FREE
AUSTIN WEEKLY news ■
Vol. 31 No. 43
■
November 8, 2017
Learn about Obamacare open enrollment,
■
austinweeklynews.com
■
Also serving Garfield Park
@AustinWeeklyChi
PAGE 5
@AustinWeeklyNews
Meett H M Harold ld Blake, page 3
Aldermen press new police agency for details
West Side aldermen particularly concerned about locations of COPA satellite offices, minority hires By IGOR STUDENKOV Contributing Reporter
During a Nov. 1 City Council budget hearing, several West Side aldermen raised questions about how, specifically, the new civilian police oversight body will function as it relates to improving community and police relations in their neighborhoods. And some aldermen across the city sounded alarm because the proposed budget for the new body is less than what the ordinance creating the oversight body had called for. The new oversight body, called the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, was created last October to replace the Independent Police Review Authority as the body responsible for investigating complaints against the Chicago Police Department. Unlike its predecessor, COPA can investigate allegations of illegal search and seizure, as well as domestic violence complaints — both of which were previously handled by CPD’s internal affairs office. COPA is also empowered to look for patterns of police misconduct and make legally binding recommendations to address them. According to the amended ordinance that creatSee COPA on page 8
ALEXA ROGALS/Staff Photographer
THE DOCTOR IS IN: David Scheiner takes a break in his family room at his home in Galewood.
A charmed life in Galewood’s Miracle House David Scheiner’s outsized personality matches his abode
By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor
Dr. David Scheiner gets emotional when he talks about his home, a mid-century modern that commands the corner of Armitage and Nordica in Galewood like a 1950s-era Hollywood starlet stranded in Peoria. It is both sexy and sublime, both glam pad and cathedral. “If my health will hold up, I’ll stay there until I’m feeble,” Scheiner said during an interview last week. He was on the
verge of tears. “I’ve never been in a house where every single time I walk in I’m excited.” The house was designed by the architect Edo Belli in 1954 to benefit St. William Church, according to WTTW’s Geoffrey Baer. The home was the grand prize in a raffle the church sponsored to raise money for a new house of worship. Tickets were $1 and the consolation prizes were ashtrays imprinted with an image of the home. By the time the raffle was over, Baer
said, the church had raised enough funds to cover the cost of the house itself, the new church, a convent, a school and a refectory. “By the time it was over, the house was entirely built with donated labor and materials,” said Baer. General Electric, for instance, donated electrical equipment. The famous Hollywood actress Kim Novak, an alumnus of St. William, came to town to announce the winner of the home
Austin Chamber of Commerce on the move... 773.854.5848 • www.austinchicagochamber.com
See MIRACLE HOUSE on page 4