REVISIT: Where is Roseland Heights?

This was posted to The Sixth Ward Blog on March 5, 2012 not long after the ward remap at the time. The topic of Roseland Heights being recognized was a topic of discussion within the Roseland Heights Community Association then.

I attended the recent Roseland Heights Neighborhood Association meeting where they discussed a number of topics that affected that particular community. It could be about landscaping, street lighting, trash, fly dumping, parks, ect. But they devoted a lot of time to the recognition of Roseland Heights.

At their November meeting they devoted a lot of time to address the remap situation. One of the subjects that came up was the recognition of neighborhoods. Look at any current map of Chicago neighborhoods or even the community area maps and Roseland Heights (which is bounded by 95th on the north, Dan Ryan Expressway on the west, Bishop Ford/Calumet Expressway on the south, and King Drive on the east)  is not to be found. The maps are made up by the city, the community area maps were created originally by the University of Chicago, and another map made up by the real estate businesses.

The maps change when the city recognizes a particular area. They may also change when real estate people decide to distinguish an area from the surrounding area. For example you build some new houses in Englewood, you may not like the general reputation of Englewood so you would elect to give your development a new name. One that is marketable!

That may well have been the case in Roseland Heights but then that neighborhood organization has been in existence since at least 1956. So why is it that particular neighborhood isn't recognized at all?

But then apparently there is another thread. It seems on a past map - according to association president Clevan Tucker - Roseland Heights did exist. He was looking up information regarding Abbott Park and he threw out the names of Olympia Park or Champion Park and I'll just assume those are the original designation for Abbott Park near 95th & Michigan.

However old that map was, what happened between now and then where Roseland Heights lost their recognition? Oh and I forgot to add that Roseland Heights according to a neighborhood map provided by the city is considered part of Rosemoor. I took a detail of that map and put an image here.

Also notice the thin Strip of Roseland in light green that comes on the west up to 95th Street. The western part appears to be State Street and the eastern part is Michigan Avenue and then it widens out by 107th Street. The purple shade is Roosemoor which does include most of Roseland Heights and Chicago State University.

Set your clocks back 1 hour

PublicDomainPictures.net

Hopefully I get a few of you who don't go to bed early. In the wee hours of this morning we're gaining an hour of sleep. You should set your clocks back by 1 hour before going to bed. Daylight Savings Time ends on November 5, 2023. 

We'll do it all over again March 10, 2024 when we lose an hour of sleep and we have to set our clocks ahead by an hour. And of course we know what that means when that happens Spring & Summer is around the corner again!

Hopes this helps you all especially if you do have to go to work in the AM tomorrow!

Read more about it via USA Today.

Elected Chicago Board of Education district map

 The Illinois State Senate Democrat Caucus puts out new map for an elected Chicago School Board. This is the map below

You can also click here for an interactive map

Over at CapFax there is a demographic background. According to this tweet from Ben Szalinski the breakdown is 7 latino, 6 Black, and 5 white districts throughout the city. A vote in Springfield could come as soon as next week.

Peter Santenello: South Side Chicago

 

[VIDEO] If you are on social media you might be familiar with Shermann Dilla Thomas aka @6figga_dilla whom you may find on X/Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram. He takes YouTuber Peter Santenenello @petersantenello on YouTube on a tour of the South Side. Through the Bud Billiken Parade describing the history of the Bronzeville neighborhood into Auburn Gresham into Grand Crossing into Woodlawn and then Hyde Park/Kenwood.

He even looks at the Chicago home of Emmet Till and goes by President Obama's Chicago home in Kenwood. I like how he discusses sociology how homes are appraised. The idea that if a home is owned by an indentifiable Black owner that might get appraised less than a home owned by a white owner. Or how empty lots might help to lower the value of a home. Even the ethnic change of neighborhoods.

If you have some time to watch this one hour plus video, it's worth your time.

CapFax: Alderman attacked....

 Ald. Julia Ramirez (Ward 12) was attacked by constituents who were "protesting" a proposed tent camp in the Brighton Park neighborhood.

I would say citizens have a right to be concerned about immigrants to be housed in their communities. There have been stories out there about crime involving these immigrants who have been bused from places such as Texas primarily. Something needs to be done and there needs to be a better plan than a tent camp or just allowing them to shelter at district police stations.

What we don't need is footage of an Alderman (or Alderwoman but never Alderperson yuck) being whisked away from their constituents because of a violent mob (verbal or physical abuse). I'm glad to see today that the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council denounces the actions of the crowd.

Here's raw footage from what happened on Thurday via WGN News [VIDEO]

It's like looking into another world - 115th & Michigan 1965

 There has to be more photos of this shopping center that existed on the SW corner of 115th & Michigan. It had been torn down in the 2000s. There was a restaurant here known as The Coffee Pot. Once there was a Christian bookstore where the pharmacy was, well the pharmacy you see here in this 1965 photograph.

Back in the late 80s to early 90s it was a Perry Drug Store, what was it during the 1960s?

And that building compared to the strip mall that's there now - and seemingly vacant once home to a Hollywood Video store - well it's an improvement if it hadn't been torn down for that strip mall.

At least the lot where the former Roseland Plaza is located can be prime real estate once the Red Line extension is in service.

If you haven't had a chance join the Roseland History FB group.

Peter Santenello: America's most CORRUPT city

 

[VIDEO] For those of you who read this blog and are Chicago politics junkies this video by YouTuber Peter Santenello who speaks with Chicago first amendment attorney Benjamin Barr talks about all the scandals and issues that face Chicago. The main issue are pensions and where's the money going.

Remember that deal with the Chicago Skyway, the parking meters, remember 20 years ago when Mayor Richard M. Daley closed Meigs Field to turn it into a park, etc? 

Also how is gov't structured in our city? Did you know Chicago officially doesn't have a city charter? What exactly is the idea of Aldermanic (or Alderpersonic, yuck) privilege?

Rich Miller: Davis Gates’ explanation doesn’t hold up

From Rich Miller's syndicated column posted to the Capitol Fax blog this morning. It's regarding the controversy that she was sending her son to a private school as opposed to her sending him to a public school.

If Davis Gates had simply defended her family’s decision by saying something like her son really had his heart set on going to that school, then I don’t think anyone could really disagree with her choice.

Instead, the union president initially stonewalled when faced with questions and then offered up an explanation to a local public radio station which threw the South and West sides under the bus and, more importantly, just wasn’t true.

Davis Gates said basically three things last week to a WBEZ reporter: 1) Course offerings for high schools on the South Side and West Side “are very marginal and limited”; 2) Selective enrollment and magnet public high schools were just too far away and would’ve forced her son to, according to the article, “spend hours traveling”; 3) A public high school with a good soccer program (a sport played by her son) and strong extracurriculars are just not available close by, or are in Latino neighborhoods that were too far away.

Look, there’s no doubt whatsoever that problems exist in public schools on the South and West sides. But that doesn’t mean the areas are completely bereft, no matter what internet trolls scream online.

Just as a small sampling, Davis Gates lives only three miles from Gwendolyn Brooks College Prep, a high quality selective enrollment high school which has a soccer team and extracurricular activities.

Lindblom Math and Science Academy in the West Englewood neighborhood has a pretty darned good soccer team and is 6 miles from the union president’s home.

The Catholic school her son is attending, on the other hand, is almost 9 miles from Davis Gates’ home.

Not to mention the area’s charter schools, which are taxpayer-funded and privately operated.

She hadn't deleted this tweet yet in case she does it's screencapped.

Red Line extension gets $2 billion, one step closer to reality

Well this is what the Sun-Times says that $2 billion is pledged towards.

The $3.7 billion Red Line extension has “advanced to the final phase” of the painstaking, federal funding process. The feds are making a $2 billion commitment to cover half the cost and authorizing CTA to advance to the engineering stage, which CTA President Dorval Carter Jr. called the “final step ... in order to begin construction.”

The CTA hopes to award an engineering and construction contract and begin preliminary work before the end of this year, then reach the final step — a full-funding grant agreement with the feds. That would pave the way for construction of the extension and four stations to begin in 2025.

“You have heard us talk about this project for decades, but I’m here to tell you the project is now happening,” Carter told a news conference at the Red Line Extension Community Outreach Center, 401 W. 111th St.

The Red Line extension includes new stations at 103rd; 111th Street near Eggleston Avenue; along Michigan Avenue near 116th Street; and the new terminus at 130th Street near Altgeld Gardens.

Here's a WGN story about this which aired on the news yesterday. It features comments from Congresswoman Robin Kelly, Mayor Brandon Johnson, CTA Pres. Dorval Carter, and Ald. Anthony Beale as he will benefit from this new L branch. [VIDEO]