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AUSTIN WEEKLY news ■
Vol. 32 No.16
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An African American female filmmaker tackles fraud,
April 18, 2018
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austinweeklynews.com
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Also serving Garfield Park
@AustinWeeklyChi
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M tN Meet Nathan th Nash page 3
Biz incubator has residents concerned Owners of $30M Hatchery lacking in community outreach, West Siders say By IGOR STUDENKOV Contributing Reporter
During an April 14 community meeting, held at Marshall High School, 3250 W. Adams St., West Side residents and community leaders expressed concerns about the outreach efforts of the three entities that own The Hatchery — a food business incubator currently under construction at the southeast corner of Kedzie Avenue and Lake Street in East Garfield Park. All of the residents who spoke during the meeting, which was attended by roughly 40 to 50 people, said that they were worried about how the $30 million, 67,000-square-foot development might affect their neighborhood. Many also argued that The Hatchery’s public outreach was limited and felt like the project was being imposed on them by outside organizations. The recurring theme of the comments was that resources should be directed toward businesses that are already in the community — not outside entities. And if businesses or organizations had to come from the outside, residents added, they should at least be black-owned. “If you get a grant for betterment of this community, let’s work with this community and development some of the businesses here or development African American businesses to come to serve us,” said West Side resident Vivian Stewart-Tyler. Emblematic of residents’ concerns was that the three owners — Accion Chicago, Industrial Council Northwest Chicago and nonprofit developer IFF — appeared to have pulled out of the April 14 meeting without any explanation. See THE HATCHERY on page 9
Wakanda forever
Submitted photo
Drummers from the Nunufatima Dance Company in Chicago perform before a community dialogue on the film ‘Black Panther’ at Loyola University’s Niehoff School of Nursing on April 14.
City’s gang database under scrutiny In Austin meeting, Inspector General urges public to push for transparency By IAN KARBAL AustinTalks
Since Benny Lee got out of jail 33 years ago, the Austin native has dedicated himself to helping young people with criminal records start productive lives. But he worries they will face discrimination when applying for college or a job because they’ve been put into the Chicago Police Department’s gang database.
“I’m not the only one that’s been out 20 to 30 years with a name still circulating in that database,” said Lee, who believes he’s faced discrimination because his name remains in the database. He was among several people who attended a meeting held by Chicago Inspector General Joe Ferguson last week in Austin to discuss the database. The database, which is actually a compilation of data from several sources, is
used by Chicago police to keep track of local residents they suspect of having gang affiliations. Public information about the database is scarce, but a recent UIC study found it may contain upwards of 128,000 Chicago residents, 95 percent of whom are black or Hispanic. Ferguson held the April 11 meeting to give the public a chance to give input as
Austin Chamber of Commerce on the move... 773.854.5848 • www.austinchicagochamber.com
See GANG DATABASE on page 4