In March of 1968, Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. gave a powerful speech on "the other America" describing 2 separate and distinct American experiences: one for folks who were thriving, knocking at the doors of opportunity and plenty, and one for those shut out of the country's prosperity, plagued by "inadequate, substandard and often dilapidated housing conditions and substandard, inferior quality-less schools." He went on to describe what he saw as the only pathway to genuine equality: economic equality. He said, "For we know that it isn't enough to integrate lunch counters. What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn't earn enough money to buy a hamburger and a cup of coffee?"
Can you merge Conscious Giving in your business formula? You will find out in our first LIVE podcast with Lamell McMorris, a Conscious Giver, successful business leader, and social justice advocate. Tysus talks with Lamell at the Healthy Babies Project's Perennial House. Lamell provided the lead gift to establish the Perennial House, a transitional home for young mothers and their children.
Although it is being billed as a “mixed-use” commercial development of the Washington Park National Bank Building in Woodlawn, it is still the demolition of a 95-year-old South Side landmark.
The deterioration of the once majestic structure is a testament to the neglect and abandonment that has existed in Woodlawn.
At the intersection of 63rd & Cottage Grove, developers are shaping Woodlawn’s future by curating its past.
With the Obama Presidential Center proposed for Jackson Park, the University of Chicago’s continuing development along 61st Street, and a myriad of other projects large and small, residents are asking: what will Woodlawn become? This is the third article in a series investigating the past, present, and future of the neighborhood. Read the first here, and the second here.
Several recent home sales in Woodlawn broke the record for the priciest residential deals in the neighborhood. Three new-construction homes in the 6100 block of South Ellis Avenue traded for $708,000, $707,000 and $699,000, according to Midwest Real Estate Data. A year ago, the record was $599,000, and the neighborhood since notched six sales of $625,000 or more. Plans for the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park and the proximity to the University of Chicago have boosted property values in the area.
When Mayor Rahm Emanuel cuts the ribbon for the grand opening of Jewel-Osco in Woodlawn on Thursday morning, he will be doing more than celebrating the first grocery store to open there in 40 years.
Emanuel will be fulfilling a promise he made in his inaugural term as mayor when he convened a summit on food deserts.
With more than 8,700 census tracts designated as Opportunity Zones nationwide, the competition to receive funding from potential investors was a major focus of a conversation led by the Urban Institute. The question of who would benefit most from these investments marked a clear division between participants.
Sharon McFeders had been working at YWCA Metropolitan Chicago for five years under three CEOs when Dorri McWhorter became its new leader. The organization was losing money and sight of its mission, and the spirit overall was "just drab," McFeders recalls. She viewed McWhorter's entrance with a touch of skepticism. "Dorri comes in and she's happy," McFeders says. The then-executive assistant thought, "What's up her sleeve? Is she going to trick us with the happy and then drop a bomb?"
Chicago's Englewood community isn't inviting for even the most socially conscious real estate developers. In some parts of the crime-ridden South Side neighborhood, two-thirds of residents live below the poverty line, household incomes average less than $20,000 a year and violence clouds the prospect of any substantial economic development taking root.
Impact investing appears to have been seduced by a convenient narrative. According to the prevailing view, the achievement of both social impact and market-rate financial returns is the norm—not the exception. Those who question the financial returns aspect of this assumption are portrayed as lacking business savvy. “If we want to change things and we want to make an impact, we can’t be hippy-ish about this,” pop singer and philanthropist Bono said at the Skoll World Forum in April. “Impact investing has really been an excuse for good people to do bad deals.”
The Cottage Grove station on the Green Line — minutes from the future home of the Obama Presidential Center — is set for a major facelift, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other city officials announced Monday.
“We are investing in the future of the CTA, and in the future of Woodlawn,” the mayor said in a statement. “Investments like this one strengthen communities, attract private investment and drive neighborhood growth.”
