Obrahma
With the election around the corner and Rahm’s ratings at an all-time low, it only makes sense that Chicago’s incumbent mayor would enlist some celebrity endorsements—such as, for example, the President of the United States, soon-to-be-brought-home-? (see page 9) Chicagoan Barack Obama. You can go online or flip on the radio to hear Obama tout Rahm’s record—longer school day, higher minimum wage, the phrase “every neighborhood”—over the Spotify in-house ad music. The kicker is when Big O praises Rahm for “doing what’s right, instead of what’s popular,” as if it isn’t possible to do neither. For the record, eighty-seven percent of Chicagoans voted in November to raise the minimum wage.
Remembering Mr. Banks
It’s a sad week for Chicago sports. Ernie Banks, the Chicago Cubs Hall of Famer and eleven-time All-Star, died of a heart attack on January 23 at age eighty-three. The shortstop and first baseman, who spent all nineteen of his Major League seasons with the Cubs, was so beloved by the team’s fans that the famously caustic manager Leo “The Lip” Durocher once said, “I had to play the man or there would have been a revolution in the street.” He was often asked to recite his signature catchphrase—“Let’s play two!”—by random Chicagoans; Banks always obliged. His bronze statue, which currently sits outside Wrigley Field, will be moved to Daley Plaza from Wednesday to Saturday so fans can pay their respects. Here’s to you, Mr. Cub.
Trouble Brewing
For the second time in one week, the owners of Bow Truss, a Pilsen boutique coffee shop opened last August, were greeted on Monday morning by anti-gentrification signs. The handmade signs, left on the shop’s front windows, read: “GENTRIFICATION IS NOT Welcome here! Racism and Classism smelllls like your coffee…” and “Te Gusta leche con tu cafe? Sugar with your GENTRIFICATION?” In response, Bow Truss owner Phil Tadros has reached out to 25th Ward Alderman Danny Solis for advice on how to handle the situation, and has declined to report the incident to the police. Speaking with DNAinfo, Tadros has extended an open hand to whoever put up the signs, expressing a wish to meet with the community at his shop. “To do anything positive, or move forward, we have to have a conversation with the people doing this. We aren’t here to harm anyone,” he said. Meanwhile, on Facebook and EveryBlock, a conversation has been triggered. Commenters are weighing in on both sides, with some denouncing the signs as foolish and reductive and others expressing real concern over gentrification’s racial displacement and Bow Truss’s expansion from their original North Side locales of River North and Lakeview. Whether you choose to look at these signs as sharp commentary on change in the neighborhood or as pointless rabblerousing, it’s clear that there’s a conversation to be had regarding gentrification, artisanal coffee, and business ownership in Pilsen.