Housing advocates demand demolition surcharge along 606 trail be made permanent
Housing advocates in Logan Square are calling on the city to make permanent a program that penalizes developers for demolishing residential homes along the 606 trail.
“As much progress as we made as a community, it’s still important that we push our elected officials to do what’s right for you and for them to keep the promises they made to you,” said Dave Soto, an equitable development fellow with the Logan Square Neighborhood Association. “This means extending the 606 demolition ordinance which has protected working-class families by hitting developers where it hurts — their wallet.”
About three dozen people stood outside the Logan Square Neighborhood Association on Monday with signs decrying how gentrification has affected the community and calling on the City Council to extend the ordinance indefinitely.
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Logan Square Leaders Want Federal Relief For Affordable Housing, Extended Fines For Demolitions Near The 606
Elected leaders and community organizers want the state to invest millions in federal funding toward affordable housing in the Logan Square area, while alderpeople try to maintain high fees for developers who tear down homes along The 606’s Bloomingdale Trail.
Members of Logan Square Neighborhood Association, Alds. Daniel La Spata (1st) and Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th), and State Reps. Delia Ramirez and Will Guzzardi hosted a press conference Monday outside of Logan Square Neighborhood Association office at 2840 N. Milwaukee Ave.
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One year on, backers of controversial anti- gentrification measures take victory lap as teardowns, gut-jobs plummet
Making demolitions more expensive has been a priority for the Logan Square Neighborhood Association since at least 2015, when teenage organizers held a rally demanding city-backed demolition fees. The group’s persistence has paid off, according to Christian Diaz, Logan Square Neighborhood Association’s Director of Housing. Diaz said beneath the data, “the way the neighborhood feels when you’re walking in that area shows that this policy has been successful.”
“It’s a relief that our built environment and our history aren’t being completely destroyed, and that we have a fighting chance at preserving the diversity of this community,” Diaz said. “The results aren’t a surprise to stakeholders on the ground, because it’s just common sense that if you make it less profitable to do predatory development that harms people and the environment, developers are going to change their priorities.”
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Chicago neighbors care for young boy after his immigrant mother dies
"We love him dearly and we will take care of him; his mother knows we will," she said.
In the days since, she has had some help from the Logan Square community in keeping her promise.
Neighbors, other Guatemalan immigrants in the Chicago area and teachers at Avondale-Logandale Elementary School, which the boy has attended since kindergarten, raised money to pay for funeral expenses and for Junior's care.
Claudia Avila, the vice principal at the school, started a GoFundMe page that raised more than $7,000. Pablo Pineda, owner of Latin Patio, hosted a fundraising dinner, and the not-for-profit community organization Logan Square Neighborhood Association also rallied in support.
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CPS Promoted Principal Who Allegedly Failed To Report Sexual Abuse At Logan Square School
Outside of the school Tuesday morning, Logan Square Neighborhood Association leaders rallied in support of parents, students and other members of the school community who have been harmed by the abuse and cover up.
Problems at the school stem back to 2013, when CPS replaced Ames Middle School with Marine Leadership Academy over the objections of many in the community, Logan Square Neighborhood Association leaders said.
“The community said ‘no’ over and over again … And CPS moved forward anyway,” said Juliet De Jesus Alejandre, executive director of Logan Square Neighborhood Association. “And so this is an example, again, of communities having wisdom, families have wisdom about what safety means, and CPS … missing the opportunity to partner.”
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Chicago’s Immigrants Rally for the Right to Become Citizens in Their Longtime Home
“There is a long back and forth of us waiting for the latest news to see if we are able to stay in the U.S. or not,” Reyes said. “We are tired of it. Just because we are DACA recipients does not mean we have stability. There are a lot of limitations and risks to do with identification, green cards and not being able to travel outside the U.S.” Reyes runs a club called “Students without Borders” at Schurz High School in Chicago’s Irving Park neighborhood and said she joined the protest because many students and other people she sees regularly are undocumented or have been impacted by challenging immigration policies. There are at least 600,000 undocumented kindergarten through 12th grade students living in the United States today, according to a FWD.us estimate.
“We need citizenship,” Reyes said. “This is home. We build families here.”
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These Groups Are Trying To Slow Gentrification In Logan Square And Hermosa — One Affordable Home At A Time
Chicago Metropolitan Housing Development Corporation and the Chicago Community Land Trust were instrumental in helping the Logan Square and Hermosa organizations acquire the Cortland Street home and fix it up, board members said. The Chicago Community Land Trust provided most of the subsidy needed to buy the home.
It was a word-of-mouth sale, said Susan Yanun with Logan Square Neighborhood Association.
“Because of The 606, so many homes have been torn down and really big, expensive homes have been built. This is a small house that definitely would’ve been torn down by a developer. The owner didn’t really want that. He had people calling him up and making offers. He reached out to one of our board members and said, ‘Are you guys interested?'” Yanun said.
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La Placita, A Plaza Celebrating Latin American Heritage, Coming To Heart Of Logan Square
After months of collecting feedback from community leaders, the city has unveiled designs for the plaza that will be part of the Logan Square circle redesign.
“La Placita” will comprise gathering spots and green space in the area surrounding the Logan Square Blue Line station.
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The plaza is meant to celebrate Latin American heritage with Mexican, Puerto Rican and Peruvian-inspired tile detailing. The city used feedback and suggestions from local residents and community groups like Logan Square Neighborhood Association to create the design, said Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th), who represents the area where the plaza will be built.
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Chicago parents step into classrooms to help bridge learning gaps
More than 100 CPS schools have parent mentor programs, which are funded by the state and also get financial support from individual schools. This month, hundreds of new parents are getting trained.
On a recent day, inside the cafeteria at McAuliffe Elementary School, which serves mostly Hispanic students on the near Northwest Side, a group of about 10 moms are among the new trainees.
“We’re looking for the same thing,” said Laquita Simmons, who was there training the women through the Logan Square Neighborhood Association, which has run parent mentor programs for more than two decades. “We want our children’s education to matter. We want to matter.”
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Logan Square Neighbors, Artists Unite For Día De los Muertos Installation And Celebration At Comfort Station
The Logan Square installation will mourn lost loved ones and neighborhood institutions that have vanished as the area has gentrified, like the Megamall flea market that was torn down for a massive luxury apartment complex.
With “everything that’s happened in Logan Square with displacement and COVID, we’ve been through a lot, and I feel like it’s really important to talk about what that means for us,” said Norma Rios-Sierra, event organizer and board member at the Logan Square Neighborhood Association. “It’s not just about mourning people, but also about spaces, and how that changes our environment and ability to enjoy our community.”
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Creativity and Community Action
Marcelo Ferrer feels that these artistic collaborations not only deepened community relations with LSNA, but also strengthened LSNA’s own commitments to community. As Ferrer put it, “We’re here to stay as an organization as well.” One aspect of this commitment is an expansion in the way that LSNA includes and promotes awareness of Black, Afro-Latino, and Indigenous cultures in its work, especially in the Here to Stay land trust, which promotes not only permanently affordable homes but also a kind of cultural autonomy for the neighborhood:
“Look at the pro-Black, pro-Indigenous lens that has permeated all of LSNA. We talk about it as palenque—the new communities created when slaves escape, called maroon settlements in English and quilombos in Brazil— creating autonomous zones, spaces of liberation. That’s starting to happen for the whole of LSNA, and it’s a real shift—a mature LSNA that is taking things to the next level.”
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CPS parents frustrated by lack of details on COVID testing plan with school reopening days away
In Chicago, CPS leaders have said they won’t offer a remote learning option despite parents’ requests — and said they didn’t even have the option because of a state directive to return to full-time, in-person learning this school year.
A spokeswoman with the Illinois State Board of Education indicated districts are free to offer remote learning but that it would require a more individualized process than last year when it was offered to all students.
Speaking at a news conference Friday organized by the Logan Square Neighborhood Association, Adriana Rios said she’s scared for her 9-year-old son who has asthma and is returning to McAuliffe Elementary next week.
“We are not here to call for CPS to shut down schools,” Rios said. “We are here to call on CPS to keep their promise and be honest about testing for all students and staff next week.”
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Love on every block: the power of moms
Since 1995, LSNA has engaged Latina and Black mothers to challenge persistent equity gaps through the Parent Mentor Program. In 2011, LSNA partnered with the Southwest Organizing Project in Chicago to form the Parent Engagement Institute. The institute helps organizations around the state and country start Parent Mentor Programs.
What started as a neighborhood program is now rooted in a network of more than 200 schools across Illinois, increasing individual attention for more than 40,000 students daily in their classrooms. Organizations in Boston, Arkansas, North Carolina, Colorado and other states are also growing the Parent Mentor model with coaching from the institute.
“Parent mentors are superheroes without capes,” says Leticia Barrera, director of the Parent Mentor Program. “They are the ones who know everyone in the neighborhood, who know the struggles.”
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As Judge Blocks New DACA Applications, Chicago Advocates Push to Pass Overdue Immigration Reform
BY ALMA CAMPOS | JULY 20, 2021
A pathway to citizenship would prevent the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)—a policy that provides temporary relief from deportation as well as work authorization to approximately 800,000 undocumented young people across the country—from constantly being attacked and suspended, advocates say. Just last Friday, July 16, a federal judge in Texas blocked new DACA applications. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen, along with a group of states suing to end the program, argue that it was illegally created by former President Barack Obama in 2012.
“Yesterday’s DACA ruling was a wake up call,” said Marcelo Ferrer, Director of Immigration Services for Logan Square Neighborhood Association. “We are tired of the turmoil that our DACA brothers and sisters have endured for the past couple of years. That is why we are calling on Congress to pass either a standalone Dream Act or include immigration reform in the budget and pass it through budget reconciliation. We are in the fight of our lives.”
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LSNA's Youngest President In Its History: ‘She Represents The Future’
"When we speak about shaping our future for young folks, we should really let young folks have an input in that," 19-year-old Prisilla Tito said.
Tito was recently named board president of the Logan Square Neighborhood Association, making her the youngest person to hold the title in the organization’s nearly 60-year history, Executive Director Juliet De Jesus Alejandre said.
Organization leaders chose Tito because she has become an indispensable force within the organization, De Jesus Alejandre said.
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‘Chicago Tonight’ in Your Neighborhood: Logan Square
Earlier Thursday, just blocks from the mayor’s house in Unity Park, the Logan Square Neighborhood Association and other groups held an action calling for an elected school board. Another is mutual aid during the pandemic. The association says it has provided hundreds of thousands of dollars to residents in need.
“When the government failed to provide safety nets, especially for undocumented immigrants, our mothers and our school mentors and our young people, we started raising funds and started getting families emergency cash assistance,” said Juliet De Jesus Alejandre, the organization’s Executive Director.
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EVENT: HERstory In The Making
Join moderator Deborah Harris as she delves into the highs and lows of building power within the movement with Juliet De Jesus Alejandre, Claudette Baker, and Lesley Martinez. They will discuss stories with a panel of women leaders of growth, advancement, challenges they face, how they see the movement progressing, and what it will take to build stronger, equitable, and sustainable spaces for Black and WOC leadership to develop.
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Chicago immigrants say they’re ready to mobilize to push Biden’s proposed immigration bill: ‘We will not stop until we get it’
By LAURA RODRÍGUEZ PRESA | CHICAGO TRIBUNE | JAN 20, 2021 AT 7:16 PM
Photo Credit: Jose M. Osorio | Chicago Tribune
Gabriela Barajas, 36, a mother of four, got emotional a few times while watching the inauguration as she also opened the door to new hopes. “I don’t think anyone understands what this means; my dreams, and mother’s dream, could finally come true,” she said.
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Chicago-area restaurant owners hope for a better year, but brace for slow winter
By NICK KINDELSPERGER; CHICAGO TRIBUNE | JAN 12, 2021 AT 12:21 PM
Photo Credit: Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune
“[Chef Diana Dávila] notes that this project will allow her to keep a kitchen staff employed, while also helping those in need. A few of the chefs she’s teaming up with include Eric Williams (Virtue), Darnell Reed (Luella’s Southern Kitchen), Won Kim (Kimski), Jonathon Zaragoza (El Oso) and Daniel Espinoza (Santa Masa Tamaleria). You can donate to the project here.”
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Longtime Latino Stronghold Logan Square Is Now Majority White, New Data Shows
From WBEZ: A WBEZ analysis of newly released census data shows that Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood is now majority white.
“This information isn’t surprising to anyone who lives in Logan Square,” said Christian Diaz, Housing Director for the Logan Square Neighborhood Association (LSNA). “Really, for us, we want to ask why: Why is our neighborhood trending in a way where we’re heading towards becoming a segregated community?”
Image Credit: Bill Healy/WBEZ
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