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AUSTIN WEEKLY news ■
Anti-violence activist holds funeral home town hall,
Vol. 29 No. XX
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August 31, 2016
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austinweeklynews.com
@AustinWeeklyChi
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PAGE X
Also serving Garfield Park
‘South Side with you’ review, page 4
Major development coming to N. Lawndale By IGOR STUDENKOV Contributing Reporter
Ald. Michael Scott (24th) said that an Aug. 25 meeting at the United Baptist Church, 4242 W Roosevelt Rd, had the biggest crowd he’s ever seen at ward community meetings — and for a good reason. Clarius Partners LLC, a Chicago-based commercial and industrial developer, is looking to create a three-building industrial campus in North Lawndale totaling nearly 320,000 square feet on a 21-acre city-owned lot it recently purchased. The lot stretches between Roosevelt Road, Kostner Avenue, 5th Avenue and Kildare Avenue. Clarius has so far proposed three retail buildings, an industrial warehouse that would house multiple tenants and distribution buildings. Clarius projects that the development will be completed by Fall 2019. Kevin Matzke, a managing principal for Clarius, told residents who attended the Aug. 25 meeting that the company will be looking to recruit North Lawndale subcontractors. Scott said that he will use Tax Increment Financing funds to launch a job training program, so that local residents can take advantage of job opportunities the campus would bring once it opens for business. But a shadow of uncertainty and frustration hangs over the development. None of the tenants have been secured and the alderman said that the company wasn’t going to sign any legally binding community development agreements, adding that it would only hinder the process. In addition, Scott’s decision to hold meetings without including as a co-host the North Lawndale Community Coordinating Council, an organization created last year in order to design a See CLARIUS on page 6
WILLIAM CAMARGO/Staff Photographer
LEARNING THE CRAFT: Jamal Murphy, 21, during a summer teaching session at a community center in suburban Maywood. Murphy, a West Garfield Park resident, hopes to become a school district superintendent one day. As a participant in the Golden Apple Scholars program, the program’s administrators say, Murphy is well on his way.
Golden Apple makes West Sider’s teaching dreams a reality
Scholars program seeks to pair highly trained teachers with low-income students By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor
Jamal Murphy, a West Side native who attends Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, hopes one day to inspire his students the way his 5th-grade teacher inspired him. “In the 3rd and 4th grades, I fought and I
never really cared about school,” Murphy, 21, said during an interview earlier this summer. “In 5th grade, a teacher got me involved in extracurricular activities and off the street.” That teacher, Murphy said, changed the trajectory of his life. And now that his path is set, it’s a matter of making the road a bit smoother. Enter Golden Apple
Scholars of Illinois, a scholarship program designed to provide intense training to aspiring teachers throughout their college career and particularly within highneeds learning environments. Scholars typically spend three summers with the program while in college and re-
Austin Chamber of Commerce on the move... 773.854.5848 • www.austinchicagochamber.com
See GOLDEN APPLE on page 8