Looking to contact the 9th Ward Alderman

Go to Ward09.com to get into touch with him. This site has no association with any public official especially 9th Ward Alderman Anthony Beale.

Thank you! 

98th & Cottage Grove #fbf

Via Chicago History Today

It's amazing to see how this part of Cottage Grove which is basically Pullman looked in 1954. As you check out the blog Chicago History Today you see how much differently this part of the city looks today. Of course we no longer have a streetcar running in the city at all just about 70 years later. And there's a lot more brush and trees covering up the railroad right-of-way these days.

Seeing old photographs of this city just blows me away...

Wednesday's Board of Ed. vote on police in schools

Chicago Tribune:

The Chicago Board of Education will enter into another yearlong contract with the Chicago Police Department, this time not to exceed $12.1 million.

In the meantime, the board gave Chicago Public Schools seven months to come up with a comprehensive plan to help schools develop alternative school safety strategies.

As students continued to protest the use of school police outside CPS’s Loop headquarters Wednesday, the board voted 4-2 to approve the contract that will pay for officers to be stationed in more than 50 high schools when they reopen. Elizabeth Todd-Breland and Amy Rome voted no, while Board President Miguel del Valle, Vice President Sendhil Revuluri and members Dwayne Truss and Lucino Sotelo all voted in favor. Luisiana Melendez abstained.

As soon as the votes were in, some of the protesters began chanting the names of the members who favored the contract, cursing them along with Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Chicago Police Department. Youth leaders put out calls for more supporters of police-free schools to show up to CPS headquarters, saying the school board had ignored their voices for too long.

And after reading the rest of this article, probably still a long way from a resolution of this issue. Those who want police out of schools want them out now, they don't want the schools to plan alternate strategies. 

Tribune: Chicago police arrest 13 people after tents are set up outside CPS headquarters to protest officers in schools

It seems the demonstrations continue as far as protests with regards to having police officers in school. And it seems that there was a clash involving tents at Chicago Public Schools HQ - 42 W. Madison St.

More than a dozen people were arrested, including two minors, after protesters set up tents outside the Loop headquarters of Chicago Public Schools on Monday to protest the stationing of police officers in schools.

Police said they gave protesters several warnings that the tents outside 42 W. Madison St. were blocking the streets. Those arrested were charged with “illegally obstructing the roadway,” they said.

The protest was the latest call by activists for the removal of Chicago police officers in Chicago public schools. It came days before the Chicago Board of Education is to consider a resolution that could phase out use of officers.

The resolution, up for a vote Wednesday, would “require that the CEO and district leaders, in consultation with school communities, identify and recommend an alternative plan to ensure safe and supportive school environments.”
...
Monday’s protest drew about 60 people and was organized by the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, Assata’s Daughters, FYSH Youth — HANA Center, STOP Chicago, KINETIC Youth — Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Logan Square Neighborhood Association and Enlace Chicago.

Tweets contained from the write-up at the Tribune

LIVE NOW: CPD WE WANT YOU OUT. Listen to the young people. CPD threatening to arrest young people and adult allies demanding #CopsOutCPS https://t.co/WXDvy21Xor

— Students Strike Back #CopsOutCPS (@StuStrikeBack) August 25, 2020

Officers at the protest were ensuring the rights of peaceful protesters were safely facilitated. However, about 60 protesters set up tents in the street, illegally obstructing the roadway. Officers issued 3 warnings to leave the street. 13 individuals remained. https://t.co/PhYH7arxiE

— Chicago Police Communications & News Affairs (@CPD_Media) August 25, 2020

WBEZ: Vote Leaves Black Students Far More Likely To Have Police In School Than Other Teens

For a second we're going back to the latest in having Chicago Police in CPS schools. In the news a good number of schools have voted to have police taken out of the schools. However this WBEZ report is interesting:

After weeks of voting by elected school councils on whether to keep police in schools, only about 24% of 72 Chicago public schools with officers will be removed, leaving the vast majority of school police officers in place after a summer of intense protests advocating for their removal.

The Board of Education considered ending the school resource officer program in June, but the measure was narrowly defeated. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the schools chief and some board members said the decision should be left up to local councils, made up of parents, teachers and community members.
...
The result: The percentage of white and Latino students at schools with police officers will drop significantly in the coming school year. Now, about 48% of white students and 54% of Latino students at traditional city high schools will go to schools with police.

Meanwhile, about 73% of Black students will continue to be at schools with police. (The school district’s SRO program does not include charter schools.) Last school year, about 85% of students — regardless of race — went to a school with police officers.

After what happened at the end of May it's suspicious that this issues is getting attention. It's correct that schools should decide whether or not they should have police officers posted. It also should be up to school what other personnel needs to be at the schools for the students. 

Bloody Chicago: Chicago's Graffiti Mayor Lori Lightfoot

[VIDEO] I'm starting to realize Lori Lightfoot elected Mayor of Chicago, Ill just last year really has a rough ride early in her first term. I recognized a tinge of thin skinned temperament from her in some respects as she referred to a police union official as a clown.

Vic Maggio of Maggio News has spent years in Chicago's neighborhoods tracking crime issues and he observes on the Eisenhower Expressway many instances of graffiti. In this time of civil unrest unfortunately graffiti is more prevalent. Some people don't see this as crime, but as expression. It was evidenced by a tweet I received a while back.

Graffiti is vandalism..... https://t.co/MEBuoZLWJ2

— The Sixth Ward (@TheSixthWard) August 2, 2020

I also want to note that there is an instance of graffiti on a highway sign over the Dan Ryan past 63rd southbound. This is not something I recall seeing before ever.

 I'm a long way from blaming Mayor Lightfoot for many of this issues, but she has a hell of a case to present for her re-election in 2023. Depending upon what happens by 2022, I wouldn't be too surprised if she decided she wasn't going to run again! 

Chicago looted by BLM

[VIDEO] So after Mayor Lightfoot crashes a gathering of people on a north side lakefront beach we get another mass incident of looting locally. The basis for this is said to be a shooting that took place in Englewood on Sunday afternoon. From there, an organized caravan of people go into downtown Chicago and start looting not only there but also the Magnificent Mile. We already experienced some major unrest and now we got more.

Instead of showing some footage from our local news outlets, perhaps we watch someone outside of Chicago analyze what happened overnight through Monday. Anthony Brian Logan is a conservative YouTuber that has taken aim at BLM recently.

I did some posting with regards to this latest development at The Sixth Ward.

The Mayor breaks up a gathering on the north lakefront this past weekend

This tweet from over the weekend from Mayor Lori Lightfoot showed up on Instapundit. And I see a number of tweets on twitter that took her well intended post in a bad way.

It's called a pandemic, people. This reckless behavior on Montrose Beach is what will cause us to shut down the parks and lakefront. Don't make us take steps backwards. pic.twitter.com/FHxeYfH7Wf

— Mayor Lori Lightfoot (@chicagosmayor) August 8, 2020

CWB Chicago shared this image of the Mayor at Montrose Beach crashing the so-called party along with her photographer on fb

Furthermore Ed Driscoll at Instapundit noted: "Curiously, none of the articles this weekend by the Chicago Sun Times, ABC’s Chicago affiliate, CBS’s Chicago affiliate, and NBC’s Chicago affiliate mention the July protests or Lightfoot’s blessings."

I admitted to an out of state friend that I miss Rahm Emanuel. He was unpopular as time went on but some of what's been going on in the city it wouldn't have been tolerated with him as mayor. However, the crisis going on he wouldn't let go to waste.

In addition, 2nd City Cop has an interesting post if you go to the bottom of the post about the various machines that exists in Chicago. In a fit of perhaps disrespect they refer to the mayor as Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy, perhaps the Mayor will only have one term. We have a while before '23.

The Cook County State's Attorney Race

The above flyer I saw taped on a bus shelter on 95th Street Sunday. This is the first time I've seen such an accusation although if the State's Attorney is unpopular amongst some parts of the electorate it's due to her offices handling of the Jussie Smollett affair - Smollett formerly starred in the popular TV series Empire had allegedly engaged in a hoax claiming racists wearing a Make America Great Again ballcap had assaulted him.

Regardless Foxx easily won the Democrat primary in March even if it was affected by the coronavirus. And she does have a Republican opponent and I mentioned that in passing on Twitter as Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara noted the Republican opponent during his appearance on FOX News Channel.

#IngrahamAngle I hate to say it John Catanzara, but I doubt most of Chicago or Cook County knows who Kim Foxx's Republican opponent is. Who is he? Where is he?

— The Sixth Ward (@TheSixthWard) July 22, 2020

I found this article from March 2020 discussing the Republican opponent Pat O'Brien a former judge who was elected as such as a Democrat in 2006

After cruising through the GOP primary Tuesday, O’Brien outlined his plans to beat incumbent Democrat Kim Foxx in a live-streamed news conference, thanking his family, friends and “everyone who voted against Kim Foxx.”

“We really have to clean up the mess that she’s made,” O’Brien said, not even a minute into his remarks. “I think we have to restore justice to the community. We have to make it safer for people in all of the kinds of activities that they do, and we have to remember that the state’s attorney’s duty is to protect the victims of crime.”
...
O’Brien said he’s taken a hard look at the state’s attorneys office, and while he sees Foxx’s handling of the Jussie Smollett case as “a violation of oath and a lack of integrity” he said the office is “under producing in other areas.”

The former judge said that under Foxx’s administration, fewer than 200 jury trials have been held in 15 felony courtrooms, which works out to less than four trials per courtroom each year. He said that from the 1980s until the first decade of this century that number was much higher. He also said Foxx has “lost more trials and gun cases than she’s won in each of the three years” and called for quicker trials.

This article noted that it's been almost 25 since a Republican had been elected Cook County State's Attorney. I vaguely remember him, he was a man named Jack O'Malley. Perhaps some of you remember those "Back Jack" political ads from back in the day.

Either way, 2020 has proven to be an odd year in a variety of ways. We got this pandemic and this unrest over racial injustice. I thought Trump could be re-elected President and right now he's limping because of those two ongoing crises. Perhaps a Republican could win the State's Attorneys office this year.

However, Cook County seemed to have trended more and more Democrat over the years and since O'Brien seems to have hardly campaigned since his primary I don't see a change in Cook County. Then again who knows time will tell..