A few items, mundane or otherwise, before a sequence of recent photos:

-Ever talked with a police officer for more than a few minutes? Voluntarily, that is? For a recent seminar assignment, everyone interviewed a Chicago police officer and then formulated a monologue from the encounter. Most everyone had a different experience. One of my roommates ended up in the back of a squad car on the West Side, taken home by officers who maintained a white kid like him wasn’t safe in the area. Two girls spoke with police who were blatantly racist. Some spoke with police who yearned to be “regular people” and not defined by the badge. Others fell in between, as you’d expect with any population of people. The monologues made for an intense class, though we didn’t have time to flesh out all the issues in a conversation. Personally, I had considerable trouble actually lining up my interview, as a couple networking attempts and random approaches each failed. I ended up attending a CAPS meeting in Humboldt Park and interviewing a sergeant afterward. A much more dynamic CAPS (community policing) meeting than our first experience in Logan Square (in an initial post), and an engaging discussion, as I learned about policing techniques and nuances of gang dynamics around Humboldt Park (the actual park). “My officer” certainly exhibited some tendency to view criminals as the other, with a need to be locked up, but also seemed to care about root causes and the neighborhood itself. Ask everyone in our class about this assignment and you’ll get 12 different answers.

-It’s tough to keep up with cooking. True. I’m not used to cooking any meals for myself at school, except for pouring the occasional bowl of cereal. Here I have to buy groceries at appropriate intervals to keep fully stocked and provide for my own balanced diet. Now as we reach the end of the semester I’m especially cautious with my perishables. Maybe none of the readers care that much about my cooking, or this is all obvious, but it should remind us that one of the prime lessons of urban studies comes from personal experience in the city. Like the residents we “study” or meet with, we live in Chicago. As I contemplated moving out of this apartment for the summer (thankfully able to stay because ACM provides housing for students who want to say), I understood much more the awful experience of housing displacement. And I’ve only been here three months. Imagine being forced out after years, or decades. I also understand the importance of having fresh produce in your neighborhood. Some neighborhoods, mostly on the West or South Sides, suffer as “food deserts” without quality fresh food in the area. My own short walk, in a few directions, pales in comparison.

-In this program, we learn Chicago, which makes us realize how much more there’s still to learn about Chicago. Though there’s a cliche embedded somewhere within that previous sentence, ignore it and accept the premise. Again and again this semester I recognize my desire to have control. I want to understand and know all of Chicago, just so I can have a handle on all of it. Just so nothing’s unfamiliar, or so that I really have the “full picture” of Chicago. Yet every time I go to a neighborhood, I realize that I can’t consume the neighborhood like that. I can’t consider that one time emblematic, take it is as my experience, and chalk up another piece of the city learned. If I had to leave in a few weeks, at the end of this program, I’d have real trouble. Here’s what I think I’ve learned – know your neighborhood first. If I spent too much time trying to hit every Chicago site, touristy or otherwise, I’ll miss the experience of being in a city, because I’ll miss the dense city life happening just outside, or walking by as I hustle to the train. Even in Logan Square there are far too many restaurants, even cheap restaurants, to ever try.

Lincoln Park, the large lakefront park on the North Side, to downtown:

Again, looking south to downtown from Lincoln Park area. (I, like many other people, seem to always take photos of large monuments. In the Midwest, I don’t have any mountains or thrilling open skyscapes to photograph. So that’s why we’re fascinated with all these different angles of the same buildings.)

A huge gorilla at the Lincoln Park Zoo (which is free). If you haven’t been to a zoo lately, and I hadn’t, go to restore your sense of childlike wonder at how cool animals are!

A real roaring lion:

Navy Pier on a rainy day, for free Ben and Jerry’s scoops. Reminded me of an upscale, pier version of the Mall of America. Decide for yourself whether that’s good or bad.

After tie-dye craft day in precept:

A group of us at the Northerly Island beach, a more secluded park east of the South Loop.

From Northerly Island:

Happy ACMers crammed into an elevator, as usual.

Critical Mass, a monthly bike ride for the sake of biking. Held on the last Friday of every month. In Chicago, the police help out with traffic control because the group can reach more than a thousand. They’re generally peaceful, and held all over the world.

It would be difficult to think about leaving Chicago in just a month. But (read closely, potential future Urban Studies students) my internship offered me a chance to stay on this summer as an unpaid intern! So I will be in Chicago this summer with some scholarship help from my college. ACM also rents out their apartments over the summer, so I’ll be living in the same apartment with two current roommates and two new guys (who each did the program fall semester, apparently). Five men sharing one bathroom could get rough. I’m not the only one staying around or the only staying on with my current internship, plus current internships have helped connect a couple of my roommates with summer job possibilities.

In the last couple weeks I’ve attended a couple different rallies. One held at the Thompson Center, the Illinois government building and the home of Rod Blagojevich’s Chicago office (by the way, this Blago story just gets more and more ridiculous), asked Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to prosecute police torture cases that have sat on her desk. Not only have police not been charged with any crimes (other than perjury), but no victim has had counseling provided by the state. Some have been exonerated and received restitution. Frustratingly, after the rally outside, we tried to meet with Ms. Madigan, but her office essentially stonewalled and eventually a representative met with three from our party. I attended the rally over my lunch break after learning about the Jon Burge cases through seminar, and through JCUA’s work with the cases. We met with a torture victim in class on Tuesday, which provided a frustrating, intense, and personal look at the ineffectiveness of the justice system.

Just yesterday I attended a rally protesting Mark Kirk’s stance on immigration. Kirk is the 10th District U.S. Congressman and is considering a run for governor or Senate, whichever seems most vulnerable. He made a speech yesterday to the City Club of Chicago, a wealthy group of commercial leaders. He has made disparaging comments about Arab-Americans and an inflammatory statement implying that family planning could help stem the tide of undocumented immigration from Mexico. The rally achieved one of its purposes, I think – cutting into some of the expected coverage of his appearance and forcing him to address immigration reform in his remarks.

I also recently attended a panel on the potential impact of the 2016 Olympics on Chicago’s parks. Combined with the chance to meet with a local alderman (city council member) and person on the 2016 committee, these opportunities to do research while immersed in city life make this program so valuable. A friend is doing work for her senior thesis right now because she has the chance to actually be in the city working with an education reform policy group and talking to people on the ground as the issue happens. My work with the Olympics, which now can continue through the summer, can impact the rest of my academic career. Before this semester I had never done an independent study (and before I get too optimistic, I still have a ways to go on my project right now), but I wholeheartedly endorse this aspect of the program. Even if you don’t study abroad, find a way to do hands-on research in a field of your interest.

In summary, lest life be too optimistic, things are peachy but quite, quite busy!

Some prominent Olympics PR:

ACM Chicago Programs offices are just on the other side of the Chicago Theatre sign:

Friday I visited Lake Forest College in Lake Forest, a northern suburb of Chicago. After about 70 days straight in the city, and several stories of the lavish North Shore suburbs, it was time to experience a bit of Chicagoland. Unfortunately I experienced radical culture shock for the first half hour in the city, once we got off the Metra train. I couldn’t handle the excessively clean streets, the finely manicured beach, the homes with gigantic yards, the SUVs, or the calm, quaint shopping district with a shoe store called the “Bootery.” Lake Forest is a very wealthy town, per capita, with a small liberal arts college right in a residential area. A little bizarre, but a fun time at the school and good to get away from Chicago, as excited as I was to return to a more “real” environment. It is also important to recognize that the culture shock indicates how different Chicago has been than previous experiences, because I’ve been in places like Lake Forest before and they haven’t fazed me. But Friday, I “wowed” out loud several times as we walked from the train stop to the beach to campus. Not necessarily good or bad, but simply very different.

Lake Michigan in Lake Forest –

Easter night I went to B.L.U.E.S., a blues club in Lincoln Park, with a group of us (plus a parent and a fiance, neither mine) still around for Easter. We enjoyed a full day of church, cooking, food, games, and then a blues show. Maybe I was just tired, but I found the blues club underwhelming – a little touristy (maybe we were part of that), with a long break between sets, and a random gag as we left that didn’t involve much music. In terms of other music, a couple weeks previous a few other students and I purchased student tickets to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, supposedly one of the best in the world, at least according to a music major friend back at school. Symphony Hall was absolutely gorgeous, and the music enjoyable, but maybe a little too stuffy and not as fun as an evening at a jazz club (which I plan to achieve soon).

I had also visited Lake Michigan (before the trip to Lake Forest) for the first time since being in Chicago, about a week before break. A roommate and I took the Green Line south to Washington Park, proposed site of the Olympic Stadium and the Olympic Aquatic Center. We wandered the park, past a Saturday afternoon softball game and pirate radio gathering in a parking lot, and moved into the University of Chicago campus. As the photos below demonstrate, the campus is grand and austere, perhaps correlating with the seriousness many people associate with U Chicago students. After the University, we wandered into Jackson Park, former home to the 1893 Columbian Exposition of “Devil in the White City” fame, and actually stopped to rest. The Museum of Science and Industry, pictured below, is (I believe) the only remaining building from the White City, which was mostly temporary and which burned soon after the fair. Following a short rest across the pond from the museum, we walked up the shore to 53rd Street and wealthy Hyde Park, where met a couple other fellows for dinner and NCAA basketball.

Washington Park:

Road in Washington Park famously paved just in advance of the IOC visit to Chicago:

University of Chicago:

Museum of Science and Industry in Jackson Park:

A better Washington Park shot:

Saturday, on a beautiful, freezing day in Chicago, I went to watch my first baseball game of the season. Not Wrigley, yet. The White Sox played host to the Minnesota Twins. I grabbed an upper-deck ticket, a hot dog, and a pop (though I’m 21, and beer at a baseball game seems like a must experience, I couldn’t bring myself to pay $6.50 for 12 ounces of any liquid), and planted myself in position above home plate. After an early pitchers’ duel, the White Sox got to Francisco Liriano, and Bartolo Colon shut down the Twins in an 8-0 Sox victory. I was able to tour the upper deck and get some idea of the Sox fan flavor (to soon be compared with Cubs fan flavor), but unfortunately my tickets were only good for my level. I couldn’t even walk to the outfield because the upper level doesn’t extend around the field! My suggestion, if they’re so concerned about people sneaking into more expensive seats: let people, especially curious visitors like myself, into other levels to walk around, but check tickets at each aisle so you can catch all the “criminals” just trying to occupy an empty seat. I just ranted a bit, but it was overall a fun experience to wake up and know the day held baseball, and to explore a pretty nice new ballpark in a central setting on the near South Side.

U.S. Cellular Field looking north to downtown:

U.S. Cellular Field:

Another post coming soon with less information on recreation and more on urban studies events, plus photos!

So it should have made sense that on the morning we were scheduled to visit the Chicago Sun-Times, I went online to discover that they had declared bankruptcy. We still made our visit, of course, because bankruptcy is still several steps from shutting down the paper, but found ourselves thrust into an uncertain office.

As an amateur newspaper person myself – check out the St. Olaf College paper, the Manitou Messenger – I glowed at the opportunity to visit the Sun-Times. It wasn’t my first visit to a newsroom, so the sea of low cubicles (for easy interaction), many of them empty, wasn’t that exciting. I wasn’t so much interested in our tour, except for the visit to Jay Mariotti’s former Around-the-Horn studio, but more so in our visit to an editorial staff meeting. Editors of various sections, as well as design, web, graphics and photo editors, met with the editor-in-chief (Don Hayner, graduate of ACM school Ripon College) to “dummy” the next day’s paper, which involves laying out where each article will be located in the print edition.

I’m familiar with the general process of dummying out the paper, and found this meeting incredibly exciting, mostly for how interactive the entire process was. It was encouraging to know that the news isn’t entirely impersonal, but that some people are actively debating the value of certain news stories. What remains to be seen, of course, is how long newspapers will last, a reality made vivid by our timely trip. Mr. Hayner, though, offered an impassioned five-minute defense of professional newsgathering organizations and their pool of resources, a defense I found inspiring.

Over the previous weekend, I planned to visit our friends in Hyde Park for the first time during the day. Maybe walk around a bit, do the Barack walk (tour of notable sights from his life), go to the lake, and check out other places in the neighborhood, like Minister Louis Farrakhan’s mansion. Instead, Chicago offered a calming Seattle-style rain that steadied for the entire evening (and turned into snow overnight). Four of us fellas did brave the dampness to head to Dixie Kitchen, a Southern-style restaurant that’s one of our president’s favorites. For pre-dinner bread, they offer cornbread pancakes with sweet butter. Pretty good food for a decent price, but unfortunately, one of only a few Hyde Park landmarks I was able to hit on the trip down.

I mentioned my independent study on the Chicago 2016 Olympics bid in my last post. Thursday the International Olympic Committee Evaluation Commission arrived to be feted around the city and shown why Chicago deserves the Olympics. (I’m still formulating my own opinion). Anyway, the IOC’s visit over the week is big news, and inspired a downtown protest where “Arrest Daley” was chanted, as well as a general air of discussion around the games. It is certainly a great time to be around as we consider some extremely important questions about the globe, the country, and the city. I’ll post photos soon of Washington Park, the proposed site of the Olympic Stadium.

Jon Burge – By now, most people in Chicago know about the “Jon Burge” trials. Jon Burge, a police commander in Chicago, is accused of torturing over 100 African-American men to extract confessions for crimes they may or may not have committed. Several men have been exonerated, but others remain in jail, and Burge hasn’t ever been charged with a crime because the statute of limitations expired before lawyers gained an understanding of the systematic abuse, though he was fired in 1991 and still receives a full taxpayer-financed police pension. It’s a convoluted court case, for sure. I’d have to write many pages to make it all clear. Here’s a story from 1990 (very long) that describes the torture. For a shorter version, and an update on the current situation, read a Wikipedia entry.

We also made a short pilgrimage to the Jane Addams Hull House Museum, one of two remaining structures from the Hull House settlement house community on the West Side. Most of the facilities were bulldozed to make way for the University of Illinois – Chicago, which now operates the museum. We attended a Tuesday soup lunch at the old dining hall, the other remaining building, and then took a short tour of the museum. Honestly underwhelming, but free black bean soup.

Little Village Environmental Justice Organization – Toxic Tour…
Yesterday we also took a “Toxic Tour” with LVEJO, a social justice organization in Little Village, a near-southwest side community with an overwhelmingly Mexican-American population and a tremendous disproportion of polluting industrial complexes in the area. A sobering introduction to the notion of environmental racism.

Most of our urban studies group (plus a guest, Yusufu, in the back) at the Hull House kitchen.

Hull House museum.

A classic six-way Chicago intersection.

Earth Hour! (With battery-powered candles)

No Games Chicago protest, referenced above.

From No Games protest.

NOTABLE VISITS

Trinity United Church of Christ – Though perhaps better known for its pastor Emeritus, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and its most famous former member, President Barack Obama, Trinity, a historically African-American church, stands on its own as an important Chicago institution. Located at the far south end of Red Line, Trinity boasts a 200-member choir, an ethic of “Holy Hugs,” and a three-hour worship service full of joy, political force, movement, authentic welcoming, Christ, and insight into a community owned by African-Americans. I personally enjoyed the day as a Christian, as well as a Chicago programs student.

“In My Shoes” at Sinai Rehabilitation Center – This program at a hospital on the West Side puts together workshops for groups of students and others, educating them on life as a quadraplegic or paraplegic, and with a particular focus on injuries sustained in gang violence. Very powerful and adjacent to Douglas Park (photo below).

YWCA – At the YWCA, in downtown Chicago, we participated in an anti-racism workshop for our seminar. In many of our class sessions, we have learned about institutional and socialized racism. We have also learned about making white privilege visible, particularly as part of white privilege is being “normal” and having invisible privilege. I encourage you, if you haven’t, to participate in a similar workshop with people you trust. Perhaps you should encourage your church, school, or community group to organize such a workshop.

North Lawndale College Prep – I’ll give you a quick primer on the situation in Chicago Public Schools, but I suggest you do some research for yourself. Former superintendent Arne Duncan was appointed as Obama’s Secretary of Education, so Mayor Daley appointed one of his machine men, Ron Huberman, to a position as “CEO” (that’s what they call it now) of CPS. Many people are angry that Huberman has no classroom experience.

They’re also angry about a controversial plan to close several schools (Seattle-area residents should remember the recent controversy over school closings there). The city claims they’re under-utilized, and wants to open more charter schools. Statistically, charter schools seem to perform better than other public schools, because they have smaller student populations, curricular freedom, and often a certain focus (college prep, international school, arts, etc.). For a charter school, the city contracts out a school’s administration to a non-profit organization, providing some funding, though the non-profit still needs to raise some funds to make it. The city also has non-charter magnet schools, which attract kids from all over the city for certain academic focuses, like math and science, or arts. Then there are the elite private schools and parochial schools. You might imagine that the special schools tend to favor privileged families who have the time and money to invest in finding a school for their children. This is true, though CPS has opened charter schools in poorer neighborhoods.

North Lawndale CPHS, found on the link above, is one such charter school on the West Side, with a student population almost exclusively African-American, mostly because the neighborhood is almost completely African-American. The school, around for just 11 years, has a small student body and high graduation and college attendance rates. When we visited, the school was in the semifinals of the state basketball tournament, so classes were canceled and students who didn’t take a bus down to Peoria watched the game in the auditorium. We were able to watch the last quarter, which re-immersed me in the frenzied, emotional world of high school basketball (fond memories), but resulted in North Lawndale losing a 10-point lead and falling by one point in the last couple seconds. We talked with a social studies teacher there about the flexibility she has in the classroom to teach about local and global issues of justice. North Lawndale chooses its students through a random lottery of applicants.

Prexy Nesbitt – A Chicago educator with experience in North Lawndale. He described the vast transformation in the neighborhood from the earlier part of the century, when it was a Jewish enclave, to now, as a poor, mostly African-American community. Old industrial jobs have left the neighborhood, so much so that Mr. Nesbitt estimated real unemployment in North Lawndale at 50-60%.

Bill Ayers – Thanks to the way political campaigns go, most people know Bill Ayers from campaign rhetoric that linked him and his former violent activist activities to Barack Obama. Now Ayers is a noted Chicago author, activist, and educator at the University of Illinois-Chicago. He spoke to us about activism and engagement, emphasizing that all of us can be citizens, activists, radicals, whatever you want to call it. Definitely an inspiring man who lived up to the “name.”

The Slick Boys – Three former Chicago police officers who worked in the Cabrini-Green housing projects, public housing developments concentrated on the near-North Side, and which were home to rampant gang activity. They offer humane solutions to service in that community, to understanding the attractiveness of gangs, and to looking at the city’s role in creating the island of crime. Notably the former Cabrini-Green area (most public housing has been demolished to make way for mixed-income developments) is now gentrifying quickly, given its prime real estate location.

A couple more things, and a congratulations if you made it through all this…

I am doing an independent study on Chicago’s 2016 Olympic bid and its effects on Chicago neighborhoods (in terms of housing, parks, etc.). Any Chicago readers – please offer suggestions of research avenues, people to connect with.

It is almost baseball season. This is just a general announcement, and it means I’ll soon be able to cross two more major league stadiums off my list. With spring arriving, day-by-day, I can barely contain my excitement. It’s true.

PHOTO TIME (with captions below)

Man on roof.

Mural in North Lawndale. Read more about North Lawndale in text and links above.

Another mural.

Walking east in West Side of Chicago.

Douglas Park on the West Side, one of several parks in Chicago to be affected if the city gets the 2016 Olympics bid. The Olympic Stadium would be built in Washington Park on the South Side.

The downtown crowd a few blocks away from the St. Patrick’s Day parade. Unfortunately the penetrating crowds of drunk people who rode in from the suburbs made it impossible to get to the front lines of the parade and see new governor Pat Quinn (Blago’s successor) and Roland Burris (Blago’s choice for senator) march along.

A beautiful Chicago alley.

The Chicago River, dyed green for the Saturday St. Patrick’s Day festivities.

River with Chicago Tribune building in background.

East down the Chicago River toward Lake Michigan.

Can you see the natural “bank” of the river?

Rooftop bleachers across the street from Wrigley Field. Just approaching Wrigley (I wouldn’t touch the building, not until I’m at a game there) awoke imagination of a century of games at the ballpark, which is right in the middle of a neighborhood. Of course, Wrigley has turned that neighborhood into apartment buildings with rooftop bleachers and a commercial strip apparently comprised only of bars. A reverent experience.

“Dear President Obama and Secretary of Homeland Security Napolitano and Members of Congress,

I encourage the new administration and Congress to choose humanitarian immigration reform in 2009. Our Jewish faith scripture tells us to “Welcome the Stranger” with love and compassion. However the singular focus on aggressive enforcement of outdated immigration laws creates a sense of fear and animosity between communities and the law enforcement that serves them. The policy of relying on raids and enforcement tactics as the sole means of controlling immigration has clearly failed.

Raids create trauma and hardship for undocumented immigrants and their families, by separating families and threatening the basic rights of immigrants and U.S. citizens alike.

The suffering caused by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in homes and workplaces underscores the problems with current U.S. immigration policies and the urgent need for reform. Please work to ensure our country sees progress in the direction of humanitarian immigration reform in time for Passover, in April 2009.”

To sign the petition: http://www.jcua.org/progress. Send around the link to anyone who would be interested and check out JCUA’s policy statement on immigration reform while you’re on the website (which is soon to debut its new design).

This is a safe neighborhood, but just goes to show you that even a locked bike isn’t safe.

Vacant lot at Armitage and St. Louis that is one of four sites for the proposed Zapata Apartments affordable housing development.

Public art display reflected in the Logan Square Blue Line stop along Milwaukee Ave.

West down Logan Boulevard, showing signs of spring.

Bickerdike Development Corporation representative at the Zapata Apartments community meeting, March 11.

Public art near Milwaukee and Logan.

Columns across Humboldt Boulevard.

More Humboldt Boulevard.

Photos from green Chicago River (St. Patty’s Day) and Wrigleyville: soon.

Here in Chicago, I’m at that point in the semester where people from home, or school, or anywhere else I have been for a time are asking the title question. So I’ve been answering it – it’s especially difficult to do electronically. But without worrying about creating an impression or anything like that, I say “good, really good.” My time here has been very good.

I hate putting things in categories, because the experience of Chicago life and the experience of Urban Studies and the experience of my own personal/spiritual/emotional development are all wrapped together into the word “Chicago.” But here are some categories.

The Education – Back at St. Olaf, I like my liberal arts education, most of the time. Other times I hate it. Education here has been very different, particularly with the stated ideal of experiential education. That doesn’t always happen, for various reasons, but I have found that I learn much, much more from meeting with people than from reading about it in a textbook. The cliche is true, folks!

Some places we’ve visited:
Sister House – women’s drug recovery home
CLAIM (Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers)
35th Ward Alderman Rey Colon
BUILD, Inc. (Broader Urban Involvement and Leadership Development) – an organization that works in gang-torn neighborhoods (like my own area) with an array of youth development and prevention programs. Given that I spent last summer working some of the time at a youth center outside of Seattle, BUILD offers inspiration as an agency with an entrenched presence in its neighborhood.
“Crime Against Humanity” at Batey Urbano – play at a youth center/theater sponsored by the Puerto Rican Cultural Center in the Humboldt Park neighborhood
Logan Square Neighborhood Association – local community organization with considerable resources and power. More on one of their campaigns below.

Living in a City – Living without a car can be frustrating (especially on days like today when I had to buy groceries despite the rain showers), but most of the time it’s very convenient in Chicago. Last week I was also reminded of this city’s size, just when I thought I had some sort of handle on Chicago. Not true. Riding on the bus into a completely new neighborhood, North Austin, I realized that Chicago is much bigger than my Chicago can seem, if that makes sense.

It is exciting to be in a city that always surprises you, and one that sometimes shocks you. It is exciting to be in a true global city, with gigantic Puerto Rican flags welcoming you to a local neighborhood, or billboards advertising the Ukrainian-American museum. Of course, a global city features extremes of wealth and poverty, and is rife with gang violence across block, neighborhood, or ethnic lines. Basically the city is impossible to quantify and any statement about Chicago minimizes one group or one experience. Like any place, you need to live there to really get it, or I need to publish a 1,000 page collection of stories from Chicagoans to appropriately convey the city.

Personal Development – I like challenging myself, I guess, so I signed up for a West African dance class that began last Tuesday. I was sore for three days, but I think the greatest challenge will be the courage to fail and to embarrass myself as I learn (especially in a class of mostly women!). Everything I wanted, though.

My internship at the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (new website coming very soon) has also provided a challenge, as I have learned on the fly about two previously unfamiliar issues: worker rights and immigration, JCUA’s two current policy focuses. These two issues, naturally, are quite related, and have been part of my work so far. A couple weeks ago I helped out with a conference we hosted titled “Human Rights in the Meatpacking Industry,” convened by the Midwest Coalition on Human Rights, and featuring advocates from around the country.

At the conference immigration and worker rights policies figured prominently. One case study, the gigantic ICE raid on undocumented workers in a meatpacking plant in Postville, IA last May 12, had its time in the spotlight. The raid, in short, raises serious questions about human rights abuses, U.S. immigration policy, and our government’s ill-fated past military intervention in countries like Guatemala, where most of the charged and deported undocumented workers were from, and where I feel a personal connection from my visit last January.

Outside of class, I have also become involved in a movement for affordable apartments in my neighborhood, Logan Square, through the Logan Square Neighborhood Association. For four years, they’ve been part of a campaign to build 75 units of affordable housing on four vacant lots in a close radius. On Wednesday our alderman, Rey Colon, of the ward with two of the proposed buildings, hosts a public meeting on the zoning changes required to build the apartments.

Alderman Colon invited us to the event with the promises that we could see “democracy in action” and “adults acting like children.” Isn’t politics great?

Before his invitation, I had become part of the door-knocking campaign to turn out supporters of the affordable housing units – called the Zapata Apartments – in full force to the meeting, where supporters and opponents will be invited to testify. It has been an invigorating and challenging experience, and along with my internship at JCUA, has left me on a mission to begin formally learning Spanish over the summer, wherever I end up. Here’s an old article on the Zapata movement. This project isn’t completely my own initiative, because a partner and I have been assigned to research housing assets in Logan Square, but we figured the best way to learn was through actual involvement. It’s pretty cool to be on the inside of a campaign that’s inspired serious debate in the neighborhood. One anonymous, and apparently cowardly, neighbor has posted little notes around the neighborhood railing against the affordable units for their admittedly high cost and the possibility of crime (an unfortunate stigma to the city’s poor administration of previous public housing efforts), especially in a section of the neighborhood with significant gang activity. For the first time, I have been learning a lot about gang activity, and I’m glad that my hometown newspaper, the Seattle Times, has itself been running a series on gangs over the last couple weeks.

If you have any questions about anything or want to fill me on more information about something or, especially if I already know you, want to tell me what you’re up to, please e-mail me at andersed “at” stolaf.edu!

Bronzeville Neighborhood Visit
The Black Star Project: Our first stop on a tour of Bronzeville, a neighborhood on the near south side of Chicago. Bronzeville historically has been over 90 percent African-American, and before the Chicago Housing Authority’s recent “Plan for Transformation” demolished most public housing (displacing many residents, by the way), was home to the largest single tract of public housing high-rises in the United States. The Black Star Project works in the school system to tutor students and create mentoring programs for their parents.

Illinois Institute of Technology – Community Affairs: Illinois Institute of Technology in Bronzeville takes a pretty serious approach to community development. We met with their vice president for community affairs and soaked up his view of former public housing lots.

2016 Olympics: Surprisingly, I don’t know if I’ve mentioned Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Chicago is one of three finalists for the bid, which will be announced in October. The proposal would place the Olympic Village right in Bronzeville, a move that, depending on which Bronzeville leader you listen to, could alternately destroy much of the neighborhood or revitalize it. Wherever you are in the city, the Olympics are on everyone’s mind.

Bronzeville Visitor Information Center: The tourism arm of Bronzeville, which aims to capitalize on Bronzeville’s heritage to make it a tourism destination for middle-class African-Americans and others. Bronzeville compares somewhat to Harlem, though it is gentrifying at a slower pace than that New York neighborhood with comparable African-American history. Bronzeville had such a large African-American community because city housing restrictions during the Great Northern Migration pushed all African-Americans into the same south side neighborhood.

Vocalo: From our neighborhood visit, and interviews we recorded while there, we will create a short radio documentary. Vocalo.org, an organization affiliated with local NPR station WBEZ, is a community radio website. We will post our content online and perhaps it will make it to the radio!

Other Class Visits
Chicago Girls Coalition: Here we participated in a powerful workshop on gender socialization where we examined social pressures behind the terms “man” and “lady.”

La Voz and Puerto Rican Cultural Center: Specifically, we visited Vida/SIDA, the AIDS prevention arm of the PRCC, which occupies much of a block in the Humboldt Park neighborhood adjacent to Logan Square. La Voz is the newspaper of the PRCC. The Puerto Rican community is very politically active and active in preserving their neighborhood identity. I didn’t take photos, but they have two large iron Puerto Rican flags on Division St. as gateways to the neighborhood. At Vida/SIDA Dr. Jose Lopez spoke to us about alternative education.

Davis Theater: Cheap theater up in Lincoln Square, a good walkable neighborhood further north. Saw Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire for just $5.50 on a Saturday (still not as cheap as the rumored local $3 theater).

CeaseFire Chicago: CeaseFire is an organization devoted solely to stopping gang violence. They don’t work explicitly in gang prevention, but their primary mission is to stop the shooting. Statistics they provided of the significant drop in area murders evidence some results.

An article about Logan Square from the Chicago Tribune, 2.5 years ago. Definitely worth reading for some background on neighborhood change from a more eloquent and informed source than myself.

Green Mill Cocktail Lounge and Uptown Poetry Slam: Every Sunday the Green Mill, a famous jazz club in the Uptown neighborhood where Al Capone supposedly got shot once, holds a poetry slam. In fact in 1985 Marc Smith apparently invented the poetry slam. After going to the reading last night, one goal for Chicago is to write something good enough and get enough courage to read at their open mic. The crowd, with perhaps some more alcohol under their collective belt, was more vicious during the actual slam than during the open mic.

Neo-futurists: As a class cultural activity we attended a show from the Neo-Futurists, who perform 30 plays in 60 minutes. You have to read their website to get a real idea. It’s one of those places, along with the Green Mill, that’s on my list of cheap places to take any Chicago visitors. Perhaps Munchies, a good lunch spot in Bronzeville, is also on that list.

Across the Chicago River southeast toward downtown, from Diversey Ave.

Statue at the gateway to Bronzeville, commemorating the neighborhood’s legacy as part of the Great Migration.

Down King Way, looking at a number of mixed-income housing units. Mixed-income housing is replacing much of the low-income high rises.

Shot down King Way from 35th Ave. Historic former homes of Ida B. Wells and other figures are down the street.

Home of the White Sox – U.S. Cellular Field. This is a shot from the IIT plaza. I saw Wrigley Field last night for the first time, albeit in the dark from a train. Still magical.

Because I didn’t write it all at once, please don’t read this too-long post all at once.