On August 1 and 2, Roscoe Village expects the typical 60 or so shoppers and walkers to balloon to over 20,000 for the 14th annual Retro on Roscoe.

Last August the festival attracted a record crowd of an estimated 23,000, to the neighborhood, and this year the Roscoe Village Neighbors Association hopes to set a new record. Retro on Roscoe is a two-day long fest featuring 32 bands that play covers, or originals inspired by the music of the 1970s and 80s. Retro is the Neighbors Association’s main fundraiser, and it is also the quiet village’s main attraction.

Along with drawing people to the neighborhood the group has over 400 volunteers for the festival and features about 20 booths from Roscoe Village stores and restaurants. Last year the event helped raise $100,000 for the all-volunteer Roscoe Village Neighbors, and, according to the Roscoe Village Chamber of Commerce, brought in about a quarter of a million dollars to local businesses.

Mary Vaught, a bartender at Millers Tap at Leavitt and Roscoe says that Retro always brings a packed house to the combo bar and liquor store.

“It’s always been a great…fest, we get a lot of people. They usually have some decent bands playing,” Vaught says of Retro. Vaught says she works the festival on Sundays, but comes to Roscoe on her day off to enjoy the fest. She says that the festival is great for business.

Frankie Andrae, the co-owner of Roscoe Village’s Original Expressions, at Roscoe and Hamilton, says that she and her business partner opened their doors during Retro because they “wanted it to be [Original Expressions’] anniversary.”Original Expressions keeps a booth on the street during Retro, and Andrae says the benefit from the added exposure is incalculable. “They bring in almost 20- or 30,000 people and that isn’t all people from the neighborhood,” she says.

Miller’s Tap and Original  Expressions aren’t the only businesses that benefit from the festival.

“It’s very positive for businesses,” says Mary Marcarian the executive director of the Roscoe Village Chamber of Commerce. Almost all of the 250 businesses in the Chamber of Commerce are supportive of the event, according to Marcarian.

“Some [of the businesses] love it, some hate it,” Andrae says of the festival.

While most Roscoe Village residents seem excited for the festival, at least one village dweller plans to sit the event out. 

“I don’t know, I think maybe I’m too young for it,” says Andrew Dowd, 26, who has lived in the neighborhood for three years. “I don’t really care about hearing people play music from the 80s…it’s just not my scene.” Dowd did say, however; that the festival was not a major annoyance, saying that it was not a “big deal.”

But Dowd’s roommate Jason Fabeck, also 26, says he planned to visit.

“They’ve got beer, and even if they’re not the greatest, the bands are pretty fun,” he says.

Retro runs Saturday and Sunday from noon to 10 p.m., with the music stopping at 8 p.m. Along with a kids’ stage there are two other stages featuring live music, a beer tent and vendors selling clothes, artwork and food. Tickets for the event are $5 at the door, with no advanced ticketing. Entrances are at Damen and Roscoe, or Oakley and Roscoe.

Andrae says she is excited for the event, and that so are there rest of her neighbors.

“People love the music… it is fun…it’s kind of crazy out there.”

At a Latino prayer breakfast last month, President Obama said he was dedicated to passing a new immigration plan during his administration, but some believe  it will be hard to muster enough support to change current immigration law.

“There’s been a lot of problems with the immigration reform,” said Israel Vargas, the head of Pilsen’s San Jose Obrero Mission. “It needs to [be changed] as soon as possible.”

The current laws and recent negative attention on the illegal immigrant community have made it more difficult for non-profit organizations to assist the country’s most marginalized inhabitants, according to Vargas.

There’s nothing you can do,” said Vargas in reference to undocumented Americans. “You cannot use any government money to assist this population.”

Vargas’ organization is an interim housing mission that focuses specifically on the Latino community, a demographic that makes up 93.5 percent of Pilsen’s population of 113,000. More than one-third of undocumented immigrants in the nation come from Mexico and Central and South America.

“I think that it is important to reform the law right now,” Louis Rodriguez of the Instituto Del Progresso Latino said. “Any delay in reform is bad for a lot of people and bad for the economy…it is important for the economy to get all of these people on the right track.”

Vargas agreed that incorporating undocumented immigrants would be good for the struggling U.S. economy. “Right now the country is missing out on a lot of income tax,” he said.

The Instituto Del Progreso Latino, also centered in Pilsen, works at educating and employing the Latino community.  Its executive director, Juan Salgado, also serves as the board president for the Illinois Coalition for Immigration and Refugee Rights.

The coalition is an organization dedicated to immigration reform, its Web site calls for Illinois lawmakers and citizens to “reject the politics of hate” in regards to anti-immigrant sentiment and policy.

Vargas said that the best plan for immigration reform would be one where the people already in the U.S. receive work visa’s immediately, so that they can work and pay taxes. And then are subject to a background check and a five year wait for citizenship, saying that five years would be ample time to “decide if this was someone we want in our country.”

“We must never forget that time and again, the promise of America has been renewed by immigrants who make their story part of the American story. We see it in every state of our country. We see it in our families and in our neighborhoods,” President Obama said at the prayer breakfast in Washington D.C. But he outlined a plan that would require those who came here illegally “to pay a penalty and pay taxes…and go to the back of the line behind those who played by the rules.”

According to a study commissioned by Americans for Immigration Reform, there are 8.1 million undocumented workers employed in the United States. The same study concluded that undocumented immigrants “pay far more in overall taxes than they receive in benefits from various governments.”

The Minutemen Midwest, located in Harvard, Ill. has called for tougher border enforcement, and on their Web site it states that President Obama’s proposed reform would be amnesty for lawbreakers. They did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Rosa Vamorra, a communications associate at the Instituto in Pilsen, said she believed that everyone who worked with the group “would like to see the policy [on illegal immigration] changed quickly” to give citizenship to all immigrants. She said that immigration reform was a key focus of the Instituto.

“It’s frustrating for our youth especially,” Vamorra said of the current laws. “When you are raised in America, you’re taught you can do whatever you want, that you can be whoever you want to be. But, you know, we understand that is not the case for some kids. They can do their best and they can try really hard, but then there are these barriers and limitations that are going to prevent them from being all that they really can be.”

Quick passage of a new immigration bill has been derailed on Capitol Hill where House Democrats say they do not have enough votes to pass a reform bill.

Barriers for undocumented immigrants can make his organization’s goal of finding a job and housing for their clients within 90 days nearly impossible, according to Vargas. Because of pressures from the government, less businesses are willing to hire illegal immigrants.

“As an agency we see what the participants go through that don’t have documentation,” Vargas said. “They should at least be given the opportunity to…work.”

The Forest Preserve of Cook County has filed a  petition to use eminent domain and buy the land now occupied by the Rolling Knolls Country Club, an 18-hole golf course  in Elgin.  A Republican colleague of Schneider’s is raising the issue of a conflict of interest, because Commissioner Schneider serves on the Forest Preserve Board and stands to make $11 million dollars in the deal, according to Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica.

Schneider said he has abstained from all votes involving the golf course purchase in an effort to avoid any appearance of ethical misconduct. Schneider also said that he has not been involved in the negotiations between the Forest Preserve and the country club.

“My two brothers are handling the negotiations,” Schneider said. “I have asked to be completely kept out of both sides of the equation.”

The land in question is co-owned by Schneider and his family.

The commisioner’s brother Tom has been in charge of the negotiations. Tim Schneider said his brother was not available for comment because he was in Mexico.

Peraica said it would be impossible for Schneider and the Forest Preserve Board to “avoid the appearance of impropriety.”

Aside from his resignation, Peraica said nothing can be done to settle the ethical questions raised by Schneider’s dual role. “I don’t think he can just close his ears and shut his eyes and pretend this isn’t happening,” he said.

Peraica questions how much the Forest Preserve District would be paying Schneider and his family. “They’re going to walk away with a large amount of money in their pockets,” he said.

The Forest Preserve position is that by handling the matter through eminent domain, it’s avoiding any potential conflict of interest because the court will decide on a purchase price.

Eminent domain allows the government the right to acquire and buy private property for public use.

“Everything that can be done has been done,” Forest Preserve District spokesman Steve Mayberry said of the District’s efforts to avoid any appearance of underhanded dealings.

The Forest Preserve District voted to acquire the golf course last September, three weeks after the Elgin Plan Commission rejected a Schneider family proposal to develop the land as single- and multi-family homes.  Schneider did not vote on the Forest Preserve District’s decision to acquire the land.

Three months later, the Schneider family made a new proposal that included a nine-hole golf course with 92 single-family homes and 40 townhomes that the Plan Commission accepted.

The family’s development plan was interrupted when the Forest Preserve District decided to purchase the land, Schneider said.

The property will be maintained as open space by the Forest Preserve District and “absolutely won’t” be run as a golf course, according to Mayberry.

“That parcel has been an area that we have had interest in for literally years,” Mayberry said.

In a letter to Jack Spicer,  the garden coordinator, the University of Chicago’s Vice President of Community Affairs, Sonya Malunda, said the university would be taking over the land at the end of the gardening season, and using it as a construction staging site.

“The story on it is so ridiculous,” said Alan Davinovitz, a University of Chicago student with one of the garden plots. The seminary used to be in a central location on the University of Chicago’s campus, on University Avenue at 58th Street, but the university purchased the building from the seminary “to move in, of all things the Milton Friedman Center for Economics,” said Davinovitz.

Along with paying the seminary for the existing building,  the university agreed to “construct and furnish new facilities to the seminary’s specifications,” according to the seminary Web site. The planned building will be a “green” building, meaning it will be certified by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design as a sustainable design.

“They’re going to build over the community garden with a ‘green’ building, it’s so absurd,” Davinovitz scoffed.

According to the seminary, the purchase of the original building and the construction of a new one will cost the university $44 million.

The planned Chicago Theological Seminary will not be built on the current site of the garden, it will be on the southeast corner of South Dorchester and East 60th Street, one block north of the garden.  However,  construction crews will need the garden space for equipment and materials for the building, Malunda said.

In her letter Malunda said that the university was “willing to move the topsoil from the current garden to a new location.” She said that would allow people “to start gardening in 2010 with little-to no-delay.”

However,  community gardeners and activists said moving the garden would be disastrous and that moving the topsoil will not be enough to preserve the richness of the soil.

Malunda could not be reached for comment and the university’s spokesman Steve Klohen did not return phone calls.

“Just saying you’re going to move the topsoil would not be sufficient,” said Kitty Conklin, a gardening consultant at the Farmers Market Garden Center. Conklin is not affiliated with the 61st Street Garden, but she said it sounds like “the university is trying to get away with doing less than the minimum.”

According to Conklin and community gardeners, the success of the plan to move the topsoil depends on the new site they are planning for the garden, but the university hasn’t said where it plans to relocate it.

Spicer said that he did not believe the university was serious about moving the topsoil. “That was something they mentioned in the beginning, but I haven’t heard them talk about it since,” he said. He also questioned the practicality of moving the soil.

“It’s not easy, it’s not like a carpet you can roll up and take with you.”

Aaliyah, a woman who goes by  a single name, is a Woodlawn resident who has been gardening in the community garden for five years. She tends a small plot of land that allows her to provide food to the senior center her mom lives in.

“Other than my family I feed about five other families,” Aaliyah said. She does not believe that moving the topsoil will be sufficient to save the community garden, and is certain there is a better option for the university.

“If they’re building over there and using this as a staging area, then that means that once they’re done building this land is gone, it’s no good, it’s no use to us. They’re talking about taking the topsoil, yeah you can take the topsoil, but depending on where you put it, its going to be at least a couple more years before we can even garden again. You don’t have another community garden of this magnitude [on the South Side].”

The university, which the Chicago Tribune has called one of the South Side’s biggest landlords, owns several plots of land of similar size in Woodlawn near the community garden, Aaliyah and others are encouraging the university to use those pieces of land before disrupting their garden.

Jamie Kalven, a member of the 61st Street Garden has been active in defending the garden, he says that there is enough empty space on the plot on which they are building the seminary to use for staging. According to Kalven, after the new building is built the garden may be permanently converted into a parking lot.

“If you were properly valuing the garden and the things and people its associated with it would change [the plans],” he said.

“You think about 129 families,” Aaliyah said. “This is not a hobby, this is our food this is our substance supply, and for them to just stage out of here. You’re taking away food from people at a time when they need food.”

Experimental Station, a community group in Woodlawn, started the market last June in an effort to create a local food infrastructure of healthy and organic foods for residents.

Woodlawn is on the border of two of Chicago’s food deserts, a term used to describe neighborhoods with severely limited access to grocery stores – areas where residents pass liquor stores, fast-food restaurants and convenience stores before they even reach a grocer.

Eleven convenience and liquor stores are closer to the Woodlawn’s center at 63rd and Woodlawn Avenue than the nearest grocery store. The neighborhood stores with hand-painted signs and misleading names like Freshway Foods and The Food Basket sell mostly liquor, cigarettes and soda.

“When I walk around the neighborhood I don’t see any grocery stores,” said Dennis Ryan, the market manager for the 61st Street Farmers Market. “I see convenience stores and fast food restaurants and liquor stores that might sell you a bag of chips or a soda, but nothing that has fresh fruit or vegetables.”

Woodlawn is a “borderline zone, that does have food access needs,” Mari Gallagher, the president of the Chicago-based National Center for Research says. Gallagher is the author of the 2006 study ‘The Impact of Food Deserts on Public Health in Chicago,’ a study the market founders said was an inspiration to them.

“There’s not one single problem, and it will take multiple solutions,” Gallagher said. “A farmers market is still a good way to bring fresh produce into areas that need it.”

Kianna Crier, who lives three blocks from the market, said that the closest grocery store was at 75th and Stony Island in the South Shore neighborhood, a mile from the city’s southern border. “There’s really no place within walking distance for people to go to the store,” she said.

The market has the support of community leaders and is partnered with the University of Chicago’s Office of Community Affairs and the New Communities Woodlawn organization.

“It’s a great program,” said Community Affairs Vice President Sonya Malunda. “The university has worked with them and been very supportive.”

Even with dark clouds overhead, and a threat of rain, the small market is thick with people on June 6 – its second weekend of operation. Around 60 people visit the 20 vendors’ stands and listen to the acoustic soul music coming from the market’s center.

Shoppers are from Woodlawn and the surrounding area, but most are from Hyde Park. The market is open between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. every Saturday until September.

“Just being here is such an awesome experience,” said Aquila Sadalah on her way to perform at the market’s music tent. She said it symbolized something greater – “we’re getting that we really have to take care of our own.” Sadalah said vendors were getting valuable business experience and learning the importance of relying on “the community.”

The 61st Street Farmers Market is not supported by the city, unlike its counterpart Green City Market in Lincoln Park. Its 20 vendors is up from 10 last year, but still less than half of the vendors doing business on Saturdays in Lincoln Park.

The main difference between the two markets is location, and how that location affects goals and operations. 61st Street Farmers Market addresses and deals with very different issues than North Side markets.

Chicago’s food deserts are almost exclusively on the South and West Sides, far from the Green City Market, according to Gallagher’s study. Lincoln Park and nearby neighborhoods have plenty of grocery stores and shoppers with good incomes to support them. The average income of Lincoln Park’s 64,000 residents is over $83,000, according to the most recent census data.

61st Street Farmers Market manager, Dennis Ryan, was the Green City Market manager until he left a year ago to run the market in Woodlawn. He is in a unique position to compare the two.

“I think the big difference is that we are operating out of a food desert so our mission is to provide healthy…affordable food to a community that doesn’t have access to that,” he said.

The market accepts the Link card, and food stamps to make the food more accessible to Woodlawn residents. Almost all of Woodlawn’s 27,000 residents make less than $15,000 a year with many making under $10,000, according to the New Communities Woodlawn Project.

That makes it hard for residents to afford the pricier fruits and vegetables. But Gallagher says it will save money in the long run.

“Healthy food does cost a little bit more than unhealthy food,” she said. “But if you add to the price of fast food the cost of treating obesity and diabetes the cost is actually very high.”