Meigs Field’s destruction, 10 years later
“The reason he did it that way was because he knew he had to cheat to win,” Whitney said. “The fact that the mayor would do something illegal like this was shocking. But, in a sense, it wasn’t because...
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A different kind of leaning in: The Paper Machete 3.30.13
You can listen to me read this piece here on The Paper Machete/WBEZ podcast of the show. (I start at 4:31) Here’s my piece from The Paper Machete this weekend. Deadlines are tough; I finished this...
View ArticleWhy you should care about what happened with Texas’s SB5 bill
Yesterday, a senator in the Texas legislature named Wendy Davis attempted a thirteen-hour filibuster to prevent the passage of SB5, a bill that would have placed such onerous restrictions on clinics...
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A Silk Road to ruin: The Paper Machete – 10.05.13
I’ve said this before but one of the reasons I like performing at The Paper Machete is its hard-and-fast deadline and word count. The show starts at 3pm. If I’m going to make it to The Green Mill on...
View ArticleWhy does Alderman Fioretti want a Chicago City Council hearing on the CTA’s...
This morning, I made a snarky comment about the possibility of a Chicago City Council hearing on the CTA’s Ventra problems. One of the main proponents of this, Chicago progressive caucus member...
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Chicago 2013: A year in review
Roger Ebert, newspaperman Many of Chicago’s big events in 2013 were the “part two” of something that happened in 2012: IL’s marriage equality bill, Whittier’s teardown, the parking meter changes and...
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Confusing the symptoms of Chicago’s violence with the disease
I swear this blog isn’t going to become “Our Man In Chicago On Crime” but it’s probably going to be on my mind for a couple weeks. I’m trying to understand the mayor’s mindset when he does things like...
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The hard work of making Jackie Robinson West happen
This is a piece I read for Tuesday Funk last night. It’s a reading series at Hopleaf on the first Tuesday of each month at 730pm. Last night was a particularly eclectic mix of poetry, fiction and...
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Chicago media is getting rid of what it needs the most
Last week, a new report from The Knight Foundation said a lack of local news and information was the biggest cause of declining turnout among millennial voters. Meanwhile, these three things happened...
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Mark Kirk has a very specific image of the South Side
This week, Illinois Senator Mark Kirk referred to Lindsey Graham – an unmarried Presidential candidate – as “a bro with no ho.” He further intimated “that’s what we’d say on the South Side.” (Kirk was...
View ArticleTiming is everything in the Laquan McDonald shooting case
View image | gettyimages.com On October 20th, 2014, Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times by a police officer. McDonald was a 17-year-old teenager who was, according to reports, high on PCP and carrying a...
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Pushing back on racism: The Beverly Review, 12.29.15
Screenshot from WBEZ’s Curious City report on Beverly’s 1970s integration efforts. This was from a presentation called “Beverly Now.” Yesterday I experienced an afternoon of celebration, reflection and...
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The South Side is a myth: Tuesday Funk, July 5th, 2016
With The Frunchroom taking up most of my live lit energy in the last year, I didn’t have as much time as I liked to do live readings. I’m trying to get back into the habit and reading at Tuesday Funk...
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Time to hit the reset button on the 19th ward school closing/restructuring plan
If you don’t live in the 19th ward of Chicago, you might not know there’s a plan to close and restructure some of the schools in our neighborhood in an effort to solve overcrowding at another. The...
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Will Rahm Emanuel’s future depend on Lori Lightfoot’s future as police board...
Good morning. It’s Tuesday and Chicago doesn’t have a police board president. This is important because we had a police board president yesterday. As president of the police board, Lori Lightfoot has...
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When does Govenor Rauner start punching up instead of punching down?
There’hadow a precept in good satire that you punch up, you don’t punch down. There isn’t a similar theory about those who hold political office though you generally want to be seen as representing...
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Why are Beverly’s home sales up? Because of the people who live here
Last week in Crain’s Chicago Business there was an article about how home sales in Beverly are on the rise and some of the reasons why. I’ll get into that in a second, but a couple of declarations are...
View ArticleGovernment official, shrink thyself
A recent article in Crain’s Chicago Business asked nine Chicago businesswomen want they want to see change for 2018. I found myself nodding in agreement with most of it, save for the opening paragraph....
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Our country was founded on a culture of dissent. That’s worth celebrating
Families Belong Together protest on Clark St. in Chicago on June 30th, 2018 Every year on the 4th of July, I read the Declaration of Independence as a reminder of where we’ve been, how far we have to...
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A guide to yesterday’s Chicago protests on the Dan Ryan – for people who are...
I spent most of yesterday watching reactions to the shutdown of the Dan Ryan to protest violence in Chicago. Some of the reactions were genuine – people trying to come to a better understanding of why...
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