor should say the county is running well,” Stroger said, saying that county finances are in good shape. “If you look at the history of politics when an incumbent has done what I have done, which is balance the budget and make sure the services are intact, they have always endorsed the candidate for re-election.”

Moderator Dick Kay then suggested to Stroger that Daley is not backing him because he pushed through the tax increase. Stroger’s response: Daley has significantly increased property taxes, something the county has not done for more than a decade.

But Stroger remained strong in defending the sales tax, saying it is vital to run Cook County.

“The sales tax is why we still have a health care system that has clinics across the county and three hospitals,” he said. “The one-cent-on-the-dollar tax is necessary to keep the health care system afloat, among many other programs like public safety.”

At one point, Preckwinkle defended Stroger by pointing out that the two of them, along with Brown, were full-time public servants, while she directly criticized O’Brien for being both the president of the water reclamation district and profiting from outside ventures.

“You make $80,000 a year to be chairman of the water district, plus you get a share of the profits and you are representing some of the biggest polluters in the state,” Preckwinkle said to O’Brien.

Providing programs to get non-violent criminals out of the jail systems and out of the taxpayers’ pockets was another issue that sparked tension between the candidates.

Preckwinkle said it is these types of programs that will reduce spending in the county and also rehabilitate and “give non-violent criminals an alternative to detention.”

“We need to take a look at non-violent offenders; these shouldn’t be programs for violent offenders. They should remain in jail, away from us,” she said. “We need to focus resources in dealing with them. Then we need to focus on putting non-violent offenders in a situation where they can turn their lives around.”

Brown and O’Brien both said they plan to look into diversion programs for non-violent offenders, as opposed to locking them up, but neither provided specific details as to what steps would be taken if elected.

Stroger said these “new ideas” and “tactics” for bettering Cook County have already been addressed and are in motion under his watchful eye as president.

“If you look at it, every alternative they are offering is something we have already done or have looked into,” he said. “All of the ideas I have heard here are ideas we have already put in place. We have made every change we could in three years, and I am ready to continue to make changes in the next four years.”

The event was sponsored by www.ChicagoTalks.org, along with WCPT-AM/FM, Chicago’s Progressive Talk Radio, Community Media Workshop, Columbia College Chicago Department of Journalism and Northwestern University Democrats.

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• Stroger A No-Show At Candidates Forum, Calls Shenanigans On Opponents (chicagoist.com)
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The Lakeview Action Coalition has made the clinics its top priority after conducting a survey in 2007 that indicated a need for primary health care within the community.

But one city health official says the neighborhood doesn’t need a clinic as much as other areas on the South and West Sides, and an aide to the alderman’s office said no public money is available.

Hannah Gelder, spokeswoman for Lakeview Action Coalition, said the goal is to improve access to affordable health care by bringing a community center to the neighborhood.

“The results showed that community members are leaving Lakeview for other neighborhoods to find affordable care,” she said. “The survey clearly showed a need for a clinic in Lakeview, so we are fighting for the residents of Lakeview.”

Max Bevar, spokesman for Ald. Tom Tunney (44th), said the alderman is always in support for services that benefit the residents of Lakeview. But, he said, there will be no city resources put into this project.

“We are always looking for increased and low cost health care for our ward’s most needy residents,” Bevar said. “As far as we know, Lakeview Action Coalition is looking directly to the hospitals and outside resources to provide funding and services for a free clinic.”

The exact cost of the clinics is unknown, but Gelder said the Lakeview Action Coalition is looking to secure some grant money along with getting assistance from the local hospitals.

The Lakeview Action Coalition is currently in the process of doing more research and will be conducting a health assessment need for the Lakeview community. Until then, Gelder said the statistics in the survey are enough to “get the ball rolling.”

In that survey, 10 percent of respondents have been sued over hospital bills, and 34 percent of insured and 44 percent of uninsured respondents have had their credit affected by hospital bills. Gelder said these statistics alone are proof enough that Lakeview residents need health care assistance.

Tim Hadac, spokesman for Chicago Department of Public Health, said there is some need for a free clinic in every community, but Lakeview would not rank high on the list.

“Lakeview used to have a free clinic about 10 years ago when there was a significant need, but now that need really isn’t there,” he said.

The Chicago Department of Public Health conducted a Community Area Health Inventory study that was updated in November 2007, which showed the needs in the 77 neighborhoods of Chicago. Lakeview stood out on the study, but not because of its need for services, rather for its flourishing, rich community.

The study showed that the median income for the Chicago is $38,625, and in Lakeview it is $53,881. It also showed the poverty level for Chicago is 19.6 percent, and in Lakeview it’s less than half that at 8.7 percent, with only 3 percent of its residents unemployed.

“I think if you look at Lakeview today, the levels of income are higher than they have ever been,” Hadac said. “Generally speaking, people are better off than they used to be in that neighborhood and there isn’t much poverty.”

Gelder disagreed. She said the fact that 15 percent of residents take advantage of charity care programs, which offer free or reduced care in the Lakeview community, shows the “clear need for a clinic in the community.”

Hadac said every community thinks it has a great need, but Lakeview isn’t a community that needs immediate action.

“Don’t get me wrong, we are always supportive of clinics and furthering health care throughout Chicago,” he said. “But there are a number of neighborhoods in Chicago that have a greater need than Lakeview does.”

The Triangle Neighbors Association, which oversees the Lakeview community between Belmont and Addison avenues, and Halsted and Clark streets, has joined forces with Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) and the Chicago Police Department in an attempt to prevent violence in their neighborhood.

Jim Ludwig, president of Triangle Neighbors Association, said the “Take Back the Streets” effort began two years ago when residents became fed up with the increase of theft, forced robbery and violence in their neighborhood.

“Kathleen Boehmer (23rd District Commander) suggested we become more visible on our streets late into the night and into the early morning hours,” Ludwig said.

Through meetings with the North Halsted Business Alliance and the alderman’s office, the Triangle Neighbors Association put a plan in action to take back their neighborhood.

So far, monthly gatherings have been successful, police commander Boehmer said.

“The last walk, on Oct. 24, resulted in three arrests,” said Boehmer, who wouldn’t elaborate on the arrests, but said they were drug and weapon related. “There were two walks that night, one at midnight and one at 2 a.m. and over 100 people participated, it was a great turnout.”

“On the last walk, we confiscated a lot of weapons, mostly knifes and broke up several fights,” Ludwig said. “We even saw one guy trying to break into a house at the corner of Halsted and Belmont. If we have a feeling that they are up to something suspicious or out of place, we approach them and find out what is happening.”

John Dalton, Lakeview resident and co-owner of Minibar, 3341 N. Halsted, said the walks have been a great success in preventing crime and cleaning up the streets.

Jay Lyon, executive director of the North Halsted Business Alliance, who’s participated in the safety walks, said it is an attempt to prevent crime before it happens and show that the Lakeview community won’t tolerate crime. The Uptown neighborhood is using the same “positive loitering” technique.

“Being active in keeping the streets safe and promoting this type of community involvement is good for everyone,” he said. “It helps prevent crime towards both business owners and home owners, and we will continue to participate and promote these types of activities.”

Boehmer said the safety walks show a community is willing to take action.

“The idea is to have people out at times where there wouldn’t normally be a street presence by the neighborhood residents,” she said.

Max Bevar, spokesman for Tunney, said the alderman’s office not only supports the “Take Back the Streets” effort in the Lakeview community but joins in on the effort by participating in every walk. Both Bevar and Bennett Lawson, deputy for the alderman, have participated in the walks.

Boehmer said Lakeview is a safe neighborhood because there are residents who will not accept it any other way.

“Lakeview is one of those areas that have a lot of support from different community organizations that want to keep the neighborhood safe,” she said. “We will continue to work with these different organizations, whether it is a safety walk or providing tips on crime prevention.”

Ludwig said an official date hasn’t been set for the next walk, but it will be within the next two weeks.

“This is definitely a crime prevention tactic for our community, and we plan on continuing the walks as long as we have participants,” he said.

Since Gov. Pat Quinn signed the bill live on Fox News in August, some women have tried to drop off babies older than seven days, said Dawn Geras, founding member of the Save Abandoned Babies Foundation.

“Women in Chicago believed they could now abandon their newborns safely without any consequence after day seven,” she said. “We have had several instances where women have showed up with their babies, and we just have to hope the safe haven locations will accept the baby.”

The amended bill, which takes effect Jan. 1, will give women up to 30 days to legally abandon a baby after its birth. Rep. Elizabeth Coulson (R-Glenview), who authored the new legislation, said it will save more lives.

“This change in the legislation will permit more children to be saved from unsafe abandonment or death,” Coulson said. “There have been far too many stories of parents who, within weeks of their babies’ birth, abandon their baby in harm’s way.”

The Abandoned Newborn Protection Act, which took effect eight years ago, allows a parent of an unharmed newborn to relinquish the baby to a safe haven, defined as hospitals, staffed police stations, fire stations and medical care facilities, with no questions asked.

The Chicago Family Resource Center for Adoption has been a big supporter of the amended bill, Executive Director Richard Pearlman said.

“Some women are afraid to approach an agency, and they might otherwise abandon a child in a terrible situation if this weren’t an option,” he said. “You know the examples, putting a child in a bag and leaving them in a dumpster; some of these women feel they have nowhere to go, and this bill gives them another option.”

Illinois will join 16 other states that allow parents up to 30 days to legally abandon a newborn. Seven states allow more than 30 days, while 12 states allow three days.

The Evangelical Child and Family Agency has taken in eight abandoned babies since 2001, and David Lundberg, director of clinical services, said the extra time is essential for women who simply change their minds or become overwhelmed.

“I think, more often than not, it takes longer than seven days for a mother to determine that this just isn’t working,” he said. “I think there are more benefits than risks to extending the time period to 30 days; in the long-run we will save more children.”

Eric Miller, chief of staff for Rep. Coulson, acknowledged it’s sometimes difficult to determine the exact age of a newborn, but he and others say it’s important to give parents extra time to make the best decision for their child.

“The extra time allows the parents to think about the life-altering decision they are about to make,” said Geras. “Way too often we hear of 2-weeks-old, or month-old babies that, because there is no alternative, are hurt or killed; this law provides another option to save a child.”

Since 2001, 53 babies have legally been turned over to a safe haven in Chicago. Over that same period, 57 babies were illegally abandoned, with 27 of them dying. That is a serious problem, Geras said.

Coonley Regional Gifted Center is fighting back against the new busing boundaries that serve less than half the student population at the school. The Coonley Regional Gifted Center, located at the John C. Coonley School at 4046 N. Leavitt in the North Center neighborhood, opened two years ago, and the Local School Council assured parents of busing options before it opened.

To help Coonley with its desegregation goals, parents and school officials have joined forces with Ald. Margaret Laurino (39th) and Ald. Patrick Levar (45th) to bring busing to their neighborhoods. These goals were put into effect to provide equal acceptance into the Regional Gifted Center Program.

According to a July 2009 Chicago Public School board report, which was signed by Barbara Eason-Watkins, chief education officer, Pedro Martinez, chief financial officer and Patrick Rocks, general counsel, the board was set to expand the transportation services available to students attending the Coonley Regional Gifted Center.

The only missing signature on the report that was needed to amend the boundaries was that of Chief Executive Officer Ron Huberman. He could not be reached for comment, despite repeated attempts.

Marni Willenson, who has a first-grader at Coonley Regional Gifted Center, said after working with the school board and the CPS office for Academic Enhancement, the consensus was that there would be board approval and it was a “done deal.”

“We were basically told this was done by Jay Lee, who was overseeing this case as assigned by the CPS,” she said. “Lee said it would be amended and we would have busing services. He said everyone had approved, we were told it was only awaiting Ron Huberman’s signature.”

Chicago Public Schools spokesman Malon Edwards said because of the $470 million budget deficit, every program must find ways to make cuts. These cuts might be difficult to make and explain to parents and schools, he said.

“We are reluctant to make some of these cuts,” he said. “But we have to overcome the $470 million budget hole.”

Edwards was not able to narrow the exact cost of bringing busing to Coonley.

Lee, director of Gifted and Enriched Academic Programs for CPS, was assigned the case and worked hand-in-hand with Willenson.

“Jay Lee was very helpful and expedited the process of getting the board set to review,” she said. “He seemed to agree with us that there needed to be busing and that the system wasn’t working for our school.”

Willenson said Lee informed her that it would be unnecessary to attend the June meeting, in which the board was to vote to pass the new busing boundaries.

“He basically said this was over, the board will vote in our favor,” she said. “He told us not to attend the meeting because it would hurt our cause more than help it. It was this same meeting that our proposal was withdrawn and thrown out.”

Lee disagreed; he said it was never a done deal because it comes down to finances and what the CPS can afford. As far as informing the parents not to attend the July meeting, Lee couldn’t remember such a conversation.

“This is a financial issue,” Lee said. “The state of Illinois cut the funding and CPS is in a serious budget crunch – so we had to reevaluate transportation.”

At last week’s school board meeting, Tiffany Harvey, a parent of a first-grade student at Coonley, pleaded with Chicago Board of Education President Michael Scott to allow busing for Coonley students the same way CPS does for its other students.

“I urge you to take up this issue again,” she said. “This needs to be addressed so nearby families from various neighborhoods who need transportation to attend an out of neighborhood school will see our school as an option.”

David Pickens, CPS chief of staff, said he has to gather all the facts and hear all sides before a decision can be made.

“It shouldn’t be that big of a deal,” he said. “Busing is a very complicated issue and there are always several sides, but I should be able to resolve this in the next 30 days. If we were to extend the busing routs, it probably would not go into effect until next year.”

For Coonley parents, this is unacceptable.

Recently retired Ald. William J. P. Bank’s (36th) seven-year effort to bring a third library to his ward moved one step closer to becoming a reality last week with approval from the Chicago Zoning Board of Appeals. But Ald. Emma Mitts (37th) and Ald. Ed. Smith (28th) question why a brand new, state-of-the-art library is being built in a ward that has two libraries.

Mitts and Smith say they’re working hard to bring the latest resources into their libraries, like books, databases and other services that would help put youth back in the classroom and assist adults in finding a career.

“I think adding another library would add to what we are trying to do down here – we are trying to educate our children and provide them with options and resources to excel,” Smith said of his Austin neighborhood.

For Banks, it is about following through on a promise to bring another library to the 36th Ward – a promise the retired alderman made over seven years ago.

“It is a great success, and we are all very happy about the Dunning Branch Library,” Banks spokesman John Finnegan said after the appeals board on Sept. 18 approved a slight change in the location of the library, moving it back from the road.

“It will be a great addition to this community,” he said.

Chicago Public Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey said the city of Chicago is doing everything to accommodate all 77 neighborhoods in Chicago by upgrading and building as many libraries as funding allows.

“We don’t build libraries based on wards,” Dempsey said. “We based it on service and community need – if we went by wards we would only have 50 libraries.”

Dempsey said Chicago has 79 library branches, 41 of which were built in the last 10 years. But it’s not clear what process the central library staff uses to decide which areas get a new library or get on the list for renovations.

If the Chicago Public Library bases its decision on where to build a library on the need, it would be building a library in Austin, Smith said.

“We need a new library,” Smith said noting that the one Austin Library was built in 1929 and renovated in 1979 and 1981. “I will be the first to tell you that additional money would be helpful to bring another asset to this neighborhood. We are working too hard to give the youth of this neighborhood a chance at an education and a new library would only help us.”

The Chicago Public Library is funded by the city, but when it comes to which ward will get a new library, it is based the alderman’s success in raising funds because the city gets only one grant and that has to be spilt between projects, said Ruth Lednicer, spokeswoman for Chicago Public Library.

“The aldermen quite often come to us because they feel there is a need for a new library,” Lednicer said. “But we also have to base that on circulation statistics and how well a library is used and how often it is used.”

Finding funding and proving their wards are worthy of a new library has been a struggle for both Mitts and Smith.

“I am not jealous about what other wards have,” Mitts said. “I brought the first library to this ward (in April 2006), but we have a long way to go. My focus is on the community that I am serving and how I can make this a better place to live.”

Dempsey said some would argue that it took too long to build branches on the North Side, adding “we do not slight any neighborhoods.”

Construction on the 36th Ward’s third library, the Dunning Branch Library, at 7455 W. Cornelia Ave., will begin November 2010, with the opening expected in summer 2011, Dempsey said.

The library will be built in a vacant lot that was donated by Chicago Public Schools.

In the meantime, Mitts and Smith said they will keep fighting for the money needed to open a state of the art library in their neighborhoods.

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Commissioner Deborah Sims (D-5th), who was the crucial 14th vote needed to override Board President Todd Stroger’s veto of the tax rollback,  flipped before the board’s Sept. 1 vote and upheld Stroger’s veto.

Cook County Commissioner Deborah Sims (D-5th)

“It’s too bad we didn’t have the people that gave us their word,” said Commissioner Larry Suffredin (D-13th).

Sims said she walked into the meeting in support of a veto, but after much debate and discussion among her fellow commissioners, she had to do what she thought was best.

“I gave my word to the president in the very beginning,” she said. “If anyone should feel sold-out it should be him. But I had a change of heart today – I had to do what was best for the people I represent.”

As a line of more than 20 people stretched down the hallway waiting to get into the meeting, Sims sat in the board chambers scribbling notes and listening to the tax debate.

She said she met with the three clinics in her far South Side district, and couldn’t get a clear answer on whether they would have to shut their doors if the tax rollback won approval.

“When I came in here this morning I was on board with the override,” Sims said after the vote was final. “It was a combination of me sitting here and listening to what everyone said, and really just figuring out what my district needs.”

Suffredin said keeping the sales tax at its current level would drive consumers into the suburbs and harm the local economy.

Commissioner William Beavers (D-4th) countered Suffredin’s arguments and said an overwhelming majority of his constituents supported the sales tax hike.

“The sales tax is not for food, it’s not for medicine,” he said. “People are willing to pay that one penny.”

Today’s outcome surprised Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th), who has announced she will challenge Stroger for Cook County Board President. Preckwinkle said she would support a change in lowering the number of votes needed to override a president’s veto, stating, “it’s simply good government.”

“My expectations were that the veto would be overridden,” she said. “There were 14 commissioners today that voted to repeal a half-cent of the tax increase, which is a pretty significant number – a super majority.”

The failure to override the veto means the county portion of the state sales tax will sit at 1.75 percent. Commissioner Forrest Claypool (D-12th) said this is a sign that real work still needs to be done.

“Change doesn’t come easy,” said Claypool, who has been a thorn in the side of  Stroger since Claypool lost his 2006 bid for County Board President.

Claypool, who has decided not to seek re-election for another term, endorsed state Rep. John Fritchey (D-Chicago) earlier in the day. Fritchey is looking to take over Claypool’s seat on the Cook County Board.

“It is important for there to be a strong, experienced and effective voice in the county,” Claypool said.