Results tagged “publichousing”

Sinai Health System announced Tuesday that the Chicago Housing Authority had approved a land swap with the hospital. As part of the deal, the CHA will give Sanai a parcel of land bounded by Ogden, Washtenaw and Fairfield Avenues. In exchange, the hospital will give the CHA a parcel of land at 15th and California. The hospital plans to build a 200,000 square-foot expansion outpatient center at Ogden and California, and a parking lot. Sinai also plans to build a 900,000 square-foot hospital at 12th and Washtenaw, but likely won't be able to finance the development for some years. The deal involved no cash.

The museum will also serve to tell stories behind the Chicago Housing Authority’s $1.6 billion Plan for Transformation, during which thousands of public housing residents have been displaced for reconstruction. Current and former public housing residents are being encouraged to contribute to the museum by sharing personal stories and donating artifacts and “memorabilia."

Like his old man, Mayor Richard M. Daley is determined to transform public housing as part of his legacy (here's hoping it turns out better than Sr.'s effort -- several detractors don't have high hopes). His plan is creeping forever forward -- it's currently many years behind -- and the city will eventually replace CHA high rise projects like Robert Taylor Homes and Cabrini-Green with mixed-income housing.

Back in the early ‘60s, a two-mile strip of low-income housing was completed on State between Pershing and 54th. That strip of 28 high-rises, dubbed the Robert Taylor Homes, would develop over the years into one of the most infamous housing projects of the city, if not the nation. Amid all the sensational stories of the violence, drug-dealing and poverty that surrounded the area, residents insisted the Taylor Homes were not the cesspool many believed...

Duplicate shootings in triplicate? At least three people are shot and wounded early today; one critically, during a party at a private motorcycle club, on Chicago's South Side. AND ... Three people are shot and wounded this morning near the Cabrini-Green public housing project on the Near North Side. Calm down, Chicagoistas, they're definitely NOT talking about Vince. (Christopher) Vaughn, the guy who went berserk and killed his family gave up on hanging out...

In one of his first acts as the new 2nd Ward Alderman, Bob Fioretti threatened to stall the second phase of a $750 million plan to raze the CHA's ABLA Homes, part of their multi-billion dollar "Plan for Transformation." After learning that $31 million dollars in expiring tax credits might be lost, he approved $15 million in tax-increment financing, but he vowed that a series of side letters would dictate three things: minority participation at...

One of our favorite writers, Dawn Powell, once wrote, "Satire is people as they are; romanticism, people as they would like to be; realism, people as they seem with their insides left out." This explains why the documentaries of Frederick Wiseman, some of which are screening at the Chicago International Documentary Festival starting this weekend, often feel so scathing. They show people as they are, not how we usually see them, and in doing so...

While Chicagoist was vacationing out west this long holiday weekend, our thoughts turned back briefly to our favorite obsession, politics. When we were hanging out around one of our favorite coffee shops west of the Mississippi, we picked up a copy of the local rag, and read up on all the important news facing readers of that other -Ist. But one story caught our eye, one that has both local and national significance. The Los...

Although it's pretty much a given that Daley will coast to re-election at the end of next month, by no means does it mean that his time is office has been an unmitigated success. In a report card scheduled to be issued today by a coalition of interest groups and local activists called "Developing Government Accountability to the People," Daley received low grades in many areas, including economic development, transportation, education, criminal justice and ethics....

Sometimes the best of intentions, coupled with great acting and location shooting, just aren't enough to save a film from its own convoluted heavy-handedness. Such is the case with The Architect, which opens today at the Landmark a few weeks before it comes out on DVD (it was shot on high-def video). It's an adaptation of a play by David Greig: a smug architect finds himself confronted by a resident activist of a public housing project he designed, who believes it's a danger to the community and wants it torn it down. At the same time there are numerous crises on the home front as long-simmering tensions finally explode.

Some of you may know that way back in 1904, Chicago was supposed to host the Olympics... until St. Louis stole the games away! So Chicago has yet to host the Olympics.

Now and then a Chicago newspaper runs an article detailing gynormous sums of money coursing through the bank account of a campaign fund connected to a powerful city official. The story is usually structured: "Big sum of money -> little-known ward organization -> powerful official connected to it -> city contractors contribute to fund". The implication, with no direct facts, is usually that the powerful official directs city contractors to their favored ward organization, and in return the contractor gets a job.

Chicagoist often gazes through Brown Line windows at the ever-so-dismal remains of the Cabrini Green community, and has wondered time and time again just what went wrong with some of the Chicago Housing Authority’s (CHA) most ambitious, and notorious, housing projects. For that reason, Roosevelt University's The Promise of Public Housing, 1936-1983 is situated firmly atop our “Damn, This Exhibit Looks Cool” file. Compiling more than 80 photographs culled from the archives of the CHA...

Five unrelated shootings in just over an hour netted nine people wounded on Tuesday night.