Link to the Weekend

In this twitter thread, Jacob Peters who covered lincoln yards well, teases a full piece on the ‘one central’ development in Chicago.

Ian Bogost on Chris Hughes’ facebook breakup announcement. Citizens need more than I dumped him, he didn’t dump me. But we can agree, facebook needs to go.

And of course, uber is a scam. Doug Henwood wrote a lively assessment of the problems with uber and with tech IPOs in general.

To end the week, I’ve got a Corey Robin twofer. In the New Yorker, an enjoyable, downright humanistic look at Eric Hobsbawm’s life and influence. And on the political science blog Balkinization, a piece on whether Trump is a disjunctive president.

Happy Weekend.

Midday Links

Starting off, get a brief introduction to Gene Sharp and his thoughts on nonviolent disobedience in Dissent. Rafael Khachaturian and Jeffrey Isaac of Indiana University promote reading Sharp as a pragmatic aid to fighting back against the authoritarian moves of the Trump administration and the Republican Party.

Next, why don’t you ride this information superhighway to the ole Chicago Reader exit, where John Greenfield provides a diverting romp through the history of Chicago public transportation on celluloid. Greenfield gets some great picks from local tour guide Michael Corcoran ( who himself got the deep juice from retired CTA worker Bob Ganz), but I can’t help but bemoan the lack of Next of Kin. Maybe I’m just too SwayzeCrazy after all these years…

Lets keep it der at da Reader for a great profile of Doc Films at University of Chicago. They have a lil festival coming up May 25-26.

And check out South Side Weekly’s latest issue, all about the closed Paul Robeson High School in Englewood. Its available online but the South Side Weekly issues are always worth grabbing in print.

Workers & SEIU Local 73 Demand Equal Pay at Chicago Parks

By Tim Hogan

FOSCO PARK- At today’s Chicago Parks District Board of Commissioners meeting, the election of its President and Vice President were the headline items on the Agenda. Until the public comments section came along.

Chicago Park District workers, in coordination with SEIU Local 73, used their 2 minutes a-piece of public comments time to make their cases for better conditions, pay and benefits for the park district’s hourly workers. Natatorium Instructor Johanna Leiva and Playground Supervisor Venus Roman-Valino both spoke, on their disappointments with low pay, lack of advancement and support over their long Chicago Park District careers.

“The lack of pay for the work we do is unfair,” said Leiva, who has worked for the parks for 17 years. “I do the job of a monthly [worker] and get paid about $20,000 less.”

Roman-Valino, a 20 years parks employee followed, “We haven’t seen a decent raise in year, yet the cost of living in the city continues to rise. As park district employees, we are mandated to live in Chicago but we can barley afford to sustain our families with our paychecks.”

As the two spoke, supporters from the park district workers and SEIU 73 stood with protest signs, advocating their positions.

“The district has made a majority of the parks’ workforce hourly, meaning my co-workers receive no benefits, no paid vacation, no sick time. We cannot let the district play games any longer. We are calling for a time out!” Roman-Valino said.

Before moving on to the other public comments, board president Avis LaVelle responded to the park district workers. “It is odd that park district employees would make complaints and try to negotiate during a public meeting, especially when we have ongoing private negotiations. But we will not be discussing this any further at this meeting.”

Parks Board President Avis LaVelle. Photo: Tim Hogan

The park district and its employees have been in negotiations since the beginning of 2019, but there is no news on any decisions or agreements between the parties. After the meeting, SEIU members and park district workers huddled to give each other support and decide their next steps. Venus Roman-Valino didn’t feel like the board gave a good response, or even bothered to hear them, but was looking forward to bringing their message to more public forums.

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Meeting Odds & Ends

Earlier in the meeting, after the board had voted-in Avis LaVelle as president and David A. Helfand as vice president, a group of advocates for the sport of ‘pickleball’ spoke to the board. It was my first introduction to the sport, but it is apparently spreading like wildfire across these United States.

“Pickleball is the fastest growing sport in the country,” the chief pickler said. (I wasn’t able to get the advocate’s name, which I count as a noob’s lackluster reporting effort, but If anyone has more information, please contact me at my twitter: @hcehogan.)

Pickleballers reveal themselves to surprised parks meeting. Photo: Tim Hogan

The group asked for a master pickleball plan and dedicated central courts, building on the ones at Maggie Daley Park they have worked with Alderman Reilly to put in place. And these asks come on the heels of minor tragedy.

Recently, Chicago has lost the prestigious Chicago-Area pickleball tourney to neighboring Naperville, due to lack of dedicated pickle courts— basically converted tennis courts of smaller dimensions.

Though Naperville may have the glamour of the upcoming Chicago-Area picklefest, the picklers were certain to praise Fosco Park for its efforts in becoming a local home for pickleball. “They have really opened their arms, and their gym.”

“And though its mostly us old people, its a diverse sport that could be a model for the city: old people of all kinds, that want to get together, socialize and have fun.”

And when you contemplate that image, it really does sound like the future of the country.

Links Of Yore

Sometimes you need a break from your break. For times such as these, look into my basket and grab a link!

Joy Harjo was awarded the Jackson Prize for poetry. I have just recently started to read some of Harjo’s work and I have enjoyed it immensely. Here is one of my favorites, Ah Ah.

“Ah, Ah
By Joy Harjo
for Lurline McGregor

Ah, ah cries the crow arching toward the heavy sky over the marina.

Lands on the crown of the palm tree.

Ah, ah slaps the urgent cove of ocean swimming through the slips.

We carry canoes to the edge of the salt.

Ah, ah groans the crew with the weight, the winds cutting skin.

We claim our seats. Pelicans perch in the draft for fish.

Ah, ah beats our lungs and we are racing into the waves.

Though there are worlds below us and above us, we are straight ahead.

Ah, ah tattoos the engines of your plane against the sky—away from these waters.

Each paddle stroke follows the curve from reach to loss.

Ah, ah calls the sun from a fishing boat with a pale, yellow sail. We fly by

on our return, over the net of eternity thrown out for stars.

Ah, ah scrapes the hull of my soul. Ah, ah.”

Turns out, Authenticity ain’t a thing. Be warned, even though The Atlantic can have serious bouts of ‘thinkpiece-itis’ and employs real howlers I am still a sucker for much of their work. The Atlantic was one of my first compulsory internet reads in college, when I was on my quest to understand ‘the current moment’.

Hat Tip to Colleen O’Sully for this podcast I think many of us can all relate to: ‘Selling Out’ w Curtis Sittenfield.

Ex Libris: Book Pile at Last Call

I found myself at the library again, looking at my pile of books, preparing for their ‘30 minute call’. Here is a textual illustration of my view.

The Books Next To Me(Top to Bottom):

The Robbers and Wallenstein, Friedrich Schiller

I never remember if he’s spelled ‘c Schiller’ like my grade school friend or ‘no-c Shiller’ like the the man o’ the markets and housing index. I’ve never read anything by either so I suppose it’s not a mystery. I have, however, watched various interviews with Shiller on youtube. Don’t really remember the gist. Upshot was housing prices go up, until they don’t. Then we’re all fucked. He seemed pretty genial about it all, though. Yale’s pretty tight like that. I wonder if he has anything to say about Schiller.

Reflections, Benjamin.

He’s becoming my ‘min man. I’ve been told its pronounced Ben-yah-mean, like I really ‘mean’ everything I say. Or write anyway. I’ve passed that knowledge on to my girlfriend by way of a correction of her speech. I’m not sure she enjoyed it, but I bet she’s since had opportunities to be grateful in conversations. (this is supposed to be self-mocking...hope that comes through...)

The Arcades Project, by My Guy.

The foundation for the pile and the reason any of us is here, reading this. I haven’t but thumbed it and caught snatches online, but this is a very inspiring tome to me. Can’t quite decide what’s to come of it but I’ve thought of naming after it: a blog, a column in a magazine, book of stories, a film. So many projects I won’t finish, or at least publish or produce. But what is production these days anyway? What with the internet and biomimicry and the singularity and all. We probably can just walk around the city aimlessly, thinking our thoughts, safe in that knowledge that cognition is production and we are our own best consumers.

In Front of Me:

The Uses of Literature, Italo Calvino

I’d have more to say about not reading these books, but my hunger and other bodily impulses have finally caught up with me. Plus, there’s a cat out there, somewhere in the night, that is waiting for me to feed it. No metaphor.

In Beverly, “You Are My Neighbor” Asks Chicagoans to Help Stop Violence

By Tim Hogan

On Thursday April 11th Southside Catholic Peace and Justice invited Chicagoans from all over the city to St. Barnabas church in Beverly to talk about violence. Hundreds came to listen to a group of Chicagoans disrupting violence in their neighborhoods and Fr. Gregory Boyle, S.J., bestselling author and founder of Homeboy Industries, a gang intervention program in East Los Angeles.

From Burr Ridge and Tinley Park, from Oak Lawn and Rogers Park, people of all ages came from all over Chicagoland. The event was titled “You Are My Neighbor” and its organizing group, Southside Catholic Peace and Justice, was heartened by the attendance. SP&J and their partner groups had prepared the way for the evening at St. Barnabas with pop-up events including film screenings, book clubs and Lenten discussions sessions, but even they were surprised by the evening.

“A group from La Grange came 3 hours early to make sure they had a parking space” Cathi Hogan, a member of Southside Catholic Peace and Justice enthused. “After getting good responses from our lead-up events, I thought we might get a decent crowd, but the response to the evening exceeded our expectations.”

The evening opened with talks from a group of Chicagoans who are disrupting cycles of violence in their neighborhoods with simple, but profound actions. Tamar Manasseh, Jamal Cole and Fr. David Kelly are all working to break cycles of violence in Chicago. They all spoke to the need to engage violence and the conditions that lead to it.

After them Fr. Gregory Boyle spoke about helping gang-involved youth to leave violent situations and become members of larger communities. He saw in the events title “You Are My Neighbor” a great encapsulation of the ethos of healthy, non-violent communities.

“Here’s why I think you’re here tonight,” Fr. Boyle said, “you want the world to look different than it currently looks. You want your city, your block, your hood, you want everything to look different. You want to, together, imagine a circle of compassion and then imagine nobody standing outside that circle.”

While the speakers all came from different places and backgrounds, their talks all had an important thing in common. They all believed that, through love and support, cycles of violence could be broken. Hard lives breed hard communities. If people see their fellow Chicagoans as their community members, as their neighbors, they can engage with them and help lessen the persistent problem of violence we all share.

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The Violence Disrupters

In 2015 Tamar Manasseh was a Rabbinical student looking for a way to fight gun violence in her neighborhood. She founded Mothers Against Senseless Killings (MASK) to interrupt violence and crime and teach children to grow up as friends instead of enemies. http://ontheblock.org/

Jahmal Cole started the social organization, My Block, My Hood, My City that takes teenagers from underserved Chicago communities on City-Wide explorations to foster a shared sense of ownership and belonging to the whole city. https://www.formyblock.org/our-team/

Fr. David Kelly, a 30 year chaplain in the Cook County prison system, runs Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation to help people who have been impacted by violence through an array of programs including restorative justice programs and community gardens. https://pbmr.org/

Fr. Gregory Boyle, S.J. is the founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation and re-entry program of its kind. Homeboy Industries makes opportunities for gang-involved youth including an alternative school and daycare and employment. www.homeboyindustries.org

Southside Catholic Peace & Justice is a group dedicated to opening the invisible barriers that separate our communities. They work with other churches and grass roots organizations to build relationships based on shared hopes for Chicago. They are always welcoming new members and new neighbors.  http://youaremyneighbor.info/

Ex Libris: Sound And Vision

At the Harold Washington Library, near closing I set up shop on the last table before one of the half circle windows on the south facing side of the building. I had set down a stack of books to note down to pick up later, but I became distracted by the view outside.

Through the half-turned mini-blinds, I looked at the sunlight hitting the side of an orange-bricked newish building and its neighbor, an older 10 story brick building with a much smaller footprint. Between the two, vertical slices of buildings were stacked, further and further away, a rectangular cut-out collage flattened by perception and distance.

A man behind me talked loudly to his friend. He pulled a barbecue sauce out of his bag. “I got this...this sauce ain’t shit! This sauce, its heinz. It’s shit. I only eat Big Baby Ray’s. I usually only buy Big Baby Ray’s, but I thought, fuck it. I’ll try this. And it aint SHIT!”

“Shhh!” his friend admonished.

“Sorry, sorry. It ain’t shit. It’s not even spicy!”

I looked from the view out of the window to the stack of books I had set down to go through. Listening to the men behind me talk seemed to be more important than taking notes on a few books of art criticism, theater and movie reviews.

“They stole 3 phones from me! 3 phones! They stole one on the 3rd floor. They stole one on the 5th floor. And they stole one up here.”

His voice raised as he continued, working himself up until his friend shushed him gently again. This cycle would repeat. He would apologize each time and speak softer. For a time. He just couldn’t help himself. As he talked, he got louder and louder, energized by his every complaint and expression.

The PA clicked on and as the library staffer began to speak his 1st line, the man behind me blurted out, “It’s not supposed close until 5! What time is it?”

“Attention library patrons, the library will be closing in 30 minutes, please make all of your selections and proceed to the first floor checkout desk. Again, the library will be closing in 30 minutes.”

“Ah, ok, ok. That makes sense.”

As the men began to collect their things, they were debating where they would go next. “Man, I don’t want to go to Barnes & Noble, I came from there earlier.”

I heard their voices getting softer and further away.

“And if I don’t make it by this month, that’s 2 months late in a row, I’ll owe another $50. Man shit, I need to get some work. All the work has disappeared.”

“They’re going to chain my locks at the end of the month. That’s what they told me.”

“My body is feeling tired, but my soul is feeling so, so happy.” - Via Crucis in Pilsen

It was colder than I thought this morning and the wind didn’t help. Being a Chicagoan, I am always disappointed in myself when I haven’t properly attired for the weather. Having a gauge of not only what the conditions are now, but what they might be…’Dats a Shi-CAH-Gee-Guy!’

There were many of us walking into Providence of God, on 18th next to I-94. Walking in and down stairs to the basement rec center where the living stations of the cross had just started. The 42nd Annual Via Crucis in Pilsen. The Pilsen Via Crucis community has been putting on this massive shared pilgrimage and pageant since 1977, with people coming from all over Chicagoland.

I went with my mom—her first time attending the living stations in Pilsen, and my first time since I moved from Pilsen to McKinley Park a few years ago. I had been living a half-block from Harrison Park, where they crucify Jesus every year at the end of this shared journey from Providence of God church at 18th Street and I-94. I remember attending Via Crucis over the years as an observer from spots along the route on 18th street and at Harrison Park, but I had never walked it before.

I was going to write a reported piece from the Via Crucis in Pilsen , but Mauricio Pena from Block Club Chicago and Jenny Casas, Irene Romulo, Malik Alim and Juanpablo Ramirez. from City Bureau put together an article and audio story on the occasion that I couldn’t top. Check out their article and audio mini-doc here.

https://blockclubchicago.org/2019/04/19/pilsens-via-crucis-brings-people-together-on-good-friday/

Providence of God Church on Good Friday, April 19, 2019. Photo: Tim Hogan

So Many Questions About 'The 78'

By Tim Hogan

On Tuesday evening, over 100 people packed the cocktail bar Persona on south Wells. They were there to get some answers to questions that haven’t been answered. In many cases, questions that they hadn’t been allowed to pose.

The reason for the gathering was a community meeting on the recently TIF laden megadevelopment poised to loom over their streets and homes: the so-called ‘78’.

The 78 TIF and megadevelopment sits on 62 acres of land along the south branch of the Chicago River. The site’s developer, Related Midwest, is calling it ‘the 78’ referring to it being the 78th of Chicago’s currently 77 official community areas. It is a whole neighborhood being made out of the now cleared space that used to be known to some as ‘Rezkoville’; a hulking, downriver twin to the heavily-publicized Lincoln Yards project on the north branch of the river at Cortland Street.

These 2 projects were just given upwards of 2 billion dollars in TIF money by the Chicago City Council, many of whom were voted out of office in February and April, and of course, Chicago’s outgoing mayor, Rahm Emanuel. It seems that before he begins his full-time transition into a more gumptiony David Brooks at The Atlantic, Rahm needed to jam through a couple of sweetheart megadeals to keep his technocratic banker bone-fides in good standing.

A view of the massive area being redeveloped by Related Midwest as “The 78”. Photo: Tim Hogan

The meeting was convened by south loop resident Jamie Brown and Byron Sigcho-Lopez, alderman elect of the 25th Ward. Brown had been trying to get a community meeting together for months, but the prior alderman, the infamous Danny Solis, was completely unresponsive. The reasons for his evasiveness are anyone’s guess.

She was disappointed that Solis had stood in the way of the community having input on the project before it was rammed through the city council this month, but when Sigcho-Lopez was voted in to replace Solis, she reached out to the alderman-elect.

Opening the meeting Brown said, “We have an alderman now! And we can start getting some answers. I’m not anti-development, I’m for responsible development.”

Sigcho-Lopez followed Brown,“The goal is for this to be the first of many meetings with Related. There has not been a lot of discussion and we want this to become a community-driven process.”

After a predictably vague presentation by Related Midwest, replete with a video puff piece, the community members present broke into 6 smaller groups to gather common questions to put to the representatives from the developer. These were the first questions many of the residents had been able to ask.

“Why didn’t this happen before?” a neighboring resident of the project asked.

At the end of the meeting the most popular questions were put to the Related reps and they punted on all of them. In particular, questions about traffic, schools for the tens-of-thousands of new residents and a ‘Community Benefits Agreement’ were given end-arounds.

The truncated question-and-answer session went like this:

Residents: Will you agree to a ‘Community Benefits Agreement’?

Related: We are already working with a community group.

Residents: But what about a specific ‘Community Benefits Agreement’?

Related: We will continue to work with our community group.

End-around and around.

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The Sigcho-Lopez team said that the questions that were generated by the community will be compiled and made public and importantly, used as guidance with continuing negotiations with related.

It is not clear what input and leverage the community or the new alderman-elect have, though. Sigcho-Lopez does not take office until May 20 and Solis continues to rubber-stamp projects even though he has been de-legitimized and MIA since last fall.

In the new political and economic world Chicago is entering, the fights over land use and development are sure to intensify. With a new mayor and a large new bloc of progressive alderman, there will be struggles and negotiations over just how democratic and  bottom-up the planning and profiting can be here.

As Sigcho-Lopez said, “The City of Chicago is struggling to decide what community zoning is.”

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Further Reading:

Plans for mega-development ‘The 78’ discussed at community meeting Chicago Sun Times

South Loop’s “The 78’ Mega-Project A Work In Progress As Neighbors Sound Off Block Club Chicago

Where Is Danny Solis? Block Club Chicago

New Mayor says city can get a better deal on ‘Lincoln Yards’ Chicago Sun Times

McKinley at Nite, LaMont Cranston Voice

Walking home from the Western Bus, my favorite bus, at least for now, I drank in the ambrosia of city lights. This ain’t no midcentury Brooklyn burning or Bay Area balming. This was the real deal Midwest middlebrow magic wafting mixed senses at the virtual you, signals not unpsychedelic, influenced by the muddlebrue pietry of the everyday. Breadmoneycashmillionaires breathing from the same chimerican winds of rusted rivers and clotted arteries of cars cresting through the nightsky. This isn’t some slyrish rush hour rhyme, no tucker nor chan, it’s just a toy, just a gram, uncracked, unpatched, unpacked. Cables to the mystic dark, passing through fronting essays ICU hearts and wannabe demons seeking the meal of their lives, because soul is dead.