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AUSTINWEEKLY news ■
Vol. 35 No. 6
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February 5, 2020
Black Child Book Fair to take place Feb. 8,
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Chicago Police to get major overhaul
With restructuring, former West Side commander Barbara West becomes highest-ranking black female cop in CPD history By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor
The Chicago Police Department recently announced a massive organizational restructuring that department officials say will put hundreds of police officers and detectives back in the neighborhoods and help the department carry out the critical reforms required under a federal consent decree. The restructuring creates two new offices that will be responsible for executing those two main objectives — the Office of Operations and the Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform Management. And the latter is headed by Barbara West, who has spent most of her career on the West Side. As head of the reform-minded office, West is the highest-ranking black female officer in the department’s history. The department announced the major See CPD OVERHAUL on page 12
ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer
Growing up absurd
Charles Donalson, the star of the Starz docuseries “America to Me,” has a new mixtape that reflects on his life as a young black man in nearby Oak Park. Story on page 6
The Ogden bus makes a comeback The No. 157 bus route was truncated in 2008 due to low ridership, but since then residents have been pressuring CTA to bring it back
By PASCAL SABINO Block Club Chicago
Lawndale residents will soon have a new transit option that will make it quicker and easier for residents to get to work, school and Downtown. The new bus route is an old favorite, a revival of the Ogden Avenue bus that used to feed into one of North Lawndale’s main commercial corridors. The No. 157 bus was once a mainstay for
customers and employees going to the businesses along Ogden Avenue. It also allowed Lawndale residents from as far west as Pulaski Road to get Downtown or to the Medical District with no transfers. But reeling from decades of redlining and disinvestment, West Side businesses struggled to stay afloat, and many of the shops along Ogden Avenue disappeared. The neighborhood’s population also shrunk by 14 percent in the decade leading up to 2010, so the CTA decided to cut to the route.
In 2008, the No. 157 bus stopped serving Ogden Avenue west of California Avenue, cutting off a major section of Lawndale from the rest of the city. But this summer, the Ogden bus is set to return as part of a pilot program recently approved by the Chicago Transit Board that will realign the No. 52 Kedzie/California bus and the No. 94 South California bus to provide more streamlined service along the
State Farm Mutual Automobile • Insurance Company State Farm Indemnity Company • Bloomington, IL • statefarm.com® Larry and his staff are licensed and together have over 75 years of State Farm experience.
See OGDEN BUS on page 10
Larry Williams,Agent 5932 W. Lake Street Chicago, 60644 (773) 379-9010 larry.williams.b0bk@statefarm.com