Chicago Crusader 10/12/13 E-Edition

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Blacks Must Control Their Own Community

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VOLUME LXXIII NUMBER 25—SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2013

PUBLISHED SINCE 1940

25 Cents and worth more

Chicago Speed Cameras now active By J. Coyden Palmer After being talked about and debated for months, Chicago’s controversial speed camera enforcement has begun at five different sites around the city. Mayor Emanuel said as many as 50 speed cameras will be installed in the coming years and motorists are angry. Emanuel last week also announced that the city would be removing 18 existing red light cameras. But critics of both programs saw that move as trying to get the public’s favor for the unpopular decision to install speed cameras. “This is just a game of cat and mouse,” said Chicago resident Virginia Newman, who also thinks the proposal to rename Stony Island after Bishop Brazier is Emanuel tying to appease the African American community. One of the new speed cameras is located in the 5400 block along Cottage Grove Ave. Located on the west side of Cottage Grove, the silver pole extends about 20 feet into the air. Some motorists are heeding the warning sign about 500 feet before you get to the camera, but many others zoomed on by and did not hit their brakes until the flash from the camera, The Crusader observed on Oct. 6. Located in Washington Park, the camera took 25 photos of potential speed violators

over a 15 minute span. According to Emanuel’s office, the 30-day grace period is over, however it could be ex-

tended to ensure that all of the warning letters that were sent in the first 30 days are received by potential violators. When enforce-

THIS TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT speed camera in the 5400 block of south Cottage Grove is just one of the 50 that will be installed over the next year. The camera is active and drivers could get a $35 or $100 fine if caught speeding.

ment begins, those traveling six to 10 miles per hour over the speed limit will be hit with a $35 fine. Those above that will get a $100 ticket. The city is hoping to have 50 speed cameras installed by the end of this year. While most people are against the cameras, there are some who favor them. Jan Johnson lives in the 5300 block of Cottage Grove. She said with all of the activity in Washington Park, drivers do need to slow down and she said cars are constantly going 20 miles faster than the posted 30 M.P.H. speed limit. “It doesn’t matter if it is day or night, people are flying down this strip of Cottage Grove,” Johnson said. “I walk around the park almost every day and I think it is actually worse inside the park itself because people use those streets as a short cut to go over to King Drive and avoid stop lights. Some of these people drive like maniacs.” Mark Wallace, who has already started a grassroots campaign to rid the city of red light cameras, objects to the speed cameras based on the same principal. He said the cameras are unconstitutional and are doing nothing more than infuriating citizens while the city’s coffers are filling. “I’ve always thought the red light cameras (Continued on page 16)

Target now sits where Cabrini-Green once was By Wendell Hutson Val Marcelin was among the 15,000 people who once called the Cabrini-Green housing complex home before it was demolished in 2011. The demolition was part of the city’s Plan for Transformation whereby all high-rise public housing buildings were torn down and replaced with mixed-income properties. For 29 years Marcelin lived there and it is where he raised his three children with his late wife. So when the city unveiled a new Target store Tuesday at his former address at 1200 N. Larabee St. it was not business as usual for him. “I have so many memories there. I watched my two sons become men and go to college. I watched my daughter become an engineer and I watched so many other families struggle but kept it together,” recalled Marcelin, 64. “Some people may think it’s silly for me to feel this way about living in the ‘ghetto’ but the ghetto is all I’ve ever known.” The 3,607-unit Frances Cabrini Row-hous(Continued on page 16)

AT A RIBBON-CUTTING ceremony this week elected officials including Governor Pat Quinn (left), Mayor Rahm Emanuel (third from left), Alderman Walter Burnett (27th) (partially hidden) and Secretary of State Jesse White (far right) celebrated the new Target store at the site of the former Cabrini-Green housing project.


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Chicago Crusader 10/12/13 E-Edition by The Crusader Newspaper Group - Issuu