From CBS 2 , of course this also goes for objections to petitions for Aldermanic candidates: As CBS 2’s Vince Gerasole reports, campaign volunteers and some candidates themselves have been working for the past week to comb through nominating petitions to make sure every signature is legitimate. To run for mayor, a candidate must file the signatures of 12,500 registered voters in Chicago. Candidates typically file many more than that, in case of problems with any signatures. It is up to a candidate’s opponents, not the Board of Elections, to challenge the legitimacy of nominating petitions. ... The deadline passed at 5 p.m. Tuesday to challenge the nominating paperwork for any of the candidates for mayor. I've been wanting to post this article from Progress Illinois since well yesterday: WBEZ 's Steve Edwards runs down the rules that campaigns are using to try and boot opponents out of contention or play defense against someone else's ballot challenge. There

During the coming aldermanic campaign here in the 6th? I'm stealing this least from the 19th Ward Chicago blog. The issues the blogger there has listed also affect us minus the final item which I am striking out for our purposes. Protection of people and property. Quality of the local public schools. Economic development. Parks and recreation. Public pensions. Taxes. Ward remap. The return of the South Side Irish parade. Basically, I doubt there are enough Irish in this community to even consider a St. Patrick's Day parade. Not that one has to be Irish to consider it, if there are even the Irish amongst us they probably would want a parade here anyway. Who says that you can only do one in Beverly or in the Loop. My main issues are numbers 1, 2, and 3. Are there any issues you could add to this list? If you're running for Alderman next year please do offer your positions on these issues. You can always sent an e-mail to thesixthward [at] 1chicago.net (replace [

Looking at this recent ChathamNow blog question I'm sure it'll be said. It has been said before: Do you think with all of the shootings in and around Chatham that the National Guard will finally come in along 79Th Street (the police chase involving the shooting of Michael Flisk included more than 20 blue and white squad cars)?  If you want to know my thoughts on this subject look no further than this post I wrote over at Gaper's Block . Let's do what we can without the assistance of the National Guard. Also, I believe that while crime may well be at an uptick in Chatham. It would be an exaggeration to say that Chatham is turning into Detroit. Related posts Concerned Citizens of Chatham on CAPCC blog's "Just like Detroit" CAPCC blog on "South Looping" Chatham and turning into Detroit Is Chatham turning into Detroit?

Investigators were on the scene of a residential fire that killed a 7-year-old boy in the South Side Park Manor neighborhood early this morning, officials said. Three other children and two women were also injured in the blaze which officials initially suspected was caused by arson. About 11:30 p.m., a fire broke out in a two-and-a-half story brick building in the 6900 block of South Wabash Avenue, according to police and fire officials. The blaze was raised to a still-and-box alarm but struck out as of 12:20 a.m., according to Fire Media Affairs spokesman Chief Joe Roccasalva. The victims all inhabited the first floor of the building, police said. The second floor had recently been vacated by another family. Investigators from the Office of Fire Investigation determined the fire was due to arson and originated from gasoline poured at the back door, police said preliminarily. A detective with the Bomb and Arson Unit said as of 5 a.m., the fire did not appear to be intentional but did n

So I decided to go down memory lane and found this video by Syron Smith who also filed petitions to run in the 15th Ward. Johnson and Smith were seeking to challenge state Rep. Andre Thapedi in the 2010 Democratic primary and objections were filed ultimately neither man was on the primary ballot in February 2010. As a matter of fact, Smith withdrew in the face of challenging these objections. Johnson was seen in this video with Syron at about the 2 minute mark. They talk about the process of defending petitions against any objections. He also made comments barely audible in another video . The story here is that Syron Smith & company are in state House Speaker Michael Madigan's neighborhood to protest his involvement in knocking Smith and Johnson off the ballot at around this time last year. Though since both are running in aldermanic elections next year, perhaps they'll have learned something from this episode to keep themselves on the ballot in 2011.

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Will you make it to the ICE Theaters on 87th Wednesday morning starting at 10 AM for this documentary about education reform. We not only can't wait for Superman, but we also can't wait for a new Mayor or a CPS superintendent to tell us what we can do about education in our city.

Got this e-mail recently from Clevan Tucker of Roseland Heights about artificial turf for Abbott Park: The sense of connection to nature is hugely important for almost anyone who goes to a park. The Chicago Park District has plans to renovate the track behind Harlan High School by replacing the center area of mud holes with artificial turf. According to the design for Chicago's green movement aren't we suppose to be adding more real greenery to the hard-surface ? Now, especially in Daley's Chicago, every thing is suppose to be blooming. On Nov. 30 at 6:00pm in Abbott Park, CPD officials will be meeting with the Park Advisory panel and the community talking up the need for fake grass.. Currently, the greenery largely consists of grass, trees and ugly mud holes where cars jump the crub and drive into the park. So now the big question is with who's money do we pay for the turf CPS or CPD or both? These are the same people who faced real constraints and had no bud

I posted this pic on the FB page , however, the Alderman posted a comment about this pic to an unrelated posting there. So to make the connection for those of you who follow both the blog and the FB page her comment is posted here for context. Referred to the Dep. Commissioner of Buildings 2 mins. ago with yr pic. We reported it to the 6th Dist. and Buildings at least 5 times over the last 2 years and each time we empty them, they move back in. Asking Law to go after the Mortgage Companies this time, because its costing the taxpayers money. Also because we don't want any fires from them trying to heat the homes with propane. Thanks for the pic. Last month three young men just walked up to the door and kicked the door in and I posted about that on the FB page as well. It has also been seen by my eyes that the people who live here like to sit on the porch at times. Also I'm not sure if who ever is taking up residence here are somehow connected to who lives in that gr

Today's blog question from ChathamNOW about the old site of the Rhodes Theater: Do you think the next new building project for Chatham should be a L.A. Fitness on the site of the former Rhodes Theater vacant lot at 79Th and Rhodes Avenue? Leave your comments on the comment line.  LA Fitness ??? Whatever happened to the idea of bringing Bosse Sports to this vacant lot???? To be honest I could either support the construction of a fitness center or a community center here on this site. Of course that's not to say there isn't room for both in Chatham if possible. Although a pet idea would be to rebuild the theater even if it's not even feasible. Previous posts on the former Rhodes Theater site: Remember CAPCC blog talking about the site of the Rhodes Theater CAPCC on job, economic and business development Site of the late Rhodes Theater Rhodes Theater

Team Englewood on Kennedy-King College and the expected business it could bring to the former historic shopping center that was largely razed to develop the new campus: El-Amin said the community college has an enrollment of 7,000 including online students. “We easily have 5,000 students come into this area on any given day,” said Clyde El-Amin, adding that the campus also offers a solid complement of classes on Saturday and some on Sunday. At the time, El-Amin was president of Kennedy-King College. He now serves in a similar capacity at Olive Harvey College.  “Our students buy food, groceries and clothes,” El-Amin said. “They need services.” He also noted that the Kennedy-King has a staff of 6,700 personnel – faculty, staff, administration and engineers – working on campus at any given time. “Businesses like to locate where there is a lot of activity,” he said. “Improving (the) foot traffic improves the climate for retail business.” Now the next step is to turn 63

UPDATE 3:17 PM - Got a message via Tracey Swartz on Twitter with regards to the Holiday Train: hi sixth ward, santa will be taking fotos with riders at 95th red line stop on saturday between 1:50 p.m.-2:20 p.m.: http://bit.ly/cGPk65 Will you be there on Saturday? - Levois The Chicago Transit Authority should be setting up their schedule for the Holiday Train, featuring a special car for Santa Claus, very soon. I took my daughter last year to the Holiday Train, and it was fun. Just the cost of an El Ride, we were able to get to Belmont & took some photos. The Holiday schedule will be posted here . This Saturday, families can take photos from 1:45pm - 2:15pm at the 95th street station. Some suggestions for those considering doing it this year: Go to the beginning of the trip (whether it's Howard or 95th). Even just 2 stops into the "tour", at 79th, the train was quite crowded already. Plan to be there at least 15 minutes ahead of schedule. It will be a

UPDATE 11:09 AM - Below is a video from ABC7 of Sen. Burris' remarks to the US Senate. You can also read this Sun-Times article on Burri's remarks Via CapFax morning shorts . Chicago Breaking News : As his controversial tenure nears its end, Sen. Roland Burris gave a farewell address Thursday lamenting there will be no blacks at all in the next Senate. "This is simply unacceptable," he said. "We can and we will and we must - do better." He also noted that only six blacks have served in the Senate in the body's 221-year history. Senator, we've had three blacks who sought US Senate seats around the nation that I know of in this past election cycle. One was a joke (Alvin Greene from SC), the other in our state (Cheryle Jackson) didn't make it out of the primary, and the last one lost (US Rep. Kendrick Meek - Florida) on Nov. 2nd. To be sure, I wrote here on this blog and other venues that I really didn't agree with Burris' ap

Check out this blog question from the new Chatham neighborhood blog, ChathamNOW : Do you think with the influx of Mexican-Americans into Chatham as the newest residents that St. Dorothy's School may have a majority Hispanic student body by 2016? Leave your comments on the comment line. The blogmaster there may well have been a writer for the CAPCC blog, so this question may seem similar to many you have seen there. BTW, if you're working on a neighborhood blog or otherwise is a blogger who live in the 6th Ward or surrounding areas we will be very happy to link to you.

Yeah we do have Early & Often but we could also go directly to the source at the official website of the Chicago Board of Elections . You can check here for the link petition filings which are in PDF format so you will need Adobe Reader to access them. While Ald. Lyle is on the board as far as running in the 2011 municipal elections also on the board is Roderick Sawyer to challenge her in the coming elections. This is reflected on our 2011 page and hopefully we'll know more as petition filing continues until Nov. 22nd at 5PM. Of course petition objections and candidate withdrawals will end on Nov. 30th. Consider this an update to JP's earlier post .

The website Early and often is tracking the filing for candiates of Aldermanic & Mayoral offices. So far, only Fredrenna Lyle has filed. Her campiagn was 66th in line, and claimed 4800 signatures. According to the Chicago Board of Elections pamphlet (page 13), 261 valid signatures are required. As of 1pm, no one else has filed. (As of 2pm, there were 139 who had filed for city Alderman, Mayor, Clerk and Treasurer). Other potential candidates listed (with no other data) Burton, Cassandra Davis, Burundi Wooten, Richard Walker, Sekum Sleet, Brian Washington, Sean Sawyer, Roderick   Cunningham, Sidney Sistrunk Sr., Ronald  If you have any information, please post a comment. It will be interesting to see how many signatures were obtained, and how many are valid. Thanks!

View Larger Map This business license info was on our Blotter page yesterday. I wasn't sure what this was exactly so I decided to drive by and the approximate location for this place (it was located at the intersection of Michigan and 75th) contained a bowling alley. So that "public place of amusment" is a long time business and has been seen on EveryBlock before almost every year for a license renewal.

We would like to mark this federal holiday in honor of those who have served or are currently serving our nation in the armed services. We would like to thank all for their service!

Rich Miller makes a comparison between the parking meter privatization in our city and the day Kankakee installed parking meters on their mainstreet over 40 years ago. It didn't work out so well. Let's hope that Ald. Lyle or any of the other Aldermanic aspirants doesn't make the comment that elder Alderman Bernard Stone said about the merchants in his ward about parking meters installed on one commercial strip: As for the businesses along Touhy, Alderman Stone says they’ve been lucky until now to have no meters. Now, their luck has run out. Well come on, your business owners have a concern you have to address Ald. Stone. Are you trying to drive them out of your ward?

I had only posted a tweet about this as soon as I got this. And I didn't recognize that this meeting was to take place on Tuesday Nov. 9th at 4:30. Either way I wanted to share some comments at Ruggles School per the man who was responsible for those photographs of wayward signs on 75th Street. I am chairing this committee and would like to invite all stakeholders interested in the Education of our children to get involved. Minutes of the meeting will be available, via email, seven days after the date of this meeting. Make your request by email. I made my request and hopefully Mr. Julius Stanley, will allow me to share the minutes of this meeting on the blog. Also I asked if I could post about this on the blog he not only gave permission, he also offered more comments. My main objective was to post this flyer he attached to his original e-mail. I had already saved that to my scribd account. There is a problem at Ruggles. Children are not being educated and there seems to

Women are invited to view For Colored Girls and join The Deborah Movement to improve their communities Join The Deborah Movement for a special showing of the movie For Colored Girls See the Movie! Reflect on the Message! Discuss the Movement! on Thursday, Veteran's Day November 11, 2010 10:00 am at Chatham ICE Cinema 210 West 87th Street (Near the Dan Ryan Expressway) Admission $7.00 Men and women are invited Tickets are limited. People will be seated on a first come/first served basis. Please call 773.285.9600 to RSVP or to prepurchase a seat at the theatre. Please click here to see a trailer of the movie. Film is not yet rated but content is for mature and appropriate audiences.

This was a question that our reader Che' menju posted on another blog. This is a serious and highly debated question. "So what ever happen to the economic plan for Chatham. I mean bringing in businesses representative of maintaining the status of the community. There is so much talk about WalMart. What's wrong with Meijer? Did anyone try to get them? How would the community know? What happened to Barnes&Noble? What is the process for approaching these businesses? Is there a committee headed by the alderman and reps of community organizations? It appears as though we just wait for whomever to come into the community and then we react by saying there is nothing we can do about it and they didn't have to tell us. Is that how Beverly, HydePark, north side and other communities political and community organizations react? Seriously, tell me how this process is suppose to work." What is "economic development"? Who is responsible, residents, community organ

I never wrote that recap of the Harlan LSC meeting , but one of the issues that came up that night in October was the food the students are eating. They wanted on the menu more brain foods and in discussing bringing vegetables to the school cafeteria there was a concern that the students may not want to consume any vegetables. It does make sense why have it if it will barely be touched? On the FB page, I posted a blog post from Whole Foods Market about their attempts to bring salad bars to the nation's public schools. I've been knowing about it for a while, but I never found the opportunity to post it until now. Even then the application deadline for grants in this salad bar program is approaching. Anyone from our neighborhoods schools are you reading this? Either way we was alerted by April Branch to an article from last month's Chicago Tribune about CPS not allowing vegetables grown from their own facilities to be served in the schools. But in a district that touts

I changed templates. Let me know how this page works for you on your eyes or even if loading is an issue. Things will always be tweaked around here as it has to be determined what is necessary to keep and what isn't on this blog. The footer now has three columns and now residing there are all the followers of this blog, our two site meters, the Accuweather widget, and our like box. As far as the like box go, feel free to let your friends and neighbor know about our FB page. I want to make 100 by the end of the year. I just know that we can do it! Anyway, there is also a new add this widget in the footer of everypost. If you use Twitter or Facebook to share links from our blog feel free to use them liberally as they are there for entirely that purpose. In addition there is share button that will allow you to have your pic of social sharing sites from around the world wide web. Also there is now an activity feed in the sidebar from Facebook. All that does is show how often ou

According to the Chicgao Board of elections, 19,018 in our ward voted, which is excellent! Our voting rate (ballots cast over registered voters) was 55.68%,  above the city rate of 51.94%. We ranked #13 out of 50 wards percentage wise , but # 10 in terms of numbers. However, looking at the results, some interesting findings... St. Representative Connie Howard (34th) only received 11394 votes. That means less than 60% who did vote in our ward actually voted for her. Does that mean that 40% of this year's voters not happy with her? Bill Beavers received 11585 (more than Connie Howard!), winning 91%, with Green Party Candidate Joseph Barton picking up only 728 votes Did most of our ward REALLY think Bill Beavers is doing his job for us on the County Board? 18131 votes were cast for Cook County Assesor. Joe Berrios received 15416 votes of 85% of them.  Do we REALLY trust him more than Forrest Claypool? For Cook County President , 17746 , or 96% of us voted for Toni Preckw

Ronald Sistrunk has a website and a Twitter account that I have found via Early & Often . Also to be added to the 2011 page. What I found interesting at his website is his reasons for wanting to be Alderman: I want to be the next Alderman for the following reasons : To get rid of those Over priced parking meters and the Denver boot in the 6th Ward 79th Street is Drug Heaven from State to Stony 79th Street is the Murder Capital of 6th Ward Seniors are afraid to leave their home Children can’t play in Cole Park because of Crime Average Citizens are afraid to allow their children outside to play for fear 6th Ward violence is out of control There is a lack of economics development, a lack of employment and a lack of a vision for the 6th Ward driving the crime There is a lack of fairness in the distribution of resources throughout the 6th ward Violence at Hirsh HS is out of control Crime prevails in the 6th Ward because the Current Alderman has turned a BLINDED eye t

Pastor John Warner was the longtime Pastor of Crerar Memorial Presbyterian Church . According to the son of a recent guest preacher (and who worked at Crerar himself), Pasotr Warner had broken his neck, and had been out for some time (explaining the number of guest preachers in recent weeks), but finally went home to be with the Lord a few days ago. The Chatham Avalon Park Community Council blog had a brief entry on Thursday Condolences to the family of Pastor John Warner the longtime Pastor of Crerar Presbyterian Church 8100 S. Calumet.Pastor Warner was an active Pastor at a progressive Church, Crerar. When ever the pastor would say " The doors of the church are open" it was truly meant. Numerous block clubs, community organization, accepted his hospitality, beyond that, Pastor Warner was a quite storm that provided both inspiration and direction to his church and our community, he will be greatly missed. What's next for Crerar? I live literally down the block, and

Thanks to Toure Muhammed for the picture This is the original Salaam restaurant. Where am I?

This person in a column from the Tribune's Melissa Harris talks about a person who owns real estate in Chatham: Al Goldstein, 29, has built a successful career by predicting who will pay their bills on time. At age 25, he became a multimillionaire when he sold CashNetUSA, a Web site he co-founded that provides short-term, high-interest-rate loans to people who earn $35,000 a year on average. The industry is known as payday lending and it has faced tighter regulation in some states and is banned in others. Goldstein has since entered an equally unglamorous field: affordable housing. Pangea Real Estate, which Goldstein launched last year to take advantage of the surge in renters following the mortgage crisis, has bought (and now manages) nearly 3,000 rental units in Chicago. "We're focused on neighborhoods that are struggling now, but have the potential to become stable over time," such as South Shore, Chatham and Austin, he said. Tapping a $56 mil

A story from yesterday courtesy of Breaking News , via the Blotter . Does anyone know if this Family Dollar is open this morning? Family Dollar, 8341 S. Cottage Grove Ave., was inspected today after complaints about the East Chatham store, according to a news release from the city. Inspectors found between two and four feet of water in the basement near the sump pump and garbage bins overflowing outside the store, according to the release. The store "will have to correct all these problems, clean the place from top to bottom, and pass a full reinspection before they can get back to business," Josie Cruz, Deputy Commissioner of Streets & Sanitation's Bureau of Rodent Control, said in the release.

Just got wind of it via Early & Often . His name is Sidney L. Cunningham IV. Not much is known about him other than the fact that he has a Facebook group for his candidacy. He is also using FB to get 500 petition signatures to be on the ballot in February. If anyone knows anything else about him feel free to share. Thanks! And he will be added onto the 2011 page as well.

Our neighboring 21st Ward Alderman talks about a variety of issues that I imagine would be very important here in the 6th. Mainly economic development and education. Ald. Brookins advertises the fact that he has the top elementary school in his ward currently at Lenart . In addition to bringing in charter schools to his ward. Also there is a reference to the Wal-Mart that's coming to 83rd & Stewart in the near future. Groundbreaking is expected in March of next year. I would like to be there. Alderman Brookins if you read this e-mail us. Well that or we need to call you! Also he wants to note that his ward hasn't seen a lot of the crime that has been seen in other parts of the city. Although we may want to verify that, I largely only pay attention to crime here in the 6th. That doesn't leave a lot of room for the other wards surrounding our own. This video is roughly 7 minutes and is right across the street from Woodson Library near 95th & Halsted. That&#

Got an e-mail response from Clevan Tucker of the Roseland Heights association regarding Worlee's statements at Concerned Citizens of Chatham and our Facebook page where he believed that RHCA had effectively endorsed 6th Ward Aldermanic candidate Richard Wooten. It was advertised with a flyer announcing the meeting stapled to a Wooten campaign flyer: No Endorsement from RHCA The RHCA meeting Oct. 26, 2010. As you may or may not know Richard Wooten (candidate for 6th Ward Alderman) was the guess speaker, along with appearances from Alderman Lyle and campaign Workers from Rod Sawyer also running for 6th Ward Alderman. *Note: Alderman Lyle , currently serving as elected official, came to speak solely in a capacity other than as a candidate. Facts: 6th Ward Facebook posting It seems that a 6th Ward Blog stated that RHCA might loss their 501c status for endorsement of a political candidate. The blog implied that RHCA was jeopardizing city services, for Roseland Heights, by do

I got this reply at Twitter about what's going on at the Precincts this morning from Fortitude1913 Someone should check on whether touch screens are up at Burnside Elementary. They weren't early this A.M. Feel free to let us know what's going on at your precincts on both Twitter here on the blog or even at our Facebook page @ facebook.com/thesixthward . The palm card someone passed around outside of Harlan today when I voted. Picks for races US Senate, Governor all the way to all the county judgeships. Ald. Lyle palm card for Election Day 2010

It was around 8:30 AM by the time I submitted by ballot before I put in my ballot 80 people had already voted. It looked like school was in session as students were still filing into the school. It was quite cold outside and there were workers outside working on resurfacing Michigan Avenue. Before I got in a volunteer was handing out leaflets with a palm card with a list of candidates to consider from Ald. Lyle who's also our Democratic committeewoman. It was almost empty in Harlan's small gym there were only two others who already had the booth and two others had come in before I left. When I left there was another volunteer seeking petition signatures for the Alderman.

Courtesy of Reason.tv . Bill Mundell is the executive producer for a documentary filmed called appropriately enough Gerrymandering . It's about the practice of drawing political districts with the intent of assuring a desired result, mainly for instance to insure that an incumbent will remain in office. Or to explain further to create a district that will allow the incument to remain in office. Of course this also involves racial gerrymandering. For example there were several lawsuits in the 90s - Shaw v. Reno (1993), Miller v. Johnson (1995), & Bush v. Vera (1996) - about creating these "majority-minority" Congressional districts mainly to insure that racial/ethnic minorities will have representation in the US House of Representatives. Or to ensure that the US House will have members of different racial or ethnic backgrounds representing districts that have a majority population of a racial or ethnic group. Here in our state this issue will affect us. Soon th