Sun-Times: Ward map battle over, but bitterness lingers

As stated already Altgeld Gardens will soon be in Ward 10 it is especially noted in this Chicago Sun-Times May 16, 2022 article. Altgeld Gardens is currently in Ward 9

9th Ward Summer Clean out fair June 16th

From Ald. Beale's fb page:

The 9th Ward's Annual Summer Clear Out Fair is June 16th! Shredding, electronic recycling, prescription pill disposal, and collection of any junk items will be accepted. Help us keep the community clean by disposing of your items the correct way.

• Pullman Community Center
  10355 S Woodlawn
  Chicago, IL 60628
  Thursday, June 16, 2022
  10 AM to 2 PM 

Capitol Fax: It’s time to try something besides simply reacting angrily to crises, Mayor Lightfoot

 Bear in mind she's talking about running for re-election, Lori Lightfoot has all but announced it. When she does officially throw her hat into the ring we'll have a decision to make. Via CapFax

It’s time to try something besides simply reacting angrily to crises, Mayor Lightfoot https://t.co/nnbORyxV6c

— Rich Miller (@capitolfax) May 20, 2022

FOX Business: FOP national VP calls on Lori Lightfoot to resign over Chicago's 'lawlessness'

 

[VIDEO] Joe Gamaldi discusses the latest news out of Chicago as far as crime on FOX Business and calls for Mayor Lightfoot to resign. All I can say is good luck with that as she's stated her intent to run for re-election. In 2023 voters will decide if she will get another term.

Sun-Times: Compromise on new City Council ward map could take issue away from Chicago voters

 The vote on this new map will take place when the City Council meets next week. You can check out what the ward remap looks like here.

From Sun-Times:

A deal has been struck on a new Chicago City Council ward map that, if approved, will keep the decision out of the hands of voters.

Under the deal, which still must be cemented by a City Council vote next week, the map will create 16 Black majority wards and 14 Latino majority wards, according to Ald. George Cardenas (12th).

Faced with a May 19 deadline to work it out themselves, the agreement calls for one fewer majority-Latino ward than the council’s Latino Caucus had wanted.

The proposed map also contains the city’s first ward with an Asian American majority.

Demographics are key to ward map negotiations. The city’s Black population is shrinking while the city’s Latino population is growing.

“There’s no need to bring the house down. We can own the house,” Cardenas said, referring to the next remap — in 10 years.

“Our day is coming for sure. We have to be patient and humble,” he said.

Cardenas offered a “kudos” to Mayor Lori Lightfoot for her work on Monday to facilitate the agreement and get all sides to sign on to the map.

Cardenas is grateful the map won’t go to a referendum — a step that, he said, would have siphoned energy from council members dealing with other pressing issues, including crime and a city casino.

Here's how our part of town looks in the new ward map. If you live in Altgeld Gardens, that development will now be in Ward 10.

 

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.”

Chicago Mag: ‘This is the end of Chicago’ (Geographically)

Map of Hegewisch and nearby area 

From Ed McClelland at Chicago Magazine regarding the southeast side of Chicago.

To reach the southeasternmost corner of Chicago, you have to take bumpy, potholed Boy Scout Road out of Hegewisch, then turn onto a set of tracks belonging to the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad. With Powder Horn Lake to your right, follow the tracks between tall stands of reeds, still in their winter blondeness, toward a railyard where black tankers idle. Then turn onto a disused rail spur, weeds growing between its ties. Ahead, just across the state line, in Hammond, Indiana, are the rusted sheds of some long-abandoned industrial concern.

Chicago’s southern border is, perhaps, the wildest, most undeveloped part of the city, a hinterland that, in some places, looks more rural than urban, despite lying within the boundaries of America’s third-largest city. Like the nation’s southern frontier, it is a no-man’s land that crosses woods, lakes, rivers, and federal facilities off limits to the public. It would have made sense to set the southern city limits at the Little Calumet and Grand Calumet rivers. Instead of respecting natural boundaries, though, surveyors drew a straight line that corresponds with the middle of 138th Street and is often impossible to follow, even by bicycle or on foot. Last weekend, I tried, and, for most of its length, I failed.

After leaving the Belt Railroad yards, the city limits travel west across Powder Horn Lake and through Burnham Woods. I only had a bicycle, not a canoe or a machete, so I couldn’t paddle and bushwhack through those wild barriers. To pick up the line again, I pedaled south to the village of Burnham, and into the dirt alley behind 138th Place, a street of vinyl-sided workers’ cottages and a long-shuttered Old Style bar. Running along the north side of the alley is a fence entangled with vines — a border fence between the city and suburbs, as flimsy as any in the Sonoran Desert, barring the way to Mexico. On the other side is Chicago.

The alley dead ends near the south bank of the Grand Calumet River, the body of water that lends its name to the Calumet Region. From there, the city limits cross the confluence of the Grand and Little Calumets. When they hit land again, they slice through the northern tip of Burnham Park. A few square feet of that suburban park actually lies inside Chicago, although the village of Burnham still mows the grass. Such is what happens when man’s Euclidean determinations impose themselves on nature’s beguiling irregularities.

They go from about Altgeld Gardens which is contained within Ward 9 and further east into the area known as Hegewisch as you see in the above map. Read the whole thing.

Walk with us to what feels like an abandoned frontier. Southeasternmost Chicago may surprise you.https://t.co/th6aGuojBK

— Chicago magazine (@ChicagoMag) April 15, 2022

 

And speaking of the 2023 mayoral election - Mayor plans to run for re-election

Mayor Lori Lightfoot

I was actually hoping she wouldn't, being Mayor of Chicago is not an easy job. However she's just combative enough and willing to stand for re-election in 2023. Word from the Sun-Times earlier today.

NEW: Intending to make it “official” sometime “soon,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Thursday she will seek a second term in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times.https://t.co/RWgpVhoMLx

— Chicago Sun-Times (@Suntimes) April 28, 2022

One of her main city council critics Ward 15 Ald. Raymond Lopez is running next year and so is businessman Willie Wilson. Earlier today 5th District US Congressman Mike Quigley announced he won't run for mayor in 2023.

At this point the field is only beginning to form.

2023 elections

 I'm considering creating a 2023 elections page.

Next year in February we'll be voting for city council, city clerk, city treasurer, and mayor. Right now the city is of course focused on who's running for mayor.

Usually when I do these pages the focus is often on the Aldermanic election (or Alderperson still doesn't sound right). Thinking about throwing in the mayoral race for coverage and for the first time.

Today the news is out there that north side Congressman Mike Quigley is opting out of the 2023 mayoral race citing the ongoing Ukraine conflict. And so far who announced they're running is Ward 15 Ald. Raymond Lopez and the man responsible for these gas giveaways businessman Willie Wilson.

The current Mayor Lori Lightfoot has yet to announce she will seek re-election although it seems the signs are she might. When we hear about a re-election campaign the emphasis might be on her fundraising which the news is usually that it's not good.

Time will tell although the latest news about her right now is successfully pushing through the city council prepaid gas and CTA cards to address rising gas prices.

So anyway some feedback would be appreciated on this. For the purposes of this blog the 2023 election page will look at both those running for city council in Ward 9 and perhaps also those running for mayor of Chicago next year.