After he alluded semi-coyly to a “big announcement” in a Tweet this morning, everyone’s all abuzz about what Rhymefest is up to. Sources (and the video he posted on YouTube) seem to suggest the rapper, born Che Smith, is about to announce a run for Alderman of Chicago’s 20th Ward.

Smith’s announcement is set to take place at the Exclusively Yours Auto Spa (5820 S. State St.) in Washington Park, one of the neighborhoods encompassed in the 20th Ward.

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Two years ago it was a foreclosed home with weekly drug deals and constant gang violence. It was boarded up, overgrown with tall grass and weeds, its siding falling off around broken windows. The house was a danger and an eyesore for Austin residents.

Now, the former site of drug buys is a place where West Side residents can go to pick tomatoes, corn, collard greens, squash and more in a garden started by the Third Unitarian Church.

“People are now going to this location to get vegetables rather than buy drugs. That is a huge benefit to the community and an excellent addition to the neighborhood,” said Ald. Deborah Graham (29th).

To continue reading, click here.

Westside Health Authority

Rosemary Marsh was sure her home would withstand the heavy rains of July 23. The brick Keystone Avenue home she shares with her sister had never leaked before – and it had weathered many a storm over the past two decades.

But when the 73-year-old peered down her basement steps the morning after the rain, she was shocked to see several inches of water and sewage. Not a lot – for that, the sisters were grateful – but enough to damage their water heater, kill their dryer and bring harmful mold spores into their home.

With a health issue on their hands and boxes of water-logged clothes blocking their path, the elderly sisters called on a group of strangers to help them – the Flood Response Team of the Westside Health Authority.

Last Friday, a group of six men showed up at their door. They cleared out their water-damaged belongings, scrubbed the floors, cut out their mold-infested drywall and disinfected their basement. And they did it for free. There’s still work to be done – but the immediate problem is solved.

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Related ChicagoTalks coverage:

FEMA Grants Available for West Side Residents, But Red Tape May Await

West Side Residents ‘Hopeful’ That Help is on the Way After Recent Storms

President Barack Obama.

For Austin residents whose homes flooded in the July 23 storm, there’s good news and bad news.

The good news is, President Barack Obama has declared Cook County a federal disaster area, opening the floodgates, so to speak, for clean-up dollars from Washington, D.C.

The bad news is, getting those dollars can be a confusing process, one wrought with red tape and dashed hopes. Luckily, though, there are several ways to get help through the process.

These were the lessons learned at a community meeting Tuesday night at Austin’s Hope Community Church, where more than 100 residents flocked for advice about their moldy carpeting and water-logged walls.

Representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)and Small Business Administration (SBA) told the crowd how to go about filing for the federal reimbursement money, which is available since Obama declared the disaster zone on Aug. 19.

To continue reading click here to be directed to AustinTalks.org.

Check out ChicagoTalks’ earlier coverage of flooding on Chicago’s West Side: West Side Residents ‘Hopeful’ That Help is on the Way After Recent Storms.

Congressman Danny K. Davis speaks to West Side residents at last week's Austin Town Hall meeting. Photo/Austin Weekly News

Elias Valencia didn’t know it when the rain started, but the storm that hit Chicago July 23 would cost him dearly. It would be so expensive in fact, that he, like thousands of other residents, are looking to the federal government for help.

At some point during the heavy rains, sewage started backing up into the first floor of Valencia’s Leamington Avenue home. By the storm’s end, sludgy water sat two feet deep in his children’s playroom, his floors had buckled, and everything from the new kitchen cabinets to his big-screen TV was  waterlogged and useless.

The damages to his home could top $20,000, Valencia estimates – and to make matters worse, he’s now worried that his family is inhaling dangerous mold spores.

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House Bill 5720 would require drug offenders to stay out of the driver’s seat for a period of six months for the first offense and one year for additional offenses, whether or not their arrest involved the use of a vehicle. The bill passed the House Vehicles and Safety Committee 4-3 last month and is currently awaiting a vote in the House.

Pointing to similar laws in 32 states, advocates of the bill argue that it would make roads safer by preventing known drug users from getting behind the wheel. But opponents say the rule is unnecessarily harsh and would make it harder for drug offenders to get their lives back on track.

The bill would mostly affect those convicted of minor drug crimes who would be punished with fines, probation or short jail sentences, as those receiving lengthier jail time would already see their licenses revoked during their sentences.

Rep. Sidney Mathias (R-Arlington Heights), who introduced the bill, said he hopes to deter young people from doing drugs by taking away something they truly value – their car keys.

“This hopefully will send a message that if you do take drugs, not only will you suffer criminal penalties but driving privileges,” Mathias said. “To some people, the driving privileges are even more important.”

Mathias said the driving force behind the bill was Thomas Glasgow, a trustee of the Village of Arlington Heights and lawyer who says he has been involved as both prosecutor and defender in some 10,000 DUI cases.

“The legislature has determined that we shouldn’t be doing drugs. Period. The legislature has determined that impaired driving is a hazard. Period,” Glasgow said. “This (bill) is the next logical step.”

Glasgow recalls defending a woman arrested for marijuana possession; two weeks later she ran a stop sign, costing the man she collided with his leg. The woman was not visibly intoxicated, Glasgow said, but blood tests showed she had marijuana in her system.

Such incidents are common, Glasgow said, because drugs can stay in a person’s body for up to 90 days – long after the person has ceased to be visibly inebriated.

But that logic is flawed, said Kathy Kane-Willis, director of the Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy at Roosevelt University. While drugs may be stored in a person’s fat cells and urine for weeks after use, she said, this does not affect a person’s motor skills.

The law would also wreak havoc on offenders’ lives, Kane-Willis said. Without a drivers’ license, a drug offender could lose their job and be unable to access treatment, health care or social services.

“This could make the situation much more complicated for people who have drug disorders,” she said. “This is harmful legislation.”

An early version of the bill included a provision for offenders to use a court-issued drivers’ permit to attend treatment or work, but that provision was removed in an amendment.

The issue is further complicated if the offender is not himself a drug user, noted Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project, a fair sentencing advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.

“If you’re under the influence of drugs and you get into a serious accident, it’s reasonable that you might lose your license,” he said. “But if you’re convicted of selling low-level drugs but you yourself are not a drug user, it shouldn’t be mandatory any more than if you committed larceny.”

At the Vehicles and Safety Committee hearing, Stephen Baker, an attorney at the Cook County Public Defender’s Office, warned the committee that a similar law was recently challenged and was heard before the Illinois Supreme Court. He urged the committee to postpone action until the results of that trial were available.

“Criminal acts have to have some nexus, some connection,” Baker told the committee. “(There has to be) some use of the vehicle to warrant (license) suspension.”

Under current Illinois law, a person found with drugs in their car can have their drivers’ license revoked. And under a new, 2-year-old law, minors under the age of 21 who are convicted of underage drinking have their licenses suspended for six months.

The state’s public rail and bus systems have so far made it largely unscathed through the difficult budget process, in which Quinn is trying to steer the state out of a $13 billion deficit.

“(Downstate agencies) actually have experienced an increase in operating funding over the last couple of years,” said Laura Calderon, executive director of the Illinois Public Transit Association, adding that the allocations in the draft budget was “about what’s expected.”

Under Quinn’s proposed $27 billion budget, presented last week to a joint session of the Illinois General Assembly, downstate transit agencies are slated to see a 10 percent increase in grant money from the state. For MSW Projects, a small transit agency in Henry, Ill., that means a bump from $252,000 this year to $277,000 in 2011.

The increase is welcome news for the rural agency, which offers senior rides and runs fixed routes through Henry County with minivans and a 15-person van. But MSW faces a bigger problem, Calderon said – reimbursements from the state are being sent months after they are due and apprehensive banks are refusing to dole out loans to ailing agencies.

As a result, MSW Projects recently put all its employees on a four-day work schedule to avoid having to take more drastic measures.

“That is enough to keep them afloat right now,” Calderon said.

The picture is slightly different for transit in the Chicago area. The Regional Transit Authority, which includes the CTA, Metra and Pace, saw its state grants drop slightly in Quinn’s budget proposal, from $292 million this year to $285 million next. And that’s down from $302 million in FY 2009.

But Brian Imus, spokesman for the Illinois Public Interest Research Group, a consumer advocacy group, said he too is more concerned that the state is late in paying nearly $250 million for transit service in the Chicago area.

“The delay, if it isn’t fixed, could have a disastrous effect on commuters,” Imus wrote in an e-mail. “The governor’s budget proposal this week doesn’t make me any more confident the state is going to be able to address this shortfall.”

Ed Heflin, manager of the Illinois Rural Transit Assistance Center, said that investing in public transit during a recession is wise because it leads to greater economic development. Every $1 spent on public transit brings a $3 return to the area, he said, and in some cases the return is as much as $8.

Public transit may be the least of lawmakers’ worries this week. Education took the brunt of the damage in Quinn’s 475-page draft budget, shouldering $1.3 billion in proposed cuts. Lawmakers now find themselves entrenched in a battle over Quinn’s suggested fix – a temporary 33 percent income tax hike to fund schools. Health, human services and local governments are also facing a loss of about $300 million apiece.

Quinn’s budget must be approved by both houses of the legislature before it can take effect for the fiscal year that begins July 1. But with lawmakers’ concerns over the November election getting in the way, some expect that serious budget reform will not take place until a special legislative session after the election.

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Illinois lawmakers are currently pondering two child helmet bills. HB 6114, introduced by Rep. Julie Hamos (D-Evanston) at the urging of the American Academy of Pediatrics, would require kids 17 and under to wear helmets while biking on any public road or sidewalk, or their parents would face a $30 fine. Sen. Ira Silverstein (D-Chicago) is leading a similar bill through the Senate, which would apply to kids 15 and younger.

Helmet advocates and doctors argue the law is a common sense way to prevent brain injury. Wearing helmets would prevent up to 45,000 head injuries per year in the U.S., said Scott Allen, executive director of the Illinois chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Children ages 5 to 14, the age bracket where bike injuries are most common, would especially benefit, he said.

But not all biking advocates are on board with the bill, and motorcyclists and equestrians – leery that their heads will be lawmakers’ next target – are fighting it too.

Rob Sadowsky, executive director for the Active Transportation Alliance, said his group supports helmet wearing for all ages but has found that helmet laws are not effective. Supporting this is the fact that Chicago has one of the highest rates of helmet wearing in the country, he said, even though it is not required by law.

Bike safety education is a better way to get the message out, Sadowsky said, but neither Hamos’ or Silverstein’s bill comes with money for a public awareness campaign.

“The law alone is not enough to change behavior,” Sadowsky said. “You have to tie it to education.” He likened the helmet legislation to the state’s seatbelt laws, which did not gain traction with motorists until the state poured money into a “Click It or Ticket” campaign.

But opponents’ biggest concern is that a helmet law could open the floodgates to a number of intrusive laws.

“The risks of a head injury while biking is comparable to walking, rollerblading, even showering,” Sadowsky said. “At some point, we have to be very careful. Do we need a helmet for every activity?”

Motorcycle advocates say we don’t, and argue that a helmet law would be a step in the wrong direction toward big government. They successfully lobbied against an earlier bill by Hamos that would have required children to wear helmets while riding on the back of motorcycles.

“The belief is that government is there to protect you from yourself,” said George Tinkham, spokesman for the Illinois motorcyclist advocacy group ABATE. “The situation is not so dire that mommy and daddy have to be pushed aside and big brother has to step in.”

Child helmet laws are already on the books in five Illinois cities – Barrington, Cicero, Inverness, Libertyville and Skokie.

Kathy Phelan, trauma coordinator at Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington, said she has seen a “significant decrease” in bike-related head traumas in her 29 years at the hospital, largely because of a surge in helmet wearing. She was unsure if the drop was due to the city’s 1997 law mandating helmets for children under 17 or changing public opinion.

“When I was a kid, you wouldn’t be caught dead wearing a helmet. You’d be a total dork,” agreed Mike Deering, spokesman for the Barrington hospital. “Now you wouldn’t dare let (your kids) go out without a helmet on.”

Advocate Good Shepherd has held several bike helmet giveaways, Phelan said. The hospital also gives free helmets to bike injury patients when they do not own one or when their helmet has been cracked in an accident.

Starting this spring and for the better part of the next decade, Metra riders will find themselves in the midst of a “major project” as the commuter rail takes on the massive task of replacing 22 North Side overpasses. The bridges, many of which are more than a century old, are “beyond economic repair,” said Metra spokesman Michael Gillis.

The first phase of the project, which will cost an estimated $100 million, will last four years and involve 11 bridges along Metra’s Union Pacific North Line from Addison Street to Balmoral Avenue. Eleven more bridges will be replaced in a second phase after the first is complete, Gillis said.

Some believe the work is long overdue. Last November, an engineering firm hired by the Regional Transportation Authority, which funds Metra, reported that 70 percent of Metra’s bridges were in need of repair. Those findings were preliminary, said RTA spokeswoman Diane Palmer, and a final study is expected out this summer.

Metra has not yet said how the bridge work will affect commuters, but Gillis said riders should brace themselves for delays.

“We will be operating the route on a single track through the construction area,” he said. “That will have an impact on service.”

Plans for the project, one-third of which is to be funded by federal stimulus money, also include a new station at the North Line’s run-down Ravenswood stop. The new station will lie on the north side of Lawrence Avenue and will accommodate eight train cars, instead of six.

Amtrak, too, is facing a long list of construction projects that will tap another $55 million in stimulus money in Illinois alone. Jobs include an expansion of maintenance buildings, mechanical repairs and upgrades at Chicago’s Union Station rail hub.

While much of that work will be out of view of passengers, its impacts will undoubtedly be felt, said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari.

“It’s inconvenient and it reduces our flexibility, but we will do everything we can to make this transparent to everyone,” Magliari said. “There’s a lot going on in the next couple of years. That’s what it’s all about.”

State Rep. Elaine Nekritz (D-Northbrook), chair of the Illinois House Rail Industry Committee, estimated that between the federal stimulus and the state’s own capital money there is $2 billion worth of rail construction in the works in Illinois.

That includes more than $1 billion in funding for high-speed rail lines connecting Chicago to St. Louis and other Midwestern cities, a huge – albeit, smaller than hoped – project announced last month by President Barack Obama.

“There’s a lot of activity,” Nekritz said.

Spending stimulus money on rail construction is a wise move right now, said Illinois Public Interest Research Group spokesman Brian Imus, because mass transit projects generate more jobs than building highways does. That’s because with transit construction, less money is required for land purchases and other non-job related expenses.

And the completed projects help people more in the long run, Imus said.

“In tough economic times, not only should we be making new jobs, but we should be making it easier for people to get where they need to go,” he said.
In the meantime, commuters will just have to excuse the dust.
“It’s an inconvenience, but in the end it’ll make service more reliable,” Imus said. “And that’s what going to make it so more people want to use transit, rather than getting stuck in traffic.”
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Supporters say the change would create more pedestrian- and bike-friendly roads and would reduce the number of vehicle-pedestrian crashes, which number about 10,000 per year statewide.

Such laws have proven successful for states like Oregon and California, said Margo O’Hara, spokeswoman for the Active Transportation Alliance, which advocates for cyclists and pedestrians.

The change that lawmakers are seeking is seemingly minor. Illinois law currently requires drivers approaching a crosswalk to “yield the right-of-way by slowing down or stopping, if need be.” The new law, proposed by Rep. Luis Arroyo (D-Chicago) and co-sponsored by five other Democrat House members, would require them to “stop and yield.”

But House Bill 43 proved to be highly contentious when it was proposed last year. Arroyo’s first attempt narrowly passed the Illinois House in February 2009 with a 60-54 vote; it cleared the Senate Transportation Committee but stalled in the senate last August.

Kevin Lamm, Rep. Arroyo’s chief of staff, said the bill failed largely because lawmakers were confused about its contents; with so many proposals coming to the floor in a single day, he said, such misunderstandings are common in Springfield.

“Not much is controversial like this,” O’Hara said. “It’s coming down to four or five votes.”

“Yielding is fine,” said Rep. Mark Beaubien Jr. (R-Wauconda), who voted against the bill last year and said he plans to vote against it again. “If I see a pedestrian in the area, I’m going to stop … I have a great deal of faith in the individual person.”

Steans, who is currently serving her first senate term, tallied more than 13,900 votes, or 65 percent of her district, according to the unofficial election results. Madigan, an attorney from Buena Park who ran on a platform of reform, carried 35 percent. About one in four registered voters city-wide went to the polls.

Steans will now face Republican Adam Robinson in the Nov. 2 general election in the race to represent a diverse swath of the North Side encompassing Uptown, Lincoln Square, Andersonville and Rogers Park. But in the overwhelmingly Democratic city of Chicago, that party’s primary elections tend to be a good indication of who will inevitably win the seat.

Madigan, who would have been the first openly gay state senator in Illinois history, positioned himself as a reform candidate in a campaign season abuzz with anti-corruption rhetoric. Still, Steans’ win did not come as a surprise to most political insiders.

“(Steans) is the incumbent, she has a good bit of money, she had robo-calls,” said Dick Simpson, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “And she has the support of the Democratic committee.”

Campaign contribution records show Steans raised more than $220,000 in 2009; Madigan raised half that amount.

Steans kept a low public profile during her campaign, much to the chagrin of her challengers.

Robinson, whose campaign is focusing on lower taxes, school choice and – perhaps surprisingly – marriage equality, said Tuesday that he “applauded” Madigan for joining him in two candidate forums during the campaign. He added that “it was unfortunate that Sen. Steans declined both of those opportunities to address the issues.”

Steans declined requests for an interview.

Among the more controversial elements of the 7th District race, Madigan sent out a series of mailers criticizing the senator for giving more than $200,000 to the campaign of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich between the years of 2002 and 2007.

“If it had been television ads or maybe even radio ads with Blagojevich’s voice that had a more emotional impact, it might (have swayed the election),” Simpson said.

Andrew Hughes, a 27-year-old beer deliveryman from Ravenswood, said he voted for Steans despite the fact that he knew little about her. Instead, he went along with a flier listing Ald. Gene Schulter’s (47th) recommendations that he carried with him in his jacket pocket.

“I try to vote, because it’s all I can do. I’m a working person,” Hughes said. “But I couldn’t find any information … on most things, (politicians) are too vague.”

Steans, a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Universities, has worked for government agencies in Wisconsin and Illinois, serves as trustee of the Steans Family Foundation and formerly headed the board of WBEZ.

She won her senate seat in 2008 with the endorsement of former Sen. Carol Ronen, who abruptly resigned from the seat mid-term in October 2007.

“We’ve done more just praying in the last few weeks, instead of trying to counsel,” said Gura, an activist with the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League. “It is pretty difficult.”

The new law places an eight-foot “safe zone” around people within 50 feet of a clinic entrance. Anti-abortion protesters who “knowingly approach” a person to distribute pamphlets, preach or educate without his or her consent now face a $500 fine.

Police spokesmen for District 16 and 18 – which police the Albany Medical-Surgical Center, located at 5086 N. Elston Ave., and Planned Parenthood, 1200 N. LaSalle Drive – could not immediately confirm whether any fines had been issued. Both said they were unaware of any confusion over the law.

The Chicago City Council passed the “bubble ordinance” in October after a 40-day, nationwide anti-abortion protest sparked concerns over safety outside the Near North facility.

During the “40 Days for Life” campaign, protests became “larger and more vicious,” Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Beth Kanter told a city council committee in October, and protesters used deceptive tactics, like wearing white lab coats, to confuse women entering the clinic.

Since the “bubble ordinance” took effect on Nov. 18, the law’s wording – particularly its use of the word “approach” – has been a source of confusion, said John Jansen, a spokesman for the Pro-Life Action League.

Protesters outside the Planned Parenthood facility have had run-ins with police over the definition of the word, Jansen said; one was videotaped and is posted on YouTube. And police officers outside the Albany clinic have mistakenly told protesters the law prohibits them from standing anywhere within 50 feet of the clinic door, he said.

Peter Breen, executive director of the Thomas More Society, a pro-life law firm in Chicago, has said he plans to file a lawsuit against the city. Breen did not respond for comment by press time.

Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) said the ordinance was modeled after a Colorado law. The legality of that law was challenged, but was inevitably upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Robert Davidson, president of the Lathrop Homes Local Advisory Council, said the CHA wants to move forward with soliciting developers to revamp the 35-acre site, despite the protests of residents.

“There’s no consensus on that,” Davidson said.

Renters, preservationists and community leaders have been pleading with Mayor Daley and the CHA to preserve the 35-acre Logan Square property since the agency announced plans in 2006 to level it and build a mixed-income development in its place.

It is not an uncommon occurrence. For the past 10 years, the CHA has been renovating and tearing down housing projects and replacing them with mixed-income communities as part of its “Plan for Transformation.”

Since March, Lathrop resident groups and CHA officials have been arguing over how much of the rehabilitated project should be set aside for public housing; residents are pushing for half, while the CHA wants one-third, said Stephanie Villinski, an attorney representing the community council.

The number of units is also a concern, Villinski said, with CHA officials backing plans for 1,200 units, almost 300 more than currently sit on the site.

Scott Shaffer, a former resident and leader of a Lathrop “alumni” organization, said the changes promoted by the CHA would destroy the character of the development, which is located at the intersection of Clybourn Avenue and Diversey Parkway.

“The CHA’s push for 1,200 units would lead to massive demolition at Lathrop,” Shaffer said. “It would take away the playground, the sports fields and green spaces and replace them with parking lots and buildings as tall as eight and nine stories.”

The CHA responded on Wednesday with a written statement saying that no decisions have been made on the number of units or income breakdown in the rehabbed Lathrop Homes, and that there are “no plans to demolish Lathrop.”

The statement provided no timetable for when a decision on the complex would be made.

However, USA Today on Wednesday quoted William Little, CHA’s executive vice president of development, as saying work would begin next year.

Preservationists are also pushing for the development to be preserved and re-used, arguing that its 27 Depression-era brick buildings and open site plan were created by a “dream team” of architects and landscaper designers.

“These historic brick buildings are structurally sound, still, 75 years later. They can easily be reconfigured for larger housing units,” said Jim Peters, president of Landmarks Illinois. In 2007, the state-wide preservation network added Lathrop Homes to its list of the “Ten Most Endangered Historic Places in Illinois.”

Since the CHA announced plans to redevelop the site, the agency has ceased to accept applications for Lathrop apartments and the population at Lathrop has dwindled. Today only about 210 of the development’s 924 units are occupied.

George Baez, 59, recalls sitting on a waiting list for 17 years before he landed a two-bedroom row house for his family in 1987. Today, he says, he and his wife are surrounded by empty homes and boarded windows.

Still, Baez said, Lathrop is his home.

“I feel safe there,” he said at a downtown press conference organized to stir interest in saving Lathrop. “When I wake up, I open my door, and it’s open until I go to sleep. They’re good people there.”

The “Ravenswood Station” mixed-use development would be built on a now-vacant Sears parking lot at the corner of Lawrence and Ravenswood Avenues, between the department store and the Metra commuter rail line.

Wilmette-based Crossroads Development Partners is revising its plans for the project, and the new layout will be made public in “late 2009 or early 2010,” said Robert Rawls, communications director for Ald. Gene Schulter (47th).

Original plans called for a supermarket, fitness center and a parking garage to be shared with Metra passengers, as well as a series of townhouses and an 11-story condominium building, said Dan Luna, Schulter’s chief of staff.

That large residential component drew the ire of 150 neighbors who showed up to view the proposal at a community meeting last June. While the community did not vote at that meeting, Luna said, residents’ opinions were clear.

“The temperature of that meeting sent the developers and the property owner back to the drawing board,” he said.

Ravenswood resident and realtor Eric Rojas attended that meeting at McPherson Elementary School. While he supports transit-oriented development and approves of the stores and parking garage, he worries that the condo building is too large for today’s market.

“I think six or seven (stories) may be fine, but 11 is going to be weird,” Rojas said. “If they’re all market rate condos, they’re not going to sell unless they’re priced absurdly low… Some would have to be rentals.”

Rojas and other residents may get a second crack on the proposal at a meeting scheduled for Dec. 1, according to a Vivian King, a spokesperson for Roundy’s Supermarkets, which will likely lease a spot in the development.

Representatives of Crossroads Development referred questions to their partner, Chicago-based Sierra Realty Advisors, who did not return phone calls by press time. Planners in the Chicago Community Development Department said they had no new information on the project.

Luna declined to comment on how the alderman felt about the original proposal or how the plans may have changed, but said he “would hope” that the condominium complex has been scaled back.

Most important to the alderman is the presence of a grocery store and parking facility in this spot, Luna said.

“That’s really the driving force behind this,” he said.

Roundy’s Supermarkets, the Milwaukee-based owner of Pick ‘n Save, Copps, Rainbow Foods and Metro Market stores, is “moving forward toward getting approval” for a spot in Ravenswood Station, King said.

Planners are still considering several possible fitness centers, Luna said.

Metra spokesman Michael Gillis said the rail corporation will continue talks about sharing the cost of the proposed parking garage.

“We’re always interested in cooperating with the community and developers to help out on the parking situation near our station,” Gillis said.

Carol Caref, a math teacher at the Chicago Vocational Career Academy on the city’s southeast side, told Chicago Board of Education members that the late-September layoffs forced the school to shut down three of its areas of study.

As a result, 130 juniors and seniors in the sheet metal, radio and TV, and graphic arts majors were uprooted and randomly assigned to other areas of study, she said.

“Your actions necessitated massive, complicated program changes in the school, moving students and teachers from this class to that to fill every available spot, whether or not doing so was in the students’ best interest,” Caref told the board.

Yvonne Nelson, also a teacher at CVCA, said one of her senior students who had been studying graphics was quickly shuffled into the culinary arts program when her teacher was laid off.

It was the second time that student had been moved out of her major in the past three years, Nelson said, and she will now be at a disadvantage when she applies for college scholarships and admission.

Last-minute reorganizations like these are the effect of “20th-day” layoffs, a common yearly occurrence in Chicago Public Schools. As schools’ enrollment numbers fluctuate during the first weeks of the school year, district administrators have 20 days to lay off teachers or move them to other schools with higher numbers.

Such changes can be especially disruptive to students in low-income, predominantly African-American communities like CVCA’s, said Betty Porter, a member of the school’s local school council and mother of three CVCA graduates.

“You see everything these kids are up against,” said Porter, referring to the frequent reports of violence among CPS students. “When something like this happens, these children get the feeling that ‘ain’t nobody out there that cares about me.’”

But Ron Huberman, CEO of Chicago Public Schools, said little can be done to fix the problem. With CPS facing a massive $700 million deficit next year, the district cannot afford to keep teachers with small classrooms on the payroll, he said.

“I think I can speak for everyone in this room saying we would love to not cut positions at all on the 20th day,” Huberman told people gathered for the public participation portion of the board meeting. “But what is two or three positions across 600 (CPS) schools becomes a very big number in totality.”

Huberman said the district is working to make these staffing changes earlier in the school year in order to minimize disruption to students. This year, he said, last-minute hires in schools with increased enrollment were made by the fifth day of school, instead of the 20th.

Chicago Teachers Union President Marilyn Stewart said the 20th-day layoffs are a problem across the district, but it is “mainly in the schools in high-need areas, where you want stability, where (CPS) create(s) the most instability.”

The proposed resolution, introduced Wednesday by the city’s Department of Public Health, would set new rules about nutrition, physical activity and TV viewing in the city’s licensed day cares in an effort to curb childhood obesity.

“It just makes sense,” said Melanie Dreher, a health commissioner and dean of the Rush University College of Nursing. “It’s a simple recommendation that will improve the lives of little kids and their parents.”

The Board is expected to vote on the resolution on Nov. 18.

Illinois ranks 10^th in the nation for childhood obesity, with nearly 35 percent of the state’s youth falling into the unhealthiest weight category, according to data from the non-profit Trust for America’s Health.

Assistant Health Commissioner Joseph Harrington told the board that while public health programs in schools are frequently used to combat obesity, early child care is an “untapped setting” with potential for reaching kids at a critical, habit-setting stage.

“There’s more and more evidence that instead of sitting in a classroom, we should be getting these kids moving and shaking off some of the weight,” agreed Jennifer Herd, senior policy analyst for the Department of Public Health.

Chicago’s day care providers are not currently subject to rules about exercise or TV time, but do face lengthy nutrition requirements, as spelled out in a 43-page Chicago Department of Public Health document for child care centers.

The new regulations would increase the age at which children are allowed to drink juice from six to 12 months, and would cap all children’s juice consumption at four ounces per day. Day cares are already prohibited from serving any juice products that are not made from 100 percent juice.

Many researchers believe that the high sugar and calorie content in juice — even those with no sugar added — can promote an unhealthy weight and tooth decay.

Under the new rules, child care workers would be required to lead physical activity sessions for kids older than 12 months and may not leave children sitting still for more than one hour continuously, except for naptime.

TV and video games would also be banned for toddlers under two years old; for older kids, it would capped at one hour of educational or exercise-based shows per day.

Meesha Pike, owner of Chicago Green Home Day Care in Ukrainian Village, said her day care, which offers “music and movement” exercises and daily trips to the park, already meets the more stringent requirements.

“I think it is a great idea,” said Pike, who watches 11 children, ages 3 months to 3 years old. “I do not think that juice should be served at day cares, just milk. And I do not think TV should be allowed, even educational.”

If passed, the new regulations would be phased in over two years, commissioners said Wednesday. Health department inspectors would be charged with enforcing the rules, although most day care providers would be expected to “self-comply,” Harrington said.

The home of the now-shuttered Michael Reese Hospital campus, located on prime real estate near 31st Street and South Lake Shore Drive, could be transformed into mixed-income housing, commercial development or an offshoot of the McCormick Place convention center, said Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th).

Preckwinkle is scheduled to meet Friday behind closed doors with city planners at City Hall to discuss development of the site. She declined to state who would be attending the meeting or what specifically they would discuss.

Hopeful politicians had been eying the 37-acre campus as a potential home for nearly two-dozen dormitories that would have housed athletes during the 2016 Olympic Games. The city purchased the land earlier this year for $86 million, but under the terms of the sale, the price tag jumped to $91 million when Chicago lost its Olympic bid last week.

“We’re going to tear them down, except for Old Main,” Preckwinkle said Wednesday. Only the oldest building on the campus, the “Old Main” hospital, was designated as a historic building by the city and will be preserved.

That’s bad news for architectural preservationists, who argue that not just one, but eight of the buildings — all designed by renowned architect and Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius — should be saved.

Tagged with demolition spray paint and surrounded by bulldozers, the campus’s plain, squat buildings may not appear worthy of attention. But architecture buffs note that the buildings, built between 1945 and 1960, are classic examples of modernism.

Grahm Balkany, president of the Gropius in Chicago Coalition, a group formed to oppose the demolition of the campus, said he expects Friday’s meeting to be critical in the fate of the campus.

“Now is the proper time, perhaps the only time, for Chicago to re-think its misconceived plans,” Balkany wrote in an e-mail. “Our failure to win the 2016 Olympics is the perfect reason to put the brakes on this process, which otherwise seems to be a speeding train headed for certain disaster.”

Still, Jonathan Fine, executive director of Preservation Chicago, said the loss of the Olympics has given him and his fellow supporters hope.

“From my point of view, the opportunities just multiplied infinitely,” Fine said.

Preckwinkle paused when asked what her constituents would like to see on the old hospital site.

“We’re not there yet,” she said. “I would presume we’ll have a planning process as we go forward that will involve community residents.”

There were earlier discussions with the city to use the space to house students from the area colleges, but that may no longer be the case. Preckwinkle said that if universities are interested in that land, they have not come forward.

The Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) campus is close to the site. Jeff Bierig, spokesperson for IIT, said that it expressed interest in the land if Chicago won the Olympic bid, but that offer is off the table now.

“Any interest in the Michael Reese site from IIT is premature because there has been no determination made by the city of what to do now,” Bierig said.

Preckwinkle said she expects to flesh out plans for the site and start accepting developers’ applications within the year.

Angelica Jimenez contributed to this report.

The ordinance, which three members of the Chicago City Council Committee on Human Relations unanimously approved Wednesday, would revise the city’s disorderly conduct law to place a “safe zone” around any person standing within 50 feet of a hospital or clinic entrance.

Under the proposed law, a protester would not be allowed to come within eight feet of a person to distribute pamphlets, preach or educate, and could not block anyone from entering or exiting the building. Protesters violating the “safe zone” would potentially face misdemeanor charges and a $500 fine.

Committee members say the measure would allow protesters to approach a person within 50 feet of the building if that person consents. But anti-abortion activists who testified Wednesday say the law is too confusing and would prevent them from exercising their constitutional right to free speech.

Fellow protester Catherine Mieding, who spends her Saturdays outside a clinic on the West Side, agreed.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois also spoke against the ordinance Wednesday, but took a softer stance. Executive Director Colleen Connell said her organization does not object to the portion of the law about impeding access to clinics, but called the idea of an 8-foot bubble “inappropriately restrictive.”

Anti-abortion protesters did not learn of the proposed ordinance until a reporter contacted them Tuesday evening, said Ann Scheidler, executive director of the Pro-Life Action League, a national group based in Chicago.

League leaders plan to mobilize the group’s thousands of members before the ordinance comes before the full City Council on Oct. 7, Scheidler said.

The federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act of 1994 already protects people trying to enter abortion clinics. But local police have no authority to enforce a federal law, so a local ordinance is necessary, said Ald. Vi Daley (43rd), who introduced the proposal.

Groups of protesters at that clinic have become “larger and more vicious” in recent months, said Planned Parenthood spokeswomen Beth Kanter. Some wear white doctor’s jackets or vests nearly identical to those worn by clinic volunteers to confuse and gain access to patients, she said.

Activity has been especially strong since Sept. 23, Kanter said, when the nationwide anti-abortion campaign “40 Days for Life” began. During the campaign, protesters spend 40 straight days keeping vigil outside of clinics across the country.

“Our clients should be able to receive the reproductive health care they need without putting their health and the health of our staff and volunteers at risk,” Kanter said.

It hasn’t always been this way, explained Assistant Principal Mary Clancy. But over the past six years, enrollment at the school, located in a quiet neighborhood near O’Hare International Airport on the city’s northwest side, has jumped more than 50 percent, from 300 students to 461.

Edgebrook’s academics haven’t suffered, Clancy said; the school rates among the best public neighborhood schools in the city based on standardized test scores. But simple tasks like scheduling recess have become a challenge, and classrooms are feeling the pinch.

“We’re packed to the gills,” Clancy said.

And with more classrooms needed next year, she said, the school will lose its library as well, a move that seems to be the last straw for some parents.

“It’s difficult to explain to your 10-year-old, what is a school without a library,” said David Klevatt, a member of the local school council and father of an Edgebrook fifth-grader.

Some hope a solution is just around the corner. Members of the Edgebrook School community have been working with Chicago Public Schools to draw up plans for a new wing, which would include eight classrooms, a warming kitchen and an all-purpose room, Clancy said. The two-story addition would be built on what is now the school’s parking lot and play fields.

But while the addition remains on CPS’s to-do list, finding the funding for the project is complicated, said Ald. Brian Doherty (41st), and when it will be built remains unknown.

“We’re a victim of our own success,” he said.

Similar problems are facing schools in nearby wards, as well. Garvy Elementary School, also located in Doherty’s ward, and Sauganash Elementary, located in Ald. Margaret Laurino’s (39th), are also overcrowded and are slated to get new additions, each of which are expected to cost $5 million, according to a CPS capital project report.

Doherty and members of the Edgebrook Local School Council appealed to the school board on Thursday, turning over a petition signed by 500 parents who support the addition.

“Edgebrook School is a shining example of what a community school should be,” Doherty told the Chicago Board of Education last week. “Please reward them for their good work.”

CPS is expected to announce in the next few weeks whether Edgebrook’s addition will be included in the district’s 2010 budget, Doherty said.

Dan Cotter, chairman of the Local School Council and father of fourth- and seventh-grade boys, said he is “cautiously optimistic.”

“If you give us the space, we can teach,” Cotter said. “But if we lose everything, then it’s hard to figure out how to accomplish that.”

The law authorizes Mayor Richard Daley to sign off on a contract that puts full financial liability for the Games on the city should Chicago next month be named the host city. It also requires Chicago 2016 to provide the council with quarterly reports covering expenses, financial forecasts, construction progress and details about women and minority contractors.

The vote marked a show of solidarity by the aldermen, some of whom had expressed concern about making taxpayers financially liable if the games lose money. The vote comes just weeks after a report from the International Olympic Committee that cited the lack of a full financial guarantee and lagging public support as strikes against Chicago’s bid.

“It’s not just the Chicago Olympics, it’s the United States Olympics,” Ald. Carrie Austin (34th) said before the council’s vote, prompting many in the audience who wore “I Back the Bid” t-shirts to applaud. “If we want to be united as a country, we gotta pull together as a city, as a state, as a country, for the bid.”

The International Olympic Committee will decide on Oct. 2 between the finalist cities of Chicago, Madrid, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro. The event would bring more than 360,000 jobs to the Chicago area, Chicago 2016 leaders have said.

In a series of patriotic speeches leading to Wednesday’s 49-0 vote (the 36th Ward does not currently have an alderman after William J.P. Banks’ retirement last month), aldermen envisioned a Chicago whose landscape and economy had been invigorated by the Games.

Some formerly skeptical aldermen pointed to a reassuring audit of Chicago 2016’s budget by the respected Civic Federation as a turning point in their feelings toward the bid; others praised Chicago 2016 CEO Pat Ryan and his staff for conducting a series of community meetings – one in each of the 50 wards.

“I think everyone was concerned about the possibility of overruns,” said Ald. Richard F. Mell (33rd). “But they (Chicago 2016) got this thing buttoned down so tight, I think unless a meteor hits us the day before, this is gonna be a marvelous event.”

Other aldermen lauded Daley as a visionary.

“It’s not too often that you have a mayor who thinks years and years ahead,” said Ald. Gene Schulter (47th).

Ald. Joe Moore (49th) was a rare exception to the congratulatory speeches, focusing instead on his worries over the potential for corruption and a lack of transparency. He said he had decided just hours earlier to vote in favor of the ordinance.

“I will cast my vote in support of hope, in support of optimism, in support of what the Olympics can bring to our city, but with a wary eye cast on our city’s ugly history of political corruption and of favoritism,” Moore said.

For Chicago resident Jan Barkell, one of several dozen people wearing bid t-shirts in the packed council chambers, the aldermen’s vote was a major step toward realizing her dream of bringing the Games to Chicago.

Barknell, a homemaker who lives in Lincoln Park, said she believes the Olympics will be a boon to Chicago’s economy instead of a hindrance.

“I can’t imagine how beautiful it would be to showcase it (the Games) on the lakefront,” she said.

Members of groups opposing the bid, who have made their presence known in recent community meetings with jeers and signs, were largely unheard inside the chamber. But a member of No Games Chicago criticized the unanimous vote before it even occurred.

“No Games Chicago has always predicted that our aldermen would abandon their duty to protect taxpayer interests and go along with the mayor’s Olympic blank check,” Tom Tresser said in a press release he handed out as aldermen prepared for the vote.

Chicago’s newest tourist attraction could be floating over Navy Pier within days  – a soon-to-be welcome sight for business owners coping with sluggish sales this summer.

On Aug. 20, the Chicago Plan Commission unanimously approved the installation of a balloon ride that will operate until the end of October just outside Navy Pier’s gates.

Phil Stefani, the owner of Riva Café,  and other business owners hope the new balloon ride with start their cash registers clanging. Stefani said his receipts are down 10 percent this year, and he hopes the balloon ride will bring people to Illinois’ largest tourist attraction.

“It’s gonna be an attraction, just to get people to think about it,” Stefani said. “Even if they don’t ride it, they’re gonna think, ‘Hey, we haven’t been there in a long time.’”

Some commissioners expressed concern that the attraction, which will run from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., would cause traffic jams and crowding, and worried that it might pose a distraction to motorists as they drive on nearby Lake Shore Drive.

Commissioners also worried that the 24-foot platform at the base of the ride would damage the grass. Marilynn Gardner, the Navy Pier’s general manager, pledged that sod would be replaced at the end of the season.

But in the end, tourism dollars trumped all other concerns, and the panel unanimously approved the proposal.

“We need to continue to find ways, to find new attractions, to ensure that Navy Pier holds its standing as the state’s number one tourist destination,” said Ald. Brendan Reilly (42^nd), whose ward is home to Navy Pier.

“It (the balloon ride) has the potential to be a magnet to draw people to Navy Pier like never before,” Gardner said.

Gardner told the commissioners that under its contract with AeroBalloon, the Boston-based operator of the ride, Navy Pier stood to receive a minimum of $50,000. It was unclear whether that amount represented payment for a full summer or the remainder of the 2009 season.

But Jon Kaplan, spokesman for the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, the public entity that oversees the pier, said in an e-mail Friday that AeroBalloon’s payment was “still being negotiated.”

The $50,000 figure is based on the assumption that AeroBalloon will return to Navy Pier next year, Kaplan said.

“It’s complicated,” he wrote.

The balloon will be tethered to the ground in Gateway Park, just north of the pier’s entrance, according to plans. It will hold up to 15 people and reach a height of 350 feet, said AeroBalloon President Doug Hase. That’s more than twice as high as the pier’s Ferris Wheel.

Tickets will cost $25 for adults and $12 for children, Hase said; in good weather, AeroBalloon could earn $19,800 per day in ticket sales. The ride will be grounded during stormy weather or in winds over 25 mph.

Navy Pier’s attendance is actually higher this year than it was last summer, Kaplan said, likely because Chicagoans are staying closer to home in the poor economy.

But visitors are spending less, and revenues are “down slightly” compared to last summer, he said.

An estimated 8.5 million people visit Navy Pier each year, Gardner said.

“This is about access to the lakefront, which is an asset that’s owned by all the citizens of Chicago,” said Ald. Tom Allen (38^th), who along with Ald. Richard Mell (33^rd) called for a special meeting Aug. 18 of the Chicago City Council’s Committee on Parks and Recreation.

The aldermen said the parking fee, set to begin within four to six weeks, contradicts Daniel Burnham’s 1909 Chicago Plan of open access to parks and will strain the budgets of low-income families hungry for recreation during hard times.

“I do think that we’re nickel and diming people in the city of Chicago, and we need to stop,” said Ald. Pat Dowell (3^rd).

But Chicago Park District Superintendent Timothy Mitchell, facing a $12 million deficit this year, defended the plan. He argued that charging for lakefront parking is a better solution than raising property taxes.

“There are seniors who don’t go down to the beach at all, and I’m not going to raise their property taxes,” Mitchell said. “I believe people who are using the beaches and creating those expenses should pay $1 an hour.”

An estimated 4,425 parking spaces along the lake will be subject to the new pay-and-display boxes, in which drivers must pre-pay for parking and leave a receipt visible in their windows. The boxes will likely be installed in the next four to six weeks, said Park District spokeswoman Jessica Maxey-Faulkner.

Money collected at the boxes will feed $700,000 into parks coffers in the last quarter of this year; revenue is expected to jump to $2 million per year after that, according to Park District estimates. Chicago-based Standard Parking will maintain the boxes for roughly $85,000 per year, under a three-year contract that is expected to be signed in six weeks, Maxey-Faulkner said.

The park district spends about $400 million per year on its 570 parks, Mitchell said. Sixty-five percent of that money comes from property taxes.

Tuesday’s committee meeting gave aldermen a chance to vent over the done deal; the Park District Board of Commissioners approved the parking plan as part of its budget process last December, and the city council has no jurisdiction over the decision.

Several aldermen on Tuesday did suggest other funding sources, such as charging $1 admission to the city’s Air and Water show, eliminating the park district’s public relations department and approaching the Chicago Blackhawks for sponsorship.

Parks advocate Charlotte Newfeld, one of four speakers to address the committee, said she hopes the fee will reduce the number of cars parked near the lakefront, but Newfeld added that she would prefer a system of parking lots and shuttle buses to transport beach goers.

“We need every inch of green space for people, just to feel like they’re not all surrounded by concrete,” Newfeld said.

Additional stories:

The Independent Voters of Illinios-Indpendent Precinct Organization has filed a lawsuit to void the city of Chicago’s parking meter contract with Chicago Parking Meters LLC claiming the deal violates state law.  You can read the lawsuit at IVIIPO.org.

For more reporting on the parking meter lawsuit, you can listen and read WBEZ’s report at chicagopublicradio.org.