[VIDEO] As you see in this clip Ward 9 Ald. Anthony Beale is upset about a lack of resources in the community to address the gun crime in the Roseland community.
Wednesday morning a fatal shooting took place at a Citgo Station at 116th & Michigan. Then on Tuesday afternoon another fatal shooting on 113th & Michigan.
The right question is being asked if crime is down, who is the crime down for? Is it downtown? What about the neighborhoods.
[VIDEO] FOX 32 reports on attacks by a mob (10 or 15) of teens near the 95th Street Red Line terminal. The attack was reported to have happened an hour before the remote by reporter Elizabeth Matthews. Matthews was broadcasting inside Abbott Park across from the terminal.
So an incident happened before Matthews was broadcasting and they reported another incident last night speaking with one of the victims wear a facemask and a bandage over her nose. The victim who was assaulted suffered a fractured nose.
So not only are they punching victims, they're also using pepper spray and engaging in strong arm robbery.
Be careful on the train, getting off the train, and perhaps even on the bus.
Speaking of mayoral contender for 2023 Ald. Ray Lopez he's proposed a series of reforms for the city. Fran Spielman writes about it today and I'm sorry I missed it before posting about Ald. Lopez asking for Nat'l Guard help for the city.
Ald. Ray Lopez (15th) on Monday unveiled a dramatic plan to rein in mayoral control and give Chicago the strong council-weak mayor form of government that the municipal code intended.
...
Either by seeking a change in state law or by flexing Chicago’s home-rule powers, Lopez is promising to:The most dramatic and controversial of those changes is to reduce the size of the City Council from 50 members to just 25.
- Cut the City Council by half, empower Council committees to approve spending by departments they oversee and give the Council its own, truly independent budget office and parliamentarian to challenge dubious mayoral rulings from the chair.
- Create three new citywide elected officials — the corporation counsel, inspector general and city comptroller — instead of empowering the mayor to appoint “pawns” to those pivotal positions.
- Create a 21-member Municipal Charter Commission to reexamine the structure of city government every 10 years.
...
“It is my hope that a leaner, reinvigorated City Council with new and guaranteed oversight authority and budgetary authority over departments would be able to flex its muscles accordingly and be a true partner in government,” said Lopez, one of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s most outspoken critics.
Lopez noted that 85% of requests for city services are “handled outside the local ward office” through 311, city apps or online. When the local aldermanic office does get involved, it’s “often the stumbling block,” he said.
“We are not the City Council of the 1800s. We are a 21st century city and we need 21st century Chicago. One that is able to focus on city services as they are currently being delivered as well as focusing on the legislation and oversight that they’re meant to take care of,” he said.
Why clip the mayor’s wings with three new citywide elected officials?
“Mayoral control and authoritarianism … often comes from his or her ability to have the corporation counsel do the legal maneuvering they need to secure their power, squash or silence reports aimed at making government more efficient and to play the smoke-and-mirrors games of budgeting,” Lopez said.
“Making those three positions independently elected … would ensure there are other players on the board who will hold the mayor’s feet to the fire to ensure that they are honest, fair and representing the truth in all of their dealings.”
Well I do think it's time to re-evaluate how many Aldermen (still Alderperson or Alder ewww) must represent the city of Chicago so I'm with that. The idea of a municipal charter commission, I want to see more about that. Surely he has a page for that!
This time the demand is from 2023 mayoral contender Ward 15 Alderman Ray Lopez via today's Capitol Fax blog. And after sharing the tweet I'll show you in part what this is in reference to.'
Another day, another demand for using the Illinois National Guard https://t.co/Ph69an2tYJ
— Capitol Fax (@capitolfax) August 29, 2022
If you live in Chatham and do business with GN Bank - formerly known as Illinois Service Federal - is reopening their former branch on 87th Street & King Drive. According to Steve Daniels from Crain's:
Chairman Papa Kwesi Nduom, whose wealthy family rescued the bank in 2016 with millions in fresh capital when it was on the brink of failure, says the Chatham branch is open on a drive-thru basis for withdrawals and deposits. It will return to full service once licensing is completed, he says.
“This is being done to signal to the community that we are putting customer service high on our priority list,” he says in an email.
If you were following the FB page Concerned Citizens of Chatham the issue with this closure is what would replace the bank on this property. There were concerned about a marijuana dispensary possibly being located there. Well now a bank will be back on this property.
BTW, this article was from last year. GN Bank is a Ghanian-American company who rescued ISF in 2016 from failure. In this December 2021 article from ProPublica we find out GN Bank has a number of issues:
Five years later, the historic institution — renamed GN Bank — remains deeply troubled. Under the Nduoms, the bank has closed one of its two locations, cut staff, alienated many longtime customers and effectively stopped making new home loans, though that’s one of the central reasons for its existence. In 2020, the bank was again put under restrictions after regulators found “new violations of law, rule or regulation.”
Yet the Nduoms aren’t solely responsible for GN’s struggles. Regulators have failed to carry out a federal mandate to “preserve and promote” Black-owned banks, a ProPublica investigation has found.
Leading up to the Nduoms’ acquisition, the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ordered the bank to reduce the risk in its loans, which led to less revenue. Then, the agency signed off on the new owners, even though they lacked banking experience in the United States and had investments abroad that posed known regulatory risks. Since then, the bank has been under close watch, yet the Nduoms have made a series of decisions that diminished the bank’s profile and quality of service.
The most recent reporting on the future Red Line extension which will take the L further south into Roseland to 130th Street. As I read this article no money has been allocated to start this project yet.
US Sen. Tammy Duckworth made a robocall endorsing the re-election bid of Mayor Lightfoot in 2023, however, Gov. Pritzker who's going through his re-election for Governor (actually Sen. Duckworth is running for re-election herself) wants to focus on his race before making any endorsements.
ALSO, I might add in that posting someone wrote in the comments that Gov. Pritzker won't endorse the first Black mayor of Chicago. Someone doesn't know Chicago history now do they. Perhaps they weren't yet born in 1983 or they slept through most of the 1980s in Chicago....Duckworth and Pritzker take different paths on Lightfoot endorsement https://t.co/YHY8iKqPq2
— Rich Miller (@capitolfax) August 5, 2022
