December 12 - January 2, 2022

I am grateful for being in the land of the living. That I have my health. That I made it through this pandemic. For my customers, supporting me through good times and bad. I am doing better now than before the pandemic. I am working in front of a vacant store, the old Walgreens at 191 N. Clark. Been there 13 years. I don’t work the store, I work the streets, the people. I want to say thank you to all my customers. I love you all.

I am grateful for something to be able to do instead of just asking. You have something to give. I am grateful for life. I’m grateful for people. I’m grateful for love. I’m most grateful for Jesus Christ.

Yolanda sells at Starbucks at Ridge and Clark.

I am very grateful. I made it through COVID, I have lost quite a few friends. I am grateful for StreetWise. I have been with the organiza tion a long time and I enjoy it and I have an opportunity to meet many new people. I just came back from New York to see my mom. She is 106. The mayor of New York gave her a citation for her 105th birthday. Despite getting old, her eyesight, her hearing, her brain is totally intact.

Deborah sells at Orchestra Hall, 220 S. Michigan Ave.

Compiled by Suzanne Hanney & Sarah Linde

I am grateful to be alive, for my daughter but mostly for StreetWise, for Julie [Youngquist, executive director], showing me the ropes. When I thought I could have no work, she showed me don’t ever take all your money, take out some. Going out, take $10 out and you will be happy to come home and see money on your dresser. I used to just take everything with me and come back with nothing.

I can pay my bills up, take care of my baby, keep myself looking like a lady, be able to purchase some StreetWise magazines, have some for the weekend. It’s like a check: every book adds up. I will be able to buy my baby things, like a pizza when she comes around. Able to treat her differently when she comes around. So thankful I can’t even say it all.

Thankful to God for the whole StreetWise organization; to Mr. Ron; to my building manager, Lakeisha, for allowing me to move into apartment I have now. She will say when she sees me, “Ms. Drummond, I love your energy.”

A whole team of people: my daughter; she will say "Mommy, I love you." Thankful for Writers’ Group, to be able to get my words out to the people [so] they are able to look at me in a different way: “Oh, Girl! It’s you. You’ve been through some stuff and [are] still out there.” I am grateful to Suzanne [Hanney, Edi tor]. You don’t tell me what to say, but fix what I have to say. Thankful for my energy. I get up and go. I’d rather be on the go than laying around. During COVID, I didn’t catch a cold, I am thankful for my genes. Thankful for the staff, because we are StreetWise.

I got about 2.5 spots to sell at: Belmont and Ashland Whole Foods has the side walk torn up, so it’s hard to sell there right now. Starbucks at Lincoln and Pau lina and I have a new spot at the Lyric Opera House, on Wacker Drive between Washington and Madison.

I’m thankful that we still have StreetWise, and we’ve lasted for 30 years. It helps me to stay in Chicago and actually be self-sufficient, unlike in small towns. I’m thankful I still have my family, I’m thankful for my friends. I’m thankful for one right now that’s trying to help me as much as she can. I’m thankful that I’ve been able to have so many achievements I’ve had up here. I’ve mentioned in a previous StreetWise, being in a band, and the “Not Your Mama’s Bus” tour, where I had a couple parts in that play, and of course now being in the Writers’ Group, which allows me to be in StreetWise now and then and learn more about writing. Basically, I'm glad I was able to end up here in Chicago. 'Cause I really beat the odds on that.

I am grateful for friends and the StreetWise team.

I’m grateful I have a community and that’s my family, my father’s family and the church I attend. I am grateful that StreetWise magazine has helped me to be a better salesperson as well as a member of a com munity.

OJ sells in Lincoln Park.

I am thankful for my grandkids! I have about 27 grandkids. I’ve got like 10 great-grandkids. So I’m a goodie. Guys, keep it up. I’m glad that you look out for me and I’m glad that I’m helpful to serve you all and we all take care of one another.

It’s been kinda hard to say what I’m grateful for, especially since it’s been al most 3 years since COVID. I lost a lot of viable customers downtown. I guess I’m thankful for the buyers that are still there. And also, the farmers’ market, too! I have a very supportive manager at the Lincoln Square farmers’ market.

John sells at Adams & Franklin weekday mornings, and in Lincoln Square or Old St. Patrick's Church, 700 W. Adams St., afternoons and on weekends.

I’m grateful for my health, to be alive, for my family and I’m also grateful to StreetWise for helping me.

It’s a great place. I came here [and] they’re helping us get our lives together. Meals. A support system. I feel safe here.

The support system is counselors here. They can help you get a job. They can help you get housing. They could empower you. They give you decent clothes to wear.

Right now I am homeless. My father passed away, and I was left with nothing. I am living with a friend. I am also part of the Work Empowerment Program, and I clean houses on the side. I am trying everything I can so things will get better, and some thing will open up.

Jimmie sells at Starbucks at Irving Park and Damen.

I am grateful I have another day on this Earth. Grateful for StreetWise. It’s been a great journey. There’s a lot of people who have unconditional love out there: customers who understand. I’ve got another job to work with it, working with a compost company and it helps make it work. Grateful that I’m sober, because I should be dead.

I am grateful I got rid of the coronavirus, that I have a great, great marriage (wed March 3 to fellow vendor Lee A. Holmes at the StreetWise offices), for my children, and for my church where I sell StreetWise: St. Clement’s (642 W. Deming Place). I just have a great, great life.

I am grateful for life, that I lived another day. I will be turning 50 in April. Grateful for my family, for my marriage (wed to the former Paula Green March 3) for the YWCA, friends and family. That I am stepping out in other things, entrepreneurship, social media. Thankful for my niece and nephews – got a little nephew that was gone over 10 years – and we reconnected with them. Grateful for my children and my grandchildren. Thankful for St. Clement’s Parish, which supports me.

I am grateful for everything. Still living in my house. Just being here.

Jacqueline sells at Grand Avenue and State Street.

I am grateful that most of my relatives are still alive and we stay in touch with each other. I am of sound mind. I have four grandchildren. I may see the youngest for the holidays. I am thankful for my health being in fair condition. I will go out to dinner with my husband at Golden Corral, Red Lobster or Applebee’s.

I’m grateful I made it to be 61 and to StreetWise for being here to help people help themselves with a hand up, not a handout.

Keith sells at Starbucks at Michigan Avenue and Lake Street.

I am grateful for the meal with all the trimmings. (He was especially grateful for the turkey, but also looking forward to ham and ice cream!)

James sells on Madison Street across from Chase Bank, between Dearborn and Clark Streets.

I am grateful for my church, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. Grateful to StreetWise be cause it gives me employment and a source of income. Grateful to CHA (Chicago Housing Authority), which has given me an apartment at Belmont and Racine. Also grateful for all the residents in my building and all my neighbors in my neighborhood. I talk to them all the time. I am five blocks away from Mt. Carmel, where I also sell StreetWise. When the weather gets really bad, I can always walk. It won’t be a pleasant walk, but I can walk. I cover all the masses on Sunday; I’m there 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., because I also go to Aglow, the LGBTQ ministry. I am not gay, but I support them. I go to Market Days [on Halsted] and help out, sell at the Pride Parade. It’s OK.

I am grateful most of all for my relationship with God! I am thankful for my children and their safety. I'm thankful for my family. I'm thankful for good health and sound ness of mind. I'm thankful for being part of the StreetWise team. I get a chance to see firsthand how StreetWise really helps people who are poor and downtrodden.

I am thankful God woke me up this morning and gave me another chance, and for family and friends. I tell people every day it’s incredible to get back to work. This is my fourth week working; I’ve met Debbie, I’ve met Allen and John Tay lor. I am a struggling, recovering alcoholic.

Nemieka sells at State and Van Buren.

I do have alcoholism in my past that I’m dealing with in self-help, and I’m better for it today. So that’s what I’m thankful for, I’m thankful I don’t have to reach back for that old behavior.

Donald sells at Starbucks at Lincoln and Wilson.

Today I’m grateful for my children. Even though they live in Tennessee and I’m away from them, I’m blessed with some awesome kids. I’m grateful for my brother, David, he’s been very supportive. I’m grateful for StreetWise, they’ve been very supportive for me. I’m grateful for my customers, I’ve got some regular customers because I’ve been here for three years. I’m grateful that I have an apartment now, a home, I’m not on the street or in a shelter.

Dean sells at Hutchinson and Lincoln.

by Suzanne Hanney

“We Will Chicago” is the city’s first comprehensive plan in 50 years and the first-ever to be drafted with public input – including Street Wise vendors (October 17-23 edition)! The Chicago Department of Planning and Development (DPD) and Department of Housing twice came to the StreetWise offices to interview 21 vendors and to do a deeper dive with the StreetWise Writers’ Group. Of the plan’s 8 Pillars, StreetWise vendors ranked Housing & Neighborhoods and Economic Development highest (7 vendors each), followed by Transportation & Infrastructure (3), Lifelong Learning (2), Arts & Culture and Civic/Community Engagement (1 each). No one cited Environment, Climate & Energy or Public Health and Safety. “Equity” and “resiliency” are key words in the plan, which intends to repair historic harms in Chicago so that all its people can move forward, to gether. Citizen input ended November 1. The plan is now being refined, to be presented to the Chicago Plan Commission early in 2023.

The predicted “avalanche” of 21,000 pandemic-driven evic tions didn’t happen when the Illinois moratorium was lifted Oct. 3, 2021. The reasons it was avoided, advocates said in a Jan.17-23 story by StreetWise freelancer Wendy Rosen, were the Cook County Legal Aid for Housing and Debt (CCLAHD) early resolution program established by the Circuit Court of Cook County, the Chicago Bar Foundation, other government agencies and community partners; and $90 million in emer gency rental assistance from federal COVID relief funds. People facing an eviction could call the CCLAHD hotline and be con nected to free legal assistance as they negotiated back rent. A concern was also protecting small landlords, who might be unable to weather delays in receiving funds when property taxes and other bills were due.

The National Public Housing Museum (NPHM), a 15-year dream of advocates, broke ground in the last remaining building of the Jane Addams Homes on the Near West Side (October 24-30). NPHM is truly a national museum, which received input from housing authorities from Yonkers, NY to San Diego, CA. Its mission will be to “counter the rac ist, mainstream stories of public housing failure” and to tell a new story about public housing: one of successful working class people like Jay-Z, Prince, Barbra Streisand, Elvis Presley. The City partnership provided COVID Recovery money to push fundraising over the top and will involve a museum store owned by public housing residents and oral history train ing. Mayor Lori Lightfoot called it an “innovative civic and cultural anchor,” an economic engine for the neighborhood.

The Save Your Ash citizens’ coalition raised funds to inoculate ash trees in their Northwest Side neighborhoods against the Emerald Ash Borer beetle and is urging Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot and the Bureau of Forestry to do the same for these trees city-wide – or at least in historically marginal ized areas of the city with fewer trees (July 11-17). Energy savings and climate change are the reasons. Trees combat climate change because they remove carbon dioxide from the air, they store carbon, and they release oxygen into the atmosphere. Meanwhile, Chicago has only 16 percent tree cover, not the 40 percent recommended by American Forests, the nonprofit that championed the creation of the U.S. Forest Service.

Goodbye, Columbus and 19th century white elitists, hello to new statues and monuments to minorities, women and local history events, according to the report of the Chicago Monuments Project (CMP) in the September 12-18 edition. Collective soul-searching about Chicago’s 500 monuments began after George Floyd’s death. Statues and plaques that glorified colonialism at the expense of Native Americans were a particular concern. CMP officials said they conducted the nation’s first comprehensive engagement – virtual conversations, drop-in sessions, public response with Italian Americans, Native Americans, African Americans, preservationists, artists and more – and compared its scope to the national debate about Confederate monu ments. “The art we place on public property must represent history without injury, insult or denigration,” CMP officials said in the report.

JAVIER RAMONE RAMIREZ

by Patrick Edwards

Javier Ramone Ramirez was a good brotha. Complex… yet simple in his motions. Javier came to the office, bought magazines from Ron (the Man behind the glass making it happen for the vendors—with the magazines and, more importantly, the old-skool wisdom), sometimes grabbed something to eat and, then, bounced to get to his location to spread the StreetWise word.

He was 42-years-old. 42-years-young. If I can be selfish for a bit, the two of us—along with Vendor Supervisor John Hagan—made a loose pact to get to a basketball court. Un fortunately, we never got the chance, so it saddens me to not know how the young brotha hoop. Both of us worried a bit about the court location due to the city’s violence. How ever, it was the cause of death we’ve all worried about over the last few years that nudged our man over: COVID-19.

Javier Ramone Ramirez’s grandmother, Sadie May Elders— a very sweet woman—someone whose name fell from his lips every time I talked with him, blessed us with a deeper look into Javier:

“Javier loved to dress and look cool. He loved to work, with building computers his primary work passion. Once upon a time, he worked as a computer tech for Walmart, Wal greens, Trinity Hospital, and Sidley Austin LLP (law firm). Not only did he work as a computer tech, Javier was also a messenger, so that being downtown and the North Side were two of his favorite things. He loved rolling about deliv ering packages here and there. And he loved the beach and taking long walks along Lake Michigan.”

Javier Ramone Ramirez, vendor #859, was born on July 16, 1980, in Madison, WI, to Aurelio Jimenez and Tijuanna Calvin. Javier passed on September 8.

Javier is survived by his biological mother and father, his grandmother Sadie May Elders, his aunt Gloria Sutton, and his stepmother Dr. Yvonne Jimenez, all of whom made a significant positive contribution to his life; his brothers Joshu Alexander Jimenez, Anthony Jones, Issaac David Jimenez, Ryan Antonio Jimenez, and sisters Aisha Marie Jimenez, Isabella Yvonne Jimenez; his favorite uncle, Henry Jones; several cousins: Ricky Williams, Jeremiah Jones and Isaiah Jones, as well as a host of nieces and nephews.

Javier’s funeral arrangements were entrusted to Leak & Sons Funeral Home, and he is laid to rest at Homewood Memorial Love Garden.

Javier’s two favorite sayings, according to his grandmoth er, were “Hell yeah!” and “Hold my beer.” I’d heard these multiple times on our Wintrust Arena trips to watch some basketball. I am very glad I got to meet the man. We, at StreetWise, are glad to have met Javier Ramone Ramirez.

Javier as a baby (Sadie May Elders photo).

Javier (black & white striped sweater) with his family (Sadie May Elders photo).

Javier in his youth (Sadie May Elders photo).

QUINCY HUNTER

by StreetWise Vendor A. Allen

I am honored and humbled to write about one of the few, proud soldiers of our vendor force: Quincy L. Hunter, who first sold the magazine at the Whole Foods at 30 W. Huron, and later, in front of the Starbucks at Division and Paulina streets. Quincy died October 3 at age 72.

Speaking at his funeral October 12 at Unity Funeral Parlors on South Michi gan Avenue, Pastor Jesse Knox III used the word “dedication” to describe Quincy – as a former Marine, and as a StreetWise vendor. His time in the ser vice “shaped his values and a perspective that gave him a sense of purpose and hope,” according to his printed obituary for the funeral.

Quincy was born to Robert and Dorothy Hunter on May 19, 1950, in Chi cago. He went to DuSable High School, where he was known as a good basketball player. In his early 20s, he married Dorothy McCarthy and they had a daughter, Shaunta.

Quincy had worked selling insurance and as a metro bus driver in South Bend, IN.

Quincy had been a vendor since 1999 and was pictured regularly in the magazine in the house ad that showed how sales were structured. “I do well as a vendor because I give everyone a daily smile and a blessing. I am a God-fearing person and believe people should respect and have honor among each other,” he wrote a decade ago in Street Wise Writers’ Group.

He moved back to Chicago when his mother became sick and then died, he wrote in StreetWise Writers’ Group in December 2012. His goal for 2013 was to grow financially and to find other employment.

The printed obituary for Quincy's funeral said that the within the structure of StreetWise, Quincy could come up with a vision of people – white, black, rich and poor – working together for changes in Chicago communities and general society. “In the final chapter, Quincy loved life and doing his best to help others,” according to the obituary.

I knew Quincy when he lived in Uptown, near the former StreetWise offices at Wilson and Broadway, and I helped him move to a newly-built apartment on the West Side. Unfortunately, he also suffered from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and used an oxygen tank. Later, he was in a nursing home and monitored by his lovely daughter, Shaunta.

Other survivors include his son-in-law, Bryan; grandson, Bryan Jr.; brothers, Raymond, Thomas and Martin; nieces and nephews, Chester Jr., Anthony, Derek, David, Andrea, Michelle, Robert, Carlos and Jose; cousins, Warren, Jeffery and Estelle, Melanie, Jeffery Jr., Gerald and David Whaley, Ernest, Judy and Debra Mitchell, John Sr. and John Jr. Rudder, Norman, Audrey, Gloria, Carol Ann, Wildred Dalton; his fiancée, Helen, and family Ceobie, Parish, Djuanyel; and a host of friends.

Another friend at StreetWise was Joe, who joined Quincy and me in a spe cial fellowship support program; and also cashier Ron Madere and vendor Don Smith, who were all concerned about his well being. I am glad I had a chance to spend time with this true soldier. I will be forever grateful for his contribution to StreetWise and to my personal life.

–Suzanne Hanney contributing

Vendors Craig Barrow, Quincy Hunter, A. Allen, Everett Jones, and Vince Collaso attend a Writers' Group session in 2012 (Marcie Bearman photo). Below: Quincy poses for photographer Kathleen Hinkel.

Crossword

Rules, briefly

How StreetWise Works

Golf targets 27 Orchard unit

StreetWise exists to elevate marginal ized voices and provide opportuni ties for individuals to earn an income and gain employ ment. Anyone who wants to work has the opportunity to move themselves out of crisis. StreetWise provides “a hand up, not a handout.”

All vendors go through an orientation focusing on their rights and responsibilities as a StreetWise Magazine Vendor. Authorized vendors have badges with their name, picture and current year.

Vendors purchase the magazine for $1.15 and sell it for $3 plus tips. The vendor keeps all of their earnings.

Buy the Magazine, Take the Magazine

When you buy the magazine, take the magazine, and read the magazine, you are supporting our microentrepreneurs earning an income with dignity.

New vendor orientation is every Tuesday and Thursday at 10:00 a.m. at 2009 S. State St. Find your nearest vendor at www.streetwise.org