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Friday, June 28, 2019

Recent shot of the Gately's ruins #Ward09

Drove through earlier this week. Sad to see this great big building along Michigan Avenue being demolished. I see the sign's gone, excited to find out any news of this local landmark. It's reminder of a business that no longer exists but many of a certain age still remember.

A posted this recent pic on ig embeded below

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

What are the feds looking for in #Ward34?

While this is old news from last week south side alderman Carrie Austin of Ward 34 has her ward offices raided by federal authorities on a search warrant. Reports seem to suggest that this might be related to the indictment of Ald. Ed Burke (Ward 11) or even a colleague wearing a wire for the feds former Ald. Danny Solis (Ward 25). Of course is it possible that the feds have been looking at Ald. Austin in the first place.

This is a topic of discussion on last weeks Chicago Tonight with Paris Shutz and Carol Marin
This is something that I did a post or two over at The Sixth Ward. However I wanted to add this from last week from Rich Millers CapFax
 
I also found this through CapFax's tweets. Another link as far as what the feds are looking for in Ward 34.

Monday, June 24, 2019

The future of the Gately's sign #Ward09


At least we get one good thing out of the loss of the former Gately's People's store landmark sign. The building was destroyed by fire earlier this month and the city is in the process of demolishing the former longtime department store which closed in 1981.
After fire gutted the old Gately’s Peoples Store in Roseland last week, Ald. Anthony A. Beale (9th) said he’s working with members of the Gately family to save the store’s historic neon sign.

“The sign deserves a place in a museum where it can tell our community’s story to present and future generations, and help inspire everyone to work together to make Roseland the thriving and bustling destination it once was,” the neighborhood’s alderman said Monday.

Beale said he went to the fire Friday and saw Gately family members at the scene. He was already planning to preserve the sign, he said, adding that Gately family members said they would help raise the money to make sure the sign is taken down, preserved and put up at a later date.

The sign was not damaged in the fire, but the blaze damaged the century-old building at 11201 S. Michigan Ave. so bad, demolition crews began to take it down Friday night.
...
The sign remains on the building but will come down in the coming days. Beale said it will go into storage for a while and eventually go on display — but he didn’t reveal specific plans in mind to display it.
It does deserve to be somewhere to help tell the story of the Roseland community. And it's great to know the family that owned this business is still around to discuss plans to preserve this landmark.

It's awful to know about the fire, but to hear everyone - especially online or even in soundbites from any news reports - talk about their memories of the now closed store is definitely fascinating. 

Monday, June 10, 2019

Gately's Peoples store...destroyed... #Ward09

[VIDEO] This past Friday I posted about the former Gately's store located at 113th & Michigan. The store from what I can tell doing some Googling had long closed in 1981, with another store located in Tinley Park until 1994.

Usually me and my family would drive on Michigan Avenue to head to River Oaks Mall in Calumet City, we'd often pass this store. Of course by the time I came of age all I would recognize is that antiquated sign for a store that was no longer there. Whoever owned this property if it wasn't the Gately family who previously operated their location there never removed this sign. It was just a great reminder of the history of the retail strip of south Michigan Avenue between at least 107th Street to 1115th Street.

I've read up on the history of this strip and it was an important commercial areas though perhaps it didn't have the volume of another great south side commercial area such as 63rd & Halsted (which is experiencing a slow resurgence). Still there are plenty of people who grew up in Roseland and patronized this area before the decline starting in the 1980s. You can find YouTube channels that offer videos of people who grew up in Roseland during the 1950s & 1960s. It's fascinating how the area changed from a great place to grow up to what it's generally known today as a crime ridden area.

And then on Friday the former Gately's Peoples store was destroyed by fire. It seems we may never really know due to the damage what caused the fire, unfortunately the damage has been done. Who knows what will happen with the sign, however, the building that formerly housed the store which provided so many memories for those who shopped there has a date with the wrecking ball.

For me, I've never known the store and have never shopped there. I've never even shopped at the small storefronts that had occupied the ground floor of the building. Still, it's a little sad that this longtime sign is coming down and thus this won't be a landmark any longer. And now to figure out what will ultimately go up in its place along Michigan Avenue. What will be the new landmark to be located there?

Here's an ig post I did on the Gately's store once I learned of it's condition. I shot this just about a month before the fire.

Monday, March 18, 2019

The Hope Dealers

Well now those men of Morehouse are back in class in Atlanta, however, this past week when they could've been on spring break beaches and warm weather they came up to Chicago to serve Chicago Public School students. This was noted on CPS' blog

Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Newsalert: Should CPS be shut down?

What prompts this question? A report from the Chicago Tribune with regards to the continuing investigation into a number of sexual abuse claims to CPS students. The number could be as high as 1000 cases of sex abuse of students. That's a lot!
A branch of a global law firm will review roughly 1,000 Chicago Public Schools sex abuse investigations, as part of a quarter-million dollar contract that’s meant to reopen nearly two decades worth of old cases.

The Chicago Board of Education’s vote Wednesday to hire Dentons LLP marks the school system’s latest step to re-examine how officials addressed past abuse and misconduct allegations in the wake of a Tribune investigation.

Saturday, February 23, 2019

Block Club Chi: Boy, 11, On Life Support After Years Of Bullying At CPS Leads To Suicide Attempt, Mom Says

I'm really aching for this boy and his family. He made a suicide attempt as in on life support. Jamari Evans is way too young to be ready to take his own life, as he's really just starting off.

It seems after some extreme actions from his teachers - ideally the ones who really should do what they can to protect him - contributed to his current condition. It's sad that he wasn't getting the support he should've had. It's also sad that highers up with CPS didn't take what his mother said seriously until Evans attempted suicide.

It's strange that he was even denied a transfer from his elementary school. What reason was a transfer to another school denied. This story should be a PR disaster for Chicago Public Schools.
BTW, I find it quite sad that the events that caused this young man to attempt suicide happened at a school named for the father of Black History Month, Carter G. Woodson.

Friday, February 22, 2019

Sun-Times: Man fatally hit by Metra Electric train, service resumes with ‘extensive delays #Ward09

Well it's a bit interesting I post that Metra Electric ride along video this morning and there was an incident on that same line this morning near Kensington or 115th Street. Here's a tweet with a link to the Sun-Times story
From the twitter page for the Metra Electric line a new update.

Metra Electric ride-along #fbf

[VIDEO] Remember a few years ago that I had shared a video of the CTA Red Line where you would see the whole journey from 95th Street to Howard Street on the north side. What you see above was published on Metra's YouTube channel in May 2017.

In this case you will see the journey of the Metra Electric train from University Park in Will County through the south suburbs and into the city to the Millenium Park station in downtown Chicago just under Randolph Street.

If you want to see it's journey through the south side of Chicago just skip to about 30 mins into this one hour video. Basically you'll see the communities of Ward 9 from about 130th to 95th roughly on it's journey. Of course if you continue watching until it goes into downtown Chicago you will see Hyde Park and Bronzeville along the way.

And it's also interesting to note that this line which also has branches west into Blue Island and east to the South Chicago neighborhood has been part of proposals to become part of the CTA as the grey line. It was also cited as an alternative to building the Red Line extension by a candidate for mayor of Chicago.

Metra Electric Map

Sunday, February 17, 2019

Random Acts of Kindness Day #rakday


[VIDEO] Something posted this morning from Jahmal Cole at a local Jewel-Osco parking lot. Here's the description he wrote:
What's something simple you can do to improve your community? After I shop, I always take my cart back to the coral. This small habit helps me build muscle to take on bigger challenges. But when something is easy to do, it's just as easy not to do it.

It's just as easy not to greet your neighbor.

It's just as easy not to pick up trash.

It's just as easy not to shovel your neighbor’s snow.

Thank you Jewel-Osco for partnering to spread this message on Random Acts of Kindness Day.

Visit formyblock.org for more.
BTW, we should be doing random acts of kindness everyday. Great message by Mr. Cole.