Vacant building on 111th & Edbrooke

This residential building is on the corner of 111th & Edbrooke. The next street over is Michigan Avenue. Literally here is an abandoned house/apartment building literally open to the elements as the windows on the top floor are broken. The building beyond this one is in a similar state.

You can check out these properties via Google Streetview

 

There are previous years shots of those buildings and they seemed to be in better condition than they were on my recent walk to Pullman. Wow what a difference a few years makes.

So on my recent walk to Pullman brought me past Shedd School to the Walmart in Pullman where I took shots of the future site of the Whole Foods Market distribution center. Then back west on 111th Street to hop on the Michigan bus to go back north. There are more shots to share.

Took these shots of the Shedd School property

On my walk to Pullman a few days ago. It was a wet rainy day as depicted in these photos. The first two pics are of the front one is similar to the shot you see in the blog's header.

200 E. 99th Street

200 E. 99th Street

Here's the backlot a field that I used to play around in during recess and of course before school started the kids would play in this field also. Fun days and sadly no longer common. I'll explain after this pic.

Looking from 98th & Indiana

Shedd School has been closed since about 2013 and the local community organization Roseland Heights Community Association has been concerned about a zoning change for this property. It has been zoned for industrial use and therefore a concern is now seen over this greenspace just a block away from Michigan Avenue.

As a former student there, it's unfortunate that classes are no longer held here. However, my hope is that the greenspace remains for the community. If the building remains then it shall be used for the benefit of the community.

Sidenote - I've been using this accessory on my smartphone called an olliclip. Basically this is something you can slip onto your iPhone, iPad or Android devices and take shots with various lenses to enhance your mobile photography. That's why one of the pics above seem unusual.

Walking through Pullman

107th & Cottage Grove

 On a wet day I decided to take a walk into the Pullman neighborhood. I never ventured from the main thoroughfares, just walks along most of the periphery until I got to Walmart. Then upon leaving Walmart the walk ended at 111th and Michigan where I hopped on a bus to go back north.

Took some shots along the way. Some of the sights that I saw when I finally arrive at my destination. Unfortunately it wasn't a bright sunshiny day it was raining. Hopefully when the weather is nice on a day in the future this is something I can try again. Perhaps even venture into those areas of great interest to me architecturally and as a budding urbanist.

Just for the sake of it, here's a pic below of the future site of the Whole Foods Distribution facility and you also see in the background he Methods plant in the back.

720 E. 111th Street

720 E. 111th Street

I do hope the put a sidewalk here when this facility is finally constructed. This is the same area from that second snapshot.

720 E. 111th Street

I hope for nicer weather in the future so that I can do this again and have more documentation of the sights. There are more to share from this day, hopefully you will see in the near future.

Capitol Fax: Today's number 63%

Go Falcons!

Rich Miller of the Capitol Fax talks about the increase of students in our high schools and increase the number of high schools. In addition he makes these comments as far as the policy over neighborhood schools and retaining the middle class in our city:

Neighborhood schools weren’t working in many neighborhoods at the bottom of the economic ladder. So, Chicago embraced public school choice. But that isn’t working either for kids on the lowest economic rungs. Charters can kick kids out for low performance, behavioral problems, etc. and they do that a lot.

I happen to think charters can be a great thing. But, man, the costs sure are high to run all those new schools. And innovators like Kansas City are also having some very real problems.

I wonder if some of these issues involved with the neighborhood schools include Harlan. I'm very sure that they might and it also have some undeserved reputation for violence. I say it's undeserved because over the years they attempt to emphasize the students who got something going for themselves with college and the scholarships for example.

BTW, I would suggest you read the full post at Capitol Fax and read The Atlantic article he quotes from. It deserves a read from me regardless.

Hope Dealers documentary

Hope Dealer Trailer from Lawrence Trapp on Vimeo.

[VIDEO] I've written about this group from time to time and I got wind of a future documentary of which you see a preview here. This is what's posted to the video page:

Hope Dealers, a non-profit organization that aims to help areas through community service. The group was created by Corey Hardiman, a Morehouse graduate and native of Southside Chicago. Although looking to eventually expand, the group for the past three years has primarily performed service in Southside Chicago, Ill.

Now to find out when this documentary is coming and if it will be shown exclusively on the internet or shown at a movie house near you.

DNA Info: He's Just 24, But Englewood Native Is Passing Out Scholarships To Give Back

Mr. Cassius Rudolph via DNA Info

And this story involves Harlan High School and I think this is just great. The kids in our neighborhood schools needs this and who says they have to go to a selective enrollment school:

Cassius Rudolph believes "you should pour back into the community what the community poured into you."

The 24-year-old Englewood native credits family, friends and church for guiding him through the South Side's rough streets to the graduation stage at Harlan High School and Tougaloo College.

Rudolph, now a graduate student at Columbia University's Union Theological Seminary, is the first person in his family to graduate from college.

This month, he's giving back, awarding at least three $1,000 scholarships to seniors at Harlan, 9652 S. MIchigan Ave., who will be attending Tougaloo, a historically black college in Jackson, Miss.

"Charity begins at home," Rudolph said. "My message to the kids in Chicago is they can make it if they work hard, study hard and ask for help."

25 Harlan seniors have applied and hopefully by next year 10 scholarships will be offered as opposed to only 3. I wonder where he gets this money from. Either way this is great, more stories like this please!

GO FALCONS!

#Aldertrack: Re-elect Anthony Beale for 9th Ward Alderman in 2015

[VIDEO] I missed this almost four minute video - produced by Urban Broadcast Media - from last year in the midst of last year's city elections. Alderman Anthony Beale made his case for another term as 9th Ward Alderman.

The Alderman paints a picture of a deserted area when he was first elected in 1999 to a much more thriving ward which includes a Walmart and a Methods plant at the Pullman Park Development. In addition to improvements to Gwendolyn Brooks College Prep High School. If he runs again in 2019 he can also add a Whole Foods Market distribution center in the Pullman National Monument community.

Sometimes, I wish he had more of a social media presence or at least someone around him that has a mind for this. He has an FB page that's often updated, he also has a twitter that he could use, and I would also dare say this video is posted to his YouTube account that could be utilized further. That is he could post a few more videos on YouTube although he needs not have to speak to the camera.

I recognize politics is as much a performance as anything. It would be cool if we saw someone from his office record his comments regarding the Whole Foods distribution center. The only way I found out he said anything is not through our local mainstream media, but through a neighborhood paper.

All the same, I can beg the question as to how effective this video was to re-elect Anthony Beale. How did this video get shared did the mainstream media see it and share it? Did it get much play in social media? Better yet did Aldertrack share it in the lead-up to the 2015 elections last year?

WTTW: Segregation and Racial Barriers on Chicago's South Side

Last week WBEZ's Natalie Moore was on WTTW's Chicago Tonight to talk about her book The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation. The book is based on her experience, but it discusses how segregation on the south side shapes our city. Have you read Moore's book?

UPDATE @ 11:33 AM The Tribune did an article discussing Moore's book earlier this month.

More media on the Pullman Whole Foods distribution center #teamwholefoods

Cross-posted via The Sixth Ward

ABC 7 did a story on this Thursday

And then they noted an information session for those interested in a job at the coming Whole Foods Englewood store expected to open this fall. That event should've been held Thursday night at Kennedy King College (@ 740 West 63rd Street).

The Tribune was there at a presser at the site located near 720 E. 111th Street. If you want to forgo reading that article there's a video there you can watch. It shows comments made by Michael Bashaw the Midwest region President of Whole Foods flanked by Mayor Rahm Emanuel & 9th ward Alderman Anthony Beale.

Whole Foods Market distribution facility coming to Pullman

The map above were you see that red marker, a Whole Foods Market distribution center is expected to be built there.

Whole Foods plans to build a distribution facility in the Pullman neighborhood on the South Side that would employ 150 people.

The 140,000-square-foot facility will be at 720 E. 111th St., according to the city of Chicago. The site is currently vacant.

The center, to open in early 2018, will replace an existing Munster, Ind., facility and will serve up to 70 Whole Foods stores in the Midwest and Canada, according to the city.

The city "will consider approximately $7.4 million in tax-increment financing assistance" for the project, according to a statement. The subsidy is being considered "to ensure the site was competitive with the existing facility in Indiana," the statement said.

The Whole Foods distribution center will be built on a 17-acre site owned by a venture of Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives, a unit of Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank, CNI President David Doig said in an email. Doig's real estate company will prepare the site for an industrial developer, which will build the distribution center and then lease it to Whole Foods.

The facility will be able to handle cold and dry storage and will have office space, CNI said.

More on the future site of the facility and adjacent properties:

The former Ryerson property also includes a Method soap factory that opened about a year ago and includes a Gotham Greens farm on its roof.

Doig's CNI also developed a new shopping center on the site anchored by a Wal-Mart big box store, and more retailers plan to open stores there. The neighborhood also received a boost about a year ago, when President Barack Obama designated the area a national monument, citing its manufacturing and labor history.

You may have seen this vid below on CBS 2 this morning, BTW