kayla ginsburg

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, photographers, artists, and mediamakers of all backgrounds.

Editor-in-Chief Jacqueline Serrato Managing Editors Martha Bayne Sam Stecklow Deputy Editor Jasmine Mithani

Julia Aizuss Christian Belanger Mari Cohen Christopher Good Rachel Kim Emeline Posner Adam Przybyl Olivia Stovicek

Jim Daley Ashvini Kartik-Narayan Michelle Anderson Davon Clark Sam Joyce Sarah Fineman

Mira Chauhan Joshua Falk Lucia Geng Robin Vaughan Jocelyn Vega Tammy Xu Jade Yan

AV Benford

Maya Holt Jasmine Mithani Erisa Apantaku Grace Asiegbu, Arabella Breck,

Director of Fact Checking: Tammy Xu Fact Checkers: Abigail Bazin, Susan Chun, Maria Maynez, Sam Joyce, Elizabeth Winkler, Lucy Ritzmann, Kate Gallagher, Matt Moore, Malvika Jolly, Charmaine Runes

Visuals Editor Mell Montezuma Deputy Visuals Editors Siena Fite, Sofie Lie, Shane Tolentino Photo Editor Keeley Parenteau Staff Photographers: milo bosh, Jason Schumer Staff Illustrators: Siena Fite, Katherine Hill

Haley Tweedell, Davon Clark

Pat Sier Jason Schumer

The Weekly is produced by a mostly all-volunteer editorial staff and seeks contributions from across the city. We distribute each Wednesday in the fall, winter, and spring. Over the summer we publish every other week.

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, contact: (773) 234-5388 or advertising@southsideweekly.com

Last week, the City Council passed a resolution to recognize the 19th of June as a day to celebrate the end of slavery in the United States, but it stopped short of declaring it a paid holiday like other cities have done. In February, North Side Ald. Maria Hadden (49th), with the support of forty other aldermen, introduced an ordinance that would make Juneteenth Day an official holiday. But in a gesture that people didn't exactly expect from the first Black woman mayor, Lori Lightfoot said the city couldn't afford to make Juneteenth a city holiday (the cost could be $100 million). In a turn of events, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he would work with the legislature to make Juneteeth a state holiday. The Black community held their own celebrations that included patronizing Black restaurants in recovery and a car caravan that took off in the West Side, made stops on the DuSable Bridge on Michigan Ave. and other historic locations, and ended at the Pullman Porter Museum in the South Side.

Protesters outside City Hall were so loud that the mayor had to momentarily mute last week's virtual City Council meeting. Activists have been demanding community control of the police through an elected body known as Chicago Police Accountability Council (CPAC) that would replace the mayorappointed Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA). Lightfoot has responded by forming a twenty-member task force, which includes community members, experts, and activists, to review CPD's use of force. Critics say CPAC—unlike COPA or the task force—would actually have the power to determine the police budget and hire and fire the police chief. Working in tandem are activists who are demanding that Chicago Public Schools terminate their $33 million contract with CPD and remove officers from schools altogether, as well as student activists who partook in a nineteenhour sit-in on June 13 to call for disbanding the University of Chicago’s campus police—the largest private police force in Chicago.

Last week, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced a $900 million package of grants to help struggling businesses, renters, and homeowners. The plan includes $60 million to support Illinois businesses, which includes $20 million specifically earmarked for businesses that suffered damage due to looting in the aftermath of protests against the killing of George Floyd. The package also designated $300 million, to be disbursed in August, to help the estimated one in three Illinoisans struggling to pay rent or make mortgage payments. On Saturday, Mayor Lightfoot announced that the city’s $15 million “Together Now” fund has begun taking applications from small businesses that have suffered economic distress or property damage in recent months; the deadline to apply is Monday, June 29, and grants to 2,500 qualifying businesses will be awarded by lottery. See chicago.gov/togethernow or cct.org/togethernow.

Cover Illustration by Grae Rosa

comic: do i go back to my day job post-quarantine kayla ginsburg..................................................2

Now is the time to fully fund social services in the name of public safety jackie rosa.........................................................4

Simon Balto’s history of police in Black Chicago shows why CPD can’t be reformed bobby vanecko...................................................5

“Leaving people in the jail, I would argue, is leaving people to die” kiran misra........................................................7

“The way they talked to a grieving mother just says it all about how they regard Black people as a whole.” amy qin..............................................................9

Jonathan Foiles’s This City Is Killing Me highlights the role of policy and social context in mental illness michelle anderson.........................................12

Clinics permanently adopt telehealth jim daley..........................................................14

An Asian American exhibition adapts to the pandemic era eileen li...........................................................16

antwonette burton......................................19

“Something about putting affordable units in the garden, forcing people underground, just feels not right.” david segeye....................................................20

Competing interests fight for one empty La Villita lot josephine wang...............................................21