The leader of the Greektown Chamber of Commerce, Yianni Theoharis, who is a 20-year business owner, has created this community association for all the merchants in the Greektown area to come together.

“The purpose of this association is to preserve and keep Greektown alive,” said Theoharis.

While a large fire destroyed three Greektown businesses located directly across the street from his establishments nearly a year ago, Theoharis has managed to keep his two businesses, Meli’s and 9 Muses, alive without having to raise prices or cut back on quality.

“We believe that in a city you should have ethnic towns and areas like this, so the city can get a little bit of flavor instead of blending everything and everything becomes like a chain, like a Starbucks or Subway,” said Theoharis.

Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. (27th) feels that the Greektown restaurants are very valuable to his ward, especially in a state like Illinois where every extra $1 million spent in eating and drinking places generates an additional 28.1 jobs in the state, according to National Restaurant Association’s website.

“The importance of the Greektown restaurants to my ward is several. For one, it attracts a lot of tourists from outside of the ward to come to the ward. Not only do they go to the restaurants, but they go to other stores. They help keep a lot of businesses in place, but also keep a lot of people working,” said Burnett.

The only business owner that was able to rebuild after the Greektown fire, James Manolakos, says his business is just as good as before, but believes it would be even better if his neighbors rebuilt as well.

“If you have a lot small businesses in one location it’ll attract more people and then there’s like a trickle down effect,” said Manolakos.

Within the last five years Manolakos has seen business at Pan Hellenic Pastry Shop, located at 322 S. Halsted St., increase despite having to raise prices to coincide with the rising cost of food commodities.

“At the end of the day if you have a good product it will stay afloat, and your competitors won’t be able to compete with you,” said Manolakos.

Demetra Markopoulos, president of The Hellenic Professional Society of Illinois, which serves as a meeting ground for individuals of Hellenic decent to network, holds their meetings and events at Greek venues in hopes of supporting their fellow Greeks.

“Greeks are known for hospitality and owning restaurants, and that is a strong presence in Chicago,” said Markopoulos.

As Greektown businesses continue to promote their well-known gyros, saganaki, and feta, Markopoulos recommends Greek Islands restaurant for traditional sit-down Greek food that will make you feel like you’re on the island, and 9 Muses for a laid back atmosphere and a great shish kabob.

Angry about meters. Photo by Rossaroni

Two candidates challenging Gene Schulter for 47^th Ward alderman cited the city’s privatization of the parking meters as a leading factor in their decision to run for alderman.

Both Ameya Pawar, a 30-year-old independent, and Matt Reichl, a 29-year-old who is seeking endorsement from the Green party, said the privatization of the meters was a mistake; Reichl said he would actually attempt to reverse the private deal.

With the deadline for petition filling for the 2011 municipal elections coming up this Monday, both candidates are campaigning door-to-door to get a sense of the issues in the 47^th Ward, which includes the Lincoln Square, Ravenswood and North Center neighborhoods.

Pawar, who is on the board of directors at Common Pantry, a food pantry in the 47^th Ward, said he wants to initiate campaign finance reform.

If elected, he said he will not serve more than two terms as alderman and he plans to cut his annual salary from $100,000 to $60,000. He also said he will not seek endorsements or donations from political groups.

“It’s unfortunate that the size of one’s campaign account becomes a deterrent for good public policy or public discussion. To me, that is emblematic of Chicago politics,” Pawar said.

He said one of his first priorities would be to create more transparency for residents of the 47^th Ward. He has already set up a free app, available through iTunes, called Chicago Works. The app allows Chicago residents to report problems and provide direct feedback to their aldermen.

Pawar also wants set up a ward council, which is a committee made up of community members who meet regularly with the alderman and discuss the issues facing the ward as well as reviewing city legislation. The 47^th Ward currently does not have a ward council.

Dick Simpson, who was alderman of the 44^th Ward from 1971 to 1979, had a ward council during his time as alderman. He said a ward council can provide direct feedback from the community, but that many aldermen don’t have one because it can be time-consuming to set up and because the aldermen don’t necessarily want to feel bound to honor the council’s decisions.

“It’s a way of getting a consensus and an agreement in the community that makes it much easier for the alderman to vote the will of the community,” he said. “More aldermen don’t have it because they don’t want to be hemmed in, as they think of it.”

Schulter said he believes transparency is important as well. Currently, the 47^th Ward’s website has a weekly newsletter and a link to a ward Facebook page.

Reichl, who recently lost to Rep. Mike Quigley for the 5^th District congressional seat, said his priorities if elected include updating Chicago’s transit system and shutting down TIF districts.

“What we’ve found is that TIF funds are basically toxic slush funds for the machine to obtain all sorts of power,” Reichl said.

Reichl said he will find alternative ways to generate city revenue without tapping into residents’ property taxes. He suggested a pollution tax for commuters coming into the city and a financial transaction tax, which would affect money traded in stocks.

In his 35 years as alderman, Schulter said he has brought many businesses into the 47^th Ward. He facilitated the Old Town School of Folk Music’s move into the ward in the mid-90s and  just recently announced plans for a $14 million privately funded renovation of the shopping center at Roscoe Street and Western Avenue.

Schulter said he works closely with the chambers of commerce and with the Retail 47 Committee, a 47^th Ward committee that works with commercial businesses in the ward, to keep bringing those businesses in.

“We’re dealing with some really hard economic times right now, but economic development is really very important to us,” Schulter said.

The city budget proposal currently includes a $3.4 million dollar proposal to cut Chamber of Commerce funding. The 47^th Ward would lose $200,000 in funding as a result. Schulter said he would not approve the budget with those proposed cuts included.

But Pawar said he worries that Schulter is not coming up with alternative solutions to budget problems like these.

“My reaction was, ‘Well that’s great. We need to protect small businesses, we need to make sure they can survive,’” Pawar said. “But you’re going to vote no on a $6.1 billion budget over $200,000 in cuts?”

Pawar recommended cutting waste out of other areas in the budget “so that you never even have to talk about cutting funding to the chambers of commerce.”

But Patricia Martinelli, executive director for the Ravenswood Chamber of Commerce, said Schulter has been very helpful to the small businesses in the ward, especially when the city budget cuts were initially proposed.

“He is a fighter for the chambers, because if we had lost the funding we would have closed our doors,” she said.

“Her bouffant was an hourglass shape and not round, like everyone else’s,” recalled Spatz in a recent interview.

She loved styling hair so much that she got a full-time stylist position during high school. She wanted to drop out and go to work as a stylist, but her mother wouldn’t let her leave school. Instead, her mother gave her tuition to attend a beauty academy as a graduation gift after high school.

From her simple beginnings, Spatz, now 53, owns a well-known salon, Selvaggio, in the Edison Park area on the Northwest Side of Chicago, which does about 250 haircuts a week. Along with one other stylist, she earns about $10,000 a month. Spatz founded her salon in 2005.

“I can cut seven haircuts in five different techniques,” she said. “Being a well-rounded hairdresser is my favorite because I know how to do all three things well.”

She also believes that cutting and styling hair is an important contribution to other people’s happiness. “Hair is an expression of someone’s beauty, personality,” she said. “They can be a chameleon with their hair.”

Spatz, who sports an angled bob with highlights, has warm hazel eyes and a round face. Her love for her clients is contagious, and her positive feelings for her work are obvious. Of Italian descent, Spatz said she loves cooking Italian dishes and decorating her home and her salon; its walls are covered with portraits of the reggae singer Bob Marley, as well as photos of haircuts she feels most proud of.

“I think hairdressers are usually the most happy people in the world; there is a major history to hairdressing that is inspiring,” she said.

Spatz is following a tradition that started thousands of years ago. Evidence of hairdressing dates back to 30,000-25,000 BC, also known as the Ice Age, according to “Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History” by Victoria Sherrow. In her book, Sherrow said this evidence came from two statuettes, as well as scientific discoveries from pictures, artifacts and writings.

Like many hairdressers before her, Spatz was fortunate enough to be trained by some of the true masters of the industry, she said. One of these masters and the most influential to her was the top international hair designer, Irving Rusk.

Before launching her own salon, Spatz was among the select few who were able to work alongside the legendary Rusk. “He would come into Vidal Sassoon and train us,” she said. Rusk drew admirers from all over world. Spatz worked with teams to collaborate on styles and accompanied Rusk to styling conventions in Chicago.

“He was a mentor of mine,” she recalled. “I loved what he did. We worked as a true team. He produced looks that took over the whole industry. People ran to his shows before anything else.”

But her career was not always one of glamor and conventions. Spatz worked for seven years in her own basement after she married and became pregnant with her daughter and, later, her son. While she was working in her home, however, she read hairdressing journals like Estetica and kept up with changes in the industry, she said.

Her previous work places included Sam Martiranos in Northbrook and Vidal Sassoon in the Gold Coast.

A free-spirited type, Spatz moved to London in 1978 to cut hair after seeing an ad for a job there. “It was the height of pure rock. I learned how to cut inversions, mohawks, punky extreme haircuts.”

She also met the rock singer Rod Stewart there.

Spatz moved back to Chicago in 1979 and has lived here since, where she has developed a large circle of admirers, loyal clients and friends.

“I think she’s the best hairdresser in the entire world,” said Glee Mangiamele, 53, Spatz’s best friend. “I don’t care where she is in the world; I’ll go. If she moved to a hut in Jamaica, I’d go out there or fly her here.”

Mangiamele said Spatz is able to make her look her best. “She always makes me feel like I have the best hair in the world.”

Spatz has clients of all ages. Tanya Quershi, 20, a student who lives in Morton Grove, said when she got her first haircut from Spatz, she thought Spatz was cutting her hair too fast. “I got a little scared because she used a razor instead of scissors, but the end result was perfect.”

Allison Spatz, 25, who is Spatz’s daughter, said she refers her friends to her mother and they “rave about her.”

Allison Spatz said her mother cuts hair in a way that enables clients to recreate the same look at home. “She makes it easy. And if you don’t know how, she’ll show you how while you’re in her chair until you feel comfortable to do it on your own.”

She also credited her mother with being able to take a woman’s look and achieve a new style that is appropriate and still fashionable.

Spatz herself said one of her goals in cutting hair is to encourage people to try different hairstyles. “Some are so attached to the same look and hair that they don’t realize what a new look can do for them. They become so regimented,” she said.

Her daughter credited Spatz with putting clients’ interests above those of her own. “She’s honest. If she doesn’t think you’ll look good with the idea you’re thinking of because a lot of people want the most popular ‘in’ look, she will tell you. She helps you create a look of your own.”

Another client, Kristen Hope, agreed that Spatz sincerely cares about her customers. “I feel like I’m taken care of, as opposed to taken advantage of,” she said. Hope said she has been coming to Spatz for haircuts for five years.

Apparently Spatz commands a feeling of deep loyalty from some of her clients.

Spatz tells the story of Delores Hank, 89, a short, bubbly, white-haired client who drives a Mercedes-Benz and always brings cakes or flowering plants to Spatz with every appointment. “She was one of my first clients, and I still do her hair today,” Spatz said, laughing.

“I would imagine more people come into the area to watch the game,” said Donna Sukacz of the South Loop Chamber of Commerce. “When the team isn’t playing, those people aren’t coming.”

Schaller’s Pump is one of many pubs and bars that suffers when the baseball season, specifically the Sox, are not in season. The family-run pub located about a mile from U.S. Cellular Field has been around since 1881 and relies heavily on baseball to make business.

Manager Kim Schaller has worked at the pub since the ’70s and is the fourth generation of Schallers to do so. She estimates about 35 percent of the pub’s business is during the baseball season, and now, with baseball season over, it’s all about survival.

“We have our seasonal people and regulars,” Schaller said. “The majority of the people say their goodbyes and ‘see you next year’ after the last game of the season.”

In order to combat this, Schaller’s Pump takes steps to make sure people still know they are around and open for business.

The pub, which is located at 3714 S. Halsted St., takes out ads in local newspapers and also hosts different events, such as quiz night.

“At quiz night, there are groups of people who pay a dollar to get in and we ask 20 questions,” Schaller said. “Whoever answers the most questions gets the money.”

Shinnick’s Pub at 3758 S. Union Ave. experiences the same post-baseball drop-off in revenue. The family-run establishment has been in business since 1938.

Manager Celine Shinnick, a fourth-generation Shinnick, estimates that 40 percent of their business comes during baseball season. However, unlike Schaller’s Pump, Shinnick’s Pub does not do any advertising.

“It’s all about being a neighborhood pub,” Shinnick said. “Most of the people who come here are from the neighborhood and we have people come out for the Bears games.”

Shinnick’s and Schaller’s Pump also rely on family to help get their business through the winter.

“The family aspect helps us out a lot because generations of families come here,” Schaller said. “Now a fifth generation of family is starting to come here and they bring their friends, so family is huge. We have customers whose grandparents came to this pub.”

Shinnick’s also keeps the family spirit alive.

“We are in the third generation of owners now, and now some of the nieces and nephews are the fourth generation, and their friends are coming so it keeps going down the line,” Shinnick said.

A lack of business can also be felt on the North Side. The Full Shilling, which sits just down the street from Wrigley Field at 3724 N. Clark St., echos this trend. An estimated 50 percent of business is made during baseball season, according to manager Anthony Smith.

“We try to keep the specials priced right and sponsor volleyball teams,” Smith said. “We also hope that the Bears win because it seems like we’re busier when they win.”

All three pubs will struggle to survive the winter and when spring training comes around, they’ll be ready — because as America’s game goes, so do they.

According to a recent survey, respondents said a hot cup of coffee or tea is more likely to put them in a better mood at work and make them more productive. And, only the Genuine Thermos Brand can provide insulated mugs that keep drinks hot and fresh for up to 6 hours. Not only will your co-worker appreciate the gesture of being nominated but they can enjoy hot coffee all day.

Thermos Brand is offering this opportunity to three people in the Chicagoland area during the week of Nov. 15. Visit the Thermos Facebook page and tell them why your co-worker deserves a Thermos Brand coffee break by commenting on any of their nomination posts, or on their wall.

People with disabilities met on Thursday with Michelle Saddler, Gov. Quinn’s chief of staff, and Rob Kilbury, the associate director of the Department of Human Services Division of Rehabilitation Services (DRS), in an attempt to eliminate IQ testing issued by Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Services.

VR services are designed to help people find employment. But barriers within the program have made it difficult for people with disabilities to utilize the services.  One significant barrier identified by people who use VR services is IQ testing. IQ Tests have been used to discourage people with disabilities from seeking employment and pursuing higher education.

On Oct. 6, disability advocates rallied in Springfield in order to secure a commitment from DRS and the governor’s office to address the problem of IQ testing. This week’s meeting between Saddler, Kilbury and the disability community is a follow-up to the Oct. 6 rally.

Free parking is available across the street. Find out if you are line for a face-lift and spruce up your business. Aldermen from 30th, 36th, 37th and 38th Wards are working together to create the SBIF grant fund.

Last week, Southwest Airlines announced it would acquire AirTran, and some industry analysts are saying job cuts may come after the acquisition is final.

“If I’m an AirTran employee that shares a parking lot with Southwest Airlines, I’m thinking ‘Oh, boy. What’s going to happen with me?’” said Jay Ratliff, a retired 20-year veteran of the airline industry who worked as a general manager for Northwest Airlines and is the current executive director of Exceed My Expectations.

Ratliff said since each airline already has a presence at Midway, consolidation of the two workforces is inevitable, and as a result, some AirTran jobs could be cut.

“They’re going to have too many people working the gates, too many people working the grounds, working in operations as well as the ticket counters, so there will be some jobs that will be affected,” Ratliff said.

Basili Alukos, an airline analyst for Morningstar Inc., a Chicago-based investment research company, agreed with Ratliff and said cutting redundant jobs is typical of mergers in any field.

“Imagine if you have a KFC and Burger King right next to each other, and all of a sudden those two companies merged,” Alukos said. “You don’t need the same number of staff to run both stores because you’re running the traffic through just one of the stores.”

Jim Morris, a spokesman for the AirTran chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association, International, said when it comes to the future of AirTran’s employees at Midway, his organization is “cautiously optimistic” about what could happen to its members. Morris said it is too early to speculate on job cuts, but he did say he and other pilots “were shocked” when the acquisition was announced.

Southwest has not officially announced any plans regarding either airline’s workers, but Paul Flanigan, a spokesman for Southwest Airlines, said the company is already working to combine the two companies while the acquisition goes through an approval process, which is expected to be completed in 2012.

“In the interim, we still remain two independent companies operating as such, so it’s really too early to speculate what that means for the market,” Flanigan said.

Currently, Southwest is Midway’s largest airline operating out of 29 of the airport’s 43 gates, while AirTran uses only two of the airport’s city-owned gates.

Ratliff said both discount airlines are doing well financially, which makes this acquisition an oddity.

“Normally, you’ve got someone who’s kind of hurting from a financial standpoint being represented. But here, we don’t have that being the case because both of those airlines were in the process of making money,” Ratliff said.

Waking up to a fresh cup of coffee before work used to be routine for Calumet Park resident Charlotte Pickens. That was before 5 p.m. on July 1, 2008, the day she walked out of her downtown office for the last time. Since her last day of work over two years ago, she has run out of unemployment benefits. She doesn’t qualify for other Illinois unemployment programs, but Pickens doesn’t want any more financial assistance; she wants a good paying job again.

Gov. Pat Quinn announced Tuesday that the two-month extension of the Put Illinois to Work program will keep close to 2 percent of the state’s unemployed in a job, but more than 670,000 Illinoisans like Pickens will have to wait for a program they qualify for.

Illinois is tied with Ohio as the state with the 10th highest unemployment rate — 10.1 percent. The federally funded Put Illinois to Work program helps the unemployed find jobs but requires applicants to meet certain criteria.

The Put Illinois to Work program pays the $10-an-hour salary only for low-income parents who are 18 to 21 and have a household income level less than 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level ($2,428 a month for a family of two). Anyone who applies for the program must fulfill each of the those requirements in order to qualify. Since it began, the program has helped 26,000 people get jobs.

“Most of the people that I run into have been in the workforce for over 20 years or more,” said Pickens. “It sucks because there’s nothing out there.”

Roger Ehmen, the director of community re-entry services at the Westside Health Authority in Austin, said the program is designed to help legalized workers learn a skill set that will help them get in-demand jobs. Since 1990, the West Side social service organization has provided over 4,000 ex-offenders with job training and services to refine or learn skills. Even with the extension, the program isn’t helping many more people.

“Our program is very limited,” said Ehmen. “There are 21 slots for the whole year.”

Participants often get jobs at hotels, churches and insurance companies. This is not enough for people with work experience that have exhausted their unemployment aid, says Pickens, who used to be a supervisor for the Chicago Housing Authority.

“It’s good for that (18-21) age group, but they’re not the only ones who need work,” said Pickens.

Ehmen said there are no programs for middle-age adults with children over 17 who’ve been laid off. He suggested that these people try to find jobs the old-fashioned way, but Pickens said she’s tried everything. She’s frustrated that employers seem to want everything done online, and she says it’s impossible to reach anyone in a human resources department, even if you show up in person.

Jim Picchetti, jobs project organizer for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, said he wishes the program could be extended to as many people as possible because single people are struggling the most. He said with federal and state money and with contributions to these assistance programs from everyday people, it could work. The coalition said it’s pushing for exactly that: a federal job package that would include more people.

Elce Redmond, a community organizer for another West Side organization, the South Austin Coalition, said, “The state can only do so much . . . We really need a national job program that puts people back to work.”

To Ehmen, unemployment is a federal problem that requires federal money, especially since the state of Illinois is $13 billion in debt.

“The state is not a good source of money because they’re broke,” he said.

Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin introduced the U.S. Senate bill, S3816 – Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act, this week, and is facing off with Republican opposition. Still, Pichetti said, “There’s always more that can be done.”

Unless Congress decides to extend the program another year or adopt U.S. Senate Bill 3816, the Put Illinois to Work program extension will end Nov. 30.

“I lost everything I had,” said Pritchett.

His only way of earning an income was by selling Streetwise.

Pritchett is now director of distribution at StreetWise, a magazine sold by once unemployed and homeless people on the streets of Chicago and surrounding suburbs. The magazine, which sells for $2, enables vendors to earn a living. Many use their profits to find to pay rent, taking them off the streets.

Created in 1992, the nonprofit is based at 1201 W. Lake St. and employs 150 vendors; in the warm weather months, that number jumps to 185. StreetWise has a circulation of nearly 30,000 each month, and most of its readers are middle-aged, affluent and disproportionately women.

The magazines are sold to the vendors for 75 cents each, and the vendors resell them for $2, said Executive Director Bruce Crane, who was a board member for 10 years and a volunteer for four before going to work at StreetWise full-time.

StreetWise was a newspaper for 16 years before becoming a magazine two years ago,

“We started out as a monthly publication, then a few years later it went to twice a month, and then about eight years ago became weekly,” said Crane.

In addition to being a newspaper, StreetWise is also a social service agency that offers job training, help for veterans, addiction counseling and education.

Crane said StreetWise helps the community by giving multiple opportunities to people who need it most. He added that the goal is to make the magazine better and appeal to more people.

One goal of the staff is to improve the magazine’s quality, he said, which will make it easier for the vendors to sell.

Crane said a having a better looking product, like a magazine, really motivates the vendors to want to get involved with StreetWise and sell more. He said vendors also learn about running a small business.

The staff decided to turn StreetWise from newspaper to magazine because advertisers wanted to move away from black-and-white to four-color graphics, Crane said. He added that marketing studios showed that StreetWise should increase the quality and content.

He said the move to a glossy magazine format was also made it easier to attract more freelance writers.

“It would be easier to attract the volunteer writers that are that are essential to our model. . . as they wanted their bylines to be in higher quality publications,” Crane said.

He also said that the publication had been the same price – $1 – for 16 year; a price increase gave the vendors more income.

To become a vendor, those interested must attend a three-hour orientation, then probation with more training during the next 30 days, Crane said.

The orientation, held at StreetWise’s office, teaches potential vendors the do’s and don’ts of how to sell the magazine and make a profit.

Bill Klee, 52, a full-time vendor in the Lincoln Park neighborhood for three years, said he sells magazines Mondays through Thursdays. Klee said he sells for eight to 10 hours a day, on the corner of Fullerton and Sheffield Avenues.

What he most enjoys about Streetwise is the flexibility of his work schedule.

“If you don’t want to come, you don’t have to,” he said.

Pritchett, distribution director, said he has trained more than 6,000 people for positions at StreetWise.

“Knowing that I’m impacting people’s lives by helping them find jobs is what keeps me motivated,” he said.

Nancy Pham polishing off a manicure in her nail salon.

Greeted with a “hi honey,” or “what can I do for ya’ sweetie,” Pham makes her clients feel welcomed and part of the Hollywood Nails family, which consists of herself and her coworker sons. But while she’s always upbeat and joyful, Pham has not always had a cheery life.

Growing up in Da Nang, Vietnam and reaching the status of master seamstress by the age of 17, Pham sought out a safer and better life. She fled from the ongoing Vietnam War, boarding a ship with a couple hundred people that headed for the Philippines.

She never expected pirates to bombard the ship, but that’s exactly what happened; they killed the majority of the men and raped many of the women. Pham remained as one of the handful of survivors that safely made it to land.

She stayed in the Philippines for under a year, finally making a series of boat trips that brought her to Florida. Once in the States, Pham continued her work as a seamstress until getting dangerously ill; taking advice from a friend, she headed to Chicago for better hospital care.

Pham recovered from her illness and moved with her children to an apartment in the Uptown community of Chicago. She went to work in nail salons and did seamstress work on the side until she received the opportunity of a lifetime from a single phone call.

A friend was selling his nail salon and was looking for a buyer. After saving for years, Pham decided it would be a good investment and reopened Hollywood Nails in 2002. Without help from family or friends, Pham set her title as an independent businesswoman and began to run a small nail salon known for great customer care.

“She’s very loving and accepts everyone as if they’re one of her family,” said Michael Dang, Pham’s eldest son, who has worked in her salon for six years now.

Her younger son agreed.

“I think she’s a very sweet, kind-hearted person,” said Long Pham, who has worked for her for four years.

Long Pham claims his mom is a perfectionist; his mother seems to agree. Nancy Pham believes that her greatest achievement in life was opening her business and gives thanks to her outstanding determination and willpower. She puts great emphasis on remembering customers’ names and making them feel at home.

“I really appreciate everything Nancy has done to make me feel welcomed as a valued customer … she’s always cheerful,” said Robin Erickson, a longtime customer.

If home is where the heart is, than Nancy Pham surely puts the topcoat of love on it, keeping all her customers satisfied. Hollywood Nails, which has recently relocated to 650 W. Cornelia Ave., across the street from its original location, remains her pride and joy and the scent of freshly painted fingers will forever keep her smiling.

But for the owners of four stores who have for years made their living under the tracks, the renovation is not great news. Those four businesses will be forced to close, including Lakeview Foods, the oldest running business to operate at the Wilson station.

Michael Stempien, who inherited Lakeview Foods from his father, is taking the closing of his store — the loss of his livelihood and his family’s legacy — to heart.

The store had been operating for 25 years with a month-to-month lease from the CTA, Stempien said, when he was notified of the renovations in February.

The CTA said in an e-mail that it wanted to upgrade the Wilson station to beautify the neighborhood and better serve customers. The CTA worked with Ald. Helen Schiller (46th) to get $3 million in tax increment financing for the renovation.

Stempien said he pleaded with the CTA to keep his store, but to no avail; he was given 30 days’ notice to move his business. He won’t be able to open a new store due to losses he’s currently taking with his inventory, he said.

“I’m not going to have money to open a new store. We’ve taken a hit on all the inventory we have, because we’re selling it for less than what we bought it for,” said Stempien.

Stempien has begun selling his products at buy-one, get-one -free prices, and fears that he will have to throw away most of his unsold merchandise. And he has been trying to sell his equipment from the store on Craigslist.

“Hoping for the best and expecting the worst. There’s nothing we can do,” he said. “I just got dealt a bad hand. It sucks, but it’s legal.”

Other stores affected by the renovation, according to Stempien, are Popeye’s, The Wilson-Broadway Mall and Americana Submarine & Grill.

The Wilson-Broadway Mall, which also operated on a month-to-month lease, will relocate across the street from the Wilson station.

“We actually found a place across the street. We got lucky,” said My Linh Lee, who works at the Wilson-Broadway mall. Lee said her store also tried to protest the closure and were told they had to move out.

Lee pointed to the outcome of other stores and their sad departures. “It’s unfortunate for everybody else. They’ve been here for so long and they have to move out. Lakeview [Foods] has been there forever, since I was little,” said Lee.

Asif Poonja, owner of the Popeye’s restaurant at Wilson and Broadway, took out a $500,000 loan to renovate his restaurant; now, he says, it’s a wasted effort.

“All of my furniture will be gone. There’s not much I can say without [the CTA] getting mad. There’s no way we can get reimbursed,” said Poonja.

Stempien thought his relationship with the CTA was good enough to avoid closure. “I would think that 25 years of having a business relationship would’ve gotten me more than a 30 days’ notice,” said Stempien.

After the renovation, the stores will have to re-bid for their former locations.

“When the project is done in over a year, we’re not guaranteed this spot back,” Stempien said.

The lawsuit, filed March 5, alleges Jay Medicar Transportation, a medical transport company based in Chicago, tolerated sexual harassment. Several female employees say the company knew of harassment complaints and did nothing, even after a supervisor retaliated against one female employee.

Tina Stillwell and other employees claim they were subjected to repeated, sexually demeaning comments, according to the court records; their supervisor demanded sexual favors, and these same employees were allegedly the target of racial slurs. When Stillwell filed a complaint, the lawsuit states, she was fired in November 2005.

Harassment is covered under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Not only does sexual harassment include sexual demands or sexual contact but also creating a work atmosphere that is intimidating, hostile or offensive.

Only a small percentage of cases are tried by the employment opportunity commission because of the limited resources for the high volume of cases charged, said Justin Mulaire, the commission’s trial attorney. In Chicago, Mulaire said approximately 30 cases were filed by the commission in 2009.

Nationwide, the commission filed cases for188 of the 93,277 complaints brought to their office in 2009. The number of sexual harassment complaints increased 15 percent from approximately 24,000 to 28,000 between 1999 and 2009.

“These cases are difficult to prove,” said Mulaire. “Most of time when there’s discrimination there’s no videotape, and the case turns on the credibility of the witness.”

Complaints are first filed within the human resources department before the commission becomes involved. The number of retaliation claims 17,883 to 28,948 jumped 39 percent between 1999 and 2009.

People need to feel free to make these types of complaints to their human resources department and not fear losing their job, Mulaire said. The goal of these cases goes beyond relief for the employees he represents, said Mulaire, and aims to promote all employers’ compliance with the law.

“When we file a case, our overarching goal is deterrence,” said Mulaire. “We want to help demonstrate to employers to take these alleged activities seriously.”

But complaints were not brought to the human resource department’s attention, said Eric Amazaleg, owner of Jay Medicar Transportation. Amazaleg took over the company after the alleged incidents of sexual harassment occurred in 2005.

After performing its own investigation, Amazaleg said he doesn’t understand why the suit was filed in the first place.

“I’m meeting with my attorneys and considering a lawsuit against the EEOC,” said Amazaleg. “None of us were notified (about the harassment).”

In tough economic times, it’s more difficult for employees to quit and find new jobs, and the culture of harassment continues to fester, said Fraeda Kapor Klein, founder of the Level Playing Field Institute in California. Klein said retaliation against employees who complain and multiple forms of harassment are on the rise.

“This case is reflective of a trend that harassment tends to travel in packs,” Klein said.

The true costs of tolerating this type of culture are bigger than lawsuits, said Klein.

“Employers need to recognize they’re losing money if they ignore harassment,” said Klein. “Because employees who witness harassment have less incentive to be productive or loyal or tell their friends and relatives not to work their or buy its products. Prevention is prudent.”

Sexual harassment still takes place, and holding employers accountable legally might be the most effective way to address the problem, said Peter M. LaSorsa, an attorney who represents victims of sexual harassment.

“The idea that corporations are going to police themselves when it comes to sexual harassment is ridiculous,” said LaSorsa. “Left on their own, employers won’t do the right thing.”

In either case, sexual harassment is about using power over an employee, said LaSorsa.  Employers don’t want anyone to rock the boat and often retaliate and fire those who complain, LaSorsa said.

No hearing date has yet been scheduled in the case, but the defendants’ response is due May 4.

Rev. Randall Harris of Chicago's Faith Community Church speaks about the loss of Park National Bank during a meeting at the Oak Park Light of Liberty Church of God and Christ on Saturday. (Andrew A. Nelles / Photo for ChicagoTalks.org)

No matter what the outcome in the Park National Bank seizure, the situation has broken down barriers between the Austin community and Oak Park residents.

It’s the silver lining in the cloud that has hung over those two communities since  October. That’s when the popular neighborhood bank, located in Oak Park, was seized by federal regulators, said Rev. Marshall Hatch, a member of the Coalition to Save Community Banking, a grassroots organization formed in response to the takeover and forced sale.

“There’s much less of a barrier between Austin and Oak Park,” said Hatch, representing the New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church in West Garfield Park. “This has brought people together. It’s a grassroots response to what communities all over the country are feeling as they’re gobbled up by bankers who got bailout money.”

Hatch was one of several speakers at a community meeting Saturday held by the coalition. About 100 people attended the at times sermon-like event, held at the Light of Liberty Church of God and Christ in Oak Park, not far from Park National’s former branch at the corner of Austin and Madison.

The purpose of the meeting was to update attendees on a situation that has caused outcry throughout Oak Park and Chicago’s West Side since federal regulators seized Park National Bank and its parent company and turned operations over to U.S. Bank.

Oak Park business owner Beth Harvey speaks about how the loss of Park National Bank has affected her business. (Andrew A. Nelles / Photo for ChicagoTalks.org)

Park National’s community philanthropy made it unique in the banking world, and many in the area worry about whether U.S. Bank will perform those same community functions. That’s one question Beth Harvey, owner of Harvey House Bed & Breakfast in Oak Park, says she already knows the answer to.

Yet when Harvey recently asked U.S. Bank for a loan, “I was turned down,” she said. “They offered me a credit card.”

Praise on Saturday ran high for River Forest resident Kelly, who was known for lending to customers in Austin and West Garfield Park. After the 2007 closing of Austin High School, Kelly extended a $22 million, no-interest loan to build Christ the King Jesuit College Preparatory School; students began attending class in the new building Jan. 4.

The bank was known for giving zero-percent loans to neighborhood organizations and schools and giving money to community organizations through grants, as well as doing things like cleaning up houses that had been subject to foreclosure.

To ensure that U.S. Bank treats the community the same way, the coalition is trying to negotiate a Community Benefit Agreement with the bank, said Quiwana Reed-Bell, community development director at the Westside Health Authority.

The coalition has several requests for the bank: to honor commitments made by Park National, ensure local hiring and fair lending practices, ensure that foreclosures are not done on a whim and provide grants and funding support, with a community advisory committee directing where monies should go.

Rev. Marshall Hatch speaks to a crowd of about 100 residents Saturday about the October seizure of Park National Bank by federal regulators. (Andrew A. Nelles / Photo for ChicagoTalks.org)

“They’re gonna have a set of standards to live by,” said Reed-Bell. “We’re moving forward with specific expectations.”

“It’s going on three-and-a-half months and we’ve increased in size as well as militancy,’ Redmond said.

The coalition is calling on the bank regulator’s inspector general to investigate the actions against Park National by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which regulates and supervises all national banks.

Sen. Don Harmon (D-Oak Park), assistant majority leader of the Illinois Senate, said he wants the appropriate committee to continue an investigation of the seizure.

“This is not done yet,” Harmon said.

Meanwhile, Hatch and the coalition’s “rag-tag band of disciples” are holding two events. The debut of “Too Good To Fail,” a documentary about their trip to Washington, D.C., will play at 7 p.m. March 25 at the New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church, 4301 W. Washington Blvd. in Chicago. A demonstration at the FDIC and U.S. Bank will be held at 9 a.m. March 31, beginning at the Westside Health Authority, 4800 W. Chicago Ave. in Chicago.

“We lost a lot, and we’re not going to take it sitting down,” said Hatch.

Nicholas Myers contributed to this report.

And the fight is not over.

On Saturday, March 13 at 10 a.m., the Coalition to Save Community Banking will meet at the Light of Liberty Church of God and Christ at 2 W. Washington Blvd. in Oak Park. The group will then march to Park National’s former headquarters at the corner of Austin Boulevard and Madison Street where it will stage a protest over the loss of the community bank that had invested heavily on the West Side. The coalition plans to assemble 300 to 500 people for the march.

“We’re gearing up a campaign around a Community Benefits Agreement that targets US Bank to continue the kind of community lending that Park National had,” coalition member and South Austin Coalition organizer Elce Redmond said.

The agreement “is a set of criteria [centered] around local hiring, around lending, around supporting community organizations,” said Redmond. “It’s about a seven- or eight-page document that we’ve had. And we’ve been trying to have negotiations with US Bank on this document.”

E-mails and calls to US Bank have not been returned. A receptionist told a reporter on Feb. 24 that no one could comment as things were still “floating.”

Mike Kelly, chairman of Park National and its parent company, First Bank of Oak Park, was known for lending to customers in Chicago’s impoverished West Side neighborhoods in Austin and West Garfield Park. After the 2007 closing of Austin High School, Park National extended a $22 million, no-interest loan to build Christ the King Jesuit College Preparatory School; students began attending class in the new building Jan. 4.

“This bank epitomized what community banking was; they loaned money to small businesses, community organizations, nonprofits,” said Redmond.

Attorney Kelli Dudley, a professor and program assistant in the Predatory Lending Program at John Marshall Law School, said Park National was well known in the community for giving “zero-percent loans to community organizations and schools, giving money to community organizations through grants” and did “things like cleaning up houses that had been subject to foreclosure and making them nice and livable and resalable and yet absorbing a little bit of that cost each time.”

Redmond also said he heard Kelly, a longtime River Forest resident, was considering filing suit against the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. over how it handled the takeover.

“I don’t know what his specific intentions are,” said Dudley, who educates Austin residents on predatory lending and avoiding foreclosures. “There might just be some legal technical issues that would make it hard to sue the FDIC, but it does seem like that the community bank and the people affiliated with it and the people who relied on it should have some kind of legal recourse, because here a big decision takes place under cover of the night and they’re not given any opportunity to have any input into it.”

Kelly recently took legal action against JP Morgan Chase, which sued the FBOP last June over a loan Chase called in and which may have contributed to the worsening financial state and eventual government seizure of Kelly’s company.

“They [Chase] sued him and he filed a motion with that lawsuit,” said Dudley. “JP Morgan Chase, it is alleged, unfairly accelerated and called in a loan, and it was a huge amount percentage-wise of their [Park National's] portfolio, which caused them to look temporarily weak.”

The protest planned for March will come less than two months after dozens of Park National supporters traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend a congressional hearing on last year’s seizure and selling of Park National and its other banks. Kelly testified as members of the Coalition to Save Community Banking looked on.

Redmond, who made the round-trip bus trip with other coalition members, said several congressional members at the Jan. 21 hearing “put the FDIC on the hot seat.”

“The FDIC sort of admitted, ‘Well, it didn’t really need to happen,’” Redmond said, “But how do you reverse it? That becomes the big issue.”

There is also the issue of big bank versus small bank in the government’s eyes, as Dudley said: “There is a difference in the standards that are applied in evaluating whether the FDIC should come in and close down a Park National versus whether they should come in and close down one of the six largest banks in the country, and it’s just frankly not fair at all,” said Dudley.

Camille Lilly, the volunteer executive director for the Austin Chamber of Commerce, said the loss of First National still ripples through the community.

“They [Park National] were community banking,” she said. “We had the leadership, we had the commitment – we had all of that at Park National for the community to develop themselves, and when we remove that opportunity, the community struggles with developing themselves.”

Park National’s community philanthropy made it unique in the banking world, Dudley said. “Rather than making all of their decisions based on what will flow the most money to shareholders and what will flow the most money into the corporation, they made some decisions that were based on doing good in the community.”

Lilly and others worry about whether US Bank will perform some of these same community bank functions. “From what I’ve heard and read, it is not their philosophy to be community banking sensitive. That is not what they built their model on, so it’s a void in our community because we once had it.”

For more information about Saturday’s march, contact the South Austin Coalition at (773) 287-4570.

With Illinois’ unemployment rate at a staggering 11 percent, employers can afford to be more selective in whom they hire. But a new bill could give job seekers with bad credit a fighting chance in landing a position.

Rep. Jack Franks (D-Woodstock) has introduced a bill, HB4658, creating the Employee Credit Privacy Act, which would protect applicants who believe they were discriminated against because of their poor credit. Washington and Hawaii have passed similar laws restricting credit checks by employers; a credit check ban approved Monday by the Oregon legislature will go into effect July 1.

While employers say credit information is vital because it is an important part of the screening process, opponents say such information is private and irrelevant to job performance.

Franks said business associations are fighting the bill, but the measure is a necessary step to help job seekers in this failing economy. The need for the bill struck him on a family road trip, he said, when he saw a former growth area littered with foreclosure signs hit hard by the recession.

“I want to protect individuals who through no fault of their own have lost their jobs,” said Franks. “Their credit goes into the tank, and they can’t get another job. It’s a perpetual cycle.”

Franks said that the rights of the business owner should be weighed against the public benefit. As a business owner, Franks said he understands both sides of the issue but doesn’t want to create a permanent underclass.

“Let people have a second chance,” Franks said.

Historically, 28 percent of companies have used credit checks on selected applicants, but over the past year that number has spiked to 47 percent, according to a 2010 survey from the Society for Human Resource Management.

Mike Walters, executive director of the Southwest Illinois Employers Association, said the bill restricts business owners and employers. Employers need to have as much information as they can get in hiring, he said, and the proposed legislation severely limits that ability.

“If an individual contracts someone for a job, they have a right to see if the person they hire has defaulted on payments,” said Walters. “If it’s good for the individual, it should be good for employers.”

Walters questioned how the bill would be enforced and whether employers would take their business out of the state if the bill passed.

“If you have any common business sense, you’d understand this is a bad bill,” said Walters.

University of California-Los Angeles Public Policy Department Chair Michael Stoll said while employers should not discriminate against people with lower credit scores, there are instances when accessing a person’s credit information can be a valuable instrument.

Stoll said employers might try to find ways around the restriction by discriminating against low-income applicants. The bill could have unintended consequences and should be limited in order to be effective, he said.

Mark Denzler, spokesman for the Illinois Manufacturers Association, said he opposes the bill because it restricts the use of an important tool employers use when evaluating job applicants. The law already protects certain individuals who have bad history, said Denzler. Under current law, credit reports can’t disclose bankruptcy cases more than 10 years old, or civil suits and tax liens older than seven years.

Denzler said employers only check a small percentage of applicants because of the credit checks’ cost — $15 per applicant.

“Employers don’t do credit checks on everyone,” Denzler said. “From the time a person applies to a final stage of interviews, there is an opportunity for employees to explain they’ve gone through a rough patch.”

Credit checks serve a more important purpose than simply providing an applicant’s credit history; they verify previous employment and former addresses, Denzler said. Credit checks also protect employers from lawsuits if they fail to properly check an applicant.

“I understand the man or woman who has fallen on hard times, but the employers have a right to vet their applicants,” Denzler said.

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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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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Lee remembers her first day of work last September, being nervous as she took the elevator to the 22nd floor of a Chicago high-rise. Her nerves soon settled, and now she completes daily office tasks with ease and confidence.

This is her second year participating in the corporate work-study program at Christ the King College Preparatory High School, which just moved classes to a new $28 million facility in Austin.

“I think it’s a great experience. It’s teaching me what my mom and other adults go through. I’m working to pay a part of my tuition, and I’m learning a lot of new things,” Lee said.

Lee, who — like many of the students attending Christ the King — lives in Austin, hopes to become a lawyer.

All of the 162 students at Christ the King participate in the work-study program once a week at over 160 participating employers around the city. Lee, along with the three other students in her “work-team,” alternates workdays throughout the week to provide the manpower for one full-time, entry-level position at Community Investment Corp. located in the Near West Side community.

“We saw that it was a great opportunity for students who are just coming out of grade school to know what it is to work. Even though the kids are young, they’ve done a great job,” said Monica Kirby, office manager at Community Investment Corp.

Fran Thompson, communications director for Christ the King, said the program creates an opportunity that students wouldn’t normally get from a traditional classroom setting.

“For some students, working these jobs gives them their first visit to the Loop, and there they are going up an elevator in a skyscraper to work in a financial office,” Thompson said.

Christ the King is part of a national group of 24 Jesuit schools operated by the Cristo Rey Network. Although this is the school’s second year in Austin, it moved into the new 100,000-square-foot, three story building earlier this month. The school is located at 5088 W. Jackson Blvd., on the site of the former Resurrection Parish.

Each one of the 24 Cristo Rey Network nationwide schools, including one in Pilsen, employs the work-study program.

“The premise began as a solution,” said Preston Kendall, vice-president of the corporate work-study program. “We wanted to open a college prep high school what would serve families with limited resources, and we wanted a model where we wouldn’t need to raise tuition.”

The work done by students in local businesses funds 65 percent of each student’s tuition, said Kendall. The other 35 percent is made up of family contribution and scholarships.

“It started out as a solution to a financial problem, but we soon discovered very quickly that this is a multi-faceted program. It gives students ownership of earning their education,” said Kendall.

Studies done by the Cristo Rey Network showed a need for schools in Austin, a community of more than 100,000 with high unemployment and no neighborhood public high school, said Thompson, communication director for Christ the King. It found that Austin needs 14,000 seats for students, yet only offers 7,000.

“There is a humongous shortage in this area,” Thompson said.

When at full capacity, the new school should hold around 600 students. The school, which currently has 162 students, will add a new class each year, Thompson said. It is currently running with only a freshman and sophomore class.

“We are not trying to only pull the cream of the crop students here, we are also looking for the average and above-average, hard-working students who otherwise may have fallen through the crack,” she said.

Kendall said the admissions office at Christ the King looks at academic and financial history, yet concentrates mostly on past behavior and attendance reports.

Currently, the majority of Christ the King students are coming from a few key areas, said Kendall, including: East and West Garfield Park, Lawndale, Humboldt Park and Austin.

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The Community Arts Assistance Program (CAAP) was created in 1987 through funding provided by the Illinois Arts Council Access Program. The goals of CAAP are to discover, nurture and expand Chicago’s multi-ethnic artists and nonprofit arts organizations, and to foster new and emerging individual artists and arts groups by providing grants for professional, artistic and organizational development to those who have had limited access to funding in both public and private grants programs. CAAP grants provide financial assistance to individual artists and to nonprofit arts organizations with incomes under $150,000. The maximum grant request is $1,000. Funding priority is intended for applicants who have not been previously funded through the CAAP Program or have not had access to traditional funding programs such as grants, fellowships and art commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, Illinois Arts Council, corporations or foundations.

From the City of Chicago website:

WHAT WE FUND

Individual Artists

Professional development in the areas of Artistic, Management and Technical/Artistic Services including:

• Creation of high quality artistic projects (e.g. development or completion of a work of art)
• High quality training programs (non-credit master classes, workshops, etc.) which develop professional artistic skills
• Technical assistance in the form of a consultant to help with publicity, proposal writing, marketing, financial management, etc.
• Portfolio development: slides, resumes and audio and video presentations for funders and galleries, etc.
• Exhibition expenses which may include mounting, framing and installation (may not include gallery rental or reception costs)
• Nonprofit Arts Organizations

Organizational Development including:

• High quality training programs aimed at developing administrative and organizational skills
• Technical assistance in the form of a consultant to help in publicity, fundraising, board development, planning, marketing, audience development and bookkeeping
• Documentation of cultural activity through photography, slides, brochures, annual reports, audio and video which will assist the organization in presentations to funders or promotion to attract new and broader audiences
• Assistance for seeking 501(c)(3) status (must contact Cultural Grants staff for separate application instructions)

REQUIREMENTS

Individual applicants

• Must be 21 years of age
• Must be practicing artists with demonstrated ability in their artistic discipline
• Must be a City of Chicago resident with a Chicago street address (no P.O. boxes accepted)
• Must be Chicago resident for at least six (6) months prior to the application deadline
• Must have a social security number

Nonprofit arts organizations

• Must be incorporated and located in the city of Chicago
• Must have acquired, or be in the process of applying for, or seeking funds to apply for Federal 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status
• Must have a valid Federal Employer Identification Number

APPLICATION ASSISTANCE WORKSHOPS

All applicants are strongly encouraged to attend one of the Application Assistance Workshops. Pertinent information regarding the application process and helpful grant writing information will be discussed.

DEADLINE: The 2010 Community Arts Assistance Program grants are currently being accepted. Applications are due on Monday, January 25, 2010 at 5:00 p.m.

For more information, check out the City of Chicago/CAAP website:

Teen Talk Radio on Youtube.com

Instructors-Producers, Ms. Masequa Myers and Mr. Pemon Rami, invite you to join Teen Talk Radio Theater and learn to produce your own radio show. The program begins Feb. 1 and continues until April 14, 2010. It meets on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

The auditions and interviews will be held on Sat., Jan. 16, 2010 from 10:00 am to 1:00 p.m. at:
P & M STUDIO
(Located inside Kennicott Park)
4434 S. Lake Park Ave. Room 105
Chicago, Il 60653

What do you need to do to qualify? You must attend all sessions, be on time and work enthusiastically. They are looking for independent, responsible teens who have a genuine interest in writing, acting, public speaking, rapping, producing (beats & songs). Experience is a plus, but if you can talk about issues and have the drive to be part of this unique experience, you can register online at the afterschoolmatters.org site. Use the keyword: “Teen Talk Radio Theatre” to find the application form.

Contact Pemon Rami, CTO, for Masequa Myers & Associates for more information at:  http://www.masequa.com

With little tax training, low-income families are among the most likely to leave money on the table at tax time. They’re also those who can least afford to do so. Many are simply unaware of credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) or Child Tax Credit (CTC), which can be equal to more than two months pay for a low-income family.

“After the year we’ve just had, we want to make sure that all eligible families claim their tax refund quickly and completely,” said David Marzahl, Executive Director at the Center for Economic Progress. “We also want to make sure that they have the opportunity to start saving for a rainy day with sound financial products at our tax sites.”

In 2009, more than 1,200 volunteers joined the Center in helping low-income workers get the max from tax time. Thanks to these volunteers and partners, the Center provided free tax and financial services to 33,000 individuals and families in Illinois, returning $52 million to some of the most cash-strapped communities in Illinois.

No prior tax experience is necessary. Free, flexible training is available to volunteers willing to spend just a few hours a week providing this vital service to low-income families while building their skills and networking at one of many Illinois tax sites. In Chicago, volunteers are needed at tax sites in Albany Park, Auburn Gresham, Bronzeville, Chicago Lawn, Lawndale, the Loop, Pilsen, Rogers Park, Uptown and West Garfield Park. In the Chicago suburbs and northern Illinois, volunteers are needed in Aurora, Crystal Lake, Elgin, Harvey, Joliet, Rockford and Waukegan. In central and southern Illinois, volunteers are needed in Alton, Bloomington, Decatur, East St. Louis, Marion, Normal, Peoria, Rock Island and Springfield. Volunteers are supported at all times by experienced tax preparers and accountants. Certified Public Accountants who volunteer can also receive free Continuing Professional Education Credits.

The Center will provide free tax preparation from Jan. 23 through April 15 at over 30 Illinois locations. For more information or to register to volunteer, visit www.economicprogress.org, or call (312) 630-0244.

How Much Stimulus Funding is Going to Your County? UPDATED Dec. 2009 | ProPublica Recovery Tracker.

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The Queen Anne-style property in Lincoln Park, which is adjacent to the Armitage station’s east side, was partially demolished in 2006 as part of the CTA’s Brown Line expansion to make way for a wider platform. The center part of the property – which is also listed on the National Register for Historic Places – was demolished and renovated, said CTA spokeswoman Noelle Gaffney.

The 5,100-square-foot property was originally put on the market in March, and a local restaurant and bar owner, Bobby Burleson, presented the CTA with the highest bid of $850,000, which it accepted in August. However, after plunking down $10,000 in earnest money, Burleson still needed to come up with a 10 percent deposit. Instead, he didn’t execute the contract and forfeited his $10,000, Gaffney said, leading to the CTA board’s Dec. 9th vote to put the property back on the market. Burleson could not be reached for comment.

“We’re just interested in selling the property,” said Gaffney, adding that the money from the sale will go back into the Brown Line.

The expansion work at the historic Armitage station began in 2006, and early construction included partially demolishing the property at 939 W. Armitage, a masonry building with an ornamental, pressed-metal front façade and zinc panels. Because it is a contributing structure in the Armitage-Halsted Landmark District, the building was required to be at least partially preserved, so its west half was demolished and its east half saved.

Jonathan Fine, executive director of Preservation Chicago, said the CTA “kept the essence of the building,” and that it would “make a good anything.”

“There is always a need for modest, perfectly-scaled building in that kind of a district,” Fine said.

The Armitage station re-opened in June 2008, and the building has sat vacant even though the work was completed.

Paul Dawson, project manager for Jones Lang LaSalle, which is marketing the property, said at this point, it will be up to the CTA to decide how long a second bidding process will stay open. Meanwhile, neighborhood businesses say with many stores already closing on the tony Armitage Avenue, a restaurant or café would be a welcome sight.

“There are not a lot of great places to eat in the neighborhood,” said Sibyle Gander, manager of Art Effect, 934 W. Armitage Ave. “Something that opens up to the street would be great.”

Chuck Eastwood, chief of staff for Ald. Vi Daley (43rd), whose ward the property lies in, said he’d like to also see a restaurant, but “active retail” would work, too.

“Anything but a bank,” said Eastwood. “A bona fide restaurant, not a restaurant posing as a bar. I don’t think anybody wants a bar there.”

Jeff Price, president of the RANCH Triangle Association, said assuming that the building will not be torn down, it could be used for a multitude of purposes.

“I’d like to see a successful retail store on the first floor and perhaps some offices or apartments upstairs,” Price said.

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/8026348[/vimeo]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpbmAGZSmNE[/youtube]

With neighborhood economic development groups objecting to a major reduction in city funding at a time of growing job loss, 22 aldermen have submitted a resolution ordering the Mayor’s Office of Budget and Management to restore the funds in the city’s proposed 2010 budget.

The resolution is on the agenda for the City Council’s budget committee hearing on Monday. If approved, it could be considered at Wednesday’s council meeting.

The proposed budget for the Department of Community Development cuts spending by 21.5 percent for delegate agencies – about 120 neighborhood chambers of commerce and other groups that support commercial and industrial districts.

It’s a huge cut for a small budget item – a $1.5 million reduction from last year’s appropriation of $6.4 million. It’s a far greater reduction than other programs in the department. And it comes on top of cuts ranging from 3 to 7.5 percent each of the past six years, while the city’s budget has steadily grown.

With pressure on neighborhood businesses ratcheting up, other funding sources for the groups – especially local banks and real estate agencies, who know the value of a thriving business district — have been squeezed particularly hard, said Kimberly Bares of the Rogers Park Business Alliance.

Because the city provides only partial funding, its spending on delegate agencies seeds a tremendous amount of economic development effort, she said.

“We’re providing tremendous value to the city’s efforts, for minimal funding,” said Roger Romanelli of the Randolph Fulton Market Assocation. “We’re out on the streets every day, working directly with hundreds of businesses” in ways that would be impossible for the city.

“Most delegate agencies have staffs of one or two people doing the work of ten,” said Luis Alva of the Little Village Chamber of Commerce. LVCC’s activities include workshops for businesses on a range of topics as well as a highly successful 13-session workshop on starting a business. “These are people who go on to open businesses, invest in the community, and hire people,” he said.

The group also features festivals and sales to attract shoppers from outside the community to the 26th Street retail district, which is second only the Michigan Avenue in business activity and sales tax revenue. Local dress shops are clamoring for a repeat of LVCC’s recent bridal expo, Alva said.

Delegate agencies include groups funded under the Local Industrial Retention Initiative (LIRI), which are also facing 21.5 percent cuts, said Mike Holzer of the Local Economic and Employment Development Council. LIRI is the city’s primary delivery vehicle for direct economic development services to small manufacturers, and LEED Council manages the North River Industrial Corridor.

LEED Council has leveraged over half a billion dollars in private investment for the corridor, which includes four planned manufacturing districts, Holzer said. The Goose Island district, which was a marginal industrial area in the early 1990s, when 25 firms employed fewer than 1,000 workers, is thriving today, with over 65 firms and a workforce of 5,000, he said.

Those are jobs that allow workers to buy homes and send children to college. And they’ve been attracted during a period when the U.S. has lost millions of manufacturing jobs; Chicago lost over 100,000 manufacturing jobs from 1995 to 2005, according to the Brookings Institute.

Small and mid-size firms generate the vast majority of new jobs, said Ellen Shepard of the Andersonville Chamber of Commerce, and since local businesses use local suppliers and support charities in their own communities, they generate far more local economic activity.

“With national and international markets faltering, and many residents being laid off…we are more reliant than ever on our neighborhood businesses,” she said. The city should be “significantly” boosting funding for neighborhood development groups, not cutting it, she said.

Bares said the cuts are likely to force some neighborhood groups to close down – and adds that there are local business support groups on the South and West Sides that have yet to be included in the city’s delegate agency program.

With major corporations getting city subsidies of tens of millions of dollars, while over a hundred local groups – which serve thousands of small businesses — must share a $5 million program, it’s clear the city could focus more on locally-owned businesses. The other program supporting neighborhood businesses, the Small Business Improvement Funds provided by selected TIF districts, is being cut this year from $3 million to $2.25 million.

That means less than half of 1 percent of TIF funds go to support small business, Shepard said. Romanelli said he had 38 applicants for small SBIF grants in the Kinzie Industrial TIF last year; funds were only available for eight grantees.

With aldermen now responding, cuts may be headed off this year – but it’s a bit of a fluke. Bares learned of the cuts ahead of time only because she serves on the city’s Community Development Advisory Committee; she went on to alert her colleagues. In previous years, delegate agencies learned their allocations were being cut only after the budget had been approved.

“This has certainly illustrated to us the difficulties everyday citizens have negotiating the city’s budget labyrinth,” she said.

The Kenwood Academy High School graduate and current DeVry University student applied for 16 positions over a two-day span, only to hear “no” from potential employers due to what she believed to be a lack of job experience.

Now, Lamon is worried about paying back the mounting costs of her student loans, about $10,000 for her first year at college.

“I’m gonna have to pay all that stuff back after I get out in three years,” said Lamon. “And by me being so young and not having experience, I really can’t get [a job].”

What has been helping Lamon so far has been her position with Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization (KOCO) performing community outreach and organizing events.

She was one of several hundred youth and parents in attendance at a South Side youth town hall at Walter H. Dyett High School on Sunday rallying to reduce teen violence and push for an increase in employment opportunities.

The Life Campaign, an umbrella organization for ten Chicago youth groups with the Roosevelt Institute at Northwestern University, hosted the event.

The rally began on a somber tone as Dyett principal Robert M. McMiller shared having to attend two funerals of Dyett students since becoming Dyett’s principal in February.

“This is an important day for all of you,” said McMiller. “So I just want all of you to make the best of it.”

Over the course of two hours, high school and college youth spoke about how the impact of Illinois’ current budget crisis and the recession has affected their future educational goals.

However, many offered words of encouragement for their pursuits.

“For those of you who are in high school, look for scholarships,” said Corkey, a student at De Paul University, who said she was stressing over the pending eviction of her mother and younger sister as she worried about paying back $9,500 in loans.

“Just keep pushing through. It’s going to work out in the end. I promise,” she said.

In a speech that was part campaign pitch, Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, who is running for the U.S. Senate, said the only way for youth to have work opportunities is if they are “engaged in the process.”

“The decisions that are going to be made over the next few years in Washington, D.C. are going to determine the course this country takes for generations,” said Giannoulias.

But students pressed Giannoulias for a meeting to discuss creating 20,000 jobs each year though state funding. Giannoulias said he would work with the student organizations to make sure that funding is created.

Earlier this year, KOCO worked with state Rep. Esther Golar (D-Chicago) to introduce the Community Youth Employment Act, HB 3631, a grant to fund six weeks of summer mentoring and employment. Currently, the bill is in the House Rules Committee.

Golar was unavailable for comment.

In September, unemployment in Illinois was at 10.5 percent according to the Illinois Department of Employment Security. In 2008, nearly 26,000 jobs were projected to be created for the 14 to 18 age group, according to the website.

Rally host, Angie Rollins, a student at Columbia College Chicago, said she wanted to hear more details from Giannoulias rather than “you can do it” talk. She wants legislators to discuss what actions they will take to increase youth employment.

“I want to see them voting on the bills we’ve presented,” said Rollins. “They’ve got money. Contrary to popular belief they got money sitting there. They can do it.”

Check out a related story from WBEZ, Chicago Public Radio.

Listen to audio clips on the WBEZ/Vocalo blog.