VIDEO: Dan Ryan Expressway Father Pfleger Peace March Shutdown #DanRyanshutdown

[VIDEO] It's rare as of late that I do Sunday posts here however since Saturday's peace march on the Dan Ryan Expressway is still fresh on everyone's mind I wanted to share this video from Artistmac. He didn't participate in the march himself but got footage of the march as it happened. And audio of others who are pontificating on this.

We would see that at first police blocked two lanes and ultimately protestors which included not only St. Sabina's Father Michael Pfleger also Rev. Jesse Jackson. There were pics that showed them negotiating with authorities especially Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson. Though I found a pic where he was marching with the protestors on the Dan Ryan via the "Sheriff Blog".

BTW, I feel the need to share this post from Newsalert the last posted yesterday about the Ryan march: Amid #DanRyanShutDown, Rauner slams Rahm, protesters on Twitter: "Unacceptable. We had clear parameters that allowed the protestors to be heard while respecting law and order. Instead, they chose instead to cause chaos..."

What are you thoughts on this march?

Re: Maggio News documentaries posted to Nextdoor

Last week I posted two documentaries by Victor Maggio to Nextdoor and they have proven to be controversial. The primary reaction to this video has been according to the apparent political leanings of Maggio. Another reaction is that some may believe he is attempting to capitalize on the tragedy going on in the Black neighborhoods of Chicago.

Another aspect of the controversy was that I had been posting under an alias on Nextdoor either as "Sixth Ward blog" or "Ninth Ward". In two different forums on Nextdoor I had posted Maggio's video regarding Greater Grand Crossing which so far elicited a far stronger reaction under "Sixth Ward blog". In yet another forum I posted the video with regards to Roseland - which was posted on this blog last week - which elicited a conversation with regards to neighborhoods listed for the purposes of real estate or even property taxes interestingly enough.

Both videos were reported with the Greater Grand Crossing post being reported & deleted under the auspices of being "hurtful not helpful". The other video on Roseland so far hasn't been deleted, however, it was reported strangely enough for "promoting business & commerce the right way". Now I got to admit that second one could be a bit more valid while I don't represent a business regardless I'm not posting under my real name. Or perhaps there might be a belief that I'm promoting Maggio which isn't exactly my purpose, however, more on that later.

BTW here are Nextdoor's community guidelines.

As a matter of fact I had recently changed from my name to Ninth Ward on another Nextdoor forum. My purpose to posting recently whether actual posts or comments on posts was certainly to post more at Nextdoor though I had little intention of posting under my real name. In light of the controvery I've made the decision to step back from my activities on Nextdoor.

In posting either videos whether on this blog or on Nextdoor, there were never any nefarious or malicious intentions when sharing those vids. To me it was just another video and it wasn't done to be hateful. I did some cursory research on Maggio finding his website at Maggio News through the Roseland video. If you look at his about us page, you see he has aligned himself with conservative leaders such as the late Andrew Breitbart & Glenn Beck. He's certainly has presented himself over the course of his online presence as a conservative. Indeed at one point he notes his site was set up to cover Occupy Wall Street and other left-wing movements that have come to the Chicago area.

Now his website is geared in his own words to ask these questions: "Why is this violence happening? We set out to find out Who and what is responsible for the violent desperate culture that has been created in these inner city communities of Chicago?" He further notes his main aim in documenting the violence on Chicago's streets: "The only way society will understand WHY these tragedies are taking place in Chicago is telling the story from a centrist unbiased perspective. The reason this film must be presented to the public in such a graphic nature is so they can truly understand how desperate the situation is becoming. Only then can we start to fix the massive 40-point problem that has been created through liberal social engineering."

Those italicized quotes above are from Maggio's Inside Bloody Chicago page.

I also wanted to reach out to Maggio - while unsuccessful in finding an e-mail address for him - utilized a form on his contact page to send a message. To be transparent my only purpose was never to criticize though it was certainly to follow his series on the top 10 violent neighborhoods of Chicago. Though some have noted inaccuracies without saying what they were, one inaccuracy I had noted was using the community areas as a frame of reference. The 77 community areas aren't neighborhoods and indeed many of the community areas contain several distinct neighborhoods. It's possible he's doing this as a simplification for an audience who may not be familiar with Chicago.

Also as a general rule my personal policy is to never reject information that may have been presented with a conservative point of view or even from an outsider. And of course we're all free to disseminate the information and even question its credibility. Though from this point forward my goal is to do further research on videos such as those by Victor Maggio. Especially any video with regards to Chicago crime as it's a very passionate issue video especially for those of us who've been directly affected by it.

Remember the Whole Foods Market groundbreaking from earlier this month?

If you missed the groundbreaking earlier this month for the Whole Foods Market coming to 63rd/Halsted, guess who was there to record the proceedings - our old friend artistmac. He recorded these festivities in two parts and posted here for your enjoyment. Here's a description written by artistmac for those two-part videos:

On July 1, 2014 at 10 in the morning, ground was broken on the northwest corner of 63rd and Halsted for Englewood Plaza, which will be anchored by the south side of Chicago's first Whole Foods grocery store.

As late as the 1950's, the shopping district centered around 63rd and Halsted (and extending for several blocks in all directions) was the second largest, in terms of dollar sales, after the Loop. Sears (with a Hillman's grocery store in the basement, Walgreens', Kresge's (a Woolworth's style five and dime),Wieboldts, L.Fish Furniture, Jewel Food Store, the Englewood and Southtown Theaters -- they were all there, within a few blocks of each other. What caused its decline should be a case study in any urban planning class.

At any rate, by the 1980's, Englewood was anthrax for retailers and housing developers. Former Mayor Daley's fast track demolition program only hastened the decline; from the air, on Google Maps, Englewood's residential neighborhoods are an almost unbroken stretch of green, denoting vacant lots where houses once stood.

Englewood's population has dropped by two-thirds since 1960. It's population in the last census, 30,000, is half that of Lincoln Park, the location of Chicago's first Whole Foods, and its median household income, at less than $20,000, is a quarter of Lincoln Park's. But I'm sure Whole Foods has run the numbers.

What I'm afraid of is that this is the city's way of telling Englewood's current residents that their days in that neighborhood are numbered, and that the bulk of future residential development in Englewood will be for those who CAN afford to pay $4.50 and up for a gallon of milk.

It's happened before. Lincoln Park's working-class Puerto Rican residents were gradually kicked out in favor of the upper-middle class and wealthy residents who live there now.

Ah the "dreaded G word" has come back to the surface. Many of the people including Mayor Emanuel who were seen in these videos talked a good game about building this store with the community. Ald. Thompson certainly spoke of Englewood's history and she's right young people now could say I remember when just as her generation did. In addition we certainly heard about the difficulty of finding fresh produce in the community.

[VIDEO: PART 1 & PART 2]

What a man with his camera can do? Part 2

[VIDEO] In a post from 2008, I showed a video from YouTube user artistmac that show students from a neighborhood school throwing rocks onto his property. He promptly used this video to get those children in trouble with the school.

So the Woodlawn Wonder shares with us video from a YouTuber who refers to themselves as Chicago24thWard. Her post is entitled: " 'The Wire': Chicago's West Side". It's certainly an homage to the HBO series that explored urban crime (particularly drug dealing) and policing in Baltimore, Maryland.

Below we see the man behind Chicago24thWard [VIDEO]

Well, this is certainly bold activity. The question is would anyone out there be willing to do something like this to bring attention to any issue within the community?

Syron Smith Interviews Chatham Mom

Syron Smith wants to change the world, "Block By Block". As the leader of the National Block Club University organization, Mr. Smith has set their goal to "track, monitor, and counter act violence throughout 167 of America's most dangerous neighborhoods". To supplement this initiative, he recently ran for Illinois State Representative in the 32nd legislative district against incumbent Andre Thapedi. Although that initiative did not produce the result he wanted, Smith remains focused on building awareness for his main project- the National Block Club University.

Last Wednesday, I began my training as "governor" or leader of the 60619 zip code. Since my specialty is in community journalism, I brought my camera along and we met up with a mom named Lenore who appreciated our help.

In the video above, Brother Syron got some insight from Sister Lenore about her challenges as a mother, as well what can be done to strengthen our community.
Syron's greatest venture is to get residents involved by purchasing toilet tissue for $12.00 or just making a donation towards the cause. Our ward includes the 60619 zip code, which you will see in the video, has supported the Illinois State Lottery as the state's most profitable area. However, that same money rarely gets channeled back into the school system, as it was promised to be during the days of the late Mayor Harold Washington.

Some folks have questioned my role in this community. That's good. People will always gossip or make false statements about things that intrigue them or that they don't understand. I'm one of the many passionate, educated, young black men who want to STAY in the Sixth Ward and not move out.

Criticism, done in the right spirit, is welcomed. But discouraging, destructive words will not be entertained- except to motivate me to strive harder to help our community.

I love you all. I just ask for you to love me back, because you'll be also loving the God who works in me.

- Zack Isaacs-Raspberry (Zack for short) ;)

Neighbors Twitter, blog to keep criminals at bay

The wonders of these modern technologies we know as social networking and other things people do to keep their neighborhoods safe. This article from Business Week gives you the lowdown. Via Uptown Update!

I found this video on YouTube

This video I just found looking for Chicago 6th Ward videos are about those murders that took place this past spring where 5 people were killed. The caption from the YouTube page is as follows:

6th ward alderwoman is grilled by youth in the ward for not coming around and supporting them.

The duration of this vid is about 10 minutes.

What a man with his camera can do?

Artistmac on his YouTube account posted this video showing some kids in the act of throwing rocks onto his property. He showed this video to the officials at his local school, since he knew where they went to school. These kids got to serve some community service as a result of their actions as recorded on video tape.

The Bench on WLS-AM this morning

A blogger or citizen-journalist, Tom Mannis was on the radio today. Mannis of course is a blogger from Roger's Park, said to be the fifth bloggiest neighborhood in the nation.

Does Rogers Park deserve its bloggers?

YoChicago blog takes another view of bloggers in Roger's Park...

When it comes to Rogers Park, however, I'm inclined to sympathize with the real estate professionals who contend that some of the neighborhood bloggers are an unwarranted drag on property values, sales and rentals. Rogers Park has undeniable issues but, if some its bloggers are to be believed, it has no redeeming qualities.

Should Rogers Park bloggers just put their cameras aside, turn off their police scanners, take a month off, enjoy the beaches and bike paths, and try to gain some perspective?

Hmmm, I'm not sure what to say about this. Perhaps there is some validity in this POV. On the other hand someone like a Craig Gernhardt has a role to play. So might a Tom Mannis. I could mention What the Helen as well. There are others out there whether or not they're in Roger's Park or any other neighborhood in the city.

Could a blog that reports some of the negatives of a neighborhood truly become a drag on property values, sales, and rentals in a neighborhood?

The Road From Midway: Potholes on Cicero

I like to view the vid of a YouTube user artistmac. He does vids about his neighborhood in Chicago and other sites and sounds around the city. This video takes aim at Cicero just when you get onto the Stevenson Expressway leaving Midway Airport.

I'm sure some of you out there has a video camera perhaps you can point it at something of consequence in your neighborhood. There need not be action shots perhaps if nothing else tape the traffic and the potholes or perhaps a burned out building that's a problem in your neighborhood.