Daily numbers #Pandemic

These numbers are from the Illinois Dept. of Public Health with further information available in the links to the press releases for that specific day. Since my last post on Tuesday.

Wednesday, April 8, 2020 - 1,529 new cases of coronavirus with 82 additional deaths

Thursday, April 9, 2020 - 1,344 new cases with 66 deaths

Friday, April 10, 2020 - 1,465 new cases with 68 deaths

Saturday, April 11, 2020 - 1,293 new cases with 81 deaths

Sunday, April 12, 2020 - 1,672 new cases with 43 deaths

As of Sunday afternoon the totals in Illinois are 20,852 cases of positive coronavirus infeections with a total of 720 deaths. Cases of coronavirus are in 86 Illinois counties.

Also it's been discussed in the news nationally that Blacks are falling victim to this disease increasingly. The disease itself and its effects are affecting a number of families around the nation unfortunately. With this said I want to share this PSA that is directed towards the Black community. The message here is to do all that's possible to protect those in our family who are vulnerable. [VIDEO]

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?

Potential candidate list for all municipal races for Chicago #CHGOMayor2019

If you follow IL Election Data on Twitter they provide a comprehensive list for next year's election from Mayor on down to all the alderman races. Of course the list will get thinned out as some will withdraw or get kicked off the ballot. And then again since the filing deadline is November 26, 2018, a few more candidates will probably be added to this list.

Here's my first attempt at a potential candidate list for all of the Chicago citywide and aldermanic races for Feb. This list is freely available and will be updated throughout candidate filing. Please let me know of any missing or any withdrawn/retiring.https://t.co/LefmiBVsOx

— IL Election Data (@ILElectionData) November 14, 2018

As always feel free to let us know if you're running for Alderman especially in Wards 6 & 9 which are the elections we expect to cover for next year.

WBEZ: Watch Chicago's 2nd Ward fly north over the years

The remap that was approved in 2012 has returned to the news recently. WBEZ reports on the history of the 2nd Ward and how and where it was drawn over the years. It was discussed in light of a case before federal court regarding the 2012 remap. It was noted that since 1980, three out of four remaps were challenged.

Back during the whole remap debate, this issue proved to be controversial amongst the many residents of the 6th Ward. Many of the neighborhoods contained within didn't want to be mapped out of the 6th although this came to pass anyway. Many cited similarities to the other communities of the 6th Ward such as Chatham (which remains in the 6th) and West Chesterfield (which ultimately was remapped into the 9th Ward).

All the same, I'm pretty sure Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his allies wouldn't have put forward a map if they didn't think it would prevail in a courtroom. As for that idea whenever there is a ruling - how do i find out about the ruling is the next question - we shall see if the remap expected to be implemented by the 2015 elections will prevail or not.

• Check out the redistricting label for previous posts on the ward remap!

City Notes: Watch Chicago’s middle class vanish before your very eyes

Click pic for larger resolution

I'm sorry I missed this as this was shared on Friday via The Capitol Fax. The animated image you see above is a documentation of Chicago's shrinking middle-class since 1970. The middle-class areas are those you will see in grey. Bascially this map measures "each Census tract’s median family income as a percentage of the median family income for the Chicago metropolitan region as a whole".

It's interesting to read the comments on both sites although unfourtately CapFax has since closed their comments for the weekend. That doesn't mean we can't continue to discuss the many changes and the factors that cause the middle-class to leave the city.

BTW, last year I posted one factor why middle-class families move to the suburbs and then recently found another article which chronicled another city family who is leaving the city. These families blame CPS schools for their decision. Perhaps it's one reason amongst others and the City Notes post seeks to further explain the shrinkage.

Either way I'm sure there are plenty of ideas to discuss this issue.

The Truth About Nextdoor-Chatham

It was brought to my attention that the following statement was made in the Greater Chatham Alliance newsletter.

" NEXTDOOR CHATHAM: Many of you on-line have probably gotten invitations to join this site. But we wanted to make sure you know that this site purports to be a sharing/connect community site but instead is really a dataa mining site for BING, the Internet browser, owned by Microsoft.. Every time you visit this site, or post something on this site, MMicrosoft is planting cookies that track your purchase patterns, where you live, your race, age and anything else they can learn on your computer.. Most of you don’t know how to remove those cookies so they can’t track everything you do–– and it’s getting harder. If you are on Facebook and connected that way; well, you just added more “Big Brother” into your life. This is insidious marketing! We just wanted you to be aware! The old “Everyblock” was truly an outreach community site. Of course, they’ve been sold to another corporation too."

 After seeing the posts, I contacted our City Field Organizer, Jaeson Santana.  He dug into the allegations and provided the following response:

Nextdoor absolutely does NOT cookie a user’s computer for data mining purposes. We do not allow any advertising on the platform, hence we are not collecting data for marketing or sales related efforts.  With that said, EVERY web browser -  Bing - Google - Firefox - Sea Monkey- Yahoo, et al -  ALL cookie a user's computer for exactly that reason.  This is how they mine data to push focused advertising to a user.  Facebook and Google are famous for this.  There are a few very easy ways to avoid being cookied when you browse the internet.  I am happy to assist anyone in your neighborhood adjust their browser privacy settings if they would like.  They may reach me via email at:  jsantana@nextdoor.com.  Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

Jaeson Santana

jsantana@nextdoor.com

312.789.5585

Nextdoor City Field Organizer | Chicago 

The private social network for your neighborhood.

So I hope this puts this matter to rest and we can move forward and better our community.

We've brought back the Sixth Ward Blotter!

EveryBlock.com

If you couldn't tell the writers of The Sixth Ward are very glad that the website EveryBlock have made their grand return after a nearly one-year hiatus. You know what this means, the Sixth Ward Blotter has made it's grand return. Not long after the notification that the site is now live again, the Blotter page was brought back from its own hiatus.

The Blotter has been at times a great hit since if people have city services issues they would leave a comment. That hasn't changed and that's why I also included important phone numbers to call if you have an issue on your block.

What wasn't accounted for, however, in the return of the Blotter is the fact that while currently it was set for the 6th Ward as it was drawn in the past as the boundaries have changed - see the about page for the original boundaries. Sooner or later the widget would have to be tweaked, however, we can only worry about that in the future.

Hopefully while EveryBlock does have a widget function I'm also hoping that in the future the functionality that it had when that tool was first unveiled will be brought back as well. It seems that if any grassroots internet publisher wanted to utilize the widget there are only three choices for the moment - crime reports, upcoming events, and food inspections.

Even if you don't live in the confines of the 6th Ward there is a box in the widget that allows you to select you own location in the city. Just type an address, neighborhood or a zip code and while you'll be sent to the website itself you'll at least will see data in your community.

Data points from the Windy City

Roger Kimball at Pajamas Media taking aim at the hometown of the Democratic nominee for President. Not very flattering. Via Instapundit!

Black Representation Under Cumulative Voting in IL

Fair Vote:

From 1870 to 1980, Illinois used cumulative voting to elect member of the State House of Representatives. Candidates ran in three-seat constituencies. These three-seat house districts also were used to elect a single state senator.

This chart records how many black legislators were elected in each election between 1900 and 1978. Cumulative voting clearly provided a powerful gateway for black representation: black candidates were elected earlier than likely would have happened with single-member districts and, for most of the period, likely in bigger numbers. The state senate lagged far behind in black representation until the mid-1960s, when reapportionment in the wake of Supreme Court rulings on "one person, one vote" led to more equitable representation of Chicago.

These numbers do not provide details about these black representatives and their district. Based on the state senate results, however, it is nearly certain that most black members of the House of Representatives in 1954-1964 were elected in white-majority districts. After 1964, blacks in the state senate and house probably were represented in comparable proportions because there were so few districts outside of Chicago where blacks made up at least 25% of the adult population (25% being the share of the vote necessary to ensure winning a seat). Put into a 21st century context, the history of cumulative voting in Illinois suggests that dispersed populations -- such as blacks in much of the South and Asian Americans and Latinos in much of the country -- would do well with cumulative voting and proportional systems.

Go to that link and check out the data. If there is a constitutional convention convened thanks to voter support this Novemeber, this is probably one issue that could be discussed at a state con-con. That among other more pressing issues of course.

Chicago Sees Population Bump

From CPR:

Census numbers released today show Chicago's population at about 2.8 million. The city gained about 8,000 residents since last year's tally.

Kenneth Johnson is a demographer who studies Chicago. He says the downturn in the housing market is keeping people in the city who might otherwise move to the suburbs.

It was also mentioned that since 1950, Chicago lost 700,000 residents. Once the third largest city, Chicago has fallen behind Los Angeles in population. In looking at Census data from 1950, Los Angeles wasn't even the third largest city. That distinction went to Phildelphia.

You can check out that data here. Thanks to Steve Bartin at Newsalert.

Chatham Household & Business Data

Provided by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago here.