A new high school coming to Roseland?

While this DNA Info article mostly concerns the possibility of a new high school in Englewood, it's noted that Chinatown and Roseland are also in the running for a new high school. A few considerations from the article worth noting.

To start location. Where is the land available for a new high school? Of course there are areas where it's possible to build a new school especially with foreclosed homes.

And then what schools would close. Speaking of Englewood, it's unclear if this means an elementary school would close or a high school. Although one candidate for closure would be Robeson High School which is noted for having their issues especially academically.

In the Roseland area there are already Corliss on east 103rd Street & Cottage Grove and then Julian directly west on 103rd & Vincennes. Also there is Fenger at 11220 S Wallace St and then there's Gwendolyn Brooks on 115th & King Drive. If any of those schools have to go which one might that be.

And then one more thing worth noting, what does this new school have to offer that the others don't already. Gwendolyn Brooks is a college prep academy. Harlan has a magnet engineering program and I can't speak for Julian, Corliss and Fenger. 

Whether or not we're talking Chinatown, Englewood or Roseland this school should offer programs of interest for the students. We can't just talk about another neighborhood high school to be built. If CPS is interested in building a new school in any area, what should be invested in it to make it worthwhile?

Chicago Stars Ep. 3 - The World Columbian Exposition // MBMHMC tv

[VIDEO] In this episode Jahmal Cole goes from the ferris wheel at Navy Pier to the Museum of Science & Industry. The significance the third star on the Chicago flag represents the World's Columbian Exposition.

There was a ferris wheel at the exposition which took place in the Frederick Law Olmstead designed Jackson Park. The Museum of Science & Industry is the last remaining structure of that event held in 1893 which formerly housed not only the Palace of Fine Arts but also an early incarnation of the Field Musuem.

Finally Cole ends this episode at the south side's Chef Sara's Place located at 7201 S. Exchange Ave. And here's hoping the many eateries Cole visits in his many episodes of My Block My Hood My City gets much more business.

Woodlawn - 2016 Curbed Cup champs

After the New Years break over at Curbed Chicago and some voting irregularity Woodlawn has won the Curbed Cup in 2016. In 2015 another south side community Pullman won the Curbed Cup.

So what's going on in Woodlawn that has caught Curbed's attention. This is from yesterday's post:

This new year is going to be an important one for the Woodlawn community. It seems like 2015 and 2016 were the years that really set a few major things in motion, but the neighborhood will really begin to see the fruits of these projects pay off in the coming years. In 2015, the neighborhood’s historic Shrine of Christ the King cathedral designed by Henry J. Schlacks burned down in a horrific blaze which left the church’s future in limbo. However, the community pulled together to save the historic building and work is underway to restore it.

 ...
However, the biggest news in Woodlawn in the last year has been about the future Obama Presidential Center. The new facility is planned for a section of Jackson Park which faces the Woodlawn community. It will be designed by the famous husband and wife architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien and is expected to cost anywhere from $500 million up to $1 billion. The Obama Presidential Center is a major investment that will not only attract visitors to the community, but it help create new permanent jobs, and is expected to spur economic growth and new development activity throughout the South Side.

Congratulations to Woodlawn and may greater growth happen in that neighborhood. A future post I would like to reiterate those communities who I hope will place in future Curbed Cups. There was a similar post written about this last year.

Chicago Stars Ep. 2 - The Great Chicago Fire // MBMHMC tv

[VIDEO] I really like how the officials at the Chicago Fire Department Academy literally had to kick Jahmal Cole out of their training exercise. That is understandable at they are in training and surely there is an element of danger in their training.

Either way that segment is fitting as we explore another meaning for one of the stars on Chicago's flag - the Great Chicago Fire. We learn that there wasn't a fire started by a cow, but several fires near Lake Michigan which due to the buildings of the city at the time with wood and tar just spread all over the city.

Also ironically the alleged farm where the Great Chicago Fire started is exactly at the Chicago Fire Academy located at 558 W De Koven St.

VIDEO: Chicago Stars Ep. 1 - Fort Dearborn // #MBMHMC tv

[VIDEO] Jahmal Cole asks Chicagoans what the first star on the Chicago flag represents. That star represents Fort Dearborn located near the Chicago River at Wacker & Michigan. The fort was named for a former Secretary of War who served in the cabinet of President Thomas Jefferson, signer of the Declaration of Independence. Let's see how many people Cole meets that knew this information.

The city's flag you will see above in the header of The Sixth Ward and you will see another version below. The flag is part of this great city's identity.

HINZ: As Loop population booms, South Side's plummets

So according to Crain's Greg Hinz Chicago is finally emerging from the subprime mortgage recession of the last decade, however, it seems only the loop area so far has seen the greatest gains.

The city center now is growing faster than ever, having gained an estimated 42,423 people from 2010-15. But the population of the non-lakefront South Side is dropping even quicker, falling about 50,000 in the same period. The number of non-Hispanic whites, Asians and people of Hispanic descent is growing, but the number of non-Hispanic blacks is dropping.

The new data come from the 2015 American Community Survey, which is conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and was released last week.

Also:

The Census Bureau in 2012 reported this area grew faster in the first decade of the century than any downtown in the country, adding 48,000 people. But with an unprecedented construction wave underway, growth has hit the gas, with the area—roughly the Loop, plus the Near North, Near South and Near West sides—growing almost as much in five years as it did in the previous 10.

The area now is home to an estimated 238,259 residents. That's enough to make it the second largest city in Illinois, if it were counted by itself.

The population is also growing in the north section of the city—roughly the North and Northwest sides, plus the demographically similar area around the West Side Medical Center, the Southwest Side and the South Side lakefront—which Zotti puts together with a few inland neighborhoods that are close by public transit to well-paying downtown service jobs. Each of those lost considerable population between 2000 and 2010, but each now is gaining people.

 The map above illustrates where the people are going or leaving. As you see the far south side has lost almost 50,000 people. The bottom number you see, I believe is long term population loss.

So which specific neighborhoods on the south side are losing people:

But the city is still losing people in Austin and other neighborhoods west of the United Center. And the total number of residents inland from the lakefront, or Far South Side, continues the free-fall that began in the last decade. Total population there has gone from 526,750 to 476,903, ACS figures show.

That's a remarkable drop of nearly 10 percent—in just five years.

Among once-solidly middle-class, industrial African-American neighborhoods that are being hammered:

• Auburn Gresham, off 7,159 residents to an estimated 45,842.
• Englewood, down 6,911 people, to 26,121.
• West Englewood, down 6,552, to 32,156.
• Roseland, which lost 5,141 residents and is down to 42,305.
• Chatham, which has 31,359 residents after losing 3,664.

Overall, the population figures roughly track income data that I wrote about earlier this year, in which other demographers suggested Chicago is turning into three cities: one prosperous and growing, one vanishing, and the third treading water.

Now the challenge is to reverse these many trends.

Shedd School as seen in December

Shedd School as seen in December 2016

The issue of Shedd School came up at the last of this year's community meetings with Ald. Anthony Beale in October. There is interest in re-opening Shedd as a school and Beale's response was to a written question posed by a resident in attendance.

Unfortunately it was noted at the meeting that Shedd was closed because of declining enrollment. While the question noted an increase in children in the community Beale suggested that it still isn't enough to justify reopening that former school. If it were to ever re-open there may have to be consideration of bringing in students from outside of the neighborhood.

In the meanwhile the school remains for sale as there are signs on the building as I saw from this past summer, pictures were shown on our ig account. Beale pledged to let the community know of any bidders on the property.

A photo posted by The Sixth Ward (@thesixthward) on Sep 2, 2016 at 5:57pm PDT

At 95th an unused disconnected phone #gogreyhound

On Tuesday I noticed the remnants of a phone which about where Greyhound buses used to stop for pick-ups and drop-offs. It's been a few years since I've taken a Greyhound from 95th Street and remember Greyhound personnel perhaps the drivers using the phone. The station where you can buy your tickets was actually in the terminal near the fare controls, however, that changed in the late 90s.

By 1999 at least one of the last few times I took a bus from 95th the actual ticket office was moved to the back where the 29 State bus starts its journey. Sometime after an overhaul which had been in 2002-03 Greyhound began drop-offs and pick-ups at their ticket office in the back of the CTA terminal.

Sometime during the past decade this phone was disassembled and then the line cut. Funny part is that I knew it was there but hadn't thought about it in years until seeing this recently. Whenever CTA finish the new 95th terminal this ancient device will be history.

CTA Red Line Extension Public Comment Period Ending

 An e-mail from the Chicago Transit Authority

• Public Comment Period Ends November 30
  Red Line Extension Project
  Draft Environmental Impact Statement and Section 4(f) Evaluation
  
  CTA and Federal Transit Administration (FTA) are proposing to extend the Red Line 5.3 miles from 95th Street to 130th Street. Click here to learn more about the project.
  
  CTA and FTA have prepared a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) based on the technical analysis of impacts of the proposed project. The Draft EIS documents the benefits and impacts of the alternatives being considered, which include impacts to parks and wetlands. Click here to review the Draft EIS on the RLE Project website. Hard copies of the Draft EIS also are available for review through November 30, 2016. Click here to learn more about reviewing the Draft EIS.
  
  Comments on the Draft EIS are being accepted until November 30, 2016 at 4:30 PM. You may submit comments via e-mail to RedExtension@transitchicago.com or by mail to Chicago Transit Authority, Strategic Planning, 10th Floor, Attn: Red Line Extension Project, 567 W. Lake Street, Chicago, IL 60661.
  
  Do you require assistance?
  If you have questions or need assistance, contact Gerald Nichols, CTA Government and Community Relations at 312-681-2710 or GNichols @ transitchicago.com.
  Para más informacion en Español, llame al 312-681-2710
  Customer Information: 1-888-YOUR-CTA (1-888-968-7282)
  
  Thank you for your continued interest.
  
  RLE Project Team
  Chicago Transit Authority

News from the Red Line extension hearing

Rendering of the west option Michigan CTA station - CTA

 I didn't get to attend the recent Red Line extension hearing this past Tuesday at 211 E. 111th St, however, both the Chicago Tribune and DNA Info went. Judging only by the headlines two issues came up during the hearing the dreaded "G" word and eminent domain.

Concerns over gentrification:

Activist Lou Turner, though pleased the project is going forward after decades of discussion, said he also wished it hadn't taken so long and had concerns that some residents may get pushed out by gentrification once the L goes through.

"There could be unintended consequences," said Turner, director of undergraduate and graduate studies in the African-American Studies department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "This area has the largest stock of affordable housing in the city."

Turner said the CTA's draft environmental impact statement on the proposed $2.3 billion project does not address the issue of gentrification, which has driven up property prices by as much as 48 percent in some areas along The 606 trail on the city's Northwest Side. A final environmental impact study is needed to secure federal funding.

"It's a concern, but at the same time I am very happy," said Turner, who like Jones had pushed for the extension with the Developing Communities Project, a group that once included President Barack Obama.

And then of course the properties CTA would need to purchase to build the extension:

Under the east option, the CTA elevated structure would be built east of the Union Pacific Railroad right-of-way from 99th street to 118th street. This option would affect 260 parcels, including 106 buildings, 90 of which are residential, officials said. Under this route, more single-family residences would be affected, officials said.

Under the west option, the line would run west of the Union Pacific Railroad from 99th street to 118th street. This option would affect more commercial and industrial properties, some 205 of them, officials said. About 46 would require building demolitions; 26 are residential.

Those homes and business owners would be compensated, including for moving costs, under federal regulations.

Roseland resident Aaron Mallory discovered his four-unit building could be demolished under the extension.

“It’s an investment property, so I have mixed feelings,” he said.

Mallory said he doesn't want to lose the building, but he also supports an extension of mass transit.

By next year it's said we'll know which option east or west the CTA will pursue as their preferred routing. That way any property owner will brace themselves for the impact. Thus anyone in the way would have to move.

If you want to know more about this project click this link.