Austin Weekly News 102721

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Talks of West Side credit union continue

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FREE Vol. 35 No. 43

October 27, 2021

Also serving Garfield Park

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In Austin, a conversation on Black wealth, page 4

Oak Park doc wants to create a ‘free movement’

Facebook group has major rule: no buying or selling of any kind By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor

It all started with an old teddy bear. “My daughter had this teddy bear she had been holding onto forever and one day she said she didn’t want it anymore, but I didn’t want to just throw it away,” said Oak Park physician Connie Moreland, who resolved the dilemma after visiting her 26-year-old daughter’s apartment in Chicago’s Uptown community. “I went to visit her and she had all Crossing Austin these little things Boulevard: This story in her apartment is part of an ongoing and I asked her series of articles that where they came Austin Weekly News from. She said, publishes about issues, ‘I got them from events, people, places my free group,’” and things that take Moreland said. place west of Austin “I started thinkBoulevard, but that ing about it and nonetheless resonate to asked her why we the east of it, as well. didn’t have one of those in Oak Park. I mentioned it to her and she said, ‘You ought to start one.’” Moreland did just that, creating the private Facebook group, “Free To Good Home,” in November 2019 — right before the start of the COVID pandemic. The group has since grown to roughly 4,600 members in Oak Park, other west suburbs and Chicago’s West Side. See ‘FREE MOVEMENT’ on page 3

FILE

Construction has resumed on the site of the old U.S. Bank building.

North Avenue developments progressing slowly

The redevelopment of the old Sears and former U.S. Bank building sites have been slow due to construction costs, Ald. Taliaferro says By IGOR STUDENKOV Contributing Reporter

Two-long awaited North Avenue developments are still on track, although the rising costs of construction materials is slowing progress.

Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29th), whose ward includes Galewood, said work on redeveloping the former Sears location at the northeast corner of North and Harlem avenues, and the former U.S. Bank site at 6700 W. North Ave., has slowed due to the rising costs of construction materials.

Work on the U.S. Bank site seems to be progressing haltingly while the developers of the Sears site are still waiting for the city to approve a series of zoning changes and to vacate an alley that used to bisect the lot. See NORTH AVENUE on page 8


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