Phase 3 to reopen Chicago #Pandemic

As far as Chicago goes Mayor Lightfoot has said the city won't be ready for May 31 which is when things will slowly start to reopen in the state. However, fairly recently some restrictions on businesses in the city will begin to ease by Wednesday, June 3, 2020 here's a city website for phase 3. The mayor discusses the city's response to phase 3 here [VIDEO]

In the rest of Illinois phase 3 begins on Friday, May 29, 2020 in other words today. You can read more about the phases of "restore IL" here. Here's some video from Gov. JB Pritzker's press conference [VIDEO]

I also want to add this from NPR just to show there the state is at as far as coronavirus cases

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker says every region of the state has now met the criteria to move into phase three of his five-phased reopening plan, called Restore Illinois. That includes the percentage of positive coronavirus tests falling and remaining below 20%, a falling or flat rate of new COVID-19 patients being admitted to hospitals, and enough available medical, surgical and ICU hospital beds and ventilators to handle a possible surge in COVID-19 cases.

Phase 3 of reopening in Illinois is a bit more limited that the plans in many other states. Illinois residents should not throw out their face coverings and masks as those are still required in public.

Restaurants can reopen for outdoor dining, but tables must be spaced at least 6 feet apart, and groups sitting together are limited to no more than six people.

Hair and nail salons, barbershops, tattoo parlors and other providers of personal care services will be limited to those that can be performed with both the customer and employee wearing coverings over their nose and mouth. Massages and other body treatments will be limited to 30 minutes.

Nonessential retailers can reopen but must limit the number of customers in their shop at a time to five per 1,000 square feet of retail space, which is half the normal capacity.

As always take your precautions out here in the world and stay safe. 

Editorial: The Avenue could again become magnificent #Ward09

The Chicago Neighborhood

This editorial from the Chicago Sun-Times makes reference to last year's fire at the former Gatelys Department store on the Michigan Avenue shopping strip south of 111th Street. It's probably time to redevelop that corridor, especially in time for that Red Line extension whenever it gets funded and construction starts.

Keep an eye on the Roseland neighborhood’s Michigan Avenue, once a retail strip so popular it was called Chicago’s second Magnificent Mile.

Shoppers could find anything from school supplies to furniture to brand new cars.

Rocked by two devastating extra-alarm fires within the last year, and now slammed by a pandemic that’s likely to change forever how we shop and gather, the faded and struggling commercial strip faces a tough future.

But “The Avenue” — as this stretch of Michigan Avenue between 115th and 107th was called in its heyday — now is being targeted by the city for possible redevelopment.

The plans were in place before the coronavirus broke out and they’ll need to be modified. But given that the COVID-19 pandemic has hit all traditional retail strips hard — have you seen the boarded up stores on North Michigan Avenue these days? — saving The Avenue should be even more of a priority.

When neighborhood shopping dies, neighborhoods die.

The Avenue’s day as a regional commercial giant are not likely to return. People just don’t shop in brick-and-mortar stores the way they used to, and the street’s major retailers, such as JCPenney, are long gone.

But the buildings still stand and could be reused in potentially exciting new ways. And if done correctly, the lessons learned here could be applied to troubled commercial streets in neighborhoods elsewhere on the South and West sides.

Probably excerpted a lot more than I should've so I'll stop there and hope that you'll read the whole thing.

The editorial itself makes reference to this strip's proximity to the Pullman National Monument. How could the businesses and the community leverage that. The Avenue - at least for those old school residents might refer to the strip - might not return to the glory days. I still would like to see what plans could develop with revitalization. What entrepreneurs can become successful in this area.

White Castle near 111th & State #tbt #Ward09

You may well have already seen this photo below on social media taken in the mid-1980s of the White Castle that formerly stood at 111th & State Streets or actually 2 E. 111th street. I'm most familiar with this location since often looking for a hamburger slider fix this was where my folks went. At some point during the 1990s this location was closed and demolished.

Then looking for photos I found an even older photo of the White Castle taken in 1937 according to the information on the photograph. Could be the same building and I don't recognize the neighborhood around it.

Via Pinterest

Of course back in the 1980s the White Castle was surrounded by a post office to the north and then to the east on 111th Street was the YMCA. The post office is still there however the YMCA is long gone though the building itself remains.

I hope you enjoy this look back and a break from the dire news regarding coronavirus.

No more pandemic press conferences on the weekend from the state

I'm noting that Gov. Pritzker doesn't plan to further continue holding his daily updates over the weekend as he had been once coronavirus became a problem. There will still be daily updates usually in the form of a press release by the Illinois Dept of Public Health which will continue to be released every day, however, the governor will continue his press conferences during the rest of the week as opposed to Saturday and Sunday.

No more weekend Pritzker briefings https://t.co/JePwrOdRw7

— Rich Miller (@capitolfax) May 7, 2020

If you haven't been following this, I wanted to find a way to share this with you. Jahmal Cole has been doing a wonderful job - he's been getting a lot of attention as you all may know for his many initiatives within the community - providing care packages to seniors during this pandemic. Seniors are unfortunately vulnerable to this virus and he's providing senior citizens with supplies to help them combat this disease. Especially since items like hand sanitizer has been at a premium due to the panic buying by many consumers.

He made his appearance at a Saturday press conference with the governor to deliver a speech that Rich Miller of Capitol Fax refers to Cole's speech as fiery. I was hoping there was an easy way to share his speech, however, in a recent email blast Cole himself provided a video with snippets of his speech. [VIDEO]

I agree with Mr. Cole hope is what is needed right now.

Multi-phase plan to reopen the state

[VIDEO] Im glad to see this plan from Gov. J.B. Pritzker as far as reopening this state. Illinois is a far more diverse state and there is a lot more to our state than the Chicago area. Chicago and Cook County - also certainly the collar counties - are more of a hotspot that other parts of the state. And 97 of the state's 102 counties have reported cases so far

I would recommend you check out the governor's remarks from Tuesday as he discusses his regional phased reopening plan.

There were some challenges by two downstate legislators and another by a pastor challenging the governor's' new stay-at-home order which went into effect on May 1, 2020. Here it is in full. There was a ruling by a federal judge on Monday declaring the governor's executive order as constitutional which involved the lawsuit by a pastor in Illinois

I do want to address this video many of you seen from Saturday afternoon in the parking lot at the shopping center on 87th street that contains a Jewel. It was a crowd of people standing outside and congregating and evidently a full parking lot. On a typical day with all stores open - although Burlington Coat Factory had recently closed - the lot wouldn't be that full.

I could see this as an act of defiance and the weather is getting warmer people will get restless. However, if encouraging people to stay home will help to get Chicago reopened then I'm definitely for it.

Here's the video below.

Stossel: Coronavirus cans the bag ban (taxes)

[VIDEO] Grocery stores and pharmacies are considered essential business as people still want to pick up prescriptions and over the counter medication. People also still have to eat and while many restaurants are open for take out orders only, your best bet is still go to the grocery store and find your ingredients so that you can cook.

I noted this a while ago in a post about coronavirus numbers and the effect of the pandemic on "essential" retail. A few grocery stores aren't allowing for the usage of re-usable bags I know for sure the Jewel-Osco, Whole Foods Market, and Target if you go to a cashier they won't package your items in your reusable bags.

Personally reusable bags are very convenient, however, what's noted in this John Stossel video is that there are many of us who don't take the time out to clean them. Sometimes I throw them in the washers, however, sometimes it's just something that I don't take the time to do. If you don't clean them then you could be carrying microbes on your reusable bags that are often dangerous.

Stossel takes aim at the attempts by governments around the nation to ban plastic bags. Chicago has asserted a 7 cent bag tax to encourage use of reusable bags. It's understood that they want to discourage use of those plastic "Jewel" bags. Unfortunately whether or not you use a "Jewel" bag or a paper bag, you still get charged a 7 cent tax. And paper is not only better for the environment not only because they are reusable (even if fragile as you see in video above) they are also recyclable, yet if we use a paper bag from a store we STILL get charged a tax.

Another thing of note is that while Whole Foods, Target, and Jewel that I know of for sure seemed to have waived collecting the city' bag tax. If you go to Mariano's and use a bag with them they will still charge you the 7 cent tax.

In my opinion, who knows if this is going away. Since the pandemic has caused the shut down of many businesses, surely tax revenues are down. Since in many places there is already a bag tax enacted, my idea is this is one convenient tax that won't go away. Especially since people during this difficult time still got to go out to shop for "essential" items.

Any other retailer - especially grocery stores - still charging you the 7 cent bag tax? Let us know...