Sun-Times: Rep. Bobby Rush’s Englewood tech center dream dead, where did $1 million go?

Tech. center not to be @ 6821 S. Halsted St/Patrick Rehkamp~BGA

I write this post noting that this article from the Sun-Times was written by freelance reports from the Better Government Association (BGA). With that notice I've always wondered whatever happened to the Rebirth of Englewood Community Development Corp.

I remember going to a meeting, the meetings from former Ald. Freddrenna Lyle that she would hold monthly and a representative from this organization had a presentation. One of the things this organization was supposed to have done was build new houses in Englewood and residents would get dibs on them. There were supposed to even be classes on maintaining these new houses and financing. Renderings of the new housing was also available.

Now with all the new activism that occurs in Englewood these days not a peep until it was noted in the aforementions article that Rebirth of Englewood ceased to exist in 2010. Another issues which is why this organizations is in the news recently is the money this organization was to have recieved to create a technology center in the neighborhood. Now no one seems to know where the grants have gone.

Well let's be clear a $1 Million grant from telecommunications company SBC (now part of AT&T) and then a grant from the US Congress for $175,000. Bobby Rush who currently serves as a Congressman was part of the organization and I'm sure many questions were addressed to him by the writers of this article and at the time by the US Congress. However, it seemed to have passed the smell test back then.

The building the organization had bought proved to be a very expensive proposition. With the plans that were laid by an architect there wasn't enough money provided that could turn that building into a "Taj Mahal".

Anyway, I would suggest you read more about this development.