SSW 02.01.24

Public Meetings Report ILLUSTRATION BY HOLLEY APPOLD/SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

A recap of select open meetings at the local, county, and state level.

BY SCOTT PEMBERTON AND DOCUMENTERS

January 9 At its meeting, the City Council Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development recommended that the full council confirm Ciere Boatright as the new commissioner of Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development. Boatright now serves as acting commissioner and promised “more shovels in the ground and more ribbons cut.” A South Side native, Boatright previously managed the Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives’ Pullman Park project and was a former vice president at CRG, a private real estate development firm. She said she has already begun reaching out to alderpersons about how the department can support development goals in their wards.

At its meeting, the City Council Committee on Education and Child Development learned that City Colleges of Chicago (CCC) is among the top community colleges in the nation in supporting students’ upward economic mobility, based on a 2017 New York Times analysis. Twenty-seven percent of the school’s students moved up two earning quintiles; 2.7 percent moved from the bottom quintile to the top. CCC representatives asked for $132 million in additional funding for adult education programs—$100 million from the state and $32 million from the city. The programs include such courses as English as a second language. After holding tuition steady for eight years, CCC is also asking for a seven dollar per credit hour increase.

January 10 At their meeting, members of the 11th Police District Council – Humboldt Park/West & East Garfield Park discussed Mayor Brandon Johnson’s People’s Plan for Community Safety. The plan focuses on heath, community environment, policing, education, economic opportunity and upward mobility, housing, adults of highest promise, youth of highest promise, and victims and survivors. It’s designed to “address historic disinvestment and work toward healing our communities,” according to its website. For ten years, a “diversion programs” plan from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office has provided education and services as alternatives to conviction and incarceration to more than 27,000 participants.

2 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ FEBRUARY 1, 2024

January 11 The meeting of the Chicago Public Schools West Side – 2023-2024 Educational Facilities Master Plan Community Roundtable was intended, in part, to identify school facilities that are underused. CPS estimates that 40 percent of facilities on the West Side are underutilized. This roundtable was the fifth of sixteen seeking community input on the master facilities plan. The West Side Planning Area includes Austin, Humboldt Park, East and West Garfield Park, and North Lawndale. The plan is legally mandated to assess schools’ building needs and plan five years of maintenance, spending, and construction.

CPS officials have said they are not looking to close schools but to invest in neighborhood schools to ensure better learning experiences. Of the more than 36,000 students living in the West Side Planning Area, more than 11,000 attend schools in other locations.

January 16 At its meeting, the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) Board of Commissioners heard from CHA CEO Tracey Scott that in 2023 forty-three families became homeowners under a CHA program, the authority’s occupancy rate is ninety-five percent, and more than 1,000 homes and mixed-income properties are serving residents. SEIU Local 73 and the CHA have reached an agreement on a four-year contract with a four percent annual wage increase, longevity bonuses for workers with more than ten years on the job, eight additional paid days of sick leave, and a $1,000 bonus when the agreement is ratified.

Seven public commenters spoke on issues including poor response to complaints against a property manager, more work opportunities for residents, and the lack of laundry facilities.

January 17 At their meeting, members of the City Council Committee on Housing and Real Estate approved the sale of a vacant city-owned lot at 4939 S. Lake Park Ave. in Kenwood next to the former home of blues icon Muddy Waters. The lot was sold to Waters’ greatgranddaughter Chandra Cooper for $7,556. Founder of the Muddy Waters MOJO Museum, Cooper plans to use the lot for a garden. The home received Chicago landmark status in 2021 and a $1.1 million grant from the Mellon Foundation’s Humanities in Place program in 2023. Set to open this year, the museum is designed to host live performances, music and wellness classes, and other public programming. The sale is subject to City Council approval.

January 20 At its meeting, the 2nd Police District Council – Bronzeville/Washington Park/Hyde Park received updates on two major programs in connection with CPD’s responsiveness and transparency: Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) for police officers and proposed controversial “behind closed doors” arbitration discipline for some officers. Some 4,300 officers have completed the forty-hour CIT training program to supply police with skills to de-escalate mental health crises. The program’s goals are to decrease 911 calls and to reduce incarceration in favor of referrals to appropriate services, said coordinator Lt. Joseph Schuler. Police are not involved in a separate response program enabled by the new Treatment Not Trauma ordinance, which dispatches teams of physical and mental health professionals. The City Council will vote a second time on a controversial piece of the new police contract to allow officers facing long-term suspension or firing to have their cases settled via arbitration, possibly behind closed doors. In December, the Council rejected the proposal 17-33 due to concerns about transparency and accountability.

This information was collected and curated by the Weekly in large part using reporting from City Bureau’s Documenters at documenters.org.

SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY The South Side Weekly is an independent non-profit newspaper by and for the South Side of Chicago. We provide high-quality, critical arts and public interest coverage, and equip and develop journalists, artists, photographers, and mediamakers of all backgrounds.

Volume 11, Issue 2 Editor-in-Chief

Jacqueline Serrato

Managing Editor

Adam Przybyl

Investigations Editor

Jim Daley

Senior Editors Martha Bayne Christopher Good Olivia Stovicek Sam Stecklow Alma Campos Politics Editor Labor Editor Immigration Editor

J. Patrick Patterson Jocelyn Martínez-Rosales Wendy Wei

Community Builder

Chima Ikoro

Public Meetings Editor Scott Pemberton Visuals Editor

Kayla Bickham

Deputy Visuals Editor Shane Tolentino Staff Illustrators Mell Montezuma Shane Tolentino Director of Fact Checking: Savannah Hugueley Fact Checkers: Rubi Valentin

Isi Frank Ativie Bridget Killian Christopher Good Kate Linderman Layout Editor

Tony Zralka

Program Manager

Malik Jackson

Office Manager

Mary Leonard

Advertising Manager

Susan Malone

Webmaster

Pat Sier

The Weekly publishes online weekly and in print every other Thursday. We seek contributions from all over the city.

Send submissions, story ideas, comments, or questions to editor@southsideweekly.com or mail to: South Side Weekly 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. Chicago, IL 60637 For advertising inquiries, please contact: Susan Malone (773) 358-3129 or email: malone@southsideweekly.com For general inquiries, please call: (773) 643-8533

IN CHICAGO

IN THIS ISSUE

Hilco settlement Anybody who was present or owned property within a large area of Little Village on April 11, 2020 is eligible for a cash payment from Hilco Redevelopment Partners, the company behind the controversial implosion of the smokestack from the coal-powered Crawford Generating Station. In the aftermath of the implosion, which covered the neighborhood in dust at the start of the pandemic, three residents filed a class action lawsuit against Hilco on behalf of themselves and others affected by the implosion. In December, Hilco agreed to settle the lawsuit to the tune of $12.5 million; the money will pay for attorney fees and be dispersed among eligible residents who submit a claim form. The website for the settlement, www.littlevillagesmokestacks.com, states that submitting a claim form or doing nothing binds those eligible to the settlement, which prevents future legal action against Hilco; to retain the right for future legal action, residents have until February 26 to opt out of the settlement. The deadline to submit a claim for a cash payment is March 26.

Since the implosion, Hilco built a Target distribution center on the property, at 3501 S. Pulaski Rd., called Exchange 55, which opened in 2021. The center has been protested by some residents worried about the impact of truck traffic on roads and air quality. In late 2022, Hilco announced plans to build a trailer storage site next to the distribution center.

public meetings report

Texas bus company sues city Texas-based Wynne Transportation filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Chicago on January 5. Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s administration contracted the bus company to transport migrants to Democrat-led cities across the country.

Since August 2022, Chicago has welcomed over 35,000 migrants seeking asylum arriving via Texas buses and airplanes. In early December, Chicago began creating stricter guidelines on where individuals could be dropped off by bus companies, and has filed several dozen complaints with bus companies who violated those protocols since then. The lawsuit from Wynne Transportation asserts the city exceeded its authority over immigration and that such protocols can only be put in place by the federal government. The bus company and its subcontractors are facing more than ninety suits filed by the city with fines ranging from $2,000 to $10,000. The City has yet to file a response to the complaint.

The lawsuit from Wynne Transportation asserts the city exceeded its authority over immigration and that such protocols can only be put in place by the federal government. The bus company and its subcontractors are facing more than ninety suits filed by the city with fines ranging from $2,000 to $10,000. The City has yet to file a response to the complaint.

the exchange

A recap of select open meetings at the local, county, and state level. scott pemberton and documenters.....2 missed shots

A Weekly investigation found CPD reported hundreds of missed shootings to ShotSpotter last year. Will Mayor Johnson renew the company’s contract? jim daley and max blaisdell..................4 a ‘multi-prong approach’

Emails show how ShotSpotter has lobbied Mayor Johnson’s administration to keep its contract. jim daley and max blaisdell..................7 south side mobilizes for bring chicago home referendum

Debate over the real estate transfer tax increase has drawn concerns on misleading tactics from supporters and opponents. xuandi wang.............................................8 The Weekly’s poetry corner offers our thoughts in exchange for yours. chima ikoro and arnold joyner..........10 camp plans collapse, but challenges remain

Though the migrant camps have been halted for now, the challenges of housing and providing resources to Chicago’s most marginalized communities are not going away. bunny mack...............................................12 op-ed: freedom for sale— ice detention must end

A South Side woman writes about her recent eight-month detention at an immigration detention facility in Wisconsin. ana navarro............................................14 libertad en venta: la detención por ice debe terminar

Una mujer del sur de Chicago escribe sobre su experiencia en un centro de detención de inmigrantes en la cárcel del condado de Dodge, en Wisconsin. ana navarro..............................................15 johnson again delays shelter evictions

The announcement followed a letter signed from alderpersons who demanded the shelter limit be extended and called on Johnson to appoint a chief homelessness officer. jim daley..................................................16 calendar

Bulletin and events. zoe pharo................................................19

Cover photo by Jim Daley

POLICE

Missed Shots

The department reported misses more than 550 times last year, and a public safety director complained about a 55-round miss in 2022.

BY JIM DALEY AND MAX BLAISDELL

A

Weekly investigation has gotten the first-ever look at how CPD reports missed gunfire to ShotSpotter, the gunshot-detection company that was recently renamed SoundThinking, as well as a glimpse of how the company responded to its sensors missing a fiftyfive round shooting in December 2022 that wounded two men.

According to internal company emails reviewed by the Weekly, the shooting, one of more than forty CPD reported to ShotSpotter that month, prompted Dan Casey, the Office of Public Safety Administration’s managing deputy director of public safety IT, to demand an explanation.

“I got my head handed to me yesterday by Dan Casey,” wrote Gary Bunyard, ShotSpotter’s vice president of public safety solutions, in an email to other senior employees. “This incident involved a high-profile shooting with ‘55’ rounds.

And, we missed it! …I am a big boy—I can deal with Dan. However, I owe Dan some explanation! Obviously, I cannot tell him that we have a bunch of down sensors in that area and insufficient resources to service our largest customer.”

Bunyard added that Casey would want to know how long the sensors would be down and when they’d be fixed. “I can plead ignorance on the first question, but he is not going to let me get away without answering the second question. Anything you can arm me with would be greatly appreciated.”

Casey told the Weekly he did not specifically recall the December 2022 incident. “We should hold our vendors accountable and it sounds like I was working

alerts were linked to documented evidence of a gun-related crime, ShotSpotter’s CEO wrote that during the same seventeenmonth period the OIG analyzed, ShotSpotter alerts “led authorities to 1,131 crime scenes where at least one gunshot wound victim was found” in Chicago.

Last week, Block Club reported that CPD superintendent Larry Snelling reiterated his support for ShotSpotter at a January 24 community meeting in Chinatown. “Because of this technology, officers have been able to get to scenes quicker,” Snelling said at the meeting.

A “Big Miss”

A ShotSpotter sensor is seen on January 20 in Back of the Yards.

on that,” he added. “I certainly would hold our vendors very much accountable.”

Other internal emails show ShotSpotter executives also discussed challenges hiring enough staff for the company’s Chicago coverage area and were repeatedly warned about electrical code violations by a local contractor. A ShotSpotter spokesperson declined to provide comment for this story.

ShotSpotter’s sensors detect loud noises that a computer algorithm analyzes to determine whether they’re gunshots. In January 2023, the Associated Press reported that an internal document revealed human technicians “are given broad discretion” to determine whether noises are gunfire and can overrule the algorithm’s classifications.

In 2018, then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel inked a three-year $33 million contract

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Photo by Jim Daley

with ShotSpotter. By May 2021, there were sensors in twelve police districts on the South and West Sides. Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot extended the contract twice, most recently in October 2022. During his campaign, Mayor Brandon Johnson pledged to cancel the contract, and dozens of community organizations have signed a letter urging the mayor to keep that promise.

The current extension expires February 16.

Johnson has repeatedly said he will wait until then to announce a decision.

Proponents of the gunshot-detection technology argue that its value lies in its ability to quickly dispatch police to shootings, where they can potentially save the lives of gunshot victims, particularly in cases where no one calls 9-1-1. In a response to a 2021 report by the Inspector General (OIG) that found fewer than 10 percent of

On December 12, 2022, two months after then-Mayor Lightfoot quietly extended ShotSpotter’s contract, two young men were waiting for food at Super Star And Gyros in Back of the Yards. Someone outside started shooting at the restaurant, riddling its windows with dozens of bullet holes and leaving both men wounded.

They drove to a nearby firehouse and were taken to separate hospitals for treatment.

The following day, Bunyard, ShotSpotter’s senior vice president of public safety solutions, emailed several other senior employees.

“I stepped into a buzz saw this afternoon with Dan,” Bunyard wrote, referring again to Casey, OPSA’s information technology director. “He indicated that we had [a] ‘Big Miss’ yesterday—his words. He said it was 55 rounds and we failed to alert, but had audio.”

Bunyard needed to explain how ShotSpotter’s system failed to detect so many rounds in a single incident.

POLICE

“We have three OOS [out of service] locations in that area that all would have been helpful and likely would have made this into a successful detection,” Charlie Knust, a senior director for customer support and training, replied to Bunyard.

John Fountain, who was ShotSpotter’s director of network and field operations until last month, replied to the email thread to say: “Looking at the current array status, we have a single down sensor to the northeast of the incident,” adding that there was an open work order for it. “There are two locations to the south where we’ve lost working sensors.”

A separate issue from the two out-ofservice sensors was ambient noise in the area, Fountain continued. “There are more than a few performance compromised sensors in that region due to excessive [decibel] levels. This is why we need a PM [project manager] involved to assess the design and see what modifications can be made to address the performance issues.”

The gyro shop is on the southeast corner of 47th and Racine. Just across that intersection is the entrance to Stockyards Industrial Park, a sprawling site that hosts manufacturing, packing, and distribution businesses. The park is serviced by railroads and trucking routes.

A Weekly reporter found one of the ShotSpotter sensors Fountain referenced two blocks south of Super Star And Gyros, on the roof of a building that is close to truckyards on two sides. Another is on a utility pole in front of a neighborhood school nearly half a mile west of 47th and Racine. Both are clearly visible from the sidewalk. A third sensor was found on a stoplight at 43rd and Halsted, a little more than a mile northeast of the gyro shop, but we could not confirm if it was the one Fountain had said was down.

The internal ShotSpotter emails show that following the December 2022 “Big Miss,” the ShotSpotter team did not have a definite timeline for when they’d get the three nearby out-of-service sensors replaced. The challenges included a lack of staffing and potential delays in getting permission from building owners.

“We have this in the highest place to get new permissions, but until we have a resource (The associate PM we are trying to hire) for enhancing current arrays, we

A ShotSpotter sensor outside an elementary school in Back of the Yards, photographed in January 2024, that executives said was out of service the day of the 55-round shooting.

Photo by Jim Daley

do not have the ability to search for new permissions due to the load of new installs,” Knust wrote.

“I know Dan will want a specific date, but we simply do not have one,” Regan Davis, senior vice president of customer success and field engineering wrote to Bunyard. Davis and another ShotSpotter employee both highlighted the need to hire a Chicago project manager. Without one, executives wrote that it would be difficult to find enough technicians to fix downed sensors or to get permission from building owners to install new ones.

Scheduling sensor repairs and installations could take weeks or months as a result, according to the internal emails.

In some instances, ShotSpotter asks CPD to have police officers escort electricians on service calls. A spokesperson for the department referred questions about police escorts for ShotSpotter contractors, including about whether the department or the company shoulders the cost of such deployments, to the Mayor’s Office, which did not respond.

In the email thread following the “Big Miss,” Fountain, the former director

“Obviously, I cannot tell Dan we have a bunch of down sensors in that area and insufficient resources to service our largest customer.” –Gary Bunyard, ShotSpotter’s senior vice president of public safety solutions.

“I would set an expectation that this will take at least a month since we need to secure new permissions, ship equipment and line up installers,” Davis added. “With the holidays around the corner, we likely will struggle to connect with people to secure the permissions.”

Getting permission from private building owners for installs or repairs, which another ShotSpotter vice president called “the wildcard” in an internal email, was one of several operational challenges executives discussed. Staffing was another.

of network and field operations, replied to Davis to say that the company would be interviewing a candidate for the associate project manager position the following day.

“Extremely dangerous code violations”

According to emails reviewed by the Weekly, a licensed electrical contractor from Chicago who formerly worked for ShotSpotter repeatedly alerted company management to code violations and other issues around sensor installations in the

month leading up to and the one after the fifty-five-round missed shooting.

“Better hope the electrical inspector doesn’t see this,” began one email the contractor sent to ShotSpotter. Another, dated November 14, 2022, had the subject line “Extremely dangerous code violations,” and concluded with, “Why we desperately need quality control.”

A ShotSpotter field service lead wrote back. “As we continue to roll trucks in locations that have been neglected over 2-3 yrs. It’s revealing the quality of work that will need to be addressed,” the email read. “As the company grows, standards will follow. Be a part of the positive change.”

On January 24, 2023, the electrician emailed ShotSpotter again. “Code violations: Vendors must use bubble covers for exterior receptacles to protect the wires,” he wrote.

“This is a service call waiting to happen.”

In an email sent to ShotSpotter executives in February 2023 with the subject line “Code violations,” he wrote: “Vendors should never splice 22-gauge low voltage wires into ComEd high voltage wires. On apartment buildings, power should always come from the buildings public circuit.” A photo of the wires was attached.

The Chicago Electrical Code (CEC) requires a license for anyone performing electrical work on buildings. The CEC has an exception in its licensing requirements for work done on utility poles like the ones some ShotSpotter sensors are installed on. A Department of Transportation (CDOT) spokesperson said she was unable to determine by press time whether the exception includes installing ShotSpotter devices on utility poles or ComEd wires.

Internal ShotSpotter emails show that when the Chicago-based contractor was not available, the company brought an electrician based near Flint, Mich. A search of active and inactive electrical contractor licenses on the Department of Buildings’ website did not turn up that contractor’s name. Contacted by the Weekly, he declined to discuss ShotSpotter, citing a nondisclosure agreement. He confirmed he has done work in Chicago and said he hadn’t installed any sensors on buildings. Then he ended the call.

In the email exchange about the fifty-five missed shots in December 2022, a senior manager of network and field

FEBRUARY 1, 2024 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 5

POLICE

Ryan expressway that would have used street lights for power. “The installs are the same as other previous ShotSpotter installs on CDOT polls,” the consultant wrote.

After being told by a CDOT official that tapping into CDOT poles for power was not allowed, the consultant replied that she had been “given incorrect information” and ShotSpotter would instead use solar power for the Dan Ryan sensors.

Hundreds of missed shootings ShotSpotter sensors are in twelve police districts on the South and West Sides that make up a coverage area of 117 square miles. According to a 2017 ShotSpotter FAQ sheet, sensors are “strategically placed in an array of 15-20 sensors per

Coalition in Kenwood. A spokesperson for the DuSable said the museum’s leadership was aware of the sensor but that its installation predated the current administration (Perry Irmer has been president of the museum since 2015). Rainbow PUSH did not return requests for comment.

They can also be seen atop buildings scattered across the University of Chicago’s expansive Hyde Park campus; a spokesperson said the university granted the city’s request to install sensors in 2018, adding that the U of C police force has access to ShotSpotter gunshot reports.

ShotSpotter’s contract requires the company to detect 90 percent of unsuppressed outdoor shootings above a .25 caliber within the twelve police districts included in its coverage area. The contract

A ShotSpotter sensor is visible on the roof of the University of Chicago’s Harper Library.

Photo by Marc Monaghan

operations wrote: “Dependent on what type of location (building or pole) we secure as replacement may have a slight influence on who we utilize to complete an install,” adding that replacing the downed sensors near the miss was the priority.

A photo of a ShotSpotter sensor at 86th and Carpenter. The photo was attached to an internal email in which a ShotSpotter project manager warned that the power line connecting to the light head violated CDOT warranty.

An email sent to Fountain and other executives on February 2, 2023, by ShotSpotter project manager Greg Green included a photo of ShotSpotter sensors affixed to a light pole on the South Side.

“We are in violation of [a] CDOT request not to use power taps in the Power Nodes on their light heads because this violates their warranty,” Green wrote. “Can we send someone back out to address immediately.”

A Weekly reporter visited the ShotSpotter installation referenced in Green’s email on January 20. The power line connecting to the light head was no longer there, appearing to indicate the problem had been repaired.

An email exchange the Weekly obtained from CDOT via FOIA request shows that in July 2023, four months after Green emailed executives warning them against using power nodes on street lights, a ShotSpotter consultant submitted plans to CDOT for installations along the Dan

A ShotSpotter sensor is seen on the roof of the DuSable Museum.

square mile,” suggesting at least 2,000 sensors blanket half the city.

In November, Weekly reporters canvassed the 2nd (Wentworth) Police District to find sensors that are clearly visible from the street level. Many are small circular devices prominently located atop streetlights and utility poles, while others are on CTA bus shelters, public schools, gas stations, churches, hospitals, and apartment complexes. Rooftop sensors are oblong white devices affixed to poles. Below them, square metal boxes are emblazoned with a 1-866 service number that connects to a voicemail for SoundThinking, ShotSpotter’s rebranded nomenclature.

Sensors are installed on the rooftops of prominent institutions such as the DuSable Museum of African American History in Washington Park and the headquarters of Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH

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Photo by Jim Daley

also requires CPD to report verified incidents of gunfire that the department didn’t get an alert for. The Weekly submitted a FOIA request to CPD for all missed

gunfire incidents reported to ShotSpotter by the department, which it is required to do under the terms of the contract, from December 1, 2022 to December 18, 2023 (the date of the FOIA).

In response to our request, the department provided email metadata (including subject, sender, and date) that shows CPD personnel emailed ShotSpotter about missed gunfire forty-one times the month of the “Big Miss.” Between January 1 and December 18, 2023, CPD emailed ShotSpotter 575 times to report gunfire the department said sensors missed, according to the metadata.

An analysis of data on the city’s Violence Reduction Dashboard indicates the number of reported misses is equivalent to less than 10 percent of outdoor shootings reported in 2023 and December 2022 in police districts in the coverage area, suggesting the company is fulfilling the 90 percent clause in its contract.

The Weekly sent ShotSpotter detailed questions about the internal emails we reviewed, as well as potential code violations, repair timelines, missed gunfire including the fifty-five round shooting, and the company’s Chicago and national sensor networks. A spokesperson for the company declined to comment. Jim Daley is the Weekly’s investigations editor Max Blaisdell is a fellow with the Invisible Institute and a staff writer for the Hyde Park Herald.

A sensor can be seen on the roof of Operation PUSH in January 2024.

Photo by Jim Daley

POLITICS

A ‘Multi-Prong Approach’

Emails show how ShotSpotter has lobbied Mayor Johnson’s administration to keep its contract.

BY JIM DALEY AND MAX BLAISDELL

D

uring his campaign for mayor, Brandon Johnson ran on a promise to radically transform the city’s approach to policing that included scrapping the department’s use of controversial surveillance technologies like ShotSpotter, the gunshot-detection company that was rebranded as SoundThinking last year.

“ShotSpotter has been a failure,” Johnson said last March. “And these tools have been proven not to work. We can find a whole lot of things to spend $10 million on.” Since taking office, the mayor has remained tight-lipped about whether he intends to follow through on his campaign promise. ShotSpotter’s current contract extension expires February 16.

In an emailed statement, a ShotSpotter spokesperson wrote: “SoundThinking (formerly ShotSpotter) has supported the City of Chicago for over 6 years across multiple mayoral administrations, providing the precise location for the vast majority of gunfire incidents within the coverage area in less than 60 seconds, allowing first responders to render swifter aid to victims.”

An internal ShotSpotter email as well as several obtained from the Mayor’s Office via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests shed light on the company’s efforts to lobby Johnson to renew the contract. The internal email also shows the company’s initial reaction to Johnson’s April 4 victory.

In the days after Johnson won the runoff election, ShotSpotter’s stock (NASDAQ: SSTI) lost more than 30 percent of its value. It hasn’t recovered since. An email ShotSpotter CEO Ralph Clark sent to employees on April 5 indicates he felt the stock price drop was a direct result of Johnson’s election.

“I am sure many of you have seen the

Mayor Brandon Johnson presides over a meeting of the City Council on September 14, Photo by Jim Daley 2023.

results of the Chicago Mayoral election and the financial market (over) reaction to Mayor-elect Johnson’s public campaign position on ShotSpotter,” Clark’s email read. Clark added that ShotSpotter would soon begin trying to lobby the city to keep the contract.

“The company is diligently working on a multi-prong approach to shore up the strong existing support ShotSpotter has amongst Chicago PD, elected Alderman and the residents who understand the real-world positive impact our technology has contributed to Chicago for close to a decade,” Clark wrote.

Publicly, Clark issued a statement congratulating Johnson on his victory. The following week, ShotSpotter rebranded itself as SoundThinking.

Shotspotter’s contract with the city began in 2018 when then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel inked a three-year $33 million contract with the company. Former

Mayor Lori Lightfoot extended the contract twice during her term.

Activists, some of whom are now advising Johnson on the fifth floor of City Hall, have for years called on the city to cancel the contract. They point to two 2021 studies that raised questions about ShotSpotter’s impact on communities.

One, a report by the Office of Inspector General (OIG), found that between January 1, 2020, and May 31, 2021, fewer than 10 percent of Shotspotter’s gunshot alerts were linked to documented evidence of a gun-related crime.

“At least some officers, at least some of the time, are relying on ShotSpotter results in the aggregate to provide an additional rationale to initiate [a] stop or to conduct a pat down once a stop has been initiated,” the report read.

The second study, an analysis by the MacArthur Justice Center, found ShotSpotter alerts led to disproportionate

police deployments in Black and Latinx communities. A review of that study commissioned by ShotSpotter disputed this finding, saying its use of data from the Office of Emergency Management and Control (OEMC) was “not a reliable measure of ShotSpotter’s efficacy” and that its conclusions were “baseless and misleading.”

ShotSpotter executives and police contend that its ability to quickly dispatch police to crime scenes and save gunshot victims’ lives makes the technology worth it. Ralph Clark, the company’s CEO, wrote a response to the OIG report in which he argued that ShotSpotter alerts sent authorities to “1,131 crime scenes where at least one gunshot wound victim was found” in Chicago during the period the OIG analyzed. Last week, Clark penned an op-Ed in the Defender reiterating that argument.

Larry Snelling, who Johnson appointed to lead CPD in September, has expressed an affinity for technology. Last week, Block Club reported that Snelling reiterated his support for ShotSpotter at a public meeting in Chinatown. In a November earnings call with investors, Clark said that he was “delighted” by Snelling’s appointment. “He’s been a very strong local defender of technology at large and specifically acoustic gunshot protection,” Clark said. “And so that’s really, really quite encouraging.”

ShotSpotter’s lobbying efforts reached City Hall’s fifth floor in the fall. Emails obtained from the Mayor’s Office via a FOIA request show that the company’s vice president of public safety solutions, Gary Bunyard, spoke by phone to Rich Guidice, Johnson’s chief of staff, on October 6.

The Weekly also obtained a “fact sheet” that ShotSpotter sent to Guidice

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POLITICS

later that day showing alerts the company said it reported to CPD in 2020, 2021, 2022, and January through July 2023. The fact sheet has more alerts than are listed in CPD’s Violence Reduction Dashboard— about 8,000, or 21 percent more, in 2020; 6,939 more (14.7 percent) in 2021; 2,747 more (6.6 percent) in 2022; and 615 more (2.4 percent) for January 1 to July 31, 2023.

A spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office said ShotSpotter’s numbers were correct and the discrepancies were due to a change in how the company labels alerts. The spokesperson added that the discrepancies in the city’s dashboard are being addressed and “the archival process [is being] updated to reflect the accurate numbers published by Shotspotter.”

Clark’s April 5 email to ShotSpotter employees indicated that the company was working on securing a meeting with Johnson “to push back on the false narrative that has been circulating amongst some of his supporters as well as articulate our ability to a critical part of his public safety strategy he will need to execute as a governing vs campaigning Mayor.”

Representatives from the company scheduled a meeting between Clark, Bunyard and mayoral adviser Jason Lee in October, but it was repeatedly moved, according to emails obtained via a FOIA request.

Lee said he met with ShotSpotter executives on November 4 in what he described as a “solely introductory meeting that had been in the works for several weeks.” Lee said he’d never met with ShotSpotter before then, adding that he’s “obviously willing to meet with people who want to meet and share information.” He also said that no one in the Mayor’s Office had discussed the contract with ShotSpotter representatives.

The ShotSpotter spokesperson

said that the meeting was “to provide background information regarding the role that ShotSpotter plays in the City of Chicago.”

On November 8, Clark told investors on an earnings call that Johnson’s 2024 budget included funding for acoustic gunshot detection. Johnson “has made the right decision, we believe, to increase the law enforcement budget, and there is a specific line item in that budget calling for acoustic gunshot detection,” he said.

The 2024 budget passed one week after the earnings call. In it, a line item for software maintenance and licensing in the Office of Public Safety Administration (OPSA), which handles ShotSpotter alerts, was listed at $8,967,998 from the city’s emergency communication fund.

The ShotSpotter spokesperson said: “While SoundThinking has no knowledge of what the City of Chicago’s final decision may be, we stand ready to support the city in making an informed decision that best supports the shared goal of creating safer communities in Chicago.”

Asked about the contract renewal, Lee said: “When the decision is made, it will be announced.”

Lee referred additional questions about the contract to Dan Casey, the director of public safety IT at the OPSA. Casey referred ShotSpotter questions to CPD. A CPD spokesperson referred questions about ShotSpotter to the OPSA, which does not currently have a press officer, and to a spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office. Jim Daley is the Weekly’s investigations editor.

Max Blaisdell is a fellow with the Invisible Institute and a staff writer for the Hyde Park Herald.

8 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ FEBRUARY 1, 2024

South Side Mobilizes for Bring Chicago Home Referendum

Debate over the real estate transfer tax increase has drawn concerns on misleading tactics from supporters and opponents.

BY XUANDI WANG

O

n a chilly Sunday in January, a group of Hyde Park residents canvassed door-to-door to advocate for a March referendum that would reshape Chicago’s tax policy to address homelessness in the city.

About a dozen volunteers met at State Senator Robert Peters’s office at 47th and Lake Park to spread the word about Bring Chicago Home, a ballot referendum Chicago voters will decide on in the March 19 primary. The referendum seeks to establish a dedicated funding stream to provide services for people experiencing homelessness. Armed with hot chocolate and hand warmers, the group navigated icy roads and sidewalks to tell neighbors about the proposal.

“I'm just honored to open up the space to everybody here,” Peters told the volunteers before they were dispatched.

“Being able to be at a place where we can foster that [organizing] work is something that warms me up.”

The event was among the latest mobilization efforts advocating for the passage of Bring Chicago Home.

The initiative introduces a three-tiered progressive system for real estate property transactions. Sales under $1 million would see a reduced tax rate from 0.75 percent to 0.60 percent. Transactions exceeding $1 million but falling below $1.5 million would incur a two percent tax applied only to the value exceeding $1 million, more than 2.5 times the current rate. For sales of $1.5 million and above, the tax rate on the value over $1.5 million would

be three percent, quadrupling the existing rate. According to the campaign, this tax increase will apply to about 4.2 percent of properties sold every year.

The revised tax structure, if approved, is projected to generate $100 million per year, according to the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, which is spearheading the initiative. The revenue will be earmarked to build and maintain permanent affordable housing, along with the provision of services for an unsheltered population estimated to be about 68,000 people. A committee of service providers, subject matter experts, elected officials, and people impacted by homelessness will determine the fund’s allocation, added Jose Sanchez, the Coalition’s communications director.

“The initiative will not increase rent prices or make home purchases more expensive,” Sanchez said. “We’re moving forward on educating thousands of voters every weekend about why they should vote yes.”

Various progressive groups have worked on the Bring Chicago Home' campaign since its launch in 2018.

Currently, the organizing coalition includes Communities United, the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, ONE Northside, SEIU Healthcare, and United Working Families.

Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot blocked a City Council hearing on the proposal in 2019. Under Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration, the City Council approved a binding referendum for the initiative in October, fulfilling one of Johnson’s key campaign promises.

HOUSING Since the City Council vote to place the referendum on the ballot, a coalition of real estate and development groups, including the Building Owners and Managers Association of Chicago (BOMA), have swiftly mobilized to oppose it. On January 5, the coalition filed a lawsuit in the Cook County Circuit Court seeking to remove the referendum from the ballot. The coalition argues that by combining a tax hike for some with a tax cut for others, the proposal is an example of "log-rolling"—or bundling unpopular measures with popular legislation to secure passage—a practice deemed illegal by the Illinois Supreme Court.

A hearing is scheduled for February 14.

“Our lawsuit contends that the poorly written, multiple choice referendum question violates the Illinois Constitution, Illinois State Statute, and Illinois Supreme Court precedent,” wrote BOMA director of government and external affairs Amy Masters in an email to South Side Weekly.

“Our goal is to remove this misleading question from the ballot.”

Peters, who has backed Bring Chicago Home since the campaign’s launch, has raised concerns about misinformation and says the opposition party is using their old playbook to forestall progressive reforms.

When Gov. J.B. Pritzker introduced a constitutional amendment in 2019 to allow for a graduated-rate income tax, the Illinois Policy Institute, a conservative think tank, filed a lawsuit to block the ballot. A Cook County judge ruled against the group and let the ballot proceed, but Illinois voters eventually rejected the amendment in 2020.

“It's important for us to continue to organize and push back against false information,” Peters said. “We are facing a heavily funded right-wing operation.”

Opinions and predictions on the economic consequences of the transfer tax increase are also divided.

Masters says that the transfer tax increase on high-end properties would eventually hurt average citizens because investors would be incentivized to move to other cities, taking away their jobs and reducing the tax base.

Real estate leaders have also warned that raising the transfer tax could exacerbate the office vacancy rate, which has not fully recovered from the pandemic. The city experienced a record-high office vacancy rate in the fall of 2023, according to Crain’s.

In an opinion piece for Crain’s, CEO of Chicago Association of REALTORS® Michelle Mills Clement and CEO of Illinois REALTORS® Jeff Baker argued that the proposal would throw the city into an “urban doom loop,” prompting property owners to abandon investments and “turn

Amanda Ruch, a CPS middle school teacher who volunteered at Sunday’s canvassing event, said she learned about the Bring Chicago Home campaign through the Chicago Teachers Union. She added that her experience teaching students with precarious living conditions motivated her

“We want to make sure that people know this initiative, and we want them to understand the question on the ballot is really simple, which is to create a revenue stream to support homeless people.” Jose Sanchez the keys over” to banks.

Chicago currently has the secondhighest commercial real estate property taxes in the nation, according to a 2023 study by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and Minnesota Center for Fiscal Excellence.

Other major cities have adopted similar approaches to generate dedicated funding addressing homelessness. In 2022, Los Angeles voters approved a “mansion tax” that imposes a four percent tax on property sales over $5 million and a 5.5% tax on sales over $10 million to fund affordable housing. A real estate group declared the tax hike unconstitutional and took it to court, but the case was dismissed and the tax prevailed in 2023. New York has imposed a similar tax on upscale real estate since 1989.

Christopher Berry, a professor at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy, told Axios that the tax on high-end properties in New York did not deter real estate investment. “I don't think anyone looks at New York's market and says 'you can't sell a property for a million dollars anymore in New York,’” Berry said.

In Los Angeles, several reports show that sales of luxury real estate dwindled in 2023 following the tax hike, but it remains unclear whether it will have a long-term impact on the upscale housing market.

Peters said he believes that this proposal will only make Chicago a more attractive city by showing its willingness to care for the vulnerable. “By investing in everybody in Chicago, even the most vulnerable, you're only making Chicago better,” he said.

to participate in the door-knocking efforts.

“The weather is uncomfortable, but it makes the issue even more critical because there are people who are experiencing these conditions without a warm home to go home to or are in and out of shelters,” Ruch said. She added that most people she talked to hadn’t heard of the ordinance yet, but were receptive to the idea.

Sanchez said that thousands of volunteers have been canvassing neighborhoods, making phone calls, and sending text messages every weekend across the city to promote Bring Chicago Home since the canvassing initiative kicked off in December. The campaign remains actively recruiting volunteers through their social media channels.

“We are not taking anything for granted,” Sanchez said. “We want to make sure that people know this initiative, and we want them to understand the question on the ballot is really simple, which is to create a revenue stream to support homeless people.”

As Ruch continued her door-knocking for the day, she was energized. “I can deal with a couple hours of cold walking around to hopefully be part of getting this passed and decreasing the homeless population in Chicago,” she said. Xuandi Wang is a journalist and policy researcher whose writing has appeared in Block Club, the Reader, In These Times, and elsewhere.

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FEBRUARY 1, 2024 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 9

LIT

T

Our thoughts in exchange for yours. he Exchange is the Weekly’s poetry corner, where a poem or piece of writing is presented with a prompt. Readers are welcome to respond to the prompt with original poems, and pieces may be featured in the next issue of the Weekly.

Squirrels

by chima “naira” ikoro

someone spoke to the squirrels and asked them what they wanted when all the trees in their neighborhoods became foundation for pavement and new libraries. they never asked to learn how to read or write, instead, they asked to be taught how to wield a weapon.

The Squirrels have evolved, they grew thumbs so they could hold guns, after all, so many people have come to power by force and not by learning the histories of people they planned to destroy anyway. when the squirrels became anthropomorphic, the first emotion they felt was anger. ask them what they really want, and one day they might say revenge. one day, humans will look back and recall when squirrels would only conceal and carry acorns in their mouths. you took for granted the days when all they ever wanted was trees. took advantage of their inability to hold anything aside from small pieces of food and now they are holding a grudge, asking questions with words you never taught them to say.

The Squirrels have sent an ultimatum to the people say they spent years counting and we are outnumbered. say they never knew a thing about control until we showed them what being selfish gets you. say “now, we have your neighborhoods surrounded,” say “your houses are made of wood too,” say “anything can be cut down as long as someone has the power to.”

Chima Ikoro is the Weekly’s Community Builder.

THIS WEEK'S PROMPT: “WHAT IS CONSTANTLY CHANGING? WHAT HAS ALWAYS STAYED THE SAME?” This could be a poem, journal entry, or a stream-of-consciousness piece. Submissions could be new or formerly written pieces.

Submissions can be sent to bit.ly/ssw-exchange or via email to chima.ikoro@southsideweekly.com

10 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ FEBRUARY 1, 2024

LIT

T

Our thoughts in exchange for yours. he Exchange is the Weekly’s poetry corner, where a poem or piece of writing is presented with a prompt. Readers are welcome to respond to the prompt with original poems, and pieces may be featured in the next issue of the Weekly.

FEATURED BELOW IS A RESPONSE TO A PREVIOUS PROMPT FROM A READER WHO IS CURRENTLY INCARCERATED.

Chima Ikoro is the Weekly’s Community Builder.

THIS WEEK'S PROMPT: “WHAT IS CONSTANTLY CHANGING? WHAT HAS ALWAYS STAYED THE SAME?” This could be a poem, journal entry, or a stream-of-consciousness piece. Submissions could be new or formerly written pieces.

Submissions can be sent to bit.ly/ssw-exchange or via email to chima.ikoro@southsideweekly.com

FEBRUARY 1, 2024 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 11

IMMIGRATION

Camp Plans Collapse, but Challenges Remain

Though the migrant camps have been halted for now, the challenges of housing and providing resources to Chicago’s most marginalized communities are not going away.

BY BUNNY MACK

I

grew up near 117th and Halsted. On the corner, near my grandmother’s house (which felt colossal to me as a kid), sat a Chase Bank, a Maxwell’s, and a KA Pridjian, which sells and repairs carpets. Two blocks from there, at 115th and Halsted, was a Jewel-Osco.

I remember when “Jewels”, as it was referred to by all the Black folks in the community, was filled with people on Friday evenings before long weekends. I remember when it closed in 2008.

Fifteen years later, on November 7, after a reasonably contentious political battle over acquiring the 67,000-square-foot vacant grocery store and its surrounding 6.5 acres, the City Council approved a plan to turn the former Jewel parking lot into a migrant shelter, as long as plans continued for a future mixed-use development with affordable housing called Morgan Park Commons.

A month later, however, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration scrapped the planned camp on 115th and Halsted. Johnson and Alderperson Ronnie Mosley (21st Ward) put out a joint statement. “There are no immediate plans for 115th and Halsted, but in the event that we move forward together in addressing this humanitarian crisis with a base camp at the site, we remain committed to our collaboration and shared plans for capital improvements, community development and support for housing, health and safety for residents of the 21st Ward,” the statement read. “With dedicated efforts and an open line of communication, the 21st Ward will be better through and beyond our city's new arrivals mission.”

At the time, Gov. J.B. Pritzer had just demanded a halt to building a migrant camp in Brighton Park due to the lingering

Photo by Michael DiGioia

presence of toxic waste on the land: a railyard once used to house tanks and oil houses, a zinc smelter, and a truck trailer.

For many who have been following Chicago politics over the past several months, public discourse about the arrival of Venezuelan asylum seekers and the demands to use local resources to support Black communities that have been in crisis for generations may not be new. In fact, the debate has contributed to polarization among communities and elected officials.

F

leeing economic and political turmoil and reportedly a twenty-year legacy of kleptocracy in Venezuela, over a quarter of a million Venezuelans crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in 2023. With such a large number of asylum-seekers arriving in Chicago every day, about 35,000 have arrived since August 2022.

At one time, Venezuela was among the wealthiest countries in Latin America.

12 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ FEBRUARY 1, 2024

Its successful economy and petrostate sailed on the profits of the largest proven oil reserves in the world. But in the 2010s, the country’s economy crashed in the face of plunging oil prices and the restriction of civil liberties, such as the persecution of political opponents, unregulated abuses of power, human rights violations of LGBTQIA+ rights and women’s rights and tough sanctions imposed by the U.S. Those U.S. sanctions restricted the state-run oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, which limited its oil sales in 2019 and cut off exports to the U.S., their biggest consumer.

Fifteen years of sanctions by the U.S. led to $5.5 billion in Venezuelan funds in accounts internationally being frozen.

In 2006, then-President George W. Bush banned all U.S. commercial arms sales in response to the Venezuelan government’s refusal to cooperate in U.S. counterterrorism and anti-narcotics initiatives. In 2014,

following reports of abuse by Venezuelan police forces, President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on individuals involved in human rights violations. The next year, Obama declared Venezuela a threat to national security and administered sanctions on high-ranking officials.

In 2017, then-President Donald Trump cut off Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s access to the U.S. financial system; prohibited U.S. companies and U.S. citizens from purchasing Venezuelan debt; and blocked PDVSA from exporting to the United States, its main destination.

According to the Center for Economic Policy and Research, sanctions between 2017 and 2019 created massive shortages in food and medical supplies and affected more than 300,000 Venzeulans’ access to healthcare.

Richard Hanus, an immigration lawyer for three decades, shared his thoughts on the driving motivations for migrants coming to the U.S. “There are legitimate asylum seekers who seek refuge in America due to a protected category,” he said. “There are folks who are seeking to leave their home country because of bad economic conditions. People don’t just leave places where they are comfortable…their familiar surroundings, their culture, their existence.

They leave because they’re finding a way to survive.”

A number of Chicagoans might think that asylum seekers are being sent to the city by the federal government. But in reality, since April 2022, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has sent buses of migrants to Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver, and Los Angeles. As of December 2023, Texas has bussed more than 80,000 people from border cities to Democratic cities, according

IMMIGRATION

to Abbott’s own office As subzero temperatures descended on Chicago in January, more than 500 Venezuelans, including about 100 children, were sleeping in CTA warming buses in the South Loop, near the city’s designated “landing zone” for new arrivals. Nearly 14,000 were staying in shelters across the city at press time, according to city data.

When rumblings of the former JewelOsco parking lot on 115th and Halsted being converted into a migrant camp began, a number of local residents were frustrated and angered by the news. Mosley initially opposed the plan to build a migrant camp in his district. He later agreed to the use of the former Jewel-Osco parking lot for the camp after he reached a compromise with Johnson wherein the site could not be used as a tent camp past November 1.

I

n 2021, the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) released a report about the state of health for Black communities in Chicago. The report found an average life expectancy gap of 9.2 years between Black Chicagoans and other residents (71.4 years for Black Chicagoans compared to 80.6 years for people from non-Black communities). The report also noted that many of the neighborhoods in Chicago with populations that are at least 80 percent Black had high levels of economic hardship, lower income, and higher housing costs.

The former Jewel-Osco at 115th and Halsted sits on the border between Roseland and West Pullman, two communities the report highlighted as predominantly Black with high percentages of economic turmoil.

Valencia Bey, a native of the West Side who spent a considerable amount of her life on the South Side and who volunteers to provide aid to asylum-seekers, shared her thoughts on local residents’ responses to the news of the migrant camp plans when they were first released. “Why are you going to bring these migrants in knowing that people still don’t have everything that they need? And so now you got to bring in a whole slew of [people], of just hundreds of people, to a camp, and you still don’t have basic resources? What is that going to do to the community?”

Bey, who began volunteering at shelters around the city in her early twenties, shared

Photo by Michael DiGioia

some additional nuance about the volunteer work she does to aid Venezuelans in Oak Park. There, she joins other residents to distribute coats, food, clothes and other items while trying to find housing for migrants. “It’s just heartbreaking because we already didn’t have enough resources for the people who are here,” she said. “Right now, we have so many more coming and we don’t have resources for them, either, and it’s getting cold. I think it’s just inhumane for them to be sent to such a cold place.”

Speaking to the idea that residents might not welcome a migrant camp due to concerns about crime or jobs, Hanus, the immigration attorney, had this to say: “A lot of this perception comes from online triggering and people’s preconceived notions; someone who looks to manipulate the audience can devise a grievance-based approach to appeal to someone’s underlying anger or bias. It’s a very sophisticated thought process that goes into these campaigns.”

Cedric Johnson, a professor of political science and African American studies at UIC, said concerns also come from a “pattern of underdevelopment” in marginalized communities. “You can drive through Chicago, through any city, and there are concentrations of wealth in certain neighborhoods with lots of investment,” he said. “Then there’s underdevelopment and food deserts and all of the phrases that we use to talk about majority-Black neighborhoods in different parts of the country.

He added that he doesn’t think it’s strictly due to racism. “I think that’s the

shorthand that we use sometimes to describe what’s happened because that’s visibly what it looks like,” he said. “But underneath it, there’s a lot of other forces at play. The political will is not there. I support the mayor, but where the hell was the leadership?”

Johnson added that when Trump was president, his xenophobic rhetoric contributed to family members in Louisiana latching on to some of the former president’s comments. “Even though they didn’t support Trump, they were repeating that idea that somehow there was this quarter of undeserving migrants who will come in to take jobs and take up space,” he said.

“It’s sad when I hear Black people embrace that sort of anti-immigrant, xenophobic rhetoric, because you would think, because of our own history as migrants and as low-wage workers and people who were exploited and people enslaved, that we might have some sympathy. But you know, that’s just not the way things work.”

A

closed CVS parking lot is currently being used as a state-funded migrant shelter for families with children and people with disabilities. The site opened in January and will house an estimated 230 migrants. Both Johnson and Pritzker have repeatedly requested federal funding to support growing populations of asylum-seekers in the city.

In January, CBS 2 reported that between December 2022 and January 2024 the city spent $156.2 million supporting

asylum seekers. The Sun-Times reported in December that $95 million of that was reallocated from unspent COVID-19 relief funds in 2023.

“I think the opposition to the asylum seekers is coming from some mix of tragedy and… a place of vulnerability that an influx of low-wage people, desperate folks, undocumented or noncitizen people can create havoc in [an already desperate] job market, that can actually create a race to the bottom,” professor Johnson said.

The total amount spent on asylumseekers represents city money and money from the state and federal government.

According to the Civic Federation, an independent, non-partisan research organization that analyzes government spending, the city’s 2024 $16.6 billion budget only includes half the projected amount necessary to care for asylum seekers. The analysis projected the city will experience a budget deficit of over half of a billion dollars in 2024, due to a combination of factors such as pension contributions, debt service payments, and the end of federal funding tied to the American Rescue Plan Act. During two budget briefings held last year, Mayor Johnson acknowledged social divestment from Black communities. He vowed to increase the city’s investment in remedying housing insecurity, prioritizing the climate crisis and mental health, and establishing $4.7 million to help meet the needs of formerly incarcerated residents.

The 2024 budget allocates $150 million for migrant support services, $200 million in affordable housing initiatives, and $250 million in homelessness support services.

One thing is clear: although the migrant camps have been halted for now, the challenges of housing and providing resources to Chicago’s most marginalized communities across lines of citizenship, race, and class are not going away.

When asked what we do with that complexity, that reality, that pain of decades of unfairness being experienced by two different communities in crisis, Bey said, “I think we just have to balance practicality with compassion.” Jim Daley is the Weekly’s investigations editor.

FEBRUARY 1, 2024 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 13

IMMIGRATION

Op-Ed: Freedom for Sale—ICE Detention Must End

A South Side woman writes about her time in immigration detention in Dodge County Jail in Wisconsin.

BY ANA NAVARRO

I

used one of the four digital tablets we shared among sixteen women to see my family through a screen at the Dodge County Jail in Wisconsin. I paid twenty-five cents per minute to speak to my family once a week.

My nieces and nephews looked much bigger than the last time I saw them. “Tia Ana, when are you coming home? I thought you were done being in jail,” they said, in tears. My niece asked me why I couldn’t be there for her birthday. The separation from my family and seeing them crying through a tablet was killing me inside.

I was put in immigration detention after serving twelve years in prison at Logan Correctional Center in Illinois for a conviction in a case in which I was a survivor of domestic abuse.

In 2023, I was one of the 39,748 people that were incarcerated in an immigration detention center in the United States.

Three months after I was released from prison, Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) showed up at the halfway home where I was living on the South Side.

They posed as police officers, handcuffed me and took me to Dodge County Jail in Wisconsin. Since immigration detention is prohibited in Illinois after the passing of the Illinois Way Forward Act, I was detained out of state.

After being in detention for eight months, I am absolutely sure that no human being should experience the cruel and unusual punishment that immigrants in ICE detention live through.

One’s health deteriorates in ICE detention because of the oppressive environment. Imagine being confined to a tiny area all day long, without access to nutritious food, hygiene, all while being cold and struggling with your mental health. It was worse than prison, since there was nothing to do. There were no activities for the people, no access to fresh air and more indignities.

Most of the day we were confined to a small cell, always being watched by the officers through tinted windows. You had to wake up at 5am to put your wristband by the window of the cell door so officers could verify that it was still you in that room. Without being able to see or go outside, I would forget how the air feels and how a sunny sky looks like. The inability to move not only took a toll on me physically, but mentally as well.

I was anxious, had problems sleeping, and experienced emotional breakdowns from once again, being away from my family and thinking I could get deported.

Outside of breakfast, lunch and dinner you are locked in the cell all day.

There were no Spanish interpreters.

Immigration officers talked down to the people who didn’t know English.

They said they did not understand.

It was hard for anyone who only spoke Spanish to get support with figuring things out, or seeking medical help.

I barely speak Spanish, yet I was constantly asked to translate. The worst was translating for the ICE agents to other fellow immigration detainees that there is nothing to be done for them and that they are being deported the next day or week.

An uncertain future in ICE detention induces even more anxiety and depression and there is no mental health support.

We were not even allowed to comfort one another with something as human as a hug. Hugs, especially if you’re part of the LGBTQ+ community like I am, are not allowed because it is labeled as sexual assault.

They knew I was part of the LGBTQ+ community because when you come in, they ask you what you identify as and then they use it against you. They told me I could not hug anyone whatsoever.

Our meals were pushed through a small trap in the door and it was typically a brick of breakfast cake–a loaf of bread without any apparent nutritional value— canned vegetables, and soy meat, which has

14 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ FEBRUARY 1, 2024

come under criticism in other prisons as a cheap substitute for meat and as it may have harmful effects in large quantities.

We were definitely getting sick and our problem was part of a larger pattern of immigrants being treated as less than human. People would experience stomach aches and bloating, and people with diabetes experienced sugar spikes. I developed a soy allergy that I’d never had in my life before.

Some people developed rashes that they said they had never had before too.

According to the ACLU, individuals are six times more likely to get sick through the food they consume in jails across the U.S., including immigration detention centers, than those outside.

The facility was freezing and some of us did not count on the economic support of loved ones outside to afford the thermal clothes, so we borrowed or gave one another a thermal until that act of solidarity was banned in the jail.

The officers and staff confiscated thermal clothes and threw them in the trash if they learned the clothing was shared.

After throwing them away, we were told we were not allowed to share them anymore, and anyone who did would get written up because it was a violation. Everybody needed to purchase their own.

Still, no amount of money could get anyone any clean underclothes because buying additional underclothes was not an option. Clothes were collected twice a week to be washed, but oftentimes we received underclothes that were still dirty, crusty, and stiff. This is an example of the detention center saving themselves money at the expense of our wellbeing.

Over 90 percent of the people in ICE detention are being held at a privately-run facility, which means that their detention results in increased profits for corporations.

Their lives are at the mercy of this system that does not seem to care whether they live or die. The confinement and conditions

of our confinement hold people back from being able to recover or rehabilitate.

The criminalization of immigrants is a business. When they lock us up, the government is putting us in jails that are basically warehouses. We pay for our phone calls, for the food, for the clothes. They charge us extra for calls that are out of state or international calls. The counties also get money from the governments to warehouse us there. It’s a business on top of business.

It’s a circle of money.

Even ICE’s victim-centered policy does not stop them from targeting survivors of violence, trafficking, or domestic violence.

I am an undocumented criminalized survivor. For readers who may not be familiar with the term, being a criminalized survivor involves being a victim of a crime who, instead of getting support, gets punished and blamed by the prison system. People from marginalized racial and ethnic communities, undocumented women or underserved populations face extra challenges when seeking safety and receiving help.

In fact, many women who have a history of gender-based violence end up facing incarceration. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, 94 percent of the women’s prison population have experienced some form of physical or sexual abuse before.

We need to stand up and continue to advocate for the abolishment of detention centers all over the country. No taxpayer’s money should be going to something this inhumane.

Editor’s note: ICE declined to comment on specific questions for this op-Ed, referring us instead to federal guidelines on detention standards from 2000. Ana Navarro (they/she) is a queer, undocumented survivor who was criminalized at the age of nineteen. Navarro is an artist, advocate, avid reader, and a member of Organized Communities Against Deportations and a Women’s Justice Institute fellow.

INMIGRACIÓN

Opinión: La detención de ICE debe terminar en todo lugar

Una mujer del sur de Chicago escribe sobre su experiencia en un centro de detención de inmigrantes en una cárcel de Wisconsin.

POR ANA NAVARRO TRADUCIDO POR ALMA CAMPOS

U

sé una de las cuatro tabletas digitales que compartíamos dieciséis mujeres para ver a mi familia a través de una pantalla en el centro de detención de Dodge en Wisconsin. Pagaba veinticinco centavos por minuto para hablar con mi familia una vez a la semana.

Mis sobrinos se veían mucho más grandes desde la última vez que los vi. “Tía Ana, ¿cuándo vuelves a casa? Creía que ya no ibas a estar en la cárcel”, me dijeron llorando. Mi sobrina me preguntó por qué no podía ir a su cumpleaños. La separación de mi familia y verlos llorar a través de una tableta me mataba por dentro.

Inmigracion me detuvo después de haber cumplido doce años de prisión en el Centro Correccional Logan, en Illinois, por una condena en un caso en el que fui sobreviviente de abuso doméstico. En 2023, yo era una de las 39,748 personas que estaban encarceladas en un centro de detención de inmigrantes en los Estados Unidos.

Tres meses después de salir de prisión, el Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas (ICE, por sus siglas en inglés) llegó a una casa de transición en el sur de Chicago donde yo vivía. Se hicieron pasar por policías, me esposaron y me llevaron a la Cárcel del Condado de Dodge, en Wisconsin. Como los centros de detención de inmigrantes están prohibidos en Illinois tras la aprobación de la Ley Illinois Way Forward Act, me transfirieron y me detuvieron fuera del estado.

Después de haber estado detenida por ocho meses, estoy completamente segura que ningún ser humano debería recibir el castigo cruel e inusual que viven los inmigrantes detenidos por ICE. La salud de una persona se deteriora en un centro de detención debido al ambiente opresivo. Imagínate estar encerrado en un espacio muy pequeño todo el día, sin acceso a alimentos nutritivos, sin higiene, pasando frío y sufriendo con tu salud mental. Era peor que la cárcel, ya que no había nada que hacer. No había actividades para la gente, acceso al aire fresco ni nada.

La mayor parte del día estábamos confinadas a una pequeña celda, siempre vigiladas por los agentes a través de las ventanillas polarizadas. Tenías que despertarte a las 5 de la mañana para poner tu pulsera junto a la ventanilla de la puerta de la celda para que los agentes pudieran comprobar tu presencia en esa celda.

Sin poder ver ni salir afuera, se me había olvidado cómo se sentía el aire fresco y cómo luce un cielo soleado. La imposibilidad de moverme no sólo me afectó físicamente, sino mentalmente.

Estaba ansiosa, tenía problemas para dormir y sufría crisis emocionales por, una vez más, estar lejos de mi familia y pensar que me podían deportar.

Aparte del desayuno, el almuerzo y la cena, estás encerrada en la celda todo el día.

No había intérpretes de español.

Los agentes de inmigración les hablaban despectivamente a las personas que no sabían inglés. Decían que no entendían. A las que sólo hablaban español les resultaba difícil obtener ayuda para entender las cosas o buscar asistencia médica.

Yo apenas hablo algo de español, pero me pedían constantemente que tradujera.

Lo peor era traducir a los agentes de ICE con otras compañeras detenidas por las que no se podía hacer nada por ellas y que iban a ser deportadas al día siguiente o la semana que entra.

Un futuro incierto en un centro de detención de ICE induce aún más ansiedad y depresión, y no hay apoyo de salud mental.

Ni siquiera se nos permitía consolarnos unas a otras con algo tan humano como un abrazo. Los abrazos, especialmente si eres parte de la comunidad LGBTQ+ como yo, no están permitidos porque los catalogan como agresión sexual.

Ellos sabían que yo pertenecía a la comunidad LGBTQ+ porque cuando entras te preguntan cómo te identificas y luego lo usan en tu contra. Me dijeron que no podía abrazar a nadie.

Nos daban la comida por una pequeña apertura en la puerta y normalmente

consistía de una barra de pan sin ningún aparente valor nutritivo, verduras enlatadas y carne de soya, la cual ha sido criticada en otras prisiones por ser un sustituto barato de la carne y porque podría tener efectos nocivos si se consume en grandes cantidades.

Sin duda, nos estábamos enfermando y el problema era parte de un patrón más grande de tratar a los inmigrantes como si no fueran humanos. La gente sufría dolores de estómago y digestión, y las personas con diabetes sufrían subidas de azúcar. Yo desarrollé una alergia a la soya que nunca había tenido en mi vida. Algunas personas también padecían irritaciones que decían no haber tenido nunca.

Según la Unión Estadounidense por las Libertades Civiles (ACLU, por sus siglas en inglés), las personas que se encuentran en las cárceles de Estados Unidos, incluyendo los centros de detención de inmigrantes, tienen seis veces más probabilidades de enfermarse por los alimentos que consumen comparado a las personas que se encuentran fuera de ellas.

Las instalaciones estaban muy frías y algunas de nosotras no contábamos con el apoyo económico de nuestros seres queridos de fuera para comprarnos ropa térmica, así que nos prestábamos o nos regalábamos ropa térmica unas a otras hasta que ese acto de solidaridad se prohibió en la cárcel.

Los agentes y el personal nos quitaban la ropa térmica y la tiraban a la basura si se enteraban que la habíamos compartido.

Después de tirarla, nos comunicaron que ya no podíamos compartirla y que a quienes lo hicieran les darían un aviso porque era considerada una infracción. Cada quien tenía que comprar su propia ropa.

Sin embargo, no había dinero suficiente para conseguir ropa limpia y no podíamos comprar ropa interior. La ropa la recogían dos veces por semana para lavarla, pero a menudo recibíamos ropa interior que seguía sucia. Este es un ejemplo de la forma que el centro de detención se ahorra dinero a costa de nuestro bienestar.

Más del 90 por ciento de las personas

detenidas por ICE se encuentran en un centro privado, lo que significa que su detención produce mayores ganancias para las empresas. Sus vidas están a la merced de este sistema al que no parece importarle si viven o mueren. El confinamiento y sus condiciones impiden que las personas puedan recuperarse o rehabilitarse.

La criminalización de los inmigrantes es un negocio. Cuando nos encarcelan, el gobierno se beneficia. Nos cobran por las llamadas fuera del estado o internacionales.

Los condados también reciben dinero de los gobiernos por tenernos allí. Es negocio tras negocio. Es un círculo de dinero.

Ni siquiera la política de ICE enfocada en las víctimas les impide ir tras las sobrevivientes de la violencia, la trata o la violencia doméstica.

Soy una sobreviviente criminalizada.

Para los lectores que no estén familiarizados con el término, ser sobreviviente criminalizado implica ser una víctima de un delito que, en lugar de recibir apoyo, es castigada y culpada por el sistema penal. Las personas de comunidades raciales y étnicas o poblaciones marginadas enfrentan retos adicionales a la hora de buscar seguridad y recibir ayuda.

De hecho, muchas mujeres con antecedentes de violencia de género acaban siendo encarceladas. Según la ACLU, el 94 por ciento de la población reclusa femenina ha sufrido algún tipo de abuso físico o sexual en el pasado.

Tenemos que levantarnos y seguir abogando por la abolición de los centros de detención en todo el país. El dinero de los contribuyentes no debería destinarse a algo tan inhumano.

Nota de la editora: ICE se negó a responder a preguntas específicas para este artículo de opinión y nos refirió a las pautas federales sobre los estándares de detención del año 2000. Navarro es artista, defensora, ávida lectora y forma parte de la organización Comunidades Contra las Deportaciones y es becaria del programa de justicia para mujeres, Women’s Justice Institute.

FEBRUARY 1, 2024 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 15

POLITICS

Johnson Again Delays Shelter Evictions

The announcement followed a letter signed by alderpersons who demanded the shelter limit be extended and called on Johnson to appoint a chief homelessness officer.

BY JIM DALEY

O

n Monday, Mayor Brandon Johnson announced he would again push back a sixty-day limit for asylum seekers staying in city shelters, days before some 1,900 people would have been evicted from them. The new deadline is now March 16.

The announcement came on the heels of a group of alderpersons from across the City Council’s political spectrum signing an open letter last week demanding Johnson rescind the deadline of February 1, which he’d extended from an original eviction date of January 16 as frigid weather descended on Chicago.

Immigrant and Refugee Rights Committee chair Andre Vasquez (40th Ward), who led the effort to collect signatures for the letter, said keeping the February deadline could result in about 1,900 people being evicted from shelters.

“We believe the city shouldn’t be in the business of evicting people,” Vasquez said. He added that sending the letter to Johnson could convince the city to extend the limit until warmer weather in April or May. “The 60-day eviction policy poses a significant threat to the health and safety of new arrivals,” reads a draft of the letter obtained by the Weekly. “To put it simply: the City should not be in the business of handing out eviction notices. While the 60-day limit has been temporarily extended to avoid the worst of the weather, these extensions do not address the systemic issues that prevent new arrivals from being able to leave shelters and find alternative housing.”

The early draft listed the names of alderpersons Daniel La Spata (1st), Desmon Yancy (5th), Nicole Lee (11th), Julia Ramirez (12th), Matt O’Shea

A police car sits outside the shuttered Wadsworth Elementary School in Kenwood, which was repurposed as a migrant shelter last year.

Photo by Jim Daley

(19th), Mike Rodriguez (22nd), Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th), Ruth Cruz (30th), Felix Cardona (31st), Scott Waguespack (32nd), Bill Conway (34th), Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th), Gilbert Villegas (36th), Vasquez, Bennett Lawson (44th), Matt Martin (47th), Leni ManaaHoppenworth (48th), and Maria Hadden (49th) as signatories.

Not everyone stayed on board, however. Ramirez-Rosa and Rodriguez took their signatures off of the letter before it was released.

Rodriguez told the Weekly: “There is some dissension within groups and once that gets worked out I’ll put my name on the letter.” Ramirez-Rosa said that while he had concerns about the sixty-day policy that he wants the city to address, he took his name off the letter because he

16 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ FEBRUARY 1, 2024

also has concerns about the process that led to it.

Late last week, Vasquez tweeted that alderpersons Angela Clay (28th Ward), Samantha Nugent (39th) and Timmy Knudsen (43rd) had also signed the letter.

Mayor Johnson announced the sixtyday limit in November. He has extended it twice, most recently to February 1 as temperatures dropped below zero this month. Under the policy asylum seekers would have to return to a “landing zone” near the Loop and submit a new request for a shelter spot. Mutual-aid volunteers who’d been helping asylum seekers who were staying at police stations criticized the sixty-day limit when Johnson first announced it. A volunteer who spoke to the Weekly on Thursday described the landing zone as “a parking lot with no

running water.”

The letter cited reports of inadequate food, bed bug and rodent infestations, and “medical issues, including no containment of infectious diseases and failure to provide treatment for persistent medical conditions.” In December, Borderless Magazine reported on filthy conditions, cold temperatures, and poor food at a city-run shelter in Pilsen. Less than a week later, a six-year-old boy who was staying at that shelter fell ill and died.

“We’ve had a number of groups that have reached out over months with concerns about the new arrivals [and] shelter conditions,” Vasquez said. “And I think as we’re looking at a week before evictions would actually begin, a number of [volunteers] raised up the level of urgency to call for an end to the sixty-day policy.”

Mutual-aid volunteers said one asylum seeker told them migrants are treated “like animals at the shelter, but no one will rent to us and we have no one to help us here.”

The alderpersons’ letter urged the city to rescind the sixty-day shelter limit; improve shelter conditions with “culturally appropriate food and timely medical services”; improve and increase temporary and permanent housing stock “in sufficient quantity for new arrivals and long-time residents”; and immediately appoint a chief homelessness officer who would be empowered to coordinate efforts to meet the letter’s demands with state and federal agencies.

Alderperson Rossana RodríguezSánchez (33rd) said that while she supports rescinding the sixty-day shelter limit, she asked her colleagues to delay releasing the letter so that additional

mutual-aid groups, such as the one in her ward, be included. “It should include the voices of the different mutual aid groups that have been operating on the ground and helping so much,” she said.

Ramirez-Rosa echoed RodríguezSánchez’s concerns. “Yesterday, when I signed the letter, my colleague Alderman Vasquez told me the letter came from mutual aid groups, which was not true,” he told the Weekly. “Today, I learned mutual aid leaders in my community were unaware of the letter and wanted to be involved in drafting the letter. I believe Alderman Vasquez rushed to publish and disseminate the letter to the press. I likely would have signed on in the end had we given it another day to ensure more community leaders and voices could be included in the effort.”

Asked about Rodríguez-Sánchez’s concerns, Vasquez said “the large number of mutual-aid groups who have been reaching out to us have been pretty clear” that they want the sixty-day limit rescinded.

Volunteers who spoke to the Weekly Thursday said they supported the letter and hoped it would lead to better conditions for migrants and improved transparency around shelter conditions.

Johnson’s administration relied on volunteers to assist in providing food, clothing and other amenities to asylum seekers while they were staying at police stations, but volunteers say they have been prevented from accessing city-run shelters since then.

“I’m hoping to see improved conditions [at shelters], especially regarding scams and safety,” said SouthWest Collective member Jaime Groth Searle. Shelter eviction notices “make people get desperate and forego personal safety in search of a job or apartment. Clearly we need federal funding, but in the interim, official communication needs to improve.”

Rousemary Vega, an organizer with Grassroots Voices for Chicago, said there is “no transparency” from the city about conditions at the shelters, adding that volunteers have been prevented from accessing the shelters. “They’re limiting mutual aid volunteers from just doing the work, because they don’t want a stain

on the [shelters’] image, because they don’t want the word to get out.They’re not allowing the help and resources, so I think it’s time for allies to call upon the mayor and hold him accountable.”

Johnson has repeatedly called on the state and federal government to provide more assistance. The state has already provided $500 million to set up emergency shelters and other services.

On January 24 Johnson said the city is “going to work really hard to look at options we have so no one has to be out on the street” and added that the state could build shelters outside Chicago as well.

Mutual-aid volunteer Halle Quezada said Johnson’s calls for federal help “ignores our own city policies and puts up barriers to people finding independent housing.” Quezada included shelter policies prohibiting shared childcare, which prevents migrants from finding work; poor shelter conditions; and housing case managers hired from out of state among those barriers.

“Now is the time to invest in housing solutions,” Quezada said. “The systems and infrastructure needed now [will be] needed tomorrow, and we can have a better Chicago if we make it a priority.”

At Monday’s press conference, Johnson said his administration wants to give migrants “enough time to process their work authorization, find housing, [and] start a new life in our great city. We will continue to assess this developing situation as we move through these winter months.” ¬

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BIG Justice TCTAC Launch

University of Illinois Chicago, Dorin Forum, 725 W. Roosevelt Rd. Thursday, February 1–Saturday, February 3, 8am– 2pm. Free. www.blacksingreen.org/ Chicago nonprofit Blacks in Green (BIG) presents “Justice Comes of Age,” a launch events of its Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center (TCTAC), which aims to help “community organizations, churches, student groups and businesses throughout the Midwest secure funding from BidenHarris administration initiatives designed to transform underserved places into thriving communities.” Brandon Johnson, state policymakers and White House officials will make an appearance, alongside food, a disco dancing party, Great Migration Heritage bus tours and in-person grant-seeking support.

Register in advance. (Zoe Pharo)

Beyond Prisons Open House

Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture Community Room, 5733 S. University Ave. Thursday, February 1, 5pm–7:30pm. Free. bit.ly/3Uezztf U. of C.’s Center for the Study of Race, Politics & Culture will hold a celebratory open house to share more about its new Beyond Prisons initiative. The center aims for Beyond Prisons to be a teaching and learning initiative that “interrogates, disrupts, and works toward moving beyond carceral logics and systems.” The open house will share more about the team, the project and ways to get involved. (Zoe Pharo)

We Insist!: A tribute to Max Roach

The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center, 740 E. 56th Pl. Friday, February 2, 6:30pm. Ticket prices range.

Dusablemuseum.org The DuSable Museum will screen the film “Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes” in celebration of what would have been legendary jazz drummer, composer and activist Max Roach’s 100th birthday. The screening is part of the DuSable Museum’s ongoing Black History Month programming.

After the movie, JCANDTHEREUPBAND will perform live. (Zoe Pharo)

Bronzeville in Reel Time with South Side Home Movie Project South Side Community Art Center, 3831 S. Michigan Ave. Saturday, February 3, 1pm–3pm. Free. bit.ly/ BronzevilleReelTime

In partnership with the South Side Home Movie Project (SSHMP), with support from the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelly Foundation, the South Side Community Art Center is hosting a special screening showcasing select cinema reels of Ramon Williams. Williams, Black IBEW electrician and film hobbyist, was an early adopter of amateur filmmaking and interested in documenting the Bronzeville community in which he lived—filming major Bronzeville social and civic events between the 1940s and 1960s. The event will also feature a live dialogue and Ramon’s work and legacy in the Bronzeville community with SSHMP assistant director Saroop Singh, Bronzeville Historical Society President Sherry Williams and U. of C. Ph.D. student Avery LaFlamme.

Donated to SSHMP in 2020, the Ramon Williams Collection encompasses 302 film reels, representing never-before-seen visual records of Bronzeville. (Zoe Pharo)

School Choice in Illinois

Grove Heights Baptist Church, 9800 S. Greenwood Ave. Sunday, January 21, 3pm–6pm. Free. bit.ly/4b0f4q3 The Christian Home Educators Support System is hosting a workshop and discussion on school choice in Illinois.

A panel will delve into topics such as microschools, private schools and homeschooling. Food will be catered from Highly Flavored Chicago. (Zoe Pharo)

Black Panther Party & Peoples’ Coalitions Teaching & Learning Day Westside Center for Justice, 601 S. California Ave. Saturday, February 17, 10am–2pm. Free.

Join to learn about a free curriculum on the Black Panther Party and coalitions, and engage with members of the Black Panther

Party, Young Lords and Uptown’s coalitionbuilding organizers. Additionally, engage in workshops, view primary sources and help brainstorm ways to expand this learning and curriculum. (Zoe Pharo)

South Chicago Dance Festival

South Shore Cultural Center, 7059 S. South Shore Dr. Saturday, February 17, 5pm.

Free. bit.ly/SouthChicagoDanceFestival The South Chicago Dance Theatre presents the Fifth Annual South Chicago Dance Festival featuring the following ensembles: Black Girls Dance, Dyett Dance Company, Hyde Park School of Dance, Jones College Prep, Kenwood Dance Project, Kenwood School of Ballet, Movement Strengthens Balance Dance Elite Performance Ensemble and Yin He Dance. This year’s festival also features free workshops and masterclasses.

(Zoe Pharo)

So You Want to Make Movies?

The DuSable Black History Museum, 740 E. 56th Pl. Monday, February 5, 12pm– 6pm. Ticket prices range.

Dusablemuseum.org The DuSable Museum is hosting a series of events on Monday that explore film and the lives of filmmakers. At 12pm, Robert Townsend, Pemon Rami and Nikki Turner will present a virtual lunch and learn discussion about filmmaking. Later, at 6pm, Turner will hold a filmmaking workshop about first steps for those interested in film.

(Zoe Pharo)

‘Breaking Bounds’ screening

The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center, 740 E. 56th Pl. Wednesday, February 7, 6pm. Ticket prices range. Dusablemuseum.org As part of its Black History Month programming, the DuSable Museum will present a screening of “Breaking Bounds,” a film about a young gay man from an affluent family in Uganda who faces deportation after a shooting incident. (Zoe Pharo) FEBRUARY 1, 2024 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 19

20 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ FEBRUARY 1, 2024