March 23, 2023

FIGH T ING FOR YOUR KIDS LIKE THEY ’RE OUR KIDS . CARE.

A parent will do anything for their sick child. So will we. Comer Children’s Hospital is dedicated to addressing the full spectrum of patient care needs — from common childhood illnesses to the most daunting medical challenges. We offer each the latest treatments and clinical breakthroughs because every child deserves to grow up healthy, happy, and strong.

To learn more, visit UChicagoMedicine.o rg /Comer

SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

The South Side Weekly is an independent non-profit newspaper by and for the South Side of Chicago. We provide high-quality, critical arts and public interest coverage, and equip and develop journalists, artists, photographers, and mediamakers of all backgrounds.

Volume 10, Issue 13

Editor-in-Chief Jacqueline Serrato

Managing Editor

Senior Editors

IN CHICAGO

March sees successful labor organizing efforts

IN THIS ISSUE

vicki street is in her own lane

Adam Przybyl

Martha Bayne

Christopher Good

Olivia Stovicek

Sam Stecklow

Alma Campos

Section Editors

Sky Patterson

Wendy Wei

Jocelyn Martínez-Rosales

Community Builder Chima Ikoro

Contributing Editors

Jocelyn Vega

Francisco Ramírez Pinedo

Scott Pemberton

Visuals Editor Bridget Killian

Deputy Visuals Editor Shane Tolentino

Staff Illustrators

Mell Montezuma

Shane Tolentino

Director of Fact Checking: Sky Patterson

Fact Checkers: Grace Del Vecchio

Eliza Billingham

Kate Linderman

Alani Oyola

Jessica Nalupta

Layout Editor Tony Zralka

Special Projects Coordinator

After months of negotiations and multiple walkouts that interrupted the concession stands at United Center during important games like the Big Ten basketball tournament, hundreds of stadium employees with Unite Here Local 1 scored a contract that includes a pension plan, paid parental leave, additional paid holidays, and raises their wages by more than $2 an hour. Also, more than 1,500 University of Chicago graduate students voted to unionize with the electrical workers union (UE) to guarantee—and increase—pay for all U of C graduate workers, following in the steps of Northwestern University grad students earlier this year. Additionally, Field Museum employees voted to unionize its approximately 300 employees with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31.

NASCAR pushes Taste of Chicago to September

The Taste of Chicago is slated for September this year, despite normally taking place in the summer. This news broke once Chicagoans on social media noticed that one of the country’s largest food festivals was not on Grant Park’s summer schedule. Instead, the park will be hosting NASCAR’s Street Race which, while only spanning a weekend, will take six weeks to set up and tear down. Grant Park will also host Lollapalooza and Sueños Music Festival, leaving little room for The Taste. Similarly to last year, the City will host Taste of Chicago pop-ups in Marquette, Pullman, and Humboldt parks.

The news has received mixed reactions, with some Chicagoans expressing interest in the changes being made to The Taste in recent years, while others disagreed. “Having the Taste of Chicago after Labor Day feels all kinds of wrong,” says @mattlindner via Twitter. According to Block Club Chicago, Alderman Brendan Reilly of the 42nd ward told reporters that the City originally made plans to host The Taste near Navy Pier in order to keep the festival in the summertime. Reilly refused, calling the ordeal a “planning disaster.”

The rapper, director, and talk show host talks about growing up, taking her music seriously, and being the voice of the streets.

kia smith and isiah “thoughtpoet” veney 4

will community benefits extend past woodlawn?

South Shore has been left out of community benefits agreements around the Obama Center.

max blaisdell ..........................................

cashdrop employees speak out

Former employees of the Latino-founded start-up allege bullying, owed money, and forced secrecy.

jocelyn martinez-rosales

ex empleados de la aplicación cashapp denuncian acoso laboral Los ex empleados de CashDrop fueron entrevistados sobre las denuncias de irregularidades en la compañía. por jocelyn martínez-rosales y la voz chicago

yea or nay on voting by mail?

A 2022 law allowed permanent voting by mail but administrative challenges remain. gretchen sterba...................................

mayoral candidates debate at the dusable museum

8

11

14

Malik Jackson

Managing Director Jason Schumer

Office Manager

Mary Leonard

Advertising Manager Susan Malone

Webmaster Pat Sier

The Weekly is produced by a mostly all-volunteer editorial staff and seeks contributions from across the city. We publish online weekly and in print every other Thursday.

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, please contact: Susan Malone (773) 358-3129 or email: malone@southsideweekly.com

For general inquiries, please call: (773) 643-8533

South and West Sides 3rd worst in nation for air pollution

Chicago’s South and West Sides ranked third in the nation for highest level of fine particulate air pollution, or PM2.5 pollution, according to The Guardian. The ranking is based on a model developed by Center for Air, Climate and Energy Solutions (CACES), a research center in partnership with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). CACES researchers found that, across the country, race is a stronger predictor of air pollution exposure than income level and that the places where Black and Latinx populations live are the most burdened by pollution. “What we’re seeing here is segregation—segregation of people and segregation of pollution,” summarized a member of the research team.

PM2.5 is “emitted by cars, factories, wildfires and dusty agricultural activities” and is small enough to travel deep into the lungs and bloodstream. Long-term exposure can cause an array of health issues such as cardiovascular and respiratory disease. Communities in the South Side have lived next to “some of the region’s dirtiest industries” for decades, and the Guardian highlighted the environmental justice activism of Cheryl Johnson, executive director of People for Community Recovery, founded by her mother Hazel Johnson in 1979. “We have landfills, industrial facilities, hazardous waste sites, sewage treatment plants, chemical processing facilities, chemical disposal, underground contamination,” Johnson told the Guardian.

16

The March 9 forum was the candidates’ second since the February election. hyde park herald staff 18

wttw special highlights landmarks across the city

“Each one has a story—a meaningful story to the people who share them with me.”

kristian parker 20

the exchange

The Weekly’s poetry corner offers our thoughts in exchange for yours.

chima ikoro, vernique dyson, jana weiss

22

Cover illustration by Kevin Moore Jr.

Vicki Street in Her Own Lane

BY KIA SMITH AND ISIAH “THOUGHTPOET” VENEY

This interview has been edited for SSW: What does it mean to be the Voice

You know, that is something that I’ve been thinking about in-depth as I’ve been getting older. When I first started off in journalism at Columbia College, I literally just picked the name—the Voice of the Streets—because my last name is Street. But I’m now pushing thirty, and recently, I realized that being “the Voice of the Streets” has a social activism piece to it. It has done me no good just to be the turn-up queen, as many people have referred to me. At a certain point, when you got the mic, you gotta actually be something; you gotta really be a voice for the people. I’ve always tried to create space and have a platform for people, for their voices to be heard, but in recent years, I’ve been making sure that I’m doubling down on certain social issues and speaking up about the things that are important in my life, and what I hope to create, like a face for people and a voice for the voiceless. Because I do have motion, for lack of a better word, I do have people who look up to me, and I do have access that certain people don’t have. So being the Voice of the Streets, to me, really just means being aware of and taking responsibility for the influence that I have in the community.

What type of responsibility comes with donning that title like that?

of living with mental illness, and the next

Well, that’s a good question, because it

PHOTO BY ISIAH “THOUGHTPOET” VENEY

The rapper, director, and talk show host talks about growing up, taking her music seriously, and being the voice of the streets.

also poses the question: do artists have a responsibility [to advocate] for certain social issues? Technically, we are not out here to save people’s kids; that’s parents’ responsibility. But I do personally feel like, if you are a person of integrity—which is a big value of mine—you should be aware of the influence and the value that you hold and the people who look up to you. And so, with that being said, you have a responsibility. And that responsibility, I feel, is to create safe spaces and to promote positivity all the way around.

The biggest message that I always preach is the fact that we have to have fullcircle moments and create community and put people on when we’ve been put in positions to be blessed ourselves, when we finally get to a certain point. I’ve gotten to a certain level in my journey, and I’m still not done yet. But the biggest responsibility that I feel I have is to always reach back, because a lot of people get on and then forget how they got there. And sometimes you even surpass the people who helped put you on. So I feel like that’s what my responsibility is as the Voice of the Streets: to make sure everybody eats.

We know that native Chicagoans can be closed off towards non-native Chicagoans [i.e., those who grew up in the suburbs]. How does pursuing music and other creative endeavors help you feel connected to inner-city Chicago?

Well, I feel like if you grew up in Cook County, then you are basically the sister and the brother of people who have a 606-whatever type address. Yeah, like this is the conversation people aren’t trying to have, and a lot of folks from the inner city or who have Chicago as an address try to shun people who are from the surrounding suburbs. But I’m from the south suburbs proudly.

Still, I’m not about to sit up here and name which specific suburb to somebody in California, because if we’re being honest, I’ve moved around about fifteen times. Chicago, to me, is about the culture. It’s not necessarily about what block I grew up on all the time. I’ve lived all the way from the ’burbs to the city and back and forth. So I have a little bit of a

different story in that aspect.

How do you feel that’s inspired your aesthetic?

In my younger years, I was inspired by old-school rappers like Biggie, Pac, a lot of East Coast and West Coast people, even folks in the South. When it comes

I really wanted to create something new for myself; I did want to be a huge big entity. I did want to be a mogul. In college, I carried myself like I <i>was</ i> somebody. I also went to school during the 2012 blog era, I was a freshman, and that played a part in my music and journalism career. Because Chance was going to school right across the street at

meaningful people to me in my backyard, although I wasn’t practicing music fulltime at that point because I didn’t know if I should be majoring in music—like I was trying to get a whole actual degree.

I kind of took a backseat to music because all of my friends were actual musicians who had been doing it since they were two years old. So I just really spent the beginning parts of my music career in journalism, giving everybody else a platform… This is before I really knew the substance of what I could do. You know, sometimes we as people have good talent as well in our own selves, and we just haven’t delved all the way into that.

You said that at one point in your career, you used to give everyone else a platform but not take it for yourself. What made you want to start pouring back into yourself and putting yourself out there?

I feel like it’s important to know that I dated somebody who I feel wanted it worse than me. When you’re that close to someone who wants something so bad, it actually does something to you. It made me realize there are people out here who may want your spot. Or, you know, you can’t let somebody want something worse than you because there are people out here who are less talented than you, but they’ll work at it harder than you. So I just realized I was around people who were getting opportunities that I wasn’t getting yet because they were working their butt off.

to Midwest people, it’s Crucial Conflict, the whole Bad Boy era on down. But as far as modern Chicago, its influence on my music career really didn’t pop off until I got to college because that was the first time in my life where I was all on my own. I was able to build a whole new identity for myself.

Jones College Prep or, you know, he was at Jugrnaut doing these listening parties, or I was at Reggie’s watching the shows right down the street—I really was able to get a front row seat into the street culture. And in some cases, I became friends with these up-and-coming rappers who were superstars to the world, but just the most

So here I am with this raw Godgiven talent where I do this stuff in my sleep. But I was taking it for granted, I was taking all the connections or resources I have for granted, and I just felt like I didn’t have anything else to lose, really. After the breakup, I felt like my time was wasted. So unfortunately for me, a person sometimes has to be hurt or learn things the hard way for things to change. You know, I just had to have an eye-opening experience, to be honest. And that’s when I told myself, “You’ve been having his mind for a long time. And I don’t think you want to just be a person who’s consuming empty calories. Like, you got

I feel like that’s what my responsibility is as the Voice of the Streets: to make sure everybody eats.

PHOTO BY ISIAH “THOUGHTPOET” VENEY

to say something at this point, you’re grown. And that whole party scene stuff, that was cool, everybody around you was growing up. But what do you want to do now that you got the mic?”

Do you think that if you had never experienced that relationship and eventual breakup, you would have found the courage to pursue that passion?

No, probably not. I don’t know where I would be without that breakup. And without the pandemic giving me the time to be in forced isolation with these new experiences, because honestly, I have never been through anything so traumatic. I’m a hopeless romantic and a person who sometimes wears their heart on their sleeve, but I’ve gotten better at moving past that version of myself. But in that space, that’s literally what it took to push me towards artistry, to get to a place where I had to dig deep within myself. And the only way that I knew to express myself at the time was through music. I had a therapist, and she encouraged me to just write my feelings, and so my assignments for therapy were to write songs. And that’s honestly how my last EP came about.

What is the difference between the Vicki Street of the “blog era” and the Vicki Street we see today?

I feel like this Vicki Street today is more refined and has more direction. And as a grown woman, I feel like that Vicki Street—she was very colorful, very expressive, some might even say wild. She was innocent. She was pure-hearted. She still is pure-hearted. But now she just has the wisdom and the discernment to know how to move in certain situations. That’s honestly the best way I can frame it. She just grew up.

What are some of the lessons you learned from that era that you keep close to you?

VS: Well, you definitely can’t trust everybody. But also genuine relationships and relationship building is so important. And in between these, the ten-year span,

used to make intentional time to check in on people, go to lunch with people, I would always take time, at least two minutes on my way to class because I will run into a lot of people on my way to class. And I will always take the time, even sometimes being late to class because I was politicking with people on my way. And ever since the pandemic, something that I have been trying to make sure that I get back to is genuine relationship building. A lot of people out here today are just trying to make quick dollars, they’re trying to come up real quick, and they just forget the art of humanity. And so that is something that I would like to encourage people to get back to is just, you know, remembering that we are all people first and foremost before our artistry.

You are a huge advocate for mental health. Recently, you had three Black therapists on your The Vicki Street Show. How did you find the courage to speak so openly about mental health?

I just had to get to a point where I didn’t care anymore. I couldn’t do it. I

really felt like it was important for me to be vocal about this because people always put me up on a pedestal, and they’ve known me as a happy person in general. People really don’t think that I go through anything. And they might have been right. It wasn’t until that moment that I felt like, oh my God, like I’ve been through something. And I felt like I had to hide. I disappeared on social media for a minute. People actually noticed for the first time—and that is when I realized I had influence. Because people noticed that I was missing from social media when I was away in the hospital and didn’t have any access to a phone.

I went through the whole secluded embarrassment thing; I went through the whole, you know, my mother really wanted me to be private about this. And you should be private about certain things. But this specific instance was a moment where I felt if I’m truly going to be the Voice of the Streets, and this is not just a cool moniker that I live by, this is something that I’ve got to tell because this is an issue that a lot of people are dealing with. I can proudly raise my hand and say, “Hey, I’m a person who suffers

with manic bipolar depression, and it’s okay, you can still lead a normal life, here are some of the things that you can do to

I just feel like we need more people raising their hands. And since I’ve been vocal about it, I’ve gotten people who hit my DMs and say that they too have dealt with that. Even my own parents are coming to terms with certain things about their mental health, and they’re being open about it. Because, you know, the older generation, they really aren’t as open about these types of things, so I’m proud to have even inspired my own parents in that. It took a minute, I had to step back and heal and get over the initial embarrassment and what people might think, I had to get over the fear that no job would hire me because of this. But what I knew for sure was, if you really fuck with me, tell my truth, and whoever doesn’t mess with me, you’re not my people anyways. And that’s how I got

What inspired you to create The Vicki

So when I was back in college, you know, I was a broadcast journalism major. And nobody was hosting events at the school. Like if I could just hype myself up for a minute, I’m gonna say I created a line for myself. Nobody was hosting anything. I started hosting everything. And so it got to a point where the television department reached out to me and they asked if I would like to have my own talk show. So I had a live talk show with the studio audience. I believe this was my junior year of school. And at the same time, I was a radio minor. I was balancing my radio show at WCRX at the same time as the TV show on frequency TV. So we had the Vicki Street Show on TV and on radio at school at the same time, and we had two seasons at the school. I interviewed a bunch of students who were doing things and I interviewed the president of the college on my last episode of the second season. And then it was supposed to come back around a second time, like when I got out of college, I shot a whole remix music video to the second installment, but due to mental health reasons, it just didn’t come back out again.

PHOTO BY ISIAH “THOUGHTPOET” VENEY

The third installment we just put out a couple of weeks ago, we just started it back on February 20. This is the third installment but this time is given very much. So grown, raw, unfiltered and uncut, we’re not held by the bounds of a college. And I’m just so happy to bring it back as a podcast because I feel like I can be more free. I have all the creative leeway on it. So you know, this is very special for all the people who was around during that time. So I have some big things planned for the podcast, as we are celebrating my tenth year in the game of media and artistry.

So in your music—and especially your visuals, like you have some of the best visuals out here—you’re very handson and very creative. I’ve read that you direct and edit about ninety percent of your visuals. What keeps you inspired to do all that?

I’m a dreamer. Pretty much anything you’ve ever seen me do is because I dreamt it. And then I knew how to get up and get it made, whether I’m doing it myself or I know somebody who can do it. And that just comes through the many good connections that I’ve built and maintained over the years. But, you know, a part of that journalism degree was video editing.

So I’m all about aesthetics. I’m a visual person. If I can, I try to have a video or some type of audio piece associated with everything that I do. It can take me a little while to find someone who can do things in the way that I need it to be done or the way I see it. But I’ve definitely built with a couple of people, and those are my longtime people now. So as you may notice, Bert from Ryder Visuals shoots a lot of my videos, then I’ll collab with them and edit or throw some sauce on it with some transitions. Will Mass also shoots a lot of my stuff. I went to high school and college with him, he shoots very cinematically and I love that.

And I recently started working with a woman director by the name of Nicolette Shegog. I love that I connected with a woman director, because it’s so important that women stick together in his game, and that you see more women’s work, because we’re very attentive to detail. So I have a small team of people that I work with, just

because I feel like no one can articulate my vision like I can. There’s something to be said for, you know, can’t nobody else do it like you, so learn how to do everything that you need to do. That way, you don’t have to find nobody else to do it.

What are some of the joys and challenges you’ve personally experienced as a woman in the industry?

I’ve been tapping more into my divine feminine energy. And I feel like divine femininity is something that’s missing right now in womanhood. Not to down

not to get caught up in the compromising aspect of the game. When it comes to just advancing in your career, it’s always going to be a challenge. Be careful how you navigate that.

I can confidently and proudly say that I’ve never compromised my artistry to get ahead for the sake of appeasing a man or anybody else for that matter. I’m really proud of myself, but also, shoot, get it how you live.

What advice would you give to other multi-hyphenate creatives trying to figure it out?

and we collaborate, and we deal with those people. And that’s how you build a team. Now that you are entering a new decade, what can we expect from you?

My goal is to be in Forbes 30 Under 30. I’ve only got about another year and a half to make that happen, but I don’t doubt that I can. I see myself in mogul status. I really look up to people like Issa Rae and Diddy. And I feel like I’m on some bridging music and media and events together, because I’ve done all three of those now at a certain capacity. I have a company that I started during the pandemic, a media company with a music label aspect to it and an event curation side aspect to it.

This year, we’re really going to be funneling out more events and more projects, and it will really be something that the community can jump on. Because that’s what I’m about, beautifying the community through the arts. This company is going to be something that will provide access to people, which is a big thing that we’re missing in Chicago, but access at an affordable rate.

any of the women rappers who rap about violence, drugs, gangs, all that, you know. There’s a place for that, and we know it, we have it as a genre here in Chicago. But also the aspect of femininity that is light and airy and fun and flirty. So that’s been something fun. For me, it’s just tapping more into my feminine side. Everything doesn’t have to be so aggressive. Like, just chill out and have some fun. And know that you can do that because you are a woman.

The side that’s been more challenging is when you’re trying to get ahead in this game, and you’re trying to do the right things. You’re trying to be just like the guys, you’re trying to come up the good way. You put in your work and do what you have to do, and somewhere along the lines, you might get somebody who’s like, “Okay, well, can you do this for that type of deal?” I feel like all women know what I’m talking about. And I don’t look down at any woman who may have compromised anything, but I’m definitely not trying

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

I have been told by people I’ve tried to seek advice from that there was something wrong with that. But my advice is that you should find the things that you are good at naturally,perfect those things, and then move on to the next thing. Because you never want to be looking all over the place. What good is it to be good at five different things if you’re not even half as good at one or two of them? Also, I don’t do things that I’m not good at. So to a lot of people, it may seem like I’m good at everything when in actuality I’m just really good at a good solid amount of XYZ things, and I don’t do things that I’m not good at. I appreciate a challenge, but I’m also not here to waste my time either. Some people will tell you to focus on your weaknesses. No—we focus on the strengths and get better and better at those. And that’s just that, and for everything else that we’re not good at, we find somebody else to do it,

That’s something that people can look forward to—besides the music, because we got music that’s definitely coming. A catalog is being built in that aspect and we’ve got a new sound that’s rolling out for the spring and the summer. But as far as what can we expect: it’s big, it’s exciting, something long-term, and it’s not just music. Vicki Street is a business owner, and she’s a mogul. And that’s what people need to know. Because I feel like it circles back: a full-circle moment, being the Voice of the Streets, helping people. ¬

Kia Smith is a lover of words and digital storyteller. She previously wrote about 8MatikLogan for the Weekly. Keep up with her on Twitter and Instagram @KiaSmithWrites_.

Isaiah “ThoughtPoet” Veney is a photographer and writer from the Chatham and Burnside area. Ever since his work with Truestar Magazine showcasing Chicago’s musical talent, he has been on a mission to capture and express powerful opinions and perceptions through imagery and writing of the Black experience.

And that whole party scene stuff, that was cool, everybody around you was growing up. But what do you want to do now that you got the mic?

Will Community Benefits Extend Past Woodlawn?

Obama Center activists draw on popular referenda to pressure candidates into delivering housing protections for South Shore and beyond.

BY MAX BLAISDELL

While much of the attention on the night of February 28 was on the outcome of the mayoral race, Dixon Romeo, founder and executive director of the housing advocacy group Not Me We and his network of fellow activists and volunteers, watched from the Southside Together Organizing for Power (STOP) office on 61st Street and St. Lawrence Avenue to see if their two referenda had passed after a long day canvassing through South Shore and Woodlawn.

“We are constantly meeting people in the course of our work facing rent increases, who are concerned about rent increases, who saw the building across the street from them get converted and [are] worried about what happened to them, who are worried about tax increases that they can’t afford,” said Brandon Patterson, a housing organizer for Not Me We who canvassed that day.

Their referendum in South Shore called on the future 5th Ward alderperson and mayor, both of whom will be decided on by Chicagoans in the April 4 runoff election, “to prevent the displacement of renters, condo and homeowners in South Shore in light of the impact of the Obama Center” by passing a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) ordinance that would create more affordable housing and also provide protections to renters, owners, and condo owners.

A referendum, or ballot question, can become an organizing tool to demonstrate public opinion on a given issue. In all, eighty-eight percent of South

Shore residents voted in support of a CBA ordinance. A similar referendum in Woodlawn pressed the mayor’s office and City Council to abide by the provisions of the 2020 Woodlawn Housing Preservation Ordinance and passed with a comparably high level of community support.

The two referenda are non-binding, meaning the future mayor and 5th Ward alderperson—either Desmon Yancy or Martina “Tina” Hone, who will face off in the April 4 runoff—can ignore them should they wish, but they show strong public support for more affordable housing at a time when candidates are still actively seeking votes.

The coalition fighting for the CBA for South Shore, of which No Me We and STOP are a part, is also composed of three other groups: KenwoodOakland Community Organization (KOCO), of which current 20th Ward Alderwoman Jeannette Taylor was a prominent member before taking office; Black Youth Project 100’s Chicago Chapter (BYP100), which has also been involved in demonstrations against the new police academy on the West Side; and UChicago Against Displacement, a group that includes current and former students of the university.

The Obama CBA Coalition’s comprehensive demands for South Shore feature many of and are indeed modeled provisions in Woodlawn’s housing ordinance, especially ones targeting the neighborhood’s specific housing needs in light of the Obama Presidential Center’s

(OPC) groundbreaking in 2021.

Seventy-seven percent of the neighborhood’s residents are renters and half are rent-burdened, meaning they spend most of their income on rent.

“People with the lowest incomes can’t afford housing in the private market,” Bob Palmer, policy director at Housing Action Illinois, said. “This is an example of market failure where just the basic cost of building and maintaining and operating an average rental apartment…if you’re doing it to make a profit, you have to charge higher rent than what people with the lowest incomes can afford, which is why we need government investment to create more affordable rental housing.”

And with investors purchasing almost a third of homes in South Shore, almost twice as many as they had bought in 2015 when the OPC site was first announced, many fear that rents will get even less affordable.

“There are certain landlords that want to keep long-time tenants and so forth and don’t increase rents or only do modest increases. But certainly, though, when you have new property owners who don’t have those relationships, they’re likely to just increase the rent to whatever the market will bear.”

South Shore currently has only six affordable housing developments with a total of 412 units, while nearby Woodlawn has seventeen similar developments with 764 units. This is despite the fact that South Shore has a population more than double Woodlawn’s.

Approving more people on the

waiting list for subsidized housing, also known as Section 8 vouchers, is another effective way to keep renters in South Shore from being priced out by rent increases, according to Palmer and other experts who study housing affordability, because the amount they pay remains fixed at thirty percent of their income.

Of the 41,000 voucher holders in Chicago, nearly 3,500 live in South Shore already, which is the most of any neighborhood in the city.

While the Coalition’s South Shore specific demands do not include expanded housing choice vouchers because that program is subject to the federal government’s control, they include a loan fund to purchase and covert broken down vacant properties into affordable housing units, and a grant for long-term South Shore home and condo owners to fix up and maintain their properties. The coalition also asks for an expansion of the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase program which would allow tenants to form an association, make an offer on the property, and access financing to buy their building before a landlord can sell it to an outside party.

Other demands are wider in scope, like offering benefits to renters citywide, such as: a cap on rental and application fees, a right to return when a tenant is displaced from a unit while code compliant repairs are being made, a publicly accessible rental registry that would help identify vacancy and rental rates, and a tenants advocacy office that would help them better understand and

enforce their rights against delinquent or exploitative landlords.

This set of demands were based on the examples of other major cities that have experienced considerable gentrification in recent decades like San Francisco, Washington D.C., Portland, and New York City.

Organizers began seeking a CBA following the announcement in 2015 that an Obama library would be located in Jackson Park. They originally sought an agreement with the Obama Foundation directly so that the planned development would bring benefits to then-residents of the South Side and not just future ones.

This ask echoed the words of former President Obama himself, when he spoke to a crowd at a public meeting in Chicago in 2018, “Those are the kinds of plans, activities, foresight that we have to have in order to get that perfect balance: revitalizing and renewing the community but also making sure that people who are already living there are benefiting from it.”

But in the same speech, Obama also said, “We’ve got such a long way to go in terms of economic development before you’re even going to start seeing the prospect of significant gentrification. Malia’s kids might have to worry about that. Right now, what we’ve got to worry about is you have broken curbs, and trash and boarded up buildings, and that’s really what we need to work on,” downplaying activists’ concerns about displacement.

Obama’s idea that Black South Siders need not fear being pushed out of neighborhoods adjacent to the OPC for

a generation or two set the tone for what were ultimately unproductive discussions between organizers and the Obama Foundation.

In the face of its unwillingness to sign a CBA, organizers changed tack and began seeking an ordinance from the City of Chicago that would have covered residents anywhere within five miles of the planned location, including both South Shore and Woodlawn.

In the course of those negotiations, however, this was whittled down to cover only Woodlawn, leaving out highly vulnerable areas like South Shore and Greater Grand Crossing which are also adjacent to the park where the OPC development is underway. These areas were left unprotected by that ordinance, which included a number of measures for affordable housing for renters and assistance for financially distressed homeowners. This was not because the coalition had acceded to the City’s arguments that only Woodlawn merited affordable housing protections—rather, this reflected their strategic calculation to come back and fight another day.

The coalition’s current focus on securing an ordinance for South Shore has been held up by the recalcitrance of retiring 5th Ward alderwoman Leslie Hairston, who, according to Savannah Brown, housing organizer for STOP, pulled “the neighborhood out at the last minute.”

When the coalition met with officials from the Department of Housing, they expressed no qualms with the organizers’ listed demands, but said that they needed

Closes April 23

e Negro Motorist Green Book was created by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service in collaboration with Candacy Taylor and made possible through the generous support of Exxon Mobil Corporation

e Negro Motorist Green Book is an exhibition that highlights the histor y and legacy of “ e Green Book,” the annual guide that provided Black Americans with information on restaurants, gas stations, department stores, and other businesses that welcomed Black travelers during the Jim Crow era.

Southside, Chicago, Illinois, 1941. Russell Lee. Farm Security Administration/O ce of War Information Photograph Collection, Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress, LC - DIG - ppmsc - 00256.

4/16

5th Ward Candidate Forum.

PHOTO BY DAVON CLARK COURTESY OF DIXON ROMEO

the backing of the mayor to support the passage and implementation of the ordinance.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot, deferring to long-held custom not to pass legislation that affects a single ward without the alderperson’s approval, asked for Hairston’s blessing, which she would not give despite making promises on housing when she was last running for reelection in 2019. Instead, she said organizers were staging displacement “theater.”

Romeo, of Not Me We, cited peer reviewed studies and data. “The Department of Housing, University Illinois Chicago, DePaul University, the University of Chicago all have come out and said there’s a housing issue in South Shore,” he said.

“[An] eviction tracker shows that right now the Fifth Ward is the number one ward for evictions,” Romeo continued. “If it is theater, what is the role that she is playing in this play?”

Data from the Law Center for Better Housing reveals that South Shore had 1,741 evictions filed in 2019, ranking it first out of Chicago’s 77 community areas. The amount of back rent sought in those cases averaged only $2,174, or about two months’ rent, an amount that relief from the city or state could reasonably step in to provide.

In fact, the city’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program is already helping South Shore residents struggling to make rent, giving out 1,050 grants totaling $8.5 million—more than any other zip code in the city—but it is not clearly not enough given that South Shore still has the highest level of evictions filed for service in 2022, according to the Inclusive Economy Lab at the University of Chicago.

One of the reasons why people in South Shore are so often evicted is that they overwhelmingly represent themselves pro se—only 8.7% of tenants can afford to hire attorneys—whereas the landlords they go up against in court are almost always lawyered up, 94.2% of the time. This suggests that the lack of legal aid for renters in South Shore is also a major issue and why an office of the tenant advocate could be an important step.

with all of the CBA Coalition’s demands, however. Val Free, executive director at the Neighborhood Network Alliance, strongly opposes the construction of more affordable rental units in South Shore. “We’re not lacking any affordable housing.”

“Condominium owners are the most vulnerable people in the neighborhood,” according to Free, and thus, resources should be devoted to helping them instead of renters, she said.

Free lived in the Parkways, a Section 8 housing project facing Jackson Park, until May of last year. She has no nostalgia about living in public housing. “If you interviewed anyone in the Parkways, they would tell you they would not want to see another [public housing development].”

After twenty years, Free was only too happy to move out, despite raising a son there and successfully organizing a tenant association to get rid of problematic property management staff. She now rents in the neighborhood, although she is in the process of purchasing a condo.

Her nonprofit seeks to increase homeownership in South Shore by providing workshops and support to transition renters into prospective home and condo buyers. Just last November, the Alliance and Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago hosted a housing fair in South Shore that was free and open to

To help prevent what happened with Hairston from happening again with the next 5th Ward alderperson, Not Me We held a forum where nine candidates expressed their commitment to or against a CBA ordinance with or without modifications.

Candidate Desmon Yancy, a South Shore resident who came in first in the February 28 election with twenty-six percent of the vote, expressed unqualified support for the CBA ordinance as is and promised to introduce such legislation in his first 100 days in office if elected.

“People who say it’s not as pertinent an issue should see the number of South Shore residents who supported a CBA on election day,” said Yancy.

Martina “Tina” Hone, who placed second in the February 28 election with 18.7 percent, was more qualified in her support. She argued that the CBA coalition’s demand that one-hundred percent of units on City-owned vacant lots be set aside for affordable housing would deter development. The number she’d like to see is thirty percent instead.

Additionally, Hone contended that the vacant lots shouldn’t only be reserved for housing—small businesses, restaurants, and infrastructural improvements could make good use of that space, too. However, she commended the work of organizers, saying, “There are

principles in that CBA that should be citywide.”

“I pledge if I’m elected, to sort of take those pieces and work with colleagues in City Council to get citywide protections.”

Although Yancy conceded that a lot of the demands specifically for South Shore should be in place for all Chicagoans, he views South Shore residents as a priority, given that construction of the OPC is already underway. He added that the ordinance would offer the City the opportunity to pilot certain programs that could later be made available to residents in all neighborhoods.

When asked about the possible difficulty of passing such a housing ordinance if Paul Vallas ends up in the mayor’s office, Yancy replied, “The needs of the community don’t change regardless of who ends up as mayor, whether it’s Vallas or Johnson.”

Hone expressed a similar level of urgency about South Shore’s housing needs: “I know it’s not ethnic cleansing, but there’s…socioeconomic cleansing that seems to be going on and we can’t allow that to happen.”

“I want to really restore the sense of community that was like the Black communities that I grew up in, where we were all together,” Hone said. “South Shore could be a shining example of how to have a community that’s predominantly African-American but mixed income so that we can all thrive and have examples of folks to aspire to.”

For now, the CBA Coalition is watching the outcomes of the mayoral and 5th Ward aldermanic races scheduled for April 4 and remains in contact with the candidates. After that date, they intend to host large public meetings to make evident to whichever candidate wins, be it Brandon Johnson or Paul Vallas, Desmon Yancy or Tina Hone, that the community will hold them accountable if they do not take dramatic steps to alleviate the yearslong housing issues in South Shore. ¬

Max Blaisdell is an educator and basketball coach based in Hyde Park. He is originally from New York City and later served in Peace Corps Morocco. He last covered the 20th Ward race for the Weekly

Obama Presidential Center development.

PHOTO BY MAX BLAISDELL

CashDrop Employees Speak Out

Former employees of the Latino-founded start-up have come forward with allegations of workplace bullying, financial mismanagement, and forced secrecy.

BY JOCELYN MARTINEZ-ROSALES

This story is co-published with La Voz Chicago.

Two years ago, in a Harvard Business School case study, the CEO and founder of CashDrop—an app designed to offer businesses a free mobile storefront that allows customers to eat the fees, rather than the businesses—outlined a vision for the kind of company he wanted to build. The once-undocumented immigrant from Mexico wanted to create an app that would give back to the Latino community.

“I’m not just interested in the money,” Ruben Flores-Martinez said.

The CashDrop platform can be adopted by small mom and pop shops and has been marketed to Latino communities in the U.S. via Spanish-language ads on social media.

Locally, the app has been used in events like Chi Michelada Fest 2022. Even nonprofits like Healthy Hood Chicago have announced they will exclusively use CashDrop.

Recently, the app hosted a bilingual workshop alongside the Little Village of Commerce at which 22nd Ward Alderperson Michael Rodriguez encouraged street vendors to go cashless with the app as a way to mitigate robberies.

“America has this real obsession with growth,” Flores-Martinez said in the Harvard case study. “[A top tech investor] said to me, ‘[Venture capital] is a drug, you have to be careful with it.’ Companies can get put into this fasttrack to keep pushing and spending more money until you lose control of where the company is going and just crash. I don’t want to do that.”

CashDrop has been good to FloresMartinez. It landed him on the Forbes 30 Under 30 2021 Social Impact class list and most recently, in the Crain’s Chicago Business 40 Under 40 class of 2022. By mid-2020, CashDrop had raised around $2.7 million from investors such as Harlem Capital,

Long Journey Ventures, and Michelle Phan. According to PitchBook, the latest round of investment this past November netted CashDrop more than $11 million.

But in recent months, three former CashDrop employees have collectively taken to social media to denounce workplace bullying, broken agreements, and a lack of transparency from FloresMartinez, among other issues. At least one of these and another former employee said the stress of working at CashDrop led to hair loss, anxiety disorders, and other medical issues. South Side Weekly and La Voz Chicago interviewed these and other former employees of CashDrop, and drew on emails, screenshots, and other documents to tell this story.

Ruben Trejo, a forty-year-old from Chicago, joined CashDrop as an affiliate in July 2021 and eventually became event manager for the company. He

joined because, “Me being Latino and all the employees being Latino was something that I wanted to be a part of,” he said in a testimonial he shared on Instagram.

Trejo was sold on the dream of becoming a millionaire, which was something he said Flores-Martinez would constantly tell his employees that he wanted to see them become. In May, Trejo would bring in one of the company’s biggest promotional events, a car show held in Georgia featuring hundreds of cars and bikes with general admission tickets starting at $250.

“That’s where things took a turn,” Trejo stated in the video, which he posted on December 30, 2022.

Trejo said he had made a verbal agreement with Flores-Martinez in which Trejo would keep one hundred percent of commissions from the event. But the verbal agreement was apparently not honored— instead, Trejo said he received around fifty

percent of commissions from the event.

Trejo said there was never any paper trail for these decisions, which according to former CashDrop employees, was not out of the norm at the company.

Trejo said he also did not receive reimbursements for some work trips and activation expenses he had paid for out of pocket. Multiple employees said company credit cards were often declined, forcing them to cover costs on multiple occasions, especially during out-of-state trips.

In November 2022, Trejo was laid off and told that the company could not afford to keep him. CashDrop’s proposed severance package included only a healthcare stipend for twelve weeks, far less than what Trejo felt was owed to him. To receive the severance package, Trejo had to sign the agreement that included a nondisparagement clause that would have prevented him from criticizing CashDrop publicly. He declined the offer by email:

It’s a really disrespectful offer considering the verbal agreement that Ruben had with me regarding 100% commissions....I won’t be signing anything and I will exercise my right to speak freely about my experiences at CashDrop on social media and to the public.

Trejo recalls feeling betrayed. In his Instagram video, he said, “To have one of your own brothers, tu hermano, disrespect you and punch down on you daily, it has to stop.”

Trejo wanted to bring attention to his experiences and reached out to other former employees, wondering if what he had gone through was shared.

He soon found former colleagues who said that Flores-Martinez had verbally harassed them. “They all kept telling me the same thing,” said Trejo. “They kind of sparked something inside of me to put a stop to this.”

He encouraged them to come forward and build public outcry on social

LABOR

media platforms. Ashley De La Torre and Jaqueline Rodriguez, who had been at CashDrop under a year and had since left the start-up, agreed to record testimonials.

They came forward recounting instances of verbal abuse, aggressive episodes, and a toxic work environment that they said led them to walk out indefinitely. Their videos were liked by hundreds of people and received dozens of supportive comments.

“He would be very stressed out when it was close to paying the bills,” said Rodriguez, who remembered FloresMartinez lashing out as regularly as once a week but especially in the final and first weeks of the month.

Flores-Martinez’s behavior described in the testimonials and interviews took the form of ridiculing interns, public shaming, slamming his hands on tables, and in one instance patting an employee on the head.

“It’s unfortunate how much violation became normal—how being violated by a CEO, how the emotional abuse just kind of became a part of the day,” said De La Torre in the Instagram video.

In an interview with South Side Weekly and La Voz Chicago, Flores-Martinez denied the allegations.

At first, Flores-Martinez said the allegations were due to “a combination of misunderstanding, high pressure environment, there’s definitely a lot of emotions involved,” but later called them “completely baseless” and that he was considering legal action.

“There is no fraud. There is no big story. There is no sexual misconduct, there is no MeToo thing, there’s nothing there,” said Flores-Martinez. “People are just waiting, thirsty for blood to cancel somebody.”

“Am I an explosive character? It depends on how you slice the apple,” he said, adding, “what company doesn’t have high stakes, high energy meetings, where there are disagreements.” But he denied ever threatening employees or making them feel oppressed or controlled.

Lisa Kowalczyk was part of the company’s customer success team and had joined CashDrop in January 2021. In an interview, Kowalczyk said that on December 28, 2022, she and other CashDrop employees received a company-wide Slack message alerting them that ex-employees were criticizing the company on social media and

demanding that current employees sign an NDA within two hours—or be fired.

Kowalczyk told Flores-Martinez that she had forwarded the document to her lawyer to review.

Before she could get a response from her lawyer, Kowalczyk said she was terminated two days later, the same day that Trejo, De La Torre and Rodriguez shared their testimonials on Instagram.

Kowalczyk said she suffered a workrelated injury while on a work trip and that she never got the medical insurance to cover it that she was promised. She said around $10,000 in reimbursements are still owed to her from instances when company cards didn’t work, and that paychecks didn’t come on time on three separate occasions, the most recent being just before this past Christmas.

The numbers for women working in tech are even more staggering. A 2020 study from Women Who Tech found that close to fifty percent of women working in tech experienced harassment, with fortytwo percent reporting that harassment was perpetrated by a supervisor.

“It is normalized, it’s routine, it’s frequent, and therefore we treat it as not worthy of attention. But it is America’s silent epidemic, and we need to start paying attention because it’s harming millions of workers,” said WBI director and social psychologist Dr. Gary Namie.

WBI is currently lobbying to pass the Healthy Workplace Bill in Massachusetts and New York “to prevent and correct abusive work environments.” The bill was introduced in Illinois in February of 2021 but has not passed the Illinois House of

often first-generation, recent graduates, low-income, and with mixed-status backgrounds.

In response to an email that listed the allegations included in this story, FloresMartinez wrote about the company needing to let go some employees last year for economic reasons, but that, “We can’t and will not comment on specific statements made by current or former employees.” In the end, he claimed the questions contained “inaccurate” and “verifiable outright falsehoods” but declined to clarify what specifically he objected to. “We wish you the best of luck in sorting fact from fiction,” the email ended.

In an earlier interview, FloresMartinez said he wanted to give “opportunities to people that look like [him], in a world where none of them would get opportunities,” adding that “perhaps they think I’m an asshole, and not everybody’s gonna like me, not everybody’s gonna agree [with] the way that I move, or the way that I run my business.”

Multiple employees said their health declined because of working at CashDrop.

She also recalled not getting support when one of her coworkers was terminated. “At one point, over a couple months’ span, [I was] working eighty hours a week, all day and night, because there was nobody else even qualified that could help me,” Kowalczyk said.

She said the stress from the job eventually led to hair loss and other medical problems.

“There was a lot of blurred lines in the boundaries of work-life balance—where work ends and begins,” said De La Torre, adding that it was not out of character for the CEO and employees to drink on the job, go to dinner after work, and constantly be told that they were a family.

Rodriguez echoed this sentiment, stating that she and her colleagues “trauma bonded” and felt as if Flores-Martinez had isolated them from their lives. “I felt like they were my friends.”

According to a 2021 survey from the Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI), thirty percent of adult Americans are bullied at work, a number that at the time of the survey amounted to almost 49 million workers across the country.

Representatives.

When concerns were brought up to Benjamin Vear, the company’s president and the person who handled HR-like responsibilities according to employees, employees said Vear reduced FloresMartinez’s outbursts to the CEO being stressed due to lack of investors.

Vear declined to comment or be quoted on the record.

Team dinners at the expense of the CEO at notable Chicago restaurants like RPM Steakhouse, Beatnik on the River, and Fulton Market Kitchen would later be leveraged in public shamings during company meetings, according to De La Torre.

Employees felt stuck because some uprooted their lives and moved to Chicago for the job, while others lacked confidence to find a better workplace.

“Ruben was very intentional with who he picked to be around,” said Rodriguez, adding that his employees were mainly young Latinos belonging to marginalized communities, whose members are

“My mental health deteriorated quickly,” said Rodriguez. “I would be extremely anxious because I had not finished a deadline or was nervous about the next day, nervous that I was going to get yelled at.”

Former employees said deadlines and expectations were often changed last minute and with little notice by Flores-Martinez, putting them in compromising situations. Kowalczyk recounted a time in which she asked for clarification and Flores-Martinez said, “that’s not my fucking job, you need to do your job.”

Namie said stress and hair loss are real responses to abusive conduct. A laundry list of health concerns can stem from verbal abuse including stress-related physical diseases, harmful impacts to brain function, joint pain, debilitating anxiety, clinical depression, and PTSD, to name a few.

“These people who’ve come forward, no wonder they’re fearful. They’re reporting war wounds,” said Namie upon learning of the allegations. “Why should you suffer emotional injuries in exchange for a paycheck?”

After going public with their experience at CashDrop, the three employees who shared their stories received words of encouragement, and some vendors like Shop Ankata stopped using

“It’s unfortunate how much violation became normal—how being violated by a CEO, how the emotional abuse just kind of became a part of the day.”

– Ashley De La Torre, former CashDrop employee

CashDrop altogether. But they also faced pushback from Flores-Martinez and others at CashDrop, in texts and social media posts that attacked the former employees’ characters. Flores-Martinez took to his personal Instagram to post a series of stories including one where he wrote, “People can say whatever they feel like for their 5 likes and 10 minutes of mini clout.”

Flores-Martinez’s sister, Betsabe Brewer Flores, who worked as a supervisor within the company and had a closer working relationship with Rodriguez, left voicemails and text messages invalidating Rodriguez’s testimonial. In one text she wrote, “you did your thing and rode that wave for a free laptop, some easy work.” In a message to Trejo, Flores wrote, “You’re a slime and don’t do no work,” and “Your child doesn’t deserve his dad to tarnish his image on Ig for likes. He doesn’t know he will probably be a slime like you too.”

Brewer Flores declined to comment for the story.

For Kowalczyk, Trejo, De La Torre, and Rodriguez, their intent in speaking out is to hold Flores-Martinez accountable.

“I just hope that he hears our stories, that he sees the harm he’s caused, and has a shred of empathy, and realizes that he’s really taking advantage of those around him,” said De La Torre.

Yet Flores-Martinez’s continued denial of any wrongdoing and apparent

refusal to engage with the criticisms makes them feel like things won’t change—and if they don’t, they believe CashDrop should cease to exist.

“Abuse is at the fundamental core of it all and Ruben has made it a point to be intertwined with the company so it doesn’t change what I think should happen to CashDrop, which hopefully is to be dissolved,” said Rodriguez.

“Even when evidence is tacked against him his ego won’t let him be the better person,” said Trejo. “He and CashDrop are synonymous. With him at the helm of the company, [it’s] destined to fail.”

CashDrop is used by vendors based in cities around the country, like Los Angeles, Tampa, Salt Lake City, Des Moines, and Milwaukee. Vendors using CashDrop are later reimbursed processing fees.

Kowalczyk said some vendors were still owed those fees when she left CashDrop, including a business belonging to a friend she brought on.

She said the apparent financial troubles at the company—delayed paychecks, declined company cards, and layoffs— didn’t add up to what she described as Flores-Martinez’s lavish lifestyle.

“There are $15,000 spent on tequila for parties, maybe another $20,000 spent at a club in Miami,” said Kowalczyk. “There’s no reason for a CEO of a new startup, that’s not profitable, to be staying at the Beverly Hills Hilton.”

The former employees have concerns for the vendors still trusting CashDrop with a portion of their business. Customer fees were most recently advertised at five percent with a minimum charge of fortyfive cents. However, as of press time, when making a $5 purchase using the app, the processing fee is $1, which is twenty percent.

According to Kowalczyk, this is because the fees were changed—a move that has not been reflected in CashDrop’s

public-facing platforms.

“As of the beginning of 2023, CashDrop actually raised the rate that they charge the customers their convenience fee,” said Kowalczyk.

When asked about the fee change, Flores-Martinez said the fee is “dynamic” and in some instances “the pricing can be as high at fifteen percent.” He assured the Weekly that CashDrop is completely transparent with its merchants and “if there was cracks in the systems, they would have already come to light.”

What’s more concerning to the group of former employees who have spoken out is the newly launched Latino Renaissance Fund, which went live at the end of last year. Flores-Martinez pledged $1 million of his own CashDrop equity to be distributed to 1,000 Latino-owned businesses who use the app.

Something similar was promised to employees at CashDrop, who never received paperwork for the equity they were told they would receive in the company, said Trejo in his testimonial.

“If you’re going to be working under the pretense of being Latino Renaissance, you

got to treat Latinos right,” said Trejo, adding, “We’re not gonna take it especially from somebody that’s not even from Chicago.”

Though Flores-Martinez moved to Chicago from Milwaukee, he views himself as “a prominent member of the Latino community in Chicago.”

“I am known, people know me. And I’m talking to all walks of life, [from] the fucking intern all the way to the mayor,” he said.

When asked if he was still “not just interested in the money,” he replied, “It is all about the money. It is about creating wealth for Latinos, it is about creating millionaires and billionaires that look like you and I.”

It would be those same words that once drew in employees like De La Torre.

“He might have the gift of gab and say all the right things, but he treats the people closest to him awfully,” she said. ¬

Jocelyn Martinez-Rosales is a MexicanAmerican from Belmont Cragin, Chicago. As an independent journalist she’s passionate about covering communities of color with a social justice lens. She’s also a section editor at the Weekly

[Keep off desk] Inside the office, Flores-Martinez’s desk normally sits in a corner. Rows of desks are lined up to face him for easy access to monitor productivity, former employees recall.

TWITTER SCREENSHOT

Ex empleados de la aplicación

CashDrop denuncian acoso laboral

Los ex empleados

Esta nota fue publicada en colaboración con La Voz Chicago

Hace dos años, en un estudio de la Escuela de Negocios de Harvard, el CEO y fundador de CashDrop —una aplicación de teléfono diseñada para ofrecer a los negocios una tienda digital gratuita que les cobre las tarifas a los clientes en vez de a los negocios— describió su visión para el tipo de empresa que quería construir.

El inmigrante de México que una vez fue indocumentado quería crear una aplicación que contribuyera a la comunidad latina. “No solo me interesa el dinero”, dijo Rubén Flores-Martínez en ese entonces.

La plataforma CashDrop puede ser adoptada por tiendas familiares y pequeños negocios y se ha comercializado en las comunidades latinas estadounidenses por medio de anuncios en español en las redes sociales.

A nivel local, la aplicación se ha utilizado en eventos como Chi Michelada Fest 2022. Incluso organizaciones sin fines de lucro, como Healthy Hood Chicago, han anunciado que utilizarán CashDrop exclusivamente.

Recientemente, la compañía tuvo un taller bilingüe junto con La Cámara de Comercio de La Villita en el que el concejal del distrito 22, Michael Rodríguez, animó a los vendedores ambulantes a no usar dinero en efectivo y usar la aplicación como una forma de mitigar los robos.

“Estados Unidos tiene una verdadera obsesión con el crecimiento”, dijo FloresMartínez en el estudio de Harvard. "[Un inversionista de alta tecnología] me dijo: '[El capitalismo] es una droga, hay que tener cuidado con ella'. Las empresas pueden entrar en una vía rápida para seguir

presionando y gastando más dinero hasta que pierden el control de la dirección de la compañía y colapsan. No quiero hacer eso."

CashDrop ha sido bueno para Flores-Martínez. Fue colocado en la lista de impacto social de la clase del 2021 de Forbes 30 Under 30 y, más recientemente, en la clase de 2022 de Crain's Chicago Business 40 Under 40. A mediados de 2020, CashDrop había recaudado alrededor de $2.7 millones de inversionistas como Harlem Capital, Long Journey Ventures y Michelle Phan. Según PitchBook, la última ronda de inversión en noviembre pasado generó CashDrop más de $11 millones para CashDrop.

Pero en los pasados meses, tres exempleados de CashDrop recurrieron colectivamente a las redes sociales para denunciar el acoso laboral, los acuerdos incumplidos y la falta de transparencia de Flores-Martínez, entre otros problemas. Al menos uno de ellos y otro exempleado dijeron que el estrés de trabajar en CashDrop les provocó pérdida de cabello, trastornos de ansiedad y otros problemas médicos.

La Voz Chicago y el periódico comunitario South Side Weekly entrevistaron a estos y otros ex empleados de CashDrop y se basaron en correos electrónicos, capturas de pantalla y otros documentos para contar esta historia.

Ruben Trejo, un hombre de cuarenta años de Chicago, se unió a CashDrop como afiliado en julio de 2021 y se convirtió en gerente de eventos de la empresa. Se unió porque, "Yo siendo latino y todos los empleados siendo latinos, era algo de lo que quería ser parte", dijo en un testimonio que compartió en Instagram.

A Trejo le convenció el sueño de convertirse en millonario, algo en lo que

Flores-Martínez constantemente les decía que quería verlos convertirse, dijo. En mayo, Trejo organizó uno de los eventos promocionales más grandes de la compañía, una exhibición de autos que se llevó a cabo en Georgia con cientos de autos y bicicletas, con boletos de entrada general comenzando en $250.

“Ahí es donde las cosas dieron un giro”, declaró Trejo en el video, que publicó el 30 de diciembre de 2022.

Trejo dijo que había tenido un acuerdo verbal con Flores-Martínez de que Trejo se quedaría con el cien por ciento de las comisiones del evento. Pero aparentemente no se cumplió el acuerdo verbal; Trejo dijo que recibió alrededor del cincuenta por ciento de las comisiones del evento.

Trejo dijo que nunca hubo ningún rastro en papel de estas decisiones, lo cual, según ex empleados de CashDrop, no estaba fuera de lo normal en la empresa.

Trejo dijo que tampoco recibió reembolsos por algunos viajes y gastos de trabajo que había pagado de su bolsillo. Varios empleados dijeron que las tarjetas de crédito de la empresa a menudo eran rechazadas, lo que los obligaba a cubrir los costos en varias ocasiones, especialmente durante sus viajes fuera del estado.

En noviembre de 2022, Trejo fue despedido y le dijeron que la empresa no podía mantenerlo. El paquete de indemnización propuesto por CashDrop incluía solo pagos de atención médica durante doce semanas, mucho menos de lo que Trejo cree que se le debía. Para recibir el paquete de indemnización, Trejo tenía que firmar un acuerdo que incluía una cláusula que le habría impedido criticar públicamente a CashDrop. Él rechazó la oferta por correo electrónico:

"Es una oferta realmente irrespetuosa

considerando el acuerdo verbal que Ruben tuvo conmigo con respecto a las comisiones del 100%… No firmaré nada y ejerceré mi derecho a hablar libremente sobre mis experiencias en CashDrop en las redes sociales y al público", escribió.

Trejo recuerda sentirse traicionado. En su video de Instagram, dijo: “Para que uno de tus hermanos, tu hermano, te falte el respeto y te ataque todos los días, tiene que parar”.

Trejo quería llamar la atención sobre sus experiencias y se acercó a otros ex empleados, preguntándose si compartían lo que le había pasado.

Pronto encontró a ex colegas que dijeron que Flores-Martínez los había acosado verbalmente. “Todos me decían lo mismo”, dijo Trejo. “Encendieron algo dentro de mí para poner fin a esto”.

Los animó a presentarse y generar protestas públicas en las plataformas de redes sociales. Ashley De La Torre y Jaqueline Rodríguez, que habían estado en CashDrop menos de un año y desde entonces habían dejado la empresa, acordaron grabar testimonios.

Decidieron contar de casos de abuso verbal, episodios agresivos y un ambiente de trabajo tóxico que dijeron que los llevó a salirse indefinidamente. A cientos de personas les gustaron sus videos y recibieron docenas de comentarios de apoyo.

“Él se ponía muy estresado cuando se acercaba la hora de pagar las cuentas”, dijo Rodríguez, recordando que FloresMartínez arremetía contra los empleados tan regularmente como una vez por semana, pero especialmente en las últimas y primeras semanas del mes.

El comportamiento de FloresMartínez descrito en los testimonios y entrevistas incluía ridiculizar a los pasantes,

de la compañía emergente fundada por latinos han presentado denuncias de acoso laboral y mala gestión financiera.

avergonzar públicamente, golpear las mesas con las manos y, en un caso, palmar la cabeza de un empleado.

“Es desafortunado cuánta violación se volvió normal, cómo ser insultado por un CEO, cómo el abuso emocional se convirtió en parte del día”, dijo De La Torre en el video de Instagram.

En una entrevista con South Side Weekly y La Voz Chicago, Flores-Martínez negó las acusaciones.

Al principio, Flores-Martínez dijo que las acusaciones se debían a “una combinación de malentendidos, un ambiente de alta presión, definitivamente hay muchas emociones involucradas”, pero luego las llamó “completamente sin fundación” y que estaba considerando emprender acciones legales.

“No hay fraude. No hay gran noticia. No hay conducta sexual inapropiada, no hay nada de MeToo, no hay nada allí”, dijo Flores-Martínez. “Alguna gente está esperando, sedienta de sangre para poder cancelar a alguien”.

“¿Soy un personaje explosivo? Depende de cómo lo veas”, dijo, y agregó, “¿Qué empresa no tiene mucho en juego, reuniones de alta energía, donde hay desacuerdos?” Pero negó haber amenazado a los empleados o haberlos hecho sentir oprimidos o controlados.

Lisa Kowalczyk formaba parte del equipo de éxito del cliente de la empresa y se unió a CashDrop en enero de 2021. En una entrevista, Kowalczyk dijo que el 28 de diciembre de 2022, ella y otros empleados de CashDrop recibieron un mensaje del Slack de la empresa que les alertaba de que los ex empleados estaban criticando a la empresa en las redes sociales y exigiendo que los empleados actuales firmaran un acuerdo de no divulgación (NDA, por sus siglas en inglés) dentro de dos horas, o serían despedidos.

Kowalczyk le dijo a Flores-Martínez que le había enviado el documento a su abogado para que lo revisara.

Antes de que pudiera obtener una respuesta de su abogado, Kowalczyk dijo que fue despedida dos días después, el mismo día en que Trejo, De La Torre y Rodríguez compartieron sus testimonios en Instagram.

Kowalczyk dijo que sufrió una lesión durante un viaje de trabajo y que nunca obtuvo el seguro médico que le prometieron. Ella dijo que todavía le deben alrededor de

$10,000 en reembolsos por casos en los que las tarjetas de la compañía no funcionaron, y que los cheques de pago no llegaron a tiempo en tres ocasiones distintas, la más reciente justo antes de la Navidad.

También recordó no haber recibido apoyo cuando uno de sus compañeros de trabajo fue despedido. “Hubo un punto que, durante un par de meses, [estaba] trabajando ochenta horas a la semana, día y noche, porque no había nadie más que estuviera calificado que pudiera ayudarme”, dijo Kowalczyk.

Dijo que el estrés del trabajo eventualmente la llevó a que se le cayera el cabello y a tener otros problemas médicos.

“Había muchas líneas borrosas en el equilibrio entre el trabajo y la vida personal, dónde termina y comienza el trabajo”, dijo De La Torre, y agregó que no era inusual que el director ejecutivo y los empleados bebieran en el trabajo, fueran a cenar después del trabajo, y que constantemente les dijeran que eran una familia.

Rodríguez afirmó que ella y sus colegas se "unieron mediante el trauma" y sentían como que Flores-Martínez los había aislado de sus vidas personales. “Pensé que eran mis amigos”.

Según una encuesta de 2021 del Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI), 30% de los adultos estadounidenses sufren acoso en el trabajo, una cifra que en el momento de la encuesta incluía a casi 49 millones de empleados en todo el país.

Las cifras de mujeres que trabajan en tecnología son aún más asombrosas. Un estudio de 2020 de Women Who Tech encontró que cerca del 50% de las mujeres que trabajan en tecnología experimentaron acoso, y el cuarenta y dos por ciento reportó que el acoso fue por parte de un supervisor.

“Está normalizado, es rutinario, es frecuente, y por eso lo vemos como no digno de atención. Pero es la epidemia silenciosa de Estados Unidos y debemos comenzar a prestar atención porque está perjudicando a millones de trabajadores”, dijo el director de WBI y psicólogo social, el Dr. Gary Namie.

WBI actualmente está cabildeando para aprobar el Proyecto de Ley de Lugares de Trabajo Saludables en Massachusetts y Nueva York “para prevenir y corregir entornos de trabajo abusivos”. El proyecto de ley se presentó en Illinois en febrero de 2021, pero no ha sido aprobado por la Cámara de Representantes de Illinois.

Cuando se le plantearon las preocupaciones a Benjamin Vear, el presidente de la compañía y la persona que manejaba las responsabilidades de recursos humanos, según los empleados, dijeron que Vear racionalizó los episodios de Flores-Martínez al estrés que tiene el director ejecutivo debido a la falta de inversionistas.

Vear se negó a hacer comentarios o a ser citado.

Las cenas del equipo en la cuenta del CEO en restaurantes notables de Chicago como RPM Steakhouse, Beatnik on the River y Fulton Market Kitchen luego se usarían en contra de ellos durante las reuniones de la empresa, según De La Torre.

Los empleados se sentían estancados porque algunos cambiaron sus vidas y se mudaron a Chicago por el trabajo, mientras que otros carecían de autoestima para encontrar un lugar de trabajo mejor.

“Rubén fue muy intencional con las personas que eligió para tener cerca”, dijo Rodríguez, y agregó que sus empleados eran principalmente jóvenes latinos pertenecientes a comunidades marginadas, a menudo de primera generación, recién graduados, de bajos ingresos y estatus migratorio mixto.

En respuesta a un correo electrónico que enumeraba las acusaciones, FloresMartínez escribió de la necesidad de que la compañía despidiera a algunos empleados el año pasado por razones económicas, pero que "no podemos y no comentaremos sobre declaraciones específicas hechas por empleados actuales o anteriores”.

Al final, afirmó que las preguntas contenían "falsedades inexactas" y "completamente verificables", pero se negó a aclarar cuáles específicamente. “Le deseamos la mejor de la suerte en discernir la realidad de la ficción”, finaliza el correo electrónico.

En una entrevista anterior, FloresMartínez dijo que quería darles "oportunidades a las personas que se parecen a [él], en un mundo donde ninguno de ellos tendría oportunidades", y agregó que "tal vez piensen que soy un patan, y no a todo el mundo le voy a caer bien, no todos van a estar de acuerdo [con] la forma en que me muevo, o la forma que manejo mi negocio”.

Varios empleados dijeron que su salud fue impactada trabajando en CashDrop.

“Mi salud mental se deterioró rápidamente”, dijo Rodríguez. “Estaba extremadamente ansiosa porque no había

terminado una fecha límite o estaba nerviosa por el día siguiente, nerviosa porque me iban a gritar”.

Los exempleados dijeron que los plazos y las expectativas a menudo se cambiaban a último minuto y con poco aviso por parte de Flores-Martínez, lo que los ponía en situaciones comprometedoras. Kowalczyk contó de una vez que ella le pidió una aclaración y Flores-Martínez dijo: “Ese no es mi p***** trabajo, tienes que hacer tu trabajo”.

Namie dijo que el estrés y la caída del cabello son respuestas reales a la conducta abusiva. Una lista de problemas de salud pueden derivarse del abuso verbal,incluyendo enfermedades físicas relacionadas con el estrés, impactos dañinos en la función cerebral, dolor en las articulaciones, ansiedad debilitante, depresión clínica y trastorno de estrés postraumático (PTSD), por nombrar algunos.

“Estas personas que han salido a la luz, no es de extrañar que tengan miedo. Están reportando heridas de guerra”, dijo Namie al enterarse de las acusaciones. “¿Por qué deberían sufrir lesiones emocionales a cambio de un cheque?”

Después de hacer pública su experiencia en CashDrop, los tres empleados que compartieron sus historias recibieron palabras de aliento y algunos proveedores como Shop Ankata dejaron de usar CashDrop por completo.

Pero también enfrentaron el rechazo de Flores-Martínez y otros en CashDrop en mensajes de texto y publicaciones en las redes sociales que atacaban el carácter de los exempleados. Flores-Martínez recurrió a su Instagram personal para publicar una serie de historias, incluida una en la que escribió: "La gente puede decir lo que quiera por sus 5 'me gusta' y 10 minutos de mini influencia".

La hermana de Flores-Martínez, Betsabe Brewer Flores, quien trabajaba como supervisora en la empresa y tenía una relación laboral más estrecha con Rodríguez, dejó mensajes de voz y mensajes de texto que invalidaban el testimonio de Rodríguez. En un mensaje de texto, escribió: “Hiciste lo tuyo y te montaste esa ola para obtener una computadora portátil gratis, un trabajo fácil”. En un mensaje a Trejo, Flores escribió: “Eres [flojo] y no haces nada de trabajo” y “Tu hijo no se merece que su papá empañe su imagen en Ig por unos 'me gusta'. Él no sabe que probablemente también será un [flojo] como tú.

Brewer Flores se negó a comentar.

Para Kowalczyk, Trejo, De La Torre

y Rodríguez, su intención al hablar es responsabilizar a Flores-Martínez.

“Solo espero que escuche nuestras experiencias, que vea el daño que ha causado, y tenga un poco de empatía, y se dé cuenta de que realmente se está aprovechando de quienes lo rodean”, dijo De La Torre.

Sin embargo, la continua negación de Flores-Martínez de cualquier irregularidad y su aparente incapacidad de responder a las críticas los hace pensar que las cosas no cambiarán, y si cambian, creen que CashDrop debería dejar de existir.

“El abuso es el núcleo fundamental de todo y Rubén se ha esforzado por enredarse con la empresa para que no cambie y pase lo que creo que tiene que pasar con CashDrop, que con suerte se disuelva”, dijo Rodríguez.

“Incluso cuando se agregan las pruebas en su contra, su ego no le permite ser una mejor persona”, dijo Trejo. “Él y CashDrop son sinónimos. Con él al frente de la empresa, [está] destinada al fracaso”.

CashDrop es utilizado por proveedores con sede en ciudades de todo el país, como Los Ángeles, Tampa, Salt Lake City, Des Moines y Milwaukee. A los proveedores que utilizan CashDrop se les reembolsan posteriormente las tarifas de procesamiento.

Kowalczyk dijo que a algunos proveedores todavía se les debían esas tarifas cuando ella dejó CashDrop, incluyendo un negocio que pertenecía a un amigo que atrajo.

Dijo que los aparentes problemas financieros en la empresa (cheques de pago atrasados, tarjetas de empresa rechazadas y despidos) no concordaban con lo que describió como el lujoso estilo de vida de Flores-Martínez.

“Hay $15,000 gastados en tequila para fiestas, tal vez otros $20,000 gastados en un club en Miami”, dijo Kowalczyk. “No hay razón por la que un director ejecutivo de una nueva empresa, que no es lucrativa, se quede en el Beverly Hills Hilton”.

Los exempleados están preocupados por los proveedores que aún confían en CashDrop con una parte de su negocio. Las tarifas de los clientes se anunciaron más recientemente al 5% con un cargo mínimo de 45 centavos. Sin embargo, al momento de la publicación, al realizar una compra de $5 usando la aplicación, la tarifa de procesamiento es de $1, que es el 20%.

Según Kowalczyk, esto se debe a que se cambiaron las tarifas, un cambio que no se ha reflejado en las plataformas públicas

de CashDrop.

“A principios de 2023, CashDrop en realidad aumentó la tarifa que le cobra a los clientes por su tarifa de conveniencia”, dijo Kowalczyk.

Cuando se le preguntó sobre el cambio de tarifa, Flores-Martínez dijo que la tarifa es "dinámica" y, en algunos casos, "el precio puede llegar al 15%". Le aseguró al Weekly que CashDrop es completamente transparente con sus comerciantes y “si hubiera grietas en los sistemas, ya habrían salido a la luz”.

Lo que es más preocupante para el grupo de exempleados que los acusan es el Latino Renaissance Fund recientemente lanzado, que se puso en marcha a fines del año pasado. Flores-Martínez prometió $1 millón de su propio capital de CashDrop para distribuirlo a 1,000 empresas propiedad de latinos que usan la aplicación.

Algo similar se les prometió a los empleados de CashDrop, quienes nunca recibieron la documentación por el capital que les dijeron que recibirían en la empresa, dijo Trejo en su testimonio.

“Si vas a trabajar bajo el pretexto de ser un renacimiento latino, debes tratar bien a los latinos”, dijo Trejo, y agregó: “No lo aceptaremos, especialmente de alguien que ni siquiera es de Chicago”.

Aunque Flores-Martínez se mudó a Chicago de Milwaukee, se considera como “un miembro prominente de la comunidad latina en Chicago”.

“Soy conocido, la gente me conoce. Y estoy hablando de todo tipo de personas, [desde] el maldito pasante hasta la alcaldesa”, dijo.

Cuando se le preguntó si todavía “no solo le interesaba el dinero”, respondió: “Todo se trata del dinero. Se trata de crear riqueza para los latinos, se trata de crear millonarios y multimillonarios que se parezcan a ti y a mí”.

Serían esas mismas palabras las que alguna vez atrajeron a empleados como De La Torre.

“Puede que tenga el don de la elocuencia y diga las cosas correctas, pero trata terriblemente a las personas más cercanas a él”, dijo. ¬

Jocelyn Martinez-Rosales es una mexicoamericana de Belmont Cragin, Chicago. Como periodista independiente, le apasiona cubrir las comunidades de color con un lente de justicia social. También es editora de sección del Weekly

Yea or Nay on Voting by Mail?

BY GRETCHEN STERBA

Woodlawn resident Sandra Butler knew she wanted to vote in this year’s municipal election. Despite years of voting in person at her designated polling location in the neighborhood, when Butler’s mother got ill, she put in two voter applications to vote by mail—one for her and one for her mother.

“I did it for the convenience,” Butler said. “Unfortunately, [the City is] renovating my neighborhood, so the streets where I normally would go to vote, they shut down, and another location was a couple of blocks away.”

For years, Illinois voters have had three options: voting in person on election day, early voting, and voting by mail, which they’ve had to request prior to each election. Yet Butler’s story comes just a little over a year after the passage of a 2022 Illinois law that amended the Elections Code and allowed voters to permanently register to automatically receive ballots in the comfort of their own homes and vote by mail in every election going forward.

Voting by mail became popular at the start of the pandemic, but the option to vote by mail has been around since the 19th century.

With vote-by-mail numbers at an all-time high, the practice’s advantages are enticing, but its administrative challenges need to be addressed.

ILLUSTRATION BY JULIE MERRELL

“It’s really important to get to the history of [voting by mail] and why we established it in the first place,” said Jen Dean, co-executive director at Chicago Votes. “Vote by mail comes from the Civil War when soldiers were not at home; the government wanted to ensure that they were still able to vote while serving in the military, and then they expanded it to include everybody else.”

While every state has some voting by mail options, some states impose restrictions on who is allowed to vote by mail or under what circumstances. For example, in Indiana voters can request to vote by mail if they’re working all of election day, traveling, or have an illness or disability that prevents them from going in person.

The Universal Right to Vote by Mail Act is proposed federal legislation that would remove these requirements and allow voting by mail in every state for any reason, though it’s been stalled in committee for a few years.

“In Illinois, we worked really hard to make sure that it was implemented because we know that not everybody has the ability to go physically to the polls,” Dean said.

Voting by mail, formerly known as absentee voting, was enacted into Illinois law after 1865. By the time 2020 rolled around, voting by mail seemed like the safest, most viable option at the time, and the data from voters who took advantage of it, according to the Chicago Board of Elections, did so in record-breaking numbers.

“Vote by mail expanded greatly during the pandemic, especially in 2020,” said Max Bever, director of public information at the Chicago Board of Elections (CBOE). “That is where vote by mail use in the City of Chicago really expanded from the 20,000, 30,000 vote-by-mail ballots for each election to now hundreds of thousands.”

Bever said that the CBOE has seen a consistent rate of mail-in ballots since 2020. “The peak was November 2020. Probably not a surprise, but the Board received just over half a million vote-bymail applications, and we received just over 450,000 of those back. That is the highest amount of vote-by-mail applications and vote-by-mail ballots in any election within Chicago.”

For both the November 2022 election

and the recent municipal election, the Board received nearly 215,000 applications, which marks the highest number of voteby-mail applications in any Chicago municipal election.

While this practice remains a popular option with voters, voting by mail does not minimize or eradicate all voter challenges and obstacles.

Tre King, a Chicago Votes fellow in the Give A Sh*t initiative, highlighted that while voting by mail can accommodate elderly and disabled folks who may have struggled with voting in person in the past, it doesn’t necessarily aid those who are homeless, houseless, or formerly

Dean, whose work focuses on political participation in Illinois, submitted her ballot in the February election via mail and received a rejection from the Chicago Board of Elections because, despite mailing it in a week before Election Day, it was “not received in time” and “not postmarked correctly.”

Prior to that, she received a Republican ballot even though she was not registered with the party.

“If I’m having these problems and I’m considered an election expert in Chicago, what is happening to the rest of the city?” Dean says. “What is happening with all of these votes?”

that have plagued thousands of voters’ ballots.

For one, Dean said that election judges, who usually go through virtual training, need more rigorous, in-person instruction.

“The reality is we need to take a big step back and get the logistics of both voteby-mail and in-person voting and see how many ballots are actually getting turned away,” Dean said.

Dean further examined the timeline of where and how these mail-in votes are being counted since elections are generally determined in the same week of voting.

“If I’m getting a rejection letter a week after election day, are they even trying to find my ballot? How many people are actually going through them?"

While voters can opt in for a permanent mail-in ballot, future plans could change, and Chicagoans could decide that voting in person for a given election may suit their needs and schedule better.

“As of last year, [the Chicago Board of Election] started adding a box to the voteby-mail ballots, and it says, ‘Do you want to opt in for a vote-by-mail ballot forever?’ Basically, if you checkmark that, that is an official ballot application for every election moving forward,” Dean said.

incarcerated.

“Although [voting by mail] does help a lot of people, it does hurt a lot of people. But, for example, [if a voter does not have] a permanent residence or somewhere that you can call home, even if it’s temporary, then that system of mail-in voting may not be right for you,” King said.

“When the Board of Elections does send out vote by mail, they’re probably not getting the addresses of a lot of people with previous convictions,” said Dean. “It would be great to alternate those roles, specifically to make sure that they’re having outreach to people who are most impacted as well.”

And even when people do vote by mail, the process isn’t always seamless or foolproof. In fact, when trying to find residents to talk to for this story, the difficulty of finding mail-in ballot voters was due to the fact that so many voters, young and old, want to see their votes counted. And for them, having that piece of mind comes from in-person voting where the result is confirmed shortly after filling in those bubbles.

To confirm voter identification in Chicago, Bever said, the Board goes through a process of signature verification to determine whether or not a voter’s signature on a mail-in ballot matches voter materials the Board has on file for that registered voter.

“Signatures change over time, and we are trying to work with more voters to have an easier way to update their signatures rather than just coming downtown or sending in a new form,” Bever said. “Out of the 167,000 [vote-by-mail ballots] that we’ve got right now, about 2,000 of those are still rejected based off of those issues. That is a restriction to be mindful of with voters, especially if there is an older voter or a voter with disabilities.”

Dean said Chicago Votes stresses the importance of considering various voting options, with each option having its own pros and cons. However, since the number of vote-by-mail ballots has increased in recent years, she offered suggestions on how to make it a more inclusive and reliable option, while avoiding administrative errors

Dean said she checked the box but forgot all about it when she went to vote in person.

“So when I went to go vote in person this time, the election judge told me, ‘... you filled out a vote-by-mail application; you should not be voting in person,” Dean recalled. “[But] I did not fill out a vote-bymail application [for this election]. So it causes confusion with me and the election judge. And on top of that, the election judge was unaware of what to do.”

But it’s clear some voters will opt for it anyway because it can be convenient and save a trip to the polls. Butler, who loves the accessibility and comfort of voting by mail, printed out fifteen other applications for permanent voting by mail to give to friends, family, and neighbors. From now on, it’s the option she swears by. ¬

Gretchen Sterba is a freelance journalist based in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. She’s written for the Chicago Reader, HuffPost, BUST Magazine, and more. This is her first story for the Weekly

“If I’m having these problems and I’m considered an election expert in Chicago, what is happening to the rest of the city? What is happening with all of these folks?”

—Jen Dean

Mayoral Candidates Debate at the DuSable Museum

The March 9 forum was the candidates’ second since the February election.

BY HYDE PARK HERALD STAFF

At a packed Thursday night mayoral forum at the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center, candidates Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas went toe to toe over property taxes, home ownership and public safety.

The March 9 forum was the candidates’ second since the February election.

In his opening statement, Johnson, a Cook County Commissioner (D-1st), former Chicago Public Schools (CPS) teacher and Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) member, remarked on the growing wealth inequality and poverty on Chicago’s South and West sides, calling it a “tale of two cities.”

“It doesn’t have to be that way. We can build a better, stronger, safer Chicago together. It’s going to take all of us,” Johnson said. “We’ve got to do what American cities do around this country, and that’s invest in people.”

Vallas, a former CEO of CPS, focused his opening remarks on his leadership competency and balancing city budgets.

“I’m running to bring the type of leadership to the fifth floor that can change the dynamic,” said Vallas.

Noting the low rates of home ownership in Black and brown communities compared to Chicago’s predominantly white neighborhoods, moderators asked candidates to provide their solutions for increasing ownership.

In Washington Park, where the forum was held, only thirteen percent of residents are homeowners, according to a 2020 report by the Washington Park Residents’ Advocacy Council. Among the neighborhood’s homeowners, about forty percent are burdened by housing costs.

Both candidates agreed that

homeownership is an important tool for building generational wealth, but laid out two very different fiscal approaches.

Vallas suggested the city use Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funds to subsidize first time homebuyers.

“You could generate billions of dollars that you could invest in affordable housing all over the city,” said Vallas. He touted his tenure as Mayor Richard M. Daley’s municipal budget director and as the head of CPS from 1995 to 2001, saying, “I’ve spent my career balancing multi-billion dollar budgets.”

Johnson said he supports city programs to help with downpayment assistance, like those he and his wife used to purchase their Austin home, and reiterated his commitment to not raise city property taxes.

“I’m going to make sure that we protect homeownership by not only creating a path to home ownership, but let’s make sure that people don’t lose their homes because they can’t afford them because property taxes continue to be the only way the city can balance its budget,” said Johnson. “My administration will not balance the budget on the backs of Black people and working people.”

Vallas, for his part, has said he would cap the city’s property tax levy, but has also been vague as to whether this means he wouldn’t raise property taxes at all.

Regarding public safety solutions, both candidates voiced support for investing in young people, such as jobs programs for high schoolers and more recreational programming.

“There is a direct correlation between youth employment and violence prevention,” said Johnson. “I’ve taught in

Cabrini-Green, I’ve looked into the eyes of young people who are discouraged and don’t see their value.” He added that he would push to double youth employment in the city year-round.

Vallas said he would demand every city agency and affiliated labor union create paid work-study positions for high school students. He also suggested utilizing state and federal funds to reopen closed public schools as “alternative schools” for occupational training programs.

Beyond this, the two differ widely on policing.

Referencing his public safety platform, Johnson talked of community investment and making the Chicago Police Department more efficient. This involves promoting more than two hundred new detectives from CPD’s existing rank and file, redirecting some of the police budget to other services and cracking down on illegal firearms.

He also took a jab at Vallas and his billionaire backer Ken Griffin, who founded the hedge fund Citadel, which also produces firearms. (A major Republican donor, Griffin previously bankrolled Illinois gubernatorial challenger Richard Irvin in the 2022 primary election to the tune of $50 million.)

“Citadel has entered into this race against me,” said Johnson. “We can’t use the politics of old—continuing to put guns in the street, ignoring young people, not solving crimes and asking police officers to do more than their jobs—if we’re going to have a safe city.”

Vallas talked of restoring communitybased policing and beefing up police ranks. “You’ve got to create a supervisory infrastructure, so we have one officer

supervising ten cops, instead of one officer sergeant supervising three hundred.” He also suggested doing away with “redundant training.”

As part of his public safety proposals, Vallas has previously said he wants to hire at least 1,000 more officers and bring back retired and former officers to increase the police force. He has also been a vocal critique of restrictions on police activity, especially police chases.

Asked what they would do to improve public transportation on the South and West sides, both candidates talked of more development near existing transit.

Vallas suggested creating a ten year property tax abatement for property near the red line to spur economic development, “whether its restoration of communitybased social services, retail, whether its food or bars.” He argued that this kind of development, as well as increasing policing on public transit, would spur ridership.

Johnson noted his work on the county board to bring Metra and Pace together on routes, saying he would similarly push the Chicago Transit Authority to create things like bus-only lanes and extend existing bus and train routes to reach more communities. He also advocated for a free ridership program for public school students and seniors.

In two recent polls paid for by Johnson and Vallas’ campaigns, more than fourteen percent of voters are still undecided.

Election Day for the municipal runoffs is Tuesday, April 4. ¬

Herald staff writer Zoe Pharo contributed reporting.

Needed: Garage to Rent-Chgo 006 In need of garage space for my car. Call 773-977-9000

Cleaning Service 070 Best Maids 708-599-7000 House Cleaning Services www.bestmaids.com

Construction 083

JO & RUTH REMODELING We Specialize in Vintage

*Since 1982* 773-575-7220

Movers 123

MICHAEL MOVING and Do Clean-Out Jobs 773.977.9000

Estate Sale 270 Hyde Park Estate Sale 5318 South Greenwood Ave. Sunday, March 26, 10-4 Monday, March 27, 9-1 Tuesday, March 28, 4-7 pottery & antiques. Listed artists more. For Photos go to candacesantiques.com

Apartments/Rooms

HUNTER PROPERTIES

Gorgeous Remodeled Units in a Pristine Courtyard Building!

Studios available now for $1000 per month. Located in the heart of Hyde Park, walking distance to The Museum of Science and Industry, Jackson Park, and The University of Chicago. New Kitchens and Baths, Laundry on Premises, Hardwood Floors, Ceiling Fans – Must See!

Included in Rent, Tenant Responsible for Electric and Cooking Gas. For more information or to make an appointment to view this apartment call Gordan 1-773-908-4330.

773-477-7070 • www.hunterprop.com

MARCH 23, 2023 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 19

WTTW Special Highlights Landmarks Across The City

Emmy award winning writer and host Geoffrey Baer shares the history behind the South Side landmarks featured in the show.

BY KRISTIAN PARKER

WMost Beautiful Places in Chicago” is an hour-long documentary program that shares an intimate look into the unique stories that make these public spaces stand out and why they’re significant to the communities they reside in.

south as the Indiana border and as far north as the Chicago suburb of Oak Park. The special teaches hometown natives and city admirers the beauty that lies in our everyday landmarks, along with the origin stories behind their conception.

treasures in the many neighborhoods of our city by sharing the history and meaning behind them,” said Sandra Cordova Micek, President and CEO of WTTW.

city skyline at sunrise transition into an informative and entertaining narrative by Emmy award-winning writer and producer Geoffrey Baer. The host to discuss his experience filming some of the featured South Side sites.

aired March 7 and is now available to watch (or listen to) online at https://interactive. wttw.com/most-beautiful-places-in-chicago

What were some challenges faced when trying to choose which places to highlight?

The title is intentionally provocative. Did we really find the most beautiful places in Chicago? Of course not. A part of this is that we are hoping to get a conversation

the neighborhood had no parks. It was also extremely meaningful to Ernie, who got to explore his own Chinese American heritage. He had never been to China until he was in his twenties. He obviously learned a lot about his heritage and got to apply this in designing a park in Chinatown. We talk a lot now in Chicago about cleaning the river and creating access to it. The river used to be closed off from the city. This park has a boat dock for the water taxi, a kayak launch, and a fishing pier. They’ve naturalized the river's edge with plantings and a habitat for animals and aquatic creatures. It's just an amazing asset to the neighborhood.

Palmisano Park in Bridgeport originally was a 300-foot deep hole where they quarried limestone for decades. Once the City finished coring the limestone, they started using it as a dump for clean construction debris. It was partly filled when it was suddenly shut down and became a park. Here comes Ernie Wong and his company, and they shoveled up all this debris and made a little mountain out of it planted with prairie plantings. They made a wetland and another area that trickles down to a massive pond, the bottom of these big limestone walls. It’s just amazing that it’s right in the middle of the city. And so there's, you know, an industrial site that had been a scar in the neighborhood. And now it's this beloved open space in a very crowded formerly industrial urban neighborhood.

Way down on the South Side, along the lakefront right where the Calumet River is, there used to be a huge steel mill called Southworks. When it closed down in the early 1990s, they tore it all down. And it's just this big, huge parcel of empty land

Geoffrey Baer at The Rookery.

PHOTO BY LIZ FARINA

along the lakefront. The only things left are these big, old concrete walls. So the City made a part of it a park called Steelworkers Park

When the mill closed they asked a former steelworker and artist Roman Villarreal to design a sculpture for the park. He’d built something as a tribute to the steelworkers and what the steel mill meant to the neighborhood. The sculpture is of a worker surrounded by his family because Roman says what the steel mill meant was family.

What are the similar themes or connections between these spaces and their historical origins?

I think one of the similarities is that each one has a story—a meaningful story to the people who share them with me. Several of them are tied together because of ornaments on buildings that you would walk right by and you'd never notice. The whole second act of the show is about old abandoned industrial areas being transformed into beautiful amenities for the public. Another theme is sacred

spaces and houses of worship.

What was your favorite experience from filming the special?

Well, the show starts with me flying in a little four-passenger airplane out over the lakefront at sunset. I'm an aviation geek; I love flying. So to be able to fly up and down the lakefront for forty-five minutes, with me in one airplane and the cameraman in another right next to us, was a huge thrill for me.

I would say [one] other [thing]: We go to this beautiful brand-new skyscraper near the mouth of the Chicago River called St. Regis tower. We got to go up onto this floor that nobody's allowed to go on. It’s called the blow-through floor because it doesn’t have any windows, so the wind just blows through the building instead of pushing against it and making its way. They allowed us with our cameras out there, and that was quite a thrill. ¬

“Kristian is a writer and visual storyteller, inspired by sharing narratives that positively shift and shape perspectives”

Our thoughts in exchange for yours.

The Exchange is the Weekly’s poetry corner, where a poem or piece of writing is presented with a prompt. Readers are welcome to respond to the prompt with original poems, and pieces may be featured in the next issue of the Weekly

WhenWolves Learn Puppetry

by chima “naira” ikoro

we’d like to assume when a man says get behind me it is for our safety. that he’s shielding us with his body and not forming into a barricade blocking us from our blessings.

i once saw a wolf in shields clothing; he lied through his teeth daily as if it was good for his dental health, as if his words were strings of floss tied around his fingers.

i am unsurprised at how well he can make a puppet dance, he’s no stranger to pulling things in his favor.

get behind me, he’d say stand behind my shadow. it will shield you from the sun, will keep you cool when your own light tries to warm you, will stop you from photosynthesizing so you don’t grow too big for your current pot.

wouldn’t want you to break it. wouldn’t want you to need something else. wouldn’t want you to accidentally discover that there is more. that you can be bigger than him. who will protect you if you outgrow him? who will protect you, an unspoken threat, a challenge, when he demands you get behind him even if you don’t fit back there anymore.

we’d like to assume wolves can be as friendly as dogs but that is a myth. we forget that they agreed not to eat us as long as we fed them.

isn’t every living thing just meat? flesh to be flossed from between teeth, and aren’t you just another thing wrapped around someone’s finger like string?

THIS WEEK'S PROMPT: “WHAT DO YOU REFUSE TO BE DECEIVED BY?”

This could be a poem or a stream-of-consciousness piece. Submissions could be new or formerly written pieces. Submissions can be sent to bit.ly/ssw-exchange or via email to chima.ikoro@southsideweekly.com.

Chima Ikoro is the Weekly’s Community Builder.

FEATURED BELOW IS A READER RESPONSE TO A PREVIOUS PROMPT.

Strides

by vernique dyson

Silence has always felt appreciated in dawns embrace

Like the way nature can barely bare the sound of hustlers, I used to dread mornings

I started my days with cups of tea filled with last night’s tears and raspberry

Mornings ain’t feel new since hopscotch and barrettes

Playgrounds turned to Twitter feeds around the same time I learned being dark-skin ain’t a walk in the park I was lost

Lost somewhere between consumption and capitalism

Found peace in crystal-clear visions of myself before the conditioning Wishes are no longer distant

Dreaming doesn’t just happen in REM

I didn’t just survive I lived

I don’t wish upon stars I walk like I am one

WATCH OUT! IT’S A LANDSLIDE!

by jana weiss

burn the day hang it up turn it off let it slide carry it to the end of the slope let it slide where the last bit of care lingers quietly, stark stretching out unfulfilled touching anger, salt, fear touching feeling to rub scrubby bits off your legs purple dirt

scratching layers of skin etched away falling deep creeping into your flesh can i rise burn the day hang it up turn me down let it slide

i read in a manual that’s how it’s done