Three more portals for Smart Communities

The three Southwest neighborhoods in Chicago's Smart Communities program launched their portals yesterday, creating a wide new avenue for interaction among residents, businesses and organizations.

They are works in progress, with some empty spaces yet to fill, but already the portals offer new stories and photos highlighting activities not easily found elsewhere on the web.

Check them out:
Auburn Gresham: auburngreshamportal.org
Englewood: englewoodportal.org
Chicago Lawn: chicagolawnportal.org

The three sites have automatic cross-links to each other to build connections among the communities, but each is likely to develop its own personality over time. Give them a visit and, if you live or work in one of those areas, submit some information to make the portals better.

Growing Home on CLTV

There was a nice clip on CLTV recently featuring Growing Home's urban farm at 58th and Wood St. Check it out:

 

Remembering Wanda White Gills

News came through today that Wanda White Gills, a longtime contributor to the improvement of Chicago communities, has passed away after a long battle with cancer.

I had the pleasure of working with Wanda back in the 1980s when she was with the Community Workshop on Economic Development, and was thrilled to work with her again in 2004 and 2005 in Englewood, where she brought 600 different people into a remarkable series of meetings that resulted in Teamwork Englewood's 2005 quality-of-life plan.

Pierre Clark, who participated in that process, passed along the sad news:

"Wanda White Gills was the best facilitator and collaborative consensus builder I've worked with in 30 years in community development, bar none. I will miss her and I know she will be missed as a friend, colleague, guiding light and visionary.

"Wanda was Economic Development Director to three Chicago mayors, Executive Director of the Community Workshop On Economic Development, President of the Women's Self-Employment Project, Director of Teamwork Englewood NCP, Founding Board Member Of The Annenberg Challenge Grant process, architect of the Chicago Empowerment Zone process, third in command at the CHA during the early Transformation days, wife to Professor Doug Gills of UIC, mom to Scott and RD, grandmom, and a great friend and colleague of many of us in community development and community empowerment circles . . . (she) made her transition on Wednesday, June 25, after a long battle with cancer.

"Her homegoing ceremony will be Friday, July 3, 2009, at 1 p.m. at Progressive Community Center, 56 East 48th Street, (Wabash and 48th Street), Chicago, Illinois 60653."

What I remember quite vividly was the atmosphere in the big room at 815 W. 63rd Street, at Teamwork Englewood's office, when Wanda White Gills was working her magic. Englewood leaders and residents had been through plenty of planning processes before that one, and most of those plans had resulted in nothing much, but Wanda got people talking, let the angry ones speak their minds, treated every person and every idea with respect, left time before and after each meeting for people to talk to each other, and always urged everyone to come back to the next meeting and bring their friends and neighbors. And they did, month after month, until a splintered community had come together around common goals and created a sense of hope and spirit that hadn't exist before.

That's what Wanda White Gills was capable of. It's a rare and special talent. I know I am one of many who admired very much her contributions to our city.

Photo is from March 19, 2005 Englewood Youth and Young Adult Summit, during the report-back session when youth told a panel of adult leaders their concerns and hopes for the community.

What They're Saying at Spring Into Sports

In the news biz you listen for "good quotes." During the first days of Spring Into Sports, the drop-in-for-fun-and-competition festival going on during spring break in four violence-prone neighborhoods, I've been getting an earful.

"They feel like superstars." That was longtime activist Jenice Sanders at Englewood High School after Sunday's opening ceremony, with 200 in the stands, that featured the Imani African Dance and Drum Troupe (photo) and her own creation, Englewood Idols, the talented local singers who had made the cut down to 14 finalists.

"That was awesome." A child at Little Village Lawndale High School after time in the pool.

"They act at first like they're too cool to play volleyball, but once they get started their competitive juices kick in." That was Oji Eggleston at Crane Tech Prep, talking about the b-ball players who got serious at the volleyball net.

I counted about 155 kids and adults at Crane on Monday afternoon in the two gyms, hallways and food room. It was more than just a good natured and safe environment. There and at the other venues the youth were not just learning new athletic skills but social ones as well, from taking on something they hadn't done before to interacting with other youth and adults. Even the teenagers sitting in the stands, waiting and watching, that looked good to me too.

Top photo of Orr High School participants by Juan Francisco Hernandez. More photos here.

Video: Why Kids Enjoy Neighborhood Sports

A lot of community agencies and sports programs have been working flat out preparing for Spring Into Sports, which runs April 4 to 11 at four Chicago high schools (Crane, Little Village Lawndale, Englewood and Orr). Learn more at Neighborhood Sports Chicago, but first, take five minutes to view this video fresh from the smoking-hot computers of Sarahmaria Gomez and Alex Fledderjohn of TuMultimedia.

It will make you feel good, I guarantee it.

(If this video doesn't feed well for you, try the YouTube version.)


Neighborhood Sports Chicago! from Tu Multimedia on Vimeo.

Trail Prospect: Rail Viaduct in Englewood

A long-abandoned rail viaduct in Englewood is getting some serious attention as another link in Chicago's growing network of biking and hiking trails. The elevated rail line runs east and west a half-block south of 59th Street, between Wallace and Hoyne Avenues. That's almost two miles of traffic-free passage that runs past Hermitage Park and the Growing Home urban farm, with three other parks within a couple of blocks.

If it sounds a lot like the Bloomingdale Trail, that's exactly right. That North Side rail spur is well along on conversion to a linear park, with land acquisition underway to provide access parks and ramps connecting to adjacent Logan Square and Humboldt Park.

Pushing the South Side effort is the Englewood Rails to Trails Commission, a loose coalition of local groups – Imagine Englewood If, the Greater Englewood Community and Family Task Force, Stay Environmentally Focused, Rowan Trees, Teamwork Englewood, Greater Englewood Garden Assn. and others – plus a few heavyweights: Friends of the Parks, Openlands Project and Active Transportation Alliance.

In other words, it could happen. A couple of meetings have taken place already and a survey is underway (download it). A report on the trail is expected mid-year. Stay tuned.

Photo above by Eric Young Smith, Chicago Neighborhood News Bureau.


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Urban Prep boys representing Chicago well

The Tribune's Dawn Turner Trice writes this morning that the bus trip to Washington by 22 young men from Urban Prep Academies, 6201 S. Stewart in Englewood, is going well. People are "moved by how put-together they are," she reports.

We've written a lot here about the need for youth programming and schooling that lets kids rise above the dangers and low expectations of their neighborhoods. It seems these kids are doing that:

"As impressive as Urban Prep's students look, their clothing doesn't begin to complete their stories. Many come from low-income, single-parent homes and live in the tough community of Englewood, where education isn't always the priority.

Some of these guys have to carry their clothes to school and change there rather than endure the harassment of peers who are street toughs.

"You do what you have to do," Alfonso Henderson, 15, said during the interfaith breakfast. "Englewood can be rough at times, but not all the time. You have to know when to go out and when to stay inside. You have to know who you're going to be."

My hat is off to the school, the students and to Turner Trice for capturing the story.

Photo above by the Tribune's Nancy Stone.

Growing Home Featured in Chicago Reporter

The latest issue of the Chicago Reporter has an article on the lack of access to organic produce in African-American neighborhoods. It leads with the exception to this pattern: Growing Home's work in Englewood. It also talks about efforts to open an organic grocery store on Chicago's West Side.

“It’s easier to find a semi-automatic weapon in our communities than it is to find a tomato, much less an organic tomato,” said LaDonna Redmond, an Austin-based food activist now working on a project to open an organic grocery story in West Garfield Park in Spring 2009.

On Huffington Post's newish Chicago page, Mari Gallagher explains more about food deserts and the challenges grocers face. Good reading.

Growing Home's Satisfied Customer

When I moved to Back of the Yards from the North Side four years ago, one of the things I thought I would miss the most was biking home with my weekly summer box of veggies from a CSA (community supported agriculture) share.

Not any more. The photo above shows you what was inside the box I biked home with today. Growing Home's urban farm at 58th and Wood is the pickup point for their CSA share program, and it's an easy bike ride from my house. A few weeks ago, I walked over with three or four of my young neighbors, who got a complete tour from Tyra Rodgers, who manages the site. They learned how hoop houses control temperature so you can grow cold-tolerant vegetables through most of even a Chicago winter, how soaker hoses work and how you can keep a garden healthy without pesticide and artificial fertilizer, among other things.

Today, they couldn't come with, but I got to hear from Tyra how the entire Growing Home staff went to visit Charlie Trotter's and see what he does with the vegetables they grow. They got a full kitchen tour and the opportunity to sample a seven-course meal. "It was really, really amazing," he said. "A once in a lifetime experience." Before the event he was reluctant to go because he's a t-shirt and jeans kind of guy and this event required a coat and tie. But afterwards, "it was worth it." Now he's hoping the staff at Trotter's will come down to the farm so he can give them a tour, too.

Tyra also told me he's been making good friends with the neighbors whose houses surround the farm. One gentleman, who let them use his hose before they had their own water supply, is a fellow gardener with a back lot full of watermelon, greens and other goodies. His grandchildren got to pick a few tomatoes and cucumbers as a thank you for the early support.

When I got home with my box one of the girls who came last time and two of her friends all wanted to see what was inside. "Carrots!" one exclaimed joyfully. Plus, the first tomatoes of the season, small plum tomatoes we all plopped into our mouths right away. Beets, too, which these little guys and gals like. Earlier this season I went up and down the block making people try asparagus in lemon butter with a little salt. There was a two-year-old who kept coming back for more.

Today, as we were snacking on tomatoes and carrots, one of my older neighbors went by and looked over with interest. When I explained how a share works--pay up front and get veggies all summer--and how two or more people could go in on a box together to make it easier to front the cash, she looked interested. This summer I'm splitting a share with a friend out by Midway airport, but maybe next year four or five of us could split a share here on the block.

Coverage of neighborhood news? Not so bad

Trainee Larry Smith leads a tour at Growing Home's open house on June 28. Photo by Patrick Barry.

Was a time, when I was a boy delivering the afternoon daily Chicago American, that our fair city had four big daily newspapers and half a dozen smaller ones covering ethnic groups and suburban regions. On top of that were dozens of weeklies covering the neighborhoods, or in the case of the Lerner papers, twice weekly. So it's no wonder that today's lament about weak coverage of the neighborhoods is so often heard.

But wait. From what I've been seeing lately, the growth of new-media outlets is changing the game, and since they can be updated often at much lower cost than print vehicles, we might even be seeing more news than before. Some of the grist comes from community groups, some from journalism students, but even the old media are in on the act.

All that's by way of prelude to this little roundup:

At Chicago Talks, Columbia College journalism student Brian Patrick Roach tells how students on the Southeast Side interviewed retired steelworkers to capture their stories from the mills. On the same site, Bryce Wolfe provides an update on the Bloomingdale Trail, which when built will provide a three-mile elevated bike and pedestrian path bisecting the Humboldt Park and Logan Square neighborhoods. Land is being acquired alongside the trail to provide mini-parks and access ramps.

At a new site called windycitizen.com, formerly the Chicago Methods Reporter put out by students at Medill, there's an in-depth piece by Elizabeth Riley featuring the defense of a certain block in Auburn Gresham. Riley has done a few stories down there, according to local host Ernie Sanders, carving out something like a beat.

Not bad, but stick with me. At Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation's site, you can learn how three South Side restaurants, BJ's Market, Lagniappe and Soul Vegetarian, made out at the Taste of Chicago. You'll get hungry just reading the story. Go east to the NCP Woodlawn site and find out about a planned health fair and kidney screening, "another example of how a small but determined group leverages relationships to promote health education and provide access to health services."

While the new media are definitely adding depth to our reading choices, the old is still in the game. This morning's Tribune had a good piece about how Oji Eggleston and Earnest Gates organized a basketball league at Crane High School, offering mentoring alongside ball-handling tips.

And in today's Crain's Chicago Business? There's a short piece on Growing Home's executive director Harry Rhodes. That's the group that runs the Wood Street Urban Farm in Englewood, which is adding two more mini-farms nearby and constructing a small building for training, office space and a produce stand.

In my book, that's a pretty solid list of stories about action in the neighborhoods.

Taking action: "Saving Black Boys"

Teamwork Englewood is taking the direct approach to the youth-engagement challenge: it hopes to connect 100 African-American boys with mentors and constructive programming. Phillip Jackson of the Black Star Project kicked off the process at an April 11 event that filled Teamwork's space at Park National Bank on 63rd Street. Four partner agencies – Englewood United Methodist Church, the Peace Center, Boulevard Arts and West Englewood United Methodist Church – will each recruit and support 25 youth.

The goals are to help boys succeed in school and avoid drugs, gangs and violence, said Johnnie Muhammad, Teamwork Englewood's NCP organizer. It's all part of a United Way national pilot program trying to “rescue Black boys from the tragedy we’ve been seeing the last 20 years,” he said.

Read the full story by Richard Muhammad on the Teamwork Englewood web site.

Tribune: Three new farmers markets to open

Englewood's Growing Home opened a farm stand last year.
Photo by Juan Francisco Hernandez.

New farmers markets will increase access to fresh produce this summer in Englewood, Woodlawn and the Quad Communities, according to a page-one story in this morning's Chicago Tribune. Each of the markets was envisioned by the communities during their quality-of-life planning processes back in 2005 and each will play a specific role that goes beyond improved food access.

The Woodlawn market at the Experimental Station, 61st and Blackstone, will boost that location as a nucleus of community life. There's already a youth bicycling program there, an artists' studio, a community garden and a very successful youth violin program at Carnegie School next door. Arvin Strange of NCP/Woodlawn says the market will increase activity there on Saturday mornings, when 30 youngsters and their parents come for violin training. That market starts May 17. The Experimental Station will hold a fundraiser for the market on April 4.

In Quad Communities, the market is part of the Cottage Grove Restoration Initiative and will be a hybrid market that sells prepared food, antiques and music, plus fresh produce like bananas and citrus that aren't grown on a local farm, but aren't widely available in nearby stores. Again, bringing people out and building community life is at least as important as the produce. That market runs Sundays at 4400 S. Cottage Grove starting June 1. A recent survey by Quad Communities Development Corporation found "overwhelming" support for a local farmers market.

The Englewood market will run Thursdays at 6452 S. Ashland starting June 19. The twist here is that some of the produce will come from the two-year-old urban farm run nearby by Growing Home, which uses farming and related work to provide training and job opportunities for hard-to-employ individuals. A leader on this effort is Orrin Williams of Growing Home, who was named a "community hero," at last week's Getting It Done conference.

All the markets will also use Electronic Benefit Transfer machines so that residents can use their LINK (food stamp) cards, a program that was pioneered last year at the Logan Square farmers market.

A community slant at Vocalo.org

One of my ongoing interests on this blog is exploring the new forms that communications are taking as the old broadcast and newspaper models fall apart. I can't tell yet how important web/radio might end up, but I'm certainly intrigued by the possibilities being kicked around by Chicago Public Radio's offshoot, Vocalo.org.

One of Vocalo's host-producers, Dan Weissman, told me yesterday that the station stirs things up by trying a new programming format every six weeks. The latest experiment will be a neighborhood-focused program centered around visits to the studio by community activists followed by journeys out to the 'hood to see things and meet others.

Interesting.

It gets started on Tuesday, March 11, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with a visit from Jermont Montgomery of Imagine Englewood If, an organization that works on projects related to open space, youth and beautification. Two weeks later on March 25, Dan will visit with Ernest Sanders of Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation, again from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Ernest is one of the New Communities Program's most prolific communicators, not simply writing stories and taking photos for the web, but making audio slideshows and using his cell phone to send reports to Vocalo.

To get more people in on that action, Vocalo is sponsoring another of its anyone-can-be-a-broadcaster trainings next Monday and Tuesday, March 10 or 11, at Batey Urbano, 2634 W. Division. "You'll learn the basics, including recording, editing, licensing, music selection, using your telephone as microphone and uploading content to the Vocalo.org web site," said the e-mail I received. "You'll also get to test some inexpensive recording equipment and free software." You can register online at the Vocalo "store" or call 312-893-2956. You can catch Vocalo at 89.5 FM if you live on the far South Side or Northwest Indiana; otherwise the best way to listen is by streaming it on the Vocalo browser. A more powerful antenna will start working this summer, Dan says, spreading the broadcast through metro Chicago.

Where's it all going? Who knows. But it sure is interesting watching the new media evolve.

Englewood's Jean Carter-Hill is keeping busy

The nice thing about the Chicago Neighborhood Development Awards is that, with more than 1,000 community-oriented people in the room, you're almost guaranteed to make some good connections.

I was lucky enough to see Jean Carter-Hill, executive director of Imagine Englewood If, and she had some interesting news. Her organization is working with 31 students from local high schools on a journalism program led by Columbia College. The students are reporting and writing stories and getting ready for a trip to Washington, D.C., where they'll get an up-close look at the workings of Congress. Some of the students are involved with radio and video work, also.

I'm biased, but it seems to me that training young writers makes a whole lot of sense.

The other news from Jean was that she had been honored earlier that day at the Friends of the Parks Annual Meeting and Awards Luncheon, for her work converting vacant lots into community gardens. The award went to individuals and organizations that have most significantly contributed to the improvement of Chicago's parks and forest preserves in 2007.