JANUARY 11, 2019
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892
TWO PEOPLE SHOT NEAR 51ST AND DREXEL By MAROON STAFF T wo people were shot on Thursday around 3:30 p.m. near 51st Street and South Drexel Avenue. A 53-year-old man and a 20-year-old man were transported to UChicago Medicine with gunshot wounds to the head and leg, respectively. A CPD spokesperson said around 8:30 p.m. that both men were in stable condition. According to WGN Chicago, there were lockdowns at Reavis Elementary Math & Science Specialty School and Walter H. Dyett High School for the Arts. No suspects have been taken into custody. The newly renovated Garfield Green Line Station near the new Washington Park Arts Block opened yesterday in anticipation of the opening of the Obama Presidential Center (OPC). At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, mayor Rahm Emanuel said that the stop would serve as a “gateway” to the Center. courtesy of mayor rahm emanuel
Student Body Still Split Over Business Economics Major By ALEXANDRE LABOSSIERE-BARERA news reporter
This fall, The Chicago Maroon conducted a survey of the student body in regards to the new business economics track in the College, receiving responses from 179 undergraduate students. Results from the survey suggest that opinions on the track remain divided. Almost 50 percent of survey respondents disagreed with the statement that the new business economics track is in line with the values of the University of Chicago, while 31 percent agreed. However, 64 percent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the College should reevaluate its stance on the issue of preprofessional programs. The stance of the economics department as a whole seems to parallel that of the majority of respondents. Faculty members denied that the new business economics track threatens the College’s historic values and consider the track as a way of widening access to the major to less math-inclined students. The business economics track differs from the traditional economics major in its substitution of math classes required in the traditional economics major for business courses at the Booth School. In the survey distributed by The Maroon,
76 percent of respondents said that the business economics track is less rigorous than the traditional track, while 48 percent thought that the track reduced the value of the economics degree as a whole. Robert Shimer, chair of the economics department, disagrees with the idea that the business economics track is less rigorous than the traditional track.“There’s a lot of different notions of rigor. The business econ major that we want is not one where people are going to say that this is the easy track—they’re both going to be hard in their own ways,” said Shimer. The economics major now has three tracks that can be navigated in a singular direction. A student in the data science track, an option added this year, can easily move into the traditional economics track, or further, into the business track. However, the opposite would prove difficult if not impossible given math course requirements. This discrepancy between tracks seems to have influenced students—56 percent of respondents believe the business track should be its own major. The influence the business economics track will have on other departments is yet to be seen. Ultimately, student and faculty involvement alike will determine the future educational landscape at UChicago.
Booth Prof Wins Fischer Prize By DAKSH CHAUHAN deputy news editor
UChicago Booth School of Business professor of finance Ralph Koijen is the eighth person to win the Fischer Black Prize, an award recognizing scholars under 40 for original research relevant to the practice of finance. He is the fourth UChicago scholar to receive the prize. The Fischer Black Prize is awarded once every two years at the annual meeting of the American Finance Association and honors Fischer Black, a former MIT and Booth School of Business professor and Goldman Sachs partner. Koijen’s research focuses on insurance markets, asset pricing, and macroeconomics. He is a coeditor of The Review of Financial Studies,
Booth Finance Professor Ralph Koijen. courtesy of booth a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a national fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research.
20th Ward Candidates Talk Economic Policy By DIMITRIY LEKSANOV news reporter
Nine of the 15 candidates running for 20th Ward alderman gathered Wednesday night at the Experimental Station on 61st Street and South Blackstone Avenue, to debate economic development, demographic change, and term limits. The forum was moderated by Sandra Bivens, a director of the Woodlawn Chamber of Commerce, and Cliff Kelley, a radio talk show host and former city council member. Anthony Driver, a former employee at the Chicago Mayor’s Office of Public Engagement, said that he would start a federal credit union for the 20th Ward. While a South Side Community Federal Credit Union has existed since 2003, Driver said that he would also like to open one specific to the ward. “I’ll be looking for private partners, and get the community to in-
vest in it, so they’re all part owners. It’s a way to reinvest in the community and keep our dollars circulating within the community instead of going to outside industries,” Driver said. Driver also called for a more robust job training program as both
a tool to attract businesses to the area, as well as to reduce crime, saying, “If we can put our youth back to work, this level of violence will go down.” Maya Hodari, director of development at the Chicago Housing continued on pg.
Andre Smith introduces himself at the 20th Ward Aldermanic Forum.
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Hyde Park Bookstore and Restaurant Opens By ALICE CHENG news reporter
Michael and Fabiana Carter, longtime owners of Hyde Park’s beloved Fabiana’s Bakery, unveiled their new restaurant, Bibliophile, this past fall, just down from Fabiana’s on 53rd Street. Bibliophile specializes in alcohol-infused desserts, but also adds another bookstore to Hyde Park.
Finding a New Home Without Leaving House Culture
Community Development, a Dollar at a Time
By NATALIE DENBY
By DIMITRIY LEKSANOV Page 6
VOL. 130, ISSUE 21
According to Michael Carter, Bibliophile originated from a desire to “provide a place where reading, food, alcohol infused desserts, and fun was just a thing.” Derrick Westbrook, the service manager and sommelier of Bibliophile, added that it was important to him to create a space that reflected the intellectual diversity of Hyde Park. “Hyde Parkers are an eclectic bunch who like to read
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and like to drink and have discerning palettes when it comes to both,” Westbrook said. Inspirations for Bibliophile came from previously established spaces w ith similar business models, like Busboys and Poets, a full-service restaurant and bookstore chain currently running in Washington, D.C., and Waterstones, a bookstore in London. continued on pg.
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THE CHICAGO MAROON - JANUARY 11, 2019
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Events 1/11–1/14
Friday
Alumnus Andy Kim Sworn in as U.S. Representative By LYNN HOROWITZ news reporter
Discussion with Geoffrey G. O’Brien, Simone White, and Lynn Xu The Logan Center for the Performing Arts, 1 p.m. The Renaissance Society and the University of Chicago Society for Creative Writing and Poetics will host a lunchtime discussion between poets Geoffrey G. O’Brien, Simone White, and Lynn Xu on Friday. The discussion will complement The Renaissance Society’s current exhibit, “Let Me Consider It From Here.” Food for Thot(s) The Blackout Cabaret, 10 p.m. UChicago students get discounted admission with their student IDs to a Second City-sponsored collaboration between UChicago and DePaul stand up comics. Saturday International Food Festival Ida Noyes Hall, 6–8 p.m. The Asian Students’ Union hosts its annual Food Festival, with food provided by various on-campus affinity groups, dance performances, and music in Ida Noyes. Pajama Palooza Reynolds Club, 8–11 p.m. Inter-House Council is hosting a free pajama party in Hutchinson Commons with food and activities including video games, The Roommate Game, and karaoke. American Honor Book Talk Seminary Co-op, 3–4 p.m. Join author Craig Bruce Smith discussion of his book American Honor, which deals with the reshaping of the ideas of honor and virtue during and after the American Revolution. Monday Kuvia Begins Crown Field House, 6 a.m. Join fellow UChicago undergraduates for the beginning of Kuviasungnerk/Kengeiko, a tradition since 1983. Participants who come all five days get a free T-shirt on Friday. Lunch Conversation ft. Black String International House, 1 p.m. Join the Center for East Asian Studies to welcome members of the music group Black String, Yoon Jeong Heo, Jean Oh, Aram Lee, and Min Wang Hwang.
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Last Thursday, University of Chicago alumnus Andy Kim (A.B. ’04) was sworn in as the representative of New Jersey’s third congressional district. “When I was a student at the University of Chicago, elected office was the furthest thing from my mind,” Kim said in an interview with The Maroon. “Every job that I have ever pursued always comes down to this question of ‘where can I be of most impact?’ Before, that question led me to working in Afghanistan and the White House, and now, this time around, it propelled me to seek elected office.” Kim was one of 43 Democratic candidates who ultimately flipped their district’s seat, including four candidates in New Jersey, helping the Democratic party win the House majority. He spoke to The Maroon about his time at UChicago, his ideas about what public service is and how those ideas have evolved, and what propelled him to run for office. Kim came to UChicago as a third-year transfer student after studying for two years at Deep Springs College, a liberal arts college in the Deep Springs Valley of eastern California. He said that when he arrived in Chicago, he sought to find a balance between his academic work in political science and experiences which would ground him in the community. His run for office came as a surprise to some people who knew him academically in college. Nathan Tarcov, professor of social thought and political science, whose other former student Ro Khanna was elected in 2016 to represent California’s 17th district, said, “I was pleasantly surprised that he had decided to [serve] through elected office.” Tarcov, who cohosted a fundraiser for Kim in 2018, had worked with Kim in a reading course on Plato’s Republic. Tarcov said that to him, “[Kim]
seemed more wonky or nerdy,” but also added that that is perhaps what we need more of in politics. Kim described working at the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless as a college student as one of his first steps into public service. “I loved being out in the community,” he said. “I loved being able to try to understand what kind of impact I could have.” His work at the Coalition inspired him, but also left him frustrated by the democratic process. “Endeavors that we were pushing were not getting the kind of attention that I felt like they needed,” he said. That realization set him on a course toward working within government, and today, he said he sees that “change and progress in our society requires champions both inside and outside of government.” After leaving UChicago, Kim made his way through several levels of government. He briefly worked for the United States Agency for International Development before attending the University of Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship. There he earned both his master’s and doctorate in international relations. Kim then joined the Obama administration’s State Department in 2009, where he worked on the department’s Iraq policies. He became a part of Obama’s National Security Council as the director for Iraq a few years later. In June of 2017, Kim announced his run for Representative of New Jersey’s third congressional district, against Republican incumbent Tom MacArthur. The night of the midterms, the race was still too close to be called, with Kim trailing behind MacArthur. A little more than a week later, the race was called, with Kim winning by 1.3 percent of the vote. The win came as a surprise, as the district had voted for Trump by 6 percent in 2016. At the same time, MacArthur had drawn flak for his support of the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and across New Jersey, Republican candidates
Andrew Kim. courtesy of andrew kim had to face intense dislike for the new federal tax code, which hit the state’s residents hard, placing a cap on state and local tax deductions. “It was a long, hard-fought fight, and New Jersey played a very critical role [in flipping the House],” Kim said. To Kim, reaching out to his new constituents who did not vote for him and who disagree with him lies at the heart of public service. “I have a very strong sense of what public service means in my own mind, which is always geared towards the American people first,” he said. “I am not trying to think about this as Andy Kim with a D next to my name.” Kim also reflected on effective student activism. “What is most important is lighting that fire—finding that spot, that passion inside you, no matter what path you take,” he said. From there, “it is always important to understand what is driving and compelling someone to continue to improve, to never have ambition for ambition’s sake, and that these efforts are guided by and grounded in a deep commitment.”
UCM Patients Recieve Historic Triple-Organ Transplant By OREN OPPENHEIM news reporter
Physicians from University of Chicago Medicine (UCM) performed two successful triple-organ transplants within a span of just under two days, the hospital announced on Friday, claiming that this is an unprecedented move in United States health care. According to a news release from the hospital, the transplants—which gave each patient a new heart, liver, and kidney—took place over the course of December 19–21. The hospital identified the transplant recipients as Sarah McPharlin, an occupational therapist from Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan, and Daru Smith, a truck driver from Chicago; both are 29 years old. Triple-organ transplants are extremely rare, and heart-liver-kidney transplants have only been performed 17 times in the United States since the operation was first performed in 1989 in Pittsburgh. UCM has performed six of these transplants overall. The hospital’s claim that this is the first time two of these surgeries have been performed back-to-back is supported by data from the Health Resources and Services Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which shows that UCM is the only medical center to have ever performed more than one heart-liver-kidney surgery in the same year. Valluvan Jeevanandam, surgical director of UCM’s Heart and Vascular Center, executed the heart transplants; Talia Baker, surgical director and program director of UCM’s liver transplant program, performed the liver transplants; and after that, Yolanda Becker, director of the kidney and pancreas program, performed the kidney transplants. McPharlin’s operation, according to the
news release, took just over 17 hours; Smith’s took over 20 hours. Jeevandandamn discussed the operations in a Q&A Facebook Live video streamed by the hospital on Monday. “We do the heart transplant [first], and then you have to get the heart ready to now sustain what is essentially a marathon run…asking it to immediately run a marathon having to do two other transplants. So we get the heart sewn in and the patient is off the heart-lung machine and purely on their new transplanted heart,” Jeevanandam said. Afterward, the liver team comes to work on the liver transplant without affecting the other organs, he continued. “Then we come back and the liver team and the heart team close the sternum and the abdomen at the same time. And then…the kidney team comes in, and they finish up with the kidney transplant. So it’s really like a relay race, and you can’t let the baton drop on this one.” McPharlin first came to UCM in November because the heart she received in a previous transplant 17 years ago had begun to fail. She had been unable to get treatment from other centers, according to Nir Uriel, director of UCM’s programs dealing with heart failure, transplant, and mechanical circulatory support, who also answered questions in the Facebook Live video. “We knew that Sarah is on our list [for transplant recipients], and whenever the right organs will come, we are going to perform this surgery and, eventually, follow her thereafter,” Uriel said. Smith was admitted on November 8 because of heart complications related to his multi-system sarcoidosis, a rare inflammatory condition. According to Uriel, the physicians realized more than a month after his arrival that his heart, kidney, and liver were all failing as a result.
“While we succeeded in stabilizing the situation, we understood this stabilization is just temporary,” he said, “and if [Smith] will not go through a triple organ transplant, he will die. We were ready with one [triple-organ transplant, for McPharlin], and we decide[d] to be ready with two.” The patients had been put on the waiting list for organ transplant donations; a match was found for McPharlin on December 18, and one for Smith was found on December 19. The organs came from deceased donors; each patient received all three organs from the donor each was matched with respectively. According to the hospital, this is because the body can accept external tissue from a single source more easily. While fielding questions from reporters during a press visit on Friday, footage of which was shared with The Maroon by UCM, both Smith and McPharlin emphasized how having someone else going through the same transplant progress as they were greatly helped both morale and recovery. “It’s been mind-blowing and amazing, having someone to go through the process with me gave me more motivation and helped me recover more,” Smith said of McPharlin. “I think it was amazing that I was able to be [here] a month and a half and receive all three organs that I needed, and then have someone with me go through the same process a day later.” McPharlin told reporters that being with Smith gave her hope for her own recovery: “It was really cool seeing Daru getting up in the hall, and I would know that eventually, pretty soon afterward, I would be doing the same; it gave me the confidence that I was going to be doing just as well.” On Wednesday, a hospital spokesperson told The Maroon that McPharlin has since been discharged from UCM, while Smith remains at the hospital.
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Candidates Discussed Term Limits and Gentrification in the 20th Ward continued from front
Authority, suggested taking advantage of “key nodes,” or vacant properties at opportune locations, throughout the ward. In particular, Hodari talked about gathering input from residents on potential uses for an abandoned commercial center at 47th Street and Halsted Street in order to spearhead further development in New City. Later, candidates were asked about potential safeguards that they would use against gentrification and the potential displacement of residents that could result. Kametha Hill, a former journalist and member of the United African Organization, said that the ward needs to do a better job of promoting Black-owned businesses and contractors. “Priority needs to be given to Black contractors. We need to have people coming into our neighborhoods who identify with our needs,” Hill said. Driver discussed closing a loophole in the Affordable Requirements Ordinance, which requires that residential projects that use city land must allocate 10 percent of units to low- or middle-income housing. However, developers are also able to pay a “fee-in-lieu” of $100,000 per required unit in order to circumvent this requirement. He advocated closing this loophole to increase low-cost housing citywide.
Driver also said that he would appoint a “housing advocate” for the community as part of his aldermanic office, in order to provide the ward with information and assistance regarding housing-related issues. “Eviction is rampant, so we will provide legal resources for you,” Driver said. Democratic committeeman and civil engineer Kevin Bailey called for rent control and a required “liveable wage” for minimum-wage employees. However, not every candidate shared the same level of urgency and concern regarding changing demographics. Attorney and pastor Dernard Newell said, “You ought to not be afraid of ‘economic revitalization’—you call it gentrification. It increases the tax base.” All nine candidates said that they support term limits for local government. “We shouldn’t have career politicians. This process should be for people who want to groom and get young people involved in politics,” said attorney and NAACP member Quandra Speights. Andre Smith, the CEO of Chicago Against Violence who advocated for the opening of the trauma center at UChicago Medicine, said that term limits “[cut] down some of the corruption” in government. Former Chicago Public Schools teacher Nicole Johnson supported
three-term limits so that aldermen have the time to fulfill promises to their constituents. “It takes most economic development projects at least 10 years to get started and to manifest the results,” she said. Bailey was undecided when it came to term limits above the county level. “When it comes to the state and federal [level], I think we need to take a look and see what the impact analysis would be to have term limits in these seats,” he said. A nother audience member asked the candidates how they would rein in the rising gap between pension benefits owed to employees and state funds allocated to making these payments, without increasing taxes. Johnson said that she would advocate heavily for the development of the South Suburban Airport, a proposed airport that could be built on state-owned land near Peotone, IL, projecting that it would bring in $157 million in state tax revenue. Johnson also said that she would push for the legalization of marijuana for recreational use in order to generate revenue, saying, “It’ll be able to close that gap.” Mayor Rahm Emanuel advocated for a similar plan in December 2018, and Governor-elect J.B. Pritzker called for legalization as a vehicle to generate revenue throughout his gubernatorial campaign.
Restaurant’s Drinks Inspired by Literature
Bibliophile specializes in alcohol-infused desserts. courtesy of bibliophile continued from front
The menu, which Bibliophile alters every three months, includes an old-fashioned cheeseca ke, rum-infused chocolate mousse, and libros cake. Furthermore, Westbrook curated a wine list categorized by certain flavor profiles, such as “Earthy and Weighty Reds” and “Rich and Creamy Whites.” “What I wanted to do with this wine list...was I say a word or style or feeling that we all share and I [express it] in a wine,” Westbrook explained. “And I want to give people that style without them being wed to a particular grape.” In keeping with the theme of Bibliophile, bar manager Rachel Smith designed and created cocktails inspired by literary classics including To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, and Alice in Wonderland. The menu also includes mocktails named after children’s books, like the popular Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. These mocktails use Seedlip, a “non-alcoholic
spirit,” to create flavor profiles similar to those of alcohol. Customers of Bibliophile, however, do not need to dine at the restaurant to peruse through the shelves of books that adorn the walls of Bibliophile. The space also contains several theater chairs for passerby, and Bibliophile’s book collection spans a wide range of genres—including graphic novels, children’s books, and cultural studies. Sonja Coates, a table server and librarian for Bibliophile, worked with Powell’s Books to curate the starter collection for Bibliophile. For Coates, who has worked four years as a librarian for her college and two years at a public elementary school in Chicago, Bibliophile reflects how she feels about literature. “Literature doesn’t exist in a vacuum,” Coates said. “Literature [imbues] all parts of our lives.... What I see Bibliophile doing is turning this solitary action into this very social interaction.”
Community Development, a Dollar at a Time By DIMITRIY LEKSANOV grey city reporter
Before Robbin Carroll, Erin Vogel, and the rest of I Grow Chicago arrived, the house at West 64th Street and South Honore Street in Englewood carried a sickly, ragged coat of white paint. The windows were boarded up and, on the top floor, the boards were so run-down that they had begun to cave into the house. The porch was so rickety that it had to be removed and replaced entirely: first the stairs, then the porch itself. The nearby lots had been overrun by tall weeds and bald patches of barren, dusty land. Now, those lots feature a paved basketball court and a well-kept, woodchip-covered garden. The other houses on the block, while still boarded up and unused, have been freshly painted. I Grow Chicago, a nonprofit organization, opened in 2014 following the purchase and renovation of their “Peace House,” the previously dilapidated residence that has since been turned into a fully functional home. Vogel, the organization’s co-ex-
ecutive director and long-time friend of founder Robbin Carroll, continually highlighted the notion of activation: resurrection of community resources that had been previously cast aside. “Activate, right?” said Vogel. “We activate things that other developers threw away, and we’re turning it into something in a really cool way.” Inside the Peace House is a kitchen and food pantry that volunteers use to prepare community holiday dinners, as well as a large cache of school supplies, desks, books, and computers for donations and after-school programs. The garden, meanwhile, contains several plant beds and greenhouses, as well as a facility for multiple hens that were acquired last year. On the northeast end, there is an arrangement of stumps and a large wooden stage for outdoor, team-building activities—a strong indication of just how far the foundation has come. “We joked that it was a garden by Google, since we didn’t really know what we were doing, but we knew that we could grow stuff. Englewood is a food desert, so our
The I Grow Chicago “Peace House” in Englewood. dimitriy leksanov kids didn’t know that food came from the dirt, so these lots have been a way for us to create opportunities right here at our fingertips,” Vogel said. I Grow Chicago is an example of how Chicago’s Large Lots Program can be successful, even on a small
scale. Both its garden and basketball court were developed on lots that were acquired as part of the program. The Large Lot Program began in March 2014 as part of the Green Healthy Neighborhoods (GHN) plan. GHN was a long-term effort
to maximize the city’s community resources, including vacant land, following the depopulation of many community areas over the past half-century, including Englewood, Woodlawn, Fuller Park, and New City. The exodus, which was continued on pg. 5
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“ ... I’m not a fortune-teller. People are gonna try to exploit everything.” continued from pg. 4
catalyzed by racist processes like redlining and blockbusting, left hordes of abandoned buildings. This gave way to “11,000 vacant lots, equivalent to more than 800 acres of vacant land,” per the city’s website. GHN grew out of the efforts of several community partner organizations, including the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC Chicago), and the city itself. The Large Lots Program emerged as part of that, through a grassroots community outreach campaign by the Resident Association of Greater Englewood (RAGE). They proposed that anyone who owned property on the block should be able to buy cityowned vacant lots for one dollar, so long as they could hold on to the lot for five years and were not in debt to the city. Vogel emphasized urban decay’s pernicious effect on residents, starting from the emotional level. “I think what’s really important in our story is that there used to be a house for every single lot on the block, but now we have around 14 vacant lots. When these houses come down, it’s traumatizing,” she said. Vogel also mentioned how the abundance of abandoned lots creates neighborhood safety hazards. “Something people also don’t consider is that these lots provide places to shoot from. You could potentially shoot from a block away if there’s a vacant lot, not a house, in the way,” Vogel said. Website eases access Four years ago, images from the 1950s of Englewood’s then-vibrant shopping district flashed behind Demond Drummer during his presentation at the Code for America Summit in San Francisco as he explained, “Today we have more vacant storefronts than thriving businesses, and our population is only a third of what it was just six decades ago.” Drummer, the tech organizer for Teamwork Englewood, then displayed an image of the view from his desk: a 13-acre empty lot that sits where a bustling retail center was just a few decades prior. That lot, one of 1,457 vacant properties throughout Englewood as of last year, is a sobering example of Chicago’s urban decay. However, as Drummer repeated throughout his speech, “The neighborhood has not given up on itself.” As evidence, Drummer cited the Large Lots Program, which he collaborated on with the goal of reducing blight throughout the city. According to Drummer, Large Lots was a logical extension of what was already going on throughout Englewood and other neighborhoods: “[RAGE] said, ‘We have a lot of resident members in our group that are already taking care of these city-owned vacant lots. We have some ideas of how to get these lots back into private hands.’” However, according to Drummer, the program was technologically cumbersome early on. “You had to download a PDF to figure out what the policy was
all about, then use either the city data portal or the GIS zoning map to determine which lots were on your block and available, all while you’re toggling between the county website and the city website,” said Drummer. So in December 2014, Drummer, Derek Eder of DataMade, and others worked to launch a new program website, largelots.org, featuring a color-coded map of lots, a simple outline of program details, and easy application instructions. The pilot program was underway, first in Englewood, then throughout the rest of the city. Since then, many private individuals and community organizations, like I Grow Chicago, have used the program and put the lots to use. Many lots have been converted into community gardens. Woodlawn in particular has been a hotbed for urban agriculture— many garden owners have coalesced into the Garden Resources of Woodlawn (GROW) consortium to share resources, display projects, and recruit volunteers. Despite I Grow Chicago’s great success following its inception, their journey has not been without difficulties. Vogel referenced a failed attempt to refurbish another dollar lot, just a few blocks away. “We also had a dollar lot on 64th and Paulina, but it’s out of our sight range, and the city requires that it has a fence. Every screw got taken on that fence,” she said. Another area of concern that Vogel touched on was the lottery system. Currently, applicants receive lots based on their location, but if two applicants are equidistant, then the lot goes to a randomly drawn recipient. This can disadvantage people who have taken care of a lot for years, but do not actually own the deed to the lot. Too open to outside developers? Other times, residents may not be able to buy the lot that they have been taking care of; while the one-dollar price tag is alluring, it is only the tip of the monetary iceberg. “The taxes [on the lots] can be anywhere between $1,500 and three grand,” said Vogel. These costs also come before including the cost of the gardening itself. Literacy and a general lack of awareness about the program create further barriers against residents taking full advantage of Large Lots. According to the Chicago Literacy Alliance, “An estimated 882,000, or 30 percent of adults in Chicago have low basic literacy.” And, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 16.1 percent of Chicago households do not have a computer, while 26.5 percent of households do not feature a broadband internet subscription. “Wi-Fi and technology are limited. We’re one of the few houses on our block with Wi-Fi. Not everyone can read, if you put it on a flyer, and not everyone will care to read,” Vogel said. Large Lots’s participation requirements also leave neighborhoods vulnerable to a less community-oriented kind of development. To purchase a lot through Large Lots, one need only own property on the block, not necessarily live
A volunteer gives a thumbs-up at a community event hosted by I Grow Chicago. dimitriy leksanov there. Developers who own properties throughout the city have begun exploiting these parameters, creating a different kind of vacancy in which absentee owners are the lots’ caretakers. While Vogel has not experienced exploitation of the Large Lots program firsthand, she has seen shady dealings occur with other properties on her block. “There’s a house on our block, a beautiful brick home that’s been vacant as long as we’ve been there that was caught up in a billion-dollar Ponzi scheme,” said Vogel. Meanwhile, a recent article in Chicago magazine chronicles the experiences of Luerlis Gutierrez, a resident of East Garfield Park who had been contributing to a neighborhood garden since 2010. After 27th Ward Alderman Walter Burnett Jr. contacted the land trust NeighborSpace, which protects community gardens, to help secure a deed for Gutierrez’s garden, the lot was still sold through Large Lots to Mike McInerney of McInerney Builders, Inc. McInerney was able to buy the lot because he owned three lots across the street. According to the article, McInerney then told Gutierrez to stop tending to the land, and the lot has since become host to rats and drug addicts. Gutierrez believes that McInerney has no intention of actually building on the land, but rather intends to resell the lot once its value rises. There are mechanisms in place to discourage exploitation of the program, including the long wait time, which can span upward of 9–12 months, and fines for failure to properly maintain the lot, such as by allowing the grass to become excessively tall or neglecting to put up a fence. In the case of Gutierrez and McInerney, however, McInerney has already received a $600 fine for failing to mount a fence but has continued to hold on to the lot. Taryn Roch, a director at LISC Chicago, a community development intermediary, offered a different perspective on the issues surrounding the ability to buy a lot through Large Lots without actually living on the block, indicating that this ability arose from strong local support.
“I think it’s important to keep in mind that Englewood residents were the ones who advocated for the program to be open to people who didn’t live on the block,” Roch said. “The way that I understand it—and this is going way back to the [GHN] plan—community residents that were consulted about the program felt that some of them, [although] they maybe owned their grandfather’s home or grandmother’s home in the neighborhood, but didn’t live on the block, still wanted to have access to the program.” When asked whether support for this part of the program remained, Roch replied that it depends on the community. Program expands After the 2014 pilot release, the Large Lots program has undergone two expansions. One was in 2016, with the authorization of the LISC-funded second Englewood Quality of Life Plan. The second came in May 2018, which saw the city market “3,219 empty lots on the South and West sides,” per the Chicago Tribune, with about a third of those being new to the program. The 2018 addition of more dollar lots into the already-large pool may make the program more vulnerable to exploitation by giving developers more chances to inadvertently purchase an existing community garden. However, for Vogel the benefits of expanding the initiative outweigh the drawbacks. Of the 14 empty lots by West 64th Street and South Honore Street, a majority are not from Large Lots, but available through the Cook County Land Bank. Those lots are sold at $4,500 a piece, and for nonprofits like I Grow Chicago and the Kusanya Café, which recently purchased a dollar lot to use as a community gathering space, that price can be a deal-breaker. Thus, Large Lots can be naturally more attractive for certain buyers who find the $4,500 to be a significant barrier. For organizations like I Grow Chicago, affordability can snowball into success. The low initial cost of the Peace House and the two lots facilitated summer basketball tournaments, after-school
programs, Thanksgiving dinners, and other charitable contributions that garnered city-wide attention and a partnership with the Chicago Bears. That partnership facilitated organizational growth, from donations to purchase several gardening beds and another house on the block, to visits by celebrities like rookie wide receiver Anthony Miller. For wealthy developers, $4,500 is next to nothing—it might as well be another dollar lot. However, to an Englewood resident or a nonprofit, that difference is critical. While an expansion of the program may enable more developers to buy up city-owned community gardens, it could also allow more neighbors to take advantage of the lots, and more organizations like I Grow Chicago to get off the ground, and it would help to accomplish the program’s original goal: to reduce urban decay throughout Chicago. As it stands, community support for the Large Lots program is strong, but far from universal. While the idea was simple in its design, it has led to both positive and negative consequences. Though it was intended primarily to reduce blight, it has since grown into a springboard for nonprofit organizations throughout the city. Conversely, the aspect of the program that originated directly from a strong community push, the ability to purchase a lot without actually living on the block, has now become an inconvenience to residents looking to make the most of their local resources. These consequences are not only far-reaching, but also tremendously inconsistent from neighborhood to neighborhood. This has made the future of the program difficult to predict. When asked about her outlook on Large Lots going forward, Vogel said, “I think they could [exploit the program more heavily], but I’m not a fortune-teller. People are gonna try to exploit everything.” As technology becomes more accessible, so too will Large Lots, opening up significant opportunities for Chicago residents, but perhaps also subjecting those same people to considerable risk.
THE CHICAGO MAROON - JANUARY 11, 2019
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VIEWPOINTS How to Find a New Home Without Leaving House Culture Apartments Within Dorms Are an Occasionally Challenging but Underrated Housing Option for Upperclassmen
NATALIE DENBY Around this time every year, a mass migration begins to kick into gear, as second and third-years prepare to move out of housing and into apartments. You can already hear people hatching their initial plans; finding roommates, locations, and landlords; and indulging in unrealistic daydreams. Apparently, everyone will stay very involved in their houses and consistently find the time to make good meals. I never really understood the rush to move into apartments. Between the extra chores, distance from campus, and loss of house culture, it seemed like an unpleasant trade-off. So I wasn’t exactly outraged by the University’s plans to expand the housing requirement, or by news of the new megadorm. I would have been perfectly fine staying in a traditional dorm on campus, but I felt compelled to make a small concession to all the enthusiasm around “growing up” (and a strong desire to escape the horrors of public bathrooms). I moved into one of the apartments on campus. Of course, my apartment’s not a “real” one. I don’t have to put up with nagging landlords, my apartment’s quite
literally in a dorm, and there’s easy access to all the amenities that go with it: a mostly functional laundry room, the nearby cafeteria, constant study breaks, house events, and more. While helping set up my room, my judgmental sister declared that “apartment” was a misnomer; as she put it, it’s just “a dorm room with an oven.” That’s why I thought it wouldn’t be difficult to maintain the faux-apartment like an independent, responsible adult. What I’ve actually discovered is that “independence,” in this context, is a euphemism for totally unchecked negligence. Cooking healthy or at least borderline adequate meals? Please—the only groceries I remember to consistently stock my kitchen with are jumbo-sized jars of Nutella and peanut butter (necessities, right?). In my defense, thorough grocery shopping is next to impossible when the only “grocery store” in reasonable walking distance is the Midway Market. The fact that there’s no dishwasher—which seemed like a non-issue at first—is now borderline apocalyptic; the mountain of dishes in the sink threatens to become a permanent geographical feature. And I’m try-
ing not to be too distressed by the number of times our trash can has simply vanished into thin air, only to reappear in a slightly different color and/or size. I’ve drawn some comfort from the realization that I’m definitely not alone, although I imagine this isn’t very comforting for my forbearing roommates. While some of our apartment-bound classmates have managed to keep things reasonably orderly, others might as well be auditioning for some voyeuristic home makeover show. If this apartment experience has, in some respects, been a catastrophe, it’s been fantastic in others. Yes, what passes for meals in my apartment would give a nutritionist an aneurysm, but it still qualifies as learning something: I can now ruin dozens of recipes in dozens of unique, wholly unexpected ways. If that’s not an enticing skill set, I don’t know what is. Being in a quasi-apartment is useful even for the grander, more ephemeral things people look for in apartments: a sense of personal space, some notion of responsibility for that space, even a sense of ownership, albeit a limited one. Those are the kinds of skills and instructive misfires most people rightly want to learn before they graduate. And of course, I can’t overstate the value of escaping the hell that is the “community kitchen.” But perhaps one of the most appealing characteristics of the dorm
apartments is that you get to hang on to house culture. While plenty of students sign up to be house associates when they move off campus, it’s still easy to lose the sense of community you get from actually living in a dorm—most of the house associates I know drift away from their house culture pretty quickly, often because they’re further away from their houses. That’s part of what makes the dorm apartments so nice. You get to preserve that community in an apartment setting. The University may be onto something when it tries to foster
those house communities, even if some of its methods, like requiring students to remain in dorms for two years, seem disagreeable. But it should be cognizant of the fact that students outgrow traditional dorm arrangements pretty quickly. Expanding the in-house apartments may be a way to encourage more students to stay in housing without disregarding those preferences. Just lock down the trash cans and stock up on the Nutella. Natalie Denby is a fourth-year in the College.
Jessica Xia
Closed Observatory, Open Dialogue The University Has Respectfully Engaged with Those Affected by the Yerkes Observatory Closure. Undergrads and Union Organizers Deserve the Same. By MAROON EDITORIAL BOARD
Euirim Choi, Editor-in-Chief Pete Grieve, Editor-in-Chief Katie Akin, Managing Editor Kay Yang, Managing Editor The Maroon Editorial Board consists of the editors-in-chief and editors of The Maroon.
NEWS
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Cole Martin, editor Meera Santhanam, editor
GREY CITY
Caroline Kubzansky, editor BUSINESS
Antonia Salisbury, chief financial officer Alex Chung, director of development Michael Vetter, co-director of marketing Xavier Worsley, co-director of marketing
ARTS
Alexia Bacigalupi, editor Brooke Nagler, editor May Huang, editor Zoe Bean, deputy editor Perri Wilson, deputy editor
Editor-in-Chief: Editor@ChicagoMaroon.com Newsroom Phone: (312) 918-8023 Business Phone: (408) 806-8381
SPORTS
For advertising inquiries, please contact Ads@ChicagoMaroon.com or (408) 806-8381.
DESIGN
Circulation: 2,000.
Audrey Mason, editor
Peng-Peng Liu, production manager Jessica Xia, head designer Claire Dennis, design associate Areeha Khalid, design associate Caleb Weis, design associate COPY
Patrick Lou, copy chief Katrina Lee, copy chief Mohammed Bashier, copy chief Kuba Sokolowski, copy chief Olivia Shao, copy chief
© 2019 The Chicago Maroon Ida Noyes Hall / 1212 East 59th Street Chicago, IL 60637
After announcing the impending closure of the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay Village, Wisconsin, the University has engaged with communities around Yerkes in order to find out what they want to happen with the property. This standard—involving stakeholders in decisions made by the administration—is laudable, and should become standard for the University going forward. In September, the University acknowledged that it was in talks with the Yerkes Future Foundation about the future of the Observatory. The administration has also transferred some of the educational programming that happened at Yerkes to another organization in Williams Bay Village. The chair of the Yerkes Future Foundation told The Maroon: “the University has been very cordial, very responsible…. I have no issue with how they have communicated or managed with the Yerkes Future Foundation.” The University here is making a good-faith effort to find out what the community around Yerkes wants to
do with the property, which stands in stark contrast to how the administration has interacted with on-campus communities. Take two recent examples: the University’s steadfast opposition to graduate student unionization and the controversial new undergraduate housing policies. Despite graduate students making clear that they want a union and collective bargaining rights, the administration refuses to seriously engage with their concerns. We don’t need to speculate as to what graduate students want: They overwhelmingly voted to unionize last fall. The University might argue that it has tried to address graduate students’ demands via measures like the Committee on Graduate Education (CGE). However, nearly every graduate student present at the last CGE meeting walked out upon learning that discussion of unionization was off the table. It is unclear what concerns the University hopes the CGE will address, as they refuse to discuss the one issue an overwhelming majority of graduate students can get behind. Similarly, the University clearly did not take students’ opinions into
account when crafting the recently-announced housing policy. The new policy requires incoming students in the College to spend two years in housing, creates a random lottery to place students in dorms, and assigns academic advisers to students based on which house they live in. While the randomization of housing assignments does address concerns that the old policy advantaged students with the means to pay their deposits early by granting them better slots in the lottery, it’s not clear that the other components of the policy align with students’ desires. It has already been noted that the two-year housing requirement puts an undue burden on marginalized students in College housing. It is encouraging to see the administration willingly engage the community in Williams Bay Village about the fate of the Yerkes Observatory, because it demonstrates that the University can work toward solutions that are acceptable to all stakeholders. It would do well to adopt the same strategy regarding other decisions that affect members of the immediate University community.
THE CHICAGO MAROON - JANUARY 11, 2019
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ARTS “The Favourite” Wins Over the Queen, and the Audience By ALISON GILL arts reporter
Between the corsets and wigs, the accents and palatial setting, and the characters ripped straight from history, Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite has all the trappings of a traditional period piece. Yet, Lanthimos and his cast are far more interested in subverting form than adhering to it. The film centers on Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) during her volatile and short-lived reign in Great Britain during the 18th century. As her nation wars with France and Spain, Anne cares far more about her 17 pet rabbits than her subjects, and she handles her illnesses and neuroses with the self-restraint of a child. At her side, Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz) dutifully appeases Anne’s neediness, from rubbing her gout-inflicted legs to providing the approval Anne so desperately seeks. Exploiting the queen’s infirmities, Sarah, her most trusted confidante, has wormed her way into a position of power—and into the queen’s bed. Completing this political and sexual love triangle is Abigail Hill (Emma Stone), Sarah’s cousin. A former woman of status, Abigail appears at the palace covered in mud and desperate for employment from her unsympathetic cousin. By force of her charms, intelligence, and shrewdness, the wide-eyed Abigail quickly ascends from the scullery into the queen’s favor. What ensues is a delirious romp of manipulation, deceit, and cunning as Abigail and Sarah vie for the queen’s affections.
While a real life Sarah and Abigail did exist, the aim of The Favourite is not historical accuracy. Rather, Lanthimos takes a historical footnote and creates a plot bursting with sabotage, sexual antics, wicked zingers, and sly social commentary. The Favourite showcases the absurdist elements, bleak morality, and ghastly humor that Lanthimos (The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer) is known for. But the script, written by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara, balances these with believable and occasionally even sympathetic characters. Yes, there is a scene of a naked man being pelted with oranges by Parliament members, but grim moments such as these are superseded by the surprising humanity of Anne, Sarah, and Abigail. The film would not be possible without stellar performances, and Stone, Weisz, and Colman certainly deliver. The rivalry between Stone and Weisz is genuinely thrilling, continually re-defining itself through the fluctuating whims of Anne and the cool calculation of the competitors. The film purposely maintains the ambiguity of whom the audience should root for—at any given moment, Anne, Sarah, and Abigail display their concurrent strengths and weaknesses. Stone leans into Abigail’s posturing as an ingénue, a masquerade that effectively conceals her own dirty tactics and survival instincts. This is not to say that Stone never indulges in the whip-smart and vulgar dialogue. In her barbed one-liners, Stone relishes in their dryness
Olivia Colman plays Queen Anne in the new historical fiction “The Favourite.” courtesy of fox searchlight pictures and delivers them with the punchy directness of a heroine. Weisz, who has prev iously worked with Lanthimos in The Lobster, pairs Sarah’s thirst for power and brutal honesty with a disarming transparency. As Abigail threatens to replace her, Weisz displays an impressive duality: a woman embroiled in the internal conflict between preserving her position and her dignity. In no small feat, though, Colman provides the best performance, earning her a Golden Globe and practically guaranteeing her an Oscar nomination. In Colman’s deft hands, the queen oscillates between wildly funny, wildly annoying, and wildly pathetic—often hitting these notes in subsequent perfection. She masters Anne’s mutability, por-
traying the queen as ill-mannered, edly entertaining and fun. There vulnerable, disagreeable, lonely, is goose racing, men in heavy blush sympathetic, and maddening. I am and sky-high wigs, over-the-top opalso hard-pressed to find a better ulence, and several scenes of the imdelivery of a singular line this year peccably costumed Stone and Weisz than when Anne responds to Sar- shooting things. As Sarah remarks, ah’s objections about Abigail with a “Sometimes a lady likes to have fun.” deadpan “I like it when she puts her The film is also disconcertingly tongue in me.” reflective. The palace teems with For fans of Lanthimos, The Fa- gossipy intrigue, arrogance, cruelty, vourite will certainly not disappoint, and blatant selfishness. The characand the auteur director will likely ters and their flaws are eerily familusher in a whole new legion of con- iar, reflecting many of our current verts with the film. He still utilizes political figures. Everything—forsome of the daring and unexpected tunes, worth, decisions, trust, allifilmmaking techniques of his earli- ances—is temporary, and affection er works—like the periodic use of a is a mere method to obtain an end. fishbowl lens and the confined set- It is an unsettling world, one that ting—but this film is also his most is simultaneously comic and brutaccessible work. ish—and, perhaps, as unforgettable Lanthimos’s world is undoubt- as our own.
Bird Box Fails to Think Outside The Box
Julian Edwards (left) and Sandra Bullock (right) in Bird Box. courtesy of netflix
By WLAD SARMIENTO arts staff
This past holiday season, Bird Box—Netf lix’s newest original film—unexpectedly took over the internet. This is not the first time this sort of phenomenon has happened to a Netflix production—the hype around Stranger Things particularly comes to mind—but it is the first time that a Netflix movie has been successful to this degree. Netflix is proud of the commotion; notoriously tight-lipped about viewer counts, the streaming ser-
vice announced its most successful opening week ever for an original movie, with more than 45 million accounts watching 70 percent of Bird Box or more in its first seven days online. Either the average Netflix viewer is not very discerning when it comes to movie quality, or I missed something with this horror/thriller, because for the life of me I don’t understand why Bird Box has generated such a positive reputation. It is a generic horror film that, like so many others, squanders an interesting premise with a general-
ly uninteresting cast and sloppy writing. The film opens with, and later revisits, the framing device of Sandra Bullock’s character Malorie guiding two children toward safety while wearing blindfolds. The reason for this choice of eyewear is almost Lovecraftian: Creatures invade Earth, and anyone who looks at them goes immediately crazy and commits suicide. This is all revealed in flashback scenes, which comprise most of the film, showing the events following the monsters’ initial appearance in Malorie’s town.
These f lashback scenes are never shown in the film—a good where the problems begin in Bird choice—but their powers and moBox. After setting a grim and myste- tivations are so vague that any rious atmosphere with the opening threat I felt near the beginning of scene of Malorie and her two kids, the movie was completely diffused the scenes have a painfully generic by the end. The climax is a The tone and structure. The interest- Happening–style chase through a ing aspects of the movie’s cryptic forest with a breeze faintly ruffling enemies are all but abandoned in leaves behind the main characters. favor of zombie media’s favorite It is unclear what the viewer is suptrope: a group of people, each with posed to be tense about. Do these laughably specific and one-sided monsters want to hurt people? If personalities, trapped in a house, they can physically touch humans, hiding from the monsters outside. why can’t they go inside cars or A couple of them are pregnant. A houses? Why aren’t mentally ill couple of them are sketchy. One is people affected? This film’s rules suspicious of everyone else. If I’d are never established, so the tenwanted to watch such a stereotyp- sion is never fully there. ical horror movie, I’d watch a parWhile I didn’t find Bird Box ody, like Shaun of the Dead. Sandra offensively bad, I was disappointBullock’s acting is as wooden as it’s ed with the film overall. It had so been recently, and the rest of the much hype built up around it upon cast is either boring, unconvincing, release, and the comparisons to or both. The only exception is John A Quiet Place made me excited to Malkovich, who can make any mov- experience a film with a similarly ie at least somewhat watchable with original premise. Sadly, however, his expressive performance style. this is a trope-filled horror film The framing device scenes of that neither excites nor scares. I Bullock have the unfortunate side think Netflix should be very happy effect of completely killing all ten- they are a streaming service and sion for the flashback scenes. You not a traditional studio, because know who survives and can pretty this film would have undoubtedmuch assume everyone else dies. ly gone unnoticed in theaters and Things somehow get even worse been quickly forgotten, just like the by the time the flashback scenes other mediocre, off-season horror chronologically catch up to the schlock that will be coming out in framing device. The creatures are theaters this month.
THE CHICAGO MAROON - JANUARY 11, 2019
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SPORTS Maroons Ready for UAA Teams BASKETBALL
By ANDY PRESHER sports reporter
An action-packed weekend of basketball pits UChicago against Rochester on Friday night and Emory on Sunday afternoon. The Maroons opened conference play on Saturday, January 5, at home where the Maroon women fell 85–66 to Wash U. For the Wash U men, a second-half rally made the game close, but ultimately the Maroon men were able to hold on to win 88–80. First, on Friday, the No. 17 Maroon women take on unranked Rochester at 6 p.m. The Rochester women are 6–6 and opened UAA play with a 70–52 loss to Emory. This game will be their first challenge against a ranked team this season. The Maroon women were previously ranked No. 8 but fell nine places after the loss to Wash U. Wash U jumped to a 28–15 lead by the end of the first quarter and, despite pulling within two points late in the second quar-
ter, UChicago never took the lead. Following the women’s game, the unranked Maroon men seek to upset No. 12 Rochester at 8 p.m. The Rochester men opened UA A play with an 87–76 victory over Emory. Rochester took an early lead and was ahead by double digits for much of the game. However, despite trailing 29–12 with 10 minutes left in the first half, Emory rallied over the next nine minutes to cut the lead to three points. Rochester ultimately re-established a strong lead and was ahead by double digits for all of the final 13 minutes, eventually leading by 17 points once again with around six minutes remaining. Although Rochester added another solid score line to its list of wins, Emory’s rally, along with Rochester’s only loss of the season (85–70 to Ithaca in December) prove the team vulnerable. On Sunday, the Maroon men face off against Emory at noon. The Emory men are 9–3, and though they lost in the afore-
Third-year Taylor Lake glances around her opponent in search of a teammate. mentioned contest against Rochester, they can hardly be taken lightly. They showed enormous resolve in their attempt to come back against a highly ranked opponent. Fortunately, Emory’s final contest before its matchup against UChicago may shed more light on what the Maroons can expect on Sunday, as Emory will face Wash U on Friday night. At 2 p.m. on Sunday, the Maroon women also take on Emory. The Emory women are 10–2 and defeated Rochester 70–52 to open conference play. While the first quarter ended 10–10, Emory was never losing by more than two points, which occurred
courtesy of zoe kaiser
early in the second quarter. Rochester was down 33–26 at halftime, and as the game went on, Emory steadily extended its lead. Emory never led by less than 11 points in the final 18 minutes and went ahead by 20 in the final minute. With games on Friday at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., and on Sunday at 12 p.m. and 2 p.m., the Maroon teams attempt to build solid starts to UAA play. The men look for an upset against highly ranked Rochester, while the ranked women seek to rebound from their loss to Wash U and push higher in the rankings toward their former spot.
UChicago Begins Indoor Season With Invitational TRACK AND FIELD
By BRINDA RAO sports reporter
UChicago’s men’s and women’s track and field teams will start their indoor season with the annual Phoenix Invitational. The Invitational will be hosted by the Maroons at the Henry Crown Field House this Saturday. The team plans on continuing their streak of victories at the Invitational; for the past two years both the men and women’s teams placed first out of five teams. While this meet marks the start of the official season, the teams have been rigorously training since early November. Practices are held at Crown for sprinters and jumpers. Third-year sprinter Mary Martin explained, “Since it’s early in the
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season, practice is still pretty tough. Later in the season, closer to the championships, we will begin tapering.” The distance and mid-distance teams have taken to the roads and trails around the area. Quite a few of the distance team members are returning runners from UChicago’s cross country team. These runners are just coming off their winter training, having taken a rest after cross country. Through December and early January they have been working on building their mileage back up to their peak. Members of the team are excited to see where this meet goes. After a hiatus between seasons, the athletes want to start their season strong. While some members of the distance team are coming off the momentum of their cross country sea-
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Crossword: 32 Little Crowns By CHRISTOPHER JONES
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son, jumpers and sprinters are coming off focus on times as much.” months of training. As a result, the enerMembers of the team want to take this gy for this meet is extremely high. Third- meet as an opportunity to pursue a season year distance runner Andy Kates said, “It’s of improvement and successful performanca rust-buster meet, so we want to get out es. Kates said, “I want to race hard with my there and put in good effort to kick off the teammates and push each other. When we season on a good note.” race for each other we accomplish things Indoor track does come with some dif- that we wouldn’t have thought were possificulties for members of the team. Distance ble.” and mid-distance runners have the chalHaving won their conference last sealenge of running their races on a 200-me- son, the women’s team is eager to start this ter track. The short distance of the track season off with a victory. Martin explained, means that the runners face more turns “The goal of the women’s team is to defend than in cross country and outdoor track. our indoor conference title.” Kates said, “The benefit of the short loops UChicago’s track and field teams will is that it is easier to stay engaged but hard- compete in the Phoenix Invitational this er to run fast because the turns slow you Saturday at 11:30 a.m. in the Henry Crown down. I try to race for place and try to not Field House.
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46. Webster who changed “gaol” to “jail” 47. Thin 51. Smiles, as you might do while solving this puzzle 55. Pueblo Native American 56. “It’s coming!” 57. Appetizer preceder 58. When the sky was created Down 1. France, once 2. ____ Domini 3. Some tax forms 4. Claim made by many scams 5. Tolerate 6. Prominent features of some big cats 7. Twitter tagging characters 8. P, Y, W, S 9. Expunge 10. Famously tall tribe of south Kenya 11. Snow globe, e.g. 12. Frequently torn knee part: Abbr.
13. Word that appears 19,815 times in Moby Dick 17. Actor Robbins of The Shawshank Redemption 22. In the public eye? 23. E, L, H, E 24. Aeschylus’s land 25. Graf of women s tennis 26. “Sure!” in modern lingo 27. ___ system (emotional and behavioral area of the brain) 38. Good for everyone 39. Make (an offer) 41. Some companions, for short 42. Ready Player One’s virtual world, with “The” 43. Lyonnais river 44. Length of some rental exts. 45. Just made it 48. Sibling rivalry? 49. “___ girl!” 50. He, she, and it 51. Ctrl (2017) artist 52. Drift off, perhaps 53. Unit of mathematics 54. BBQ go-with