Capitol Fax: Hard times are driving African-Americans away from Chicago area

Sorry to have missed this yesterday. The CapFax discusses a study and a column by Crain's Greg Hinz regarding why Blacks are leaving the Chicagoland area.

Hard times are driving African-Americans away from Chicago area https://t.co/E5lIwUnerW

— Rich Miller (@capitolfax) December 6, 2018

For instance, while the unemployment rate in the region dropped from 9 to 7.6 percent overall, among blacks it dipped just four-tenths of a percentage point, or 0.4 percent. That's significantly smaller than the drops among Latinos, Asians and non-Hispanic whites, even though the unemployment rate was and remains far higher among blacks, more than 17 percent.

Similarly, median household income among blacks is still off nearly a tenth—9.4 percent—among blacks. In comparison, among whites, the drop was 1.5 percentage points; among Hispanics, 4.2 percentage points, with Asians gaining a bit. And while the drop-off in labor force participation rates was smallest among blacks in the 2010-17 period compared to other groups, blacks already had and still have the lowest rate, with just over 60 percent holding a job or actively looking for one.

The result: African-Americans are leaving, while the population of whites, Latinos and Asians is up, if only modestly so. Those findings had been previously reported, but in its new report CMAP breaks it out by those with and without jobs, and some of the data is eyebrow-raising.

Among non-Hispanic whites, Asians and Latinos age 16 to 64, a clear majority of 53 percent to 64 percent, respectively, of those leaving the region already hold jobs. But among blacks, only 42 percent are employed. The remaining 58 percent of those moving either are unemployed or out of the workforce and not looking at all.

CMAP Associate Policy Analyst Aseal Tineh said there could be various reasons for the latter distinctions, such as more rapid aging among white residents. But overall, it's likely that African-Americans here are having a harder time finding jobs, and a harder time getting jobs that pay well, she said. Beyond that, the report itself notes previous research that black commuters tend to have a longer trip to work than other area residents.

The question is what can we do about it?

Curbed: Why U.S. cities need more multi-racial, mixed-income neighborhoods

This is something you might have seen on the national Curbed site yesterday. You may have even seen this as a link on Curbed Chicago also.

Why U.S. cities need more multi-racial, mixed-income neighborhoods. https://t.co/YsRVHdAyOc pic.twitter.com/KoY8cbmQuO

— Curbed (@Curbed) August 21, 2018

The report concludes that the U.S. currently has 1,300 neighborhoods home to about 7 million Americans which qualify as diverse, mixed-income communities. Many of these neighborhoods are in three U.S. cities—New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles—but a detailed map that accompanies the study reveals that of the 52 most populous metropolitan areas, about 80 percent have at least one neighborhood which fits this description.

There is growing consensus that integration is key to promoting a wide range of positive outcomes for all residents by improving access to economic opportunity. More integrated communities give more people better connections to jobs, schools, and civic resources.

Integration is also important from a fiscal perspective as cities are adversely affected by the financial burdens of segregation. A 2017 study by the Urban Institute and the Metropolitan Policy Center of the Chicago metropolitan area found that segregation cost the city of Chicago more than $4 billion annually.

Could it be integration will be the key to changing some of Chicago's neighborhoods? Especially the most violent neighborhoods?

Just bear in mind not just ethnic/race integration, but income integration. So-called upper, middle, or low incomes.

BTW, read the whole thing! 

Crain's: Here's how to reverse the damage of segregation

Published in Crain's Chicago Business on Tuesday morning:

The [Metropolitan Planning Council] used the help of 110 advisers and experts to draw up the recommendations, all of which view the city through "the lens of racial equity," Barrett says. Among the recommendations:

• Enact a city earned income tax credit for working households, to augment state and federal earned income tax credits. This would generate $218 million in spending from working families, according to the study. 

• Reduce local control over affordable housing decisions. If a ward has less than 10 percent affordable housing, a city council member shouldn't have the ability to reject or delay proposed residential developments that have affordable housing components. 

• Increase Chicago Housing Authority vouchers to expand options for affordable housing. Expanding the vouchers to 200 percent of fair market rent in certain areas could add 3,377 more housing units to the market. 

• End criminal justice system policies that adversely affect poor people. Among these is requiring a money bond for minor offenses, as people who can't afford bond can spend months or even years in jail while awaiting trial. Eliminating unnecessary pretrial detention could save $198 million a year. The report also suggests implicit-bias training for all involved in the criminal justice system. 

...

• Use equity as a key factor, along with safety, delay reduction and ridership, when making transportation decisions in the Chicago metro area. "The South Side doesn't have the same level of rapid transit service," says Kate Lowe, assistant professor of urban planning and policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, one of the 110 advisers who worked on the recommendations. "Extending the Red Line would help." Transportation, she adds, intersects with all the systems that shape residents' lives: jobs, education, health care and employment. 

Put into place over two years, the recommendations could add $4.4 billion in income for African-American communities, which would in turn generate $8 billion for the local economy. The measures would add 83,000 bachelor's degrees and reduce homicides by 30 percent. If nothing is done, and the city continues on its current trajectory of segregation, income disparity will widen: The area will see a 17 percent drop in its African-American population, a 12 percent rise in the number of households earning below $30,000 a year, and a 42 percent increase in households earning more than $125,000 a year.

 Interesting?

Crain's: Why so many young Chicago men pull the trigger

Go Falcons!

One attempt to get a handle on the issue of gun violence in Chicago's crime ridden neighborhoods. At one point in time this blog strived to avoid issues of crime even though I recognize it as a reality in our fair city.

Regardless the fact that a shooting and the volume of them is news not just locally but nationally also is problematic. We all hope for a solution to save our young people. No easy answers, but something has to be done about the violence.

Also for this, there will be three parts to this series. I hope to be able to share the other ones as they're published.

Tribune: Chicago area pays steep price for segregation, study finds

Another article I saw referred to Chicago as "Balkanized" i.e. divided. There's a price to this division:

The seven-county area's murder rate could be cut by 30 percent, its economy could churn out an additional $8 billion in goods and services and its African-American residents could earn another $3,000 a year if it could reduce racial and economic segregation to the median level for the nation's largest metro areas.

And 83,000 more residents could have earned bachelor's degrees, spurring another $90 billion in collective lifetime earnings.

Those were the findings of a study by the Metropolitan Planning Council, a Chicago-based public policy research group, and the Urban Institute, a Washington think tank.

The Capitol Fax has more on this and the full study.

Urbanization has led to disproportionate economic growth in the largest US metro areas

The question here is where do we see this economic growth via Brookings Institute:

One such change economic developers must grapple with is the federal political landscape, which has shifted dramatically following the 2016 elections. Though the impacts of policies from the Trump administration and GOP-led Congress on cities remain unclear, two outcomes seem likely. First, there will be fewer dollars flowing to localities. The Trump administration and GOP-led Congress are reportedly considering across-the-board cuts to federal non-discretionary spending, which has declined steadily as a percentage of GDP since the recession and is already approaching 50-year lows. Second, there will be more discretion provided to states and local communities. President Trump has indicated a preference for block grants and devolving power from the federal government, declaring in his inaugural address that “today… we are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to you, the people.” Both outcomes would place a greater burden on local actors to create good jobs and close income disparities in their region. In other words, the work of economic developers and their partners at the metropolitan and regional scale has never been more important.

h/t Newsalert

Tribune: Millionaires are leaving Chicago, report says

I found this most interesting:

Millionaires are leaving Chicago more than any other city in the United States on a net basis, according to a new report.

About 3,000 individuals with net assets of $1 million or more, not including their primary residence, moved from the city last year, with many citing rising racial tensions and worries about crime as factors in the decision, according to research firm New World Wealth. That represented about 2 percent of the city's high net worth individuals....
Chicago was among four cities worldwide with the biggest flight of millionaires.

And then it got more interesting:

Most of the millionaires who left Paris and Rome fled their countries, while Chicagoans moved elsewhere in the United States, said New World Wealth, whose data is used by luxury-goods companies, private banks and real estate professionals, among others.
...
Findings of the New World Wealth report are consistent with a Nielsen study released late last year that showed Chicago is losing large numbers of affluent African-Americans.

The Nielsen report found that the Chicago area has fallen out of the top echelon of U.S. cities when it comes to the percentage of black households earning more than $100,000. In 2000, Chicago ranked seventh among the cities with the largest percentage of black households with income at that level or higher, but in 2015, Chicago had dropped out of the top 10.

The question is now what's going on in our fair city. Why are there fears of racial tension? Why are the more wealthier Blacks leaving the area entirely and taking their resources with them?

#MBMHMC I don’t live in Chi-Raq, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist

This report is via My Block My Hood My City by their head of data, Matthew Pietrus. The map above chronicles homicide hotspots throughout Chicago:

After analyzing homicides locations in conjunction with demographic data, I found that of these thousands of homicides from 2010-2015, two thirds of them occurred in neighborhoods that are two thirds or more black. Compared to just over 12% in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods and under 2% in predominantly white neighborhoods, it is clear that violence is not equally shared.

Unfortunately, this is not news. Most Chicagoans understand the disparities that exist in the city so studies like these can seem repetitive. But the significance of this map, and other studies like it, lies not in the data displayed on its surface but in the social interactions that create it. While what is occurring is certainly of importance, only in understanding why something is occurring can change happen.

That is why the story this map tells, the story of Chi-Raq, is an important one.

With the mention of that term, many readers may have moved on from this piece, and with understandable frustration. With massive clusters of homicides isolated in the South and West sides of the city, to many Chicagoans, Chi-Raq, the city more deadly than a warzone, is not the city they know nor is it the reality they face. For this reason, there has been constant backlash to the city’s new name, dating from the term’s inception to Spike Lee’s recent film. However, is this image of Chicago really a misrepresentation? More importantly, is our outcry over the term Chi-Raq really more important than the larger socioeconomic, racial, and violent disparities that it brings up?

Conclusion:

Similarly, for city officials and community members to continue a blasé approach towards reading these stories is a form of complicity, permitting the city to continue its violent polarization. Instead of becoming numb to statistics and these stories, we instead need to mobilize when Chicagoans like Bettie Smith, Quintonio LeGrier, and Tyshawn Lee are killed. We need to call our aldermen, protest, and make our dissention known.

In the end, this map tells the story of Chicago’s segregation. This story is not just one depicting a lack of cultural integration but one telling of a social isolation which disproportionately impacts black communities. But just because this may not be the story of your Chicago does not mean it is a story you should ignore.

Now how do we change this idea of violent polarization in those violent communities?

Capitol Fax: Four of the ten worst cities for African-Americans are in Illinois

Linking to a post yesterday discussing a study at the Huffington Post, Rich Miller makes sure to note that our neighbors in Dairyland or more specifically Milwaukee, Wisconsin are #1 on this list. Otherwise we see Kankakee, Chicago area, Peoria, and Rockford were in the top 10.

WBEZ: In Chicago, neighborhoods that are too black don't gentrify

With the prospect of a Whole Foods Market coming to Englewood in 2016 the "dreaded G word" continues to come up. But an academic study reported by WBEZ makes the argument that if a neighborhood is solidly Black, then it's very unlikely to gentrify. However:

The researchers started with earlier data showing neighborhoods that appeared to be undergoing gentrification. But when they looked at those same areas more recently, they found that in areas where the population was 40 percent black, that gentrification seemed to grind to a halt.

Indeed, Sampson said that many of the neighborhoods that have become synonymous with gentrification — like the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn — actually underscore their study's findings. That neighborhood has a reputation of being a hive of hipsters who moved in and displaced all the black people who lived there before. But before it gentrified, the neighborhood actually boasted a sizable Polish-American working class and a large Latino population, while its black population had always been very small. (It was about 7 percent in 1990.) Sampson said the Bed-Stuys and Harlems of the world — heavily black urban neighborhoods that have seen lots of whites move in — are outliers, not the rule.

Something that ought to be addressed study or no-study:

As Ta-Nehisi Coates' blockbuster story on reparations exhaustively outlined, Chicago has a particularly sordid history when it comes to race and housing. The city's policies and their consequences have contributed to deep levels of residential segregation there, and Sampson said that history continues to shape the way Chicagoans think of different neighborhoods.

"[There's a] perception that predominantly black neighborhoods are higher-crime, more disorderly," he said. "And that's feeding into which neighborhoods — among poor neighborhoods — are being gentrified."

The next question is whether or not Black communities are losing out on reinvestment and renewal? Read the whole thing and let us know what YOU think.

Sun-Times - Chicago’s finances among the worst after 2008 recession: study

It seems Mayor Emanuel when he first entered into office with the city's finances as his first concern and this study shows why:

Chicago weathered the storm of the 2008 recession in worse financial shape than all but two major cities — Boston and bankrupt Detroit — because spending, debt and unfunded pension liabilities rose faster than revenues, according to a new study.

The Civic Federation used nine key indicators to measure Chicago’s financial performance against 12 other U.S. cities over a five-year period ending Dec. 31, 2011, that coincided with the recession and the painstaking recovery.

Chicago ranked No. 11. Only Boston and Detroit fared worse. New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Houston, Kansas City, Seattle, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Columbus and Baltimore all emerged in better shape.

The reasons are simple. The mountain of debt got higher. Unfunded pension liabilities are $19 billion and rising. And taxes are not growing as fast as city spending, according to the Civic Federation.

Over the five-year period, Chicago’s “real liabilities” — everything from operating expenses to debt and pension liabilities — rose by $824 a person to $3,296 for every man, woman and child living in the city.

Chicago raised taxes and fees by $113.45 a person during that same period, topped only by Houston ($122.01), Boston ($205.58), Baltimore ($354.28) and Detroit ($357.18). But it was not nearly enough to keep pace with expenses.

Although Chicago’s “debt service-to-expenditure ratio” declined over the five-year period, the five-year average of 11.9 percent is still the highest of all 13 cities, which had an average of 9.7 percent.

Read the whole thing!

HuffPost: Chicago City Council's Aldermen Agree With Rahm Emanuel More Than Some Daley Administrations

You may want to know what this means:

Emanuel has enjoyed an average level of support of 93 percent -- more than both the 88 percent support Richard M. Daley experienced during his final term (2007-2011) and the 83 percent support Richard J. Daley (1955-1957) had for his first two years in office, per the UIC analysis.

The only vote Emanuel has lost since he took office, incidentally, was regarding a City Council ethics reform proposal.

I'm sure many of you have your worst thoughts on this.

Capitol Fax: The old way will always be the best way

I intended to post this much earlier but found myself sidetracked so therefore you will recieve this brief lesson today. These are for those of you who are considered aspiring leaders and want to see what works in politics. This is something that isn't even lost upon me and it's very easy to believe that today's technology will be the primary methods of getting out the vote.

Anyway, Rich Miller writes about a study conducted by two political scientists showing methods of getting out the vote. He shares this conclusion:

There is absolutely no substitute for physically touching voters. And there never will be. Talk all you want about technology. But unless the tech is directly related to helping a physical street canvass, then it’s mostly a waste of money.

And if you can’t touch them, using volunteers to talk with voters is the next best thing. Robocalls are cheap, which is why they’re so over-used. And while they might have an impact at the margins, they’re nowhere near as effective as real people telling real stories about why they are voting for a candidate.

We may have internet social networking, robocalls, etc. but it will never totally replace face to face contact with voters. Probably time that such interaction returns to our communities.

ALSO, the comments here are very interesting as well. Since comments are closed there you can always comment here!

How Black Gentrifiers Have Affected the Perception of Chicago's Changing Neighborhoods

Bronzeville Row Houses - Laura Chipps

How Black Gentrifiers Have Affected the Perception of Chicago's Changing Neighborhoods

Another wrinkle in the idea of gentrification. If any Black communities were to ever change and gentrify my only hope is that it's Blacks who are driving it. That's what this article from The Atlantic Cities seeks to argue.

The look at the case of Bronzeville (aka The Black Metropolis). It seems that even though the area has largely changed for the better in recent years. Still even then the area can't remove the stigma of the housing projects most of which have been torn down in the area, especially the ones along the State Street corridor.

Still it seems it's an entirely new thing to see that Blacks gentrifying urban neighborhoods is considered a new phenomenon. It's unheard of and it seems gentrification depends upon your race. Of course this depends upon who you talk to. In that vein this article we see a comparison between Bronzeville and Pilsen.

In any case we have talked about gentrification here on this blog. We have added the terms of South Looped or even Hyde Parked to the vocabulary here. Granted those terms haven't been used here in years!

Still, let's take this discussion further South. There is an interest to attract those same residents who are attracted to Bronzeville to this part of town as well. We want them to buy a home in Chatham for example. We also hope they might bring some of their amenities with them as well!

Would our part of town be burdened by the same issues that has burdened Bronzeville?

Why Do Blacks Trail in Benchmarks Leading to Middle Class? - NationalJournal.com

Why Do Blacks Trail in Benchmarks Leading to Middle Class? - NationalJournal.com

Another article published last month with regards to the Black middle class.

In each benchmark leading to the middle class, African-Americans trailed all racial groups from childhood to age 40. Only a third of blacks entered the middle class, compared with nearly 70 percent of whites and 52 percent of Hispanics.

A Brookings Institution report, “Pathways to the Middle Class: Balancing Personal and Public Responsibilities,” shows that children who achieve professional success are disproportionally from higher-income and white families; those who never move up come from lower-income or black families, or both.

While high poverty rates can help explain these numbers, other obstacles to the middle class include teenage and unwed pregnancies and criminal convictions, said Juan Williams, a Fox News commentator who appeared on the Brookings panel.

Another avenue that slows ascension is poor education. In early childhood, 56 percent of black 5-year-olds possess adequate pre-reading and math skills and demonstrate behaviors considered “school-appropriate,” compared with 61 percent of Hispanics and 68 percent of whites.

The road ahead for blacks is riddled with obstacles. By age 11, only 52 percent of black kids have adequate English and math skills, compared with 73 percent of white youngsters.

Read the whole thing!

Did the Destruction of Chicago's Public Housing Decrease Violent Crime, Or Just Move It Elsewhere?

This Chicago Magazine article takes aim at any correlation (and/or causation) with regards to crime and public housing projects. The question here is wether or not tearing down CHA housing has either reduced crime or merely dispersed crime throughout the Chicago area.

On the other hand, crime in the former public-housing neighborhoods declined precipitously between 2000 and 2008: violent crime by 60 percent, property crime by 49 percent, and gun crime by 70 percent, compared to 13 and nine percent between 2002 and 2009 in similar neighborhoods in Atlanta (gun crime stats weren't available for that city). But spread out citywide across Chicago, the results are small: a one percent net decrease in violent crime, and a 0.3 percent decrease in property crime, although gun crime, a particular problem in public housing, declined by 4.4 percent, while accounting for the overall drop in crime across the city.

There's probably more to this however:

But it's likely a more complicated relationship than former public-housing residents simply bringing crime with them, as suggested by a study from NYU's Law School and Wagner School of Public Service from last year, which covered ten U.S. cities. What the authors found was that voucher recipients chose, or were guided to, neighborhoods that were in decline:

"While crime tends to be higher in census tracts with more voucher households, that positive relationship disappears after we control for unobserved characteristics of the census tract and crime trends in the broader sub-city area. We do find evidence to support a reverse causal story, however. That is, the number of voucher holders in a neighborhood tends to increase in tracts with rising crime, suggesting that voucher holders are more likely to move into neighborhoods where crime rates are increasing."

This article has already sparked a good discussion on our FB page. There's also a good discussion brewing at Worlee's Concerned Citizens of Chatham FB page. I would like to provide a taste of what's being said or at least those comments I thought were very good. We already know that at least within the 6th Ward there have been debates and certainly many have concluded that the destruction of the housing projects around the city have been disastrous for neighborhoods such as Chatham.

Chicago ranks third in getting mortgage help

Sun-Times:

The region accounts for 5.1 percent of activity nationwide in the Obama administration's Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, said the report from the U.S. Treasury Department.

The program started in response to record home foreclosures amid the economic crisis, high unemployment and mortgage scams. The federal government gives incentives to lenders to change the existing mortgage by reducing the monthly payments. Banks usually change the mortgage by lowering interest rates or extending the loan term, but few have offered to reduce or eliminate home-equity loans or lines of credit.

The Chicago area's activity ranking is below the 6.4 percent in the L.A. area and 6.1 percent in the New York area, and just ahead of Riverside, Calif.'s, 5 percent. In total numbers, 17,428 Chicago-area homeowners won permanent loan modifications, an increase of 17 percent from 14,890 in April, the report stated.

Via CapFax morning shorts!

City's Food Deserts Shrinking, But Far From Gone

Tribune:

Gallagher's report in 2006 found 633,000 Chicagoans lived in neighborhoods without major supermarkets, limiting their access to healthier and fresher foods. Since then, Gallagher found, the city's food deserts had shrunk by 1.4 square miles, benefiting nearly 24,000 people.

Since 2006, a new grocer, Food 4 Less, moved into West Englewood, affecting 307 blocks and roughly 40,000 people, the report found. But Chatham lost a Cub Foods outlet and a Dominick's store, reducing food access for nearly 142 blocks and about 16,000 people.

However, a Food 4 Less recently opened in Chatham, Gallagher said, but it was after data had been collected for the study.

The Cub Foods that was in Chatham was replaced by a Food4Less. Of course as this article indicated that was after the date had been collected for teh study.

I know the focus was largely on low-income areas, however, if you've been following the news surrounding Officer Wortham's death Chatham is considered a middle-class neighborhood. Far from being a low-income area.

Teen jobs disappearing in city, state, report says

Greg Hinz:

Even before the economy crashed, just 15% of African-American teenagers in Chicago -- fewer than one in six -- was employed.

That's among the starker findings of a new report on youth and jobs being released Tuesday by the Alternate Schools Network and the Chicago Urban League.

Conducted by researcher Andrew Sum at Northeastern University in Boston, the study concludes that youth of all racial and socio-economic backgrounds increasingly do not work, but finds that the problem is particularly severe among minorities.

For instance, nearly 48 out of 100 affluent, white teens in Illinois held a job in 2008, versus just 13 of 100 low-income black teens, and just 23% of Latino teens.

Via CapFax morning shorts!

More on the Wal-Mart battle

You can read the initial reports from yesterday regarding the potential Wal-Mart vote by Ald. Ed Burke's Finance Committee which was postponed. Starting with Crain's:

Legislation that could pave the way for a second Wal-Mart store within Chicago has been stalled once again.

The city’s Finance Committee, led by Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th), on Monday also postponed considering a revived “living wage” ordinance that would require retailers that receive city subsidies — directly and indirectly — and employ more than 50 people to pay workers at least $11.03 an hour.

It’s a broader-based measure than the “big-box ordinance” that stirred up controversy more than three years ago and prompted Mayor Richard M. Daley to issue his first veto since he was elected in 1989.

But the Finance Committee postponed a vote on the measure until Wednesday, before the full Chicago City Council meets.

More from the Sun-Times:

The living wage would not have applied to the proposed Chatham Supercenter because that redevelopment agreement has already been executed.

But, it would have applied to four other Supercenters in the works in the 9th, 12th, 20th and 34th Wards in the heart of Chicago’s “food desert” as well as to every other business that gets city help from now on.

Burke was so certain he had a deal, he put the Chatham Wal-Mart and living wage ordinance on Monday’s Finance Committee agenda. But, frenzied negotiations in the anteroom behind the City Council chambers failed to produce an agreement, prompting the powerful chairman to postpone a vote.

“We share the same concerns of many businesses across Chicago -- that this policy is the wrong direction for a city that desperately needs jobs and economic growth,” said B. John Bisio, a Wal-Mart spokesman. “This ordinance does not address the needs of the people of Chicago who want jobs and access to fresh and affordable food. It is being considered at the expense of Chicago's working families, not on their behalf.

“This is a job-killer. I’m stunned that anyone would even consider something like this when we have over a 10 percent unemployment rate,” said David Vite, president of Illinois Retail Merchants Association.

Then we finish up with the Tribune:

But in the end, aldermen, retailers and unions could not agree, and the long-standing impasse remained.

"We'll let them digest this and chew on it a little bit and see if we can come to some kind of agreement," Burke said after setting the proposal aside at a meeting of the Finance Committee.

Burke said the measure -- which would apply only to companies with 50 or more employees who benefit from a city subsidy -- would satisfy labor leaders who have opposed more Wal-Mart stores in Chicago.

Burke, who has made it clear he sides with the unions on the issue, said he also hoped it would respond to concerns by Wal-Mart, which opposed a living-wage ordinance that Mayor Richard Daley vetoed in 2006. That ordinance singled out "big box" stores with 100,000 or more square feet of space.

In return for the new wage proposal, supporting aldermen were willing to give a final sign-off for a South Side Wal-Mart. Because that development was approved some time ago, the new living-wage ordinance would not have applied. Wal-Mart has a store on the West Side.

Hopefully there will be more news on Wednesday.

Let's go back into the past for a second. ABC7 has a video report on the study that claims taht Wal-Mart isn't a job generator