We Will Chicago: StreetWise Vendor Interviews

VENDOR A. ALLEN

We Will Chicago is a framework for the city’s future. I really like Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s mission statement: “I envision Chicago as a place where people, businesses, and communities thrive and where all residents can live in healthy, safe communities and feel a sense of belonging.” She goes on to say that “I want this plan to be our plan, not one crafted only by city staff, but rather, a document that reflects a wide range of diverse residents who we engaged through community meetings and artistic experiences.”

Being true to her word, the Chicago Department of Planning and Development (DPD) actually invited vendors and staff at StreetWise to give feedback on ways to strengthen the draft plan as the city prepares to adopt the final plan early in 2023.

I was one of more than 20 vendors who gave feedback in a survey on September 6 and then again in a deeper dive with the StreetWise Writers’ Group on September 8. We had a chance to meet with DPD professionals, and on September 8, with staff from the Chicago Department of Housing.

This meeting started out well, with a vendor asking about housing for someone with a felony background, which often hinders placement into housing.

We met for over an hour on this subject. Even though I wanted to move on, I had the same problem for a time. Labeled by the Chicago Police Department as an habitual criminal, I was introduced to Cabrini Green Legal Aid at StreetWise, and they worked to have my record sealed. It took a year, but soon afterward, I got the apartment where I live now.

My record being sealed has been helpful in many ways. Most of my charges were for drug-related, not violent, crimes. I was really intrigued about the well-thought-out plan for Chicago’s future. I think our mayor is onto something for making Chicago neighborhoods safer and more vibrant sanctuaries where everyone can live in peace and prosperity. I really like the idea of “every community needs different things. Support looks different and support should be led by people who are trusted in their communities through partnership with nonprofits and informal projects taken from Art & Culture.”

I really think it was thoughtful and considerate for city government staffers to consider the opinion of StreetWise vendors, because we are part of the framework of the city. I would have preferred to have talked about other pillars of We Will Chicago, such as Art & Culture, Civic & Community Engagement, or Economic Development.

I’m really interested in Pillar No. 4: Housing and Neighborhoods, particularly Goal 4.1, to increase access to healthy food and health care in Black, Latino, Native American, Asian and immigrant community areas. I have seen many foreigners come into Black neighborhoods and set up shops or grocery stores and not reinvest into the community. I would like to see more local people own and operate neighborhood businesses instead. I think the government should offer incentives – grants – to community-raised residents to open up local stores, businesses and organizations, thus creating a welcoming environment and a stronger sense of belonging and at the same time strengthening the community base.

Our Black communities are more like tribes, or families. The saying, “it takes a village to raise a child” is truth. We need a way to develop leaders among ourselves and continue the process until victory is won or until we are able to police our own communities. It’s a long shot, but we must begin somewhere, and We Will Chicago looks like a good start.

VENDOR KIANNA DRUMMOND

Just wondering how the We Will Chicago program will improve Chicagoans’ lives, since the public comments period is open into the fall.

Having been homeless, I think we need more shelters for low-income – or outof-work—people. I think that there is more help in the suburbs than right here, where we need it. We have to reach out to help get the people from under the viaducts and sleeping on the sidewalks and bus stops.

Programs say they are for the people, so I would just love to see an outcome on improving Chicagoans’ lives. We need it. I have been there, out on the streets homeless, to the point where I lost my daughter from having nowhere to go. If Mayor Lori Lightfoot says the program will be in place for 10 years, we will be counting. The year 2032 should see an outcome of the We Will Chicago plan.

VENDOR TOMMIE HANNAH

I believe that, in order to revive and improve quality of life in Chicago, neighborhood livability MUST be prioritized. The We Will Chicago pillar of Economic Development comes first, but the pillar of Public Safety – or the lack thereof – determines success or failure.

The city can hold townhall meetings to ask communities what businesses they would like to see there. The city can give opportunities to a handyman who worked on cars for 30 years but who never had his own shop, for example.

Simultaneously, development and safety have to go hand in hand. How can you convince business owners to come to a neighborhood or expand there if you can’t convince them it’s safe to do so?

When people talk about public safety, they often mean “eliminating gangs,” but what they fail to acknowledge is what brought gangs into existence in the first place: a psychological sense of belonging.

For people who are descended from enslaved people, gangs give them an identity, a sense of purpose, a definite role.

The only way for gangs to be eliminated is for them to die off, to be unable to recruit the same numbers. We need to expand community-based youth projects and mentorships, city-sponsored activities that promote families. Some kids feel they get more love, attention and recognition from gangs than from their own families. We don’t have the nuclear families of the 1950s: mom, dad and kids. Instead, we have single moms and step-parents, which breeds resentment on both sides.

Just like a corporation does team-building exercises so they can work cohesively together, we need to do citysponsored activities in the neighborhoods to promote fellowship. –as told to Suzanne Hanney