chicagotribune--2020-12-19--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 7,562 new confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases and 108 additional

Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 7,562 new confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases and 108 additional deaths reported Saturday

Denver ’ s mayor flies to Mississippi to spend Thanksgiving with his family — after urging others to stay home @ @ @ @ @ was thinking with “ my heart and not my head.
” A Pennsylvania mayor bans @ @ @ @ @ at a restaurant in Maryland .
The governor of Rhode Island is photographed at an @ @ @ @ @ state faces the nation ’ s second-highest virus rate — though it appears she broke @ @ @ @

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Laquitta Boyd, holds her 6-year-old daughter Venisha while receiving her first COVID-19 vaccination at a back-to-school health fair hosted by RUSH University Medical Center at the Salvation Army Freedom Center on July 30, 2022, in Chicago. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
Illinois health officials on Sunday announced 6,003 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 79 additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known infections in Illinois to 900,370 and the statewide death toll to 15,202 since the start of the pandemic.
It was the lowest death total reported since 74 fatalities on Dec. 6 and broke a 12-day-stretch with more than 100 fatalities in the state. On Friday, the state surpassed 15,000 recorded deaths, just one week after the Illinois’s death toll climbed above 14,000.
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Meanwhile, a federal panel voted to put people 75 and older and essential workers like firefighters, teachers and grocery store workers next in line for COVID-19 shots as a second vaccine began rolling out Sunday to hospitals, a desperately needed boost as the nation works to bring the coronavirus pandemic under control.
In Washington, Congress reached a deal Sunday on an almost $1 trillion COVID-19 economic relief package, finally delivering long-overdue help to businesses and individuals and providing money to deliver vaccines to a nation eager for them.
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Here’s what’s happening this weekend with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
Sunday
Congress reaches deal on almost $1 trillion COVID-19 relief package that includes $600 direct payments
Top Capitol Hill negotiators sealed a deal Sunday on an almost $1 trillion COVID-19 economic relief package, finally delivering long-overdue help to businesses and individuals and providing money to deliver vaccines to a nation eager for them.
The agreement, announced by congressional leaders, would establish a temporary $300 per week supplemental jobless benefit and a $600 direct stimulus payment to most Americans, along with a new round of subsidies for hard-hit businesses and money for schools, health care providers and renters facing eviction.
It came after months of battling and posturing, but the negotiating dynamic changed in Republicans’ favor after the election and as the end of the congressional session neared. President-elect Joe Biden was eager for a deal to deliver long-awaited help to suffering people and a boost to the economy, even though it was less than half the size that Democrats wanted this fall.
House leaders informed lawmakers that they would vote on the legislation on Monday, and the Senate was likely to vote on Monday, too. Lawmakers were eager to leave Washington and close out a tumultuous year.
Read more here. —Associated Press
Panel votes to put people over 75, essential workers next in line for COVID-19 vaccince
An expert committee put people 75 and older and essential workers like firefighters, teachers and grocery store workers next in line for COVID-19 shots as a second vaccine began rolling out Sunday to hospitals, a desperately needed boost as the nation works to bring the coronavirus pandemic under control.
Read more here. —Associated Press
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6,003 new and probable cases of COVID-19 and 79 additional deaths reported
Illinois health officials on Sunday announced 6,003 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 79 additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known infections in Illinois to 900,370 and the statewide death toll to 15,202 since the start of the pandemic.
There were 78,079 tests reported in the previous 24 hours. The statewide positivity rate for the past seven days is 9.6%.
—Chicago Tribune staff
Moderna begins shipping its COVID-19 vaccine, with first shots to Americans expected Monday
Initial shipments of the second COVID-19 vaccine authorized in the U.S. left a distribution center Sunday, a desperately needed boost as the nation works to bring the coronavirus pandemic under control.
The trucks left the factory in the Memphis area with the vaccine developed by Moderna Inc. and the National Institutes of Health. The much-needed shots are expected to be given starting Monday, just three days after the Food and Drug Administration authorized their emergency rollout.
Later Sunday, an expert committee will debate who should be next in line for early doses of the Moderna vaccine and a similar one from Pfizer Inc. and Germany’s BioNTech. Pfizer’s shots were first shipped out a week ago and started being used the next day, kicking off the nation’s biggest vaccination drive.
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Read more here. —Associated Press
Saturday
Deal on Federal Reserve powers removes obstacle to agreement on COVID-19 relief plan, clearing way for votes as early as Sunday
Top congressional lawmakers struck a late-night agreement on the last major obstacle to a COVID-19 economic relief package costing nearly $1 trillion, clearing the way for votes as early as Sunday.
A Democratic aide said in an email that an agreement had been reached late Saturday and that compromise language was being finalized to seal a deal to be unveiled on Sunday.
The breakthrough involved a fight over Federal Reserve emergency powers that was defused by an odd couple: the Senate’s top Democrat and a senior conservative Republican.
Read more here. —Associated Press
More than 7,500 new COVID-19 cases announced Saturday
The state on Saturday announced 7,562 new cases of COVID-19, with Illinois now reaching 894,367 cases since the beginning of the pandemic.
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Another 108 people have died, bringing the state’s death toll to 15,123.
Officials also reported 96,851 new tests in the last 24 hours. The seven-day statewide rolling positivity rate for cases as a share of total tests was 8.2% for the period ending Friday.
—Madeline Buckley
Libertyville hospital to resume vaccinations after temporarily pausing ‘out of an abundance of caution’ when 4 staff members had reactions
A Libertyville hospital will resume vaccinations for the COVID-19 virus on Sunday following a temporary pause of the program after four staff members had reactions after receiving the shot, hospital officials say.
The decision to resume vaccinations was made after an internal review, and a doctor on Saturday assured the public of the vaccine’s safety.
“We expect there to be some occasional safety concerns with the vaccine, but on balance, this is a miracle that we have this vaccine,” said Dr. Robert Citronberg, executive medical director of infectious disease and prevention at Advocate Aurora Health.
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Since Thursday, four people who received vaccines at Advocate Condell Medical Center experienced symptoms, including tingling and elevated heart rate, according to a statement sent by a spokesperson for the Advocate Aurora health system.
Read more here. —Madeline Buckley
Fury as some politicians ignore their own virus rules: ‘The lack of self-awareness in American politics is just something else’
Denver’s mayor flies to Mississippi to spend Thanksgiving with his family — after urging others to stay home. He later says he was thinking with “my heart and not my head.” A Pennsylvania mayor bans indoor dining, then eats at a restaurant in Maryland. The governor of Rhode Island is photographed at an indoor wine event as her state faces the nation’s second-highest virus rate — though it appears she broke no actual rules.
While people weigh whether it’s safe to go to work or the grocery store, the mayor of Austin, Texas, heads to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, on a private jet after hosting a wedding for 20. California’s governor dines at a swanky French restaurant with lobbyists, none wearing masks, a day after San Francisco’s mayor was there for a birthday party. Both had recently imposed tough rules on restaurants, shops and activities to slow the spread of the virus.
To the public’s chagrin, some of America’s political leaders have been caught preaching one thing on the coronavirus and practicing another.
Sure, politicians have long been called out for hypocrisy. But during a pandemic that’s forced millions into seclusion and left many without paychecks, such actions can feel like a personal insult — reinforcing the idea “that some people just don’t have to follow the rules while the rest of us do,” says Rita Kirk, a professor of communications at Southern Methodist University.
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And that, in turn, hints at even deeper questions.
Read more here. —Associated Press
General apologizes for bad information on state vaccine shipments: ‘I failed. I’m adjusting.’
The Army general in charge of getting COVID-19 vaccines across the United States apologized on Saturday for “miscommunication” with states over the number of doses to be delivered in the early stages of distribution.
“I failed. I’m adjusting. I am fixing and we will move forward from there,” Gen. Gustave Perna told reporters in a telephone briefing.
Perna’s remarks came a day after a second vaccine was added in the fight against COVID-19, which has killed more than 312,000 people in the U.S. Governors in more than a dozen states have said the federal government has told them that next week’s shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be less than originally projected.
Perna acknowledged the criticism and accepted blame.
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“I want to take personal responsibility for the miscommunication,” he said. “I know that’s not done much these days. “But I am responsible. ... This is a Herculean effort and we are not perfect.”
The general said he made mistakes by citing numbers of doses that he believed would be ready.
Read more here. —Associated Press
First Chicago vaccine recipients report feeling ‘great’ after historic shots
When Mark Hooks volunteered to become the first man in Illinois to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, he already had educated himself about the shot and was fully prepared for the most common side effects: Low-grade fever. Body aches. Chills. Headaches.
Those symptoms, however, never materialized. He completed his shifts at work all week without a problem, even the one he briefly interrupted to take the shot on live television as part of an inaugural vaccination event organized by City Hall.
“I’ve been feeling great. I haven’t had any symptoms whatsoever other than some mild soreness around the injection site,” said Hooks, an emergency department nurse at Loretto Hospital. “But that’s to be expected anytime your boss puts a needle in one of your muscles.”
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Read more here. —Stacy St. Clair
‘Don’t underestimate the fear.’ Clergy, doctors and activists tackle COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, access in Black, Latino communities.
The Rev. John Zayas says his congregants at Grace and Peace Church in the North Austin neighborhood have been peppering him with questions about the new COVID-19 vaccine, some expressing unease or indecision about getting the shot once it’s available.
Is it safe? Would I be a lab rat?
Most importantly, many ask if the church leader intends to get the vaccine, once he’s eligible.
His response is always compassionate but firm: The vaccine is critical to ending the pandemic, which has disproportionately hit predominantly Black and Latino communities like North Austin and other surrounding West Side neighborhoods where the church’s faithful live and work.
“I would personally take it and be an example for the church,” he says. “As a pastor, you have to show by example.”
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Read more here. —Laura Rodríguez Presa, Stacy St. Clair, Alice Yin and Darcel Rockett
With coronavirus cases at an all-time high, some patients are nervous about going to the dentist
Due to the novel coronavirus, which has drastically changed almost every aspect of our lives, annual dental visits have also changed.
In March, when the pandemic led Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker to issue a state-at-home order, dental offices were open only for emergency procedures. In May, dental offices reopened for routine dental visits.
With COVID-19 cases at an all-time high, some people may be nervous about going to the dentist right now. Patients are indoors with masks removed and need to open their mouths wide.
Dr. Terri Tiersky, 2020 president of the Chicago Dental Society, says people should feel comfortable visiting the dentist for routine cleaning and check-ups.
Read more here. —Hannah Herrera Greenspan
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States spent over $7 billion competing for early coronavirus supplies: ‘It was chaos, pandemonium’
Ray Bellia had a good business before the coronavirus pandemic. He topped $4 million in annual sales from his New Hampshire store that specialized in protective gear for police.
Then he got a call from a buyer with the state of Massachusetts asking if he had anything that could protect people from COVID-19. As it happened, he did. He went on to sell the state 300,000 disposable masks for 97 cents each.
“From that point on, it’s been just insanity,” Bellia said.
Masks. Gowns. Gloves. Goggles. Sanitizer. Coveralls. Thermometers. Bellia has sold it all, and not just to Massachusetts. From Maine to Hawaii, numerous other states, counties, cities, colleges and schools have lined up to buy from him.
While countless other businesses tanked amid coronavirus shutdowns, Bellia’s store — Body Armor Outlet — rapidly evolved into one of the nation’s 20 largest suppliers of personal protective equipment to states this past spring, according to a nationwide analysis of state purchasing data by The Associated Press.
The AP tallied more than $7 billion in purchases by states this spring for personal protective equipment and high-demand medical devices such as ventilators and infrared thermometers.
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Read more here. —Associated Press


chicagotribune--2020-12-19--First Chicago vaccine recipients report feeling ‘great’ after historic shots

If anything , Del Rios said , the flu shot she received earlier in the fall was more painful than @ @ @ @ @ the most deadly virus in a century .
However , as someone who has been @ @ @ @ @ University of Illinois Hospital for 10 months and risking her own health , she was @ @ @ @ @ side effects if it meant protection from the illness that has killed more than 15,000 @ @ @

Laquitta Boyd, holds her 6-year-old daughter Venisha while receiving her first COVID-19 vaccination at a back-to-school health fair hosted by RUSH University Medical Center at the Salvation Army Freedom Center on July 30, 2022, in Chicago. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
When Mark Hooks volunteered to become the first man in Illinois to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, he already had educated himself about the shot and was fully prepared for the most common side effects: Low-grade fever. Body aches. Chills. Headaches.
Those symptoms, however, never materialized. He completed his shifts at work all week without a problem, even the one he briefly interrupted to take the shot on live television as part of an inaugural vaccination event organized by City Hall.
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“I’ve been feeling great. I haven’t had any symptoms whatsoever other than some mild soreness around the injection site,” said Hooks, an emergency department nurse at Loretto Hospital. “But that’s to be expected anytime your boss puts a needle in one of your muscles.”
Mayor Lori Lightfoot chats with nurse Mark Hooks at Loretto Hospital just before he received the the COVID-19 vaccination at Loretto Hospital on Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
As vaccinations began in earnest around the U.S. last week, four staff members at Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville had reactions after receiving the shot, causing the hospital to temporarily pause vaccinations “out of an abundance of caution.” The hospital plans to resume vaccinations on Sunday.
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Three hospital workers in Alaska suffered allergic reactions after receiving shots. Two health care workers in Britain also had anaphylactic reactions and recovered after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Though they remain isolated incidents at this point — more than 138,000 Britons received the shot in the rollout’s first week — the cases are certain to draw attention to the drug’s possible side effects as more people become eligible for vaccination.
The Tribune spoke with three of the five hospital workers who received the first shots administered in Chicago. All reported feeling fine, with only slight pain around the injection for the first 24 hours or so.
There have been no reports of serious side effects from the more than 17,000 people vaccinated in Illinois as of Friday morning, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady also has indicted the drug’s earliest recipients are doing well.
Elizabeth Zimnie, an emergency department nurse at Norwegian American Hospital in Humboldt Park, said she’s “feeling great.”
“I felt some soreness around the injection site, but I let it ride and I’m now 100% back to normal,” she said.
Elizabeth Zimnie, an emergency room registered nurse, receives the COVID-19 vaccination at Loretto Hospital on Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
The recipients have been asked to track their well-being through a text messaging system run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Each day, they receive a message asking about their specific symptoms, ability to work, whether they’ve felt feverish that day and how they’re feeling overall.
The program, which all health care workers in Illinois are being asked to use, requires a daily check-in for the first week and then weekly reports for the next six. Participants also will be surveyed at the three-, six- and 12-month marks, as the CDC monitors the vaccine’s side effects in real time so the agency can quickly investigate any issues that arise.
“First and foremost, vaccine safety is our biggest concern,” Arwady said after the inaugural shots were given Tuesday.
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When Dr. Marina Del Rios, the first Illinois resident to receive a vaccination, receives her afternoon reminder to check in, she follows a link to the CDC site. The first question asks how she is feeling and gives her the choice of “good” (green smiley face emoji), “fair” (yellow emoji with mouth in a straight line) and “bad” (red frowny face) before asking more specific questions.
In screenshots Del Rios shared with the Tribune, she picked the smiley face, reported she was able to do normal activities, and said she did not have chills, abdominal pain, a fever, rash or any of the other listed ailments. She also stated she had no pain, redness, swelling or itching in the injection area.
If anything, Del Rios said, the flu shot she received earlier in the fall was more painful than the one aimed at blunting the most deadly virus in a century. However, as someone who has been treating COVID patients at the University of Illinois Hospital for 10 months and risking her own health, she was willing to accept the known side effects if it meant protection from the illness that has killed more than 15,000 people statewide.
“Most people who have side effects from vaccines are very minor: body aches, soreness of the arm, maybe a low grade fever the day after or maybe two days out,” said Del Rios, the hospital’s social emergency medicine director. “But that compared to getting COVID? I’m willing to take that chance. I’m willing to take a chance of a minor inconvenience or discomfort over finding myself on a ventilator.”
The recipients told the Tribune that they have spent days following their historic injections talking about their experiences with others and encouraging them to consider getting vaccinated.
Hooks, the emergency department nurse, wore a sticker on his hospital scrubs proclaiming “I got vaccinated” during his shifts, which has led to questions from both co-workers and patients about why he agreed to the injection. Hooks, who has been socially isolating from his two daughters in recent weeks because of the spike in cases, explains how he discussed it with his personal physician, read the Food and Drug Administration briefings on the drug and talked with doctors at Loretto before making his decision.
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He doesn’t hide the fact he at one point had concerns the vaccine, particularly the plan to administer the drug to essential hospital workers in the first round.
“I certainly did not want to be among the first initially,” he said. “I was a little concerned that health care workers were being put in a position where we looked like guinea pigs. But in the intervening time, I did research on my own and spoke to a lot of physicians. I became incredibly confident about it, to the point that I was excited to take it.”
Hooks, who planned to spend part of Friday afternoon responding to a Facebook friend’s distrust of the vaccine, said he hopes the hospital will distribute some kind of T-shirt or button that vaccinated workers could wear during their shifts. He thinks it would spark conversations among patients and staff, which could change people’s views.
One such discussion Tuesday with a skeptical patient failed to sway the man, so Hooks invited him to come back in two or three months for another talk.
“If I’m still here and walking around,” Hooks said he told him, “that’s a good sign that it’s safe.”
Chicago Tribune reporter Madeline Buckley contributed.
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sstclair@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-12-19--COVID-19 in Illinois by the numbers: Here’s a daily update on cases, positivity rate and hospital da

COVID-19 in Illinois by the numbers: Here’s a daily update on cases, positivity rate and hospital data in your area

Among the metrics ( see below ) tracked under guidelines set by Gov .
J.B. Pritzker are the percentage of @ @ @ @ @ , the number of people hospitalized for COVID-19-like illnesses , and the capacity of hospitals @ @ @ @ @ state will decide how much or how little to restrict activities based on these metrics @

Note: With Chicago and Illinois moving into phase 5, the Tribune is no longer updating this data. If the state moves back into bridge phase, the Tribune we reassess. Daily metrics on COVID-19, like cases, deaths and hospitalizations, can be found here. And Daily metrics on the vaccination effort can be found here. More on where the coronavirus stands nationally and around the world can be found here.
To assess how different parts of Illinois are handling the COVID-19 pandemic, officials look at the state through the 11 regions of Emergency Medical Services. The city of Chicago is one region, for example, and the rest of Cook County is another.
Among the metrics (see below) tracked under guidelines set by Gov. J.B. Pritzker are the percentage of coronavirus tests that return positive, the number of people hospitalized for COVID-19-like illnesses, and the capacity of hospitals to take in new patients.The state will decide how much or how little to restrict activities based on these metrics. (Cases, deaths and tests data is as of Dec. 31).
• Check out the Tribune’s coronavirus coverage.
• Remembering the lives of those in Illinois who died from coronavirus.
• Other Chicago, suburbs and Illinois COVID-19 metrics.
• See how the governor’s plan to manage the regions works.
Source: Illinois Department of Public Health
Created by the Chicago Tribune dataviz team. On Twitter @chitribgraphics


chicagotribune--2020-12-19--COVID-19 cases in Illinois by ZIP code: Search for your neighborhood

Search below by street address , ZIP code or city , then click on the map to see the number @ @ @ @ @ .
The state is not providing data for any ZIP code with five cases or @ @

Note: With Chicago and Illinois moving into phase 5, the Tribune is no longer updating this data. If the state moves back into bridge phase, the Tribune we reassess. Daily metrics on COVID-19, like cases, deaths and hospitalizations, can be found here. And Daily metrics on the vaccination effort can be found here. More on where the coronavirus stands nationally and around the world can be found here.
Illinois releases the number of positive COVID-19 cases by ZIP code daily. The map below shows the cumulative cases for each area as well as other analysis of the data.
• Check out the Tribune’s coronavirus coverage.
• Tracking daily Illinois coronavirus deaths, cases and tests.
Search below by street address, ZIP code or city, then click on the map to see the number of confirmed and probable cases. The state is not providing data for any ZIP code with five cases or fewer.
Data as of June 10.
The map search tool above works best in Chrome or Firefox and may not perform consistently in Internet Explorer.
Note: Because of a coding error this map was displaying the incorrect rates for new cases in the last 7 days per 100,000 people — the issue should now be resolved.. The Tribune adjusted the data shown on the map below to focus on new cases, those the state tracked in the last 7 seven days. The totals for the entire pandemic are still available, but in the pop-up after tapping or clicking on a ZIP.


chicagotribune--2020-12-19--Daily Illinois coronavirus graphs: 108 new deaths, 7,562 new confirmed and probable cases and 96,851

Daily Illinois coronavirus graphs: 108 new deaths, 7,562 new confirmed and probable cases and 96,851 new test results

Illinois announced 7,562 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 Saturday for a total of 894,367 .
The state also @ @ @ @ @ a total of 15,123 and 96,851 new test results for a total of 12.36 million @

Johns Hopkins University & Medicine tracked coronavirus cases, deaths and test totals from Jan. 22, 2020 through March 10, 2023, but is no longer providing this data. These charts will no longer be updated.
Check the Illinois Department of Public Health for the most up-to-date data for Illinois.
[ Remembering the lives of those in Illinois who died from coronavirus ]
Can’t see these charts? Go here.


chicagotribune--2020-12-19--1 dead in Ukrainian Village crash; driver held

The man driving the Toyota was taken to Stroger Hospital , where he was pronounced dead shortly after the 3:30 @ @ @ @ @ name was not released .

A motorist who was killed early Saturday after another car possibly ran a red light and crashed into his vehicle in the Ukrainian Village neighborhood has been identified, authorities say.
Moiz Uddin, 33, was pronounced dead at 4:02 a.m. at Stroger Hospital on Saturday, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. An autopsy for Uddin, of the 6400 block of North Ridge Boulevard in the West Rogers Park neighborhood, was scheduled for Sunday.
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About 3:30 a.m., a 23-year-old man was behind the wheel of a black Mazda sedan traveling north on Damen Avenue when he possibly disregarded a red light and crashed into a 2016 Toyota sedan driven by Uddin that was eastbound on Augusta Boulevard, said police, citing preliminary information.
Charges were pending for a “person of interest,” the Mazda driver, who suffered a dislocated hip and was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was listed in fair condition, according to police.
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dawilliams@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-12-19--Shootings leave 1 dead and 11 wounded, including 6 at Burnside party

Five men between the ages of 28 to 48 were shot : two in the legs , one in a @ @ @ @ @ the hand and one in the abdomen .
They were taken separately to the University @ @ @ @ @ Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn .

A 48-year-old man was fatally shot and at least 11 others were wounded during pre-dawn attacks, including six people who were shot at a gathering in the Burnside neighborhood, Chicago police said.
In the fatal attack, about 3 a.m., a 48-year-old man identified by police as Alex Kinsey was being chased by someone who shot him in the head in the 1300 block of West 87th Street in the Gresham neighborhood.
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Kinsey was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
Shortly after 12:30 a.m., police officers responded to a Burnside neighborhood establishment after someone walked in and started shooting in the 8900 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue, wounding six people.
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Five men between the ages of 28 to 48 were shot: two in the legs, one in a foot, one grazed in the hand and one in the abdomen. They were taken separately to the University of Chicago Medical Center and Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
A woman, 36, suffered a gunshot wound to the leg and also was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, police said.
About 4 a.m., a 30-year-old man was shot while he was sitting in a parked vehicle in the 300 block of North Avers Avenue in the East Garfield Park neighborhood on the West Side, police said.
An unknown person on foot approached the victim and fired shots, striking him in the face and lower back side. The victim was taken in fair condition to Stroger Hospital, police said.
Shortly after 11 p.m. Friday, shooters inside two vehicles opened fire on the West Side in the Lawndale neighborhood, police said. The 22-year-old victim, who was standing outside, was caught in the crossfire and hit in the lower back. He was driven by a friend to Stroger Hospital, where he was listed in good condition.
In other shootings overnight:
About 6:40 a.m., a 57-year-old man was wounded in a drive-by in the 4700 block of South Justine Street in the Back of the Yards neighborhood. He was walking in an alley when an occupant of a dark-colored SUV pulled up and opened fire, hitting him in the hand. The shooter fled the scene, and the man was taken to Holy Cross Hospital, where he was listed in good condition.
About 12:25 a.m., a 38-year-old woman was shot while she was seated in the backseat of a Honda Accord traveling in the 3200 block of West Cermak Road in the Little Village neighborhood. At least one of the four males who were standing on a corner opened fire, striking the woman in the back. She was taken in critical condition to Mount Sinai Hospital.
Shortly before 9:45 p.m. Friday, a 36-year-old man was shot on the 11200 block of South Homewood Avenue in the Morgan Park neighborhood. The man stepped out of a residence when he heard shots and felt pain in the back and arm. He was taken in serious condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
No one was in custody in any of the shootings.


chicagotribune--2020-12-19--Clergy, doctors and activists take on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and access in Black and Latino comm

Clergy, doctors and activists take on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and access in Black and Latino communities: ‘Don’t underestimate the fear’

“ The virus will continue to decimate Black and brown communities if it goes unchecked , and the vaccine is @ @ @ @ @ stem this tide , ” says Peek , an internist , bioethicist and health disparities @ @ @ @ @ Chicago .
“ The tool that we have to do so is one that people @ @ @ @ @ the years of injustice that these communities , that our communities have had to endure @ @ @ @ @ ”

Angie Leventis Lourgos, Laura Rodríguez Presa, Stacy St. Clair, Alice Yin, Darcel Rockett

The Rev. John Zayas says his congregants at Grace and Peace Church in the North Austin neighborhood have been peppering him with questions about the new COVID-19 vaccine, some expressing unease or indecision about getting the shot once it’s available.
Is it safe? Would I be a lab rat?
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Most importantly, many ask if the church leader intends to get the vaccine, once he’s eligible.
His response is always compassionate but firm: The vaccine is critical to ending the pandemic, which has disproportionately hit predominantly Black and Latino communities like North Austin and other surrounding West Side neighborhoods where the church’s faithful live and work.
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“I would personally take it and be an example for the church,” he says. “As a pastor, you have to show by example.”
The Rev. John Zayas, right, of Grace and Peace Church in Chicago, and other volunteers load a truck at a food drive at the church on Dec. 18, 2020. Zayas and other leaders working to inoculate communities of color are often battling an entrenched mistrust of science and medicine. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Yet Zayas and other leaders working to inoculate communities of color are often battling an entrenched mistrust of science and medicine, the fallout of long-term systemic racial disparities in health care and historical medical abuses of minority patients.
A Black physician and bioethicist on the city’s South Side says she has already had to reassure about a dozen of her patients — all health care workers — that the vaccine is safe and should be taken.
Leaders of a South Side hospital recently expressed alarm after about a quarter of staff members said they don’t intend to get the vaccine.
While distributing hand sanitizer and masks in the Little Village neighborhood, a university researcher talks to street vendors and community members about getting vaccinated against the virus, trying to dispel rumors and myths. But she worries that once mass distribution of vaccines begins, Black and brown communities will be left behind.
Although vaccine hesitancy is reported across races, several recent polls show Black and Hispanic Americans are more likely to refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine than other races.
Only 24% of Black respondents and 34% of Hispanics plan to get vaccinated against the new virus, compared with 53% of respondents who are white, according to a report released earlier this month from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Chicago.
Minority races also expressed greater ambivalence about getting immunized, with 41% of Hispanic Americans and 37% of Black Americans saying they’re not sure about getting the shot, the survey found.
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Broad distrust in government and medicine could contribute to these decisions: Fewer Black and Hispanic adults reported putting their trust in physicians, local hospitals and the health care system than white adults, according to an October survey on race and health by the Kaiser Family Foundation and The Undefeated.
The same poll found 70% of Black Americans and 43% of Hispanic Americans reported very often or somewhat often perceiving discrimination in the health care system, compared with 40% of white Americans.
Roughly 1 in 5 Black and Hispanic adults “say they were personally treated unfairly because of their race or ethnicity when getting health care for themselves or a family member in the past 12 months,” compared with 5% of white adults, the report said.
Zayas, the clergyman, has been urging state leaders to prioritize the vaccination of communities of color. He wants to hold vaccine drives at his house of worship, a place of comfort for those who might be vaccine wary.
And he would like to get the shot in front of his church members, to ease their concerns and encourage them to get inoculated too.
Even as he clamors for COVID-19 vaccination trust and access, the clergyman says he understands some of the wariness surrounding health care in the United States.
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The pastor’s mother was born and raised in Puerto Rico, and recounts the dark era of forced sterilizations on the island, from the 1930s to the 1970s. These medical atrocities are still fresh in the psyches of many immigrant families, he said.
“Don’t underestimate the fear, the fear is real,” Zayas says. “Because of the past, what has happened in our communities of color, there’s reservations.”
Yet he notes that those with the greatest skepticism of COVID-19 vaccines are also at greatest risk of contracting — and dying from — the novel coronavirus.
His congregation at Grace and Peace Church is roughly 80% Latino and 10% Black — races that are roughly four times more likely to be hospitalized because of COVID-19 and 2.8 times more likely to die of the new virus than whites, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We are in a Black and brown community that has been hit tremendously,” he says. “We need to make sure this vaccine comes to our communities sooner rather than later. The people that I serve, the people I love, they are my mission. Whatever helps them, I want people to stay healthy and not get sick.”
Are you getting it?
On the city’s South Side, Dr. Monica Peek says about a dozen of her patients — who all work in health care — have been calling and texting the past week, expressing uncertainty about the new COVID-19 vaccine.
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Should I get it? My family’s worried, they don’t want me to get it. Are you getting it?
Even as the physician reassures them of the vaccine’s safety and efficacy — and that she’ll be getting her shot as soon as she can — Peek says she isn’t surprised by their concerns. She points to deep-seated fears of medical abuse in the Black community, stemming from historical horrors like unconsented surgeries on slaves and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, a 40-year experiment where rural Black men were misled about the research and forced to suffer from untreated syphilis, despite the availability of penicillin.
“The virus will continue to decimate Black and brown communities if it goes unchecked, and the vaccine is the one way we can stem this tide,” says Peek, an internist, bioethicist and health disparities researcher at the University of Chicago. “The tool that we have to do so is one that people are afraid of because of the years of injustice that these communities, that our communities have had to endure because of structural racism.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci addressed this mistrust recently, while highlighting that one of the scientists at the forefront of the Pfizer vaccine is a Black woman.
“So, the first thing you might want to say to my African American brothers and sisters is that the vaccine that you’re going to be taking was developed by an African American woman,” said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “And that is just a fact.”
Locally, many Black and Hispanic health care workers were the first to get the vaccine last week, moments that were captured in newspaper photos and television newscasts. Peek says these diverse images could boost confidence in the vaccine for other people of color.
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“I think that is part of the messaging, is to have Black people see themselves in these images and say, ‘I see me in that person,’” she said.
At the same time, even some in the medical field are reportedly declining the vaccine.
Skepticism has been particularly worrisome at Roseland Community Hospital on the city’s South Side, where an estimated 25% of staff members have indicated they don’t intend to get the shots.
Medical workers prepare to administer the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine Dec. 17, 2020, at Roseland Community Hospital. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
This includes several nurses who have told supervisors that they intend to wait at least a year before getting vaccinated to see if any complications arise from the early rounds.
The reluctance alarms hospital leaders, who have begun an education campaign inside the hospital to sway doubters. Roseland executives, including CEO Tim Egan, have been passing out flyers about the importance of the vaccine in recent days to bolster confidence.
Beyond wanting to protect his staff, Egan worries about the message it would send to the neighborhood if hospital workers are too scared to be vaccinated. He understands their fears — fueled by both the country’s history of inhumane experiments on Black Americans and distrust in a system that has allowed deadly health care disparities — but he believes the vaccine is the only way to blunt the virus in the community, which is predominantly Black.
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“Many of our employees live in the neighborhood,” he says. “They have seen the decades of divestment and the health care world turn their back on them. There is an embedded mistrust of government. People in our community have been abandoned, and this is just a byproduct.”
Dr. Brandi Jackson, a psychiatrist at Howard Brown Health and co-founding director of the Institute for Antiracism in Medicine, says the medical community has not done much historically to earn the trust of Black patients.
She calls on trusted sources outside of medicine to spread the message of vaccine safety, such as Black churches, nonprofits and community activists. She also urges traditionally powerful institutions within medicine to make “a move of humility.”
“They’re used to being the authority,” Jackson said during a Tribune Facebook live event on Wednesday. “And I think the word ‘authority’ has been turned on its head during this pandemic.”
‘Left behind’
Dolores Castañeda has spent the past few months walking the streets of the Little Village neighborhood on the city’s West Side, talking to street vendors and passersby while distributing hand sanitizer, masks and information on COVID-19 testing.
Dolores Castaneda waves at a friend in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago on Dec. 18, 2020. (Youngrae Kim / Chicago Tribune)
She is a research associate at the Center for Healthy Work at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and much of her study focuses on the health needs of street vendors.
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On a recent weekday, she talks with 74-year-old José Carmen Camacho, who is huddled in brown insulated overalls, a scarf, black gloves and a face mask, as he sells bread baked by his wife.
While he and his wife are hopeful the vaccine will help quell the pandemic, he adds that “we’re not entirely sure that we would get it. Not now at least.”
José Carmen Camacho stands with his bread cart in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago on Dec. 18, 2020. (Youngrae Kim / Chicago Tribune)
“It scares me a bit; that instead of doing good to me, it makes me more sick,” he says in Spanish. “We have to wait and see what reactions people have to it.”
Castañeda says that most of the skepticism in the Latino community is based on misinformation or lack of attention and messaging from local organizations and the government.
Some people she speaks with have concerns about their immigration status, and need to be reassured that their information won’t be given to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Language barriers can also be a challenge; even if information is available in Spanish, many organizations share it on social media or websites, and those without smartphones and computers can be at a disadvantage, Castañeda says.
“We’re looking at the same pattern that we saw when COVID-19 hit,” she said. “Our communities of color were left behind.”
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As the first COVID-19 vaccines in Chicago were administered at Loretto Hospital on Tuesday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot pledged the process of distributing immunizations would be equitable.
“Equity isn’t part of our COVID-19 strategy, it is our strategy,” she said. “And when it comes to our vaccine rollout, we will be leaving no one behind. … There is an unfortunate trust deficit nationwide when it comes to taking this vaccine, particularly among predominantly African American and Latinx communities. This is a challenge we must meet and we must conquer.”
The city is crafting a marketing plan to spread the message that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective, says Chicago Department of Public Health spokesman Andrew Buchanan.
This will include a campaign similar to existing door-knocking efforts to hand out masks and informational flyers on safe practices. As of this week, the city and its partners are on track to reach 1 million phones through phone-banking and texting, and deliver care kits to 400,000 households around the end of January, he says.
The city plans to spread vaccination sites fairly throughout the city, Buchanan says, which includes working with City Colleges of Chicago campuses and community groups in neighborhoods with high positivity rates.
“We are working hard to push messaging and outreach to the areas that have been hardest hit by COVID-19 and who may have a historical distrust of the health care community,” he said.
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Last week, Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, sponsored a resolution for permanent COVID-19 testing and vaccine sites in African American and Latino neighborhoods. He argues the measure is critical to ensure Black and Latino communities receive care after being disproportionately affected by the pandemic.
Castañeda, a Little Village resident, said the government has failed to protect Black and brown communities from COVID-19, and that she expects that once full rollout of the vaccine begins, those same neighborhoods will once again be without access.
“Because we are often thrown to the side,” she says.
Abraham Valdez, 67, whose livelihood depends on collecting recyclable aluminum cans, says he is eager to get the vaccine. He says he doesn’t want to get sick and not be able to work.
“Having this vaccine is better than nothing,” he says in Spanish. “I’ll trust God about it. But even if it works, who knows when I’ll be able to get it?”
Chicago Tribune’s Javonte Anderson contributed.


chicagotribune--2020-12-19--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Here’s what happened Dec. 18 with COVID-19 in the Chicago area

In the meantime , musicians have contorted their creative energies to make ends meet and , hopefully , sustain their @ @ @ @ @ until they can make a living once again as a performer .
Their adjustments showcase @ @ @ @ @ pandemic and restrictions have had on the city ’ s entire music culture and remind @ @ @ @ @ up some of the most intimate moments of our lives .

We have lifted the paywall on this story. To support essential reporting, please consider becoming a subscriber .
Laquitta Boyd, holds her 6-year-old daughter Venisha while receiving her first COVID-19 vaccination at a back-to-school health fair hosted by RUSH University Medical Center at the Salvation Army Freedom Center on July 30, 2022, in Chicago. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
Illinois on Friday surpassed 15,000 recorded deaths since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, one week after the state’s death toll climbed above 14,000.
State health officials reported 181 deaths Friday, the 11th day in a row with more than 100 fatalities. Over the past week, the state has averaged 138 deaths from COVID-19 per day. The state also reported 7,377 new confirmed and probable cases of the coronavirus Friday, for a total of 886,805 known cases statewide since the pandemic began.
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Meanwhile, Walgreens and CVS Health predict the COVID-19 vaccine will be available to the public during the spring, and patients will most likely be able to make appointments to get the shots at pharmacies.
Also on Friday, the U.S. added a second COVID-19 vaccine to its arsenal, boosting efforts to beat back an outbreak so dire that the nation is regularly recording more than 3,000 deaths a day.
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Here’s what’s happening Friday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
7 p.m.: FDA authorizes 2nd COVID-19 vaccine
The U.S. added a second COVID-19 vaccine to its arsenal Friday, boosting efforts to beat back an outbreak so dire that the nation is regularly recording more than 3,000 deaths a day.
Much-needed doses are set to arrive Monday after the Food and Drug Administration authorized an emergency rollout of the vaccine developed by Moderna Inc. and the National Institutes of Health.
The move marks the world’s first authorization for Moderna’s shots. The vaccine is very similar to one from Pfizer Inc. and Germany’s BioNTech that’s now being dispensed to millions of health care workers and nursing home residents as the biggest vaccination drive in U.S. history starts to ramp up.
The two work “better than we almost dared to hope,” NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins told The Associated Press. “Science is working here, science has done something amazing.”
Read more here. —Associated Press
6:25 p.m. (update): Congress approves 2-day funding bill to avert shutdown as fight continues over COVID-19 relief package
Congress swiftly passed a two-day stopgap spending bill Friday night, averting a partial government shutdown and buying time for frustratingly slow endgame negotiations on an almost $1 trillion COVID-19 economic relief package.
The virus aid talks remain on track, both sides said, but closing out final disagreements is proving difficult.
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The House passed the temporary funding bill by a 320-60 vote as lawmakers headed for a Sunday session. The Senate approved the bill by voice vote almost immediately afterward, sending it to President Donald Trump.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said both sides remain intent on closing the deal, even as Democrats launched a concerted campaign to block an effort by Republicans to rein in emergency Federal Reserve lending powers. The Democrats said the GOP proposal would deprive President-elect Joe Biden of crucial tools to manage the economy.
It appeared unlikely that there would be a deal reached Friday night, lawmakers and aides said.
Read more here. —Associated Press
2:35 p.m.: NorthShore, Glenbrook Hospital staff receive first doses of COVID-19 vaccine
When Rose Paone, a nurse and clinical coordinator in Glenbrook Hospital’s ICU, rolled up her sleeve to receive the COVID-19 vaccine Thursday, she said she felt relief and optimism for “a little glimpse of hope” following the past nine brutal months.
Paone and other NorthShore University HealthSystem staff and administrators said during a news conference at Glenbrook Hospital in Glenview Friday that they’re feeling a sense of hope about an end to the pandemic with the introduction of a vaccine.
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“I’m very optimistic that this vaccine is truly a light at the end of what has been a long, dark tunnel for us,” said Glenbrook Hospital President Jesse Peterson Hall.
Staff and administrators also stressed, however, that safety protocols will continue to be essential over the next few months as people receive the vaccines at staggered times.
“We are not out of the woods by any means, and everybody still has to listen to the rules to keep everybody safe,” said Dr. Neil Freedman, head of pulmonary and critical care for NorthShore.
The five-hospital NorthShore system includes Glenbrook, Evanston, Highland Park, Skokie and Swedish hospitals. In its first round of shipments, officials said the five hospitals received about 5,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which was approved for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration Dec. 11.
About 30 vaccines were given at Evanston Hospital Thursday afternoon as a “practice run,” and Glenbrook Hospital began its distribution Friday morning, according to officials. Those at the news conference who received the vaccine Thursday reported feeling fine one day later.
Like Paone, fellow ICU nurse Luisa Penepacker said she felt relieved while getting the vaccine, and she also felt emotional. She said the staff was thrown into a dangerous situation in March and that everyone from doctors to nurses to housekeepers, transportation workers, respiratory therapists and others have “come together with such passion.”
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“We’ve seen the worst that COVID can do,” she said of those working on the front lines. “If everybody could just do their part and take the vaccine, then we can really end it, and then we won’t have to see so much suffering anymore.”
NorthShore officials said somewhere between 10,000 to 15,000 employees are eligible for the vaccine, so they’ve prioritized those working directly with COVID-19 patients to receive it first. Officials said they want to make sure all teams of physicians, nurses and support staff at the hospital will receive equal protection.
Read more here. —Kaitlin Edquist
2:25 p.m.: Here’s what people with allergies should know about COVID vaccines
Allergic reactions reported in two health workers who received a dose of Pfizer’s vaccine in Alaska this week have reignited concerns that people with a history of extreme immune flare-ups might not be good candidates for the newly cleared shots.
The two incidents follow another pair of cases in Britain. Three of the four were severe enough to qualify as anaphylaxis, a severe and potentially life-threatening reaction. But all four people appear to have recovered.
Health officials on both sides of the pond are vigilantly monitoring vaccinated people to see if more cases emerge. Last week, British drug regulators recommended against the use of Pfizer’s vaccine in people who have previously had anaphylactic reactions to food, medicines or vaccines.
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And on Thursday, Dr. Doran Fink, deputy director of the Food and Drug Administration’s clinical division of vaccines and related products applications, addressed the issue during a meeting about the vaccine made by Moderna that contains similar ingredients and is expected to soon receive emergency use authorization, or EUA, from the agency.
“We anticipate that there may be additional reports, which we will rapidly investigate,” Fink said, adding that robust surveillance systems were in place to detect these rare events.
Still, Fink said that “the totality of data at this time continue to support vaccinations under the Pfizer EUA, without new restrictions.”
The FDA, he added, would work with Pfizer to revise fact sheets and prescribing information for the vaccine so that the public would understand the risk of allergic reactions and know how to report them.
Read more here. —The New York Times
2:20 p.m.: City joins with One Fair Wage to distribute $1 million in grants to Chicago restaurants
The city of Chicago has joined with One Fair Wage in a program that could provide Chicago restaurants with grants of up to $30,000.
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Announced at a virtual news conference Friday, One Fair Wage — operating with $1 million provided by an anonymous donor — will make the grants available, via its High Road Kitchens program, to restaurants willing to commit to the organization’s goals.
Chief among those goals is the elimination of the tipped minimum wage, under which restaurant employees who receive tips may be paid far less than the standard minimum wage.
Restaurants who receive grants must commit to scaling up to pay a $15/hour full minimum wage — even to tipped workers — by 2026.
Read more here. —Phil Vettel
12:45 p.m.: Illinois surpasses 15,000 coronavirus deaths, one week after eclipsing 14,000
Illinois on Friday surpassed 15,000 recorded deaths since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, one week after the state’s death toll climbed above 14,000.
State health officials reported 181 deaths Friday, the 11th day in a row with more than 100 fatalities. Over the past week, the state has averaged 138 deaths from COVID-19 per day. While that remains well above the spring peak of 118 deaths per day in mid-May, the seven-day average is down from a peak of 155 daily deaths during the week ending Dec. 8.
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Since Illinois’ first death in March, the state has recorded 15,015 casualties.
Read more here. —Dan Petrella
12:05 p.m.: 7,377 new confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases and 181 additional deaths reported
Illinois health officials on Friday announced 7,377 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 181 additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known infections in Illinois to 886,805 and the statewide death toll to 15,015 since the start of the pandemic.
Officials also reported 112,292 new tests in the last 24 hours. The seven-day statewide rolling positivity rate for cases as a share of total tests was 8.0% for the period ending Thursday.
—Chicago Tribune staff
12:02 p.m.: Second stimulus check updates: Lawmakers expected to work weekend; government shuts down at midnight
Bearing down on a midnight shutdown deadline, top negotiators on a must-pass, almost $1 trillion COVID-19 economic relief package are committed to sealing an agreement Friday as they resolve remaining differences in hopes of passing the legislation this weekend.
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The pressure is on. Government funding lapses at midnight Friday and a partial, low-impact shutdown would ensue if Congress fails to pass a stopgap spending bill before then. That’s not guaranteed, said Senate GOP Whip John Thune, who said some Republicans might block the stopgap measure to keep the pressure on if the talks haven’t borne fruit.
Read more here. —Associated Press
11:35 a.m.: Waukegan church stages drive-by holiday light show: ‘When we can’t rely on our old rituals, we have to make new ones’
Drive-by outdoor light shows, prevalent this holiday season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, have made it to the church on time in Lake County.
St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Waukegan, at 3350 N. Delany Road, has joined the movement of free light shows set to coordinated music.
At the intersection of York House and Delany roads, feel free to stop into the church’s parking lot to experience St. Mark’s Christmas Light Extravaganza.
Read more here. —Karie Angel Luc, Lake County News-Sun
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10:39 am.: With no shows in nearly 10 months, performing musicians have been searching and waiting for income and answers — here’s how some are getting on
The COVID-19 pandemic hit “pause” on the entire Chicago music scene, and performing musicians have spent the last 9 months wondering when they’ll be able to starting playing again.
Music has not come to a stop, however. Artists have still been creating — even performing in new ways — throughout the year, in spite of the pandemic. That’s the reality of being a creative — especially when being a creative is how you collect a paycheck.
With live performances on hiatus, this year has forced performing musicians to mine their creativity for both inspiration *and* income streams. The types of gatherings that often hosted live music have now become cruel intersections of pandemic-related risk: whether it’s a birthday party, a bar, or Lollapalooza, all of the usual venues for live music now seem to double as potential super-spreader events.
In the meantime, musicians have contorted their creative energies to make ends meet and, hopefully, sustain their music through the pandemic, until they can make a living once again as a performer. Their adjustments showcase the toll that the lingering pandemic and restrictions have had on the city’s entire music culture and remind us of how music fills up some of the most intimate moments of our lives.
Read more here. —Adam Lukach
8:40 am.: Second vaccine doses will ship this weekend if FDA gives OK
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar says shipments of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine will begin this weekend if the FDA grants emergency use authorization as expected on Friday.
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“Trucks will roll, planes will fly this weekend, 5.9 million doses of Moderna vaccine allocated for next week,” Azar told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Friday.
Azar said the Moderna vaccine is “shockingly effective” and he expected to get vaccinated next week, if the White House physician cleared him to do so.
Read more here. —Associated Press
8:32 a.m.: Christmas services will look different at Southland churches, but ‘the meaning will hit more than ever’
For some, Christmas 2020 is almost Christmas as usual.
The Sauk Trail Baptist Temple in Richton Park continued drive-in services it was conducting through June, then in July returned to all services indoors.
They have continued ever since, and the Rev. Sam Waterloo said not much is changing in terms of the church’s usual Christmas plans. A children’s program has been combined with the adult choir and orchestra program, and the church supplies masks, hand sanitizer and space for social distancing.
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”Our advertising for this event has been different since we are not necessarily encouraging great crowds of people to come, but we have plenty of space for people to distance if guests did choose to attend,” Waterloo said.
Waterloo acknowledged not being entirely together as a congregation has been tough, though.
Read more here. —Bill Jones, the Daily Southtown
7:20 a.m.: Chicago Public Library announces winter break programs for students
The Chicago Public Library Foundation, Mayor Lightfoot and first lady Amy Eshleman were scheduled Friday to launch Make 2021 Yours, an effort to support city youth during public schools’ winter break, according to a news release.
The city and the library were scheduled to hold more than 150 online activities for young people, focusing on topics including culinary skills, sports and wellness, the arts, STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — skills and academic and college readiness, according to the release.
The “activities will include self-paced, pre-recorded online content as well as live, online” classes, according to the release. Young people can visit MyCHIMyFuture.org beginning Dec. 19 “to access these activities and much more. Additionally, starting on December 21st, there will be Grab & Go Activity kits for both younger children and teens filled with hands-on projects that can be picked up for free from the Chicago Park District and Chicago Public Libraries.”
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—Chicago Tribune staff
6:44 a.m.: Batavia-based Aldi, Instacart roll out online SNAP payment to 23 more states, D.C., after pilot program that included Illinois
Aldi and Instacart announced Thursday that the Batavia-based grocery store chain is now accepting the federal food assistance SNAP program in 29 states and Washington, D.C., after a pilot program that included Illinois.
The pilot program started with about 60 stories in Georgia and expanded to more than 570 stores in Illinois and other states. On Thursday, the program rolled out to 23 more states and Washington, D.C., according to a news release.
“Aldi is proud to be the first grocery retailer to accept EBT SNAP benefits as a form of payment online via Instacart for grocery delivery and Curbside pickup,” said Scott Patton, vice president for National Customer Interaction Services for Aldi U.S, in the release. “This service is now available at nearly 90% of ALDI stores, across 29 states and Washington, D.C., following successful pilots in California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Texas.”
The economic downturn triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a sharp increase in the number of people seeking help paying for and obtaining food, as well as participating in SNAP, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.
Indiana and Wisconsin were among the states included in Thursday’s rollout, as well as Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont and West Virginia.
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People who participate in the federal food assistance program can now order food from Aldi online through the Instacart app and have it delivered or readied for in-store pickup, according to the release.
—Chicago Tribune staff
Breaking coronavirus news Stay up to date with the latest information on coronavirus with our breaking news alerts.
In case you missed it
Here are five things that happened Thursday related to COVID-19:


chicagotribune--2020-12-19--Judge declares Jackie Wilson innocent in Jon Burge-related cop killings and refers case for investig

Judge declares Jackie Wilson innocent in Jon Burge-related cop killings and refers case for investigation by special prosecutor

Last year , veteran attorney Dan K. Webb was appointed to look into whether anyone had committed any crimes in @ @ @ @ @ then dropping charges against former “ Empire ” actor Jussie Smollett .
Webb said that @ @ @ @ @ office committed “ substantial abuses of discretion and operational failures ” but that they did @ @ @ @ @ of warranting criminal charges .

Jackie Wilson is flanked by his wife, Sandra, left, and daughter Candice Wilson after a news conference outside the Leighton Criminal Court Building Oct. 2, 2020. His murder case was abruptly dropped after allegations that a Cook County prosecutor lied under oath. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
A man who served more than three decades behind bars for a 1982 cop killing was officially declared innocent Friday after years of alleging he was tortured and framed for a shooting his brother committed.
Jackie Wilson successfully proved that he was merely an innocent bystander as his brother, Andrew, killed two Chicago police officers, Cook County Judge William Hooks ruled.
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But that won’t bring an end to one of the strangest cases in Cook County — one involving an allegedly perjurous prosecutor, an international con man and a legacy of police violence involving notorious ex-Cmdr. Jon Burge.
Hooks referred the overall matter to Presiding Judge LeRoy Martin Jr. for him to consider appointing a special prosecutor who would investigate potential criminal wrongdoing by current or former prosecutors.
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Judge William Hooks listens during closing arguments in the Jackie Wilson case at the Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago in 2018. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune )
And Hooks made no secret of his belief that some should face consequences for what he saw as a horrendously botched prosecution.
“Some (prosecutors) venture into dirty, unethical (territory) … in a very small number of cases, they become criminals themselves,” the judge said.
Hooks has called Wilson’s ordeal perhaps the most complicated Burge-related case that has surfaced.
Undisputed in the case was that Wilson’s brother, Andrew, fired the shots that killed Chicago police Officers William Fahey and Richard O’Brien in 1982. Both brothers alleged they were tortured at the hands of police after their arrest. Wilson’s first conviction was thrown out on appeal; at retrial in 1989 he was convicted of O’Brien’s murder but acquitted of Fahey’s.
In 2018, after extensive litigation, Hooks threw out Wilson’s conviction on the grounds that he was tortured into confessing by Burge and his crew.
The specially appointed private attorneys named to handle the prosecution put Wilson on trial for a third time this fall. But the case fell apart in spectacular fashion after a Cook County prosecutor, Nick Trutenko, allegedly lied on the stand.
The special prosecutors dropped the charges shortly afterward, and Trutenko was fired that evening.
Hooks on Friday said that while there is a “monstrous cloud” of police and prosecutorial misconduct hanging over the Wilson case, the case for Wilson’s innocence instead relied on uncontested eyewitness evidence that he was merely a bystander as his brother fired the shots.
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Prosecutors had argued that Wilson only came back into town to help his brother spring a friend out of custody — and that his arrival in Chicago kicked off a “common scheme,” such that he can be held legally responsible for his brother’s actions.
But there is no evidence that they were actually on their way to do so when Andrew fired the shots, Hooks said.
Andrew Wilson shot as “a spontaneous attempt to save himself,” the judge ruled, and if police had done their jobs correctly afterward, they would have treated Jackie Wilson as a witness against his brother and not a co-defendant.
Even some of Hooks’ fellow judges have come up to him and referred to Wilson as a “cop killer,” Hooks said from the bench.
“This court does not listen to those who have not read the record, studied the record,” he said. “It is our job to take the deep dive.”
The certificate of innocence could potentially be used as evidence in any future civil claims Wilson files, as well as entitle him to a significant cash payout from the state, along with potential help in finding housing and employment.
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It could also provide a measure of finality to the proceedings, which ended without a formal finding of guilty or not guilty.
In a highly unusual move, Wilson’s attorneys also had asked Hooks for wide-ranging sanctions against both Cook County prosecutors and the special prosecutors who handled Wilson’s case.
Hooks declined to impose the sanctions, instead referring the matter to Martin for consideration of a special prosecutor.
If Martin names a special prosecutor, it would be the second time in less than two years that such a prosecutor has been tasked with investigating potential misconduct by Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office.
Last year, veteran attorney Dan K. Webb was appointed to look into whether anyone had committed any crimes in the course of prosecuting and then dropping charges against former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett. Webb said that some in Foxx’s office committed “substantial abuses of discretion and operational failures” but that they did not rise to the level of warranting criminal charges.
The stakes appear far higher in Wilson’s case, which was dropped in October after twists and turns usually reserved for TV courtroom dramas.
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A central witness in the case, William Coleman, had testified in 1989 that Wilson confessed to the slaying to him when they were locked up together in Cook County Jail.
Coleman was widely reputed to be a con man and a fraud, with an international rap sheet, and by the time this year’s trial rolled around, neither defense attorneys nor the team of private attorneys appointed to prosecute the case knew if he was alive or dead. Not even Coleman’s ex-wife and son knew whether he was alive.
An investigator hired by the defense said he was warned not to affirmatively declare that Coleman was dead, since “he’d been dead before.”
But on Oct. 1, Trutenko took the stand and said not only was Coleman still alive, but the two still kept in touch.
The courtroom was shocked.
But the case was not dropped until later, after Trutenko testified that he had not discussed Coleman in his previous conversations with the special prosecutors.
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Special prosecutors told Hooks that Trutenko’s testimony was false. They had, in fact, discussed Coleman with him. Then they dropped the charges against Wilson entirely.
mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-12-20--‘The face of Cabrini-Green’: A lost child, a legacy of failure and a changing neighborhood

“ Now , what they said ( is ) the music ’ s too loud .
This is our way @ @ @ @ @ of life is on the rooftop with your wines , ” he said from his @ @ @ @ @ Church , just north of the rowhouses .
“ You do what you do .
@ @ @ @ @ .
… No , I can ’ t pay $ 3,500 a month .
Hell @ @ @ @ @ not going to pretend like I can .
But does that make you better than @ @ @ @ @ ’ t .
”

Megan Crepeau, Jeremy Gorner, William Lee

Jalisa Ford sits on the ground on Aug. 1, 2020, while rubbing the walkway where her 9-year-old son, Janari Andre Ricks, was fatally shot while playing with friends at the Cabrini Green rowhouses the previous evening. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
On a cold Saturday at the end of October, the corner of Division Street and Cleveland Avenue was consecrated.
A small crowd bowed their heads and prayed along with a man whose voice projected out to the whole block. “We glorify your name, Lord God, for the life and the legacy of Janari Ricks.”
They stood next to new condos whose listings boast of soaking tubs and wraparound balconies. A couple of blocks south were the Cabrini-Green rowhouses, the last vestige of the old neighborhood, where Janari lived and died.
Jalisa Ford, Janari’s mother, bowed her head and wiped away tears. It had been three months since her 9-year-old son was fatally shot. She had worked fiercely for this moment, when an honorary street sign bearing his name would be unveiled.
When the prayer concluded, she straightened up and strode into the gathered crowd. There was no trace of the tears.
“I hope that this will bridge the gap of everyone just coming together, making a change, and making a difference on the Near North Side, as a community, as a whole,” she said.
Moments later, to loud cheers, the sign was uncovered: Honorary Janari Ricks Way.
Cabrini-Green, the public housing complex once infamous nationwide as a symbol of crime and urban blight, has been slowly demolished over the past two decades. Its mostly Black residents were scattered around the city, replaced by new retail and sleek condos for wealthier, mostly white newcomers.
It is the most prominent test of the Richard M. Daley-era housing policy that, in the name of economic integration, displaced thousands of low-income Chicagoans, promising they would eventually get new homes among more affluent new neighbors. And fortunes have started reversing in the neighborhood once known as “Little Hell,” whose history of deep poverty and violent crime stretches over parts of three centuries.
It is a corner of the city where anyone can see a new Chicago bumping up against the old. But the divide between the remaining Cabrini residents and their richer neighbors remains stark, and relations have grown tense. Exactly how the past and future will mesh is uncertain.
The city set those changes in motion before Janari was born, and they will continue after his death. But for years to come at the corner of Division and Cleveland, there will be a memorial to Janari Ricks.
A child of Cabrini
Janari grew up in the last remaining strip of inhabited rowhouses, along the west side of Cambridge Avenue. The yellow brick is clean and well maintained. There are hostas planted next to the front doors and roses in the courtyard. Across the street stand the vacant rowhouses, boarded up, smothered in dirt and ivy, uninhabited since 2012 and left to the squatters and rats and raccoons. A mile to the east is the glittering Gold Coast.
Raymond Ricks, the father of 9-year-old Janari Ricks, wears a necklace with his slain son's picture during an honorary street sign ceremony for Janari on Oct. 24, 2020. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
The infamous Cabrini high-rises, the “reds” and the “whites,” were demolished years ago. Their residents moved to faraway CHA projects, used vouchers for private housing, relocated to designated CHA units in the new construction nearby, or dropped off the rolls.
But many former residents, now scattered across the city, are still drawn to what’s left of the neighborhood. Despite — or perhaps because of — decades of instability, they said, unusually strong bonds were formed.
“We’re all from the same neighborhood. It’s like (Janari’s) my child,” said Jermaine Savage, a rowhouse native who returned for the street-sign ceremony. “That’s how we look at each other’s kids, and everything. So it really hurt to see that happen to him because I knew everybody involved, even the guy that supposedly did it.”
Janari was killed in an extraordinarily violent year wracked by the pandemic and civil unrest, one of Chicago’s bloodiest in two decades. Fifty children age 12 and younger have been killed or wounded by gunfire citywide so far in 2020.
But the attack that claimed Janari was uniquely Cabrini.
Crowds of past and present residents gathered at the rowhouses many evenings this summer. They grilled, they played music, they laughed, they fought. July 31 was no different.
That evening, Janari was playing with his best friend, Kyler, who was heading into his grandmother’s rowhouse to get a video game controller while Janari waited in the courtyard.
Moments earlier, Darrell Johnson and another man had been fighting over a woman, neighbors said. Johnson made a threat, left the area and came back. Prosecutors later said he “went hunting” for his intended target, who happened to be in the courtyard not far from where Janari was waiting.
Johnson walked up a nearby alley and aimed shots through a gate, firing into the crowded courtyard, witnesses said.
On hearing the gunfire, Janari first ran toward Kyler’s mother, who was close by on a porch. When a bullet caught him in the back, he turned and ran south — toward his own home. He only made it as far as the next courtyard before collapsing on the sidewalk.
Cabrini eyewitnesses came forward eagerly. The shooter, they said, was Johnson, their former neighbor. They recognized his distinctive hair and his pronounced limp.
“We’re in a community where everyone knows everybody. Even the shooter. He knew me,” Ford told the Tribune. “He knew that was my son, he knew my family. He knew (Janari’s) dad. And he had all the opportunity to just — as he thought about it, he knew that he could have said ‘I’ll just wait.’ But he didn’t.”
Johnson was charged with first-degree murder and held without bail pending trial.
“It was so many people out here, it was so many families out here, it happened in front of a lot of kids,” Courtney Springfield, Kyler’s mother, said outside her mom’s rowhouse.
Courtney Springfield, 35, stands near where 9-year-old Janari Ricks was fatally shot at the Cabrini-Green rowhouses. Janari was playing with Courtney's son when he was killed. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
Kyler and Janari had been inseparable. Sometimes Springfield catches her son looking at pictures of Janari, or going on his TikTok page.
He rarely goes outside anymore. She brought him to the unveiling of the honorary street sign, but he didn’t want to stay out for long.
“I guess he don’t want people to talk to him about it,” she told the Tribune. “He just try to suppress it. He told my mom, he said when he thinks about it, he don’t like how his chest feels. Like, it hurt his heart or something.”
A universe apart
The reds and the whites were cleared out to make way for a new kind of high-rise, the kind with coffee shops and day spas at the ground level, the kind that attract the affluent. They have sprouted up in a wide ring around what remains of Cabrini, such that the dilapidated vacant buildings and the Cambridge Avenue rowhouses are nestled in a kind of valley. They are a short walk away, and a universe apart.
Some residents of the newer condos and town homes around Cabrini met the news of Janari’s death with dread and frustration, but not surprise.
Something like this was almost bound to happen, they told the Tribune. Beginning in the spring, they said, they noticed more parties, fights, gunshots and fireworks like sonic booms, late into the night nearly every night. The kind of Cabrini courtyard that hemmed in a small crowd of people during Janari’s shooting also acts like an amplifier, beaming sound out to the whole neighborhood.
Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 18 The Cabrini-Green rowhouses are illuminated as the sun rises behind the city skyline Dec. 3, 2020, in Chicago. The rowhouses are the surviving Cabrini buildings near where the infamous high-rise housing projects stood. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
The Tribune spoke to several residents of the new buildings surrounding the rowhouses. Most would not give permission to use their names, citing fears of retaliation from neighborhood residents or professional repercussions. They are conscious of the optics: the racial, socioeconomic overtones of their unease.
There had been disturbances at the rowhouses in prior years, they said. But they were occasional, and easier to ignore. Something about this hectic summer made it escalate dramatically.
They had been trying, and failing, to get police, aldermen and the Chicago Housing Authority to do something about it.
Representatives of more than a dozen nearby buildings, representing some 2,000 residents, got organized.
They measured decibel levels every night for two and a half months and found that on the vast majority of those nights, the noise reached a level above the city’s noise-control ordinance limit. They coordinated their calls to 911. They held conference calls with the CHA and went to a police beat meeting. One resident hired a consultant to try to find out if it was physically possible for a bullet from the rowhouses to be fired into their home.
A 26-page slideshow they presented to the CHA in early August detailed their grievances formally and anonymously. Many said they were thinking about moving.
A man walks past the Cabrini-Green rowhouses Dec. 3, 2020. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
“I have a 3.5-year-old daughter who is now terrified of loud sounds, when they’re setting off fireworks in the middle of the night, she starts shrieking and shaking until we can console her,” was the message of one resident.
“Why can’t this part of the neighborhood behave, like the rest,” wrote another.
In the three months leading up to Janari’s death, the group had multiple calls and meetings with CHA, police and Ald. Walter Burnett Jr., 27th.
CHA, they said, told them it was the police’s responsibility. Police told them it was the CHA’s responsibility. And the partying continued, though some residents said things calmed down after Janari was killed.
Springfield, who witnessed the shooting, said some of the newer residents have made their thoughts about the rowhouses very clear.
“Every summer night, if we out here barbecuing, they throw eggs,” she said, pointing to a condo building across the alley. “They be out there partying, so it’s funny to us. We been here all our life, we can’t come out and party, but they had a whole balcony filled, kicking it.”
Springfield said she had heard of the group of condo residents organizing — but the way she had heard it through the grapevine, they had banded together to complain that the rowhouses were an eyesore.
“They spend too much money to be looking at (us),” she said. “They come from wherever they came from and say we got to go.”
The area’s new residents said they strongly doubted anyone threw eggs at partyers in the courtyard, though they said if that did happen, it would be reprehensible. They vehemently denied they wanted to push longtime residents out of the neighborhood. All they wanted, they said, was some peace and quiet — and more security.
Raymond Richard, a Cabrini native and a longtime community activist, also heard about the views of the area’s newcomers.
“Now, what they said (is) the music’s too loud. This is our way of life. Your way of life is on the rooftop with your wines,” he said from his office at Holy Family Lutheran Church, just north of the rowhouses. “You do what you do. We do what we do. … No, I can’t pay $3,500 a month. Hell no. I’m not going to pretend like I can. But does that make you better than me? No it don’t.”
“This is precious land. This is our land. And we’re going to fight like hell for ours,” Richard said. “We ain’t going to let nobody come in and bombard us and be like the new city and push us out. They can build all around it. If (it) ain’t inclusive, we’ll burn it down.”
Cabrini in his blood
Darrell Johnson, Janari’s alleged killer, grew up in the Cabrini high-rises. For a time, he lived in one of the “reds” on Hudson, across the street from the now-vacant rowhouses where Jalisa Ford grew up.
Like so many displaced as the high-rises came down, he moved around to various neighborhoods on the South Side: Englewood, then South Shore, then Brighton Park.
And like many others, he kept coming back. His brother Dionta did too. One of Dionta’s trips back to the old neighborhood got him killed, shot by at least one assailant in 2006 near Division and Clybourn.
But that didn’t keep Johnson away from Cabrini. The pull toward home — an old neighborhood, an old territory — is strong.
Most of the rowhouses’ current troubles can be traced to former residents, said Ald. Burnett, a Cabrini native who has represented the area since the 1990s.
It’s “people who used to be in the neighborhood who come over there and do their thing,” he said. “If they were like that when they’re living there they’d likely lose their lease ... they feel like it’s still their land, that they’re home.”
Janari, like Johnson, had Cabrini in his blood.
His father, Raymond Ricks, grew up in the “whites,” the beige-colored high-rises north of Division Street. Raymond’s mother, Annie, was the final person to move out of the last high-rise before it was demolished in 2011, a few months after Janari was born.
Annie Ricks stands outside the remaining high-rise building at Cabrini-Green in Chicago on Nov. 30, 2010. She was the last resident to move out. Her grandson, Janari, was slain near the Cabrini-Green rowhouses in 2020. (Heather Charles / Chicago Tribune)
Jalisa Ford’s family, like Johnson’s, came north from Alabama during the Great Migration. Her mother and grandmother lived in the rowhouses, where Jalisa was raised with her brother and sister.
Cabrini was home, but she made sure it was not her whole world. She went to grammar school in Lakeview, where she was one of only a handful of Black students. The other kids looked down on her for not having name-brand clothes, and it took years before anyone wanted to sit next to her. When she got home in the afternoons, the Cabrini kids teased her too: “Oh, you think you’re better than us?”
Her sister went away to military school. She said her mother often struggled with drinking and depression. So Jalisa and her older brother, Andre, grew as close as siblings could be. There were no secrets between them, she said.
In 2003, 17-year-old Andre was shot in the back in one of the red high-rises on Hudson.
“Wrong place, wrong time, being with the wrong person. They didn’t aim at him, but they didn’t know how to aim. And one of the bullets caught my brother,” Ford said.
He had been expected to survive, and was planning to transition from a hospital to a rehabilitation center, Ford said. But he died in the hospital after what Ford described as a botched procedure to change his breathing tube.
His death tore her apart.
And she moved away, for a time, to live with her aunts on a quiet block on the West Side near the Oak Park border. But she came back. She didn’t want her mother to be alone, and besides, the rowhouses were home.
“I felt safe coming back,” she said. “(My brother) wasn’t an intended target, just like my son wasn’t an intended target. So I didn’t feel like we were in any type of danger or anything, because it wasn’t his fault.”
‘My mother’s nightmare’
Jalisa Ford felt that pull toward home after her short time on the West Side. She went back and spent the rest of her teenage years at Cabrini. That’s where she met Raymond Ricks.
It was a Romeo and Juliet romance. At the time, the guys in her rowhouses were feuding with the guys in his high-rises. He would sneak down from the high-rises to meet her, and she would steal out to see him in the whites.
Raymond Ricks and Jalisa Ford pose Aug. 1, 2020, after their 9-year-old son Janari Ricks was fatally shot while playing with friends at the Cabrini-Green rowhouses. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
She became pregnant at 17. Her family was angry, she said, they expected more of her than teenage motherhood.
“But of course I showed them otherwise,” she said, with a forceful kind of pride in her voice. “I did graduate high school, I did work.”
When she learned she was having a boy, she felt instantly that it was the reincarnation of her brother. She chose Janari’s middle name, Andre, as a tribute to him. As Janari grew older, he looked and acted just like Andre, she said. And then he met a similar end.
“I’m reliving my mother’s nightmare all over again,” Ford said.
Ford and her fiance called Janari the “face” of Cabrini-Green — the kind of child who was looked upon as a model of what after-school programs and neighborhood resources could nurture.
Everyone who met him described him as astonishingly bright: an outstanding student who spoke good Spanish for his age, with a dazzling command of obscure sports statistics. This spring, he helped his father’s fiancee study for her GED.
Last year, Ford said, they were at a nearby Whole Foods when he heard two men speaking about him in Spanish, saying something to the effect of, “somebody needs to be in this aisle to watch this kid, ‘cause he’s still picking up stuff,” she said.
“My son turned around and said to them, ‘My mom’s right here, I’m not going to steal anything,’” Ford said. “He told them that in Spanish.”
He idolized the Golden State Warriors, especially Stephen Curry; he wanted to play basketball professionally when he grew up. Ford was careful not to tell him that some players get drafted out of high school. She wanted to make sure he had a backup plan.
“I used to always tell him, ‘you want to be a basketball player, you gotta get a good what?’ And he would repeat it: ‘education,’” she said.
And the backup plan for Janari was construction.
“He was only 9, and that’s the way he thought: ‘I want to be in the development business. I want to build buildings,’” she said.
For a child who grew up in a valley of rowhouses surrounded by new modern high-rises, whose whole life had been scored to the ringing of jackhammers and cranes and backhoes raising Near North condominiums, it seemed a natural fit.
But Janari is gone, and the construction continues.
A delicate dynamic
When Chicago police Sgt. Chris Schenk was a child, he used to ride his bike all the way from his home in West Rogers Park to Cabrini-Green, 10 miles away. He was curious. He wanted to explore.
“I was a kid, I didn’t know any different,” he said. “And then when I told my mom, she said, ‘Where’d you go?’”
Chicago police Sgt. Chris Schenk stands near the Cabrini-Green rowhouses Nov. 24, 2020. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
Schenk, 48, has been working in the Near North patrol district on and off, but mostly on, for nearly two decades. He is the kind of cop who shows up to neighborhood barbecues and peace marches and block parties. He gives out his cellphone number.
Residents smile when they see him. They pose with him for pictures. The big uniformed white guy sticks out, but everyone is grinning.
It wasn’t always like that. It took seven or eight years for some of the neighbors to trust him.
“Friendships begin with, what? ‘Hello, my name is Chris.’ Introduction, right? Communication,” Schenk said. “I would stick around and listen and just let them talk to me.”
One drizzly November morning, Schenk walked past the rowhouses. He was greeted by a CHA security guard, and asked her if her boss was around for a quick hello. A man emerged from the front door of a rowhouse and flagged him down.
“Every day I try to prove myself to the community,” Schenk said. “All I can think is about what can I do to double up on my efforts.”
That kind of policing, residents said, is in sharp contrast to the cops who are stationed at each end of Cambridge Avenue. They generally come in from other districts, and take the opportunity to sit in a squad car and earn overtime.
Sending police into neighborhoods where they have no relationships can cause real problems, said Vince Carter, who has coached sports in Cabrini for decades.
“They’re saying, ‘OK, you can do overtime but we’re going to send you to Cabrini,’” Carter said. “So first of all, before you even say yes or no, once you say yes, you’re already perceiving, ‘Well, they wouldn’t be asking me to go over there if some stuff’s not going on.’”
Cops respond by assuming some kids just running across a street must be into mischief or worse, he said.
“… So then when you get here and you start seeing whatever, you know, some kids running across the street, you’re thinking they’re doing something wrong. And so now you stop those kids. And so now those kids got an attitude toward you, ‘Why you stopping me?’
“And so to me, that sets the wrong example. But if you have community policing and, I’ll just say Sgt. Schenk … knows that Demetrius is running because he’s probably trying to get to the basketball court. Because he knows that he plays basketball. So he’s not going to stop him, because he already knows that this is the good kid in the neighborhood.”
Burnett said police and the CHA need to do more to root out the troublemakers, speculating that CHA security might be scared of the residents.
Recently, he said, police and security have started checking IDs of people they encounter on Cambridge, to see if they belong.
Maurice Edwards, a neighborhood activist, said he wants police to take it a step further and do an early-morning sweep of the whole neighborhood.
“That’s to make sure that everybody who’s laying their hat under these roofs, in these apartments here, belongs here,” he said as he walked down Cambridge Avenue. “And the weapons are cleared out here ... as well as the drugs, the squatters, whatever you have.”
Maurice Edwards, vice president of the Cabrini-Green Local Advisory Council, stands at the rowhouses Oct. 21, 2020. He grew up in the "whites." (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
Edwards is vice president of the Cabrini-Green Local Advisory Council, a resident advocacy organization. He grew up in the whites, including in the building where a Target now stands. He now lives in a CHA public housing unit embedded in a block of stylish, modern townhomes within walking distance of the row houses.
The city’s public housing policy has shifted toward such mixed-income developments in recent decades, theorizing that economic integration will reduce crime and improve neighborhood stability.
Edwards is keenly aware of the delicate dynamic between the old and new neighbors.
“If you’re new to Chicago, it wouldn’t take you long to figure out Cabrini-Green sits on prime land,” Edwards said. “We have always known that through generations, coming up. And I understand it, they want us out.”
He thought for a moment about who “they” were.
“Does the ‘they’ turn out to be the rich people, the political people, or who?” he said. “The suburbanites that want to come from the suburbs, the yuppies, who are the ‘they’? The ‘they’ seem to be a mixture of everything.”