CBS Chicago: CPS listening session for fall

[VIDEO] If CPS students are to return to school in September without a doubt it will be a different back to school period than we have in recent memory. Schools were shut down in March due to the pandemic and CPS is looking for input as far as getting students back to class.

If you believe Gov. J.B. Pritzker it's increasingly becoming clear that it'll be a bit before our part of the world will return to normal. After a good month of low numbers of cases and most important low numbers of deaths there have been increases in cases and all 102 counties in Illinois has reported cases.

What are your thoughts on students going back to school in September (that is no more remote learning as was the case for the remainder of the last school year)?

Protests in Homan Square at CPD facility on the city's west side

[VIDEO] The video you see above is from Ghetto News Network - welcome back J-Hustle - showing what happened in Homan Square last night on the west side.

You might have seen this on your local news last night, protests have converged on the west side of the city to protest a Chicago Police detention facility. It's something I have to do more research on, however, it appears there is a history of police abuse of citizens here.

That facility that exists there and it appears to be near the old Sears complex on Homan Avenue, it also doesn't appear to be a police station. At first glance seeing how the protests took up the whole streets on the news last night near this complex I automatically had concerns of a CHAZ situation here in Chicago or even what happened to that police station in Minneapolis, Minn in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd.

The Chicago Police had an interesting past week there was a shooting in Auburn-Gresham at a funeral home on 79th Street where reportedly 15 people were wounded and made national headlines. Chicago Police were successfully able to defend a Christopher Columbus statue in Grant Park which was later removed by the city on early Friday morning as a slap in the face to those officer who were hurt in that standoff with the protestors rioters.

At least for the past month - aside from an uptick in shootings and homicides here in the city for most of the past month - things in the city had settled down as far as unrest. I just hope any protests remains peaceful. 

Ward 15 Alderman reports another incident of vandalism

[VIDEO] This incident happened on Sunday Alderman Raymond Lopez's (Ward 15) offices were hit with bricks by vandals:

Capitol Fax: Responding to “uptick,” Mayor Lightfoot tightens COVID-19 regulations

I'm very glad that since most of June we've found ourselves in a good place as far as infections or deaths from the coronavirus. The bad news is that lately we've seen upticks of infections throughout the state and also Chicago is a hot spot. So we continue to see efforts at mitigation of the spread of this virus.

Recently a quarantine had been placed in effect where if you've visited a state with an uptick in cases of infection - such as Texas, California, Florida for example - you have to be quarantined for 14 days. Of course the next question with that is how does the city of Chicago enforce this?

In any case, check out this press release from Mayor Lori Lightfoot about further mitigations due to the upticks from CapitolFax.

Responding to “uptick,” Mayor Lightfoot tightens COVID-19 regulations https://t.co/DSOJFEJBnf

— Rich Miller (@capitolfax) July 20, 2020

CapFax: It’s only July, but Chicago vote by mail applications already break record

How many of you plan to vote by main in this year's presidential election? How many of you already requested a mail-in ballot?

121,000 Chicagoans at this point had already done so. Read up at Capitol Fax:

It’s only July, but Chicago vote by mail applications already break record https://t.co/l4y9Muk8zS

— Rich Miller (@capitolfax) July 14, 2020

And another point, how is your mail service lately? Worlee Glover at Concerned Citizens of Chatham is taking a look at some inadequacies at Chatham's local post office especially being out of stock on stamps.

Chicago Alderman tests positive for coronavirus #Pandemic

Ald. Carrie Austin (Ward 34) revealed that she tested positive for coronavirus. It's an odd story, however, I will admit this virus is a bit tricky however the Alderman found out about it.

JUST IN: Ald. Carrie Austin (34th) has tested positive for the coronavirus — after testing negative at a different hospital on the same day. https://t.co/ZwXgFpRQSI

— Chicago Sun-Times (@Suntimes) July 13, 2020

Chicago’s second-most-senior alderman has tested positive for the coronavirus — after testing negative at a different hospital on the same day.

Ald. Carrie Austin (34th) tested positive last month after what sources described as a bleeding episode that initially appeared to signal complications from the surgery she had five years ago to repair a torn aorta that nearly killed her.

Sources said the 71-year-old Austin was taken by ambulance to Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park, where she tested negative for COVID-19. She was then transported by ambulance to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where the original surgery to repair the torn aorta had been conducted.

There, Austin was tested again. This time, the test came back positive, sources said. The veteran alderman, second in seniority only to indicted Ald. Edward Burke (14th), was then transferred to a floor at Northwestern reserved for coronavirus patients in isolation.

She apparently remained there for awhile, and has missed the last two City Council meetings, both conducted online.

The source of the bleeding was not known.

Austin could not be reached for comment. It was not known whether she remains hospitalized or is recuperating at home.

I wish Ald. Austin a speedy recovery if she is in fact ill. 

The Aftermath: Who’s Staying and Who’s Going

Worlee Glover at Concerned Citizens of Chatham has been doing a great job keeping everyone updated on the aftermath of the George Floyd unrest from over a month ago at the end of May. Many of us are concerned about some of our retail establishments reopening after the vandalism and looting of that time.

Many of us were concerned about being able to shop in our communities for groceries. Also some of us are concerned about where to pick-up our prescriptions. Those are the main things of great concern to many as we take Jewel, Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, etc for granted until they got hit by looting & vandalism.

Some of these establishments are returning to operations for our convenience. I was honestly shocked to see the Rothschild's Liquor (717 E 87th St) appeared to be closed one day I went up to 87th Street. From Worlee Rothchild's other locations throughout the city and their downtown offices were looted so they may not reopen at all. He even addressed the idea that with the disappearance of our local liquor stores - including Kenwood Liquors per their website is permanently closed - alcoholism will suddenly disappear.

We see the Walmart 8331 S. Steward or on 83rd Street and the Walgreens 11 E. 75th Street or on 75th & State Streets will take at least 2 to 6 months to reopen as they took extensive damage due to the looting. If I recall the 83rd Street Walmart was said to be on fire that last weekend in May due to the civil unrest. Also the Walgreens on 75th & State still had issues with looters even after the unrest.

Those among other updates and information you will see in the Concerned Citizen's of Chatham posting below.

NBC News on modern day redlining

I saw this linked on NextDoor last month and decided to share it here. It's amazing that we're still talking about redlining in America and other aspects of inequality in America. One of those issues we should just as easily discussing as far as revitalizing Black neighborhoods.