Put Illinois to Work

When a gang war reaches the point at which politicians start calling for the National Guard, then perhaps we have gotten beyond the typical run of street violence that, sadly, seems to come each spring.

Never mind the political stunt of calling for federal troops. Mayor Daley rightly dismissed that last week as an unworkable, unwise idea. But how do gang wars get started? And, perhaps more importantly, how does the shooting stop? Those are the questions CNC reporter Don Terry set out to answer several weeks ago when it became clear that an apparently isolated incident had turned into something terrifying and dangerous in the Austin neighborhood.

Mixing concrete detail, a street-smart sensibility and evocative language, Don brings us inside Austin during a running gang fight that put both gangbangers and just plain folks at risk. He also tells how the community fights back as local clergy and groups such as CeaseFire try to reason with gang leaders caught in the frenzy of tit-for-tat retaliation.

“It seemed like a lot longer” than three weeks, Carl Bell, a leader of CeaseFire, told Don. “Bodies kept dropping.”

There are no easy fixes that will put an end to gang warfare. Don Terry’s story give us a close-up view of the senselessness of it all.

Any “Project Runway” viewer knows that in fashion, one day you’re in, and one day you’re out. From that perspective, Chicago has been out for oh, so many days. Would-be designers may get their schooling and their starts here, but just as soon as they start to be “in,” they head out to New York or fashion hot spots beyond.

CNC reporter Jessica Reaves introduces us to a group of people who are trying to do something about the exodus.  Mayor Daley has started a fashion incubator and this time he is hoping for more success than other similar ventures, such as the high-tech incubator he tried to launch on Goose Island during the dot-com boom. Local designers such as Michelle Tan and Kate Coxworth are now finding success here. A couple dozen more, and Chicago could justifiably call itself part of fashion’s “in” crowd.

Whenever people talk about the federal stimulus program, they wonder how some $800 billion could be spent with so few jobs to show for it-at least so far. Projects that were said to be “shovel ready” apparently were not. Columnist James Warren, though, has found a few such jobs, at a South Side place called DeNormandie Towel and Linen Supply Co., where people wash and fold many of the towels and linens that go on restaurant tables.

Jobs created there, thanks to help from $200 million in federal stimulus money, are part of Gov. Pat Quinn’s “Put Illinois to Work” initiative.  ”You can chide Gov Quinn for not getting any traction for his tax program, but you’ve got to give him credit for getting some folks back to work,” Warren writes. The state’s unemployment rate still hovers above 11 percent, so Gov. Quinn himself has plenty of work to do. But the people at DeNormandie Towel and Linen, at least, are thankful he keeps trying.

These stories, plus The Pulse, make up an engaging Sunday report.

Good reading to you

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 2nd, 2010 at 12:34 pm and is filed under Editor's Notes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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