I sat on this article which was published in Crain's earlier this month.
Now I wonder how the 2008 collapse have reshaped the real estate market in Chicago's neighborhoods not just the high-priced areas in and around downtown.
Autumn 2008 was a scary time for many Chicago real estate pros, as global financial markets crashed, lenders ducked for cover and panicky federal officials scrambled to save the economy. For those still in denial, reality sunk in on Sept. 15, when Lehman Bros. collapsed.
The ensuing years brought misery for some in Chicago real estate and opportunities for others. A decade after the crash, most of the big local properties and companies battered by the bust have bounced back, their debt restructured and bubble-era owners long gone. But it took time, and a few, like the infamous Chicago Spire site, still sit fallow, awaiting a reboot. Here is a look at some of the ways the crash of 2008 reshaped Chicago's real estate industry.
They say we have to watch these judges, unfortunately folks in one community can't influence the selection of judges in another community. Or could we?
I found this interesting from WBEZ and this case took place in the northwestern suburbs:
The racially charged comment came from Judge Richard D. Schwind as he sentenced 31-year-old Deon Lindsey in a misdemeanor battery case.
Lindsey admitted hitting his ex-girlfriend’s white brother at her apartment in Hoffman Estates in May. But Lindsey told police he was provoked by being called the N-word, records show.
Speaking from the bench on July 18, the judge said the slur was an “ignorant term” for the recipient of the punch to have used with Lindsey.
But the transcript shows Schwind then told Lindsey, “You take offense to a word that — you, you were never a slave, but you take offense to it. And I understand that. But the bigger man walks away. You don’t resort to violence. That’s why society is the way it is now.”
...
After hearing cases Wednesday in Courtroom 101 in the Rolling Meadows branch, Schwind declined to comment.
But on Thursday, the spokesman for Chief Judge Timothy Evans told WBEZ that the court system’s executive committee will review the matter at its Oct. 3 meeting.
The spokesman, Pat Milhizer, added that judges must abide by an Illinois Code of Judicial Conduct rule stating, “A judge shall perform judicial duties without bias or prejudice.”
...
Schwind, 66, became an associate judge in April 2012 and has been assigned to the 3rd Municipal District courthouse in Rolling Meadows since 2013. Associated judges are chosen by a vote of circuit court judges elected by voters.
He is currently serving a four-year term that expires on June 30, 2019.
A graduate of John Marshall Law School, Schwind worked for seven years for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office and then more than 27 years for the Illinois Attorney General’s office, rising to chief of the criminal enforcement division.
...
At the sentencing hearing, Schwind said, “Mr. Lindsey, it’s my understanding … the victim in this case used a term that is insulting to you. And I understand that.”
Lindsey told the judge that the slur was used “in front of my daughter.”
“That doesn’t give you a right to hit him,” Schwind replied.
The bigger man walks away, however, the N-word is offensive whether or not we're slaves. And I'm with Dartesia Pitts - who was formerly President of the Cook County Bar Association - stating: “It was totally unnecessary for the judge to make this commentary on the record at all relating to slavery”. Yes, it was unnecessary!
Sometimes, I wish I had done more looking into being middle-class in America (well for sure being middle-class in Chicago). Doing research on being middle-class or black & middle-class it seems finding some materials - especially news items - can be difficult. Regardless through the FB page of the 6th Ward Republican Organization this article on the middle-class booming in this nation:
America's middle class is booming.
Between 2015 and 2016, US median household income rose 3.2% from $57,230 to $59,039, according to a new reportreleased by the U.S. Census Bureau on Tuesday.
It's now the highest income year on record, beating the previous high of $58,655 in 1999 (all numbers are adjusted for inflation).
The US poverty rate simultaneously declined about 1% to 12.7%, returning to nearly the same level as in 2007, prior to the recession. In total, 2.5 million fewer people were in poverty in 2016 than in 2015.
Plus, almost every demographic group experienced a rise in incomes last year, according to the Census, thanks to more Americans securing full-time and better-paying jobs — a total year-over-year rise of about 2.2 million workers.
Now I look forward to any article from our local news outlets letting us know of a "booming" middle-class in the city. Especially on the south and west sides of Chicago. Will any of the aspirants for the mayor's office talk about keeping middle-calls people in the city?
This meeting features speaker Dr. Lou Turner, University of Illinois and African American Leadership & Policy Institute who is also a foremost expert on the red line extension project.
This event will take place on
Wednesday, September, 26, 2018
6:30 PM to 8:00 PM
Carter G. Woodson Regional Library Auditorium
9525 S. Halsted Street
h/t to the West Chesterfield Community Association for letting us know of this event!
The next town hall/community meeting is coming up tomorrow night.
9th Ward September Community Meeting
Tuesday, September 25, 2018
6:30 PM to 7:30 PM
Pullman Presbyterian Church
550 E. 103rd Street
For more information call Ald. Beale's service office 773.785.1100
If you attend a Roseland Heights Community Association meeting (usually every last Tuesday of the month) which starts a tad earlier than the 9th Ward meeting you can leave that meeting and go see what Alderman Beale has going.
I'm sorry I hadn't done more to advertise this. The Morehouse College Maroon Tigers football team faced Miles College Golden Bears in the Chicago Football Classic at Soldier Field today. I've seen some ig posts where Morehouse alumni were tailgating before the game. They call it homecoming up north!
Once I saw a sign at 95th which I had posted to ig, it was important for me to share this with you all. At least for those of you who commute to downtown Chicago on the weekend. Thankfully if you're leaving 95th street or from any of the stops along the Dan Ryan there will be no disruptions from this, just that if you go downtown trains will be rerouted to the elevated tracks.
When you think about it, the routing is almost like how the Dan Ryan branch was routed before 1993 when it was connected to Lake Street. With the work on 95th some rush hour trains on the red line are rerouted onto the Englewood branch of the green line to Ashland. Though in this case red line trains from 95th through the Loop from the loop to 95th are elevated only for this weekend.
Here's an alert from CTA below
And Red Line riders: Don't forget that, 9pm Sat thru 9pm Sun, 95th-bound Red Line subway trains will be rerouted via the elevated lines thru downtown to allow for various maintenance work in the State Street Subway. https://t.co/JNlO2XIXr1pic.twitter.com/tFL94TpeC7
[VIDEO] Toni Preckwinkle is a former alderman of the 4th ward who in 2010 replaced Todd Stroger as President of the Cook County board. It's hard for me to say she had any bumps other than her attempt at a sugary drinks tax which got repealed last year. Regardless, her name had been thrown about in past elections to run for the mayor's office.
Yesterday she formally threw her hat into the ring. Unfortunately this was on the heels of forcing out her long time chief of staff due to some allegations of "inappropriate behavior".
[VIDEO] As the trial for police officer Jason Van Dyke continues another infamous Chicago Police Officer passed away on Wednesday. As you will learn in the above vid from ABC 7 he was never charged outright with using torture tactics to coerce confessions from mainly Black suspects. He was however convicted of perjury and was sent to prison released in 2015.
On our FB page and on Concerned Citizens of Chatham have seen a notice from Ald. Howard Brookins with regards to a murder victim. The body of a woman was found in a trash can on west 95th Street last Monday unfortunately the woman herself still hasn't been identified.
Investigators will now await toxicological results and additional details of a death investigation following an autopsy for a woman found dead inside a trash bin on the city’s South Side.
City trash collectors discovered the woman’s body as they emptied the bin into a truck in an alley in the 500 block of West 95th Street in the Brainerd neighborhood just before 11:30 a.m. Monday, police said.
It was unclear how long the woman’s body had been in the trash can, but a Chicago police spokeswoman said it the woman’s body had no obvious signs of trauma.
Well so far most of the other stories I found out there about this, are very short and not a lot of information as of now! Hopefully we will see further updates to this as far as the late woman's identity and hopefully what happened to her.
Meanwhile here's a statement from Ald. Brookins' office
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle will announce her run for mayor this week, the chairman of the City Council’s Black Caucus said.
Ald. Rod Sawyer (6th) told the Sun-Times he talked to Preckwinkle on Monday and the veteran County Board president told him she plans to enter the crowded race.
Another alderman, who asked not to be identified, also said they’d been told by Preckwinkle she is in.
A spokesperson for the Preckwinkle camp, however, would not confirm any plans. Other sources said Preckwinkle’s announcement is scheduled for Thursday at 3 p.m.
“She has the ability to raise money. She has a decent message. But we also have a lot of people running or expressing interest,” Sawyer said.
Want an official word, we have to wait until Thursday....
Nearly two years after a Chicago police officer fatally shot Laquan McDonald and numerous colleagues filed reports that clashed with video of the shooting, the Police Department on Thursday announced plans to seek the firing of seven officers for allegedly lying about the shooting.
The department's actions represent a long-delayed official response to a shooting that has come to publicly symbolize broad and long-standing problems with policing in Chicago. The move by Superintendent Eddie Johnson also signifies a stand against what the department's critics say is a pervasive and corrosive practice by officers — covering up for one another even in the most troubling situations.
"This is the classic code of silence situation where you have an incident go down and you've got multiple police officers who all feel obligated to help cover the behavior of police officers," said criminal defense attorney Terry Ekl. "Those examples happen over and over and over again. ... Before you know it, an entire community of people do not trust the police, they do not respect the police, they do not like the police. And that is the situation we have now."
Johnson's announcement came in response to a six-month investigation by the Chicago inspector general's office into the shooting by Officer Jason Van Dyke that was captured on a dashboard camera of a responding police vehicle. The footage went viral after the city was forced to release it by a judge last fall after months of resistance.
When Mayor Emanuel announced he will not run for re-election last week I somehow had visions that a Daley - perhaps the former Mayor Richard M Daley himself who should be enjoying his retirement right now - would run for the mayor's office. Well his brother Bill is looking into it and may announce on Monday whether or not he'll run. It sounds serious, but then I still have in my head that he seemed gung-ho to run for governor in 2014 and dropped out.
Rich Miller didn't mention that about the 2014 governor's race but noted that Bill Daley had a "bad habit of not following through on stuff". Time will only tell if he's truly in it to win it. And in Daley's case another connection to an adopted son who served as President of the United States until January 2017 as chief of staff. He was also Bill Clinton's secretary of commerce.
Another angle is what will another Daley brother John do at the county board. If Preckwinkle's pulls the trigger on running for mayor he could move up to become county board president.
[VIDEO] This is another item I had been slow to advertise lately. I got an email about state senator Elgie Sims' appearance on CAN-TV's Political Forum. From the description:
Illinois State Senator Elgie R. Sims Jr. (17th District) discusses the state budget, police-community relations, his recent legislative efforts and more. This program was recorded on September 12, 2018 at Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV).
Duration of this program is about 27 minutes.The program itself aired live on this past Wednesday, September 12, 2018.
The building was purchased out of foreclosure
for $100,000 in 2014 by entrepreneur Jerald Gary. The South Shore
native hoped to raise funds to cover numerous plumbing, electrical, and
tech-related updates. As of Monday afternoon, a crowdfunding campaign
had raised about $200 of its $150,000 goal. The property owner says
that he already put “over $1 million” of his own money into the theater,
according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Gary hopes the restored Avalon Regal will be ready in
time to host a holographic concert organized by Chicago rapper Chief
Keef on September 26. If not, a “hologram truck” with a built-in stage
is standing by as a back up and will host the free show in the theater’s
adjacent parking lot, says the Sun-Times.
Meanwhile, the building’s ornate lobby eyes a return to the lineup of
the Chicago Architecture Center’s annual Open House Chicago weekend,
scheduled for October 13 and 14. The site was abruptly pulled from the last year’s event to comply with a court order requiring the property to remain “vacant and secure,” reported the Chicago Tribune.
Provided the renovations move forward, the Avalon Regal
would become the latest historic Chicago movie palace to see new life.
Other notable projects include the ongoing redevelopment of Logan
Square’s 2,900-seat Congress Theater and the recently announced rehabilitation of the massive, 4,381-seat Uptown Theater.
[Kanye] West’s interest in the South Side venue was one several
Chicago-related tweets published by the celebrity over the weekend.
Additionally, West announced plans for a Chicago Yeezy fashion store as well as news that he would be teaching a course at the Art Institute of Chicago.
It's great to know Kanye West is involved in the efforts to restore and ultimately reopen the former movie palace. If the Uptown Theater can garner some excitement with rehabilitation so can the Regal.
Over the past summer, Chicago Public Schools had been rocked by allegations of sexual abuse of CPS students by volunteers or employees at their schools. And now we go back further, Rich Miller takes a look at stories where former schools CEO and 2019 mayoral candidate Paul Vallas chose not to act on allegations of abuse by an elementary school volunteer.
Even though Vallas has been away from CPS since 2001, it seems the current scandals will touch him unless he's willing to adequately address it. Regardless, it seems the problem from over decade ago is almost similar to the scandals we know about today!
Wednesday evening I posted on both our twitter and ig pages about hiring day at both Whole Foods Market and Mariano's. On this day at both companies job seekers can come in seeking job opportunities and ultimately on the spot interviews with the possibility of being hired the same day.
I apologize in advance for only sharing information about this only the day before, however, for those who think there are no jobs for them to get out there you get a hint about one opportunity. Of course the hiring day about both of those grocery chains are one of main hiring days we've advertised here on this blog and our social media channels over the years.
Then I see this photo from Bruce Montgomery on ig. A long line of job seekers inside the Whole Foods Englewood store. How many people got hired there today?
This was on the Capitol Fax blog yesterday just as jury selection is just about to wrap up in the Van Dyke trial and a Black juror was selected. Now let's turn our attention to the judge for this trial Judge Vincent Gaughan.
The Calumet district - HQ located in Pullman on 111th St - have suffered from sad losses. The Sun-Times talks about it:
The officer, a 54-year-old woman described by police as a “veteran” of the department, is the second member of the Chicago Police Department to take their own life in that parking lot since early July and the third Chicago police officer to commit suicide in the last two months.
She was found in her personal car and her name was not released as of Wednesday afternoon, according to police. The department said it was making counselors available to officers in the Calumet District, where the deceased officer was found.
“Crushing news for the department this morning as we grapple with the suicide of a veteran #ChicagoPolice officer who took her life inside her personal vehicle,” Guglielmi tweeted. “Please pray for this officer’s family and fellow officers of @ChicagoCAPS05.”
...
The Calumet District already suffered through two other officer deaths over the summer.
On July 9, Officer Brandon Krueger, a 36-year-old officer of five years, shot himself in the head in the Calumet District’s parking lot. Two days later, Officer Vinita Williams, 47, fell unconscious in the station and died a short time later.
As the police seeks more recruits this fall, let's recognize how difficult a job being a police officer really is. We have to treat them better than it seems we have been recently.
On Friday Laura Ingraham' hour long show was a Chicago town hall. A number of prominent people in Chicago from politics, police, even churches gave us their own takes on Chicago politics and the violence. I watched this and tweeted some comments on Twitter and got one retweet from Pastor Corey Brooks who was on this town hall.
@CoreyBBrooks I'm with you the Black community can't just look for a Superman to save them. The community has to do it for itself. @IngrahamAngle
I haven't been able to find the segment with Pastor Brooks so far, however, there are some segments worth sharing with you all. To start here's a segment with FOX News political analyst Gianno Caldwell discussing the issues of violence in Chicago. Even offering a young man an opportunity to leave the drug dealing life if he had a job. And with him is Vic Maggio who you might remember from those series of videos - Chicago's 10 most violent neighborhoods of which Englewood is one of them. [VIDEO]
Another video talks about Chicago's "political class" and their response to many of Chicago's issues. With DePaul University professor Jason Hill he refer to Rahm Emanuel as incompetent. I would urge you to watch this segment for yourself. [VIDEO]
Finally of the videos I can find on YouTube from Laura Ingraham's special program we see Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41st Ward) a former police officer himself with two representatives from Chicago's police union discuss how the police could be part of the solution. What you will learn here is since the city is understaffed on police detectives which puts a damper on solving many of the crimes in the city. [VIDEO]
There is one other video I'd like to share with you, however, I think it deserves it's own dedicated post. It's a story about Demetrius Griffin. I tweet his name during his segment with a hashtag, what happened to him was so horrible and is related to what the police officers above were discussing, they aren't able to clear these cases. We don't know who killed Demetrius in such an evil way and he and his family deserves to bring the culprits to trial for their atrocity.
So now that we have an open seat for Mayor of Chicago in 2019, there are some issues for those candidates who will throw there hat into the ring for the office will have to chew on. I just hope they have the answers - that I'm sure without this townhall - will argue Rahm Emanuel just wasn't able to provide.
Emanuel was as enthusiastic a pitchman for Chicago as Daley, which is saying something. But after years as a national Democratic fundraiser, Emanuel had access to CEOs across the country, if not around the world. That included tech chiefs like Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Salesforce's Marc Benioff and Google's Eric Schmidt. When word broke a year ago that Amazon was looking for a second headquarters, Emanuel already had been working on Bezos.
"He understood he had access to the tech community at a level very few people have," says Howard Tullman, a veteran tech entrepreneur and avid watcher of Chicago politics who traveled with Emanuel overseas on recruiting trips. "He used that great advantage. The biggest loss (in Emanuel's decision to leave office) is he had an international reputation. You saw this in Japan, China. People wanted to meet and work with him because of his stature. He had the ability to talk about national and global politics."
Emanuel also put CEOs at ease, and it showed in the parade of companies that moved their headquarters to downtown Chicago from other countries, other states, downstate Illinois and the suburbs during his two terms. The list includes Motorola, Archer Daniels Midland, GE Healthcare, Conagra, McDonald's, Beam Suntory and Kraft Heinz. Though they're not ribbon-cutting full-fledged HQs, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Google and Facebook are staffing up significantly downtown, too.
"Businesses want to know the mayor and the administration understand the private sector—that they don't view it as an enemy," says Steve Koch, a former investment banker who was Emanuel's point person on economic development for five years as deputy mayor. "The private sector really wants to know the mayor is committed to fiscal responsibility. They want to know the city has a vision for the future. Rahm was extraordinary at that. He's an unbelievable bundle of energy. With his commitment to (what companies care about), you were already 75 percent there."
OK, it's great to see the Mayor work hard to make big business at ease with doing business in Chicago. However, perhaps a future mayor of Chicago - to be elected next year in 2019 - could be a closer for both the south and west sides of the city? Don't just put all the focus on the north side and downtown Chicago.
[VIDEO] This story actually broke via CBS 2 about an hour ago. Worth sharing with you all. Location of Chatham Academy is 9034 South Langley. The incident itself took place at 91st & Langley.
Three students were shot outside Chatham Academy High School on Chicago’s South Side Monday afternoon around 4 p.m..
Chicago Police confirmed a 16-year-old male was shot in the left shoulder and was transported to Comer Children’s Hospital in stable condition. An 18-year-old was shot in the right arm and left armpit and was transported to the University of Chicago Medical Center in stable condition. A 17-year-old male was shot int he upper left leg and was transported to University of Chicago Medical Center in unknown condition.
As the young people return to school this fall may they stay safe and stay out of trouble.
If this economy is booming right now shouldn't Chicago have already gotten a piece of it? From a Tribune editiorial:
Under Emanuel, the city attracted major employers, experienced a building boom and boosted tourism. He bolstered O’Hare and Midway airports and kept a shine on downtown, the lakefront and many neighborhoods. He made little progress helping the underdeveloped South and West sides, besides recruiting the oft-mentioned Whole Foods to Englewood. Yes, he got the Barack Obama Presidential Center for Jackson Park, but that was a gimme — imagine the scandal if Obama had taken his library to New York. Will Emanuel cap his tenure by winning Amazon’s second headquarters? We’ll know soon.
What connects the mayor’s accomplishments as bond salesman and corporate recruitment cheerleader is his commitment to the cause and ability to speak the language of business and finance. Emanuel, who did a turn as an investment banker, made economic and urban development a priority and went hard at CEOs to convince them to locate in Chicago. With each of those HQs came good-paying jobs.
We’ve echoed the desire of Emanuel’s critics to see private-sector investment spread evenly across Chicago. But Emanuel understood that money invested in an already healthy downtown does a lot more for all Chicagoans than if that money went to Atlanta or Dallas.
So how about the next mayor? America’s economy is booming. Will Chicago get its share? Who among the candidates understands the city’s potential, and who can best balance competing needs to achieve the greater good?
The bond market people will have opinions. So will CEOs and developers. But voters, hiring a mayor who can win their trust is up to you.
Emanuel told WGN radio host Steve Cochran he doesn’t think any of the 12 announced candidates for the fifth floor office at City Hall has the skill set to do the job, while getting in plugs for some of his own work.
“No,” Emanuel said when Cochran asked him whether the next mayor is in the race. “I don’t think so. And here’s the thing: The public knows that this is a very big job, and the mayor cannot be a one-trick pony. You can’t just speak on one issue. You got to do economic development, you got to do education policy, you got to be able to get money out of Springfield and Washington. You’ve got to have an ability to actually invest in our neighborhoods, transportation, libraries, schools and park system.”
“My view is … the list is not done,” he added. “It’s going to shake out for about a month, and then the voters will make a smart decision of who can fill that office. And what I mean by that is, you’re not going to shrink the mayoralty, and there’s got to be a mayor that actually fills this job.”
Plenty of big names are still out there.
Among those reportedly weighing bids to join the field in the February election are Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, 2011 mayoral candidate Gery Chico, city Treasurer Kurt Summers, state Comptroller Susana Mendoza, former White House chief of staff Bill Daley and GCM Grosvenor CEO Michael Sacks, Emanuel’s close friend, confidant and top campaign donor.
And Arne Duncan, the former secretary of education for President Barack Obama and a former CPS CEO, and former White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett have long been discussed as possible mayoral candidates.
Who has these skills set to become mayor that's in this race right now? And who's not in the race that has these skills set?
Usually Saturday's are light days on this blog, but Rahm Emanuel not seeking a third term is the big story right now.
6th ward Ald. Roderick Sawyer appeared on Chicago Tonight with Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36), Ald. John Arena (45), and Ald. Brian Hopkins (2). They discussed not only whether or not they would run for mayor, the mayor's decision to no seek a third term, and of course what his priorities are going to be for the remainder of his term.
Ald. Sawyer was the only one who answered the questions about his mayoral aspirations. Also bear in mind that the alderman is also the son of Mayor Eugene Sawyer who served for two years after the death of Mayor Harold Washington from 1987 to 1989. Sawyer discussed being in the family of a Mayor of Chicago.
All the same Ald. Sawyer indicated that if the voters of the 6th Ward so choose he would continue to serve them. He believes this is the best place for him at this point in time. He did indicate he made some calls with this especially noted in a Sun-Times article earlier this week. I suppose I can't blame him if you're going to go for such an important office the time is now! Who knows when the next opportunity will come around?
This event will take place at Tuley Park 90th & King Drive starting at 11:00 AM this Saturday. Here's a post from the organizers of this annual event - Chesterfield Community Organization.
Another great article by Crain's Steve Daniels, this time about Urban Partnership Bank:
The ShoreBank saga appears to be nearing a definitive end as south suburban lender Providence Bank & Trust looks to acquire the legendary failed community bank’s successor.
Urban Partnership Bank, the lender established in 2010 to take over the ShoreBank franchise after the high-profile urban community bank’s demise, is throwing in the towel.
The South Side bank has an agreement to sell to Providence Bank & Trust, based in south suburban South Holland, the companies announced today. The deal brings to a close UPB’s effort to continue the “mission” of ShoreBank, for decades a bank renowned for lending actively in low-income urban neighborhoods neglected by other banks until it foundered on hundreds of millions in bad loans following the housing bust and Great Recession.
Still, David Vitale, longtime Chicago banker and chairman of UPB, said in an interview he was pleased to find a buyer interested in furthering ShoreBank’s legacy. Having shrunk dramatically from an asset size that had well exceeded $1 billion, UPB wasn’t able to attain its goals, he said.
“The ability to do what we wanted to do at that scale, with the regulatory costs, put our future into question,” he said. “We’re feeling excited for our customers and our communities that someone was willing to invest in us and our communities.”
Providence Bank & Trust is an interesting story in and of itself. Launched in 2004, just six years before UPB, the bank glided relatively unscathed through the financial crisis when most bank startups from that time frame went belly up. It has 12 branches located mainly in the south suburbs, with a few in northwest Indiana.
The acquisition of UPB will give Providence its first presence in the city.
Describing itself as a “stewardship” bank, Providence donates 10 percent of its profits each year to nonprofits and other causes.
To be honest, I would've liked it if some Black investors who hopefully were unscathed by what happened with Seaway Bank for example could've gotten it. Thus we could have another Black-owned bank in the community. Just shows banking is a very difficult business right now or certainly it always has been.
Ald. Roderick Sawyer, (6th), chairman of the City Council’s Black Caucus, said he’s considering a run.
“I’m
talking to someone this afternoon just to talk it through,” Sawyer
said. “I would be lying to you if I said I was not interested.”
Sawyer said he’s having conversations about “the greater impact of all of this, not just the personality.”
I'm sorry I didn't see this on Tuesday or even earlier on Wednesday.
I see the feedback on the link to this article at Concerned Citizens of Chatham. I suppose the question is not whether or not Ald. Sawyer should run it would be if he decided to forgo re-election for 6th ward alderman who could replace him?
On the other hand is Chicago ready for another Mayor Sawyer?
[VIDEO] It was hard looking for a full uncut video of the Mayor's announcement that he's not seeking re-election. Found a vid last night from the Mayor's own YouTube channel. If you want a transcript of his remarks, CapFax shared them yesterday - and I linked to it here also.
I also wanted to share this with you. This CBS Chicago aired yesterday on their 11 AM broadcast and had investigative reporter Brad Edwards speculate on the timing of Emanuel's announcement. Does the Mayor dropping out of the 2019 race have anything to do with the Jason Van Dyke trial that's about to start this week? [VIDEO]
On the other hand, even if it was edited I think I'll go with former Obama advisor David Axelrod on this. There's probably nothing coming out of that Van Dyke trial that could hurt the mayor in any way. Although who knows how politically charged that trial could become as it goes forward. [VIDEO]
Of course needless to say what happened with LaQuan McDonald was shot 16 times by Van Dyke and an alleged cover-up after that probably helped to hobble the mayor. Just remember before the news broke about this in 2015, Emanuel defeated county commissioner Chuy Garcia in a run-off earlier that year. He had a rough period as mayor without a doubt.
Also I might add, Axelrod also noted that third terms are difficult to govern. Emanuel was worried about and yet publicly it seemed he was enthused about a third term. Who knows what changed his mind, but it might not have been a last minute decision for certain.
I know in another post yesterday before this Emanuel's announcement broke that I asked a loaded question asking if you're ready to send the mayor packing. The new question today is whether or not you're enthused by the 11 other candidates who are seeking to replace Rahm Emanuel?
I didn't follow much coverage of this. I know that Rev. Gregory Livingston had a falling out with Tio Hardimon - who ran for Governor this year and is known for running the Ceasefire organization. Livingston and Hardimon organized a north side anti-violence march that shut down traffic on north Lake Shore Drive and ended in Wrigleyville.
This time around on the Labor Day holiday Rev. Livingston wants to shut down traffic on the Kennedy Expressway to disrupt traffic to O'Hare! And I almost forgot about this until I saw this blurb yesterday on Newsalert.
First from ABC 7 Chicago a video of police blocking demonstrators from marching onto the Kennedy Expressway [VIDEO]
What catches my eye for this vid is the screencap with a sign for "Northside against white supremacy". Hmmmm, for some reason I felt this was out of place for a march against violence in innercity neighborhoods. What I've noticed with protest movements is that there are different types of causes within such a movement. It's about one thing, but then those who are involved brings their own agenda with them.
Anyway, the AP got in on the action with this video noting the arrests [VIDEO]
More signs about racism and racial equality in that vid. Also a chant about "Rahm Emanuel has got to go?" Hmmm, can't argue with that just who are Chicagoans going to vote for next year. And the video got quite tense towards the end.
With that out of the way, the question stand. Do you support the protests against the violence in Chicago? Do you support these protest designed to shut down the major expressways in the Chicago-area?
To be honest, I didn't see this coming. On the other hand, it seems we had a rough go since 2011. Either way we will have a new mayor in May 2019. Who will it be?
Now in relation to who could win in 2019, what prompted this decision? You will see in Rich Miller's post a quote from Fran Spielman's article about former Mayor Richard M. Daley's decision to leave office in 2010, and it was described as a political earthquake. And in his case, I understand Daley's then wife was ill and later passed away. What's Emanuel's consideration?
Later today, there's another post I will share some more news about the protests on the Kennedy Expressway which was disrupted yesterday. One of the videos you will see in that post contains a woman chanting "Rahm Emanuel has got to go". Well Emanuel is now going...
Self-Help Federal Credit Union of Durham, N.C., which acquired the Seaway franchise after its failure, recently named a veteran South Side banker to run it and now has obtained $15 million in low-cost funding to put the bank back on offense at a time when the neighborhoods it serves desperately need capital. That $15 million, a low-interest loan from Chicago's MacArthur Foundation, is a key to restoring Seaway to its historic size in terms of assets, according to Randy Chambers, Self-Help's chief financial officer.
Don't doubt the impact of that investment. Five years ago, MacArthur poured $15 million into Self-Help when it took over Second Federal, a failed Hispanic-focused thrift on the Southwest Side. Since then, that arm of Self-Help has made about 1,000 new home loans to families in Pilsen, Little Village, Back of the Yards and other Southwest Side and near suburban communities, and virtually all of the borrowers are first-time homebuyers, Chambers says. In the past 15 months, Self-Help has begun making small-business and church loans in Chicago as well, totaling more than $5 million.
The idea: Neighborhoods troubled by crime and blight improve when more families own their homes there, giving them a stake in the future of the area. That prompts potentially more cooperation with police when crime occurs and better property maintenance, and helps support neighborhood businesses that provide jobs for neighborhood residents. "Homeownership in working communities is the backbone of these communities," Chambers says.
Seaway has shrunk to about $150 million in assets since the failure, Chambers says. The goal is to nearly double in size over time. If that occurs, Self-Help's scale on just the South and Southwest sides will be close to $500 million, a difference-maker.
This article was written by Crain's Steve Daniels who had written a lot about what was going on with Seaway even before last year's shocking FDIC takeover and sale.
I’m not a fan of term limits. If Quinn’s proposal makes the ballot, I’d probably vote against it. It seems to me that Chicago voters are going to have every opportunity to term-limit Emanuel in 2019 by electing someone else, if that’s what they want.
But I also know that voters like term limits, and they at least deserve an opportunity to vote on the issue when someone has gone to the extreme effort of collecting the necessary tens of thousands of signatures to put the matter before them.
In addition, the City Council shouldn’t be allowed to push such a referendum off the ballot by offering up the usual batch of three useless advisory referenda.
Meanwhile our former governor - who was defeated in 2014 by Bruce Rauner who this year in considered endangered - fights to get his term limits referendum on the ballot in November. I also know as Emanuel doesn't get along with Rauner now, he also hadn't got along well with Quinn when he was our governor. Just remember Quinn and Emanuel are both Democrats so what is the deal?
All the same, is it time for mayoral term limits? How many of you are ready to send Emanuel packing next year?
Unfortunately we have reached that point where it's now the unofficial summer. Labor Day another day to BBQ and gather with friends and family. For many and the main thing a day off from work and certainly from school - though school will start soon after Labor Day.
May you all have a safe and enjoyable Labor Day weekend.
