"Say His Name" Protest, June 7, 2020 #GeorgeFloyd

[VIDEO] A protest in Lake County regarding the case of the late George Floyd. I'll allow artistmac to describe (SIC) what we're watching here.

On June 7, 2020, in light of the recent killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis policeman, citzens of north suburban Lake County, IL participated in a peaceful protest, "Say His Name", along Route 83 from Antioch on the north to Rollins Road on the south.

Patrick Krook, one of the organizers, explains the inspiration for this protest.

CBS Chicago: Some Aldermen Call For Defunding Police

[VIDEO] In light of the recent unrest and the spark that caused it the death of George Floyd in police custody many cities around the nation are looking into possible solutions. Minneapolis, Minnesota is looking into abolishing the Minneapolis Police Department. Cities such as New York, New York and Los Angeles, California have already started to "defund" their police into other initiatives with their cities.

To abolish a police department I think of as a knee jerk reaction to systemic issues within policing. I know there are people out there who doesn't like police and that's fine. At the same time we need the police and when there is a real crime wave or more civil unrest we might want to know who'll be there for the public.

In this story from CBS 2, we see some possible things worth discussing. Issues with homeless people and issues of mental health. It causes me to wonder in what ways can we remove the police's role in handling those issues. Hopefully we can find out city alderman plans to do with whatever funds - $1.78 billion for Chicago Police - they plan to divert.

State of the world

CTA bus hit with graffiti

On Saturday, it was hard to get home. I was about to take a bus downtown from my job to get the red line and the bus just stopped with our driver getting off the bus to take a call. He never said anything to us until another bus passed us up and other riders tried to catch that one. Our driver finally noted that a demonstration was taking place in the Loop and that bus service was disrupted.

I just walked and I was loathe to back towards downtown hoping to catch a train home. Found out there was no train service into the Loop. I had to walk into the outskirts of downtown and call for a ride home. It was an interesting adventure to get away from the action and my feet hurt when I sat down.

At an L station I got tired of waiting as riders got frustrated waiting another rider was frustrated with someone who was with her. I got tired of that and decided to see if there were any alternatives a customer assistant at the station said there was rioting downtown. Even noted that people were being pushed onto the tracks disrupting L service.

There was a lot of noise from protestors mouths and drivers heavy on their car horns. I saw a lot of boarded up businesses and unfortunately graffiti also on the streets, on buildings and on CTA buses.

As I walked toward downtown I witnessed a couple of young women who were walking away from the demonstrations try to throw water on a line of police cars heading towards the commotion. It lets me know how fired up seemingly the world is right now.

Without a doubt I think that police officer in Minneapolis is guilty of what he did to George Floyd when they arrested him. That former police officer lost his job and he's in jail as I type this post. It seems it has caused a serious debate of police interactions with citizens more broadly. And definitely police interactions with Black citizens more specifically. It's a necessary discussion.

Unfortunately with what happened this weekend in Chicago I connect this with the stay at home order and the ongoing pandemic. People were already restless, especially once the weather warmed up and all it took was that incident in Minneapolis. I opined looking at the graffitti downtown that perhaps we've been locked down for too long.

What I've been seeing unfolding over this weekend let's me know it's gone beyond the death of George Floyd. It's less about justice and now we've arrived at the destruction phase. It's not enough that downtown became a warzone, the neighborhoods have been looted. Parts of Chicago that could ill afford this activity to their business areas are experiencing it and unfortunately there's a possibility these businesses might get shut down in the future.

It absolutely disgusts me what's been happening around the city and the nation this past weekend.

When Barack Obama got elected president I pledged as an older student at Morehouse College that I wanted to be more involved. Then life took over, it was time to go to work. With this chaos in the world right now it's time to go to work making the world a much better place.

I just don't know where to get started, but now is the time to do so. Hopefully some of you are out there looking to do the same. 

Historic south side scenes #Ward09 #tbt

I just wanted to share these two shots with you from Vanished Chicagoland on ig. The first photo is of the 87th CTA train station from during the 1970s. Just north of 87th Street you'd see a Magikist sign and it was a landmark for a lot of us who drove on the Dan Ryan Expressway once upon a time. The sign and that company is now gone. We at least have this picture with a now retired 2200-series train set departing 87th.

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A post shared by Pete Kastanes (@vanishedchicagoland) on May 27, 2020 at 10:30am PDT

This photo is further south on Michigan Ave and 114th Street. It's of a Hillman's Pure Foods (Hillman's also had a location within the old Sears store at 63rd & Halsted) store that formerly was located there with the address 33 E. 114th Street. The building itself is still there and perhaps one day I can head that way and snap a shot of it. Probably become a great location for another small grocery store in the future if it fits any company's needs.

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A post shared by Pete Kastanes (@vanishedchicagoland) on May 26, 2020 at 10:49am PDT

You know I can use Google Streetview to show you that building still stands. Since I see it still is, now it causes me to wonder what's there now.

White Castle 2 E. State Street in Roseland #Ward09 #tbt

You may well have seen this photo below on social media taken in the mid-1980s of the White Castle that formerly stood at 111th & State Streets or actually 2 E. 111th street. I'm most familiar with this location since often looking for a hamburger slider fix this was where my folks went. At some point during the 1990s this location was closed and demolished.

Then looking for photos I found an even older photo of the White Castle taken in 1937 according to the information on the photograph. Could be the same building and I don't recognize the neighborhood around it.

Via Pinterest

Of course back in the 1980s the White Castle was surrounded by a post office to the north and then to the east on 111th Street was the YMCA. The post office is still there however the YMCA is long gone though the building itself remains.

I hope you enjoy this look back and a break from the dire news regarding coronavirus.

Editorial: The Avenue could again become magnificent #Ward09

The Chicago Neighborhood

This editorial from the Chicago Sun-Times makes reference to last year's fire at the former Gatelys Department store on the Michigan Avenue shopping strip south of 111th Street. It's probably time to redevelop that corridor, especially in time for that Red Line extension whenever it gets funded and construction starts.

Keep an eye on the Roseland neighborhood’s Michigan Avenue, once a retail strip so popular it was called Chicago’s second Magnificent Mile.

Shoppers could find anything from school supplies to furniture to brand new cars.

Rocked by two devastating extra-alarm fires within the last year, and now slammed by a pandemic that’s likely to change forever how we shop and gather, the faded and struggling commercial strip faces a tough future.

But “The Avenue” — as this stretch of Michigan Avenue between 115th and 107th was called in its heyday — now is being targeted by the city for possible redevelopment.

The plans were in place before the coronavirus broke out and they’ll need to be modified. But given that the COVID-19 pandemic has hit all traditional retail strips hard — have you seen the boarded up stores on North Michigan Avenue these days? — saving The Avenue should be even more of a priority.

When neighborhood shopping dies, neighborhoods die.

The Avenue’s day as a regional commercial giant are not likely to return. People just don’t shop in brick-and-mortar stores the way they used to, and the street’s major retailers, such as JCPenney, are long gone.

But the buildings still stand and could be reused in potentially exciting new ways. And if done correctly, the lessons learned here could be applied to troubled commercial streets in neighborhoods elsewhere on the South and West sides.

Probably excerpted a lot more than I should've so I'll stop there and hope that you'll read the whole thing.

The editorial itself makes reference to this strip's proximity to the Pullman National Monument. How could the businesses and the community leverage that. The Avenue - at least for those old school residents might refer to the strip - might not return to the glory days. I still would like to see what plans could develop with revitalization. What entrepreneurs can become successful in this area.

All Illinois schools shut down for the remainder of 2019-20 school year #Pandemic

[VIDEO] Schools in this state have been closed since last month once it was clear this coronavirus is getting very serious. Now schools will be closed for the remainder of the school year. It's primarily to slow the spread of this virus.

CPS is already instituting their policy for e-learning. The families of CPS students are being given materials especially a computer to bring home. And as much as I might take this for granted this also means in order to utilize e-learning students need to have a connection to the internet.

You can learn more about utilizing e-learning or remote learning over at his CPS website.

What's terrible is many students who are graduating especially from kindergarten or 8th grade or high school will miss out on their graduations. I'm sorry that a worldwide crisis out of their control has put a damper on these students who want to celebrate their achievements.

Coronavirus: Are we going in the right direction? #Pandemic

[VIDEO] Gov. JB Pritzker noted this yesterday in his usual daily press conferences regarding Illinois' response to coronavirus and now Mayor Lori Lightfoot is noting that Chicago is finally bending the curve with this coronavirus as you see abov. Hearing about both is great news though I realize it'll be some time before the world gets back to normal.

It's encouraging to hear that Gov. Pritzker might be talking about adjustments to his stay-at-home order which is scheduled to expire on April 30, 2020. I look forward to a gradual restart to the economy as I know some many people have suffered financially since there are a lot of people who aren't working. I would say let's gradually get back to normal.

Over at the CapFax the question of the day is whether or not it should be mandated by government that people should have to wear masks in public. I rather hope that we don't do anything that drastic and I already know it's already not very easy to wear a mask all day especially while working. At the same time we want to stop the spread of this virus.

While following the daily number of cases and fatalities with regards to coronavirus Ive mostly been following the information provided by the Illinois Dept. of Public Health. I don't always focus on whatever numbers provided by the Chicago Dept. of Public Health. I often focus on the daily numbers provided by the state. Indeed, check out this page to see all data provided by the city.

Mayor Lightfoot stated in the video above that during March 2020 cases were doubling every two or three days. According to this graph we've arrived at cases doubling every 12 days and its in part thanks to people staying at home.

The latest update by the Chicago Dept. of Public Health which was yesterday there are 9,666 confirmed cases of infections with 347 deaths. Throughout Illinois there are 23,247 cases of infection with 868 deaths and those numbers are also current as of yesterday April 14, 2020.

CTA cleaning #Pandemic

[VIDEO] Since I shared Amtrak's response, what about the response from the Chicago Transit Authority. Unfortunately many Chicagoans have a love hate relationship with their public transportation provider.

I don't often see CTA workers giving the "spit-shine" to at the very least the CTA trains especially when they get into their respective terminals. To be honest it's probably hard to do when say a train get into its final destination and it has to go right out and you have passengers coming around and taking their seats.

Another thing I've noticed on trains during the heat of this pandemic is that increasingly you see homeless people riding the trains. Unfortunately they're just as vulnerable to the coronavirus and I get the idea less likely to seek out medical help for this very dangerous illness. So unfortunately there's that the content with on CTA at all hours.

It's great to see this b-roll footage of CTA workers sanitizing even train stations from handrails to Ventra card machines. It's great to see workers get on the buses and deep clean once their in their respective garages. Indeed, this is also occurring to CTA trains once they're in the yard.

There could be more CTA could do to insure passengers are in a very clean and safe environment on public transportation during this pandemic. Perhaps make more of an effort to keep the homeless from using CTA as a shelter for example - although granted I hear a lot of the shelters are crowded right now.

Another odd thing that has been going on with CTA right now is their attempt to protect their employees, especially bus drivers. CTA riders will have to board the back of the bus now.

To help #KeepTheDistance and better protect you and our frontline workers, beginning today, we’re implementing rear-door boarding on all buses and allowing some buses to run as “drop-off, only” to avoid crowding.

Full details: https://t.co/xFgooEI7lQ pic.twitter.com/5wq3YGDmOj

— cta (@cta) April 9, 2020

While this had in my mind conjured up images of the Montgomery Bus Boycott - and its not really something I've seen discussed in the media - I realize these are not those times. There are reports of CTA bus drivers being diagnosed with coronavirus and have little issue with ensuring their safety. Getting on the bus through the back doors are something we have to get used to for now for the safety of the transit workers.

Not that I advocate for this, however, at least until we get back to normal if you pay cash fare to board a bus CTA isn't collecting your fare. Reportedly, however, they plan to place Ventra card readers at the back of the bus though so far most buses don't use this feature yet.