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Wednesday, March 28, 2018

A look at what $250K get you in Chicago right now

From AJ LaTrace of Chicago Magazine, and one of those pieces of real estate is in Pullman
525 E. 112th Street, Pullman

An integral community to Chicago’s role in rail, heavy industry, and labor rights, the Pullman neighborhood has another unique designation as the city’s first and only National Monument. And for $250,000, you can purchase a historic row home (pictured above) that has been fully overhauled and updated for contemporary living. It’s worth noting that this property is currently the most expensive on the market in the neighborhood—still a fraction of the amount that wealthy rail enthusiasts are spending on restoring old Pullman Palace Cars for cross-country travel.
Not far away from Roseland and you can get a house for almost a quarter of a million dollars. Pullman is a great neighborhood anyway of great historic value and it's no wonder it's part of a national monument!

Monday, March 26, 2018

March community meeting #Ward09

For those of you who live in Chicago's Ward 9. In a different communication it was referred to as a townhall meeting.

When: Tuesday, March 27, 2018
Time: 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM
Where: Pullman Presbyterian Church
             550 E. 103rd Street

And as always if you seek more information call the Alderman's office at 773.785.1100

Friday, March 23, 2018

The Sixth Ward: You are NOT getting the people you are voting for as state representative and senator!

Former state sen. Donne Trotter
I'm sharing this post from The Sixth Ward for those of you who live in both the 34th state representative and 17th state senate districts. Of course the changes that took place evidently occurred during the period where it was too late to change the names on the ballot. JP Paulus published this post on election day Tuesday.
As happens with a retirement (there are other scenarios, but this is what happened in this case) the party "bosses" of a particular state legislative district decides who will finish the length of that term in that seat. So while Donne Trotter had actually retired just about two months before Tuesday's election his name remained on the ballot. He's no longer a state senator for the 17th district...

As for Elgie Sims, he was appointed by party bosses to finish Trotter's unfinished term and yet he reamins on ballot for his previous job as 34th district state representative. And those party bosses appoint Sims' successor Nicholas Smith and his name was not on the ballot for Tuesday's primary election.

JP Paulus makes a solid case for a special election to fill vacated state legislative seats. What do you all think?

Capitol Fax: Pritzker and the black vote

JB Pritzker had a strong victory in Tuesday's election. It's safe to say the general election in November will see two wealthy men face-off against each other so get ready for Gov. Bruce Rauner versus his challenger Pritzker. With those wiretaps that came out during the course of the primary with long ago conversations with former Gov. Rod Blagojevich proved to be controversial however, not enough to keep Black voters from choosing Pritzker.

Hence Rich Miller's post:
From Miller's post he shares a tweet that has graphics of who voted for whom in the Democrat primary on Tuesday across Chicago. Most of the areas that voted for Pritzker is safe to say are the mostly Black neighborhoods of Chicago.


Finally Miller pointed out the speech given by Pritzker's running mate 5th district state representative Julianna Stratton with some further analysis:
By my count, Pritzker won every African-American ward in Chicago by an average of 60.3 percent. He got 66 percent in three wards, 65 percent in one and 64 in two. His only plurality was in the 5th, where he scored 49 percent to Biss’ 26. He did just as well in African-American suburban townships and received 76 percent in East St. Louis.

Also, I gotta say that his running mate Juliana Stratton gave one of the most intense speeches I have seen in a while Tuesday night. She is a major asset to that ticket and not just with the black community. Click here to watch it. Very, very impressive.
I know this isn't the main race everyone is paying attention to, I just recognize that this is the big ticket race that will certainly get voters to polls in November. My prediction is that this will be a very negative race and Rauner will just poke Pritzker over his connection to state house speaker Michael Madigan. Question is whether or not this will resonate with voters...

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Next #Ward09 townhall meeting

Ward09.com
These used to be called community meetings and usually these meetings are with representatives of city agencies and departments.

This latest townhall meeting will take place on

Date: Tuesday,March 27, 2018
Time: 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM
Where: Pullman Presbyterian Church
             550 E. 103rd Street
            Chicago, IL 60628

And of course feel free to get into touch with Ald. Beale's office if you have any questions by phone at 773.785.1100

Friday, March 16, 2018

Three snapshots on 87th Street, Wednesday

On Wednesday I had the opportunity to reenact the shots taken on New Year's Eve 2007 on 87th Street - posted to Sixth Ward blog . Back in January I did a throwback post also at The Sixth Ward blog with an old photo of the Seaway Bank sign from 2007. Just bear in mind that 87th Street represents the northern most of the 9th Ward from the Dan Ryan to roughly King Drive.

Unlike back in 2007 when these shots were taken on a simple point and shoot digital camera, these photos were taken on my iPhone with an olloclip lens.

Click on all pics for larger resolution.

Across the street is a Family Dollar store. If you can see the grand opening sign near the front entrance don't let that fool you, this particular store has been open since sometime in 2007. A local community organization wrote in their newsletters that year that they wanted a grocery store at this location. Even 10 years later no grocer has stepped forward to turn this back into a grocery store. Before 2007, this space was home to a locally owned Food Basket store.
 Moving along on 87th Street, here is a branch of Illinois Service Federal. Earlier in 2007 it was the site of a fatal bank robbery which made the local news. A teller was killed by gunfire during that violent incident. Since then ISF has gone through their own changes with a new ownership group hailing from Ghana who now owns this Black-owned financial institution.

Finally got a shot of the new sign at the former Seaway Bank which sports new signage because of it's ownership under Self-Help Federal Credit Union. Seaway Bank itself failed in January 2017 and was purchased in a FDIC auction by State Bank of Texas. Then in May 2017 Self-Help took over deposits and branches of Seaway after SBT sold them to the credit union.

There are more photos from 87th Street that I would like to post in the near future. At least on a much nicer day closer to Spring was I finally able to retake these shots. Of course there are other changes on 87th Street worth noting not captured in these three shots.

Thursday, March 8, 2018

Early voting sites in #Ward09

www.chicagoelections.com
 Actually it's started as of this Monday for the March 20, 2018 primary elections. These are the early voting sites in the Ward 9, however, if you want to find out sites for your respective ward feel free to visit chicagoelections.com. The information is from an e-mail blast by the office of Ald. Anthony Beale (Ward 9).

Reminder: Early Voting
March 5 thru March 19, 2018

Palmer Park
201 East 111th Street
Chicago, IL 60628

Olive Harvey College
10001 S Woodlawn Avenue
Chicago, IL 60628
  • March 5th - March 10 from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm 
  • March 11th from 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
  • March 12th - March 16th from 9:00 am - 7:00 pm
  • March 17th from 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
  • March 18th from 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
  • March 19th  from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
For more information contact the Board of Elections (312) 269- 7900

Government-issued photo ID is not required but is helpful if there is a question about the voter's registration, address, signature or if there are two voters with the same or similar names at the same address.

Wednesday, March 7, 2018

Nick Smith is coming the Chesterfield Community Council #Ward09

You're new 34th District State Representation Nicholas Smith is coming to a meeting of the Chesterfield Community Council next Tuesday.

When: Tuesday, March 13, 2018
Time: 6:30 PM
Where: Tuley Park 90th & King Drive

If you want addition information or to contact the Chesterfield organization I will refer you to their website at www.chesterfieldcommunitycouncil.org. Also a posted is embedded from the FB page below.
 

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Reason: Markets penalize bigotry

[VIDEO] The video you're about to see would've been great for Black History Month. All the same, I pride myself on sharing information that gets you to think. Over the years this wasn't the only video from Reason magazine that I have shared with you. Here's an early one that shares a vastly different from the one above about urban renewal.

In this case a real estate businessman Philip A. Payton knew how to play the game and essentially built a Black community in Harlem. The lesson here at least for early 20th century New York, segregation can become ultimately a very expensive luxury. I recognize times have changed so perhaps the late Philip A. Payton's approach may not work the same way today.