Pitches (time-sensitive)!
Sam Joyce
Closing: Laine’s Bake Shop in Pullman (2/25)
Laine's Bake Shop, one of the three restaurants at the Pullman neighborhood's One Eleven Food Hall, and one that has been there since the food hall's opening in May 2019, is closing up shop at that location before the end of the month. Laine's cites inability to make a profit and inability to support their mission to “transfer ownership to employees through an Employee Stock Option Program” as reasons for closing. Their blog documents struggles with infrastructure at their Woodland production facility, and it sounds like costs associated with that recovery contributed to their closing. Was this closing a result of the specific circumstances of Laine's, or were they suffering from structural issues that make it more difficult for small businesses to succeed on the South Side? Also look into how their Neighborhood Opportunity Fund-ed project to open a production location in Woodlawn is going. Does this closing affect that opening, slated for spring 2020? Are there lessons to be learned here as the city rolls out its Invest South/West initiative? Talk to the owner, Rachel Bernier-Green, and attend their final event at the Pullman space February 25, 6:30pm. (Tammy Xu, 2/22/20)
LVEJO/UCS Environmental Pollution Report (2/26)
The Little Village Environmental Justice Organization is holding a press conference on 2/26 at 10am at City Hall to discuss a new report issued by the Union of Concerned Scientists, who recently found that Cook County is one of the worst counties in the nation for particulate pollution. This pollution causes respiratory and heart problems, and disproportionately impacts residents of color. (Sam J. 2/21)
Seed swapping (3/14)
The Little Village Gardeners Coalition is holding a seed swap at Iglesia Amor de Dios (2356 S. Sawyer) on March 14th, 1pm–3pm. This would be a great opportunity to do a broader profile on the different gardens involved in the coalition, as well as the relationship between the gardens and NeighborSpace, the nonprofit sponsoring this event. (Sam J (from a pitch by Jackie), 2/19/20)
Black Students’ Associations (BSA) in South Side High Schools
Earlier this month, the Hyde Park Herald reported that the UChicago Lab High School’s Black Students’ Association wrote an open letter to “demand that the school’s community steps up to address racial, religious and identity-based bias and discrimination.” The letter itself addressed specific events at UHigh regarding bias and hate speech and “[specified] several ways that BSA wants U-High to grow to become an inclusive campus…” A private school affiliated with the University of Chicago, fifty three percent of U-High’s students are minorities, but nine percent identify as Black/African-American. Largely, this reporter should ask: how do BSAs serve as a community for Black students at U-High and other South Side high schools where Black students are a minority? What activities, discussions, or other forms of support do BSAs provide? The reporter should first identify South Side high schools with large non-Black student populations and then interview BSA leadership, mentors, and members. (Rachel K., 1/26/20)LGBTQ health access on the South Side
What is the state of LGBTQ health access on the South Side? The question is prompted by several recent developments. A state bill in the summer of 2019 provided for the establishment of an LGBTQ community center on the South Side. Health services there will be provided by Howard Brown, which has been expanding service on the South Side for the past few years; it opened a clinic on 63rd Street in Englewood in 2016, and in 2017, it quietly expanded a small satellite clinic in Hyde Park (which initially only treated patients who were directly referred to it) into a full-service clinic. There's been very little reporting about the Hyde Park clinic, and not much follow-up on the bill, but those are just a few thoughts on topics a dive into this could explore. Also in 2019, researchers then at UChicago's Center for Interdisciplinary Inquiry and Innovation in Sexual and Reproductive Health (Ci3) published a paper titled “Racial and Socioeconomic Inequity in the Spatial Distribution of LGBTQ Human Services: an Exploratory Analysis of LGBTQ Services in Chicago” that received little press coverage but provides a detailed look at the landscape. (I can provide a copy of this paper, and I have contact info for the researchers.) Also, apparently the Health Resources and Services Administration is increasing funding for community health centers in Illinois.
These provide a few ideas for ways in to a story about LGBTQ health access. Some questions we’d want to address: What does health access for trans people look like? What about access for youth versus adults? Is access localized to only certain communities within the South Side? (Olivia, updated 1/30/20)