The ordinance proposed by Ald. Bernard Stone (50th) was put off until next month’s meeting of the Committee on Traffic Control and Safety. The ordinance would change the law to allow cabs to park on the commercial streets of Devon and Western Avenue between the hours of 2 a.m. and 7 a.m.

Steve Wiedersberg, president of the Chicago Professional Taxi Driver’s Association and a cab driver for more than 25 years, said that city hall postponing issues involving cab drivers is nothing new to his organization.

The current law does not allow cab drivers to park on business streets for more than two hours at a time in a neighborhood that Wiedersberg said is home to many cab drivers.

Wiedersberg said he fears for the safety of drivers who make the early morning walk home, especially because they are usually carrying money.

“You don’t see these aldermen parking a mile away from their homes,” he said.

Stone said he foresees the ordinance passing at next month’s committee meeting. If passed, it will then go before the entire city council.

“This wouldn’t be a hindrance to anyone. Why shouldn’t a cab driver be able to park closer to home?” Stone said.

This consideration to allow overnight parking comes as the city council also considers a proposal to raise cab fares by 22 percent.

Cab drivers asked the transportation committee on Sept. 24 for the fare raise along with other extras, including a $50 fee imposed on individuals who vomit in the back of cabs.

A decision has not been reached on this matter.

Also attempting to secure a safer option for overnight cab parking is Ald. Joe Moore (49th), who is planning to propose an ordinance that will change laws on commercial streets in his ward, said Betsy Vandercook, chief of staff for Moore.

The 49th ward currently holds one of the highest populations of cab drivers in the city, Vandercook said. She said by adding overnight parking in commercial areas such as Sheridan Road, Howard Street and Western Avenue, the alderman is attempting to give the best possible solution for constituents in the area.

Vandercook couldn’t confirm when the ordinance would go before the committee.

Stone said as far as he’s concerned, there is already a pre-existing ordinance that allows cab drivers to park overnight on Devon Avenue, one that he passed some 15 years ago. He believes there has been a misunderstanding and has scheduled a meeting with the 24th District Commander Michael Wick, in hopes to stop ticketing immediately.

Wick could not be reached for comment.

The board last week approved a $5 million contract with Youth Advocacy Programs Inc., a Pennsylvania-based national organization that offers services to at-risk youth around the world.

The anti-violence plan, put into place earlier this month, is in response to the dozens of CPS students dying each year. It will target the 200 most at-risk students through intensive counseling, mentoring and job placement, while also adding additional security to the 38 most troubled schools.

Members of the Pastors of Englewood Association, flanked by more than a dozen community supporters, told the board members they don’t want to be left out of the program that concerns the youth in their Southwest Side neighborhood.

They pleaded unsuccessfully with the board to postpone the Sept. 23rd vote until a later date.

Pastor James Dukes of the Pastors of Englewood Association said the $5 million contract that will be put in place parallels already existing efforts to help at-risk youth in their neighborhood, which has one of the city’s highest crime rates.

“For us to not even be considered for this situation is offensive. We should be the evaluators of this project, especially if it means they are coming into our communities,” said Dukes.

Dukes said his organization secures the attendance records from schools, prays for the children who are getting shot, and helps with funerals, counseling and after-school projects.

Chicago Board of Education President Michael Scott said he has no intention of trying to carry out this program in isolation.

Malon Edwards, Chicago Public Schools spokesman, said the Pastors of Englewood Association has not been overlooked and will have an opportunity to become involved in the program along with any other interested parties.

“We want to make sure we have an action plan that not just involves the Englewood community, but everybody who wants to have input in this,” Edwards said.

Edwards said a meeting was scheduled between the faith-based community organization and key members of the CPS administration.

Upset by last week’s board action, the Pastors of Englewood Association, along with other pastors from around the city, are prepared to withdraw their vote of confidence for the 2016 Olympic Games, said Dukes. He wonders what kind of community involvement will be allowed with a much bigger initiative being proposed for Chicago—the 2016 Olympics.

“If we can’t trust to be involved with $34 million, how can we trust to be involved with $38 billion?” said Dukes.

Dukes said the Pastors of Englewood Association will continue to fight for what they see is best for their community.

“Especially because lives are at stake, these decisions cannot be left to back door meetings.”

A group of local ministers demanded attention at city hall this week in an attempt to gain aldermanic support in their quest to set fair worker standards. Meanwhile, Ald. Howard Brookins (21st) continued to fight for Wal-Mart to finally set stake in his ward.

Brookins said Mayor Richard M. Daley has made it clear he will not support the development without approval from the city council.

About a dozen ministers set forth principles and standards they want met before aldermen allow any large retailer, specifically Wal-Mart, to set up shop. The coalition is requesting higher living wages and affordable and comprehensive healthcare, along with hiring and promoting from within the local community.

“We want to make sure our people are taken care of. We are not stopping. We are still in the battlefield trying to make sure that this isn’t being done in backrooms or through backdoors,” said Rev. Booker Vance, president of the Southsiders Organizing for Unity and Liberation (SOUL).

Vance said the next step for his organization is to seek support from local aldermen to make sure the project cannot be pushed through without standards in place.

Brookins said he supports the addition of a Wal-Mart to his ward, and during his four years of fighting for the development, he said his community has lost out on financial opportunities.

“The city has missed out on millions of dollars of tax revenue; people have missed out on hundreds of jobs,” Brookins said. “We need jobs now in the African-American communities where we are looking at a 20 percent unemployment rate. We are in desperate straits.”

Brookins said Wal-Mart should not be held to different standards than other retail companies.

“Retail has always paid low wages. They make it seem as if Wal-Mart created low paying jobs,” Brookins said.

Ald. Joe Moore (49th) said he will not support the addition of a Wal-Mart and said it’s a mistake to seek jobs without making sure workers have fair wages and healthcare benefits.

“It’s a guarantee to spiral into a race to the bottom. You need to have standards and you need to have decent wages, so that people can support their family and spend in a local economy,” Moore said.

Ald. Freddrenna M. Lyle (6th) is opposed to the Wal-Mart development and said the location will directly affect her ward by negatively impacting small businesses.

“Small businesses are the ones that support the little leagues and the PTA. I’m against anything that endangers the small businesses in my community and Wal-Mart does that,” Lyle said.

Brookins said he hopes the Wal-Mart development could break ground as soon as October.

Both Lyle and Moore said they don’t believe Brookins has the number of votes needed to bring the deal before the city council anytime soon.

“It would certainly be a battle and I don’t think anyone really has the stomach for such a battle at this time,” said Moore.

More than two dozen people waited in line in the county building, some for as long as two hours, to enter the Sept. 1 board meeting where the county commissioners, in a surprise decision, failed by one vote to override Board President Todd Stroger’s veto.

The 13-4 decision upholds the tax at its current rate of 1.75 percent instead of reducing it to 1.25 percent.  It’s estimated the county would have lost more than $2 million by dropping the rate .5 percent.

Cynthia Schilsky, president of the Cook County League of  Women Voters, traveled from southwest suburban La Grange to attend the meeting  and didn’t like being stuck on the sidelines.

“I’m aggravated. I think people should be able to get in. I understand it is not a big room, but they should make it available to those who are here to be seen,” Schilsky said.

State Rep. John Fritchey, (D-Chicago), who moments before Tuesday’s meeing officially announced his plans to replace retiring Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool, said it is important for the public to be included in meetings.

“I’m sure there are a lot of elected officials that would prefer the public not seeing what they do,” Fritchey said. “I feel that being open to the public is a pretty fundamental notion of being a public body, especially given that we’ve got the cost efficient technology these days to do this instantly.”

Schilsky said the Cook County League of Women Voters made suggestions to the board about preparing overflow rooms and streaming video for those who cannot get in.

“When we have suggested it, it’s always the money issue,” said Schilsky.

The public can watch the meetings if they have access to Comcast cable channel 900.

Dick Simpson, head of the political science department at University of Illinois at Chicago and a former Chicago alderman, said it is important to open up the county board to better cable and Web castings along with making overflow rooms available.

“There ought to be a separate room set up for overflow crowds, or they could have asked to move to the larger city council chambers,” Simpson said.

The Chicago Board of Education uses overflow rooms and streaming video for its meetings.

Chicago Public Schools Spokesman Malon Edwards said when people come to the board meetings, they are given a seating pass. When there are no more passes available, overflow rooms are opened with streaming video of the board meeting.

The board of eduction meeting room holds about 115 people, while the overflow room can seat an additional 85.

Edwards said it also use a rotation that keeps a constant flow of people between the board and overflow rooms.

“We get people in and out as quickly as we can. Looking at the logistics of it, it looks to be a very smooth process,” Edwards said. “It looks to be a good alternative to sitting in the chamber.”

The $50,000 will pay for upkeep of the south suburban Alsip cemetery pending its reopening.

Cook County Circuit Judge Martin Agren released the funds to Roman Szabelski, the court-appointed receiver who is in charge of running the historic African-American cemetery.

The circuit court will decide Sept. 22 whether it will release the additional $450,000 that Szabelski requested from the $1.5 million cemetery-care trust fund.

The court first wants a repayment agreement in place between Perpetua, owner of Burr Oak Cemetery, and Bank of America, the fund’s trustee.

The cemetery’s assets were frozen after a grave-reselling scandal involving as many as 300 graves came to light. Burr Oak Cemetery was closed to the public July 13, and four employees have been charged with multiple felonies.

The receiver, along with family members affected by the scandal, are upset about the delay in the release of funds.

“It saddens us deeply that Perpetua is doing nothing,” said Blake Horwitz, an attorney for one of the families involved. “Their employees obviously created the problem, and for them to sit there and say they are not going to do anything is very confusing and upsetting.”

Representatives for Perpetua declined to comment.

James C. Geoly, an attorney for receiver Szabelski, said the cemetery cannot reopen without the additional $450, 000.

Geoly said the $50,000 released Aug. 26 will be enough to bring back staff and cover upkeep costs, at least until the next hearing date.

“When Szabelski became receiver, there was a long list of tasks that needed to start to happen for the cemetery to reopen. And almost none of them have been able to start because there have been no funds,” said Geoly.

Among the projects that must be completed before the cemetery reopens are re-sodding, roadway maintenance, and safety repairs to pillars and buildings.

Geoly said more work on the database of cemetery burial records also will need to be done before the cemetery can open.

“Some of this has been done but the major physical projects require funds,” Geoly said.

Horwitz, an attorney representing some of the families who’ve sued, said time is critical because it’s not  known how deep the bodies are buried or what kind of contamination may be occurring, especially given the recent rain.

“Families are still at a loss to know what’s going on,” Horwitz said.

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