A South Side Conservative

Illinois Treasurer candidate Michael Scott Carter

by Osita Nwanevu 5 years ago

MAGGIE SIVIT

It can be awfully hard to tell at times if Illinois Treasurer candidate Michael Scott Carter is giving you a TED talk or a stump speech.

“We’re in the process of building a website that’ll be a clearinghouse for innovation,” he says earnestly about his work with the United Nations’ Leading Group on Innovative Financing for Development.

“I believe that if we’re able to turn our hat to making money solving people’s problems, I think the world will change instantly,” he continues. Continue reading →

Features | Politics | Pullman

Company Town

As support for a National Park builds, how will Pullman present its past?

by Osita Nwanevu 5 years ago 2 Comments

ALL PHOTOS BY LUKE WHITE

In 1893, one Mrs. Duane Doty, a Pullman resident, penned a slim volume titled “The Story of Pullman.”

“The history of civilization exhibits a steady growth and progress in the masses of the human race to higher levels,” she wrote. “In showing to the world that the interests of capital can be amply provided for while operatives…are made sharers in the results of good work, an example has been set here.” Continue reading →

Politics

How the South Side Votes: Business

by Osita Nwanevu 5 years ago

Chicago’s South Side aldermen are united in their support for greater economic development in their wards. But substantive differences exist between them on how to achieve that goal. Big-box retailers, the use of tax increment financing, gentrification, and the presence of affordable housing are all among the most contentious areas of the city’s economic policy. These quotes illustrate the stakes the South Side holds in debates over such economic issues.

The final part of a three-part series. Continue reading →

Politics

How the South Side Votes: Education

by Osita Nwanevu 5 years ago 1 Comment

No issue has divided Chicago as deeply in the past year as education. From last September’s Chicago Teachers Union strike, which left the city’s 350,000 students homebound, to the closure this year of fourty-nine Chicago Public Schools, the city’s South Side aldermen have had ample opportunities to sound off about how recent events affect their communities. These eight comments encapsulate the stakes the South Side holds in the city’s various education debates.

Continue reading →

Politics

How the South Side Votes: Violence

by Osita Nwanevu 5 years ago

Leading up to the October 16 council meeting, the first in a three-part series profiling the voting records of South Side aldermen. When it comes to addressing South Side violence, the city’s aldermen are mostly of the same mind and have cast uniform votes on gun control and other anti-violence legislation. However, the similarity of their voting records belies both real disparities between the rates of violence in their respective communities as well as the outspokenness of some members on certain anti-violence strategies and initiatives. Next week: Education. Continue reading →