Flex-N-Gate Chicago Hiring Event on July 13th & 23rd, 2018 #ohc

Found this through Olive-Harvey College's IG page.

The jobs Flex-N-Gate are contractors with Ford Motor Company and are looking to hiring for that opportunity. Apply at www.flex-n-gate.com/chicago

First hiring event is on Friday, July 13th:

• Olive-Harvey College
  10001 S. Woodlawn Ave.
  Chicago, IL 60628
  July 13, 2018
  11:00 AM to 3:00 PM

Second hiring is on Monday, July 23rd:

• South Chicago Learning Center
  3055 East 92nd Street
  Chicago, IL 60617
  July 23, 2018
  12:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Refer to the IG post from Olive-Harvey College below

Olive-Harvey will be the host of two hiring events in July. Positions will be starting at $14 per hour working for contractor of Ford Motor Company. Pass on to anyone you know who can benefit from the opportunity.

A post shared by Olive-Harvey College (@cccoliveharveycollege) on Jun 30, 2018 at 10:51am PDT

A New Abbott Park Advisory Council

49 E 95th St

Got this in an e-mail from the West Chesterfield Community Association. The Abbott Park Advisory Council fired up this past spring and are certainly looking not for people to attend especially if you live nearby. They're especially looking for people to serve on the council and as officers.

• A New Abbott Park Advisory Council

  The Chicago Parks Consortium, West Chesterfield, Roseland Hts and Red Line Extension Coalition (RLEC) helped organize a New Abbott Park Advisory Council and invite your to attend its 6:30 p.m. meeting July, 18, 2018 in the Abbott Park Field House.
  
  These organizations thank the Chicago Park District (CPD) for addressing many Abbott Park operation service requests since the September 19, 2017 CPD Budget Hearing Meeting. The community would like Abbott Park and the 95th Street area to be a “Preferred Point of Destination” that has good business neighbors, level 1 schools, a great park… all of which will improve area walkability and the use of public transportation within the ¼ mile to ½ mile transit-oriented development area of the at the $280 million 95th CTA Terminal.
  
  Since 2017 the CPD planted 140 new trees at Abbott Park, installed Exterior Lights on the field house, trimmed Low tree branches, planted 1040 trees, install a new sink and water heater and drain pipe in the cultural center, repaired park benches and under ground pipes have been repaired in the center field of the.
  
  Michael LaFargue, Chicago Parks Consortium president, congratulates Ms. Lori Burns and Sharon Banks Pincham, Co-Chair’s of the Park Advisory Council for Abbott Park. The PAC is working on its by-laws and goals for the next year.

BTW, I wanted to explore this but will do so at a later time even if it's already a done deal. There is an old playlot on 98th & Michigan that has long since been dismantled and has often seen little activity. Perhaps someone might have a picnic there rarely and sometimes more frequently grown folks or Harlan student just loitering there.

All the same, there is finally a plan to turn this former playlot into a dog park that should've been debated at the last Roseland Heights Community Association meeting in June. I should ask for an update although unfortunately I didn't attend this meeting to observe the results. Though I hope to talk more about this soon and I'm sure this is a topic of conversation at the Abbott Park Advisory Council also.

I even took some more pics recently of the playlot close to 10 years after snapping some shots there as the future of this lot was still uncertain!

From Playlot on 98th/Michigan

Capitol Fax: ISP warns Pfleger over expressway protest

Read a press release from the Illinois State Police over at the Capitol Fax regarding the upcoming march on the Dan Ryan Expressway to commence this coming Saturday.

ISP warns Pfleger over expressway protest https://t.co/ghjAbskxMc

— Rich Miller (@capitolfax) July 3, 2018

RELATED

• Tribune: Police call on Pfleger to not shut down Dan Ryan with July peace march
• Sun-Times: Pfleger plans to shut down Dan Ryan on July 7 by marching on roadway

Community shred days on July 20 & August 22 #Ward09 #BuildingwithBeale

451 E. 103rd Street (103rd & Eberhart) on Friday, July 20 & Wednesday August 22, 2018 from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. All paper will be shredded on site. Remove binder clips and paper clips. This event is sponsored by 9th Ward Ald. Anthony Beale, Special Service Area 71, and the Greater Roseland Chamber of Commerce.

Want more information call the 9th ward service office of Ald. Anthony Beale 773.785.1100

Click for larger resolution

Tribune: Police call on Pfleger to not shut down Dan Ryan with July 7th peace march

Via Chicago Mag

Unless something changes during the course of the next week this march on the Dan Ryan Expressway is going to happen.

A top Chicago Police Department official on Thursday implored Rev. Michael Pfleger not lead a peace march onto the Dan Ryan Expressway next month, saying hundreds of officers would need to be pulled out of neighborhoods on a busy summer weekend.

But Pfleger, the pastor at St. Sabina Catholic Church with a long track record of activism, said he plans to go ahead.

“We are not gonna roll over and be quiet,” he said.

Pfleger this week announced a protest march for 10 a.m. on July 7 in the northbound lanes of the Dan Ryan, from 79th Street to 67th Street. He said the goal is to demand city officials do more to address violence.

Chicago police First Deputy Superintendent Anthony Riccio contended Thursday the expressway route could be detrimental to that aim.

“The very thing that they’re trying to accomplish — stop violence and stop shootings — has the potential to actually escalate because we’re pulling police officers out of the neighborhoods where we need them in order to escort the protesters down the expressway,” Riccio told reporters after a City Hall hearing on Police Department crime statistics.

Riccio said it could require 200 or more police officers to shut down the Ryan to protect marchers. He said Pfleger has not been receptive to suggestions from the department that he instead hold the march on a neighborhood street.

Pfleger said he has a good relationship with Chicago Police but was surprised to hear the comment about them pulling officers for the protest. He said he hasn’t heard that concern before when there are marches downtown, or for Blackhawks and Cubs championship parades.

RELATED: Sun-Times: Pfleger plans to shut down Dan Ryan on July 7 by marching on roadway

Future Ald. Beale town halls #Ward09 #BuildingwithBeale

Ooops, I've done pretty badly with Ald. Anthony Beale's town halls having only attended two in recent years. So here are a list of remaining meetings for the rest of the year with a break in August and of course taking a break for the rest of the year after October.

Unlike former 6th Ward Ald. Fredrenna Lyle his office doesn't seem to announce who'll be speaking before hand. However he does have various officials with city government and some people from the community talking about what they're doing for their neighborhoods. It's worthwhile to come pay a visit. Of course he'll have his ward superintendent which was formerly Nicholas Smith who's now a state representative give updates from the streets and sanitation side.

The two times I attended a former police officer talked about utilizing local high school students to help paint murals. Another time representatives from the Chicago Transit Authority gave us an update on the future red line extension. Like I said these are worthwhile meetings to attend.

All of Ald. Beale's town halls or community meetings are held every 4th Tuesday starting at 6:30 PM at the Pullman Presbyterian Church 550 E. 103rd Street. Call his office at (773) 785-1100

BTW, I have to admit that I liked the branding the office seemed to have started "town halls" as opposed to "community meetings". Perhaps I'm being a tad nit-picky, but as far as an event discussing ward issues I just like town hall better than a community meeting. Anyway just my two cents that no one asked for... :P

sixthward.us

Chicago Public School system removes 2 principals amid investigation into how sexual abuse allegations handled

Simeon High School (8147 S Vincennes Ave) by Eric Allix Rogers

We've shared a few piece with regards to sexual abuse allegations within Chicago Public Schools. For our purposes we're just going to focus on the removal of the principal of nearby Simeon High School over sexual abuse allegations by a school volunteer:

Sheldon House, the principal of Simeon Career Academy, was removed amid a newly disclosed allegation of sexual abuse lodged against an unnamed school volunteer. District officials said that allegation was discovered during an audit of “systemic issues” in the school’s background check process.
...
“As a result of district-led investigations into allegations of sexual abuse, two CPS principals were removed from their positions today due to initial findings that suggest they did not effectively safeguard their students,” Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson said in a statement.

“Investigations into both cases remain ongoing, and we will keep the school communities updated as this process moves forward,” she said.

The district announced the administrators’ removal barely more than a day before a scheduled Chicago Board of Education vote to change how CPS investigates allegations of sexual misconduct by adults against students, as well as new practices that would require employees to inform child welfare authorities and supervisors of “any interactions or behaviors which suggest that an adult has or had an inappropriately intimate relationship with a child or may be grooming a child,” even if the employee does not have “reasonable suspicion” of whether any abuse occurred.
...
At Simeon, CPS officials said they launched an internal review of “management practices designed to keep students safe,” which occurred amid a Tribune investigation that documented the school’s failure to conduct a mandated criminal background check before making Gerald Gaddy an assistant coach of the boys wrestling and girls track teams starting in 2010.
...
CPS officials said the Simeon audit found “systemic issues” in the school’s handling of volunteer background checks, while uncovering an unspecified, new allegation of sexual abuse by an unidentified Simeon volunteer.

The recent allegation “was not handled in accordance with CPS policy,” according to the district. The volunteer is now barred from the school, and the allegation is under investigation.

CPS said it selected Patricia Woodson, a retired former principal, to lead the school until a new principal is selected by Simeon’s local school council.

 Hat-tip Newsalert

Washington Monthly: South Side story

The Chicago Neighborhoods

 Sorry to have sat on this since the spring. A story about the Pullman neighborhood. Or "How a historic Chicago neighborhood became a national model for community revitalization."

Yet one lower-income South Side neighborhood manages to defy the ironclad logic of the favored quarter: historic Pullman, a vibrant enclave in the middle of the South Side that is home to equal numbers of African Americans, Latinos, and whites. (Not all South and West neighborhoods are poor, but most of those doing well economically—Hyde Park, the Near West Side, Bridgeport, and Beverly—are predominantly white and Asian.)

Strolling down Pullman’s St. Lawrence Avenue, whose shaded sidewalks are fronted by side-by-side duplexes, you notice the same redbrick charm that characterizes the North Side. Yet in Pullman, you can land a well-kept three-bedroom duplex down the block from a cozy café and around the corner from one of the city’s top-rated public elementary schools at a price that wouldn’t go far in swank precincts across town. Residents enjoy many of the conveniences of North Side living, too. At the new Pullman Park development, there’s a Walmart (watering this former food desert), a clothing store, a Planet Fitness health club, a locally owned dry cleaners, and Pullman’s first sit-down restaurant in decades.

The relative peace and prosperity of Pullman in the midst of the hard-hit South Side highlights the promise of “asset-based” community development—the idea that focusing on the strengths of a particular place is just as important as targeting the problems. This model offers practical lessons for other neighborhoods across the country suffering from economic disinvestment and social unraveling. In Pullman’s case, a remarkable degree of resilience has arisen from these assets: high levels of civic engagement; a physical environment that encourages walking and social interaction; access to resources tied to historic preservation; and an ambitious community developer planting stakes in the neighborhood.

If the name Pullman sounds vaguely familiar, it’s likely because of the legendary railroad sleeping cars built here from 1881 to 1955. Pullman was no grimy slum, but actually one of the most celebrated urban planning projects of the nineteenth century—providing a good place to live was part of owner George Pullman’s mission to elevate the character of his workers. The London Times declared the elegant public buildings and squares flanked by single-family homes for managers and handsome brick townhouses for workers “the most perfect town in the world.” The other reason you may have heard of Pullman is that in 1894 the company’s workers responded to wage cuts with no reduction in rent at company-owned housing with a historic strike.

Read the whole thing!

A streetcar named retire

According to an ig post from CTA the last streetcar ran in Chicago on June 21, 1958 - 60 years ago. The last streetcar route was the 22A which after that date was converted to buses and survives currently as the 24 Wentworth. The 22A was split from the 22 Clark in 1957 according to chicagorailfan.com - relevant page here. Note that many of the numbers for CTA bus routes are derived from the streetcars that formerly ran throughout the city.

TBT: 60 years ago, CTA ran its last streetcar. So, you could call this final Green Hornet run down Vincennes Ave. on 6/21/58, “A Streetcar Named Retire.” Bus service replaced streetcars, but tracks are buried under many streets.

A post shared by Chicago Transit Authority (@chicagocta) on Jun 21, 2018 at 9:44am PDT

While buses replaced streetcar service 60 years ago, evidence of streetcars exist throughout the city. Michigan Avenue was once host to a streetcar route. You may see former streetcar tracks near the intersection of 95th & Michigan which often surface once the pavement is worn down. I snapped this shot for The Sixth Ward over 10 years ago.

Pic from The Sixth Ward May 2008

BTW, just think there's a current light rail - a more modern name for the streetcar - proposal on the north side. Question to ask is whether or not transit starved areas of the south side can get some action as far as light rail. Especially in those areas that doesn't have ready access to the L. Some of which are located in Chicago 8th, 9th, and 10th wards.