March 6, 2019 by South Side Weekly

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SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY The South Side Weekly is an independent nonprofit newsprint magazine written for and about neighborhoods on the South Side of Chicago. We publish in-depth coverage of the arts and issues of public interest alongside oral histories, poetry, fiction, interviews, and artwork from local photographers and illustrators. The South Side Weekly is dedicated to supporting cultural and civic engagement on the South Side and to providing educational opportunities for developing journalists, writers, and artists. Volume 6, Issue 19 Editor-in-Chief Adam Przybyl Managing Editors Emeline Posner, Sam Stecklow Deputy Editor Jasmine Mithani Senior Editors Julia Aizuss, Christian Belanger, Mari Cohen, Bridget Newsham, Olivia Stovicek Chief of Staff

Manisha AR

Politics Editor Education Editor Music Editor Stage & Screen Editor Visual Arts Editor Food & Land Editor

Ellen Mayer Rachel Kim Christopher Good Nicole Bond Rod Sawyer Emeline Posner

Contributing Editors Mira Chauhan, Joshua Falk, Carly Graf, Ian Hodgson, Maple Joy, Sam Joyce, Ashvini Kartik-Narayan, Rachel Schastok Amy Qin, Jocelyn Vega Staff Writer Kyle Oleksiuk Data Editor Jasmine Mithani Radio Exec. Producer Erisa Apantaku Social Media Editors Bridget Newsham, Sam Stecklow Director of Fact Checking: Sam Joyce Fact Checkers: Abigail Bazin, Bridget Newsham, Adam Przybyl, Sam Stecklow, Tammy Xu Visuals Editor Ellen Hao Deputy Visuals Editors Ireashia Bennett, Siena Fite, Lizzie Smith Staff Photographers: milo bosh, Jason Schumer Staff Illustrators: Siena Fite, Natalie Gonzalez, Katherine Hill Interim Layout Editor J. Michael Eugenio Deputy Layout Editors Haley Tweedell Webmaster Operations Manager

Pat Sier Jason Schumer

The Weekly is produced by an all-volunteer editorial staff and seeks contributions from across the city. We distribute each Wednesday in the fall, winter, and spring. Over the summer we publish every other week. Send submissions, story ideas, comments, or questions to editor@southsideweekly.com or mail to: South Side Weekly 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. Chicago, IL 60637 For advertising inquiries, contact: (773) 234-5388 or advertising@southsideweekly.com

IN CHICAGO

A week’s worth of developing stories, odd events, and signs of the times, culled from the desks, inboxes, and wandering eyes of the editors

Black Chicago...go...go...go As Chicago sits on the cusp of electing a Black woman as mayor for the first time in its history, the city is losing its Black population in droves. Chicago’s overall population is shrinking, but the rate of Chicago’s Black population loss is staggering. A Reader cover story pointed out that among the nation’s ten largest cities, only four are losing Black residents, but Chicago is losing Black residents at a rate of four to ten times higher than the other three (Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose). The Urban Institute predicts that by the year 2030, there will only be 665,000 Black Chicagoans left, down from a peak of 1.2 million. Among those with plans to leave the city or who have already left, factors contributing to their departure include the ever-increasing cost of living, taxes, weather, crime, and disinvestment in certain neighborhoods. It’s interesting that the Red Line extension to 130th Street, a decades-long pipe dream for the city’s Far South Side residents, is finally gaining steam at the same time as this is happening. A Chicago Reporter story from three years ago noted that one of the original reasons for the Red Line’s abrupt end at 95th Street was to prevent Black Chicagoans from following white flight into the suburbs. But now that many Black residents are leaving for Black suburbs, a way out is set to appear. The Grand Dilution A new analysis from the Better Government Association and Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism found that environmental oversight and enforcement plummeted during Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s tenure. Budget cuts and attrition depleted the city’s corps of environmental inspectors. As a result, enforcement actions dropped by over seventy percent, and inspections dropped by over half. Really, this should come as no surprise. In his first city budget, Emanuel canned the city’s Department of Environment and eliminated a hotline dedicated to environmental complaints. All this comes as Emanuel touts his eco-friendly credentials, like signing the Resilient Chicago plan to power all of Chicago’s buildings with one hundred percent renewable energy by 2035. Little Village Environmental Justice Organization executive director Kim Wasserman-Nieto identified a common theme: the Emanuel administration uses “highlevel resolutions as a tactic to avoid addressing equity, public health and environmental impacts in Chicago’s neighborhoods.” (See page 14 of the BGA/Medill report for more from Wasserman-Nieto.) It’s the old magician’s trick of misdirection—distract with the grand proposal while gutting the day-to-day bureaucracy. Both candidates in the mayoral runoff have promised to address environmental injustice and bring back the Department on Environment, another sign that the election was largely a repudiation of Emanuel and his tactics. Whomever we elect on April 2, it’s high time for everyone—from journalists to residents to City Council—to start ignoring the distractions and get down to the work of holding the city accountable for keeping its residents healthy.

IN THIS ISSUE touring jackson park’s future

Impressive, but not exactly parklike. sam joyce............................................5 an education in city planning

“That’s what we aim to do as teachers, take our learning and our impact beyond the classroom.” adam przybyl....................................7 by a hair

Four incumbents in tight contests barely scrape by without a runoff neil miller......................................10 a second chance

The law comes around to domestic violence survivors olivia stovicek................................13 tax breaks for hilco, diesel trucks for little village

“Who in their right mind is going to want to ride bikes in front of diesel trucks?” carly graf........................................14

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NATURE

Touring Jackson Park’s Future

With the Obama Presidential Center incoming, Jackson Park’s Advisory Council seeks to ease concerns about a beloved park BY SAM JOYCE

he planned Obama Presidential Center (OPC) in Jackson Park has drawn praise and criticism from the beginning. Proponents argue it will bring jobs and spark economic development in Woodlawn, with the Obama Foundation estimating that, over ten years, the OPC will generate $2.1 billion in additional income for South Side business owners. But critics of the center, led by the Obama Community Benefits Agreement Coalition, argue that a legally binding agreement is needed to ensure that influx goes to supporting residents, rather than displacing them. During a tour of the park organized by the Jackson Park Advisory Council ( JPAC) on Saturday, however, those economic consequences were far from the center of the discussion. Apart from a passing mention of economic development in Woodlawn, JPAC president Louise McCurry focused the tour on the physical landscape of the park and how the OPC would change it. ( JPAC is officially neutral on the project, though McCurry is a public supporter.) These changes have been the subject of a federal lawsuit filed by Protect Our Parks, an environmental group that opposes the transfer of public parkland to a private foundation. Last month, a judge allowed the lawsuit to proceed on “public trust” grounds, with a final ruling expected in a few months. The tour was part of a broader day of programming hosted by JPAC at the Jackson Park Fieldhouse as part of the One Earth Film Festival. The main event was a tenth anniversary screening of Home, the first environmental documentary composed entirely of aerial photographs. An “Action Fair” accompanied the film, with representatives from local groups like the Shedd Aquarium and the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference discussing opportunities to get involved

with their organizations. The tour began at the fieldhouse and moved north to a fenced-off site previously home to two baseball fields. The site is intended for a new track and field, but construction is currently on hold pending federal reviews of the project that are required since Jackson Park is a landmark site. The new field is essential, McCurry explained, because the existing field uses artificial turf. While the turf field is green year-round, it also has a lifespan of about ten years before it wears out; since the Jackson Park field was installed in 2011, it is nearly due for a replacement. The new track, McCurry claimed, was just thirty-five hours from completion when the order came to stop construction, leaving Jackson Park down two baseball fields but without a new track to show for it. “We need all the letters of support we can get,” she said. At the Action Fair, South Side Neighbors for Hope, an advocacy group formed to support the center’s construction, had just such a letter printed on a large poster board, with visitors encouraged to sign on. Several trees along the route appeared to be in rough shape, offering McCurry an opportunity to discuss both JPAC’s work and the benefits of the OPC. The original design for the park, designed by famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, called for stately rows of American elms, along with a diverse array of black, red, and white ash trees. The introduction of invasive fungi and beetles, such as Dutch elm disease and the emerald ash borer, devastated these trees. As part of their work, the Obama Foundation has pledged to plant four hundred new trees in the park. In the meantime, JPAC’s TreeKeepers program works to maintain the park’s current trees. TreeKeepers go through an eight-day training course provided by Openlands,

a nonprofit conservation group, studying pruning, mulching, common tree pests, and all the other knowledge required to keep urban trees healthy. JPAC currently has seven certified TreeKeepers among its volunteers, and a table at the Action Fair offered information about getting involved with the program. Beyond trees, however, one of the major changes the center will bring is the closure of Cornell Drive through Jackson Park. Many drivers use Cornell to get from Lake Shore Drive to the Chicago Skyway, effectively turning the road into a six-lane highway through the park. Closing Cornell would allow joggers and cyclists to traverse the park without having to dodge traffic. The highway also separates several of the park’s baseball fields from the closest bathrooms. McCurry said three children had been killed by drivers along the road, citing safety as the main reason to support closing Cornell— and, in a more lighthearted tone, pointed out that the OPC would also add a substantial number of bathrooms to the park. McCurry brought along a poster displaying the changes the OPC would bring. The center’s site, according to the poster, was only 3.5 percent of Jackson Park, and eighty-seven percent of that would end up as parkland. Of the remainder, two thirds of the center’s buildings are planned to have publicly accessible green roofs, meaning the center would only take up 0.16 percent of the park’s green space. In return, the logic went, the park would have more trees, a new track and field, and a safer environment for pedestrians. (Many critics have pointed out, in response to this line of thinking, that no amount of publicly accessible green space actually makes up for the loss of public parkland to a privately run facility.) The highlight of the tour came near the end, when Casimiro Peña, an organizer with

the Obama Foundation, passed around a virtual reality headset. He told tour attendees that this was the first time community members were able to use the headsets to see the proposed design of the OPC campus plaza, including the museum, forum and library. In an email, a spokesperson for the Obama Foundation said the foundation “looks forward to integrating virtual reality and augmented reality technologies into our public engagement efforts.” While providing no specific details about future events, the spokesperson promised that the foundation is “eager to share these experiences with our neighbors in Woodlawn, South Shore, and Washington Park at upcoming community events.” Standing on the planned site of the OPC, tour attendees could see exactly what it would look like after construction finished. The rendering put the viewer in the center of the plaza, looking up at the monumental museum tower. Impressive, but not exactly parklike. Turning around, however, revealed the green roofs of the forum and library, a reassurance that the project likely won’t end up destroying a treasured park. ¬ Sam Joyce is a contributing editor at the Weekly and the director of fact-checking. He last wrote for the Weekly about Gavin Van Horn’s new book, The Way of Coyote: Shared Journeys in the Urban Wilds.

MARCH 6, 2019 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 5

EDUCATION

An Education in City Planning

Students at Lindblom Math and Science Academy make no small plans for improving their city BY ADAM PRZYBYL

t Lindblom Math and Science Academy, a selective enrollment school in Englewood, a new cohort of urban planners is on the rise. For the past few months, students taking Honors Human Geography have been investigating the issues facing their neighborhoods and designing projects aimed at addressing them. Three Wednesdays ago, on February 13, seventy students presented their work— podcasts, diagrams, colorful cardboard cutouts—to each other, more students from the school, and architects and urban planners.

One student, twelfth grader Aalyah Patton, focused on food access after noticing that a one-mile radius in Bronzeville contained three McDonald’s franchises. She said many of her friends liked going to Panera Bread, which has a wider variety of salads, soups, and sandwiches than McDonald’s. For her project, Aalyah planned a Panera Bread to replace a McDonald’s near Mercy Hospital, strategically close to the McCormick Center to catch convention attendees. For her presentation, she built a Panera Bread out of cardboard, featuring a drive-through and an upstairs arcade where

parents could take their children. A ninth grader noted that there weren’t many places for kids and teens to hang out in her neighborhood of Calumet Heights. Children make up nearly twenty percent of the population in Calumet Heights, yet there are no parks or other spaces for kids and teens to spend, as she put it, “healthy leisure time.” For her project, she planned to turn the vacant Buckingham Special Education Center at 92nd Street and Phillips Avenue, which was closed in 2013 as part of Mayor Emanuel’s fifty school closures, into a community center with basketball and

volleyball courts, table tennis, and ongoing activities such as cooking classes. She printed out pictures from Google Earth as well as ones she took and glued them onto a cardboard design.

tudents began brainstorming for their projects in December. In addition to the visual display, each student had to draft a persuasive essay that made the case for their proposal using concepts from class. “They had to connect…vocabulary and ideas like density, concentration, scale, industry, migration,” said Teddy Kent,

The Midwest’s Premier Environmental Film Festival

Through Sunday, March 10 at multiple South Side locations

Reserve tickets at

oneearthfilmfest.org MARCH 6, 2019 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 7

EDUCATION

one of the Honors Human Geography teachers. “Also contemporary urban issues like gentrification, decentralization, deindustrialization.” Some students chose to tackle the big topics—in one case, climate change. Taylah Whitmore, a ninth grader, knew she wanted to address something important and climate change had been in the news lately. With her project, she decided Chicago should play a part in advancing renewable energy by placing windmills in the suburbs or at the outer edges of the city and solar panels on the roofs of large commercial buildings. Her presentation was one of the more visually striking ones—Taylah decorated it with bright red and yellow feathers (“to make it pretty”) and placed pebbles around a corner

used architectural drafting programs, like SketchUp, to create designs and blueprints. While there wasn’t classroom time to learn how to use those types of programs—“it’s really time consuming and not everyone was going in that direction,” said Kent—those that did “taught themselves brand new skills, a difficult to learn program, created a 3D model…the results were amazing.” One application of that was in ninth grader Sandra Varona’s Blackstone Barks project, a combined dog park and veterinary clinic that would be built on a vacant lot in South Shore. Sandra, who has several dogs, explained that the South Side, and especially her South Shore neighborhood, have far fewer dog parks and veterinary clinics than the North Side. (Apart from the unofficial

“Adolescents have a million ideas. We can inspire someone to change something.” painted blue to symbolize the lake. Others went local. Carter Hudson, another ninth grader, wanted to do something about the #50 Damen bus, which he takes to get home from school every day. Most days either the bus is late or, if he just happens to miss it, the next one won’t come for another fifteen to twenty minutes. He proposed a dedicated bus lane on Damen that would help the bus avoid traffic and hopefully make it arrive more regularly and on time. Ninth grader Cameron Foster’s project looked into finding ways to bring more attention and events to the underutilized, City Colleges-owned Harold Washington Cultural Center. Cameron, who passes by the center every day to and from school, noted that for a space that large and prominent, there were relatively few events and activities. He envisioned posting flyers in surrounding businesses on 47th Street promoting concerts, plays, and other events at the center while simultaneously displaying signs from those businesses at the center, benefiting everyone on that stretch of 47th. (That same day, the Weekly ran a cover story looking into the history and underutilization of the South Shore Cultural Center.) While Kent and Ian Brannigan,the other geography teacher, offered some guidance throughout the assignment, students had the freedom to experiment with how they were going to approach their projects. Some 8 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

¬ MARCH 6, 2019

Jackson Bark, which would be destroyed by the planned Tiger Woods-designed golf course, the South Side has no existing dog parks, but several in construction.) The dog park would contain small tunnels, baths and water fountains for dogs, and would be located next to the clinic so that “people don’t have to travel far,” she said. Sandra designed the clinic in SketchUp, complete with a surgery room, a waiting room, and a therapy room. She even planned out the number of attending surgeons at the clinic—six. Kent and Brannigan invited architects and urban planners to come to class in December and lead students in workshops on how to plan a project and transition from the planning stages to seeing it through. “Their focuses were different depending on what their specialty was,” said Kent. “We had somebody from [Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning], a couple people that work at their own architecture firms. We had one person who leads an After School Matters architecture and design program.” Some of those architects and urban planners came back to attend the fair and asked students about their projects. “They were all very scared of the presentation part but I think a lot of them are grateful to be able to share,” said Kent. “This is where it’s meaningful, right? You turn in something, I grade it, it doesn’t necessarily see the light of day. But when you’re talking to people who think about this on an everyday basis, your

ideas might then go on to influence and inform the work that they do. [That’s] what we aim to do as teachers, take our learning and our impact beyond the classroom.”

his was the second year in a row that students taking Honors Human Geography at Lindblom made projects like these, said Kent. Since this is also his second year at Lindblom, he couldn’t speak for himself, but noted in an email that Brannigan’s students have gone on to work in architecture and urban planning, including at the Chicago Architecture Center, or win the Newhouse Architecture and Design Competition. Students seemed to appreciate the opportunity to learn about the issues facing their neighborhoods and find ways to address them. “We’re the best generation for this,” said Aalyah, who designed the Panera Bread, “because we know what we want.” “Adolescents have a million ideas,” said the ninth grader from Calumet Heights. “We can inspire someone to change something.” “The governor and mayor, they don’t pay attention to small details that have a big impact,” Sandra of Blackstone Barks said. “Urban planning is a way to find solutions that work for everybody.” Students weren’t the only ones with takeaways from the project. “There’s sometimes a move to put down the younger generations as being self-centered and being technology obsessed. Ultimately, these projects show how engaged [they are] and how kids really care about making Chicago, their neighborhood, the world a better place,” said Kent. “I feel really blessed…to get some diverse voices in the room together and to hear about each other’s ideas and learn from [them],” he added. “I’m always surprised by what the students choose to talk about in their projects and where they get their inspiration and what some of their ideas are.” Lindblom, one of eleven selective enrollment high schools in Chicago, takes in students from around the city, though most come from the South Side. “There are very few spaces in Chicago… where you get a bunch of people in a room together who are talking about ways to make their neighborhoods and Chicago better, that represent almost every neighborhood, at least on the South Side of the city,” said Kent. “Can City Hall even say they have these sorts of discussions and conversations

and proposals put forth?” Students seemed satisfied with the assignment, and a few even expressed interest in doing more with urban planning in the future or addressing the issues they had investigated. “At first it was a lot of work,” said Jonathan Evans, who designed a community college in Minecraft. “But it was fun to do and I’d like to do more.” “It was worth it,” said Taylah, who built the windmills and solar panels. “I learned a lot, got to decorate and present—and now I’ll even be in an article!” ¬ Adam Przybyl is the Weekly’s editor-in-chief. He last interviewed 14th Ward aldermanic candidate Jaime Guzmán.

From family to friends: you want to be here.

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Photo: Logan Center Family Day Festival, courtesy of Logan Center Community Arts.

POLITICS

By a Hair

Four incumbents in tight contests barely scrape by without a runoff BY NEIL MILLER

fter last week’s citywide election, much was made of the fact that several City Council incumbents had been ousted—in some cases quite unceremoniously—from their posts. (Maria Hadden, for instance, defeated Joe Moore by twenty-seven percent in the northernmost 49th Ward.) On the South Side, however, sitting aldermen fared a little better. Most of those who will go to a runoff, like Leslie Hairston (5th) and Raymond Lopez (15th), look as if they’ll win comfortably in the April follow-up election; in fact, only Toni Foulkes (16th) trailed a challenger in the initial round of voting. But despite relatively successful end results, even some long-time aldermen only scraped through to reelection by the skin of their teeth. Here, the Weekly analyzes four close races in which the incumbent prevailed. Despite being accused of pressuring a local Burger King to hire his law firm to handle the restaurant’s property taxes, Alderman Ed Burke was re-elected last Tuesday in the 14th ward on Chicago’s Southwest Side. Burke won support from across the predominantly Latinx ward, as he got fewer votes than civil engineer Tanya Patiño in only four precincts. However, Burke’s success can likely be chalked up to his support in the Garfield Ridge tail: the five westernmost precincts had an average turnout of fifty-one percent, compared to thirty-four percent for the whole ward, and seventy percent of these voters supported Burke. The Garfield Ridge tail of the ward is also predominantly white; Patiño accused Burke of sending racist mailers to residents there in the week leading up to the election. Though Congressman Jesús "Chuy" García had endorsed Patiño, the low turnout in the east of the ward raises questions about García’s ability to draw supporters to the polls. Edward Burke: 3,897 votes, 54.26% Tanya Patiño: 2,109 votes, 29.37% Jaime Guzmán: 1,176 votes, 16.37% NEIL MILLER

Think your vote doesn’t count? At press time, Alderman Roderick Sawyer was avoiding a runoff by just four votes. Sawyer lives in Park Manor, inside the Greater Grand Crossing community area, and his support among the fortyfour percent of the ward’s voters that live in the area is currently keeping him with a slim ward-wide majority. Deborah Foster-Bonner, an accountant and block club president, and Richard Wooten, a Chicago police officer and pastor, both won their home precincts in Chatham, home to roughly thirty-seven percent of the ward’s voters. Roughly seventeen percent of votes in the February election came from precincts in Englewood or West Englewood, with smaller portions from Auburn Gresham and the southern tip of Woodlawn. Roderick Sawyer: 5,020 votes, 50.02% Deborah Foster-Bonner: 3,132 votes, 31.21% Richard Wooten: 1,884 votes, 18.77%

NEIL MILLER

10 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

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POLITICS

Carrie Austin has held this far South Side seat since 1994, and won another four years by defeating attorney Preston Brown Jr. Austin, an ally of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, is chair of the City Council’s Budget Committee. Her margin of victory has been steadily decreasing since 2003, hitting a new low this year. West Pullman is the largest neighborhood in the ward, home to roughly thirty-two percent of voters in this election. Austin lives in Roseland, as do approximately a quarter of the ward’s voters. Morgan Park (twenty-two percent) and Washington Heights (twenty-one percent), where Brown lives, round out the ward. Carrie Austin: 6,284 votes, 54.35% Preston Brown Jr.: 5,278 votes, 45.65%

NEIL MILLER

As of writing, Alderman George Cardenas appears to have avoided a runoff and won his fifth term: with late-arriving mail ballots and votes for write-in candidates still to be counted, Cardenas has thirty-eight more votes than his challengers combined. Cardenas won the most votes in all but one precinct. José Rico, an executive at United Way of Metro Chicago, received a plurality in one precinct in Little Village, his home neighborhood. Union organizer Pete DeMay finished second, with strong support in his McKinley Park neighborhood. Martha Rangel, an early childhood educator about whom little was known or expected, finished not far behind Rico. Roughly forty-one percent of voters in last week’s election live in McKinley Park, more than the quarter that live in the South Lawndale community area, which includes Little Village. A third of voters in the February election live in the Brighton Park section of the ward, where Cardenas averaged fifty-six percent support. ¬ George Cardenas: 2,965 votes, 50.32% Pete DeMay: 1,008 votes, 17.11% José Rico: 1,000 votes, 16.97% March Yerania Rangel: 919 votes, 15.60%

NEIL MILLER

Neil Miller is a statistician and social services researcher. He is currently living in Moscow. In his last piece for the Weekly, he used election results from 2015 to analyze how aldermanic candidates could win in several key wards.

MARCH 6, 2019 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 11

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Photo: The Seagull. Photo: Matthew Gregory Hollis, courtesy of UChicago Theater and Performing Studies (TAPS)

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

A Second Chance

A recent change in Illinois law establishes domestic violence as mitigating factor in sentencing BY OLIVIA STOVICEK Willette Benford

Injustice Watch is a non-partisan, not-forprofit, multimedia journalism organization that conducts in-depth research exposing institutional failures that obstruct justice and equality. Reprinted with permission.

illette Benford spent twentyfour years in prison, convicted of murder after she ran over Patricia Phillips in 1995. Benford said the crime occurred as she fled the anger of her girlfriend, whom she contended had abused her for most of the previous two years. But based on her trial attorney’s advice that it might prejudice the jurors, the defense never presented evidence of the many months of domestic violence she experienced. “Back then, homophobia was more prevalent than it is now,” Benford said in a recent interview. “He said there were certain things that we shouldn’t talk about. So we didn’t talk about it.” But on February 6, Benford walked out of prison, a year shaved from the time she would have served with her original sentence. She was the first person to be granted a new sentencing hearing following a recent change in Illinois law that establishes domestic violence as a mitigating factor to be considered in sentencing. At least thirty-four women statewide have petitioned for resentencing since the start of 2016, when the domestic violence amendment took effect. The amendment both impacts future cases and provides a limited opportunity for resentencing of prisoners who, like Benford, had not raised their experience of domestic violence when they originally were sentenced. After the amendment was passed, attorney Alexandra Hunstein, then of Cabrini-Green Legal Aid, spearheaded an effort by a coalition of advocates to

help incarcerated women file petitions for resentencing. Prosecutors in Cook County initially opposed the petitions filed there across the board, based in part on their legal interpretation that blocked anyone convicted more than two years earlier from being eligible for relief. But in August, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Arthur Hill ruled against the prosecutors, interpreting the statute to mean any convicted defendants were eligible who brought petitions for relief within two years of when the amendment took effect. Following Hill’s ruling, advocates brought concerns to executive staff in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, arguing that prosecutors’ interpretation ignored the intent of the law and prevented almost anyone from using it, no matter the merits of a case. “I can’t imagine that the legislature wanted to pass an amendment to a statute that nobody could really use,” said attorney Rachel White-Domain, who represents incarcerated domestic violence survivors as an Equal Justice Works Fellow at Cabrini Green Legal Aid (CGLA). The office has since reversed course and taken steps to support petitions on behalf of defendants whose experiences of domestic violence went unmentioned at sentencing. Prosecutors have stopped arguing that petitions from survivors convicted more than two years before are time-barred, and have in some cases negotiated with defense attorneys to reduce sentences, including agreeing to a time-served sentence for Benford once she had served twenty-four years. “We talked internally and decided that in the best interest of justice, and looking at these cases with a critical eye towards receiving the best outcomes, that we would change our policy and do a broader review,”

said Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. Foxx said that trial prosecutors had taken a contrary position because “our priorities were different. But our willingness to engage, their willingness to engage with us, made this a priority where it might not have been without that level of advocacy. And we accept that, we’re grateful for it. It makes us better at what we do.” White-Domain called the reversal “a move by the State’s Attorney’s Office that’s kind of unheard of,” adding, “We hope that the office will continue to be willing to work with us to look at the merits of the cases and engage with us in negotiations, and ultimately, that this will result in more survivors we represent being freed.” The Illinois Attorney General, like the State’s Attorney, has withdrawn opposition to granting relief in one case, a change that occurred soon after Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul came into office in mid-January. A state senator before his election last November, Raoul was a chief sponsor of the domestic violence amendment. Still, other Illinois prosecutors have not adopted the more expansive interpretation. “We’ll still need to battle it out, especially in counties other than Cook,” said White-Domain. Foxx said she meets regularly with domestic violence advocates, and the new position on the amendment reflects her office’s broader efforts to take issues surrounding domestic violence seriously. She cited a pilot program to reduce the number of individuals to whom survivors must repeat their stories of trauma, the creation of a specific sexual assault and domestic violence track for assistant state’s attorneys, and efforts to consider domestic violence in charging decisions. Jennifer Gonzalez, chief of the Sex

ELLEN HAO

Crimes and Domestic Violence Bureau, said “one of the biggest hurdles” in charging cases appropriately has been that prosecutors often do not know the defendant’s side of the story, and as a result, need to be extra vigilant about the possibility of abuse. Gonzalez said she has been working closely with the public defender’s office, encouraging them to bring cases involving domestic violence to her attention. “Even really small, nonviolent offenses often have domestic violence at their root,” said Gail T. Smith, an attorney who has been active in organizations on behalf of domestic violence victims who are criminally charged. She noted that in more serious cases, survivors are often poorly served by self-defense law. “The legal model for that is a bar fight…. That has very little resemblance to what people go through in domestic violence,” she said. “Nationwide, the system has not taken into account what it is to have your life under threat every day.” Advocates say that the amendment is only a first step, and said they will push for more changes, including extending the time limit imposed on filing petitions. “Finality should not trump justice,” said Margaret Byrne, co-director of the Illinois Clemency Project for Battered Women, pointing out many whom the law was intended to benefit never heard of it in time. “To tell them that small window of opportunity is closed now, forever? It makes people hopeless,” Benford said. “Some people don’t have the help I had.” ¬ Olivia Stovicek is a senior editor at the Weekly and a former reporting fellow for Injustice Watch. Her last piece for the Weekly was an interview with 3rd Ward aldermanic candidate Alexandria Willis. MARCH 6, 2019 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 13

POLITICS

Tax Breaks for Hilco, Diesel Trucks for Little Village

Aldermen vote to save an industrial developer some $20 million BY CARLY GRAF

ast Friday, City Council’s Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development voted to recommend that industrial developer Hilco receive a $19.7 million tax break from the Cook County Assessor’s Office for its controversial redevelopment plan for the former Crawford Generating Station in Little Village. The meeting was hastily scheduled—chairman Proco Joe Moreno didn’t file an agenda with the City Clerk’s office until after business hours on Wednesday. (Moreno was ousted by his 1st Ward constituents in last week’s election; his office did not respond to a request for comment about how the meeting was scheduled.) The proposed tax break, which will likely be considered and passed by the full City Council at its meeting next Wednesday, would allow the property to be assessed at ten percent of its market value for the first ten years, fifteen percent in the eleventh year, and twenty percent in the twelfth year. Industrial properties are generally assessed at twenty-five percent of their market value without this break. Hilco bought the property, located in the Little Village Industrial Corridor, in 2017, and plans to spend $100 million to create an approximately one-million square foot distribution center, a plan approved by the Plan Commission over community objections in September. The coal-fired Crawford plant was shut down in 2012 after a long fight with residents and environmental justice advocates over pollution, air quality, and related illnesses like asthma. That same year, Mayor Rahm Emanuel appointed a task force to present a suggested plan for the 14 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

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site and its counterpart in Pilsen, the Fisk Generating Station. But, according to Kim WassermanNieto, executive director of the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), the city stopped investing in local priorities years ago. “The task force was just the city’s cover to say that this is a community process,” she said. “[22nd Ward Alderman Ricardo Muñoz] didn’t attend one of the meetings, nor did anyone in his office.” Hilco plans to demolish the now-vacant Crawford building and replace it with a warehouse-style logistics center for items bought online. Diesel-fueled trucks will transport goods to and from the warehouse. Local activists who fought for the plant’s closure worry these trucks pose a renewed threat to air quality—sooty diesel exhaust replacing coal ash. “The community already had a plan for this site,” said José Acosta, the environmental planning research organizer for LVEJO. “It included greenhouse development, small business incubation, a commercial kitchen, renewable energy development, and cooperative models of development that create real wealth for the community.” Another concern of grassroots activists is the historically poor treatment of warehouse employees and Hilco’s refusal to guarantee living wages for all its employees. According to Hilco’s online fact sheet, the project will provide approximately 360 construction and project labor jobs, and 178 permanent jobs. Those that testified in support of Hilco at the meeting, like representatives of the Little Village Chamber of Commerce, noted the arrival of skilled labor as a significant economic

opportunity for the neighborhood. Activists argue that the priority shouldn’t be to bring just any job into the neighborhood. Instead, they want Hilco, and any tenant that leases the center, to provide workers with a living wage and humane treatment. According to WassermanNieto, Hilco has yet to make any such commitments. Warehouse Workers for Justice, a Chicago-based advocacy group that fights for the well-being of warehouse employees and their families, submitted a statement Friday calling on City Council to mandate guarantees from Hilco on job quality, proper community input, and air quality consideration. “If these issues can’t be addressed, the council should just say no to Hilco,” the letter read. Friday’s meeting was the second time the Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development met to discuss the tax break. Last month, a handful of aldermen requested a vote delay after residents testified to a lack of community engagement in the process. Since then, tensions have only increased as activists have interpreted Hilco’s actions, like renaming the project to Exchange 55, as public relations efforts intended to deflect from real conversation about how best to serve neighbors. “The history and impact of this site is very prominent, and Hilco knows that it’s buying that history,” said WassermanNieto. “They think that by doing this whole marketing push, that history is somehow absolved. You can’t remarket your way out of this.” Perhaps as part of those efforts, Hilco

announced the launch last month of an annual, all-expenses-paid scholarship program for two qualified Little Village residents to pursue a two-year skilled trade degree at the City Colleges of Chicago. Unlike other neighborhood battles won by LVEJO—such as the transformation of a toxic brownfield into La Villita Park—the Crawford site was never publicly owned land, limiting the influence of local groups who oppose the development. “We recognize that we have no legal claims to this land,” Wasserman-Nieto said. “But we were led to believe [by Mayor Rahm Emanuel] whichever company bought this property would be expected to engage with the community and abide by our task force recommendations as much as possible.” One such example Wasserman-Nieto cited was bike lanes: Hilco’s mock-up includes bike lanes in front of the warehouse. Wasserman-Nieto argued that it’s a halfhearted attempt to prove they’re listening to residents. “Who in their right mind is going to want to ride bikes in front of diesel trucks?” she asked. Currently, Hilco’s slated to continue demolition and remediation throughout

POLITICS

early 2019, and complete the project by early 2020. At Friday’s meeting, the remediation portion of this process fell under scrutiny. Hilco had promised to take a number of steps during this phase to mitigate existing environmental damage and prevent any additional damage. Measures include reusing concrete from the demolition as backfill, installing electric charging stations and solar panels, planting over 600 trees, and spending additional funds on general site cleanup. However, the Illinois EPA sent a letter to Hilco in October 2018 that disapproved of its remediation report and cited fifteen deficiencies in its efforts. Ryan Hartley, senior environmental engineer with V3 companies, the firm that prepared the remediation report, said that such back-and-forth is common during the state EPA’s process, which Hilco volunteered to subject itself to, and that the concerns have been resolved over the last few months. “We’re in good standing with the state EPA,” Hartley said in his testimony to the committee. “They’ve thanked us for creating a document library and the other community involvement we’ve had.” Hartley read from an email he claimed was from the Illinois EPA; when reached for comment Monday, a spokesperson for the agency was unable to confirm or deny whether the issues have been resolved by press time. But environmental groups, like LVEJO and the Pilsen Alliance, view the letter as evidence that Hilco’s commitment to remediation that protects environmental and human health should be questioned. After about an hour of back-and-forth testimony at last week’s committee meeting, Muñoz—who was arrested in December on domestic battery charges and has spent much of the time since then in rehab—appeared exasperated, and reminded everyone of his aldermanic privilege. “I don’t mean to cut anybody off, but for crying out loud, people, this is a local matter,” Muñoz said, echoing comments made by 37th Ward Alderman Emma Mitts to critics of the police academy plan in West Garfield Park. The resolution passed shortly thereafter, with just three aldermen— Ameya Pawar (47th), Milly Santiago (31st), and Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th)—voting against it. Muñoz, who did not run for reelection after twenty-six years on City Council, received $3,000 from the CEO of Hilco’s redevelopment arm last year, according to

ERIC ALLIX ROGERS

state campaign finance filings. His office, along with Hilco, did not respond to requests for comment. Michael Rodríguez, his protégé who easily bested three other candidates vying to replace him, told the Energy News Network and Yollocalli Arts Reach last month that, though he is in favor of “good paying jobs” in Little Village, he would support “a community process to determine what [the Crawford site] should become.” His campaign also did not respond to a Weekly request for comment. ¬ Carly is a graduate student at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, where she’s specializing in social justice and investigative reporting. Prior to that, she worked at Outside magazine in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She loves trail running, hoppy IPAs, and mountains.

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EVENTS

BULLETIN Public Newsroom: The Fundamentals of Fact-Checking Build Coffee, 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. Thursday, March 7, 6pm–8pm. Free. bit.ly/ FactCheckingPublicNewsroom Weekly editor-in-chief Adam Przybyl will lead this Public Newsroom, co-hosted by City Bureau, about how to go about factchecking an article, podcast episode, book, or any other work. Made possible by a grant from the PEN America Press Freedom Incentive Fund. (Sam Stecklow)

Book Talk: Flint Taylor, The Torture Machine Seminary Co-op, 5751 S. Woodlawn Ave. Thursday, March 7, 6pm–7pm. Free. semcoop.com Flint Taylor, civil rights attorney and author of The Torture Machine: Racism and Police Violence in Chicago, will be joined in conversation by police torture survivors Darrell Cannon and Anthony Holmes. A Q&A and book-signing will follow. (Roderick Sawyer)

Book Talk: Elizabeth ToddBreland, A Political Education U of C Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture, 5733 S. University Ave. Thursday, March 7, 6pm–7:30pm. Free. bit.ly/ ElizabethToddBrelandTalk UIC history professor Elizabeth ToddBreland will discuss her new book, A Political Education, which is on the history of teacher organizing and Black politics in Chicago, with University of Chicago professor and Black Youth Project founder Cathy Cohen. (Sam Stecklow)

Midway Defective Window Recipients Community Update West Lawn Park, 4233 W. 65th St. Monday, March 11, 6:30pm–9:30pm. Free. bit.ly/ MidwayWindowsMarch2019Update Homeowners in the Midway area who have been organizing around defective windows that give off a burning plastic smell when sunlight hits them, that were originally provided by the Chicago Department of Aviation, are holding a community meeting to update other residents about progress 16 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

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they have made in lobbying the city to replace all the allegedly defective windows it installed. (Sam Stecklow)

Gateway/One Central Station Development Town Hall McCormick Place West Building, rm. W184, 2301 S. Indiana Ave. Wednesday, March 13, 6pm–8pm. Free. bit.ly/ GatewayProjectTownHall The powerful Prairie District Neighborhood Alliance and Alderman Pat Dowell co-host this community town hall regarding the latest mega-development to be proposed in the South Loop: a dense mixed-use project to be developed on the same site as the George Lucas Museum was supposed to, just south of Soldier Field. Neither the developer nor the alderman have said much about this publicly, so if you live in the area, this might be the first opportunity to learn about the plans. (Sam Stecklow)

Chicago Sun-Times and AARP Community Forum DuSable Museum of African American History, 740 E. 56th Pl. Wednesday, March 13, 7pm–9pm. Free with registration. bit.ly/ SunTimesAARPDuSableForum Discuss the issues facing the city, and the city’s next mayor, with this Sun-Times and AARP panel consisting of columnists Mary Mitchell and Mark Brown, AARP state president Rosanna Marquez, and radio personality Maze Jackson. Become a more informed citizen, let your voice be heard, and then go vote (again)! (Sam Stecklow)

VISUAL ARTS She Who Has Sinned: Solo Exhibition by SAILA MOON Pilsen Outpost, 1637 W. 18th St. Opening reception on Friday, March 8, 6pm–10pm; artist talk Sunday, March 17, 5pm–7pm. bit. ly/SAILAMOON. Check out Saila Moon’s new body of work titled “She Who Has Sinned.” Her work explores Americanization, tradition, morals of organized religion, and their effects on her sense of womanhood. This show will run through March 31st. (Roderick Sawyer)

Turning In: Self-Portraits and Photography Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th St. Saturday, March 9, 2pm. Free and open to all. bit.ly/TurningInSelfPortraits How has photography changed the way we view ourselves? What constitutes the definition of a ‘self-portrait’? If questions like this have entered your mind in the age of heightened social media presence, slide by to this event and observe the work of the exhibit “Smart to the Core: Embodying the Self.” There will also be a panel including Antawan Byrd, Greg Foster-Rice, and Ellen Tani, moderated by Leslie M. Wilson. (Roderick Sawyer)

Viva La Mujer Decima Musa Private Events Venue, 1901 S. Loomis Ave. Saturday, March 9, 4pm–9pm. bit.ly/2UeDDaS. Support local artists at this art market highlighting female artists and small business owners. This evening will be full of music, art, Reiki sessions, and much more! As said by Viva La Mujer Chicago, “¡Esperamos verlos en la celebración!” (Roderick Sawyer)

Artist Tax Workshop Propeller Fund, 400 S. Peoria St. Tuesday, March 12, 6pm–7:30pm. Free. bit.ly/ ArtistTaxWorkshop. Led by Janet Ecklebarger and hosted by the Propeller Fund, this workshop will instruct artists on how to claim grants on their taxes, how to account for artwork sales, honoraria, and much more. Come to learn new information and ask questions on individualized circumstances. (Roderick Sawyer)

MUSIC WHPK’s Pictures and Sounds Experimental Station, 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. Friday, March 8, 6pm–9pm. Free. (773) 241-6044. experimentalstation.org At this perennial event from Hyde Park’s WHPK radio, sight and the sonic bleed together. Norman Long will read selections

from Ida B. Wells’s journalism, and “composer, clarinetist, singer & spiritual jazz soothsayer” Angel Bat Dawid will perform with her six-piece Brothahood ensemble, while animator Marvin Tate and visual artist Jonathan Woods construct visual art in real time. (Christopher Good)

Otro Ritmo Punk Night One City Tap, 3115 S. Archer Ave. Saturday, March 9, 9pm–3am. 21+. (773) 565-4777. onecitytap.com DJs Jack Splat, Mosca, and Heckhammer will bring bone-crushing distortion to One City Tap with the latest round of Otro Ritmo Punk Night. There’s no cover, but bring cash donations for Mujeres Latinas en Accion, a Latina community group that advocates for healthcare, housing, and reproductive rights. (Christopher Good)

March #bitbybit at DADS Digital Arts Demo Space, 2515 S. Archer Ave., Suite #2. Saturday, March 9, doors 8pm, show 9pm. $10. bit.ly/march-bitbybit #bitbybit—perhaps the most cyberpunk night on the South Side—provides a platform for a dizzying array of postinternet art and music. This round will bring chopped-up beats (Kite Splash), minimal house (Nonaa), J-pop breakcore (Bubblegum Octopus), chiptune hardcore (Watabou), and more, plus video DJs and vegan catering. (Christopher Good)

Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib — Go Ahead in the Rain Seminary Co-op Bookstore, 5751 S. Woodlawn Ave. Sunday, March 10, 3pm. Free. (773) 752-4381. semcoop.com The cover to Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib’s new book, Go Ahead in the Rain, declares it “a love letter to a group, a sound, and an era.” On Sunday, the writer and poet will discuss the subject of this love letter—A Tribe Called Quest—and their enduring impact on hip-hop, jazz, and Black music in America at large. (Christopher Good)

From architecture to design: you want to be here.

logancenter.uchicago.edu Logan Center for the Arts 773.702.ARTS 915 E 60th St loganUChicago

Photo: MODA Fashion Show, 2015, courtesy of MODA.

EVENTS

STAGE & SCREEN Cinema 53:Tested with Eve L. Ewing and Curtis Chin Harper Theater, 5328 S. Harper Ave. Thursday, March 7, Doors 6:45pm, screening and discussion 7pm–9:30pm. Free. Seating first come, first seated. graycenter.uchicago.edu Tested is the third in a three-part series of documentary films on the state of race, education and schools in America, presented by Cinema 53. The film poses the question, what constitutes a “good” school, and for whom? Join U of C sociologist, author, and former Weekly contributor Eve Ewing and director Curtis Chin in conversation, following the screening. (Nicole Bond)

In the Blood eta Creative Arts Foundation, 7558 S. South Chicago Ave. Friday, March 8–Sunday, March 31. Fridays and Saturdays, 8pm; Sundays, 3pm and 7:30pm; Industry Night Thursdays, 8pm. $35, $25 seniors, $15 students. (773) 752-3955. etacreativearts.org If you found yourself rooting for Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter, you will be riveted once again by Hester La Negrita (Nyajai Ellison) in a contemporary drama, written by Pulitzer Prize winner SuzanLori Parks and inspired by the classic novel. This production is directed by Aaron Reese Boseman of Pulse Theatre Company as part of eta’s Vagabond Theatre Series, and includes an original musical score by Paris Ray Dozier. (Nicole Bond)

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot University Church, 5655 S. University Ave. March 1–3 and March 8–10. Fridays and Saturdays, 7:30pm; Sundays, 2pm. $12, students and seniors $10. hydeparkcommunityplayers.org Set in a reimagined world somewhere between Heaven and Hell, the Hyde Park Community Players present a serious yet funny exploration of big questions and concepts, like: What is evil? Who decides who is a villain? Is there a conflict between divine mercy and human free will? And how does anyone make sense of it all? This is a Stephen Adly Guirgis play, directed by Leslie Halverson. (Nicole Bond) 18 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

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La Femme Dance Festival Louder Than A Bomb University Chicago State University, 9501 S. King Drive. Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing, Friday, March 8, 4pm–8pm. Cordell Reed Student Union Building, Saturday, March 9, 11am–7pm. This event is open to all. Suggested donation: $4 students, $6 adults. youngchicagoauthors.org Louder Than A Bomb (LTAB) is the largest annual youth poetry festival in Chicago (and the world!), and LTAB University is the festival’s two-day slam for poets between the ages of 18-25 (poets outside those ages who enrolled in college may also participate). Registration to participate has closed, but all are welcome to come and support the competition. LTAB finals will be held on Sunday, March 17, at the Auditorium Theater, 50 E. Ida B. Wells Drive, (formerly Congress Parkway). Doors open at 5pm. Tickets $20 adults, $10 students. (Nicole Bond)

If Beale Street Could Talk Doc Films, Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 E. 59th St. Saturday, March 9, 7pm and 9:30pm. Sunday, March 10, 4pm. $7 Tickets go on sale a half hour before each screening. (773) 702-8574 docfilms.uchicago.edu Barry Jenkins—director of the 2017 best picture, Moonlight—has turned the words of James Baldwin into stunning imagery to tell a poignant story of love, family, and sacrifice set in 1970s Harlem. This film was nominated for three Academy Awards, with Regina King winning for best supporting actress. (Nicole Bond)

FeminEssence Burlesque Green Line Performing Arts Center, 329 E. Garfield Blvd. Saturday, March 9, 7pm– 10pm. 21+. $15 advance, $20 door, $25 entry plus one drink. bit.ly/2XDrZZx Jon Pierce hosts a night of contemporary movement and spoken word, featuring Ayodele Drum and Dance. The performance is a celebration of Black femme sensuality, aimed at reminding women of color to embrace and love in the skin they’re in. (Nicole Bond)

Green Line Performing Arts Center, 329 E. Garfield Blvd. Friday March 15 & Saturday March 16, 7pm. $10. To reserve seats, visit http://bit.ly/2SFC5Fj This festival curated by Red Clay Dance Company, Flyground, and Catalyst Movmnt celebrates and showcases choreographic works created by women of Black/African Diaspora descent. Friday’s performance will include a post-show discussion with the choreographers. Saturday will feature a pre-show talk with curators and choreographers at 6pm and a closing night reception. (Nicole Bond)

FOOD & LAND Indoor Farmers Markets 61st Street Farmers Market: Experimental Station, 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. The second Saturday of every month, 9am–2pm. experimentalstation.org Pilsen Community Market: Honky Tonk BBQ, 1800 S. Racine Ave. Sundays, 11am– 3:30pm. facebook.com/pilsenmarket Plant Chicago Farmers Market: The Plant, 1400 W. 46th St. The first Saturday of each month, 11am–3pm. plantchicago.org Just because it’s cold doesn’t mean your need for fresh produce, chef demonstrations, and shopping with your neighbors is gone. This winter, the three above-listed markets are sticking around and moving indoors to make sure your needs are fulfilled. Each market offers slightly different pleasures, and all are worth making a regular habit. (Sam Stecklow)

One Earth Film Festival: March 1–10 The Guardians: Toman Library, Chicago Public Library. 2708 S. Pulaski Rd. Wednesday, March 6, 6pm–8pm. Free. The Superfood Chain: University of Chicago Lab School, Gordon Parks Assembly Hall, 5815 S. Kimbark Ave. Wednesday, March 6, 6pm–8pm. Free. Dreaming of a Vetter World: Beverly Arts Center, 2407 W. 111th St. Wednesday, March 6, 6:30pm–8:30pm. $6.

EVENTS

From the Ashes: University of Illinois at Chicago Student Center East, 750 S. Halsted St. Thursday, March 7, 5pm–8:30pm. Free. RiverBlue: University of Chicago Green Line Performing Arts Center, 329 E. Garfield Blvd. Thursday, March 7, 7pm–9pm. Free. Inventing Tomorrow: Namaste Charter School, 3737 S. Paulina St. Thursday, March 7, 6pm–8:30pm. Free. An American Ascent: Trinity United Church of Christ, 400 W. 95th St. Saturday, March 9, 5pm–7pm. Free.

season? On seed viability? Indoor container gardening? At the seventh annual conference of the beloved Chicago Community Gardening Association, expert gardeners and farmers will answer these questions, and more. Word to the wise: free soil testing will be available after lunch, so if you’re curious about heavy metal levels in your garden soil, bring a baggie of soil for an on-the-spot analysis by UofI researchers. (Emeline Posner)

The World Before Your Feet: Experimental Station, 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. Saturday, March 9, 6:30pm–9pm. Free. Register at bit.ly/OneEarthWBYF Every March, One Earth Film Festival puts on ten days worth of thought-provoking environmental films across the Chicagoland area, bringing local experts and organizers to most film screenings for dialogue. This year, choose from films about birds in New York’s Central Park, a family discovering the wilderness in their backyard, river conservation, and many, many more. (Emeline Posner)

Good Food Expo UIC Forum, 725 W. Roosevelt Rd. Trade show Friday, March 22, 8:30am–8:30pm; festival Saturday, March 23, 8:30am– 8:30pm. Trade show and reception $55, festival free. goodfoodexpo.org The Good Food movement is international, but its roots in Chicago are set deep: this year marks the fifteenth annual Good Food Expo. The festival, which is part paid-entrance trade show and part free festival, brings together regional farmers, bakers, brewers researchers, health care providers, and environmental activists for panels, workshops, information booths, and demonstrations. Family friendly. (Emeline Posner)

CCGA 7th Annual Conference: Gardening & Adapting to a Changing Climate Breakthrough FamilyPlex, 3219 W. Carroll Ave. Saturday, March 30, 9am–2:15pm. $25; $15 for students and children under 18. Meals included. bit.ly/2SIJynb Harboring questions about how the impact of climate change on the growing MARCH 6, 2019 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 19

We canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t wait to see you here.

logancenter.uchicago.edu Logan Center for the Arts 773.702.ARTS 915 E 60th St loganUChicago

Photo: Logan Center at the University of Chicago, by Tom Rossiter.