Chicago City Treasurer Kurt Summers visits Flecks Coffee

New Chicago City Treasurer Kurt Summers kicked off his 77 Chicago community area tour with a breakfast conference at Flecks coffee today (Thursday, November 13). There were several reporters at the event, with a total of approximately 30 people in attendance, filling the entire establishment.  I (JP Paulus) was there from  8:30am until the end.

 

Summers explained his role as treasurer, which includes investing the city of Chicago’s money.  He stated that “conventional wisdom” was that investing in minority communities was a bad investment.  Summer said that was not true and would in fact invest in minority communities.

Summers said he worked with a group of leaders to work on a plan for Chatham, including bankers, investment community, and others. Ald. Rod Sawyer, after the meeting, said that they will release a public statement on the alliance in the near future. He also noted that Summers was involved with this long before being tapped to be City Treasurer.

He stated that there was a plan by World Business Chicago that was created three years ago, and wanted the community to help him answer the question of  “How do we bring this to Chatham?”

Summers also mentioned phrases such as "ministry of presence" during his conversation.

Attendees included Alderman Rod Sawyer, his chief of staff Brian Sleet, 6^th Ward aldermanic candidate Brian Garner, Chatham blogger Worlee Glover, Flecks Coffee owners Olga & Zuli Turner, among others.

We plan to post links to other stories about this event in a future blog entry, as well as sharing them on our Facebook page.

Did you see last nights governor's debate?

Yesterday I noted GOP candidate for governor Bruce Rauner visited Flecks Coffee on Tuesday - watch this Early & Often [VIDEO]. This was before a debate with Gov. Pat Quinn that aired on CBS 2 last night. If you missed you will be able to see it at the end of this post.

The debate held at the DuSable Museum on Cottage Grove was geared towards Black voters.

I wanted to provide two posts from the Capitol Fax to analyze the recent debate.

• Post-debate spinning - Every candidate after a debate will attempt to paint themselves in the best light
• Some riveting TV -As for this one at the end of this post the discussion was regarding Gov. Quinn's body language

If you saw last night's debate or even if you're just now watching it today, let us know what you think. Who won this debate? Would this influence how you would vote next month on Election Day?

[VIDEO] of the debate is below

DNA Info on monthly business breakfasts at Fleck's Coffee

JP wrote about this monthly event hosted by Bruce Montgomery at Flecks Coffee a while back. I'm very sorry I missed this write-up from DNA Info about it as well. It was written and published the same day but before the actual breakfast took place. Still worth reading however.

How many of you own businesses in the community and would take advantage of this opportunity? Even if you didn't own a business would you be open to meeting neighborhood entrepreneurs?


The next meeting is scheduled for Friday, November 7 at 8am. Flecks Coffee is located at 343 E. 79th Street, Chicago IL 60640.

The Business First Friday Facebook page is located here.

Business First Fridays at Flecks Coffee

The general description (from the Facebook page)

Jump Start You Weekend and Your Business at First Friday @ Flecks This Friday October 3rd at 8:00am Sharp! Join this high powered group of successful business owners and soon to be's for one-to-one networking and our unique business building information exchange. Make It Your Business to Be Here! It Works, When We Work It! Let's Work It, TOGETHER! Make This Your Summer of Success! — at Flecks Coffee

This event is hosted by Bruce Montgomery, who grew up in Chatham is involved in the community in many ways, such as his CAN TV show, Technology TV.  For more info, check the Facebook page for the event. The Sixth Ward writer JP Paulus will be there. Will you?