Chicago Reporter (https://www.chicagoreporter.com/tag/woodlawn/)
Organizers aim to avert gentrification brought on by the Obama library through an ordinance that would require the city and the University of Chicago to protect and support nearby residents.
In the months before the off-campus shooting of student Charles Thomas, University of Chicago police sharply stepped-up proactive stops, overwhelmingly targeting people of color, our analysis shows.
Given Woodlawn’s history, neighborhood organizers want to ensure the presidential center will benefit black residents, not displace them.
Despite Barack Obama’s verbal assurances that his presidential center will benefit the surrounding community, many residents want a written guarantee that black families won’t be pushed out.
Developers buying shuttered Chicago schools face stiff competition for tax credits that make their repurposing plans viable.
Tax increment financing is a tool to help encourage development in blighted areas. In Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood, much of the money from a TIF district has been unspent or transferred out of the district.
Discount stores like Family Dollar generate millions of dollars annually in black and low-income communities. Family Dollar has 83 stores in Chicago in areas where annual average incomes are below $50,000.
Black communities are often stereotyped as consumer wastelands. But immigrants and first-time entrepreneurs have tapped the unmet needs in the neighborhoods.
While politicians grapple with how to turn Chicago into a high-speed internet hotspot, one Woodlawn resident is making it happen.