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| Edison Park 1917 |
Friday, March 30, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
Rahm Emanuel to middle class: Don’t leave for better schools
Mayor Rahm Emanuel has a message to the middle class: Don’t leave my city in pursuit of a high quality, high school education for your kids.
BY MAUDLYNE IHEJIRIKA Staff Reporter mihejirika@suntimes.com March 25, 2012 12:31AM
Updated: March 25, 2012 2:34AM
Mayor Rahm Emanuel has a message to the middle class: Don’t leave my city in pursuit of a high quality, high school education for your kids.
The message accompanied a promise, issued during an exclusive interview with the Chicago Sun-Times on Friday — the same day the mayor announced he was doubling the size of an International Baccalaureate diploma program in the Chicago Public Schools. A recent study deemed the program extremely successful in preparing neighborhood high school students for college.
“Don’t head for the doors when your kid’s in fifth grade or sixth grade — for the suburbs — because the city of Chicago is going to give you a high-quality life with a high-quality education for your children,” said Emanuel, speaking in his office and flanked by Chicago Public Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard.
“That’s our commitment to the families of the city of Chicago. And we’re well on our way to starting to put that down payment down,” he said.
Emanuel, who inherited a school system on which his predecessor Mayor Richard M. Daley left his own mark, outlined his vision for public education: a focus on expanding access to quality high school options beyond the hard-fought for but limited selective enrollment seats.
Those nine elite public high schools — created by Daley in part to keep the middle class from bailing out of the system after eighth grade — this year alone drew 14,284 applicants for 3,200 seats.
And CPS data recently obtained by the Sun-Times indicated that at the most elite of the system’s selective-enrollment high schools, it took near perfect scores and perfect grades for eighth-graders to win admission.
Key initiatives in the last few months have been part of his larger vision, Emanuel said. Those initiatives include the 10 new International Baccalaureate programs announced Friday; the five new Early College STEM schools emphasizing science, technology, engineering and math announced in February, and the announcement in December of the planned opening of two new charter schools by the ballyhooed Noble Schools Network each year over the next three years.
Under Emanuel’s plan, five neighborhood high schools devoted exclusively to the rigorous International Baccalaureate curriculum — touted by the University of Chicago’s Consortium on Chicago School Research for producing “dramatic” results — will come online in the fall of 2013, one in each of the city’s high school regions, and will accept all comers. An additional five schools — also in each zone — will offer the program alongside traditional curriculums, but unlike the neighborhood IBschools, they will have IB admission requirements.
In the new Early College STEM schools, five technology giants have joined forces with CPS and City Colleges to open six-year public high schools allowing students to graduate with an associate’s degree and the expertise to qualify for high-tech jobs. The schools will open to roughly 1,090 freshmen this fall, with no selective admissions criteria.
Finally, Noble, the only charter franchise last year to produce higher test scores than the Chicago average at each of its campuses and trumpeted by Emanuel, has been granted two new charters each year through 2014. Noble picks its students by lottery.
“To all those parents who are standing in line at the selective enrollment or other choices, there’s going to be more choices for you,” Emanuel said. “And when I say choices, I mean across the spectrum. We’re going to have good, high-quality high schools that are going to prepare your kids, whether they’re going to junior college, the armed forces or four-year institutions. Your child’s education and your child’s opportunity at a good-quality high school education just improved.”
The Chicago Teachers Union did not respond to a request for comment on the mayor’s plans.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Good News for Edison Park
From Chicago Magazine
Digging into the data from which we built the home-values charts in the April issue of Chicago, I’ve found a dozen city neighborhoods or suburbs showing signs that they’ve hit bottom and may be on the way back up.
Maybe! Possibly! No guarantees!
I’m including those disclaimers because we can’t say for sure what will happen over the next year. Another round of foreclosures may be waiting in the wings, the presidential election could impact consumer decisions, and the real-estate market has confounded expectations many times before. Zillow, for instance, is reporting today that the economists it surveys have lowered their expectations for the recovery they expect to begin in 2012.
Nevertheless, homes in these twelve Chicago-area communities sold more quickly and at higher prices in 2011 than they did in 2010. That bucks the norm in what was a dreary year: In more than two-thirds of the communities we chart, homes sold more slowly in 2011 than in 2010, and in about 85 percent of them, prices were down for the year.
As I said in this video, faster sales and higher prices are two key signs of strength in the residential real-estate market. A third is the number of foreclosures A report out earlier this week indicates that Illinois is nowhere near the end of its foreclosures.
Foreclosures have given, and they may also take away in Chatham, says Neal Gillie, an appraiser at Chatham Realty Services. Our data shows improved prices and market time for condos in that South Side neighborhood. Gillie attributes those upswings to an early round of foreclosures that were bought at rock-bottom prices, rehabbed, and resold at “greatly improved prices.”
But looking ahead, he says, “there are so many foreclosed properties here that have not been put on the market yet. When they do, it’s going to cause another plunge.”
Meanwhile, in Edison Park on the Northwest Side, our data shows single-family homes selling more quickly and at higher prices. What’s more, Ralph Milito, a Century 21 agent, says he doesn’t see a lot of new foreclosures on the horizon there. If he’s right, then Edison Park could be looking mighty strong this time next year.
Milito adds that the foreclosures of the past several years pulled the lower end of Edison Park’s prices way down. Since then, he says, those foreclosed houses have been “snapped up like crazy,” resulting in prices clicking upward.
Something similar is afoot in Inverness, according to Leonora Burkhart, a Re/Max agent who covers that affluent northwest suburb. In 2011, she says, the town had a “real strong middle,” with houses in the $600,000 range selling better than they had in a few years. That helps explain why our data shows faster and pricier sales of single-family homes in Inverness.
It may also explain a more recent phenomenon that Burkhart detected. In the past month, three homes priced at over $1 million have gone under contract, she says, something that hasn’t happened in a while. It’s the trickle-up effect: Buyers who finally get their homes sold can then buy a higher-end home.
Here are the 12 communities that appear to be on the way back up. The first column identifies the community, the second indicates the percentage price increase from 2010 to 2011, and the third column shows the 2011 market time as a percentage of the community’s 2010 market time. All data refers to the sale of single-family homes, except for Chatham and Grand Boulevard, where I’m looking at condo sales.
Twelve Communities That Might Be on the Rebound
Posted Mar 21, 2012 at 9:35 AM
Digging into the data from which we built the home-values charts in the April issue of Chicago, I’ve found a dozen city neighborhoods or suburbs showing signs that they’ve hit bottom and may be on the way back up.
Maybe! Possibly! No guarantees!
I’m including those disclaimers because we can’t say for sure what will happen over the next year. Another round of foreclosures may be waiting in the wings, the presidential election could impact consumer decisions, and the real-estate market has confounded expectations many times before. Zillow, for instance, is reporting today that the economists it surveys have lowered their expectations for the recovery they expect to begin in 2012.
Nevertheless, homes in these twelve Chicago-area communities sold more quickly and at higher prices in 2011 than they did in 2010. That bucks the norm in what was a dreary year: In more than two-thirds of the communities we chart, homes sold more slowly in 2011 than in 2010, and in about 85 percent of them, prices were down for the year.
As I said in this video, faster sales and higher prices are two key signs of strength in the residential real-estate market. A third is the number of foreclosures A report out earlier this week indicates that Illinois is nowhere near the end of its foreclosures.
Foreclosures have given, and they may also take away in Chatham, says Neal Gillie, an appraiser at Chatham Realty Services. Our data shows improved prices and market time for condos in that South Side neighborhood. Gillie attributes those upswings to an early round of foreclosures that were bought at rock-bottom prices, rehabbed, and resold at “greatly improved prices.”
But looking ahead, he says, “there are so many foreclosed properties here that have not been put on the market yet. When they do, it’s going to cause another plunge.”
Meanwhile, in Edison Park on the Northwest Side, our data shows single-family homes selling more quickly and at higher prices. What’s more, Ralph Milito, a Century 21 agent, says he doesn’t see a lot of new foreclosures on the horizon there. If he’s right, then Edison Park could be looking mighty strong this time next year.
Milito adds that the foreclosures of the past several years pulled the lower end of Edison Park’s prices way down. Since then, he says, those foreclosed houses have been “snapped up like crazy,” resulting in prices clicking upward.
Something similar is afoot in Inverness, according to Leonora Burkhart, a Re/Max agent who covers that affluent northwest suburb. In 2011, she says, the town had a “real strong middle,” with houses in the $600,000 range selling better than they had in a few years. That helps explain why our data shows faster and pricier sales of single-family homes in Inverness.
It may also explain a more recent phenomenon that Burkhart detected. In the past month, three homes priced at over $1 million have gone under contract, she says, something that hasn’t happened in a while. It’s the trickle-up effect: Buyers who finally get their homes sold can then buy a higher-end home.
Here are the 12 communities that appear to be on the way back up. The first column identifies the community, the second indicates the percentage price increase from 2010 to 2011, and the third column shows the 2011 market time as a percentage of the community’s 2010 market time. All data refers to the sale of single-family homes, except for Chatham and Grand Boulevard, where I’m looking at condo sales.
| LOCATION | PRICE | SALE TIME |
| Chatham | 31.0% | 83.4% |
| Avondale | 14.0% | 75.2% |
| Grand Boulevard | 12.0% | 86.0% |
| Hebron | 10.0% | 50.1% |
| Inverness | 9.0% | 73.5% |
| North Center | 7.5% | 86.0% |
| Kenilworth | 5.0% | 77.4% |
| Olympia Fields | 4.7% | 70.46% |
| Elk Grove Village | 4.5% | 76.9% |
| Edison Park | 2.9% | 75.8% |
| Burnham | 1.9% | 76.0% |
| Logan Square | 0.8% | 87.2% |
Posted in Housing Bulletin
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Chicago’s crime conundrum
Chicago’s crime conundrum
The news: In January, a 24-year-old man was charged with arson—one of eight “index crime” categories tracked nationwide by the FBI—after he allegedly set off a rash of car and building fires across Los Angeles.
Behind the news:
Overall, index crimes, including arson, are down in Chicago, but in the past five years, four police districts on the North and Northwest sides posted an increase in at least four of the index crime categories.
Despite the increases, those police districts combined accounted for only 12 percent of the city’s most violent crimes last year.
Meanwhile, six of the highest crime areas, on the South and West sides of the city, experienced large decreases in the number of reported crimes.
Yet, those districts alone still accounted for 43 percent of all sexual assaults, murders, armed robberies and other violent crimes in 2011.
Arthur Lurigio, professor of psychology and criminal justice at Loyola University Chicago, said the jumps in individual categories could be due to either an increase in incidents and in reporting, or a change in police procedure.
Motor vehicle theft, for example, is always highly reported because it is tied to insurance while sexual assault is historically underreported because of stigma, he said.
“The news is that crime has been going down for the last 20 years, and we’re safer with regard to homicide and violent crime in Chicago than we have been since 1962,” he said. “But nobody feels safer.”
Behind the news:
Overall, index crimes, including arson, are down in Chicago, but in the past five years, four police districts on the North and Northwest sides posted an increase in at least four of the index crime categories.
Despite the increases, those police districts combined accounted for only 12 percent of the city’s most violent crimes last year.
Meanwhile, six of the highest crime areas, on the South and West sides of the city, experienced large decreases in the number of reported crimes.
Yet, those districts alone still accounted for 43 percent of all sexual assaults, murders, armed robberies and other violent crimes in 2011.
Arthur Lurigio, professor of psychology and criminal justice at Loyola University Chicago, said the jumps in individual categories could be due to either an increase in incidents and in reporting, or a change in police procedure.
Motor vehicle theft, for example, is always highly reported because it is tied to insurance while sexual assault is historically underreported because of stigma, he said.
“The news is that crime has been going down for the last 20 years, and we’re safer with regard to homicide and violent crime in Chicago than we have been since 1962,” he said. “But nobody feels safer.”
Northwest Side St. Patrick's Day Parade
Sunday March 11, 2012 12:00 pm
Northwest Side Irish Friends and Family St. Patrick’s Day Parade Contacts:
Elizabeth Murray-Belcaster, 773-678-7026 embconsultants@gmail.com
Jillian K. Watson 773-678-4112 jilliankwatson@gmail.com
Special thanks and honor to our OIF/OEF Veterans. Welcome Home OIF/OEF VeteransSpecial Guests:
Legendary Black Hawk Bobby Hull, Teamsters Local 734 President Brian Medial, Lone Survivor Foundation (Wounded Warriors tribute), Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, Alderman Mary O’Conner and extended legislators as well labor affiliates such as the Teamsters, Sheet Metal Local 73, GWU Local 18007, Local 2 IUEC, Carpenters Union
Parade route:
Start -- 6633 W. Raven (Onahan School), End –Harlem Ave. After Party -- Immaculate Conception Elementary School Recreation Center
On Sunday March 11, 2012 the Northwest Side Irish will host their 9th annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade. This year’s celebration will include a tribute to our Illinois OIF/OEF Veterans and Wounded Warriors. The NWSI 2012 Grand Marshal is Teamsters Local 734 President Brian Meidel with special guest of honor “Legendary Blackhawk Bobby Hull. Mr. Hull will also be attending the official NWSI after party at Immaculate Conception School 6211 W. Talcott. 100 parade group participants with thousands of spectators will attend the Northwest Side Irish friends and family Parade.
The parade participants include The Emerald Society Band, Chicago Pipes and Drums, Mullane Irish Dancers, Trinity Irish Dancers, St. Patrick’s High School Jazz Band, Foreman High School ROTC, Notre Dame High School Band, O’Hare Irish Dancer, Dillon Gavin Irish Dancers, Resistance Pro Wrestling Company, the WLUP Radio, Brotherhood for the Fallen and many more community friends and families
The parade will kick off at 12:00pm at 6633 W. Raven (Onahan School) and will run south up Neola Avenue to Northwest Highway north to Harlem Avenue, ending at Harlem Avenue. The Official NWSI After Party will take place at 6211 W. Talcott at Immaculate Conception Elementary School Recreation Center. Tickets for the after party are $10.00 per person includes a Danny Boy Corned Beef and cabbage dinner, beer, wine and soda. $5.00 for children 10 and under includes hot dog, chips and a soda. The after party includes live entertainment, face painting, balloon magic, raffles and extended family fun. The Official NWSI After Party begins at 1:00 to 5:00pm
Sponsors for the NWSI 2012 Parade are Danny Boy Corned Beef, Joseph Mullarkey Distributors, Teamsters JC 25, Vulcan Material Company, and Heritage Logistics, Goorsky Electric & Moretti’s
633 W. Raven St., Chicago, IL 60631
Northwest Side Irish Friends and Family St. Patrick’s Day Parade Contacts:
Elizabeth Murray-Belcaster, 773-678-7026 embconsultants@gmail.com
Jillian K. Watson 773-678-4112 jilliankwatson@gmail.com
Special thanks and honor to our OIF/OEF Veterans. Welcome Home OIF/OEF VeteransSpecial Guests:
Legendary Black Hawk Bobby Hull, Teamsters Local 734 President Brian Medial, Lone Survivor Foundation (Wounded Warriors tribute), Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, Alderman Mary O’Conner and extended legislators as well labor affiliates such as the Teamsters, Sheet Metal Local 73, GWU Local 18007, Local 2 IUEC, Carpenters Union
Parade route:
Start -- 6633 W. Raven (Onahan School), End –Harlem Ave. After Party -- Immaculate Conception Elementary School Recreation Center
On Sunday March 11, 2012 the Northwest Side Irish will host their 9th annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade. This year’s celebration will include a tribute to our Illinois OIF/OEF Veterans and Wounded Warriors. The NWSI 2012 Grand Marshal is Teamsters Local 734 President Brian Meidel with special guest of honor “Legendary Blackhawk Bobby Hull. Mr. Hull will also be attending the official NWSI after party at Immaculate Conception School 6211 W. Talcott. 100 parade group participants with thousands of spectators will attend the Northwest Side Irish friends and family Parade.
The parade participants include The Emerald Society Band, Chicago Pipes and Drums, Mullane Irish Dancers, Trinity Irish Dancers, St. Patrick’s High School Jazz Band, Foreman High School ROTC, Notre Dame High School Band, O’Hare Irish Dancer, Dillon Gavin Irish Dancers, Resistance Pro Wrestling Company, the WLUP Radio, Brotherhood for the Fallen and many more community friends and families
The parade will kick off at 12:00pm at 6633 W. Raven (Onahan School) and will run south up Neola Avenue to Northwest Highway north to Harlem Avenue, ending at Harlem Avenue. The Official NWSI After Party will take place at 6211 W. Talcott at Immaculate Conception Elementary School Recreation Center. Tickets for the after party are $10.00 per person includes a Danny Boy Corned Beef and cabbage dinner, beer, wine and soda. $5.00 for children 10 and under includes hot dog, chips and a soda. The after party includes live entertainment, face painting, balloon magic, raffles and extended family fun. The Official NWSI After Party begins at 1:00 to 5:00pm
Sponsors for the NWSI 2012 Parade are Danny Boy Corned Beef, Joseph Mullarkey Distributors, Teamsters JC 25, Vulcan Material Company, and Heritage Logistics, Goorsky Electric & Moretti’s
633 W. Raven St., Chicago, IL 60631
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Chicago Police Staffing 101
| I saw this on EveryBlock- 45th Ward. This is an excellent post explaining why everyone who lives in the 16th Police District (which includes the 41st Ward) needs to call & email the aldermen and the Mayor. Be loud, clear, direct and VOCAL. This is a very serious issue, and it needs everyone's attention. Thanks Rick! New Kid On the Block- Rick posted a new message to Ward 45: |
Chicago Police Staffing 101As we start to see more graffiti, robberies, burglaries, shootings, etc. we should all be reminded why this is steadily increasing. The 16th District is the largest Police District in the city with 202 Officers assigned. http://www.chicagonewscoop.org/chicago-police-staffing-crime-rates-by-district/ Between 3 shifts, 3 tactical teams and office staff, along with days off, medical and vacation days, you get a small number of actual officers on the street. 16th District Beat Map: http://gis.chicagopolice.org/pdfs/district16.pdf The District has 12 Beats. Each beat gets one car. The tact teams may have up to 5 cars on the street if they aren't detailed out, sent to some sort of training or just short on manpower. Our 2 gang teams have been gone for a very long time. If they assign a job considered dangerous, they either send a 2-man car from the beat of occurrence or a 1 man car and they pull a car from the neighboring beat to back up that 1 man car. If your beat car makes an arrest, takes lunch, or goes to back up another car, you have no beat car on your beat. When they have a big OUTDOOR ROLL CALL; there are no cars on the other beats during that roll call. I'm telling you this because we as citizens need to understand that we are not getting the resources we are paying for with our tax dollars. Looking at the map from the Chicago News Cooperative, the 15th District has 283 officers, the 7th District has 386 officers and these districts are significantly smaller than ours. Yes they have higher crime rates, but the large number of officers they are sending there would surely indicate that MORE officers does help combat crime. Another comparison is our district to the 23rd district with 191 officers or the 21st district with 206 officers. Both districts have low crime and about the same amount of officers as 16; they are also about a 1/4 the size of 16. By the way, the most recent graffiti issues are on Beat 1623. |
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