chicagotribune--2020-08-14--In another troubled time, Englewood continues efforts to transform

“ First and foremost I think it will be a refreshing type of place to have inside of Englewood , @ @ @ @ @ 26 , as he recently carried boards as part of the construction work for the @ @ @ @ @ Then ) I really thought about the job and the Fresh Market .
I want @ @ @ @ @ cousins or my little kids or my nieces and nephews that I built this .
@ @ @ @ @ and everybody I know , ‘ Man , I had a part in that.
‘ @

Demetrius Johnson, left, who grew up in the Englewood neighborhood, pulls old nails out of a two-by-four as Dominique Richardson, lead carpenter, looks on at the work site for the Go Green on Racine project at South Racine and West 63rd Street in Chicago on Aug. 11, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
On the second story of the brown brick storefront at 63rd Street and Racine Avenue, sunlight spilled onto exposed walls as construction workers in hard hats hauled wood studs and buzz saws whined.
Above, through the still-open roof, was the infinite blue sky.
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Englewood residents and organizers have big plans for the building at the intersection that unites the east and west parts of their community. It will be home to a Fresh Market grocery and food co-op, the first step of a redevelopment that aims to transform vacant lots and abandoned buildings into amenities that include the food store, a recycling operation, a health center, a business incubator, mixed-use housing, a job training site and a restaurant.
The hope is the final step will be the reopening of the Racine Green Line stop, a historic landmark that was shuttered some 25 years ago, a decision that for residents symbolized disinvestment along racial lines — abandonment that made Englewood synonymous in Chicago with poverty, lack of opportunity and high crime. The idea has the backing of local Ald. Stephanie Coleman, 16th.
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The Go Green on Racine project at South Racine and West 63rd Street in Chicago on Aug. 11, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
On Sunday, the neighborhood once again found itself the focus of unwanted attention, when Chicago police shot and wounded a 20-year-old man at 56th and Aberdeen streets after he allegedly fired a gun at officers.
The shooting and the man’s arrest touched off a tense standoff with police on the block. Authorities have said the series of events may have helped ignite looting downtown that stretched all the way into sunrise Monday morning.
But at the same time the looting was ending in the center of the city, there was a different gathering back in Englewood at the 63rd and Racine construction site.
Nearly 20 men, many of whom acknowledge they have been involved in street violence in the past and are trying to find a new path, stood in a circle to celebrate the start of a week’s worth of asbestos training so they can work on buildings that will be part of “Go Green on Racine.”
“We succeed!” their voices sounded loudly in a call-and-response, “By strengthening! Each other!”
Residents and activists in Englewood said this early morning meeting — and all the work around the new development — reflects a long-standing, sometimes overlooked determination by residents there to overcome the odds and improve their neighborhood.
Demetrius Johnson, middle, who grew up in the Englewood neighborhood, cuts a two-by-four as Dominique Richardson, lead carpenter, looks on at the work site for the Go Green on Racine project at South Racine and West 63rd Street in Chicago on Aug. 11, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Parish Archer, 58, was biking west in the alley that runs between the development fence and the “L” on a recent morning.
“I say, 90%, Englewood really needs it,” said Archer, who has family in Englewood and was cycling four blocks to the Ashland Green Line stop.
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Archer said he would have stopped to use the Racine stop if he could have. Today the station sits empty, with debris visible behind the rusted the gates. Every 15 minutes or so the trains rattle by, halting conversations below.
He said he sees promise in the development — fresh food for seniors, community space where people can “intermingle,” including the young gang members who could use some wisdom from the older guys.
The market broke ground in February, and those helping to make it happen said they already feel a sense of pride.
“First and foremost I think it will be a refreshing type of place to have inside of Englewood,” said Demetrius Johnson, 26, as he recently carried boards as part of the construction work for the Fresh Market. “(Then) I really thought about the job and the Fresh Market. I want to one day tell my cousins or my little kids or my nieces and nephews that I built this. I would tell the neighbors and everybody I know, ‘Man, I had a part in that.‘”
Johnson also figures he is passing something down to his younger family members too.
“If my uncle can do it,” he hopes they will conclude, “I can too.”
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And it’s not the only investment Englewood has seen in recent times. Abandoned lots have been transformed to community art and gathering spaces. Each September, Hamilton Park fills for a jazz fest that draws national talent and features local jazz students. Residents and outreach workers have continued to work with police to reduce crime, despite how intractable it seems. A Whole Foods and Starbucks opened in 2016, and a new high school in 2019.
“Go Green on Racine” is the latest grand vision for the neighborhood, building off 10 years of neighborhood quality-of-life plans that have been fused into one idea. A year ago, community leaders started gathering groups that could “work toward action” and began putting plans to paper, said Asiaha Butler, the executive director of R.A.G.E., the Resident Association of Greater Englewood, one of four organizations partnering on the project.
“We’re going to see this realized,” Butler said. “It’s personal for us.”
Johnson is a participant at the Inner-City Muslim Action Network, or IMAN, another of the four partner groups. IMAN provides social services to Chicago’s marginalized neighborhoods, including health care, and job training and housing for former inmates and high-risk youth.
Johnson and the other workers at the Fresh Market site are participants at the Inner-City Muslim Action Network, or IMAN, another of the four partner groups. The Go Green project was recently recognized as a “Chicago Prize” finalist by the Pritzker Traubert Foundation, which awarded its first ever $10 million neighborhood development grant.
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Though they did not secure the ultimate prize, “Go Green on Racine” will get continued support from the foundation. The project also has earned about $4 million in city funds and private donations, and on Saturday — the day before the controversial shooting about six blocks away — Mayor Lori Lightfoot paid a visit to the site.
Locals in the neighborhood noticed the arrival of the mayor, and a few days later said it was a good move for her to appear.
“You run the city, you got to come here and see what the residents need,” said one man, as he stood on Racine with two other residents on a recent day.
For too many years, though, policymakers and others in power not only failed to pay attention, they also allowed resources to drain out of Englewood, said Arthur Ingram, 77, who lives on Racine, a few doors south of the Fresh Market development.
Over the years, Ingram, a retired teachers aide, watched the nearby bustling Halsted Street business district of movie theaters and stores like Sears and Wieboldt’s fade out. Later, it was the schools that closed, including Woods Elementary, which was shuttered during the 2013 school closures and is a central part of the Go Green development.
When talking about the idea to reopen the train stop as well, Ingram offered a concise dissertation on low points in Chicago’s history that many see as racist. After resources drained away from Englewood, residents who were left behind struggled.
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“They shoulda never closed that,” he said of the Green Line. “They did that ‘cause it turned Black. Just like they do. Simply because we’re Black. Redlining us.”
The closure of the stop happened in 1996, during a massive renovation of the line. At the time, closing stations was seen as a way to speed service and keep costs down.
The “Go Green on Racine” plan is looking to reverse that kind of disinvestment, and include everyone. It will not only have job training, but also dorm-style housing for people returning from prison. As he readied to head back off on his bicycle, Archer said this is a welcome layer to the project.
“Keep hope alive,” Archer said with a smile, quoting the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. “You bring hope, that is what it’s all about.”
Just behind the fence where Archer had stopped, construction on the Fresh Market continued. There, Demetrius Johnson, along with other IMAN participants, were already earning a stipend as they worked alongside employees of UJAMAA Construction, construction manager on the Fresh Market.
The work matters a lot to Johnson, who said he has been shot twice in his life, including in 2011 at the Church’s Chicken on Halsted, when two of his friends were killed. He has a conviction of his own.
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Such violence has taken a toll. Johnson said he is a “loner” now and avoids crowds.
But, he said, he also has a girlfriend and is close with his family. That and the construction work keeps him stable and focused, he said.
“That is all I need,” he said. “And my motivation to keep working.”
That is the kind of inspiration that UJAMAA Construction President Jimmy Akintonde sees in the building.
“There is some excitement about the newness of a building, about a new environment,” said Akintonde, whose firm is one of five that has been given the contract to manage the building of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. “To be able to see hope in your community ... it elevates the mindset.”
Even Akintonde’s construction workers are feeling it.
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“This is the most exciting job I’ve been on,” said UJAMAA carpenter Dominique Richardson, who is helping to train Johnson and lives in Englewood.
“To see me with my hard hat on, going to work and working with young men chasing the same goal I’m on is amazing,” Richardson said this week at the job site. “The goal is to be productive and change the neighborhood. To be a productive Black man in the city of Chicago.”
Earlier that day Johnson and Richardson stood together — again, at daybreak — as members of the construction team and remediation crews gathered before heading to work.
Before they left, IMAN Executive Director Rami Nashashibispoke to the circle, acknowledging the painful recent days. The shooting and the destruction that had followed it. How friends had texted him, wondering how Englewood was handling it.
Then Nashashibi told the men to remember that the struggle to transform themselves and the neighborhood will not be easy. And it wouldn’t happen without one another.
“Look around,” he said. “We know drama is jumping off on the West Side. We know drama is jumping off here. But we know we can lift up a larger vision. Look at everyone in this circle. Collectively we are a power about building our community and demonstrating and defying every perception they have about Englewood.”


chicagotribune--2020-08-14--Column: The thrill of Kamala Harris’ rise comes with a dash of sorrow

I ’ m old enough to remember the excitement among Democrats when Walter Mondale chose Ferraro as his running mate @ @ @ @ @ on the day it happened an editor hustled over to my desk carrying the printout @ @ @ @ @ historic announcement , written by another reporter .
He asked me to rewrite it so @ @ @ @ @ , like the mention of Ferraro ’ s shoes and “ gams.
” I had @ @ @ @ @ ” That was the day I learned that a gam is “ an attractive female @ @ @ @ @ , I deleted all references to Ferraro ’ s body parts .

California Sen. Kamala Harris, former Vice President Joe Biden's choice as his Democratic vice presidential running mate, sits behind him as he speaks during a campaign event in Wilmington, Delaware, on Thursday, Aug. 12, 2020. (Carolyn Kaster / AP)
We’re number 2! We’re number 2!
There was a lot of cheering the other day when Joe Biden announced that Kamala Harris would be his running mate, the number 2 position, on the 2020 Democratic presidential ticket.
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Harris, a U.S. senator from California, is poised to become the first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to be nominated as vice president on a major party’s ticket. She’s only the third woman to score the number 2 spot on the ticket, the second Democrat since Geraldine Ferraro ran and lost way back in the antediluvian era called 1984.
For people who care about equality of opportunity, even if they don’t care for Harris, there’s a lot to cheer about. She represents several kinds of breakthrough, including a major one for women, which is why a lot of women feel a certain team spirit about her nomination.
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But in the midst of the jubilation, some of us have felt a pang of sorrow, or its gentler relative, frustration. When a breakthrough is so overdue, the cheering is mixed with other feelings.
Do you cheer full throttle because the thing that should have happened sooner really might this time? Or cheer with a sigh because it took so long?
Do you cheer loud because number 2 is pretty close to the top? Or cheer with a sigh because women so often have trouble rising above the number 2 spot?
“We’re number 2!” just doesn’t have the ring of “We’re number 1!”
For those of us who’ve been around awhile, Harris’ nomination is far from shocking. What’s shocking is that this country has never had a female vice president or president. Two hundred forty-four years of these United States and not one woman in either spot.
More than once in in my lifetime the country has seemed on the verge of opening the top spots to a woman. Then, bam, up pops the barricade.
I’m old enough to remember the excitement among Democrats when Walter Mondale chose Ferraro as his running mate. I also remember how on the day it happened an editor hustled over to my desk carrying the printout of a story on the historic announcement, written by another reporter. He asked me to rewrite it so that it avoided sexist references, like the mention of Ferraro’s shoes and “gams.” I had to look up “gam.” That was the day I learned that a gam is “an attractive female leg.” In the rewrite, I deleted all references to Ferraro’s body parts.
In the years since, women of various races and ethnicities have gained political power. Reporters have become a little, if only a little, less reckless in their depictions of female candidates. By now, we take it for granted that women can be senators and congresspeople and big-city mayors. Sarah Palin was a Republican vice presidential nominee.
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And yet, in many realms, whether it’s presidential politics or the average workplace, women still have trouble making it all the way to the top. Women still get stuck as almosts, also-rans, the actor with second billing, the associate, the second banana. Number 2.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, was almost elected president of the United States. She did, in fact, win the most votes, but in the end she became just another woman who almost made it to the top.
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This year, Elizabeth Warren and other women, including Harris, seemed to have a shot at being the Democratic presidential nominee. A couple almost made it.
Don’t misunderstand. I’m not advocating voting for a woman “because she’s a woman” and I don’t know any woman who ever has. But a lot of us get excited when a woman rises to the top because it signals that women can rise, that the path is open, that the “No Girls Allowed” sign is down.
Every woman who rises in her field makes it a tiny bit easier for the next one simply by showing that it can be done.
After Biden announced Harris as his running mate, I heard a woman in her 70s marvel at the progress Harris represents. “Amazing what I’ve seen in my lifetime,” she said.
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She has a point. Until 100 years ago this month, American women didn’t have the right to vote. There are people alive today born into that backward time.
We have to trust that the rise of Kamala Harris moves us a little closer to the day when we take it for granted that in presidential politics and everywhere else, women can be number 1.
mschmich@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-08-15--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 2,264 new known COVID-19 cases as state puts 14 counties on warning

Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 2,264 new known COVID-19 cases as state puts 14 counties on warning list and blames local officials for failing to enforce social distancing and isolation orders

They bring their violins and trumpets , saxophones and cellos for the chance to learn from the masters who teach @ @ @ @ @ play in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra , Lyric Opera and the city ’ s many @ @ @ @ @ students — from as near as Hyde Park and as far as Shanghai — get @ @ @ @ @ ensembles , participate in master classes with visiting virtuosos and otherwise revel in the cultural @ @ @ @ @ city .

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Paca Kujtim of Arlington Heights self-administers a COVID-19 test in his car at the Arlington International Racecourse on March 31, 2021 in Arlington Heights. Kujtim was getting testing as a precaution for upcoming travel. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
The number of COVID-19 cases in Illinois continues to trend upward as state public health officials Friday announced 2,264 new known cases of COVID-19 and 25 additional confirmed deaths.
The state has now logged 202,691 cases overall. The number of cases across the country now totals 5.3 million.
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By comparison, California on Thursday became the first state to report more than 600,000 coronavirus cases since the virus arrived at the beginning of the year. With more than 10,800 fatalities, the state now ranks third in the country for the worst death toll, behind New York and New Jersey. In Illinois, the confirmed death toll is 7,721 as of Friday.
[ Have a question about coronavirus testing? Submit it here and local health experts will provide the answer. ]
Additionally, 14 of Illinois’ 102 counties were deemed at “warning level” for a resurgence of COVID-19 on Friday, with the state blaming the virus’s spread in part on poor messaging from local elected officials in “communities where there is little public concern for consequences or enforcement” of social distancing and isolation orders.
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The state Department of Public Health said some of the cases and outbreaks seen in the 14 counties stem from long-term care facilities, businesses, bars and sports camps and gatherings such as weddings or parties.
And the continued rise in cases has increased pressure on school districts, which must decide whether to open their doors to students.
In one case, officials at Evanston/Skokie School District 65 say they have been in touch with law enforcement after receiving threatening emails following a Fox News story detailing their reopening plans.
An online news story reported that students of color may receive priority for limited in-person classroom spots, but the preference is based on which students would most benefit from in-person instruction, not on race, officials say.
Here’s what’s happening Friday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
7:30 p.m. (update): US Postal Service warns it cannot guarantee mail-in ballots for November election will arrive in time to be counted
The U.S. Postal Service is warning states coast to coast that it cannot guarantee all ballots cast by mail for the November election will arrive in time to be counted, even if mailed by state deadlines, raising the possibility that millions of voters could be disenfranchised.
Voters and lawmakers in several states are also complaining that some curbside mail collection boxes are being removed.
Even as President Donald Trump rails against widescale voting by mail, the post office is bracing for an unprecedented number of mail-in ballots as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
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The warning letters sent to states raise the possibility that many Americans eligible for mail-in ballots this fall will not have them counted. But that is not the intent, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in his own letter to Democratic congressional leaders.
Read more here. —Associated Press
7:14 p.m.: 3.5% of local businesses close to failing, 50% have experienced ‘significant revenue loss,’ new Naperville chamber survey says
Nearly 3.5% of the businesses that completed a Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce survey said they are on the verge of shutting their doors as a result of the ongoing pandemic and more than 50% say they’ve experienced a “significant revenue loss.”
The study is the second conducted by the chamber since the spring to gauge the pandemic’s effect on local businesses in regards to revenue, operations, employees and customers. Results from the first survey were released in May.
The final polling date was July 31 and 188 area businesses responded.
About 63% of businesses said they have enough in cash reserves to stay open 12 months or less if current restrictions on group sizes, social distancing and maximum occupancy remain in place for the long term.
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The survey also shows 33% anticipate having to reduce staff positions and/or hours in the coming weeks, 48% predict slower sales and 21% are concerned with disruptions in the supply chain.
“I think in general, retail is doing poorly. For the most part it’s been a difficult time for small businesses up and down Jefferson Avenue,” said Ian Holzhauer, the chamber’s board chairman.
Read more here. —Erin Hegarty
4:48 p.m.: Football showcase event in Naperville broke COVID-19 guidelines, park district says
A middle school and high school football showcase event held by an independent organization on field space rented from the Naperville Park District last weekend broke state COVID-19 health and safety guidelines, park district officials said.
Midwest BOOM Football rented a synthetic turf football field at Commissioners Park, near 248th Street and 111th Street, for an event Aug. 8-9, said Brad Wilson, park district director of recreation and facilities. Violations of social distancing guidelines and face-covering requirements were reported to the park district the night of Aug. 8, officials said.
Midwest BOOM normally holds its showcase event — meant to give middle school and high school athletes the chance to showcase their speed, agility, power, skills and performance in competition to college coaches, scouts and recruiting media — in the winter, but wanted to get it in before more strict guidelines on football go into place Saturday, said J.R. Niklos, general manager for Midwest BOOM.
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The event included about 200 middle school students Aug. 8 and about 300 high school students Aug. 9. The groups were broken into pods of 40 players, and the pods rotated through different stations over a period of four hours each day, Niklos said.
Hand sanitizer was available, and athletes had their temperatures checked before the event, Niklos said. Each athlete was offered a face mask at check-in, though they were not required to wear them.
Read more here. —Erin Hegarty
3:22 p.m.: Chicago Public Library branch on North Side temporarily closed after employee tests positive for COVID-19
A Chicago Public Library branch on the North Side will be closed for at least the next week and a half after an employee tested positive for COVID-19.
Staff who were in close contact with the infected employee at the Roden branch in the Norwood Park East neighborhood have been told to quarantine for the next 14 days, according to spokeswoman Olivia Kuncio.
Read more here. —Sophie Sherry
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2:25 p.m.: Illinois puts 14 counties on COVID-19 warning list, blames local officials for failing to enforce social distancing and isolation orders
Fourteen of Illinois’ 102 counties were deemed at “warning level” for a resurgence of COVID-19 on Friday, with the state blaming the virus’s spread in part on poor messaging from local elected officials in “communities where there is little public concern for consequences or enforcement” of social distancing and isolation orders.
The warning level designation means those counties have surpassed a threshold for at least two coronavirus indicators, such as the number of deaths, weekly hospital admissions for people with COVID-19-like illness and availability of intensive care beds.
The counties on the state’s latest warning list are Bureau, Cass, Clinton, Franklin, Greene, Grundy, Hancock, Jefferson, Kane, LaSalle, Moultrie, Perry, Union and Will. It’s largely different from the list issued last week, when 13 counties were put at warning level.
Cass County in central Illinois and Perry County in southern Illinois have appeared on the warning list three weeks in a row, while Grundy and Union counties made their second consecutive appearance on the weekly list on Friday.
The other 10 counties did not appear on the list last week.
The state Department of Public Health said some of the cases and outbreaks seen in the 14 counties stem from long-term care facilities, businesses, bars and sports camps and gatherings such as weddings or parties.
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Without offering specifics, the department laid some of the blame for the spread on local elected officials.
“Inconsistent messaging from local elected leaders are contributing to ongoing transmission in some communities where there is little public concern for consequences or enforcement of social distancing, banning large gatherings, or quarantine/isolation orders,” the department said in a news release.
Read more here. —Jamie Munks
1:55 p.m.: Have a question about coronavirus testing? Submit it here and local health experts will provide the answer.
What are some of your lingering questions about COVID-19 testing? The Tribune will be talking to scientists and physicians about everything from the different types of coronavirus tests to various reasons for getting tested to the impact testing has on fighting the virus. What would you like to ask experts?
Click here to submit your questions. —Chicago Tribune staff
1:02 p.m.: Facing a no-visitor hospital policy due to coronavirus, Lakeview woman begs to see her terminally ill husband
Christine Jeras just wanted to hold her terminally ill husband’s hand.
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Kevin Jeras has been fighting pancreatic cancer, which is now at stage 4, for almost two years. On Monday, after he experienced trouble breathing, he was hospitalized at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Lakeview.
The hospital has a no-visitor policy because of the coronavirus pandemic. Christine Jeras felt helpless Monday, she said, because she wasn’t permitted to see her husband. She spent the whole day pleading with anyone she could get on the phone.
“He didn’t survive 22 months to go out in a hospital by himself,” she said.
Read more here. —Alison Bowen
12:03 p.m.: 2,264 new known COVID-19 cases, 25 additional deaths
Illinois public health officials reported 2,264 new confirmed cases of coronavirus on Friday and 25 additional deaths of people with COVID-19.
Those daily figures push the known case count statewide to 202,691. There have been 7,721 with COVID-19 who have died during the course of the pandemic, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
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There were 49,541 tests conducted by labs in Illinois during the previous 24 hours, pushing the total tests conducted to date to nearly 3.9 million.
The seven-day average statewide positivity rate for cases stood at 4.1% as of Thursday, and as of Thursday night, 1,612 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Illinois. Of those hospitalized, 345 were in intensive care units and 126 patients were on ventilators.
The seven-day average statewide positivity rate for cases was 3% on July 14.
The state Department of Public Health warned that the Metro East region outside St. Louis is “seeing increases in test positivity rates and could surpass the resurgence metrics in coming days.”
Among the triggers for the state to impose stricter limits to slow the spread of coronavirus is a region logging three days in a row with an average positivity rate that surpasses 8%.
Read more here. —Jamie Munks
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10:39 a.m.: Young people across the country may be moving due to COVID-19, but it’s less clear whether Chicago millennials are following suit
A recent Pew Research Center study reported that around one in five Americans relocated this year due to COVID-19 or know someone who has, and the most popular reason for relocating was to reduce the risk of contracting COVID-19.
The demographic moving the most were those in the 18 to 29 age group, which includes younger millennials and their junior Gen Z cohorts. Next highest was the 30 to 45 group, comprised of older millennials and the tail end of Gen X.
However, it’s still unclear if the national trend bears out for Chicago, and experts say it’s too soon to tell what the long-term impact will be for city real estate.
Read more here. —Milan Polk
8:57 a.m.: Chicago restaurants sue for coronavirus insurance payouts, struggle to hang on. ‘We’re just hoping it’s not too little too late.’
Hundreds of businesses across the country, from Chicago’s iconic Billy Goat Tavern to heavyweight restaurant group Lettuce Entertain You, have filed lawsuits against their insurers alleging they were improperly denied coverage of income losses sustained as a result of COVID-19 and government orders to shut down. Now they are waiting, some barely hanging on, to see if any relief will come.
Some judges have started to rule on the central question in many of the suits, which is whether the virus or the mandatory shutdowns caused “direct physical loss” or “damage” to property necessary to trigger business interruption coverage.
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So far most rulings have favored insurers. In Washington, D.C., a Superior Court judge this week dismissed a case brought by several upscale restaurants, ruling the city-mandated shutdown did not amount to direct physical loss. A state judge in Michigan last month dismissed a suit brought by a restaurateur who claimed his inability to use his restaurants triggered coverage. A federal judge in New York in May denied a magazine publisher a preliminary injunction it had sought to force its insurer to pay up, saying the virus did not damage the property itself.
But businesses notched a win on Wednesday, when a federal judge in Missouri refused to dismiss a case filed by a group of hair salons and restaurants against Cincinnati Insurance Co. The judge said the businesses plausibly argued the virus caused a physical loss of their properties that could be covered under their policies.
Read more here. —Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz
8:05 a.m.: US retail sales back to pre-virus pace — but end of relief payments may bring slowdown
Americans increased their retail purchases by 1.2% in July, with solid gains in appliances and clothing, restoring sales to their level before the viral pandemic erupted in March.
Sales at retail stores and restaurants have now risen for three straight months, after enormous plunges in March and April, when the pandemic suddenly shuttered businesses and paralyzed the economy.
Still, much of that spending has been fueled by government relief spending that had put more money in people’s pockets but has since expired. With Americans’ overall income likely shrinking, economists expect a potential drop in spending and a weakening of economic growth.
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Read more here. —Associated Press
6:45 a.m.: Can you really teach how to shape a phrase of Chopin or a riff by Ellington online? Music schools sing a new tune for teaching during a pandemic.
Gifted young musicians from around the world converge in the Chicago area each fall for the same reason: to study at one of the widely revered music schools.
They bring their violins and trumpets, saxophones and cellos for the chance to learn from the masters who teach there, many of whom play in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera and the city’s many other musical institutions. The students — from as near as Hyde Park and as far as Shanghai — get to perform in superb university ensembles, participate in master classes with visiting virtuosos and otherwise revel in the cultural life of an intensely musical city.
All of this has been subverted by the pandemic. Which means the Chicago region’s top music schools have had to reinvent how they’ve been teaching the art form for generations.
Read more here. —Howard Reich
6:40 a.m.: You’re a college student planning to vote by mail in Illinois. What if COVID-19 sends you home but your ballot goes to your college?
College students hoping to register to vote in the Nov. 3 general election face extra uncertainty this year as campuses shift plans because of the coronavirus pandemic. Even so, students registered in Illinois can still vote by mail no matter their location.
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Here’s what you need to know if you’re a student hoping to vote by mail. —Kelli Smith
6:35 a.m.: Evanston school leaders report ‘ominous threats’ following Fox News coverage of reopening that highlighted approach to students of color
Officials at Evanston/Skokie School District 65 say they have been in touch with law enforcement after receiving threatening emails following a Fox News story detailing their reopening plans.
The online news story reported that students of color may receive priority for limited in-person classroom spots ahead of white students when school resumes. School officials point out their approach is more nuanced, and based on which students would most benefit from in-person instruction, not on race. They say the timing of the report’s publication coincided with a rise in messages, and in one specific case a threatening email.
On July 22, the school board approved plans for a hybrid model featuring both in-person and remote learning options. Under the district’s plan, parents can choose to have their students learn all online or return to the school building for four days per week of in-person instruction. The plans were also discussed at a virtual town hall last month.
Board President Anya Tanyavutti said Wednesday that because the district is operating at a reduced building capacity to accommodate social distancing and other concerns in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a chance more students and parents will choose in-person learning over remote learning than there are seats are available.
If that happens, the district will prioritize in-person slots for students who have learning challenges, receive free or reduced lunch, are homeless or who face other unique issues that would especially benefit from in-person instruction, board members and district administrators said. While race is not a determining factor, Evanston’s Black and Latino students comprise much of this group, officials said.
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The Fox News story published online Aug. 7 with the headline “Illinois district includes students of color in groups with first chance at in-person learning: report.” It was after the publication of that story that Tanyavutti says the emails started.
Read more here. —Genevieve Bookwalter


chicagotribune--2020-08-15--The Spin: Lightfoot outlines Chicago’s new anti-looting measures | 14 counties, 2 collars, on COVID-

The Spin: Lightfoot outlines Chicago’s new anti-looting measures | 14 counties, 2 collars, on COVID-19 warning list | Former Cook County ethics board members frustrated

“ The proposed revisions to Cook County ’ s ethics ordinance , which the ethics board voted to recommend in @ @ @ @ @ nepotism in county hiring and county commissioners from taking certain outside jobs .
They also @ @ @ @ @ they have relatives who work for the county , introduce new rules to clamp down @ @ @ @ @ the state ’ s attorney from settling ethics lawsuits without the ethics board ’ s @ @ @ @ @ certain ethics violations .

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx elbow-bumped this afternoon, before a news conference to outline the city’s new, beefed-up strategies aimed at preventing future instances of widespread looting like what happened earlier this week.
Lightfoot and Foxx were among a number of officials on hand for the announcement, which includes additional law enforcement coordination, a specialized 20-person social media task force and rapid response teams.
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The state’s public health department added 14 Illinois counties to Illinois’ COVID-19 warning list today. Two of the counties in danger of a coronavirus resurgence are in Chicago’s collar counties.
And, the Bulls fired head coach Jim Boylen today.
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Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks at the South Shore Cultural Center in Chicago on July 9, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune)
From the Tribune’s Gregory Pratt and Jeremy Gorner: “Chicago police will boost their social media monitoring and create rapid response teams that will respond to looting and more quickly shut down areas of the city, such as downtown, if needed, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Friday.
“Under pressure to prevent a third round of widespread looting in the city, Lightfoot said police will increase monitoring of social media through a specialized 20-person task force and rapidly redeploy teams if they get wind of potential looting.”
In addition to Lightfoot and Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, a number of other government officials were there, including Chicago police Superintendent David Brown; downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly; Ald. Chris Taliaferro, the City Council’s public safety chairman; Lincoln Park Ald. Michele Smith; and Ald. Pat Dowell, who represents parts of the South Side and the South Loop. Emmerson Buie Jr., special agent in charge of the FBI’s Chicago office, a representative from U.S. Attorney John Lausch’s office, and representatives from business and community groups also attended. Read the rest here.
Margaret Daley, chairwoman of the Cook County Board of Ethics, makes a statement about her dismissal by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, during an ethics board meeting at the Cook County Administration Building on Jan. 23, 2020, in Chicago. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
From the Tribune’s Alice Yin: “When Margaret ‘Peggy’ Daley read the latest watchdog report on apparent clout hiring coursing through another Cook County governing body, she thought about her former role as chair of the county’s Board of Ethics.
“Last month the Office of the Independent Inspector General found commissioners at the Board of Review, which considers property tax appeals, repeatedly recruited job candidates based on personal and political connections, in what Daley said was a ‘pretty scathing’ expose. It came months after Cook County Commissioner Jeffrey Tobolski resigned following an FBI raid in his office in 2019.
“The ongoing instances of political patronage and corruption investigations makes Daley wish Cook County’s Board of Commissioners had made progress on the suggested ethics reforms she and her former colleagues rolled out the week of her abrupt ouster by Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle earlier this year.
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“ ‘You just read it and you just sigh,’ Daley, who was replaced on the ethics board in January, said about the inspector general report. ‘And you go, why?’
“The proposed revisions to Cook County’s ethics ordinance, which the ethics board voted to recommend in January, include forbidding both nepotism in county hiring and county commissioners from taking certain outside jobs. They also would mandate lobbyists disclose if they have relatives who work for the county, introduce new rules to clamp down on sexual harassment, prohibit the state’s attorney from settling ethics lawsuits without the ethics board’s approval and increase fines for certain ethics violations.
“Now, three of the board members who crafted the reforms are gone, and their recommendations haven’t moved forward. Preckwinkle, who appoints and reappoints ethics board members, told Daley her term would not be renewed in January, prompting board member David Grossman to resign in protest. Then Preckwinkle also informed Juliet Sorensen, who replaced Daley as chair, that her time on the ethics board would end in June.” Read more.
From Lauren Zumbach — Mayor: Macy’s considering leaving Water Tower Place
Letter carriers load mail trucks for deliveries at a U.S. Postal Service facility in McLean, Va., on July 31, 2020. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
From the AP: “The U.S. Postal Service has sent letters to 46 states and the District of Columbia, warning it cannot guarantee all ballots cast by mail for the November election will arrive in time to be counted, The Washington Post reported Friday.
“The Postal Service is bracing for an unprecedented number of mail-in ballots as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. But at the same time the need for timely delivery of the mail is peaking, service at the letter delivery agency has been curtailed amid a series of cost-cutting and efficiency measures implemented by its new leader.” Read more.
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Dr. M.S. Kapadia from Prism Heath Lab in Chicago talks to a client at a drive-thru COVID-19 testing site on Aug. 6, 2020. This is the first day of testing at this by-appointment-only site that will run seven days a week from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
From the Tribune’s Jamie Munks: “Fourteen of Illinois’ 102 counties were deemed at ‘warning level’ for a resurgence of COVID-19 on Friday, with the state blaming the virus’s spread in part on poor messaging from local elected officials in ‘communities where there is little public concern for consequences or enforcement’ of social distancing and isolation orders.
“The warning level designation means those counties have surpassed a threshold for at least two coronavirus indicators, such as the number of deaths, weekly hospital admissions for people with COVID-19-like illness and availability of intensive care beds.
“Statewide, officials reported 2,264 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus on Friday and 25 additional deaths of people with COVID-19. Those figures push the known case count statewide to 202,691, and the number of people with COVID-19 who have died since the pandemic began to 7,721.
“The counties on the state’s latest warning list are Bureau, Cass, Clinton, Franklin, Greene, Grundy, Hancock, Jefferson, Kane, LaSalle, Moultrie, Perry, Union and Will. It’s largely different from the list issued last week, when 13 counties were put at warning level.” Read the rest here.
Chicago Bulls head coach Jim Boylen walks on the court during a timeout in the second half of a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves at the United Center on Jan. 22, 2020, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
From the Tribune’s Jamal Collier: “The Chicago Bulls fired coach Jim Boylen on Friday morning, ending a rocky two-year tenure marked by an old-school approach, repeated clashes with players, head-scratching timeouts and not a lot of results to show for it.
“After he was promoted to head coach in December of 2018, Boylen went 39-84 in parts of two seasons, the second-worst winning percentage (.317) in franchise history behind Tim Floyd (.205).
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"The move was widely anticipated after the Bulls overhauled their front office this spring, bringing Arturas Karnisovas in as top basketball executive and ending John Paxson’s 17-year run as decision maker. Karnisovas then hired Marc Eversley as general manager to replace Gar Forman, and Paxson moved into a senior advisory role.
“A true organizational reshuffle would have been a difficult sell with the same coach in place, especially to a fanbase that grew disgruntled as the decision was delayed.” Read more here.
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chicagotribune--2020-08-14--Media coverage left some Black South Siders feeling misrepresented — again — after Englewood police

Media coverage left some Black South Siders feeling misrepresented — again — after Englewood police shooting, underscoring yearslong feelings of distrust

Officers said they responded to a call on Sunday about a young man in Englewood with a gun .
When @ @ @ @ @ young man , he ran away , they said , turning and shooting at them @ @ @ @ @ said they returned fire , wounding the young man .
Officials said the police were @ @ @ @ @ the time and that there is no video of the incident to validate their account @

Officers stand near crime scene tape after an argument erupted between police and residents after Latrell Allen was shot three times by CPD officers after he allegedly fired several rounds at two officers near the 5700 block of South Racine Avenue in the Englewood neighborhood on Aug. 9, 2020. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
Black Chicagoans have regularly felt hurt, anger and frustration by the way the news media covers their community. The reports and images that accompanied headlines Monday morning after a night of downtown looting resurfaced these feelings, reigniting the pains of a tense relationship.
While initial reports showed lots of pictures and videos of police and mostly Black people who were looting, there was little mention of the police shooting Sunday afternoon in Englewood.
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Of the 43 defendants who were charged with felonies this week in the looting, none of them, it appeared, was from Englewood. Though Chicago police had said the looting had its beginnings with the shooting, no one who made statements in court mentioned the incident. Police have not released copies of the social media posts they say organized and encouraged the looting.
“It’s just, ‘This thing happened.’ Not why it happened,” said Jessica Brown, a senior instructor of multimedia journalism at Loyola University Chicago.
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“Nobody just gets up and loots,” said Eva Maria Lewis, executive director of The Free Root Operation, a nonprofit that works to combat poverty-induced gun violence. “Everything was about the looting, and they didn’t even tell how it happened.”
The early news coverage, which evolved throughout Monday and into Tuesday, did eventually address the Englewood shooting more in depth. But the initial reports were all too familiar for Lewis and others, since many Black people feel consistently misrepresented by the city’s news outlets.
“Exhausting,” is how Brown put it. “People are … like, ‘We’ve had the same problems we had 20 years ago.’
“Maybe they feel like it’s some of the language that’s used or some of the visuals — the photographs, designs. Who are you photographing, who are you talking to, who are you putting in these spaces?” Brown said.
[ Englewood residents say downtown looting should not tarnish their neighborhood. ‘I don’t believe it’s fair.’ ]
While there is some dispute on how much to declare the looting a response to the Sunday afternoon police shooting in Englewood, no one disputes that the focus of online, TV and radio news coverage was on the damage to and theft from high-end stores downtown.
“The why is sometimes missing, and I guess that’s just a fact of you want to get something out real fast, which is problematic,” said Brown, who has worked in three newsrooms over her career.
Travis L. Dixon, a professor of communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has conducted decadeslong intensive research and analysis on the prevalence of stereotypes in mass media.
“My research has found consistently that traditional media and traditional media sites, for instance like newspapers, television, often tend to depict African Americans in unfavorable ways, usually as criminals, or as poor, or what have you,” said Dixon.
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There are some slight variations to this, Dixon said, primarily with national news outlets that sometimes give more context and coverage to issues like Black Lives Matter or why people are protesting, but this isn’t necessarily the case for local news.
“Local news, particularly television news, has a pretty bad track record when it comes to this, mostly in terms of the portrayals,” said Dixon. “They tend to just further stereotype the community, with few exceptions.”
Because of that, Black people have come to be largely distrustful of the media, Dixon said.
“There’s some nuance there, but I would say that in general, there’s a distrust; there’s an expectation that our communities are not going to be given a fair shake, we’re not going to be portrayed well, we’re going to be kind of negatively portrayed, depicted and stereotyped.”
Eva Maria Lewis stands outside her home June 4, 2020, in Chicago. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
Lewis said it’s more than a distrust between the media and Black Chicago.
“Distrust would be an understatement. They don’t work for us; they actually work against us. Distrust means that trust can be found or created,” she said. “Anti-Blackness is violent. It’s not distrust; it’s you are also the problem. You are the cops.”
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Tensions over the tarnished relationship between media and community members were felt by journalists Monday afternoon while they were in the midst of on-the-ground reporting near Garfield Park, according to a story from the Chicago Sun-Times.
“A reporter and photographer for the Chicago Sun-Times were threatened when they tried to talk to some people in the crowd,” the Sun-Times story said. According to a Tribune photo editor, a Tribune photographer was hit in the head by an object while covering the news Monday, but he continued working, the editor said. He was checked for a concussion the following day, the editor said.
In a Monday news conference, the police superintendent refuted the downtown looting was a form of organized protest, saying the event was “an incident of pure criminality” and “an act of violence against our police officers and against our city.”
Officers said they responded to a call on Sunday about a young man in Englewood with a gun. When police arrived and confronted the young man, he ran away, they said, turning and shooting at them in the process. Police said they returned fire, wounding the young man. Officials said the police were not wearing body cameras at the time and that there is no video of the incident to validate their account.
Lewis said that after watching Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s press conference about the looting, her mother, Valerie Andrews-Lewis, remarked that what was missing was a chance for community members to offer their perspective on public stages.
“What my mother said was that there should have been a child from Englewood (at the press conference) who can speak about what it means to grow up in Englewood, who can give context to people’s actions instead of them just calling people criminals and menaces to society with literally no one there to defend us,” said Lewis.
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“So, therefore, we need a rebuttal to the media. Where’s our podium? Where do we get the time to respond on live television and allow people to see that as well?
“But instead, or because the community doesn’t have the means to provide the context, or literally any information via the media, people see the Tribune, the Sun-Times, Channel 7, Channel 2 as the only source.”
Lewis believes the media prioritizes the police’s words and accounts of incidents in news coverage over that of the citizens.
“This my real question, radical question: How can the media be for us when they take what the police say as fact and not what we say as fact?” said Lewis, 21, who is also a student at the University of Pennsylvania.
The impact of one-dimensional news coverage doesn’t stop with making Black people feel a multitude of emotions. Such coverage shapes personal and public perceptions across society, said Dixon, who has researched how negative portrayals impact perception.
“If you’re someone who is regularly exposed to this kind of coverage that is biased, it tends to cause you to engage in stereotyping when it comes to those communities,” Dixon said. “So when people think about African Americans, what comes to mind is they’re criminals, or they’re poor, or maybe they’re disrespectful. Those are the things that come to mind. Well, why? Because they’ve seen it regularly in the mass media, particularly traditional mass media, particularly local news.”
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Dixon said that biased news coverage can also impact how Black people perceive one another.
“We know that as a result of that coverage, all of us tend to be painted in this very negative light. And it has an impact on our own experiences and interactions outside of our communities, and inside our communities as well,” he said. “That’s kind of what’s come to be expected from a lot of African Americans as a result of these biased portrayals that have essentially been occurring on a regular basis.”
Will Lee contributed to this report.
Editor’s note: This report has been updated to include details about the defendants who appeared in court.
chrjohnson@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-08-14--Mayor Lori Lightfoot announces beefed-up Chicago police plan to track, prevent future looting throug

Mayor Lori Lightfoot announces beefed-up Chicago police plan to track, prevent future looting throughout city

“ It ’ s not what took so long .
When we see new challenges and threats to our city @ @ @ @ @ nimble , we have to adjust , and what you heard today and what you @ @ @ @ @ week … is us being responsive to our businesses , to our residents , and @ @ @ @ @ received about potential threats , ” she said .

Chicago police will boost their social media monitoring and create rapid response teams that will respond to looting and more quickly shut down areas of the city, such as downtown, if needed, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Friday.
Under pressure to prevent a third round of widespread looting in the city, Lightfoot said police will increase monitoring of social media through a specialized 20-person task force and rapidly redeploy teams if they get wind of potential looting.
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Streets and Sanitation trucks also will be used to help block traffic, and the city will deploy “new and enhanced tactics” to shut down parts of the city as necessary, including blocking and disabling vehicles, and using concrete structures to limit movement, she said.
A special task force on looting also is being created, she said.
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“There can never be any place in Chicago where businesses are afraid to open, where residents and visitors are afraid to travel and shop, or where employees are afraid to go to work,” Lightfoot said.
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Chicagoans woke up Monday morning to the aftermath of overnight looting and violence downtown. Authorities have said the looting was linked to the shooting of a 20-year-old man, who was wounded by police Sunday afternoon in Englewood, though none of the criminal charges filed against defendants substantiate the claim. This week’s looting marked the second time in roughly two months that Chicago businesses were targeted, causing millions of dollars worth of property damage and stolen goods.
Among other things, the plan Lightfoot outlined Friday also calls for police to work with local community, religious and business leaders, and hold weekly meetings. The city also is working with the FBI, state police and Cook County sheriff’s officers to combat looting, officials said.
Lightfoot announced the city’s plan alongside police Superintendent David Brown; downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly; Ald. Chris Taliaferro, the City Council’s public safety chairman; Lincoln Park Ald. Michele Smith; and Ald. Pat Dowell, who represents parts of the South Side and the South Loop. The FBI special agent in charge and a representative from U.S. Attorney John Lausch’s office also attended.
Lightfoot also spoke alongside Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, whom she and Brown implicitly criticized earlier in the week for how her office handled looting cases in the spring.
Brown said the city’s message is simple.
“Chicago does not belong to looters and thieves,” Brown said. “Chicago belongs to the good people who work hard every day to earn an honest living.”
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The FBI also is working with Chicago police on cases involving the unrest and other crimes. In Chicago, the FBI and other federal agencies have been beefed up this summer as part of a federal Trump administration effort dubbed Operation Legend to address spikes in violence in several U.S. cities.
“I’ve never seen it like this in Chicago. It’s enough,” Emmerson Buie Jr., special agent in charge of the FBI’s Chicago office, said at the news conference. “We all have to take a stand. We have to bond. We have to band together.”
Lightfoot disputed criticism that her administration has been slow in creating a looting plan.
“It’s not what took so long. When we see new challenges and threats to our city, we have to be nimble, we have to adjust, and what you heard today and what you’ll be seeing this week … is us being responsive to our businesses, to our residents, and understanding the intelligence we have received about potential threats,” she said.
The mayor also rebutted criticism that the city’s move to raise bridges increases the divide between Chicago neighborhoods and downtown. Rather, Lightfoot said, raising the bridges reduces the flow of people heading into downtown and shrinks the area police need to protect.
Brown acknowledged the city’s social media task force isn’t entirely new, as the department’s long had cops who’ve looked at publicly available social media, but he said he wants to expand its “capacity.”
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Brown also said the city will consider using pepper spray on looters in the future.
In past years, Chicago police gang officers have used social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to track public profiles of people who they’ve alleged could be driving violence and other crime in the city.
And police have claimed for several years that some of the city's violence stems from feuds that erupt over social media. Gang members have been known to post menacing videos on YouTube, showing them furtively entering rival territory, waving guns and issuing threats.
The Police Department has also had detectives who specialize in scouring social media to conduct investigations. These detectives were relied upon during the investigation into actor Jussie Smollett, who has been charged with a felony for filing a false police report amid suspicions that he faked a hate crime on himself in January 2019.
Prior to the looting in the downtown area early Monday, CPD was alerted to the potential chaos beforehand by a social media post.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois filed a lawsuit in 2018 in Cook County Circuit Court against CPD, trying to force the department to release documents related to its use of social media software, which can help law enforcement monitor, collect and analyze the social media activity of private citizens. The group had filed an open-records request for such documents, and CPD initially promised to release them before backing off, the group has alleged.
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“Social media monitoring by law enforcement holds a number of dangers, including chilling protected speech and opening the door to targeting based on protected speech, race, association, and neighborhood. It is therefore imperative that the City be fully transparent about the work of the new task force and ensure that its work not target Black and Latinx residents of Chicago for increased police scrutiny and encounters,” Colleen Connell, the ACLU of Illinois’ executive director, said in a statement. “And, these investigations using social media monitoring should not be used to discourage or dissuade people in the City from expressing their views — including strong opposition — on matters of public concern, including policing. Finally, the City should be transparent about any software used by CPD to monitor the social media of Chicago residents and how that software works.”
gpratt@chicagotribune.com
jgorner@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-08-14--Funeral held for Elias Valdez, 15, as investigation into his Glenview homicide continues: ‘He’s goin

Funeral held for Elias Valdez, 15, as investigation into his Glenview homicide continues: ‘He’s going to be missed a lot'

Guadagno ended with a prayer for Valdez , saying he and the boy ’ s loved ones should thank God @ @ @ @ @ him .
He prayed for the Valdez family , his younger sisters , his friends @ @ @ @ @ they heal from the loss .

Dozens of mourners gathered Friday to say their final goodbye as Elias Valdez, 15, was laid to rest.
Valdez was found in Glenview Aug. 5 with a stab wound to his chest and later died in surgery. The investigation into his death is ongoing but no arrests have been made, according to police.
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Due to COVID-19 precautions, the capacity at Ahlgrim Funeral Home in Palatine was limited to 50 people, but the service was also streamed live online for others to watch.
Red and white flowers adorned the teenager’s casket and a red candle burned nearby.
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Those in attendance at the funeral joined together in song, singing in Spanish “Amamos Tu Presencia a Dios” and “Dios Incomparable.”
They stood up as they sang, “Tu eres mi adoración y mi eterna cancion.”
Or in English, “You are my adoration and my eternal song.”
Elias Valdez, 15, died Aug. 5, 2020, in what Glenview police describe as a homicide. (Glenbrook District 225)
Carlos Guadagno, pastor at Corona de Amor in Palatine, spoke to the crowd. He said death isn’t easy, that it isn’t something people can control and some may wonder how they can praise God’s name when a child dies.
Guadagno ended with a prayer for Valdez, saying he and the boy’s loved ones should thank God for the opportunity to know him. He prayed for the Valdez family, his younger sisters, his friends and the greater community as they heal from the loss.
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After the service, mourners processed to St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Cemetery and Mausoleum in Palatine.
Valdez and his family have been members of Corona de Amor for the past few years, Guadagno said after the services. He said Valdez was well-liked and that he was protective of his younger sisters.
“He’s going to be missed a lot,” he said.
Guadagno said the church has been trying to help the family, offering up prayer and guidance as they cope with the tragedy. He said he hopes the family can find peace and understanding with time.
“Hopefully justice will be served, but we know justice doesn’t bring back a loved one, so even more important than justice — peace,” he said.
As of Friday, no arrests have been made and no further information was released, police said.
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An autopsy of Valdez determined that he died of a stab wound to the chest, and his death was ruled a homicide, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
The teenager was found lying in a grassy area in the 1200 block of Greenwood Road shortly after 7 p.m. on Aug. 5, police said. The area is a patch of tall grass between a subdivision, a few homes and a water pumping station.
A passerby called 911, police spokesman Sgt. Jim Foley said. A bike was found near the spot Valdez was found, but Foley declined to comment on its relation to the incident.
Glenbrook South High School principal Lauren Fagel wrote a message to families announcing the loss of Valdez shortly after he died. She described the student as “a kind, charismatic young man who exhibited great leadership qualities.” She said he loved his mom and family and that he had an “endearing spirit.”
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“The many adults who worked with Elias appreciated his devotion to his family, his kindness to others and his ability to quickly make friends and make others feel welcome,” she wrote.
She also said Valdez had joined the wrestling team in the previous school year. His coaches, in a statement provided by the school, said they recognized natural ability, drive and work ethic in him.
Anyone with information is urged to contact the police tip line, 847-901-6055, or via email, gpdtipline@glenview.il.us.
kedquist@chicagotribune.com
Twitter: @kaitlinedquist


chicagotribune--2020-08-14--Cook County Board of Ethics members ousted by Toni Preckwinkle are frustrated with shakeups, pace of

Cook County Board of Ethics members ousted by Toni Preckwinkle are frustrated with shakeups, pace of proposed reforms

“ President Preckwinkle truly appreciates the efforts the Ethics Board members have undertaken , ” Shields wrote .
“ As @ @ @ @ @ set to expire , we wanted to give other members of the public an opportunity @ @ @ @ @ the former board members all the best and thank them for their contributions and we @ @ @ @ @ partnership with the Board of Commissioners to determine how best to further enhance the County @ @ @ @ @ ”

Cook County Board of Ethics members Margaret "Peggy" Daley, right, and Juliet Sorensen, left, take part in one of the board's meetings, on Jan. 23, 2020. Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle did not reappoint Daley and Sorensen to the ethics board when their terms expired this year. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
When Margaret “Peggy” Daley read the latest watchdog report on apparent clout hiring coursing through another Cook County governing body, she thought about her former role as chair of the county’s Board of Ethics.
Last month the Office of the Independent Inspector General found commissioners at the Board of Review, which considers property tax appeals, repeatedly recruited job candidates based on personal and political connections, in what Daley said was a “pretty scathing” expose. It came months after Cook County Commissioner Jeffrey Tobolski resigned following an FBI raid in his office in 2019.
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The ongoing instances of political patronage and corruption investigations makes Daley wish Cook County’s Board of Commissioners had made progress on the suggested ethics reforms she and her former colleagues rolled out the week of her abrupt ouster by Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle earlier this year.
“You just read it and you just sigh,” Daley, who was replaced on the ethics board in January, said about the inspector general report. “And you go, why?”
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The proposed revisions to Cook County’s ethics ordinance, which the ethics board voted to recommend in January, include forbidding both nepotism in county hiring and county commissioners from taking certain outside jobs. They also would mandate lobbyists disclose if they have relatives who work for the county, introduce new rules to clamp down on sexual harassment, prohibit the state’s attorney from settling ethics lawsuits without the ethics board’s approval and increase fines for certain ethics violations.
Now, three of the board members who crafted the reforms are gone, and their recommendations haven’t moved forward. Preckwinkle, who appoints and reappoints ethics board members, told Daley her term would not be renewed in January, prompting board member David Grossman to resign in protest. Then Preckwinkle also informed Juliet Sorensen, who replaced Daley as chair, that her time on the ethics board would end in June.
Preckwinkle spokesman Nick Shields wrote in a statement that her office had been reviewing all county boards, not just the ethics body, in an examination of how to fill vacancies and make new and old appointments. The changes include the Cook County Board recommending an advisory committee for the medical examiner be dissolved because many of the office’s problems are resolved and killing the injury compensation review committee.
Shields also wrote that Preckwinkle has expanded protections against sexual harassment, the authority of the ethics board to impose sanctions, the mandated training for lobbyists and the number of county employees required to undergo ethics training.
“President Preckwinkle truly appreciates the efforts the Ethics Board members have undertaken,” Shields wrote. “As Board members’ terms were set to expire, we wanted to give other members of the public an opportunity to serve. We wish the former board members all the best and thank them for their contributions and we will continue to work in partnership with the Board of Commissioners to determine how best to further enhance the County’s ethics ordinance.”
The ethics board enforces the county’s ethics ordinance, which sets rules on how more than 20,000 county employees and officials should conduct themselves. Five unpaid board members are tasked with investigating complaints of ethics ordinance violations, spearheading audits, drafting up recommendations and other guidance.
Daley said she is cautiously hopeful for the prospect of an amendment to the current ethics ordinance that Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin, D-Evanston, said he plans to file for the next meeting on Sept. 24. Suffredin declined to elaborate beyond writing in a statement that it will be “comprehensive” and include many of the ethics board’s recommendations.
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But Daley said the progress should have come sooner and without what she described as an internal “debacle” within the ethics board. She and Sorensen also wonder why the board’s meetings have stopped entirely, to which Keith Chambers, executive director of the ethics board, said there was a lack of quorum after the last assembly on Feb. 26.
Pre-coronavirus, “efforts were underway” to fill vacancies, he told the Tribune in an email, but the pandemic delayed that process. Sept. 17 is the target date for when meetings will resume.
On the issue of board member churn, Chambers said there is no reason to think the board’s mission to deliver transparent government to Cook County residents has been jeopardized.
“It is important to keep in mind, the terms of previous board members had expired or were about to expire,” Chambers wrote. “To that end, turnover is to be expected during a transition period.”
Sorensen told the Tribune she was disappointed that she had to leave after a five-month stint as chair — so brief that she joked she was “the William Henry Harrison of ethics board chairs,” referring to the U.S. president who served just one month in office.
“I thought it was too bad,” Sorensen said. “The Board of Ethics functions best when its members are independent, reform-minded individuals who have significant training and experience in matters related to ethics, public corruption and the law. I would like to think I brought that to the board.”
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The Tribune previously reported that Sorensen, Daley and Grossman donated a combined $8,500 to the mayoral campaign of Preckwinkle’s then-political rival Lori Lightfoot, according to election records. But Daley wonders whether the issue of the ethics ordinance revisions was behind her departure.
“The feeling I got was that we were pushing this to happen, and they wanted to slow-walk it,” Daley said.
Shields maintains the time had simply come for fresh faces, despite the disagreement over how the the ethics board handled its suggested ordinance revisions. In a Jan. 21 letter from Preckwinkle’s special counsel, Laura Lechowicz Felicione, wrote that the office is “interested in more fully reviewing the proposed edits” because there were “areas that need additional consideration.” She suggested a meeting at the end of February or early March to “engage in the necessary legal research.”
The ethics board went ahead and approved the proposals without waiting, and Shields at the time stated that some members had “opted to grandstand.”
Daley and Sorensen balked at that characterization.
“We don’t want nobody that nobody didn’t send,” Daley said when asked about why she was no longer on the board.
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ayin@chicagotribune.com


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· A story on the front page of Friday’s Business section misstated the number of employees at Rivian, an electric truck maker startup company. It is 2,500.
The Tribune regrets the error.
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chicagotribune--2020-08-14--Those charged with downtown Chicago looting a mix of college students, out-of-work parents and convi

Those charged with downtown Chicago looting a mix of college students, out-of-work parents and convicted felons. But none have obvious ties to Englewood.

Foxx had been criticized as being too lenient after the lootings earlier this summer during the fallout from the killing @ @ @ @ @ hands of Minneapolis police .
After the mayor ’ s news conference , Foxx pushed @ @ @ @ @ few hours later , insisting that her office approved charges for the vast majority of @ @ @ @

Damaged windows at the Zara store following early morning looting in downtown Chicago on Aug. 10, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
After hundreds of people looted stores on the Mag Mile and elsewhere downtown, 43 defendants appeared before judges this week charged with felonies, an odd mix of peer-pressured college students, out-of-work parents and convicted felons.
But none of them, it appeared, were from Englewood, even though Chicago police say the widespread looting had its beginnings with a police shooting there Sunday afternoon. In fact no one who made statements in court even mentioned the incident, and police have not released copies of the social media posts they say organized and encouraged the looting.
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More than a hundred people were arrested as blocks of stores were trashed, 13 officers were injured and downtown was shut for hours as police struggled to control unruly crowds late Sunday into Monday morning. A security guard and another person were shot downtown.
At least one person was charged with attempted murder, five with aggravated battery against police or resisting arrest, 28 for burglary and looting, six for gun possession and the rest for theft or criminal damage to property.
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Police remain on the scene in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood after stores were looted early on Aug. 10, 2020. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
More than half of those taken into custody were charged with misdemeanors or were cited for civil violations or were let go. Chicago police have not released details. Detectives have promised more arrests and have set up a website of videos and photographs.
The first reports of looters came in late Sunday night, hours after police shot and wounded a 20-year-old who they say fired at them first near his home in Englewood.
Carloads of people descended on downtown and the North Side, smashing shop windows and carrying out TVs, Gucci and Louis Vuitton bags, iPhones, jewelry and other merchandise, sometimes piling them into waiting U-Hauls.
[ Police shooting of Englewood man reignites political debate and looting as Mag Mile trashed, 13 cops injured, 2 people shot ]
One of the first arrests downtown happened minutes before 1 a.m. when a man from the East Garfield Park neighborhood used a brick to smash a front window of the Burberry store on North Michigan Avenue.
As cops closed in, prosecutors said he hurled a brick and hit one of the officers in the head.
Up and down the Mag Mile, men and women were suddenly appearing outside upscale businesses and, like clockwork, smashing their way inside, taking thousands of dollars of merchandise and vanishing. The looting quickly moved to the South Loop and the Near North Side.
Two brothers and another man, all with felony backgrounds, allegedly helped clean out an Apple store near Halsted Street and North Avenue in Lincoln Park. When police pulled over their blue Chevy Tahoe, they found $17,000 worth of iPhones inside.
Glass is shattered in the Nordstrom store at Wabash and Grand Avenues after rioting and looting occurred in the Gold Coast area of the city early in the morning of Aug. 10, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
One of the brothers, 40, told police he had stayed clear of the law for years and was “disgusted with himself,” according to Cook County prosecutors.
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A church organ player and father of nine quickly surrendered after he was caught by police carrying boxes from the basement of a Gold Coast shoe store.
Another man, who has a pacemaker, told police he happened upon the looted Gucci store at 900 N. Michigan Ave. and helped himself until he caught sight of officers the moment he stepped outside.
He dropped the designer merchandise he had swiped, and it was quickly scooped up by others who ran off.
On Huron Street, video shows a man inside the Lester Lambert store methodically handing display cases of jewelry — as well as a gun found in a lockbox — to people waiting outside. As police arrived, he ran from the store and slammed into the commander of the Near North police district, knocking her to the ground.
He told arresting officers that he learned of the looting on Facebook.
Six men were caught with guns at looting scenes, including a convicted felon and registered gun offender who prosecutors said fled in a getaway car outside the Louis Vuitton store, leaving behind his loaded handgun with an extended magazine. He was ordered held on $300,000 bail.
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Arrests were also made at convenience and drugstores and strip malls in neighborhoods outside downtown.
Surveillance video captured three women and a man yank away security bars and smash a window at Stewart’s Liquors on West 75th Street in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood, prosecutors said.
The theft was stopped by police called to the scene. After her arrest, one of the women told police, “Everybody is out doing this.”
[ Mayor Lori Lightfoot announces beefed-up Chicago police plan to track, prevent future looting throughout city ]
Cameras also recorded a man using a baseball bat to smash a window of an Ulta beauty shop on the Southwest Side, then using shopping carts to wheel stolen goods to a car. Police caught up with him and the loaded car.
A number of people who appeared before Judge Mary Marubio this week were facing felony charges for the first time or had minor criminal backgrounds.
They included a 28-year-old Logan Square woman accused of looting the Gucci store. She was given a $1,000 cash bail, meaning she had to pay $100 to be released and comply with court-ordered rules of behavior.
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Another was a 20-year-old college student who told police she was pressured by friends into coming downtown but was left behind when officers caught her walking outside Gucci with $10,000 in merchandise.
Lack of a criminal background can be used by a judge as a mitigating factor when deciding bail. Marubio made frequent mention of the looting’s disruption and the city resources that were used to respond.
A number of those charged with felonies were parents, many of them unemployed during the pandemic, according to their court-appointed lawyers. Others had criminal backgrounds so minor, or had strong enough ties to the community, that they were given low bails.
While the mayor and the city’s top cop have suggested the looting was sparked by the police shooting in Englewood hours earlier, there is nothing in the court record to support that.
Activists and residents of the South Side neighborhood have pushed back on those suggestions, and relatives of the man shot by police have said they did not know about the looting and do not condone it.
[ Englewood residents say downtown looting should not tarnish their neighborhood. ‘I don’t believe it’s fair.’ ]
Mayor Lori Lightfoot has also pressed State’s Attorney Kim Foxx to make sure there will be “consequences” for the looting, which virtually shut downtown Monday morning as bridges were raised and trains were stopped to halt the looting.
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Foxx had been criticized as being too lenient after the lootings earlier this summer during the fallout from the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. After the mayor’s news conference, Foxx pushed back with her own a few hours later, insisting that her office approved charges for the vast majority of looting-related felony arrests.
In a statement released Thursday, her office said it declined to approve felony charges in only one case, and that police detectives had “concurred’' with the decision. No details of the arrest were released.
wlee@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @MidNoirCowboy


chicagotribune--2020-08-14--Coronavirus at Illinois long-term care facilities: 25,869 confirmed cases and 4,298 deaths

The Illinois Department of Public Health is releasing information on COVID-19 tied to long-term care facilities in Illinois .
The @ @ @ @ @ at 740 long-term care facilities in 64 counties .
Of those , 530 facilities have @ @ @ @ @ , defined as a positive test result in the past 28 days .
In all @ @ @ @ @ be tied to long-term care facilities , with 4,298 deaths , as of Aug. 14 @

The Illinois Department of Public Health is releasing information on COVID-19 tied to long-term care facilities in Illinois. The data shows outbreaks have occurred at long-term care facilities in 94 counties. Of those, 1,003 facilities have an “active” outbreak, defined as a positive test result in the past 28 days. In all, 71,103 confirmed cases can be tied to long-term care facilities, with 9,263 deaths, as of Jan. 22.


chicagotribune--2020-08-14--3 men fatally wounded overnight Thursday on South Side

Police said the man was inside his residence when he heard shots and felt pain .
He was struck in @ @ @ @ @ and was taken in critical condition to the University of Chicago Medical Center where he @ @ @ @ @ said .

Three men were fatally wounded overnight Thursday in shootings on the South Side, including a man who was struck by gunfire that came from outside his South Shore residence, Chicago police said.
Shortly before 12:45 a.m. Friday, a 35-year-old man was found shot multiple times in the 8800 block of South Burley Avenue in the South Chicago neighborhood.
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He was pronounced dead at Advocate Trinity Hospital, police said.
Shortly after 11:30 p.m. Thursday, a 27-year-old man was fatally wounded while he was driving through an alley in the 1000 block of West 108th Place in the Morgan Park neighborhood, police said.
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He was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead.
About 11:15 p.m., a 28-year-old man was shot in the South Shore neighborhood in the 7500 block of South Chappel Avenue.
Police said the man was inside his residence when he heard shots and felt pain. He was struck in the arm and chest, and was taken in critical condition to the University of Chicago Medical Center where he was pronounced dead, police said.
Police said it appears the gunshots came from the back of his residence.
Detectives were investigating.


chicagotribune--2020-08-14--Chicago Public Library branch on North Side temporarily closed after employee tests positive for COV

Chicago Public Library branch on North Side temporarily closed after employee tests positive for COVID-19

The Chicago Public Library closed all 81 branches for the first time in 150 years when the statewide stay-at-home order @ @ @ @ @ The libraries were one of the last public spaces to remain open ahead of the @ @ @ @ @ many staffers .

We have lifted the paywall on this story. To support essential reporting, please consider becoming a subscriber .
Information regarding germs and COVID-19 is posted on the doors of a branch library on March 19, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
A Chicago Public Library branch on the North Side will be closed for at least the next week and a half after an employee tested positive for COVID-19.
Staff who were in close contact with the infected employee at the Roden branch in the Norwood Park East neighborhood have been told to quarantine for the next 14 days, according to spokeswoman Olivia Kuncio.
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The branch has undergone deep cleaning and disinfecting and is tentatively set to reopen Aug. 26, Kuncio told the Tribune.
The Chicago Public Library closed all 81 branches for the first time in 150 years when the statewide stay-at-home order took effect in March. The libraries were one of the last public spaces to remain open ahead of the order, causing concern among many staffers.
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Most Chicago public libraries reopened in June while a few smaller branches, which were unable to meet social distancing guidelines, have remained closed.


chicagotribune--2020-08-14--Illinois puts 14 counties on COVID-19 warning list,  blames local officials for failing to enforce s

Illinois puts 14 counties on COVID-19 warning list,  blames local officials for failing to enforce social distancing and isolation orders

Fourteen of Illinois ’ 102 counties were deemed at “ warning level ” for a resurgence of COVID-19 on Friday @ @ @ @ @ the virus ’ s spread in part on poor messaging from local elected officials in @ @ @ @ @ little public concern for consequences or enforcement ” of social distancing and isolation orders .

Paca Kujtim of Arlington Heights self-administers a COVID-19 test in his car at the Arlington International Racecourse on March 31, 2021 in Arlington Heights. Kujtim was getting testing as a precaution for upcoming travel. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Fourteen of Illinois’ 102 counties were deemed at “warning level” for a resurgence of COVID-19 on Friday, with the state blaming the virus’s spread in part on poor messaging from local elected officials in “communities where there is little public concern for consequences or enforcement” of social distancing and isolation orders.
The warning level designation means those counties have surpassed a threshold for at least two coronavirus indicators, such as the number of deaths, weekly hospital admissions for people with COVID-19-like illness and availability of intensive care beds.
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Statewide, officials reported 2,264 new confirmed cases of coronavirus on Friday and 25 additional deaths of people with COVID-19. Those figures push the known case count statewide to 202,691, and the number of people with COVID-19 who have died since the pandemic began to 7,721.
The counties on the state’s latest warning list are Bureau, Cass, Clinton, Franklin, Greene, Grundy, Hancock, Jefferson, Kane, LaSalle, Moultrie, Perry, Union and Will. It’s largely different from the list issued last week, when 13 counties were put at warning level.
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Dr. M.S. Kapadia, from Prism Heath Lab in Chicago, talks to a client at a drive-thru COVID-19 testing area on Aug. 6, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
[ COVID-19 in Illinois by the numbers: Here’s a daily update on cases, positivity rate and hospital data in your area ]
Cass County in central Illinois and Perry County in southern Illinois have appeared on the warning list three weeks in a row, while Grundy and Union counties made their second consecutive appearance on the weekly list on Friday.
The other 10 counties did not appear on the list last week.
The state Department of Public Health said some of the cases and outbreaks seen in the 14 counties stem from long-term care facilities, businesses, bars and sports camps and gatherings such as weddings or parties.
Without offering specifics, the department laid some of the blame for the spread on local elected officials.
[ COVID-19 cases in Illinois by ZIP code: Search for your neighborhood ]
“Inconsistent messaging from local elected leaders are contributing to ongoing transmission in some communities where there is little public concern for consequences or enforcement of social distancing, banning large gatherings, or quarantine/isolation orders,” the department said in a news release.
Zul Kapadia, from Prism Heath Lab in Chicago, photographs a client's identification card as he conducts drive-thru COVID-19 testing on Aug. 6, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
The state also reported there were 49,541 tests conducted by labs in Illinois during the previous 24 hours, pushing the total tests conducted to date to nearly 3.9 million.
The seven-day average statewide positivity rate for cases stood at 4.1% as of Thursday, and as of Thursday night, 1,612 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Illinois. Of those hospitalized, 345 were in intensive care units and 126 were on ventilators.
The seven-day average statewide positivity rate for cases was 3% on July 14.
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The state health department warned that the Metro East region outside St. Louis is “seeing increases in test positivity rates and could surpass the resurgence metrics in coming days.”
Among the triggers for the state to impose stricter limits to slow the spread of coronavirus is a region logging three days in a row with an average positivity rate that surpasses 8%.
jmunks@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-08-14--Column: In Skokie, an architecturally arresting pot shop reveals how marijuana has gone mainstream

The exuberant design is even more startling when you realize that this is not a new building , but the @ @ @ @ @ : a former Bank of America branch that , according to Skokie associate planner Mike @ @ @ @ @ L. Rothschild & Co. store when it was built in 1956 .
Around 1971 , @ @ @ @ @ turned into a Vignola furniture store , it was a laughably bad example of the @ @ @ @ @ with a cartoonish clock tower and weather vane .

Chicago and its suburbs have long been fertile ground for cultivating architectural superlatives. Now they’re vying for a new one: The world’s most visually arresting pot shop.
To say that the soon-to-open Greenhouse cannabis dispensary in north suburban Skokie is startling would be an understatement. Amid the banality of a suburban commercial strip — the Old Orchard mall is across the street — a bright white, pleated facade sweeps across the building’s front like a rising theater curtain.
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The Greenhouse cannabis dispensary was a Vignola furniture store in 1971. (Mike Voitik/Village of Skokie/Village of Skokie)
The exuberant design is even more startling when you realize that this is not a new building, but the renovation of an old one: a former Bank of America branch that, according to Skokie associate planner Mike Voitik, was a Maurice L. Rothschild & Co. store when it was built in 1956. Around 1971, when the building had been turned into a Vignola furniture store, it was a laughably bad example of the Colonial Revival style, complete with a cartoonish clock tower and weather vane.
How the times, our attitudes toward a once-illegal drug and architecture, have changed.
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As the Tribune’s Ally Marotti reported last Sunday, sales of recreational marijuana have exceeded expectations since Illinois made them legal Jan. 1. The drug has moved out of the shadows and into the mainstream. Pot shops can now be found near suburban shopping malls; another recreational dispensary just opened near Schaumburg’s Woodfield Mall.
As dispensaries open around the country, architects and designers are abandoning the cluttered look of hippie head shops for clean-lined interiors that have been compared to Apple stores, art galleries and high-end ski lodges. But those are interiors, tucked into quiet facades. Now we have a dispensary that fairly trumpets its identity. It’s no masterpiece, but its energy and presence are undeniable.
The main floor checkout area is seen inside the soon-to-open Greenhouse dispensary in Skokie. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Designed by CT architects of Des Plaines and scheduled to open Sept. 3, the roughly $3.5 million renovation is at its most striking at night, when a thin white LED light accents the lip of its curtainlike facade. But whether it’s viewed at night or during the day, it’s a head-turner for drivers passing through the busy intersection of Skokie Boulevard and Old Orchard Road.
A spokesman for the Skokie Police Department, Eric Swaback, said he was ”unaware of any increase in traffic crashes near that intersection due to the building design.”
The architects, Peter Theodore and Stephen Coorlas, clearly were inspired by the fluid forms of the late Iraqi-born British architect, Zaha Hadid, the first woman to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize. They also credit their client, Mitchell Kahn, co-founder of Chicago-based Grassroots, which was acquired last month by cannabis industry giant Curaleaf, for encouraging them to do something outside the box.
There is definitely no box here.
Handed the vacant Bank of America branch, the architects sheared off its faux peaked roof and gutted most of the interior. Yet they wisely retained useful things, like a tall, light-emitting wall of steel and glass that faces the intersection and flanking towers that now contain restrooms and other uses. Most important, they kept the building’s curving geometry, though they gave it an entirely new spin with computer-aided design and digital fabrication techniques.
The contractor, Chicago-based Pacific Construction, cut foam into hundreds of pieces of varying widths, lengths and depths. They were arranged like a jigsaw puzzle, then covered with an acrylic-based finish that hides seams between the pieces and keeps out the rain. As the building took shape, the architects began to speak of it metaphorically, as if they were lifting the curtain on what once was an underground business.
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The sweeping curtainlike feature of the Greenhouse cannabis dispensary is seen in Skokie. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
The exterior of Greenhouse cannabis dispensary is seen in the evening at Old Orchard Road and Skokie Boulevard. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)
A view from the second level of the Greenhouse cannabis dispensary in Skokie. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
But the metaphor is less important than the outcome: A jolt of creativity in a context where that quality is conspicuously lacking. Some may complain the building doesn’t “fit in.” Yet what’s the point of replicating boring commercial design? Curving landscaping by the architects, which consists of stripes of blue slate and fescue grass, extends the design’s dynamism beyond the facade.
The design also strikes a successful balance between projecting a sense of openness and maintaining security — no small thing in light of the fact that several Chicago-area dispensaries have been hit by the recent waves of looting. The tall steel-and-glass wall, for instance, is covered with films that make it both opaque and hard to break. Yet the building appears anything but fortresslike.
If there’s a fault here, it’s that the dazzling wall is essentially decorative. It’s a stage set, one that’s applied to the building behind it, not a true integration of form and function.
At the former Crate & Barrel flagship on Michigan Avenue, now the world’s largest Starbucks, the big architectural move, a glass-enclosed corner cylinder, serves as both an entrance and a circulation route. At the dispensary, in contrast, the wall’s archlike form suggests a grand gateway, but you actually enter the dispensary through a modest foyer off the parking lot.
I don’t mean to be too hard on the architects. Retail design is not forever, as the just-announced closing of the 27-year-old downtown Rainforest Cafe — and the loss of the hideous green frog on its roof — reminds us. The architects deserve credit for their bold strokes, including their design of the dispensary’s interior, a two-level space that is far more airy and expansive than a typical storefront.
A curved staircase is seen inside the Greenhouse cannabis dispensary. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
The interior was unfinished when I saw it Wednesday, but the basic layout was in place.
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According to Theodore, the first floor will have display cases filled with imitation versions of cannabis products (the real thing is kept in vaults) as well as a demonstration area (shades of Apple stores) where customers can learn how to do things like infuse their food with cannabis. Walk-up sales will occur at a long counter. Customers will go to the second floor, a mezzanine, to pick up preordered merchandise.
The most striking interior feature consists of white walls that frame a curving staircase between the two floors and the edge of the mezzanine. At their best, they’re beautifully smooth and seem to float, extending inside the lighter-than-air quality of the exterior. The walls, which owe a debt to Frank Lloyd Wright’s spiraling Guggenheim Museum in New York, also are likely to distract customers from the myriad security cameras that train an eye on them.
Still, the interior lacks the refinement of a 2015 Chicago-area medical marijuana dispensary, Perimeter Architects’ Dispensary 33 in Andersonville, which won win a small-projects award from the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Among that project’s signature features: specially cut white oak transaction counters that create an atmosphere that’s healing, not sterile.
Nothing could be more different from the head shops of the past. For better or worse, pot has gone mainstream, and architects are both expressing and enabling what amounts to a major cultural change.
Blair Kamin is a Tribune critic.
bkamin@chicagotribune.com
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