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First Slice Offers First-Rate Food to Homeless by Leo Moskal.
Categorized as Public. Tagged with business, cafe, first slice, homeless and hungry.Dec. 3, 2008 - As the country's financial situation continues to be grim, one little café on the north side of Chicago is trying to help those who are in need.
First Slice Café caters to anybody who is willing to cough up a few dollars and have a piece of pie, but unlike other restaurants, First Slice uses the proceeds to feed the poor. However, this is not a typical soup kitchen, either. Mary Ellen Diaz uses her renowned culinary skills to create meals for paying patrons along with the needy.
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Thousands of Provisional Ballots Went Uncounted in Chicago by Stephanie Gray.
Categorized as Public. Tagged with chicago board of election commissioners, election08, provisional ballot, vote and voting.Dec. 2, 2008 - Jill Kahn woke up at 5:30 a.m. on Election Day to cast her ballot. Among the first to arrive at her precinct in the Ukrainian Village neighborhood, Kahn, 31, waited 30 minutes to vote, only to find her name missing from the official registration list.
Two years ago, she got married and changed her name; Kahn, who is an interior decorator, was still listed under her maiden name despite re-registering at the Illinois Department of Motor Vehicles last year. She said she also received a voter card in the mail at her new address, suggesting her registration was in order.
Used to the frustrations associated with changing her name, Kahn was not surprised to find her name missing from the list.
"They made me sign a piece of paper saying who I was and where I live, then they gave me a ballot. So I wasn't worried," she said.
But that doesn't mean her vote counted. Kahn is one of 21,826 Chicagoans who cast provisional ballots in November, and hers was likely one of the 13,287 -- about 61 percent -- that didn't get counted.
Decades Later, Cambodian Refugees in Illinois Still Face Difficult Odds by Lea Erwin.
Categorized as Public. Tagged with albany park, cambodia, cambodian association of illinois, killing fields, refugees and war.Dec. 1, 2008 - She was 10 years old chopping wood with her father, and vividly remembers how difficult it was to lift the axe with her tiny twig-like arms and crash down on the log, slicing it into pieces.
"When I was small, I would follow my father everywhere: sawing logs, farming and gardening. It was hard work, but we would sell that wood to buy rice for our family," said Tey Mouen.
One day when she and her father returned to their family farm in Cambodia after a long day of work, they saw Khmer Rouge soldiers torturing her mother and brother. They tortured her mother because she would not tell them where Mouen and her father had gone.
Logan Square Community Struggles to Maintain Paseo Prairie Garden by John Dagys.
Categorized as Public. Tagged with 35th ward, alderman rey colon, garden, logan square, logan square neighborhood association and seniors.Nov. 26, 2008 - Five years ago, the Paseo Prairie Garden began as a hope and a dream, and today it's become one of the few parks in the Logan Square neighborhood. Despite countless hours of work and dedication put in by volunteers, community activists now face more serious issues in their effort to maintain the safe environment for the neighborhood.
Roseland Ceasefire Waits Four Months for Funds, May Have to Shut Down by Curtis Black of Community Media Workshop.
Categorized as Public. Tagged with ceasefire, funding, gangs, roseland and violence.Nov. 25, 2008 - Bob Jackson has kept CeaseFire's Roseland office open since August of 2007, when he and his staff of 15 outreach workers were laid off after Gov. Rod Blagojevich vetoed $6.5 million in state funds for the violence prevention program.
He's paid rent and utilities, mainly out of his pocket, running a one-person office on West 111th Street, with assistance from some former CeaseFire workers and community members who volunteer when they can. But it's a far cry from working with a full staff -- and he's watched with frustration as violence rates go back up.
Now he says the office is too far in debt, the landlord has given his final extension and they're going to have to close down.
After 16 Years in a Refugee Camp, Bhutanese Find a Home in Chicago by Jessica Rosenberg.
Categorized as Public. Tagged with bhutan, chicago, immigration, nepal and refugees.Nov. 24, 2008 - On a dark October night in 1992, six-year-old Bishnu Khatiwada and his family arrived at their new home: a Nepalese refugee camp. The lack of electricity at the newly established compound made the Himalayan night that much darker.
He remembers the eight-hour bus ride through India and upon their arrival, the sight of a singular gas-burning lamp shining in the blackness. Except for that light, he couldn't see anything around him -- not the tall, scrubby trees surrounding the camp or the snowy peaks in the distance.
New Smart Card Program Aims to Reduce Dependence on Cars, Save Commuters Cash by Abigail Feil.
Categorized as Public. Tagged with center for neighborhood technology, cta and i-go.Nov. 21, 2008 - The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) and I-GO, a non-profit car-sharing program, plan to unveil a new joint program in December that will make it more eco-friendly and less expensive for commuters to get access to cars when they need them, and public transportation the rest of the time.
"Coalympics" Bring Attention to Pollution in Little Village by John Dagys.
Categorized as Public. Tagged with coal, little village, olympics, pollution and power plant.Nov. 20, 2008 - On a chilly autumn morning at the corner of 31st Street and Kostner Avenue, young athletes competed for gold medals. Teams of three fought through the coal dig and leapt over the coal hurdle before sprinting to the bus dash, ending their journey at a cardboard cutout signifying a downtown museum.
No, this wasn't the Olympics, but instead the second running of the Coalympics, a competition in the Little Village neighborhood aimed at raising awareness of two nearby coal-fired power plants that pollute the city's skies.
From Cuba to Here: One Family, Two Very Different Journeys by Michelle Doellman.
Categorized as Public. Tagged with cuba, illinois and immigration.Nov. 19, 2008 - Jose Quintero remembers clutching his mother's hand on the tarmac of an airport in Havana, Cuba, on August 12, 1960. Soon Quintero would be in America, away from the rising Communist regime of Fidel Castro.
Thirty-four years later, Juan Carlos Subiza, Quintero's cousin, would make the same decision to leave his homeland, but would take a much more dangerous route. Subiza, along with 13 others, made a raft and set sail for America, praying the Cuban Coast Guard would not pick them up.
Hundreds of thousands of people have left Cuba since Castro took control by force in 1959.
Booking Agents Turn to Web for Local Acts by Pamela Birchard.
Categorized as Public. Tagged with booking, clubs, internet, local musicians and music.Nov. 18, 2008 - Elle Quintana, booking agent at Reggie's Music Joint in the South Loop, says whenever she considers booking a new band, she looks at the band's Web site, listens to about 30 seconds of the group's music and "checks out the pictures; see if they look cool."
She adds, "Then, I'll write their name down, check the calendar and see if I can put them on a show."
Quintana is not alone. The Internet has become increasingly important for bands when promoting themselves and finding bookings. It's not enough to have an innovative sound, be eager to tour and have a fresh look on stage. Bands have to be tech-savvy to survive.
Tax Freeze Helps Preserve Pilsen by Elizabeth Duffrin.
Categorized as Public. Tagged with 18th st. development corp, illinois historic preservation agency and pilsen.Nov. 17, 2008 - Pilsen resident Omar Vega expects to save thousands of dollars in property taxes over the next 12 years in exchange for renovating his historic four flat on West 17th Street.
Vega is among the first in his neighborhood to qualify for a property tax freeze since Pilsen was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. Property owners within the Pilsen Historic District -- which stretches between Halsted Street and Western Avenue, from 16th Street to Cermak Avenue -- can earn tax benefits for renovations that preserve their buildings' historic value.
Young People to Rally Saturday to Keep Journalism Organization Afloat by Curtis Black of Community Media Workshop.
Categorized as Public. Tagged with chicago public schools, journalism, youth and youth communication chicago.Nov. 14, 2008 - Student writers and supporters of Youth Communication Chicago (YCC) will rally at noon on Saturday, November 15, in front of the group's Columbia College office at 619 S. Wabash, to call attention to the organization's financial crisis.
After 32 years of publishing New Expressions as a vehicle for young Chicago writers, YCC suspended operations early this month, said executive director Phil Costello.
