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AUSTIN WEEKLY news ■
Residents push back against proposed healthcare for Emmet,
Vol. 31 No.25
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June 21, 2017
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austinweeklynews.com
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Also serving Garfield Park
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Meet M tA Aaron Washington, page 3
No better blues The West Side, long a hub of the blues, is again ignored as city profits, say leaders By XUEER ZHANG AustinTalks
West Side musicians, activists and residents gathered earlier this month to discuss how to promote blues tourism in Austin, North Lawndale and Garfield Park. The “West Side has got a worldwide reputation for blues,” Bonni McKeown, a longtime advocate and educator for the homegrown music, told about 20 people at Gone Again Travel &Tours on June 7 to brainstorm ideas on how the West Side can capitalize on its music heritage to drive the economy and create jobs. “Those people from Mississippi and Alabama brought this very rhythmic, soulful version of blues with them during the Second Great Migration,” McKeown said. “And that’s what makes our West Side special.” But that heritage is not being recognized, McKeown said. The West Side has been left out, agreed Janice Monti, a blues tour organizer who hosts blues symposia at Dominican University, adding the city has invested little, if anything, in showcasing the area as an arts and culture destination. “It’s really important to understand right now that Chicago has taken its time to get on the blues tourism,” she said. “But my biggest concern is they’re only focused on the tourism market Downtown.” There’s a multi-million dollar museum planned for 25 E. Washington St, just a few blocks away from Millennium Park. The 50,000-square-foot Chicago Blues Experience museum, set to open in 2019, will See THE BLUES on page 5
WILLIAM CAMARGO/Staff Photographer
TRY LIVING ON $8.25: Anthony Stewart co-founder of Black Workers Matter talks to village administrator Timothy E. Gillian on June 15 about why the village decided to op out of raising the minimum wage on Thursday June 15
West Side workers take wage fight to suburbs By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor
On July 1, Chicago’s minimum wage is scheduled to tick up to $11 an hour for all non-tipped employees — $2.75 more than the statewide minimum wage of $8.25. The increase is tied to a 2014 ordinance that will increase the minimum wages for the city’s workers up to $13 an hour each year until 2019. According to a statement on the city’s website, the gradual pay raises “will increase the earnings for approximately
410,000 Chicago workers, inject $860 million into the local economy, and lift 70,000 workers out of poverty.” But not all Chicago residents work in Chicago. Many, like Austin resident Anthony Stewart, currently or used to work as temporary workers for employers in the Cook County suburbs. For many of them, the minimum wage is still $8.25 an hour. Last October, however, the Cook County Board of Commissioners passed ordinances seeking to increase the minimum wage and establish earned sick leave for employees in the county.
Starting July 1, the minimum wage in suburban Cook County will increase to $10 an hour and by an additional $1 each subsequent year through 2020. On July 1, 2021 and each July afterwards, the minimum wage will increase by the rate of inflation up to 2.5 percent. If unemployment is over 8.5 percent, however, there will be no increase. The ordinance does not apply to public employers. Many suburbs, however, are using their home rule powers to opt out of either or
Austin Chamber of Commerce on the move... 773.854.5848 • www.austinchicagochamber.com
See MINIMUM WAGE on page 4