Keep the children at Attucks

"How do you decide which school is right for your child?" asks the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) website. One of the CPS's answers is "location."

            We notice attorney Michelle Obama and her husband have been in the news lately. She is a proponent of neighborhood schools too, having recently said, "There was nothing miraculous about my life. I went to the neighborhood schools around the corner. When you look at me, I don't want you to see the next First Lady. I want you to see what an investment in public education looks like."

            Seems the CPS agrees with a graduate of its system, Michelle Obama, that neighborhood schools are important. Unless the CPS would be inconvenienced, of course. CPS officials recently decided to close Attucks Elementary School in Bronzeville—and by "recently" we mean at the very last minute before school opened—because the heating system was not working correctly. We all want the children to have enough heat, but couldn't the CPS have figured this out the last time the heat was on last winter?

            CPS's alternative is to bus the students "a few blocks" away, according to a CPS official, to Farren School, which actually is more than a mile and a half away.

            Our alternative is for the CPS to fix the heat. Oh no, says the CPS, "We don't have either the time or the money." Might they not have had the time had they addressed the problem last winter, and might they not have had the money if they had put in a budget request six months ago?

            Since none of us has a time machine, we suggest that the CPS get to work on the heating system now anyway and that they request CPS management and elected City and State officials to provide some emergency money for the project. We would rather see CPS inconvenienced than the children of the community uprooted.

            At a recent community meeting, several audience members and Chicago Teachers Union members asked why there is no money for Attucks but plenty for charter schools.

            From a City government that loves privatization and hates dealing with unions and being responsive to the community, need you even ask?

Fair is fair--no matter what your economic status 

There is no question about it. When hardworking, decent people are beaten down by the rich and powerful, it is natural to side with the underdog. We shake our heads and feel a wave of compassion for victims of unfortunate circumstances.

            Our hearts go out to the single mom who is threatened with homelessness because her landlord is teetering on possible foreclosure. We bemoan the injustice of an elderly neighbor being forced to sell his lifelong home because he no longer can afford to pay the property taxes that have risen beyond the reach of his fixed income. We become enraged when we hear stories of our friends and family members being ripped off or cheated.

            When the victims are well-to-do urbanites, however, their voices frequently are discounted as “whining rich people.” Yet, why should it make any difference whether someone’s home is a Section 8 rental or a luxury condominium? Why is it so easy to allow perceptions of people’s life circumstances to affect the gravity their problems?

            Those who wield vast political influence and know how to protect their interests by cloaking themselves in a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) have the power to ruin lives and vaporize dreams for both the downtrodden and those in better circumstances. People who have worked hard their whole life so they can retire comfortably and leave an inheritance for their children need protection. The residents who are looking at the possibility of losing their life savings at 1717 S. Prairie Ave., although not among society's downtrodden, should be taken very seriously.

            Residents have been owed money by the corporation that built the development since 2005, but have not yet been paid; a needed dividing wall in the heating area has not been built; windows leak; and developers are moving at a turtle's pace in dealing with those problems. No, the owners of the units at 1717 may not be society's downtrodden--just average, hardworking Chicagoans who, like most people, have their lives and their lives' savings tied up in where they live. If their problems are not address, they may see their lives and lives' savings irreparably harmed.

            Chicago’s laws must be changed to protect condominium and house owners from being financially ruined by clout-heavy developers and investors who have managed to insulate themselves from their fiscal responsibilities.

            After all, right is right and fair is fair.

Let the free market determine coffee shop's future

Some West Haven residents are upset that St. Leonard's Ministries intends to open a coffee shop on Madison Street that will give ex-offenders jobs and house some ex-offenders in an apartment above. They cite fears over safety, increased numbers of ex-offenders in the area, and inhibition of the area's business climate.

                We respectfully disagree.

                St. Leonard's already is located in the area, so the number of ex-offenders in the community will not increase substantially, if at all. A new business will add to the business climate, not detract from it. Lastly, because the coffee shop will operate under the direction of St. Leonard's—which knows how to keep an eye on ex-offenders—safety at the coffee shop probably will be greater than at other businesses. After all, ex-offenders and other individuals with personal problems are employed all over the city—only most of us are not aware of that fact and do not think about it. At St. Leonard's Gracie's Coffee Shop, at least the situation is out in the open.

                Let the free market—not fear—determine whether the coffee shop will fail or succeed. Not giving ex-offenders jobs, leaving only welfare and crime as alternatives, certainly will assure that society itself will fail and not succeed.

                Inexplicably, we had a difficult time getting more opponents of the coffee shop to go on the record on this issue, even though they have been vocal in communicating with each other and with St. Leonard's. That is disappointing. It is against standard journalistic practice to use anonymous quotes except under the most extreme circumstances, so we could not use all the comments we received. We hope in the future those with an opinion on community issues will not be afraid to engage in the healthy, public debate necessary for a free society to function.