Occupy Chicago Heads to DC, Protests with Pastor on Top of South Side Motel
By aaroncynic in News on Dec 6, 2011 5:20PM
On Sunday, Members of Occupy Chicago joined Rev. Corey Brooks , who has been camping atop a motel on the south side for nearly two weeks.
Rev. Brooks began camping out to draw attention to the Super Motel along King Drive, after a funeral for a young member of his congregation. His church sits across the street. Brooks has vowed to stay until $450,000 has been raised to demolish the building and transform it into a community center.
At least two dozen activists descended on the area and set up tents on the rooftop of Brooks’s church across the street, some of which still remain this morning. Loren Taylor of Occupy the Hood Chicago said, “We will be the change we wish to see. We will take back our neighborhoods and occupy spaces like Pastor Brooks, turning them in to community centers, not bank-owned empty eyesores.”
In addition to occupying the roof with Brooks, members of Occupy Chicago also will participate in a nationwide day of action called “Occupy Our Homes,” to draw attention to nationwide foreclosures. The Huffington Post reports activists plan to stage a housewarming party for a family which moved into an abandoned building in the Belmont-Cragin neighborhood on the city's Northwest side. Sabrina Morey, who recently moved into the vacant building told HuffPo, “I believe what we are doing is right, because people need a place to live. There should be no vacant homes anywhere.”
2010 Census data shows there are nearly 180,000 vacant homes in the greater Chicago area.