How are you preparing for the winter storm?

 

[VIDEO] This WGN report shows shoppers going to their local Pete's Fresh Market in Matteson to stock on food and supplies. I'm sure there could be a report on going to a hardware store picking up shovels, salt or snowmelt among other things to dig out of the snow.

Here's a report from NBC 5 about the snow storm. Of course I would recommend using a weather app on your phone - iPhone especially - I like to use the WGN weather app to check radar. Of course you can use it to check for weather forecasts also.

I hope you don't have to get out of the house once the storm hits of course save for having to go to work. :(

Also I'm hearing about very low temps, time to buy a new coat also. BRRR...

Crain's: New hotel, grocery store pitched for Pullman #Ward09

 Some exciting projects coming to the far south side. Pullman could get a hotel and Altgeld Gardens - which is a long way from Pullman - could be getting a new grocery story.

Via Crain's Chicago Business

One year after the Pullman National Monument debuted as a hopeful tourist attraction, two developers have lined up plans to add a hotel for visitors and a grocery store for residents in the burgeoning area.

In one of two projects proposed in and around the far South Side neighborhood, a venture led by Chicago investor Andre Garner is seeking a city grant to help develop a 101-room Hampton by Hilton hotel at 111th Street and Doty Avenue, a few blocks east of the clock tower building that has been restored as a visitor center for the historic site. In the other, Cleveland-based grocery operator Yellow Banana has applied for the same grant to help it develop a Save A Lot supermarket immediately south of Pullman at 130th Street and Eberhardt Avenue.

Both developers have applied for $5 million in assistance through the Chicago Recovery Plan development grant program, according to a joint statement they issued with Ald. Anthony Beale, 9th. The grants are partially funded by local recovery money from the federal American Rescue Plan Act passed last year.

The plans could add to a series of developments in and near Pullman along Interstate 94, where the 180-acre former Ryerson Steel plant site has been transformed in recent years into a mixed-use campus, dubbed Pullman Park. The historic-but-disinvested property now includes a Method Soap factory that opened in 2015, a pair of greenhouses from produce grower Gotham Greens and a Whole Foods distribution center and an Amazon delivery center, among other new developments.

Read the whole thing. 

 

NBC Chicago: Jewel-Osco Stores Reinstate Mask Mandate for Employees Due to High COVID Transmission

 So you won't be surprised when you see workers at your local Jewel stores masked up:

As a new subvariant of omicron continues to spread across the country and COVID cases continue an uptick in Illinois, Jewel-Osco stores are asking employees to once again wear masks.

"Jewel-Osco continues to follow the guidelines set by the CDC and Illinois Department of Public Health," a spokesperson from Jewel-Osco said in an email statement to NBC 5. "Due to current high COVID transmission rates in the counties where we have stores, the Distribution Center, and the corporate office we are requiring associates and vendors to wear a mask."

As of Tuesday, 15 counties in Illinois are currently at "high community transmission.

Whole Foods Englewood closing

I'm sharing this news with you because Roseland can be viewed in the same way as Englewood. The Whole Foods store at 63rd and Halsted is closing in the near future after being open since Sept. 2016. It was supposed to be an oasis in the food desert.

The Englewood Whole Foods was supposed to be a South Side Chicago game-changer. Now it's pulling out. https://t.co/YkHesTVTtc via @crainschicago

— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) May 3, 2022

I want to note the statement of the Mayor recently on this issue via Block Club Chi:

At an unrelated news conference Monday, Lightfoot called the closure a “great disappointment” and “gut blow” to Englewood. She said the Whole Foods was an “interesting experiment” from former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who she said championed a store that was too expensive for the neighborhood and where few residents shopped.

“I don’t know about most of you, but most Chicagoans are hard-pressed to pay, for example, $15 a pound for a piece of steak,” Lightfoot said.

The store was often empty, even on Saturdays when “grocery stores all over the city are absolutely crowded with people,” Lightfoot said.

“To me, what it underscores — and I wasn’t here when this decision was made — you cannot bring investment to the community without talking to the community and making sure the investment makes for that community,” Lightfoot said.

...

The storefront won’t be left empty, leaders said. Lightfoot said her team will work with the community to make investments that “make sense for those neighborhoods.”

“We’re going to work our tails off to get a new alternative — one that the community wants and can access and participate in,” Lightfoot said. “It shouldn’t be that we’re plopping something down in a community where we haven’t engaged with them, we haven’t talked to relevant stakeholders to see if it’s something that they want, they need and that they’re going to be able to take advantage of.”

ABC 7: Mariano's hiring 500 people in Chicagoland area

 

[VIDEO] If anyone is looking for a job in these difficult times in the above report Mariano's is looking to fill 500 positions with full & part time available at their 44 Chicago area locations. The first person with Mariano's we see in this story is Sal Ahmad who was a restaurant manager who had to switch gears due to this pandemic.