was murdered by an acquaintance. “Exactly what we were trying to help address happened to Edna,” Figel says of her organizing partner and friend, Edna White. Then after a few years, the garden needed to move. Neighborspace owns the land under the agreement that nothing can be built there in perpetuity. But Alderman Virginia Rugai wanted a new police station on that spot in 2002. So Figel negotiated for the City to ensure a clean space and plenty of soil right across the street. After some hiccups during the transfer, such as when the old lamppost salvaged from the World's Fair was broken and left for forgotten, or when the city piled in sub par dirt leftover from Millennium Park, the new garden space is bigger and better than before. There are so many ways to get involved with the garden. Raised garden plots are available for $30 and ten hours of community service, and the garden is an excellent opportunity for anyone who needs to complete mandatory community service hours. Rent the space for a private event or come to one of the many upcoming events! A Day of the Dead Celebration with music and dancing will happen Tuesday November 2 at 6pm and the Family Holiday Celebration with Peanut Characters, Santa Claus and records spinning by Beverly Records is Saturday December 4 at 6pm. (Anna Carvlin) Edna White Community Garden, 18461898 W. Monterey Ave.. For information about garden plots and hours contact Kathy Figel, (312)-622-0634.
Compiled by L.D. Barnes Neighborhood Captain
MOUNT GREENWOOD
M
ount Greenwood is a place full of dichotomies, where the living co-exist with the dead, where the city can be a farm, where the neighborhood number—seventy-four of seventy-seven—is nearly the last on one list, but the number of city workers in the neighborhood puts it near the top of another. From building inspectors to tax collectors, lawyers to laborers, educators and everyone in between, a wide variety of other city workers also live in Mount Greenwood. If I were designing a flag for Mount Greenwood, I’d take the Chicago banner, replace the upper and lower fields of white with dark blue for the police and dark red for firefighters, Both groups are heavily represented in Mount Greenwood, which is home to more Chicago police than any other community area in the city. In the past, the neighborhood’s affinity for police has led to ugly incidents, as has its racism: as recently as 2016, an off-duty Chicago cop shot and killed twenty-five-year-old Joshua Beal in Mount Greenwood, sparking Black Lives Matter protests which were met by angry neighborhood residents who waved “Thin Blue Line” flags and shouted insults. Bisected by a green swath of acreage made up of a golf course and three cemeteries undulating between two very active freight train lines which once brought funereal mourners from the city, Mount Greenwood incorporated as a village in 1906 to keep the taverns and restaurants “wet,” when nearby Beverly and Morgan Park decided to go “dry” and prohibit the selling of alcohol. It has kept its out-of-town character by having the last working farm in the city until 1980, when the farm became part of the Chicago Public School system as the Chicago Agricultural High School, which still works the land today. To include some of these best-ofs, I’ve stretched the boundaries of Mount Greenwood slightly to the entire 60655 ZIP code, which has Western Avenue as its eastern edge. (L.D. Barnes) L.D. Barnes is the neighborhood captain for Mount Greenwood. SEPTEMBER 16, 2021 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 67
