WANT SOME GOOD NEWS? A masked wedding. Page 9 Irving’s Balicki retires. Page 10 OPRF hockey team’s fundraiser. Page 12
W E D N E S D A Y
May 20, 2020 Vol. 40, No. 43 ONE DOLLAR @oakpark @wednesdayjournal
JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest
COVID-19 and the ‘race tax’ Why are blacks dying disproportionately? Start with historic plunder of black wealth
Pavlicek said “now is the time” to address the downturn during the presentation she made with Steven Drazner, chief financial officer/treasurer. Elected officials are expected to discuss the matter further at a June 1 meeting and consider an amended fiscal year See FINANCES on page 13
See RACE TAX on page 14
ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer
RIVER RISING: River Forest and Oak Park suffered major flooding Sunday both along the Desplaines River and in many basements. Coverage on page 3.
Oak Park finances dire due to COVID
Pavlicek presents board with cost-cutting options By ROBERT LIFKA Contributing Reporter
Oak Park Village Manager Cara Pav-
licek sounded the alarm on the village’s financial outlook May 18, warning that the pandemic-induced economic downturn is “significant.” She informed elected officials at the virtual village board meeting that the $13.9 million general fund balance at the start of the fiscal year would be gone by the middle of 2021 if action is not taken.
A
ccording to the Centers for Disease Control, nearly a third of COVID-19 cases in the United States have afflicted African Americans, who comprise only 13 percent of the country’s roughly 330 million people. Since this disproportionality was made abundantly clear a few months ago, there’s been a tendency to look at it spatially. “In urban centers large and small across the U.S., the novel coronavirus is devastating African-American communities,” writes a reporter
MICHAEL ROMAIN
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