May 18, 2023

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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 17

Editor-in-Chief Jacqueline Serrato

Managing Editor Adam Przybyl

Senior Editors 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

Director of

IN CHICAGO

Three new libraries

Three new libraries are coming to Chicago and could be open to the public as soon as late spring 2025, with two being built on the South Side. Chicago Public Libraries announced plans to open libraries in Woodlawn, Humboldt Park, and Back of the Yards. As part of the city’s Invest South/West Initiative, the libraries in Humboldt Park and Back of the Yards will also feature affordable housing and commercial space.

The Back of the Yards library will replace the existing library that is adjacent to the Back of the Yards High School campus. The 16,000 square foot facility will also include a performing arts center, health center, and spaces for non profits like Chicago Commons and Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation. The library will be located at 4630 S. Ashland Avenue and will also be home to the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council headquarters.

IN THIS ISSUE

avery r. young on reminding chicago that things are beautiful, too Chicago’s inaugural Poet Laureate talks about the importance of poetry for young people.

dierdre robinson 4

a tale of two buildings

The 4800 block of S. Drexel Blvd. is an example of the limited options available to members of collectively owned housing.

emeline posner 6

the climb to the fifth floor comic

The mayoral transfer of power, step-by-step. nick merlock jackson 11

Mell Montezuma

Shane Tolentino

Fact Checking: Sky Patterson

Fact Checkers: Kate Linderman

Alani Oyola

Lauren Doan

Christopher Good

Layout Editor Tony Zralka

Special Projects

Coordinator 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

The Woodlawn library will be replacing the Bessie Coleman branch at 731 E. 63rd Street. $18 million in funding will be going towards the branch. Finally, the Humboldt Park library will also be a 16,000 square feet facility at the vacant Pioneer Bank building. The building sits on the corner of North Avenue and Pulaski Road and will house a Latino cultural center, offices for Humboldt Park Family Health, and seventy-five affordable housing units. All three libraries will have an “early childhood active learning space, and programs and spaces for area children, teens and families.”

Save a Lot opens in Englewood

Last Thursday, May 11, Save A Lot opened without fanfare or announcement at 832 W. 63rd Street in Englewood. The store replaces a Whole Foods Market that closed last November. There are six Save A Lot store locations on the South and West Sides. However, the brand, which is owned by Ohio-based company Yellow Banana, has drawn the ire of many Chicagoans. Protestors voiced concerns about the chain’s lack of healthy produce options and unsanitary conditions. Some people said that they’ve seen rotten produce or expired food stocked on Save A Lot shelves.

The Save A Lot’s original opening was scheduled for April 2023 but was delayed for weeks due to community opposition and protests. In early May, the store met with Englewood residents and members of the Residents Association of Greater Englewood (R.A.G.E.) to discuss a way forward, but the store went ahead and opened with no announcement a week later. 16th Ward Alderwoman Stephanie Coleman told the Tribune that she had not been notified of the opening. “How disappointing. They’ve yet again proven that they don’t respect [the] community,” she said.

Joe Canfield, CEO of Yellow Banana, acknowledged and also pushed back against the criticism, stating that some of the complaints about existing stores are “not unfounded.” Canfield highlighted that Save A Lot received $26 million in funding to renovate its stores, including improving refrigeration, fresh food cases, HVAC and more. Half of the funds were provided by the City. Canfield said that Yellow Banana is aiming to complete renovations at all stores by the end of October, with work starting in two weeks on the shuttered Auburn Gresham Save A Lot and on an operating store in West Garfield Park.

city builds support for asylum seekers

The City also creates role for Deputy Mayor for Immigrant, Migrant, and Refugee Rights.

la ciudad de chicago brinda apoyo a los solicitantes de asilo

No hay suficiente dinero federal, estatal ni municipal para enfrentar adecuadamente la creciente crisis humanitaria.

how to help asylum seekers

A list of places to donate money and food for

ayudar a las solicitantes de asilo en chicago

Una lista de lugares para donar dinero y alimentos para los migrantes.

public meetings report A recap of select open meetings at the local, county, and state level.

kim foxx announces she will step down in 2024

Foxx blazed a trail of progressive reforms in the State’s Attorney’s Office. tonia hill, jim faley, the triibe ......... 21

Cover illustration by Shane Tolentino

avery r. young on Reminding Chicago that Things are Beautiful, Too

Chicago’s inaugural Poet Laureate talks about getting into poetry, the importance of poetry for youth, and the hardest thing about his craft.

BY DIERDRE ROBINSON

very r. young has a way with words.

aHe is an award-winning composer, visual artist, teacher, producer, and co-director of the Floating Museum. And now, he’s Chicago’s first poet laureate.

Born in Chicago, young grew up in the Austin neighborhood. A secondgeneration Chicagoan, his grandparents and great-grandparents were all from Lexington, Mississippi.

He expressed an interest in prose in the third grade and honed many of the skills that would prepare him for his future successes by involving himself in creative writing and art clubs at school. young attended Hanson Park Elementary School and Mather High School and graduated with a BA in English from Loyola University.

young burst onto the open mic scene in the mid-90s and moved audiences with a wide array of thought-provoking poetic works often delivered in song, such as “Resurrect Fred,” a homage to Black Panther and slain civil rights leader Fred Hampton.

He would spend the next two decades teaching, sharing, and spreading the joy of poetry to children and adults through vocal performances, films, recordings, and published poetry.

When he's onstage, his powerful voice fills the room and his impassioned words serve as a testimonial that speak to the realities of the Black experience. His infectious gospel sound moves the listener to action.

Established this January, the

Chicago Poet Laureate Program was designed to increase awareness of Chicago’s historic contributions to the literary arts. The program aligns with the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Chicago Public Library and was developed by the Chicago Public Library, the Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, and the Poetry Foundation.

A review committee of experts, writers, educators, and advocates from Chicago’s creative community scored nominee applications, conducted interviews, and prepared recommendations of three ranked finalists for final review and appointment by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot. On April 24, young was announced the winner.

young will serve a two-year term, during which he will write new poems, create a public program series, and serve as an ambassador for the city’s literary and creative communities. The appointment comes with a $50,000

Following the news of his appointment, the Weekly caught up with young to ask him about the relevancy of poetry, the magic of his craft, and how it all began.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The first book of poems you read was I Am The Darker Brother: An Anthology of Modern Poems by Negro Americans by Arnold Adoff. Who introduced you to

avery r. young.

ILLUSTRATION BY SHANE TOLENTINO

the book in the first place?

That’s a deep memory. It was at the library, I believe, is where I first saw the book. It was either at the library or my uncle gave it to me…No, because my uncle gave me Before the Mayflower. It was the library where I saw I Am the Darker Brother. This is so funny, the things you start to recall once you’re asked a more specific question. I believe the librarian at the time, Miss Thompson, she would do all of the fixtures or the displays at this particular North Austin branch, and she was putting out these books.

It was just something about the cover. The cover is way different than it is now. I forget whose artwork it was that was on the cover, but it was just like a sketch. Like what I call Paul Robeson singing “Ol’ Man River,” but it wasn’t Paul Robeson. It was a Negro. It was just a sketch of a Negro. You know, whatever: Negro man… but kinda like this ivory book with this like copper or ink sketch and I Am the Darker Brother and I thought it was a novel, but she was like, “No, these are poems.” And I was like, “Okay,” and I just started reading poems. I just liked the poems— specifically Sonya Sanchez. I fell in love with Sonya Sanchez and Mari Evans, more specifically, but definitely Mama Sonya.

What struck you the most about those particular authors?

Mama Sonya was definitely the way in which she was spelling out “black”. I mean, to this day I spell it b-l-k, right, but that was what I thought was symbolic because Baba Haki (at the time, Don L. Lee) wrote a poem about, you know, he was cool, and towards the end of the poem he’s talking about all about him being cool, cool, you know, icebox cool. The last line of the poem is like, ‘to be black is to be very, very hot.’ So, right then and there, I understood the omission of the “a” and the “c” in the word was an intentional omission of those two letters. Look, I’ve been a nerd all my life. I totally dug it. Even as an eight-year-old, it blew my mind. Your calling is your calling.

What is the hardest part about being a poet?

The hardest part about being a poet is getting yourself in a position to dedicate the necessary time it takes to actually do the craft. I don’t know no other way to do poetry but to be still and listen, and write it down, type it out, or whatever people choose to do. And the hardest part is really finding a way in which to get yourself, your life into a position where it’s what you can literally do.

I was just telling this to another poet yesterday when he called me and was like, “Hey, um you know I need to finish some work.” I said, “Well, look, it ain’t gonna get done until you do it, and I can’t tell you nothing mo. Ain’t gon’ get done.” When I was figuring out that

do if all he had to do with his life was write? Or had at least the capacity to go somewhere for an extension of time and really focus on his writing and create… and then he could go back and jump into the world and do what he does because he really did take the discipline to go somewhere and write for about a month, about six weeks or so. And, the Universe said, “Oh, this is what he needs, and this is what the universe has provided.” And now that I’m poet laureate, it is expected for me to write something, to create something and the Universe said, “We gon’ give you some mo’ time to do it.”

But really to answer your question, the hardest part is really getting yourself in a position where you can just do the work. You don’t feel like you have to work another job to pay bills. [It’s] giving you

And we understand what that means but what we also understand is what we’re looking at. We’re looking at people say whoever just got shot and murdered here is worth this level of reverence, is worth this level of ornament. And, just like the three wise men and the shepherds came and gave all the frankincense and myrrh and all the other gifts to Christ when he was born, we ‘gon lay things down to let somebody know that somebody lived, not just died. This is a place where, yeah somebody died here, but that person lived, had a whole life, and a whole bunch of people now that’s mourning ‘cause they love him. Or they feel for those that love him or love them. I’m talking about the boys and the girls.

What are some of the benefits of exposing young people to poetry?

neckbone was even gonna be a book and that I had like a hard deadline, I was like, “Okay, I’ll give it four hours from 12am to 4am. Okay. I’ll go to sleep. Then I’ll go out into these streets the whole day and do everything that I’m doing and that book was like, “Okay, if you say so.” neckbones just kept saying, “Go to bed, go to bed! Look here dude, if you want me to show up, you gotta cut all that off and I promise you if you cut it off, I’ll come. But I know what kinda life you’re living. I know you can’t be up in the mountains too long… and you crazy to think that you can write a book and you live on a main city street with all these cars and trucks passing by.”

And I said, “Okay, this is what I’m gonna do, I’m gonna go,” and just like the book said, it came and I was cool. So that’s the hardest part but once that happened, I’m trying to tell you, Dee, once it happened it sent the message to the universe: oh, this dude needs just to be writing. What else could this dude

a space where your talent makes room for you. Getting yourself where you understand your value, so you don’t have to accept a gig just to accept a gig. You know what I’m saying? You should be doing nothing for exposure. You should be doing everything with a plan and that is what I would tell anybody.

In a world where there is so much unrest, violence, social injustice, and racism, where do you think poetry fits in?

Poetry is the reminder that things are beautiful too. Not just fucked up, but beautiful too. Even if it’s a poem about the fucked-up shit… what’s that line in a poem, it has something to do with the fact that, you know, Black people can take—we flip murder sites into installations. We ‘shole know we can do that. We can mark a space with teddy bears and flowers, and candles and totally beautify that space aesthetically.

If I send you this poem that this young lady sent me. She’s a young lady from Hyde Park High School. I was performing “emmett (til da remix)” at the poetry festival at the Logan Center on the South Side. And I’m in the piece asking who’s gonna write for Emmett? Who’s gonna write a poem for Emmett? Kids are raising their hands and I said to (I know the teacher, a good friend) one of the teachers over at the school. And I was like, “Hey, whoever writes a poem about Emmett Till, send it to her, and then she’ll make sure that I get it.” And she emailed me probably Monday, she emailed me this poem. My God! Hmm, hmm, hmm! The psychological benefit, ‘cause you know I’m an educator. I’ve taught consultive-ly what is the real benefit in the midst of their development. Especially when you’re talking about somebody between seventh and twelfth grade, a lot of what they’re going through is self-inspection—what about me is or ain’t what everybody else around me is doing. The focus is on me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me. And it’s necessary because if you don’t figure you out, you don’t figure out what to do in the world.

Poetry is a way in which young folks are figuring themselves out. ‘Cause, if you don’t do that, you ain’t no asset to the world. No shape, form, or fashion.

“You should be doing nothing for exposure. You should be doing everything with a plan and that is what I would tell anybody.” — avery r. young

You know, I like to tell people I live by design, and poetry and art and the exposure to the arts, in general, is the only time in their school day where whatever they think about a thing matters above anything else. All of that other instruction and pedagogies are theories which people made up years and years and years ago. Shakespeare was written years and years and years and years ago. The Old Man and the Sea was written years ago. Romeo and Juliet. All of that. James Baldwin. All of that was written years and years and years ago. And it had nothing to do with them.

When you give a person access to their voice, they learn to start making decisions on how they’re going to move and navigate through the world. They make the decisions. You give them the power to design who or what they will be. They get to do The Glitch and The Matrix and be who they say they will be. Or who they say they are.

Is there a story behind spelling your name in lowercase letters?

Yes. bell hooks and e.e. cummings and other authors who put lowercase letters. I saw bell hooks and then I was like, okay, that’s what I want to do. And, then that’s when I learned the other ones that did it. A lot of journalists and editors, you know, it gives them headaches like it's my problem. Madonna’s not a proper name but that’s what y’all write in the newspaper. Madonna. So it is what it is. Stop trippin’…You know, all a poet can do is write what comes out of their hand. Nothing that you create can come out of anybody else’s hand.

How long have you expressed your name in lowercase letters? At what point did you make the changeover?

See that’s a very good question because it all kinda happened at once. ‘Cause, Smokey, who was my poetic partner at the time in the group we called

Innervisions—after Stevie Wonder’s album—she wrote on a sheet of paper ‘avery r. young’ and I believe she wrote, ‘avery r. young’ because understanding me and my personality, even if I would have just heard ‘avery’ (and most of the time, I am the only ‘avery’ in the room just in general). And, so, had I heard ‘avery’, I would have just thought it was just somebody named ‘avery’ would have just kept lollygagging and probably would have just walked up out of the store. But when I heard ‘avery r. young’, I was like “oh that’s me,” and, I just was like, I’m gonna do this lowercase. ‘Cause, I’m looking at the open mic list and everybody’s kinda writing their name, you know, in the standard American English usage but then when I wrote my name in lowercase lettering… it stood out, even on the open mic list. It was just something I did so my name would stand out on the list of other poets. ¬

You can learn more about avery r. young at averyryoung.com.

Dierdre Robinson is a writer and accounting manager in Chicago. She has a BA in Journalism from Michigan State University. She last wrote about the Harper Theater reopening for the Weekly.

A Tale of Two Buildings

BY EMELINE POSNER

This is the third and final part of the series, What Happened to the Tudor Gables?

When Johnnie Railey looks out the window of her apartment in the senior home on 48th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, she sees the back of her former home, the Tudor Gables, and wonders what’s to come of it.

Across the alley, the rusty-red brick of the building’s back walls, a stretch of roof, and the tips of the white ornamental spires rise from the courtyard building’s front. Three of the spires are still missing, as they have been for years.

The Tudor Gables, a longtime Blackowned housing cooperative on Drexel Boulevard, has been empty now for two years, undergoing renovations. But Railey still gushes when she talks about the building, with its red-and-white stucco facades and the slate tile roofs that face the boulevard. “I just never seen a building designed as beautiful as the Tudor Gables,” she said. Railey bought into the cooperative in 1988 and for years helped run a building support group called the “Benevolent Club.” Now eighty-eight, she thought she’d live out the rest of her days there.

Then, in the fall of 2020, the co-op

board received an off-market offer on the building. The board president urged members to vote to sell, citing financial distress and fear of foreclosure. “It was just a shocking thing,” Railey said of the sale. “Everybody seemed to love [the building] so well.” Some members told the Herald/Weekly they felt serious reservations, or grief, or anger, about the prospect of selling, but in the end, the vote to sell passed.

When the board of the Gables signed off on closing documents in March 2021, it threw a spotlight on the health of the neighborhood’s collectively owned housing.

From the 1950s up until the sale of the Tudor Gables, there were more owners than renters on the west side of the 4800 Drexel block. In two years, that ratio flipped.

In 2019, the city pulled the next door townhome association, along with another association several blocks to the south, into the Troubled Buildings Initiative, an interagency program that allows the city to intervene in at-risk or abandoned buildings. Townhome associations are another form of collectively owned housing, or commoninterest development (CID), as they’re often referred to in legal circles. Both

With one co-op sold and the neighboring townhome association in the city’s Troubled Building Initiative, the block is an example of the limited options available to members of the city’s collectively owned housing.

associations have been struggling for years with building code violations and operations, according to city spokespeople.

These three buildings aren’t alone in struggling to keep up. Housing experts say that CIDs across the city have become vulnerable to failure as their buildings and original owners age. In the last decade, that stress has been compounded by developer interest. As interest rates dipped and it became profitable to convert collectively owned buildings into rentals, developers zeroed in on CIDs, buying out hundreds of condo buildings across the city.

The result is that CIDs, which have long been avenues for building wealth by low- and medium-income Chicagoans, are increasingly being replaced by apartments, with rents far outpacing what many can afford.

Now, as 312 Properties prepares to lease out 116 units in the former Gables co-op, a city-selected developer is getting started on renovations of five vacant units at the sixty-four-unit Drexel House and Gardens next door. The two buildings offer diverging visions for the future struggling CIDs may face, and with them the fate of some of the city’s affordable housing.

The 4800 block of Drexel Boulevard isn’t an outlier in Kenwood. More than one of every four housing units in Kenwood is a condo, according to DePaul University’s Institute for Housing Studies. If you factor in units in nearby co-ops and townhome associations, which are classified differently, close to one in every three housing units in the neighborhood is under some form of collective ownership.

Co-ops, condos and townhome associations have different ownership structures and histories. But what they have in common is that they’re often more accessible to a wide spread of people: single-parent households, young people, lower-income families, retirees and others living on fixed-incomes. Buying a share or unit in an association tends to cost much less than a standalone singlefamily home, and the collective structure allows members to share the burden of repairs and maintenance, reducing each individual household’s share of expenses.

Cooperatives have often been singled out as the most promising CID for expanding affordability. A 2004 report from the University of Illinois-Chicago’s Voorhees Center found that co-ops, and in particular affordable co-ops, were an important part of the affordable housing landscape in Chicago. At the time, city rents and single-family home prices were already outpacing wages. As a result, lowerincome residents were at risk of becoming rent-burdened or displaced from the city altogether. Co-ops, the report concluded, offered a way for residents to create a

piecemeal efforts by different entities to provide policy support. But in the time since, previous avenues of federal support for co-ops have ended or waned. The grassroots organization that requested the 2004 report, the Chicago Mutual Housing Network, folded several years ago, ending a source of support.

“We really need to promote the possibility to gain equity from [people’s] investment in housing,” said Zelalem, who is currently co-director of the Voorhees Center. “Some of the co-ops that exist today are really not supported by policy,

a payout for their unit and relocating. But if they rejected the offer and the building continued to struggle financially, they would risk possible foreclosure and likely have to relocate anyway—potentially without compensation for their shares.

But after the vote to sell passed in September 2020, what they weren’t expecting was for the transfer of ownership to be disruptive and traumatic. Without warning, members said the board withheld around 40 percent of members’ payouts in case of tax liability. After 312 Properties assumed ownership of the building in March 2021, they gave members three months to relocate from the building.

Some members were unable to locate new housing in that timeframe, and stayed in the building past the move-out deadline, as the Herald previously reported. Residents said that 312’s contractors took the doors off the building’s main entrances—allowing scavengers to come in and remove items from the building—shut off utilities and began a gut rehab while people were still living in the building.

In a statement, 312 wrote that “rehab work of vacant units started when there were over 112 of 116 empty apartments with proper plans, permits, and procedures in place,” and denied that utilities were ever shut off at the property. Public records show that a no-water complaint was filed via 311 on July 16, and that the Department of Water responded to a water shut-off request on August 2; two residents reported still living in the building at the time.

bubble of affordability in an increasingly unaffordable city.

The report also found that the city’s existing co-ops had sustained themselves despite lacking educational resources, access to banks that would lend, and policies that would support their development and maintenance. The authors recommended a number of policy changes to expand opportunities for coop ownership, on both the city and state levels.

The report’s project manager, Yittayih Zelalem, said that there have been small,

but by the commitment of the initial owners who fought to bring it to fruition.”

The Tudor Gables is one of at least six co-ops to sell in the last decade, data from the Assessor’s Office show. All but one of the buildings are on the South Side, between Bronzeville and South Shore.

The sale of the Tudor Gables was not an easy decision for members to vote on. Some said that they voted to sell because they felt they had no real choice. Accepting the offer from 312 would mean receiving

It’s not just at the Gables that residents have questioned 312’s commitment to safe housing and tenants’ rights. At another building just two blocks down from the Gables, former tenants detailed a similar transfer of ownership process, alleging that the company constructively evicted tenants with valid leases by performing extensive interior demolition and shutting off utility service to the building. The case, filed in 2019, was settled under a confidential agreement in January 2021.

The company owns five properties on Drexel, and eleven others in nearby neighborhoods, according to property records. At some of these sixteen

“We really need to promote the possibility to gain equity from [people’s] investment in housing.” —Yittayih Zelalem

Members of the Tudor Gables Building Corporation gather around to vote on the sale of the building. PHOTO PROVIDED

buildings, tenants have reported serious rodent infestations, leaks, mold, sewage backups and unsecured entrances, as well as unresponsiveness and inadequate repairs from management. Last December, tenants of the 4520 S. Drexel Blvd. building reported that the heat went out and pipes burst during an extreme cold snap over Christmas weekend, flooding several apartments, NBC reported. Earlier this year, the city filed a lawsuit against 312 for the housing conditions at the 4520 building.

312 co-owner Raphael Lowenstein said that they take building issues and tenant concerns seriously and are working to resolve the lawsuits. “[The pipe ruptures] was an unfortunate situation that we’ve learned a lot from … We’ve remedied almost everything on that docket and are hoping to be out of court soon,” Lowenstein said.

When asked why tenants should want to live in the Tudor Gables despite the company’s track record with building code violations, co-owners Raphael and Ariel Lowenstein said they have improved upon construction methods and contractor relations. That, they say, will be reflected in improvements to the building’s intercom wiring, porches, and plumbing systems. They also plan to have maintenance staff living on site at the Tudor Gables.

(In May 2022 the city cited 312 for using unlicensed plumbers during rehab work at the Gables. 312 said that this was due to a “miscommunication” and have since come into compliance. “We only work with licensed contractors,” an emailed statement reads.)

“We want to bring the building back to, you know, being just a beautiful building on the block that has a great story and a great history,” Raphael Lowenstein said.

The Gables wasn’t technically an affordable or limited-equity coop, the type of co-op that the Voorhees Center focused on in its 2004 report. But it was de facto affordable. For the majority of the last two decades of the co-op’s operations, the monthly assessment that members paid hovered between $300 and $600, depending on

members across various income levels, including those on fixed incomes, to live there comfortably.

Kenwood, like the rest of Chicago, has seen rents and property taxes continue to rise. The average rent in Chicago hit a high-water mark in November 2022 at $1,925, Forbes reported, and rental rates on Drexel aren’t far behind.

When the Gables opens as rental housing, apartments will range from $1,650 to $2,500, the building’s new

at the Paramour Apartments, 4850 S. Drexel Blvd., Mac Properties rents its units for about the same rate, according to the company’s listings.

As wages remain stagnant, residents’ housing burden is increasing.

Roderick Wilson, executive director of the community organization Lugenia Burns Hope Center, says that this is a major concern. In nearby Bronzeville, Wilson says he has been hearing from renters about dramatic rent hikes,

sometimes as high as twenty percent.

Wilson says that the combination of market-driven rents and an unlivable minimum wage produces displacement and neighborhood instability. “When we have rising costs, you have shifting populations, people become transient,” Wilson said. “Who can afford it now can’t afford it next year.”

Many former Gables members moved out of the neighborhood. Some relocated to nearby Bronzeville, others to Hyde Park or South Shore, and others yet

Railey, the Gables owner of forty years, said she felt lucky to be able to relocate nearby, to the senior home across the alley. “It was just a miracle,” she said. “I certainly was then hoping that I wouldn’t have … to move into a new neighborhood that I didn’t know anything about.”

As rents and property taxes rose and new developments were approved, neighborhood leaders saw it as an essential time to intervene in other CIDs showing signs of crisis.

“There’s a legitimate fear that people are being displaced,” said Prentice Butler, chief of staff for outgoing Ald. Sophia King (4th). “We have to make sure we are stabilizing and protecting longtime residents from the burden of rising taxes.”

Back in 2019, the ward office started meeting with residents of two struggling townhome associations on Drexel to chart a path forward. That led to coordination with the Department of Housing to pull the two buildings into court and, through the city’s Troubled Building Initiative, re-establish board leadership and rehab parts of the properties.

One of these two townhomes sits directly to the north of the Tudor Gables building. The Drexel House and Gardens was built in 1954-55 by architect Bertrand Goldberg, who wanted to show that it was possible to create housing that was well-designed and affordable, without subsidies. The sixty-four townhomes fill a parcel that takes up a third of the block. Two long rows of townhomes run down the parcel’s center, with four smaller pods of townhomes to the north and the south. In archival pictures, the development looks utopian, like a campus or a mini-

Tudor Gables in March 2023.

PHOTO BY JASON SCHUMER

Paramour Apartments, 4850 S. Drexel Blvd.

PHOTO BY JASON SCHUMER

city.

In the last decades, Butler said, the buildings have accumulated code violations and complaints from ward constituents alleging that drug dealing was happening on the property. The Drexel House and Gardens had several units boarded up, and the wall at the property’s back edge was crumbling. He also said that the association was not functioning as it was supposed to.

Affordable housing nonprofit Neighborhood Housing Services is acting as a developer. Earlier this year, it acquired ownership of five vacant units, property records show. When the rehab is completed, the units will be sold to home buyers “at affordable rates,” according to a Department of Housing spokesperson.

The Center for Shared Ownership (CSO) has been working with residents to re-establish board leadership. The center, which is acting as a consultant in the process, is a recent partnership between two longtime nonprofits focused on community development and affordable housing: the Chicago Rehab Network and the Chicago Community Loan Fund.

The two organizations joined forces in 2019, recognizing a “void” in resources for owners of CIDs, said CRN executive director Kevin Jackson.

The CSO’s focus is to provide education and support for CIDs and their association boards. For Jackson, that’s an essential first step toward building stabilization. Without strong governance and financial management, he said, it can be virtually impossible to secure a loan. He estimates the center has been contacted by forty CIDs to date.

It’s just one step toward the goal of preserving affordable housing.

“A shortage of affordable housing in and of itself requires an incredible, rollup-your-sleeves [approach],” Jackson said. But as investors snap up more residential properties, he says there’s need for more policy to help promote CID ownership.

In July 2022, City Council approved a pilot program to help condo and coop owners in South Shore refinance and rehab their units. The ordinance was introduced as part of a multi-pronged effort to minimize ongoing displacement

due to the housing market and the development of the under-construction Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park. This measure, Jackson said, is a promising first step. “For the city to come in and say, ‘We understand [those concerns], what’s the alternative?’ We hope to grow that,” Jackson said.

Anti-displacement actions around

the incoming Obama Presidential Center have been concentrated in Woodlawn and South Shore. But several large developments in Kenwood and nearby Bronzeville have been announced or had ground broken, raising the specter of change and questions about what that change will bring.

The city has broken ground on

the $3.8 billion Bronzeville Lakefront megadevelopment to the north, and Northwestern University is moving forward with its $100 million outpatient facility on 48th and Cottage Grove, less than one block from the Drexel House and Gardens.

“I’m concerned about the neighborhood becoming unaffordable,” said Cornelius Rogers, an owner in the Drexel House and Gardens since 2019. He said he wants the association to stabilize without becoming unaffordable. “I want all the units to be occupied,” Rogers said. “I want to make sure that it’s affordable, that it works.”

Once the rehabbed units are completed, the money from the sales will go back to the association and build a reserve fund, Butler said. He’s hopeful that it will represent a step in the right direction for both neighborhood development and preservation of affordable housing.

There’s no guarantee that city intervention would have altered the course of the Tudor Gables. The co-op had recently gotten out of housing court, obtained a mortgage, and done millions in rehabilitation work before it sold.

Jackson hopes that the CSO’s services will help other CIDs from getting to the point where they have little choice but to sell—and that the city and state will consider policies that fund and support new and existing cooperatives. That might increase housing security for long-time residents across ages and income groups.

Two years after the sale of the Gables, Johnnie Railey is one of the only former members who continue to live on the block. There’s a hint of incredulity in her voice as she talks about watching the transformation of the Gables from her current home, in the senior home on Cottage Grove.

In the early 2000s, Railey watched the senior home be built from the ground up. “I never had no idea that I would be living in one of the apartments,” she said. ¬

Emeline Posner is a contributor to the Weekly

Drexel House and Gardens 1964.

CHICAGO HISTORY MUSEUM, HEDRICH-BLESSING COLLECTION

Drexel House and Gardens, 2023.

PHOTO BY JASON SCHUMER

The Climb to the Fifth Floor

The mayoral transfer of power, step-by-step.

BY NICK MERLOCK JACKSON

City Builds Support for Asylum Seekers

BY RYLAND PIETRAS

As more and more migrants arrive from Latin America, the City, its residents and the migrants themselves are unsure of where they will be housed. Days before the end of her term, former Mayor Lori Lightfoot declared a humanitarian crisis. Mayor Brandon Johnson has begun addressing the issue on his first day.

The shuttered Wadsworth Elementary School in Woodlawn has been used as a migrant shelter since the beginning of February. As of April 25, the total number of migrants sheltered at Wadsworth was 496, with 428 of them being males and sixty-eight being females.

This solution was not without pushback from Alderwomen Jeanette Taylor (20th), Michelle Harris (8th), nor many of their constituents. Taylor said she was never informed by the Lightfoot administration that it would be setting up an encampment there. Taylor said she asked for a conversation back in October, shortly after buses full of migrants from Texas sent by Gov. Greg Abbott began arriving in Chicago, but she never received one.

“Time and time again I wanted us to have a conversation about where these camps were in the community and how we could help [the administration],” said Taylor. “It just seems like we picked places and we decided, or we didn’t get the decision, and the administration dropped the ball with telling folks where these camps would be.”

Harris made her opposition clear at the beginning of a City-organized community meeting held at South Shore International College Prep on May 4. Harris said she was on vacation a week before the meeting when she received a call from the City

informing her of its intention to use the former South Shore High School in her ward as a respite center.

A respite center is akin to a pitstop where those seeking shelter can have a chair to sit on, a place to decompress, a hot shower and a meal. Often they wait until a bed in a shelter becomes available.

“We recognize this is a humanitarian crisis, but while this crisis may constitute an emergency for the City of Chicago, it does not constitute an emergency for the South Shore community or the residents of the 8th Ward,” said Harris.

The problem of providing shelter for migrants has been so great that according to the City, as of May 4, at least 200 had been sleeping in or occupying the entrances and vestibules of police stations around the city because they have nowhere else to go.

According to the Mayor’s Office, there are seven shelters and three respite centers across the city. As respite centers are intended to be temporary, the City will only be providing these basic amenities.

However, the City has partnered with Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and City Colleges of Chicago to provide ESL classes, said Charles Mayfield, interim Chief Operations Officer of CPS.

Additionally, Mayfield said CPS will set up welcome centers for families and students where “they will be assessed and then placed at an appropriate school.”

The former South Shore High School will be used as a respite center.

According to Kaila Lariviere of Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC) a phased approach will utilize only the first floor of the school. With this approach, the respite center could fit anywhere from 250 to 500 migrants at a time.

Lariviere said the City has evaluated over 200 buildings across the city using various criteria. She said in order for a building to be approved for use as a shelter site it needs: to be large enough to accommodate the population, to have functional plumbing and showers, to have

a functional kitchen with refrigerators and microwaves and to be handicap accessible.

Neither the Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS) nor the Mayor’s Office provided South Side Weekly with a list of locations and facilities that were considered as potential shelters.

The respite center in South Shore is expected to be more balanced on the gender spectrum because it is intended to provide refuge to families, not just predominantly male individuals, as the shelter in Woodlawn has seen.

There is not a determined amount of time for how long each individual’s stay is, as they will have to go through the immigration relief process and then receive work authorization, both of which can be bogged down in the bureaucratic process.

At a March 15 City Council meeting, the Council accepted an annual appropriation of $20 million from the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) to be directed to the DFSS. DFSS is the department in charge of providing homeless services and, in this case, migrant services.

The majority of that fund, $16 million, supports shelter staffing and $2.4 million is intended for meals across 11 City-run shelters operating in 2023, including Wadsworth. The remaining $1.6 million are allocated to supporting costs of lodging new arrivals at other locations.

An amendment to that fund, Fund No. 925, emerged out of a City Council Committee on Budget and Government Operations meeting. Budget Director Susie Park proposed amending it by adding $51 million to it from a $1 billion 2021 budget surplus. It now awaits passage at the next City Council meeting on May 24.

New proposed subcommittee and additional funding a good start, but far more will be needed to address the growing humanitarian crisis.

The old South Shore High School, 7627 S. Constance Ave.

PHOTO FROM GOOGLE MAPS.

IMMIGRATION

Additionally, the City received $4.3 million in federal funding on May 5 to help alleviate the pressures of sheltering and staffing. The State of Illinois received the same amount of funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Emergency Food and Shelter Program.

The money is welcome, although a drop in the bucket when considering that Chicago asked for between $38.9 million and $66.7 million.

There are approximately forty DFSScontracted staff supporting the shelter operations during the day and twenty-three overnight.

Many community members are taking issue with the fact that the City has not provided enough resources to its local residents, but is able to provide them to migrants, particularly when some of the neighborhoods that they have are placed in, such as Woodlawn and South Shore, have experienced disinvestment for decades.

When looking at the resources the City sets aside for Chicagoans, the 2023 Chicago Budget Ordinance allocates $10.6 million for all of the positions and salaries of DFSS and $37.3 million to Homeless Services across various departments including the Department of Public Health and the CTA.

Since the end of August 2022, Chicago has received 8,100 migrants with seventyfive to a hundred arriving daily. That number is expected to grow exponentially after the Covid-era policy Title 42 expired on May 11.

Crime and safety around the neighborhood was a major concern of many residents at the community meeting. Residents related multiple stories of having called the police to report crimes only to be told that there were more urgent matters. Sometimes they would wait up to an hour before an officer would arrive.

The former South Shore High School was being used as a police training academy that many residents welcomed. Training for police and firefighters is planned to continue at the recently opened academy on the West Side.

A lawsuit by Natasha Dunn, J. Darnell Jones and “South Shore neighbors” argues that the City is violating the terms of its lease agreement with Chicago Public Schools by using the site as a migrant shelter instead of a police academy, according to the Hyde Park Herald. A hearing is expected soon.

At the meeting, one resident raised the issue of migrants receiving background checks before entering neighborhoods. It was one of many concerns and statements that were rooted in anti-immigrant rhetoric, including a sign that read “Build the Wall 2024,” and references to individuals seeking asylum as “illegals”.

Those seeking asylum are fleeing from persecution and violence in their home countries and are seeking refuge in the United States through lawful means. After Title 42 expired, the country’s border policy reverted back to the long-standing

surveillance, the University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) serves as a secondary law enforcement agency in an extended patrol area that includes Wadsworth School.

“As a neighbor in the Woodlawn community, the University is aware of the City’s decision to house asylum seekers at the Wadsworth School, as well as the ongoing dialogue between the City and community on this issue,” said a UCPD spokesperson.

As for the area around South Shore High School, 4th District Commander

Region of the Department of Planning and Development, said a total of $127 million dollars has been approved for different developments in the area over the next couple of years, including the Thrive Exchange and the Regal Mile Studio.

Ald. Maria Hadden of the 49th Ward on the North Side, who reopened a shuttered park fieldhouse to use a respite center, suggested using larger facilities like McCormick Place— which has 1,200 unused beds from Covid-era temporary housing— or vacant box stores, like the old Kmart in Gage Park.

IDHS canceled its plans to open the former Kmart after State Rep. Angelica Guerrero-Cuellar and Alderwoman Silvana Tabares expressed concern about the safety or readiness of the facility.

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration did not respond to the Weekly’s request for comment, but on May 15, upon being sworn in, he signed four executive orders—one of which calls for a deputy mayor for immigrant, migrant, and refugee rights.

The order “makes the new role responsible for the coordination and communication between all applicable City departments and officials related to the City’s efforts to support newly arrived and established immigrants, refugees, and migrants…and efforts to address immediate needs and long-standing policy and programmatic goals to ensure the efficacy of Chicago’s status as a welcoming and sanctuary city.”

Title 8, which grants individuals seeking asylum a lawful pathway into the country, in accordance with international law.

Nubia Willman, Director of the Office of New Americans, said, “When they come here, they also have to maintain certain behaviors because if they want to be able to apply for asylum, they cannot have a criminal record.”

When an individual crosses the border they enter into what is called humanitarian parole, which “is granted to a foreign national (who is otherwise inadmissible) to temporarily enter the United States due to an emergency and urgent humanitarian reason or significant public benefit,” she said.

In addition to increased CPD

Keith Milmine said it is receiving additional help from the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, the Illinois Department of Corrections and Community Safety Teams. “[The] area is seeing more law enforcement resources than [anywhere] else in my district,” said Milmine.

Residents have taken issue with the fact that money is being directed to shelters when they have not seen similar levels of investment in their communities for decades. “We do not hear from City officials until election time,” said Rosey Enhoyne, who is a member of the 74th & Merrill block club.

However, Lisa Washington, the Supervising Planner for the Southeast

In his inauguration speech that morning, Johnson gave a message of unity to a packed arena: “We get to tell a different story…We don’t want our story to be told that we were unable to house the unhoused or provide safe harbor for those who are seeking refuge here. Because there’s enough room for everyone in the City of Chicago, whether you are seeking asylum or you are looking for a fully funded neighborhood. ¬

If you believe there is a migrant site worth considering, you can fill out a DFSS online form.

Jacqueline Serrato contributed to this story.

Ryland Pietras majored in Communications, Media & Theater at Northeastern Illinois University and hosts a weekly radio show. He previously wrote about the final mayoral forums

“There’s enough room for everyone in the City of Chicago, whether you are seeking asylum or you are looking for a fully funded neighborhood.” — Mayor Brandon Johnson

Diego (center), who traveled to Chicago from Ecuador, speaks with Woodlawn resident Paula Gean as they get served during the First Presbyterian Church's community banquet, 6400 S. Kimbark Ave., on Saturday evening, April 15, 2023. PHOTO BY MARC C. MONAGHAN FOR HYDE PARK HERALD.

La Ciudad de Chicago brinda apoyo para los solicitantes de asilo

No

Amedida que llegan más solicitantes de asilo de Latinoamérica, la Municipalidad, sus residentes y los propios inmigrantes se sienten inseguros sobre dónde serán alojados. Días antes del final de su mandato, la alcaldesa Lori Lightfoot declaró una crisis humanitaria. Y el nuevo alcalde Brandon Johnson ha empezado a abordar la situación en su primer día.

La vieja Escuela Primaria Wadsworth del barrio Woodlawn se ha utilizado como albergue para inmigrantes desde principios de febrero. Hasta el 25 de abril, el número de migrantes albergados en Wadsworth era de 496, de los cuales 428 eran hombres y 68 mujeres.

Esta solución no fue sin la oposición de las concejalas Jeanette Taylor (10°) y Michelle Harris (8°), ni de muchos de sus constituyentes. Taylor dijo que nunca fue informada por la administración de Lightfoot que se establecería un campamento allí. Dijo que pidió una conversación en octubre, poco después de que autobuses llenos de migrantes de Texas enviados por el gobernador Greg Abbott comenzaron a llegar a Chicago, pero nunca recibió una.

“Una y otra vez quise que tuviéramos una conversación sobre dónde se encontraban estos campamentos en la comunidad y cómo podíamos ayudar [a la administración]”, dijo Taylor. “Parece que eligieron los lugares y decidieron, o no nos dijeron la decisión, y la administración metió la pata al decirle a la gente dónde estarían estos campamentos”.

Harris dejó clara su oposición al

comienzo de una reunión comunitaria organizada por la Municipalidad el 4 de mayo en la escuela South Shore International College Prep. Harris dijo que estaba de vacaciones una semana antes de la reunión cuando recibió una llamada de la Municipalidad informándole de su intención de utilizar la secundaria South Shore High School en su distrito como centro de descanso.

Un centro de descanso es un lugar

menos 200 de inmigrantes habían estado durmiendo u ocupando las entradas y vestíbulos de las comisarías de policía de la ciudad porque no tenían otro sitio adonde ir.

Según la Alcaldía, hay siete albergues y tres centros de descanso en la ciudad. Dado que los centros de descanso son temporales, la Municipalidad sólo proporcionará estos servicios básicos. Sin embargo, la Municipalidad se ha

Comunicaciones de Chicago (OEMC, por sus siglas en inglés), se utilizará en fases el primer piso de la escuela. Con este planteamiento, el centro de descanso podría recibir entre 250 y 500 inmigrantes a la vez.

Lariviere dijo que la Ciudad ha evaluado más de 200 edificios, utilizando diversos criterios. Para que un edificio sea aprobado para su uso como un albergue necesita: ser lo suficientemente grande para la población en cuestión, tener plomería y duchas funcionales, tener una cocina con refrigeradores y microondas y ser accesible para discapacitados.

Ni el Departamento de Servicios de Apoyo para la Familia (DFSS por sus siglas en inglés) ni la Alcaldía le proporcionaron al South Side Weekly una lista de lugares e instalaciones que se consideraron como posibles refugios.

de parada donde los que buscan refugio pueden sentarse, relajarse, bañarse con agua caliente y comer. Usualmente esperan a que haya una cama disponible en un albergue.

“Reconocemos que se trata de una crisis humanitaria, pero aunque esta crisis puede constituir una emergencia para la Ciudad de Chicago, no significa una emergencia para la comunidad de South Shore ni para los residentes del distrito 8”, declaró Harris.

El problema de proveer refugio a los inmigrantes es tan grande que, según la Municipalidad, el 4 de mayo por lo

coordinado con las Escuelas Públicas de Chicago (CPS) y City Colleges of Chicago para proporcionar clases de inglés como segundo idioma (ESL), dijo Charles Mayfield, Director Interino de Operaciones de CPS.

Además, Mayfield dijo que CPS establecerá centros de bienvenida para familias y estudiantes donde “serán evaluados y luego ubicados en una escuela apropiada”.

La secundaria South Shore High School se utilizará como centro de descanso. Según Kaila Lariviere, de la Oficina de Gestión de Emergencias y

Se espera que el centro de descanso de South Shore esté más equilibrado en cuanto al género, ya que está destinado a proporcionarle refugio a familias y no sólo a personas predominantemente masculinas, como en el caso del refugio en Woodlawn.

No hay un tiempo determinado para la estancia de cada individuo, ya que tendrán que pasar por el proceso de inmigración y luego recibir la autorización de trabajo, ambos de los cuales se pueden demorar en el proceso burocrático.

En una reunión del Concejo Municipal el 15 de marzo, los concejales aceptaron una asignación anual de $20 millones del Departamento de Servicios Humanos de Illinois (IDHS, por sus

POR RYLAND PIETRAS TRADUCIDO POR ALMA CAMPOS

hay suficiente dinero federal, estatal ni municipal para enfrentar adecuadamente la creciente crisis humanitaria.

“Hay suficiente espacio para todos en la Ciudad de Chicago, tanto para los que buscan asilo como para los que buscan tener un barrio financiado adecuamente”.

— Alcalde Brandon Johnson

siglas en inglés) que se destinarán al DFSS, el departamento encargado de prestar servicios a las personas sin hogar y, en este caso, a los migrantes.

La mayor parte de ese fondo, $16 millones, se destinará a la contratación de personal para los albergues y $2.4 millones se destinarán a los alimentos en los 11 albergues gestionados por la Municipalidad que operarán en 2023, incluyendo el de Wadsworth. Los $1.6 millones restantes se destinarán a los costes de alojamiento de los recién llegados en otros lugares.

Una enmienda a ese fondo surgió de una reunión de la Comisión de Presupuesto y Operaciones Gubernamentales del Concejo. La directora de Presupuestos, Susie Park, propuso modificar el Fondo número 925, añadiendo $51 millones. Ahora espera su aprobación en la próxima reunión del Concejo el 24 de mayo.

Además, la Muncipalidad recibió $4.3 millones en fondos federales el 5 de mayo para ayudar a financiar los refugios y la dotación de personal. El Estado de Illinois recibió la misma cantidad de fondos del Programa de Alimentos y Refugio en Emergencias (FEMA, por sus siglas en inglés).

El dinero es bienvenido, aunque no lo suficiente si se tiene en cuenta que la Ciudad de Chicago solicitó entre $38.9 y $66.7 millones.

Hay aproximadamente cuarenta empleados contratados por DFSS que prestan apoyo a las operaciones de los albergues durante el día y veintitrés empleados durante la noche.

Muchos miembros de la comunidad se pueden oponer porque la Municipalidad no ha proporcionado suficientes recursos a los residentes locales, pero sí a los inmigrantes, sobre todo cuando algunos de los barrios en los que se encuentran, como Woodlawn y South Shore, han sufrido una falta de inversión durante décadas.

Si nos fijamos en los recursos que la Municipalidad destina a los residentes de Chicago, la Ordenanza Presupuestaria de Chicago para 2023 asigna $10.6 millones para todos los puestos y salarios de DFSS y $37.3 millones a

los servicios para personas sin hogar en varios departamentos, incluyendo el Departamento de Salud Pública y la CTA.

Desde finales de agosto de 2022, Chicago ha recibido 8,100 inmigrantes, entre 75 a 100 llegando diariamente. Se anticipa que ese número crezca exponencialmente tras el fin de la política Título 42, que expiró el 11 de mayo.

La delincuencia y la seguridad en el barrio fue una de las principales preocupaciones de muchos residentes en la reunión comunitaria. Los residentes relataron anécdotas de haber llamado a la policía para denunciar delitos sólo para que les dijeran que había asuntos más urgentes. A veces esperaban hasta una hora antes de que llegara un oficial.

La secundaria se estaba utilizando como una academia de entrenamiento policial, algo que muchos residentes apoyaron. El entrenamiento de policías y bomberos continuará en la academia recientemente inaugurada en el lado oeste de la ciudad.

Una demanda presentada por Natasha Dunn, J. Darnell Jones y "vecinos de South Shore" argumenta que la Municipalidad está violando los términos de su contrato de arrendamiento con las Escuelas Públicas de Chicago al usar el sitio como un refugio para migrantes en lugar de una academia de policía, según reportó el Hyde Park Herald. Pronto habrá una audiencia.

En la reunión, un residente sugirió revisar los antecedentes de los inmigrantes antes de llegar a los barrios de Chicago. Fue una de las muchas preocupaciones y comentarios que se basaban en una retórica antiinmigrante. Incluso había un cartel en el que se leía “Build the Wall 2024” (Construyan el muro, 2024) y referencias a las personas que solicitan asilo como “ilegales”.

Los solicitantes de asilo huyen de la persecución y la violencia en sus países de origen y buscan refugio en los Estados Unidos por medios legales. Luego de la expiración del Título 42, la política fronteriza del país volvió al Título 8 original, que les concede a las personas buscando asilo una vía legal para entrar al

país, de acuerdo con la ley internacional.

Nubia Willman, directora de la Oficina de Nuevos Americanos, dijo: “Cuando llegan aquí, también tienen que mantener ciertos comportamientos porque si quieren poder solicitar asilo, no pueden tener antecedentes penales”.

Cuando una persona cruza la frontera, empieza lo que se denomina como libertad condicional humanitaria, que “se le concede a un ciudadano extranjero (que de otro modo sería inadmisible) para entrar temporalmente a los Estados Unidos debido a una emergencia y una razón humanitaria urgente o un beneficio público significativo”, explicó.

Además del aumento de la vigilancia del CPD, el Departamento de Policía de la Universidad de Chicago (UCPD) actúa como agencia secundaria encargada de hacer cumplir la ley en una zona de patrulla que incluye la Escuela Wadsworth.

“Como vecino de la comunidad de Woodlawn, la Universidad está consciente de la decisión de la Municipalidad de alojar a los solicitantes de asilo en la Escuela Wadsworth, así como el diálogo actual entre la Ciudad y la comunidad sobre este tema”, dijo un portavoz de UCPD.

En cuanto a la zona alrededor de South Shore High School, el Comandante del Distrito 4, Keith Milmine, dijo que está recibiendo ayuda adicional de la Oficina del Alguacil del Condado de Cook, el Departamento de Correcciones de Illinois y los Equipos de Seguridad de la Comunidad. “[El] área está viendo más recursos de policía que [cualquier otro lugar] en mi distrito”, dijo Milmine.

La concejala Maria Hadden del distrito 49 en el lado norte, quien reabrió una casa de campo de un parque para usarla como centro de descanso, sugirió usar instalaciones más grandes como el McCormick Place, que tiene 1,200 camas sin usar provenientes de la era del Covid, o tiendas vacías, como el viejo Kmart en Gage Park.

IDHS canceló sus planes de abrir el Kmart después de que la representante estatal Angélica Guerrero-Cuellar y la concejala Silvana Tabares expresaran su

preocupación por la seguridad o la falta de preparación de las instalaciones.

La administración del alcalde Brandon Johnson no respondió a la solicitud de comentarios del Weekly, pero el 15 de mayo, tras juramentar, firmó cuatro órdenes ejecutivas, una de las cuales crea un puesto de teniente de alcalde para los derechos de los inmigrantes, migrantes y refugiados.

La orden “hace que la nueva función sea responsable de la coordinación y la comunicación entre todos los departamentos y funcionarios municipales pertinentes en relación con los esfuerzos de la Municipalidad para apoyar a los inmigrantes, refugiados y migrantes recién llegados y los establecidos... y los esfuerzos para hacer frente a las necesidades inmediatas y los objetivos políticos y programáticos a largo plazo para garantizar la eficacia del estatus de Chicago como una ciudad santuario acogedora”.

En su discurso de inauguración de esa mañana, Johnson dio un mensaje de unidad ante un estadio lleno: “Tenemos que contar una historia diferente... No queremos que se cuente una historia que diga que hemos sido incapaces de alojar a los que no tienen casa o de proporcionar un puerto de entrada seguro a los que buscan refugio aquí. Porque hay suficiente espacio para todos en la Ciudad de Chicago, tanto para los que buscan asilo como para los que buscan tener un barrio financiado adecuadamente”. ¬

Si cree que hay un lugar para migrantes digno de consideración, puede llenar un formulario de DFSS en línea.

Jacqueline Serrato contribuyó a este reportaje.

Ryland Pietras creció en Wisconsin y se mudó a Chicago. Se especializó en Comunicaciones, Medios y Teatro en la Universidad del Noreste de Illinois, donde presenta un programa de radio semanal. Escribió previamente sobre los últimos foros políticos para el Weekly

How to Help Asylum Seekers in Chicago

A list of places to donate money and food for migrants.

BY JACQUELINE SERRATO

Last week, police sources tallied the number of migrants in all twentyfive police stations in the city after noticing a surge in new arrivals who didn’t have a place to go. They counted 494 individuals on May 9—142 of whom were children.

Some police stations are more overcrowded than others. The 12th district, for example, has allowed between fifty and seventy migrants at a time, according to

the Pilsen Food Pantry, which has been donating food.

When asylum seekers arrive at a police station, the officers alert the City and assign them a Service Request Number, according to the group Refugee Community Connections. The migrants will wait—usually sitting or sleeping on the floor—until a charity can transport them to a city shelter.

Police stations are not equipped to

provide human services. There is no food, hot water, nor showers, microwaves or refrigerators available. And the wait for an available bed at a shelter or a host family can be as long as ten days, volunteers said.

In the meantime, immigration organizations, ward offices, churches, and pandemic-era mutual aid groups are stepping up to meet their immediate needs.

Helpers are primarily asking for money donations or food donations in the

form of: snacks, bottled drinks, bread, fruit, sandwiches, and easy-to-handle hot food like scrambled eggs, tortillas, and rice.

The Weekly encourages donors to check with each group before donating at the information below. ¬

Cómo ayudar a los solicitantes de asilo en Chicago

La semana pasada, fuentes policiales contaron el número de migrantes en las veinticinco estaciones de policía de la ciudad después de notar un aumento en los recién llegados que no tenían adónde ir. El 9 de mayo, contaron 494 individuos, 142 de los cuales eran niños.

Algunas comisarías se encuentran más abrumadas que otras. La estación del distrito 12, por ejemplo, ha permitido entre cincuenta y setenta migrantes a la vez,

según la Despensa de Comida de Pilsen, que ha estado donando alimentos.

Cuando los solicitantes de asilo llegan a una estación de policía, los oficiales alertan a la Municipalidad y les asignan un número de solicitud de servicio, según el grupo Refugee Community Connections. Los migrantes esperan, generalmente sentados o durmiendo en el suelo, hasta que una organización caritativa pueda transportarlos a un refugio de la ciudad.

Las comisarías no están equipadas para prestar servicios humanos. No hay comida, agua caliente, ni duchas, microondas o refrigeradores disponibles. Y esperar por una cama disponible en un albergue o con una familia puede durar hasta diez días, dijeron voluntarios.

Mientras tanto, las organizaciones de inmigración, las oficinas de los concejales, las iglesias y los grupos de ayuda mutua que surgieron durante la pandemia se están

coordinando para satisfacer las necesidades inmediatas.

Los ayudantes piden principalmente donaciones de dinero o donaciones de alimentos en forma de: meriendas, bebidas embotelladas, pan, fruta, sándwiches y comida preparada fácil de distribuir como huevos revueltos, tortillas y arroz.

El Weekly anima a los donantes interesados a verificar con cada grupo antes de donar a la información abajo. ¬

Pilsen Food Pantry / Despensa de Comida de Pilsen

1850 S. Throop St. (773) 812-3150

bit.ly/25thWardMigrantEfforts

New Life Centers

2657 S. Lawndale Ave. (La Villita) 1410 N. Springfield Ave. (Humboldt Park)

contactus@rinconfamilyservices.org

Centro de Trabajadores Unidos

11308 S. Ewing Ave. (East Side)

9536 S. Marquette Ave. (Vet’s Park) (708) 790-7760

Instituto del Progreso Latino

2520 S. Western Ave. (La Villita) InstitutoChicago.org

ULON

7401 S. Cottage Grove (Greater Grand Crossing) (312) 834-8020

Cashapp $ULON4LIFE

Erie Neighborhood House

4225 W 25th St. (La Villita)

1347 W Erie St. (West Town)

1701 W. Superior St. (West Town) (312) 563-5800

The Southwest Collective 6500 W. Archer Ave. (Archer Heights) (708) 740-8914

info@swcollective.org

Organized Communities Against Deportations - OCAD info@ocadchi.org donorbox.org/mutualaid2023

CommunityHealth Clinics

2759 S. Harding Ave. (La Villita)

5413 W. Diversey Ave. (Belmont Cragin)

2611 W. Chicago Ave (Ukrainian Village)

Back of the Yards Mutual Aid

(708) 305-4016

(609) 240-4029

Venmo @BOTYMutualAid

Nuevos Vecinos

2538 W. Devon Ave. (West Ridge) nuevosvecinos.betterworld.org

Albany Park Mutual Aid bit.ly/Asylum17

Jacqueline Serrato is the Weekly’s editor-inchief.

Una

Public Meetings Report

ILLUSTRATION BY HOLLEY APPOLD/SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

A recap of select open meetings at the local, county, and state level.

BY DOCUMENTERS AND SCOTT PEMBERTON

April 26

During a six-and-a-half-hour meeting, the Chicago Public Schools Board of Education reviewed plans for how nearly $400 million in budget increases will be allocated (despite a $1.4 billion shortfall in state funding) and the status of a school performance rating system designed to be more supportive. Average per-student spending is slated to increase by nearly $1,000, according to CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, resulting in higher spending per pupil in ninety-one percent of the schools. Members also heard public concerns over the closing of the Hope Institute Learning Academy Chicago charter school after staff unionization efforts, and that some 270,000 students do not have access to a school librarian, according to Foreman High School librarian Tara Donnelly. Spending plans, as presented by Board Member Sulema Medrano Novak, include more dollars for special education teachers and paraprofessionals, new teachers for schools that need them most, more bilingual education, more financial grant support for under-enrolled schools, and 240 more seats for the district’s pre-K program.

April 27

At its meeting, the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability focused on plans to identify and recommend three candidates for the position of Chicago Police Department superintendent. The mayor is charged with choosing one of the three, subject to City Council approval, or asking for additional recommendations. The commission launched a process last September to collect data using focus groups, surveys, and public forums. Forums announced at the meeting include May 4, Roosevelt High School; May 10, Kennedy High School; and May 22 at the Beverly Arts Center. The commission has received nine applications and must forward its selections to the mayor by July 14. The Mayo has to make a decision by August 13. Commission president Anthony Driver, Jr., emphasized that “[the public’s] voice will be heard… We’re searching for the best candidates for the job.” Commissioners responded to public comments about police ineffectiveness by indicating that they are using five strategies to hold CPD accountable: partnership, management, infrastructure, policing and communication.

April 29

At the second of five scheduled public-input meetings, an Illinois General Assembly Hearing on Chicago Elected School Board Maps was conducted by Assembly members. Illinois lawmakers are drafting a proposed map that divides the city into districts to elect Chicago school board members and are seeking public input during the process. Information-gathering includes determining communities of interest and interpreting terminology. The law specifies that the districts must be “compact” without defining the word’s meaning. Once the districts are determined, voters are charged with

electing ten members to four-year terms beginning in 2024. Those members will serve along with eleven mayor-appointed members until 2026. The full twenty-one-member elected board is scheduled to begin its term in 2027. At the hearing, commenters representing parents and organizations expressed several concerns. Among them were transparency in determining the maps, ensuring diverse representation on the new board to reflect the individual districts, direct public input, and how the process will be funded. Several commenters spoke in favor of paying the elected board members. A few of the organizations represented included Kids First Chicago, Illinois Families For Public Schools, and South Merrill Community Garden.

May 1

During the third Illinois General Assembly Hearing on Chicago Elected School Board Maps, the Assembly members present heard public comments similar to those heard at the second such hearing two days before. One commenter, however, clarified the need to pay members of this school board, even though members of other school boards in the state are volunteers. Compensation could make the seats more attractive to individuals without significant financial resources, lessening the influence of more privileged community members. Another commenter asked that more information about the mapping process and the maps themselves be posted online. This commenter also requested that time and the means for public feedback about the maps be provided. The Assembly members had no follow-up questions after commenters spoke. One member said he supported paying the school board members.

May 4

At the CPD Superintendent Search Public Forum fourth meeting, twenty public commenters stated, often in specific and passionate terms, what they want in a new superintendent, including accountability to communities and willingness to fire officers “on the spot” when justifiable. The death of Anthony Alvarez in March 2021 was a touchstone throughout the meeting and was referred to several times, including a request that the investigation be reopened. Alvarez was killed by a Chicago police officer who received a twenty-day suspension. A public defender, who said she had represented young people who had been chased, stopped, and handcuffed, called for the elimination of foot chases and so-called tactical and gang units. Other topics included better screening of officers responding to domestic violence calls, bringing an “antiracist” attitude to the department, and selecting a leader from Chicago and from within CPD. Other speakers supported disinvestment in the police force and investment in communities for a “holistic framework of public safety” and more interaction with nonEnglish-speaking communities, including Spanish-language forums. A retired deputy CPD chief said that he supported the interim chief, had noticed “low morale in the department,” and emphasized that the new superintendent needed to be supported by the community and the department. Fred Waller, a thirty-four-year CPD veteran, was named interim superintendent on May 3 by then Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson. The meeting attendees were encouraged to complete a survey about the process and the desired outcomes.

May 9

An ordinance to appropriate funds totaling millions of dollars was approved by the Chicago City Council Committee on Budget and Government Operations during its meeting. $51 million from a two-billion-dollar surplus from 2021 are earmarked to support recently arriving migrants. “We are definitely in the surge of our new arrivals [from South America] mission,” said City Budget Director Susie Park. Some thirty million dollars have been spent on supporting migrants so far, Park said, and the City has asked for over sixty million additional dollars from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Park estimates supporting migrants through June will take $112 million. The committee also discussed the opioid crisis and slated some $18 million from the opioid and vaping settlement with Juul to be used for treatment, education, outreach, messaging, and prevention.

Kim Foxx Announces She Will Step Down in 2024

Foxx blazed a trail of progressive reforms in the State’s Attorney’s Office.

BY TONIA HILL, JIM DALEY, THE TRIIBE

This story was originally published by The TriiBE on April 25. Reprinted with permission.

On April 25, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx announced during a speech at the City Club of Chicago that she would not seek reelection in 2024.

“At the conclusion of my term, November of 2024, I will be stepping down

as State’s Attorney. I will not be on next year’s ballot, by my choice,” Foxx told the room.

It’s not a decision that she made lightly, she added.

“I became State’s Attorney to deliver safety, justice and equity. I feel that I have made my mark, so I’m ready to let new leadership step forward,” Foxx said in a written statement following today’s speech.

“Over the next year and half, my office will

GOSPEL

continue to work diligently for the people of Cook County and uphold the values of a fair and just legal system.”

Before Foxx’s remarks, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who Foxx worked under for two years, spoke at length about their work on criminal justice reforms and how Foxx continued that work when she became Cook County State’s Attorney in 2016.

“She’s led her office through one of

CONCEIVED & ADAPTED BY LEE BREUER

MUSIC COMPOSED BY BOB

the most turbulent and unprecedented times in recent history, with a global pandemic and a national surge in gun violence, which has profoundly impacted our local communities,” Preckwinkle said. “During this time, she’s focused on collaboration, community outreach, and transparency. Cook County is better because of her leadership, her partnership and her commitment to working for justice in the pursuit of thriving, healthy and safe

DIRECTED BY

MARK J.P. HOOD CHARLES NEWELL WITH ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR TARON PATTON

Sponsored by The Poetry Foundation

Gustavo Bamberger and Martha Van Haitsma

David J. and Marilyn Fatt Vitale

Supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts

Photo by Joe Mazza

communities across Cook County.”

Foxx, who was raised by her mother and grandmother in the Chicago Housing Authority’s Cabrini-Green project on the Near North Side, obtained her law degree at Southern Illinois University. A survivor of childhood sexual assault, she worked in the Cook County Public Guardian’s Office before joining the Cook County State’s Attorney Office (CCSAO), where she worked for twelve years as an Assistant State’s Attorney. Preckwinkle hired Foxx as a deputy chief of staff in 2013 and later promoted her to chief of staff.

She was swept into office as a reform candidate in 2016, becoming the first Black woman to run the CCSAO. She won fifty-eight percent of the vote in a threeway Democratic primary and seventy-two percent in the general election.

The Chicago Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression (CAARPR) praised Foxx for her “contributions to the cause of justice” in a statement. “The Chicago Police Department is so filled with racism, corruption and criminal behavior, it can only be swept clean by the power of a massive movement,” the statement read in part.“The election of Kim Foxx in 2016 was an expression of the masses desire for justice as she received 1.5 million votes.”

Anita Alvarez, the incumbent State’s Attorney whom Foxx defeated in the 2016 primary, had been the target of an activist campaign to remove her from office following two high-profile killings by Chicago police (CPD) officers.

In a widely criticized move in 2013, Alvarez charged then-CPD officer Dante Servin with involuntary manslaughter for killing Rekia Boyd; he was acquitted. She was accused of covering up the CPD killing of Ronald Johnson in 2014.

In 2016, Alvarez waited more than a year to charge then-CPD officer Jason Van Dyke for the murder of seventeen-year-old Laquan McDonald, doing so only after video of the killing was made public.

Protesters demanding Alvarez’s resignation launched a “Bye Anita” campaign on social media and in the streets. On Black Friday 2015, they closed down the Magnificent Mile by barricading store entrances with their bodies, and they held a sixteen-hour sit-in at the Cook County building the following month. They also created illustrated zines opposing Alvarez

that they distributed in neighborhoods, CTA buses and other public spaces. While the activists did not expressly endorse Foxx, their organizing helped make Alvarez unelectable, setting the stage for Foxx’s victory.

“We were not there to say vote for this person or that [Foxx] is a person who’s going to fix everything, because our position was

For Pulley, an abolitionist, and others centrally involved in the campaign, the SAO’s office has a history of causing irreparable harm in Black and brown communities.

“We were coming from the abolitionist politics around critiquing the role of the state prosecutor as a whole. And just like with Edward Hanrahan, who was the

Fred Hampton and Mark Clark,” Foxx said. Once in office, Foxx set to work instituting reforms. She became a leader in the effort to reform cash bail, agreeing early in her tenure to release people arrested for nonviolent offenses who had bail set at amounts less than $1,000. The move was initially praised, but as she initiated additional reforms such as exonerating wrongfully connected people, and as the push to abolish cash bail gained momentum, Foxx became the target of criticism by adherents to traditional toughon-crime approaches.

But she pressed on with reforming the CCSAO. In 2018, Foxx had the office create an open data portal and released six years’ worth of felony case data, the first of its kind in the country. Residents can enter their ZIP codes and find out how many arrests have been made, how many cases were referred to the CCSAO, how many people were charged, whether there were convictions and what type of sentence was given.Under Foxx, the CCSAO created roles such as the first-ever Chief Data Officer and Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion officer.

In 2019, she began expunging marijuana convictions, and by 2022 had surpassed 15,000 such expungements. She also directed CCSAO to stop prosecuting shoplifting under $1,000 and to dismiss drug cases in favor of alternatives to prosecution. Ultimately, Foxx declined to file charges in thousands of low-level cases that her predecessor would have prosecuted.

During the 2020 rebellions in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd, Foxx issued a policy to decriminalize protest, making her one of the only prosecutors in the nation to do so.

that we were against the prosecutor’s office, period,” Aislinn Pulley told The TRiiBE. “But specifically, we needed to get Anita Alvarez out of the office.”

Pulley is the executive director of the Chicago Torture Justice Center. She also founded the Chicago Black Lives Matter chapter in 2014 and was one of the organizers leading the “Bye Anita” campaign, which consisted of multiple organizations, including Assata’s Daughters, BYP100, Fearless Leading By Youth (F.L.Y.), and more.

state’s attorney and conspired with the FBI and CPD to facilitate the assassination of [Black Panther Party] Chairman Fred [Hampton] and Deputy Mark Clark, that office has historical blood on his hands,” Pulley explained.

Foxx also referenced Hampton and Clark’s murders during her speech. “I mentioned that because, over the last couple of years, I’ve heard people mentioning other people’s names as somehow disgraceful upon the Office of the State’s Attorney. And I have to say we have to go back to

She was a tireless supporter of the Illinois Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today (SAFE-T) Act, which instituted sweeping reforms to the state’s criminal legal system following its passage in 2021. Foxx testified in Springfield in support of bail reform over the objections of the Illinois State’s Attorneys’ Association.

“My efforts on bail before were centered in the Black and brown community and when the [Illinois] Supreme Court and I feel with all measure of confidence, finds that the Act is constitutional Cook County stands ready to implement the first of its kind legislation in the United States that is

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx announced in a speech to the City Club on April 25 that she will not seek reelection in 2024.

PHOTO BY ASH NICOLE FOR THE TRIIBE

By August 2022, Foxx had granted 229 exonerations. Largely as a result of her efforts, Illinois led the nation in exonerations from 2018 to 2021.

eliminating cash bail. We look forward to the day,” Foxx said.

Under her watch, the CCSAO has vacated 114 convictions tied to Ronald Watts, a former CPD sergeant who led a crew of corrupt cops in terrorizing residents of the Ida B. Wells housing project in Bronzeville. Watts, who extorted people, lied under oath and robbed drug dealers, was sentenced to twenty-two months in prison in 2013 after he pled guilty to robbing an undercover FBI officer. Foxx also asked the court to vacate eight murder convictions tied to disgraced CPD detective Reynaldo Guevara, who has been the subject of multiple wrongful conviction lawsuits that have cost the city more than $70 million. She also expanded the CCSAO’s Convictions Integrity Unit adding new positions specifically to scrutinize cases tied to disgraced CPD Commander Jon Burge.

By August 2022, Foxx had granted 229 exonerations. Largely as a result of her efforts, Illinois led the nation in exonerations from 2018 to 2021.

Foxx’s work around bail reform, wrongful convictions, and exonerations can be applauded, Pulley said, because they’ve led to a reduction in incarceration and were important and historic.

“Many of the things that she was able to do was a part of beginning to reverse the policies that created the behemoth of incarceration that we have today, which is the most people incarcerated in the world,” Pulley explained.

Though Foxx has made positive steps to reduce the footprint of incarceration, Pulley said there’s still more work to be done.

“The State’s Attorney’s office needs to stop fighting torture survivors cases, defending torturous cops,” she added.

However, Foxx gained national profile not from her efforts to reform CCSAO and exonerate wrongfully convicted people, but from controversy after the office agreed to drop charges against Jussie Smollett in 2019. The Empire actor staged an attack on himself in River North, and was arrested for filing a false police report after his story unraveled. Foxx recused herself from the case; the CCSAO dropped charges in exchange for Smollett forfeiting his $10,000 bail and performing community service. The Fraternal Order of Police

and then-mayor Rahm Emanuel strongly criticized Foxx for the decision, and she requested an independent investigation from the Cook County Inspector General. A special prosecutor was appointed, and Smollett was later convicted of disorderly conduct and sentenced to 150 days in jail, which he appealed.

Speaking about her office’s efforts to overturn wrongful convictions, Foxx mentioned the Smollet case jokingly, telling the City Club that her obituary will mention him.

“They ask me over and over again, ‘State’s Attorney Foxx, do you have regrets about the Class 4 non-violent felony against a D-list actor who committed a crime against himself?’” she said.

In 2020, Foxx was reelected after winning the Democratic primary by nearly twenty points over challenger Bill Conway Jr., despite Conway raising $11.9 million, most of which was donated by his father, to Foxx’s $2.8 million. She went on to win the general with fifty-four percent of the vote. (Conway was elected 34th Ward alder in 2023.)

Criticism—sometimes overstated or misplaced—continued to follow Foxx despite her reelection. Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who was initially viewed by some voters as a reform candidate during her own historic 2020 election, routinely lambasted Foxx in public once she was in office and sparred with her privately in efforts to boost her own tough-on-crime cred. Lightfoot lost reelection in the 2023 general election, coming in third behind Paul Vallas and now Mayor Brandon Johnson.

In a statement, Johnson praised Foxx.

“Kim Foxx made history as the first Black woman elected as Cook County state’s attorney, and has been instrumental in working to reform the Conviction Bond Office, which has resulted in overturning nearly 200 wrongful convictions, expunging more than 15,000 cannabis crimes, and bringing equity to a criminal justice system that has long disenfranchised people and communities of color,” the statement read. “She has led her office with dignity and civility, and as a colleague at the county level, I am grateful for the work that she has accomplished in her two terms. I wish her all the best in her future endeavors. ¬

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