Week of May 3, 2017 Vol 28 • No 23 • www.thechicagocitizen.com
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WEEKLY INSPIRATIONS FROM REV. DR. DERRICK B. WELLS +P8
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RECONSTRUCTION IN WOODLAWN BRINGS HOPE Christopher Shuttlesworth
NASA’s super-pressure balloon took flight at 10:50 a.m. local time April 25 (5:50 p.m. CST April 24) from Wanaka Airport in New Zealand. Scientists hope the balloon will stay afloat for up to 100 days, more than doubling the previous flight record of 46 days.
UCHICAGO-LED NASA BALLOON MISSION LAUNCHES, WITH GOAL OF BREAKING FLIGHT RECORD By Greg Borzo On April 24, NASA launched a football-stadium-sized, super-pressure balloon on a mission that aims to set a record for flight duration while carrying a telescope that scientists at the University of Chicago and around the world will use to study cosmic rays. Researchers from 16 nations hope the balloon, which lifted off from an airfield in Wanaka, New Zealand, will stay afloat for up to 100 days as it travels at 110,000 feet around the Southern Hemisphere. From its vantage point in near-space, the telescope is designed to detect ultra-high energy cosmic rays as they penetrate the Earth’s atmosphere. An ultraviolet
“In Woodlawn, collaborative community development investments and partnerships are having a dramatic impact on economic vitality and quality of life,” according to a Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) press release. “Population has increased by 15 percent, which is the first increase in decades, new jobs are being created, the number of vacant properties has plummeted and violent crime has fallen by 40 percent.” Bill Eager, who is the Vice President of POAH, said the initiative to reconstruct Woodlawn began more than 10 years ago, and Eager now says Woodlawn is beginning to look better than before. “There was a failing Housing Development from 60th-63rd Cottage Grove called Grove Parc Plaza Apartments,” Eager said. “It was in very, very bad shape and it was in danger of being shut down and leaving residents evicted. So, residents and city officials met with POAH.” Eager explained that POAH, which was based in Boston at the time, specializes in taking over Section-8 properties, rehabbing and operating them. He said this Housing situation was bigger than POAH’s normal task. But Eager said POAH still decided to take over the property with the understanding that it would be redeveloped over time. “Grove Parc was a very large 504 unit Section-8 property and people didn’t want to see that collapse,” Eager said. “At the same time, it was a very large undertaking and it was pretty daunting. Whoever took it over was in for a lot of expense and a lot of risk for a lot of years. But POAH saw it as its mission and an opportunity to enter a new market like Chicago.” “While initially it was a housing preservation and renewal project, in 2011 POAH, in partnership with the City of Chicago, was awarded a $30.5 million Choice Neighborhoods Grant by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which challenged them to use the funds as a springboard for community-wide renewal,” according to a (POAH) press release. Eager said the new Housing Development was their main footprint but POAH wasn’t limited to helping reconstruct other areas in
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camera on the telescope will take 400,000 images a second as it looks back toward Earth to try and capture some of the particles. “The mission is searching for the most energetic cosmic particles ever observed,” said Angela V. Olinto, the Homer J. Livingston Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago and principal investigator of the project, known as the Extreme Universe Space Observatory on a Super Pressure Balloon (EUSO-SPB). “The origin of these particles is a great mystery that we’d like to solve. Do they come from massive black holes at the center of
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Bill Eager, who is the Vice President of POAH, said the initiative to reconstruct Woodlawn began more than 10 years ago, and now Eager says Woodlawn is beginning to look better than before.
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