Bad credit? No credit? No problem. With Illinois’ unemployment rate at a staggering 11 percent, employers can afford to be more selective in whom they hire. But a new bill could give job seekers with bad credit a fighting chance in landing a position. Rep. Jack Franks (D-Woodstock) has introduced a bill, HB4658, creating...
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City leaders’ dreams that the 2016 Olympics would come to Chicago ended in October, but their hopes for the economic development, job creation and neighborhood expansion the Games would have brought to the city are alive and well. On a snowy afternoon on Feb. 9 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Chicago’s Neighborhood Development Awards...
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Gritty storefronts, boarded-up gas station windows, graffiti-covered pavement and a plethora of fast food restaurants are the sights that will meet your eyes on a drive through one of Chicago’s toughest neighborhoods. Located on the city’s West Side, Austin’s population is nearing 130,000, and as the population rises in what community activists call Chicago’s...
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The Chicago Transit Authority voted last week to put a vacant, historically significant property in the Armitage-Halsted Landmark District at 939 W. Armitage Ave. back on the real estate market. The Queen Anne-style property in Lincoln Park, which is adjacent to the Armitage station’s east side, was partially demolished in 2006 as part of...
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As Jennifer T. Lacey reports, Santa Claus has arrived in Austin on the West Side, and it was a huge, community-wide event that brought out kids of all ages. The new parade and tradition means a lot to the neighborhood, as you will see here. http://www.vimeo.com/8026348
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By Curtis Black, Newstips Editor, Community Media Workshop With neighborhood economic development groups objecting to a major reduction in city funding at a time of growing job loss, 22 aldermen have submitted a resolution ordering the Mayor’s Office of Budget and Management to restore the funds in the city’s proposed 2010 budget. The resolution...
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A barren Ravenswood parking lot may soon be home to a grocery store, parking garage, condo complex and more — if the developer’s “plan B” manages to appease the community that gave a cold shoulder to his first attempt earlier this year. The “Ravenswood Station” mixed-use development would be built on a now-vacant Sears parking...
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By Deborah Alexander, LISC Chicago’s New Communities Program Adolph Parker opened his furniture store on South Cottage Grove Avenue in 1934, at the height of the Great Depression. Despite record unemployment, Parker’s business grew because he established good relationships with his customers, offering payment plans and credit, said Loron Kaplan, Parker’s great grandson and...
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By Lorraine Swanson, Editor, Lake Effect News The Chicago Institute of Neurosurgery and Neuroresearch Medical Group pleaded its case for closing the hospital it has operated in Ravenswood since 2003 in a public hearing before state health officials at the Sulzer Library last week. CINN announced plans in August to join forces with the NorthShore University...
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The Chicago City Council last week deferred the vote on a “right-to-know” ordinance requiring hotels to notify prospective guests of workers who are on strike for more than 20 days. For the picketers in the longest strike of the Congress Plaza Hotel’s history, this ordinance could give the workers a strong advantage in their six-year...
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