Politics

Why Won’t Chicago Say What It’s Offering Amazon?

Transparency activist Freddy Martinez on his lawsuit against City Hall

by Rachel Schastok 2 months ago

David Alvarado

Lucy Parsons Labs, a Chicago- and San Francisco-based nonprofit that works toward more transparency in government and business, first gained attention in 2014 for its use of public records lawsuits to uncover the Chicago Police Department’s (CPD) undisclosed purchase and use of Stingray cell phone surveillance devices. In addition to concerns about surveillance, a 2016 investigation the nonprofit published with the Chicago Reader lent visibility to the CPD’s controversial use of civil asset forfeiture, the process by which police can seize money or goods they believe are connected to a crime. The CPD drew from its civil asset forfeiture funds to purchase the Stingrays and other surveillance equipment, their investigation found.

The Vice and Virtue of Todd Diederich

What are the stakes of photographing Chicago’s South Side?

by Rachel Schastok 3 years ago 1 Comment

Self-portrait (Todd Diederich)

Pam is standing in front of a rusted metal wall, unafraid and expressionless. She faces the camera of Todd Diederich, who tells me they’ve lost touch as of late, but that he still worries about her whereabouts. Continue reading →

Auburn Gresham | Housing

Revisiting Auburn Park

Parks, plats, and the shape of the South Side

by Rachel Schastok 3 years ago 3 Comments

Javier Suarez

On a map, Auburn Park appears as an unexpected departure from the city grid, its thin fingerlike lagoons passing under two narrow bridges on Normal and Eggleston Avenues.

Visual Arts

SSCAC at Seventy-Five

A conversation with executive director Maséqua Myers

by Rachel Schastok 3 years ago 1 Comment

Myers with a work by Joyce Owens in SSCAC's Dr. Margaret Burroughs Gallery. | Rachel Schastok

The South Side Community Art Center is located in a beautiful 1893 Georgian Revival house, the former home of a wealthy grain merchant. Its galleries and the row of arched windows in its third-story ballroom overlook a calm stretch of South Michigan Avenue in Bronzeville. SSCAC’s collections include federally commissioned art from the 1940s, works from the Black Arts Movement and the AfriCOBRA collective of the 1960s, as well as pieces by present-day artists. Continue reading →

Activism | Environment | Little Village

Citizens for an Unpolluted La Villita

Little Village’s fight for environmental justice

by Rachel Schastok 3 years ago

Ellie Mejia

On December 14, Mayor Rahm Emanuel spent the day in Little Village. He was the center of a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the newly completed Park 553, dubbed “La Villita” by residents and journalists, where he touted the twenty-two-acre site as one of several new green spaces opened during his time in office and a major victory for the park-starved neighborhood.

Music | Pilsen | Sports

Futbol Punks

Chitown Futbol does it all

by Rachel Schastok 4 years ago

On Saturday night, there’s a ten-foot Christmas tree lighting up the lobby of ChiTown Futbol. Packs of teenagers carrying soccer gear pour out of cars and into the stadium, a repurposed industrial building at the end of a quiet block off Cermak Avenue. The street dead-ends just past the parking area, giving way to beached shipping containers and one of the Chicago River’s freightloading channels. Continue reading →

Architecture

Open House Chicago

by Rachel Schastok 4 years ago

Many South Side neighborhoods have changed hands over the years, each community leaving behind architectural remnants as they gave way to a new population. One striking example of this pattern is places of worship. This past weekend, 150 buildings of all kinds across Chicago opened their doors to the public for this year’s Open House Chicago event, organized by the Chicago Architecture Foundation. We set out to explore a cross-section of churches to see what they reveal about the history of neighborhood change on our side of the city. These four sites illustrate how a place’s history becomes imprinted on its buildings, and the different ways those legacies become masked or celebrated over time. (Rachel Schastok)
Continue reading →

Back of the Yards | Best of the South Side 2014

Back of the Yards

by Rachel Schastok 4 years ago

DMITRY SAMAROV

Let the name be a clue—more than anything, this community, alternately known as New City, is and has always been defined by its proximity to what is perhaps Chicago’s most storied industry: the stockyards.The area was put on the map in 1865, when the Union Stockyard was established in what was then land outside city limits. Continue reading →

Best of the South Side 2014 | Little Italy | University Village

University Village & Little Italy

by Rachel Schastok 4 years ago

DMITRY SAMAROV

Both “University Village” and “Little Italy” could be considered misnomers—titles that describe the neighborhood by certain identities as others have been successively carved away. In fact, the story of this neighborhood contains many of the processes of change that mark the history of Chicago at large: the rise and fall of public housing, shifts in demographics, and urban renewal. Continue reading →

Junctures

64th & Cottage Grove

A tale of two buildings

by Rachel Schastok 4 years ago 6 Comments

Just a block south of the 63rd and Cottage Grove Green Line, on the northeast corner of the intersection, sits a squat two-story building. Its facade of light stone is punctuated by decorative maroon bricks and sets of three arched windows framed with golden wood. Continue reading →