Government and Politics
Report: Chicago’s wealthy, white communities most likely to have park projects approved
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Friends of the Parks says it may seek legal action to ensure parks are funded equally.
Government and Politics
Chicago agrees to refund duplicate tickets since 1992, following lawsuit
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The suit alleges that black and brown communities were targeted with illegal double ticketing, relying heavily on data uncovered by a joint investigation by WBEZ and ProPublica Illinois.
Economic Development
Target opens stores in younger, wealthier, white neighborhoods as it pulls out of South Side
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Protests are planned for Black Friday in response to retailer closing two South Side locations.
Economic Development
Alternative energy scams hit poor blacks and Latinos the hardest, complaints show
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Thousands are misled into switching suppliers in the hopes of saving money but instead see their utility bills spike, sometimes driving them into debt.
Criminal Justice
Prostitution-loitering law likely to target women of color for arrest
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Chicago police have a record of arresting women for selling sex rather than men for buying it. A new ordinance borrows from anti-loitering measures that target black and Hispanic neighborhoods.
Perspectives: The Powers That Be
From police to schools to transit, a crisis of accountability in Chicago
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As Rahm Emanuel courts flashy projects amid a slew of scandals, it seems the mayor is more accountable to big-money donors than to neighborhood constituents.
Beyond 95th Street
Instead of extending the Red Line, some see promise in the Metra Electric
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Converting the Metra Electric District main line into rapid transit could be a quicker, cheaper way to improve transit on the South Side than building more Red Line stations, advocates say.
Perspectives
Worker-owned co-ops: a model to build wealth for low-income communities in Chicago
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Illinois law stops worker-owned cooperatives from being established as businesses in Chicago, a city ripe to join the national movement to democratize local economies.
Empty Schools, Empty Promises
When Chicago closed her kids’ school, she decided to fight back
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As Chicago Public Schools prepares to shut down more schools, it faces continued resistance from people like Irene Robinson, whose community was fractured by 2013’s mass closures.
Empty Schools, Empty Promises
Thousands of black students leave Chicago for other segregated districts
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Many families fleeing the poorest pockets of the city are ending up in cash-strapped school systems in the suburbs and northwest Indiana.