Wednesday Journal 052224

Remembering Harriette Robinet, mother, author and pioneer

By KEN TRAINOR Staff Writer

Harriette Gillem Robinet’s father, an educator, required that his daughter pen something every day during her summer vacations while she was growing up. Publication came much later, in February 1968, with a Redbook magazine article titled, “I’m a Mother — Not a Pioneer,” number 89 in Redbook’s Young Mothers series.

The latter part of the title is debatable, but we’ll return to that later.

Robinet, an award-winning writer and civil rights activist, died May 17. She was 92.

“Harriette Gillem Robinet’s life and work interacted as a divine gift to the many, many people who read and knew her,” Don Evans, an Oak Parker who founded the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame said after she died.

You trust us to report the news. Do you trust us to make the donuts?

For the rst time ever, May 25, Growing Community Media, the nonpro t publisher of Wednesday Journal, will make the donuts at the Oak Park Farmers Market.

Members of our sta and board will be joined by dozens of volunteers to make thousands of plain, powder sugar and cinnamon donuts.

Turn out to say hello, pick up a paper, hopefully decide to support our hardworking newsroom.

Growing community. One box of powder sugared at a time.

Julian students stage walkout to protest climate of ‘sexual harassment’

It was sparked by what organizers said was attempted censorship of a poem written by a female student

By AMARIS E. RODRIGUEZ Staff Reporter

Students at Percy Julian Middle School staged a walk out Wednesday afternoon to protest what they say is a climate that allows “sexual harassment, ‘slut shaming,’ and sexualization.”

The walkout occurred at about 2:15 p.m., when more than 50 students, mostly girls, walked from the main entrance of the Ridgeland Avenue middle school to Scoville Park.

The walkout was organized by eighth grader Sophia Ott, along with several of her peers, after what she said was the attempted censorship by a for mer administrator of a poem written by a female student.

In an email to families Tuesday, Interim Principal William Lee said administrators knew about the planned walkout and that it was intended to “bring awareness to issues of sexism and sexual harassment.”

“District 97 does not prohibit students from walking out or engaging in a peaceful protest,” Lee said. “If students walk out, they will be allowed to exit peacefully.”

According to Sophia, the protest was initiated by an event at school in which an administrator expressed displeasure about the word “slut” being used, and said the poem, which was performed at the Women’s History Month assembly in April at the school, “bashed men.”

“At our school, in the past and currently, there have been a lot of problems with harassment and slut shaming and sexist things going on in our school,” Sophia said.

D97 has not responded to a request for comment about the claims the students made about the administrator’s reaction to the poem. According to Sophia, that administrator is no longer with the district.

The students said they began speaking with each other about situations that they said have fostered a climate that tolerates sexual harassment and harassment, especially toward girls.

Student organizers hold up sig ns as they get ready to speak to Julian students who gathered with them at Scov ille Park on May 15.

The goal is to alert adults to the issues and that students are unhappy about it, Sophia said.

“I hope they see this and they realize this is happening,” she said. “When parents speak up, especially when it’s a lot of parents, I just want to make them and the community around us more aware of this fact. So that they can see that and maybe they say something and then maybe something happens and makes this situation better for some people.”

Andrea Button, Sophia’s mother, said she was “extremely proud” of her daughter and her friends.

“I love that young women and people assigned female at birth of this generation are owning their space, their power, and their right to feel safe in a world that too often presents them with o pposition to those thing s, ” Button said.

Th at c ulture has also created an environment in wh ich f emale students f eel li ke no one is listening to them, Sophia said.

“When students express their concerns or tell their stories asking for help, nothing ever happens,” Sophia said.

The number of all sexual harassment, harassment, and bullying complaints filed by students is not yet known. Wednesday Journal has submitted records requests regarding them.

District 97 officials said they take “all alle gations of inappropriate behavior seriously and are committed to providing a safe and inclusive learning environment for all students at Julian Middle School.”

“Our district has procedures in place for re porting sex-

ual harassment,” said Luis Fernando De Leon, assistant superintendent of middle schools. “We encourage students to re port any concerns to a trusted staf f member or through our Bullying Re port Form.”

De Leon was at Julian when the walkout began.

De Leon, who wore a bright yellow vest, said he was there to ensure the students were safe as they left the school to walk to Scoville Park, their destination. D97 officials said no administrators or staf f followed students to Scoville Park.

At the pa rk , students r allied to hear speeches from org anizers.

“Sexual harassment can go unseen and written of f as ‘middle school boys,’” said one of the org anizers, who is not being named because she is a minor and We d nesd ay Jour nal was unable to reach a parent for perm i ssion.

T he seventh gr ader a dded that being sexually har assed has a huge mental toll on someone, making them f eel unsaf e.

Another organizer spoke during the walkout, saying that “sexual harassment and assault are a huge problem” at Julian.

“It often goes unaddressed,” she said.

“Thirteen- and fourteen-year-old kids should never feel afraid or threatened around a male teacher or be scared to eat a hot dog or a banana because they are scared to be sexualized by the boys around us, and yet we are, every day,” she said.

TODD BANNOR

May

22-29

BIG WEEK

Memorial Day Ceremony

Monday, May 27, 11 a.m., Scoville Park

Join us on Memorial Day at Oak Park ’s Scoville Park for our traditional ceremony honoring veterans and commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Normandy invasion. The event will feature remarks about D-Day and other WWII landings, as well as recognition of all veterans, especially those who made the ultimate sacri ce. Hosted by Illinois Senate President Don Harmon and Village President Vicki Scaman, the ceremony will include a Color Guard, patriotic singing, Taps, and an invocation and benedic tion by Army Chaplain Kerstin Hedlund. All are welcome.

800 W. Lake St., Oak Park

We want to hear from you

The Wednesday Journal is looking to invigorate its coverage of arts, food and enter tainment. We want to hear from you! Please take this short sur vey to help us learn what you want when you’re looking for things to do. Please submit your answers by May 26. https://forms.gle/yss7eCACoXW49jqNA

Young & Restless

Saturday, May 25, 11-11:30 a.m., Oak Park Public Library

Babies learn to associate books with fun and shared moments with favorite adults during this storytime designed for one-on- one interac tions between caregivers and children, bir th to 24 months. 834 Lake St., Oak Park

Welcome Wednesday at Smart Love

Wednesday, May 29, 8-11 a.m., 1010 Lake St.

We welcome our neighbor organizations for co ee and pastries as we learn about each other & how we can best ser ve the community. Free Event. 1010 Lake St. Suite 500, Oak Park

Grief Journaling

Sunday, May 26, Oak Park Public Library –Scoville Room

Each session will begin with prompts and/or a guided meditation, followed by time to journal At the end of each session, we will set aside time to share, if you feel so moved. Feel free to come to any or all workshops. This event is intended for high school adults and older. Register at https://tinyurl.com/5bskxu6p.

Riley and the Red Hots

Thuesday, May 23, 6:30-9 p.m., Encore! By Little Gem

Enjoy jazz, dinner, and drinks on Thursday and music from Riley and the Red Hots. Tickets are $7. 187 N. Marion St., Oak Park

Duncan Hines In uence

Thursday, May 23, 6-7 p.m., Oak Park Public Library

Since the 1950s, the name Duncan Hines has been synonymous with boxed cake mix. But who was Duncan Hines? And how did he in uence American food histor y? Join writer and history enthusiast Amy Gail Hansen for an in-depth look at this Chicago -based traveling salesman’s fascinating life, from the coveted restaurant recommendations included in his Christmas card that became “Adventures in Good Eating”, to the products still bearing his name on today’s grocery shelves. 834 Lake St., Oak Park

Compiled by Brooke Duncan

Listing your event

Wednesday Jour nal welcomes notices about events that Oak Park and River Forest groups and businesses are planning. We’ll work to get the word out if you let us know what’s happening by noon Wednesday a week before your news needs to be in the newspaper. ■ Email details to calendar@ wjinc.com

Oak Park celebrates APIDA Heritage Month

The month honors Asian Paci c Islander Desi Americans

By HECTOR CERVANTES Contributing Reporter

The Oak Park Public Library had its annual celebration earlier this month for Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Heritage Month, spotlighting intergenerational stories of Oak Park community members.

The event featured live music from Sona Umbra, children’s arts and crafts activities org anized by the Oak Park River Forest High School’s Pan Asian Leadership Society, appetizers sourced from Oak Park APIDA restaurants, and a program including interactive discussions on intergenerational issues led by prominent speakers and writers such as Ed Eusebio, Victor Yipp, and Chelsea Qi Zhao

An exhibit showcasing objects of APIDA heritage was on view in the Library’s IDEA Box in May, too. Additionally, Banyan: Asian American Writers Collective is one of the groups that attended the event.

Dominican University English Professor Jane Hseu and Founder and Principal of Blue Lotus Advisors Deepa Gupta were the lead organizers for this year’s celebration.

Gupta has lived in Oak Park for 15 years and last year was her first year she became involved with this event.

“I think it is important to note that we had a nice turnout, and many of the folks who were there are a group of people who are writers, artists, and creatives. It is important to share, and we had a mix of folks, some of whom aren’t a part of that creative community, to show the diversity of pathways people have taken, both in ter ms of identity and work,” Gupta said.

Hseu was born and raised in Souther n California, where there’s a significant APIDA population. Hseu said that moving to the Chicago area, which is diverse for the Midwest but has roughly a 5% Asian population, she and others saw a need to address stereotypes and oversimplifications about APIDA backgrounds.

“There are many stereotypes and a lack of awareness re garding the complexity of APIDA backgrounds, individuals, and their stories,” Hseu said. “Therefore, having a month dedicated to focusing on AP-

IDA communities and issues is truly important. It allows us to feel supported not only by fellow APIDA individuals but also by allies from other communities of color, such as Latinos and African Americans, with whom I’ve collaborated.”

Oak Park’s annual tradition of hosting an official event with the Oak Park Library for APIDA Heritage Month has become a community staple, starting in 2018 with a small team of organizers. Social worker Nicole Sumida and operations manager for Seven Generations Ahead Pemalyn Hessing were the lead organizers in the past.

APIDA Heritage Month is significant to Gupta because her family embodies a mix of races, cultures and nationalities. Gupta has two children attending school in Oak Park and wants them to understand that there are various ways to express their identities and to be proud of the things that make up your identity.

“It’s not necessarily about conforming to their grandmother’s or my expectations, but rather about embracing their own choices and paths. I want my kids to understand that our history follows us and it’s okay to learn and not know everything and also to be curious about each other and about everyone who’s around them,” Gupta said.

When asked how APIDA Heritage Month can address issues or challenges faced by APIDA communities, Hseu said that she is unsure if it directly addresses the issues, but believes it creates a space for people to discuss their lived experiences

“There are very few times in the busy world where we can get to gether with our families and talk about things like identity and culture and our experiences from the past, present and future and what we aspire to, but also what we’re experiencing now,” Hseu said.

She added that experiencing similar situations fosters connections, empathy and understanding.

“What may seem like a solitary experience is often shared by many others. Through this shared understanding, relationships can be for med, leading to collaborative solutions and actions taken together,” Hseu said.

Gupta noted that Asian Pacific American Heritage Month provides a platfo rm for celebrating Asian communities and fostering support from allies, including other people of color. While some may

question the idea of dedicating just one month, it serves as an opportunity to build connections within the Asian Pacific American community and with other underrepresented groups.

When questioned about ways non-APIDA individuals can eng age and demonstrate support during APIDA Heritage Month, Gupta said that they can by engaging with events like the one they hosted, as well as ex-

ploring diverse books by local authors and celebrating community festivals and bridging family and friends to these events.

“It’s as simple as staying curious and involved, bringing your kids to festivals that are happening in the many communities that we have in Chinatown, or up on Devon Avenue or in some of the north and south suburban areas where there’s a lot of Asian communities,” Gupta said.

OPRF celebrate 150th anniversary with a block part

The event featured popular alumni band Jade ‘50s

By AMARIS E. RODRIGUEZ Staff Reporter

Oak Park and River Forest High School ebrated their Sesquicentennial annive this past weekend with a community-wide block party, full of fun family activitie

The festivities were held Sunday, May 19 from 1 to 4 p.m. at the mall located betw the high school and the new track field.

The celebration featured food trucks, including local favorite Bricks Wood Pizza, who helped serve delish pies to community members who came out to celebrate the high school’s 150-year anniversar

The day also included a performance by alumni band the Jade ’50s, a crowd favorite.

The local band has deep ties to OPRF, forming in May of 1973, after lead singer Joe Cantafio was asked by his history teachers to perform a set of rock and roll songs for a 1950’s history lesson.

e band Jade ’50s per forms mid-century hits at OPRF High School’s Sesquicentennial Party on May 19.

years after it all started,” Cantafio, who went on to have a successful music career playing with various artists, said. “I have always been an Oak Park Huskie. I love my high school. I love my alma mater. I come back as often as I can to do concerts.”

Cantafio and his band “Jade” success, and after being featured in “The Chicago Daily News” Jade ’50s began performing across the Chicagoland area. They eventually were featured in Dick Clark’s live Rock and Roll Show at ChicagoFest. alma mater, 51

“Oak Park is always in my heart, I love this place,” he said.

Student activity groups were also present, handing out candy, stickers, and spreading the word on their org anization.

Aspira, an organization devoted to the education and leadership development of Latinx students, handed out candy.

Paola Campuzano, rising senior at OPRF, said it was important to have Hispanic culture and students re presented in the celebration.

“The whole point is to showcase the different clubs at our school,” Paola said. “I thought it was important for Aspira to be here, being one of the multicultural clubs at our school, to show that the Latinos here are making a space for themselves.”

Sophia Chave z, rising junior at OPRF, said being included in the celebration and part of the community is special to Aspira.

“We want to immerse ourselves and also generally share our culture and include others in our culture so they can be educated and just celebrate it,” Sophia said.

OPRF’s Healthy Youth Peer Educators club were also in attendance, entertaining kids and adults with a slime making station.

HYPE is a peer educator program that helps model a “healthy lifestyle” for students and raise awareness about the use of drugs and alcohol.

“We don’t want our peers to succumb to the pressures of what society is putting on them during their high school years, like weed and nicotine and alcohol,” said club member Caleb Bowman, rising senior.

At the celebration, Caleb said the club said they chose slime because it is a way to relieve stress, along with a fun activity for kids, which they get to take home.

Throughout the day, families took advantage of the bouncy houses and gave their future huskies a chance to be on campus.

Star Rebb, Oak Park resident, brought her eight-year-old daughter, a student at Hatch Elementary in D97, to the block party. Her son is a rising senior at OPRF, and she said she’s looking forward to her daughter attending the high school in the future.

“I think Oak Park in general is a very welcoming community,” she said. “Very diverse and you get to meet people from different backgrounds. It’s a nice place to raise your kids.”

OPRF will continue to celebrate its anniversary as the year continues. Students are still collecting service hours as they move closer to their goal of 150,000 hours of service before June 30, 2024. As of May 16, they were 35% of the way there, with 52,815 hours accounted for.

TODD BANNOR

TODD BANNOR

AMARIS E. RODRIGUEZ

Children wait in line for the bounce house.

Sta shortage forces

Co lin F ane, A gent

212 S Marion Street Fl G

OPPD to move o cers to patrol division

Oak Park, IL 60302

Bus: 708-383-3163

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Police also are working over time as sta is down nearly 30%

Monday & Friday 9am-5pm

unit will suffer as a result of this change, but it will be different.

Tue s/Wed/Thurs 9am-7pm

Saturday 9am-12pm

By LUZANE DRAUGHON Staff Reporter

Amid increasing staff shortages at the Oak Park Police Department, officers on the community policing unit are being temporarily reassigned to the patrol division.

During a May 7 presentation to the village board, Police Chief Shatonya Johnson told trustees the department was down 35 officers, an increase from early Februar y. Staffing levels on patrol, specifically, have continued to decrease, prompting this change.

On the community policing unit, a specific officer is assigned to a designated area, known as a beat, to respond to “quality of life issues,” Johnson said.

“[These officers are] the liaison between the police and the community,” she said. “They have a more intimate relationship with the residents within their beat, or designated area.”

Patrol officers, on the other hand, respond to all calls for service throughout the village, Johnson said.

Most officers on the community policing unit stay on their beat for a long time, Johnson said. But recently, officers have been working overtime to make up for the reduced staf f.

The community policing unit had foot patrol officers in the downtown Oak Park area and in the business district, as well as eight residential beat or neighborhood resource officers who patrolled in cars. Johnson said she does not think the community policing

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“The only time we make adjustments to beat assignments in community policing [is] if someone is reassigned out of that unit,” Johnson said. “They’re reassigned out of the unit because they got promoted or they went to a different assignment.”

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Instead of those officers patrolling specific beats, the community policing unit will now have a general number for residents or visitors to call for issues beat officers would have handled. Someone will respond to these calls, but there won’t be a specific person designated to respond, Johnson said.

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As a result of this reassignment, Johnson said she thinks the department will see a reduction in overtime hours that of ficers have been serving.

“It’s not to save money but it’s about officer fatigue and officer wellness,” she said.

While safety levels in Oak Park will be maintained, Johnson said, some community engagement activities will have to be reduced. For example, the annual weeklong youth basketball camp sponsored by the OPPD will not be happening this year

At the May 7 village board meeting, Johnson said she’s hoping to have around 95 officers by the end of 2024. The OPPD is budgeted for 118 of ficers. If the department can reach that goal, those temporarily reassigned to the patrol division may be able to move back to their beats on the community policing unit.

The OPPD is anticipating hiring more officers within the next four months, Johnson said, after background investigations can be complete. She said she’s hoping for at least 12 new of ficers.

“Safety hasn’t been compromised due to our staf f shortage,” she said. “We’re still keeping the community safe.”

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River Forest inks pact with solar energy rm

Village will anchor solar farm project in Will County

By ROBERT J. LIFKA Contributing Reporter

By becoming an anchor account for a forthcoming community solar project, River Forest not only strengthens the village’s commitment to alternate energy but also saves taxpayer dollars, village officials said.

At the May 13 Village Board meeting, officials voted unanimously to enter into a 20year contract with Nexamp Solar LLC of Chicago to become an anchor account for a solar farm planned for Monee in Will County, Ill. Nexamp officials describe their firm on its website as “the nation’s largest community solar company.”

In a memo to officials, Seth Jansen, management analyst, explained that switching the village’s four paid electricity accounts to Nexamp will result in projected savings of $180,000 over the course of the contract. The four paid electricity accounts are the water

pumping station, street lighting, alley lighting and Madison Street lighting. Because other village facilities’ electricity accounts are paid through the franchise fee levied upon residents, they are not eligible for the community solar program.

“Like the existing residential community solar program, the village, as a customer, will receive monthly net metering credits on the supply portion of the electric bills for their portion of the solar power generated each calendar month,” Jansen said in the memo. “This credit is the full amount of the kilowatt hours of electricity generated by the account’s associated portion of the solar farm and the rate per kilowatt hour is established and re gulated by the Illinois Commerce Commission.

“The community solar provider then bills the village for 90% of the net metering credits as the community solar subscription fee. This results in a 10% savings for the supply portion of the village’s electricity bills. This will result in projected savings of $180,536 over the course of the 20-year contract with Nexamp. Further, this contract will diversify the village’s portfolio of green energy and

promote the use of community solar.”

Trustee Katie Brennan questioned the process and expressed concern about the 90% figure.

However, Nathan Giebel, vice president, energy services with Satori Energy, the village’s energy consultant, who attended the meeting via Zoom, said the 10% savings is “guaranteed.”

In response to a question from village President Cathy Adduci about the village’s green energy aggregation program, Jansen explained that the electric aggregation program, through MC Squared Energy Services LLC of Chicago, is a separate program.

In the memo, he noted that residents can also subscribe to a community solar program, such as the program of fered through MC Squared, but added that to date, only 56 River Forest households have completed enrollment in the program, which also provides the same 10% savings on the supply portion of their bill.

Jansen explained that the process began in January after Satori officials indicated to village officials that there was space available for an anchor account at a forthcoming com-

munity solar project. Officials expressed interest and submitted information on the four paid electricity accounts.

In March, Nexamp approved the village as a potential anchor account and began negotiating a contract. The village Sustainability Commissioners, in particular Co-Chair Susan Charrette, were involved in the negotiations They and village staff members also met with Plan-It Green and Seven Generations Ahead, which had inquired about the process and how they can help assist other communities in replicating it.

Anchor accounts for community solar projects are long ter m contracts focused on accounts with high energy usage, Jansen said. Twenty years is standard for an anchor tenant, but some contracts are as long as 35 years. A large energy consuming customer is needed to get a solar farm online to ensure long-term usage of the facilities energy From there, residential subscribers are used to fill in the remaining space. Because these can cycle on and of f at any time, an anchor account levels out the fluctuations of those small usage accounts residential accounts

HARRIETTE ROBINET Bringing history alive

from page 1

I belie ve that any people’s story is ev ery people’s story and that from stories, we can all learn something to enrich our lives.

‘If You Please, President Lincoln’

Robinet’s story has deep roots. Her maternal great-grandfather, Thornton Gray, was an enslaved person, owned by Mary Custis Lee, wife of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, in Arlington, Virginia. Before he went off to fight in the Civil War, Lee freed his slaves and gave them plots of his land.

Over time, her parents built a life in Washington D.C., where she grew up in an all-Black neighborhood. Her mother, a seamstress, also worked at the Treasury Department. Her father, Richard A. Gillem Jr., was a geography and history teacher at the middle school Robinet attended. He attended Howard University Law School at night and passed the bar. Although he had many clients, he didn’t charge them and continued teaching.

After high school, Robinet wanted to get away from D.C., and, disappointing her mother who wanted her to attend a local all-Black school, she enrolled in the Colle ge of New Rochelle in New York, where she was the only Black student. No one wanted to be her roommate except for the one Chinese-American student, who

couldn’t find one either Robinet majored in biology and had the highest grade point average in her class but received no honors. Those were reserved for the students whose parents were donors to the school. She did, however, receive strong recommendations from her teachers. After earning a master’s degree in bacteriology at Catholic University, and later, a doctorate, she was hired as a biology teacher at Xavier University in New Orleans, where she also served as a house mother for a girls dormitory. The chaplain, Father Sullivan, at the behest of the dormitory students, played matchmaker, inviting Harriette and McLouis (Mac) Robinet, a physics teacher at the school, to an event at which they were the only attendees. By the end of the school year, they became engaged.

The couple married in 1960 and moved to Chicago, where Mac landed a physics teaching assistant job in the UIC Medical Center at the Colle ge of Pharmacy. They lived in a zero-bedroom staf f apar tment on campus. After Stephen was born in 1964 and Phillip arrived via adoption, it was time to find a bigger place.

Friends suggested they look for a home in Oak Park, but Oak Park didn’t want them. Or, at least, the local real estate industry didn’t want them at the time

I know what civil rights demonstrations meant for me. For a few years our family joined in vigils, in testing of realtors, and in weekly marches for fair housin g. We had the privile ge of marching in Chica go with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Taking part in

that nonviolent struggle established my selfrespect as an African American.

‘Walking to the Bus-Rider Blues’

To expose the industry’s racist practices, the Robinets joined the North Shore Project, which documented the unequal treatment accorded Black couples and white couples. African Americans in 1965 needed a white “straw buyer” or “nominee buyer” to purchase a home for them — someone white — an unavoidable subterfuge to work around unjust restrictions.

After two years, a Presbyterian minister and his wife, Don and Joyce Beisswenger, bought a house on the 200 block of South Elmwood and sold it to the Robinets.

As Robinet described it in her Redbook article, “On a hazy, uncertain afternoon in October, 1965, our family of four drove up to a spacious old house in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. We had lived in a small Chicago apar tment for five years, and the house looked like heaven. An avenue of elms and maples for med an arch of brilliant red and gold leaves. The fenced backyard would be a safe place for our boys to play in; large bay windows promised light and air; there was a real fireplace. And I could still plant some tulips before the first frost.”

T he house, she wrote, was seven miles from the Unive rsity of I llinois c ampus where her husband taught physic s. Many of his students and c olleagues live d in the village

“With its mellow atmosphere, its highly individual, well-ke pt old houses and its huge trees, Oak Park spelled h-o-m-e to us.

“But this wasn’t an ordinary moving day,” she wrote. “We are Ne groes. When a Ne gro family moves into an all-white suburb, it’s officially called a ‘move-in.’”

That day was the first time she entered her new house.

“The Illinois Commission on Human Relations suggests that neighbors not see the Ne gro family near the house before the actual moving day,” she added. “I hadn’t even been inside our new home yet. The moving must be fast and professional, done in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week — no weekend idlers nearby. And the white neighbors must be completely infor med before the move-in takes place.”

Redbook published her article in February 1968. It turned out to be one the mostread pieces in the series. She used some of the $500 she was paid to buy her first electric typewriter.

Their Oak Park neighbors were welcoming, but once they settled in, the Robinets took action, leading weekly marches down Lake Street to call attention to unethical housing practices. Those demonstrations paid off in May 1968 with passage of one of the nation’s earliest Fair Housing ordinances

Maybe freedom’s different things for different people. I think it be something small that grows like a seed planted. Every day, I feel a little more free.

‘Forty

Acres and Maybe a Mule’

PROVIDED

Harriette Robinet

e Robinet family on the front steps of their Oak Park home.

By then, the family had grown to five kids, four of them adopted, joined later by Linda, who was born in the early ’70s. Raising six children is not exactly conducive to the demands of being a novelist, but Robinet was determined and disciplined.

“My mother often wrote as we were doing homework,” Linda recalled. “She’d be writing at her desk in the dining room while a few of us would be working at the dining room table. She’d have her notebooks that she used for research in neat piles.”

She ke pt a strict routine of cleaning, cooking and shopping, dele gating chores to the kids as they grew old enough to take tasks on. T he re gimen bought her time to write.

One day in the early ’70s, a librarian at the Oak Park Public Library, told Robinet there was a great need for children’s books that featured characters with disabilities. I can do that, she thought.

Her first two books, Jay and the Marigold and Ride the Red Cycle, about children with disabilities, were inspired by her son, Jonathan, who has cerebral palsy

After that, she wrote nine more books for older kids, which her daughter Linda described as “multicultural historical fiction.” Each contained a character with

some kind of disability.

Linda a teacher, read her mother’s books to her students.

“My mother’s characters were never perfect, just like them. Her characters were brave and scared. Her characters were angry and loving. Her characters were disabled and differently abled. Her books are so powerful for children because they get to experience historical events through the eyes of the characters. My mother’s books gave them hope,” she said.

In her own life, Robinet practiced nonviolent resistance.

“If they came at her with contempt,” Linda said, “she returned kindness. … If I were to speculate about how she wove her own bio graphy into her stories, it was to come from a place of understanding.”

Robinet authored 11 books between 1976 to 2003, winning multiple honors, including the Friends of American Writers Award, the Carl Sandburg Award, Scott O’Dell Award for historical fiction for children and the Jane Addams Book Award Honor.

In 2023, the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame presented her the Fuller Award for Lifetime Achievement.

“Her generosity and grace, not to mention her fierce compassion and intelli-

gence, emanated from every stitch of her writing and her life,” Evans said. “You always hear that the author is not the work and the work is not the author, but in Harriette’s case it’s hard to make that distinction. She knew only kindness, sought only prosperity and peace, especially for those whose circumstances made that difficult.”

Robinet was a mother, yes, first and foremost, but she was also a scientist, a social justice activist, an organizer, a teacher, a good neighbor, a fine and courageous writer.

And, yes, a pioneer.

A longtime, active St. Edmund parishioner, Robinet was often seen walking handin-hand to Mass with her husband. On Saturday, June 8 at 11 a.m., a memorial Mass will be celebrated at St. Edmund, 188 S. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park, preceded by visitation at 10 a.m.

Harriette Robinet is survived by Mac, her husband of 64 years, and her children, Stephen, Philip, Rita, Jonathan and Linda. She was preceded in death by her daughter, Marsha.

Her body was donated to medical science through the Anatomical Gift Association of Illinois.

A bibliography

Harriette Robinet authored 11 books from 1976 to 2003:

Jay and the Marigold (1976)

Ride the Red Cycle (1980)

Children of the Fire (1991, Friends of American Writers Award winner)

Mississippi Chariot (1994)

If You Please, President Lincoln (1995)

Washington City is Burning (1995, Carl Sandburg Award winner)

The Twins, the Pirates, and the Battle of New Orleans (1997, Midland Authors Award winner)

Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule (1998, Scott O’Dell Award for historical fiction for children)

Walking to the Bus-Rider Blues (2001, Jane Addams Award Honor Book)

Missing from Haymarket Square (2001) Twelve Travelers, Twenty Horses (2003)

In lieu of flowers, donations to her favorite organizations: Community of Congregations, Oak Park River Forest Museum, PING! (Provide Musical Instruments for the Next Generation), and Housing Forward.

Oak Park considers user fee for electric vehicle charging stations

The proposal is a 25¢ per kilowatt-hour fee

By LUZANE DRAUGHON Staff Reporter

Electric vehicle users living in or driving through Oak Park may soon be paying a fee to use the village’s publicly-accessible electric vehicle charging stations.

The village board discussed a proposal May 14 to charge users a 25¢ per kilowatthour fee, the market rate, at these stations. There is now no fee for any of the 26 village-owned stations. Users only have to pay a fee for parking in the lot or garage, if applicable, but not for charging itself

According to village officials, more than 25% of greenhouse gas emissions in Oak Park are from cars and trucks. The Climate Ready Oak Park plan has the goal of reducing emissions by 60% by 2030 and reaching net-zero by 2050. Increasing access to electric vehicle charging stations for residents is one action the board could take to reach those goals.

The fee structure

To increase access to this infrastructure, there will be costs associated including for software, hardware, utility work and maintenance of facilities. These total annual expenses are estimated to be around $46,000. Village staf f proposed several options for a fee to users to cover those costs, and potentially have revenue left over.

Their recommendation was the 25¢ per kWh fee.

Average charging sessions in the village are two and a half hours and take 11.59 kWh. Staf f recommended the board implement a fee associated with the energy output rather than the time spent charging. This is because if two electric vehicles are plugged into the same unit, the energy output is shared. That means users could spend additional time charging and would be penalized for it with an hourly fee.

Two other options were proposed, a $0.15

per kWh fee or a $0.10 per kWh fe of these options would fully co of village maintenance or expansion of public electric vehicle charging stations.

In reviewing how peer communities approach fees for public charging stations, village Skokie charges $0.10 per kWh two hours. Then, an additional fee of $3 per hour after the first two hours is applied.

Trustee Brian Straw said he likes Skokie’s method because it charging sessions, allowing while still having a lower fee to incentivize residents to buy electric vehicles. Sean Keane, the village ’s parking and mobility service manager, pointed out that the parking fees users have to pay already encourage turnover at charging stations.

being “double charged.”

If desired, the board could also give residents a discount for charging through the ChargePoint app, with visitors paying the full amount.

Village staf f pointed out that a user fee at these stations will impact low- and moderate- income individuals more than others.

But Trustee Cory Wesley said he thinks the prices could be too low and would like to see Oak Park implement something like River Forest, which charges $10 per hour for using the station for more than two hours. It generally costs less to charge an electric vehicle than it does to fill up a car with gas, he said, as he estimated he pays about $40 to $57 per month to charge his.

“Let’s be a lot more aggressive with this,” Wesley said.

Trustee Susan Buc hanan said the equity issue is a concern for electric vehicle owners who are renters or live in multi-unit buildings. Homeowners can charge their vehicles through their own infrastructure, but renters don’t necessarily have that same option. Because it can take several hours to charge, she said she does not want to impose a time limit.

“If we try to maximize the amount of revenue we can generate from our EV charging stations, people just aren’t going to use them,” Straw said. “If we want to promote it [use of electric vehicles], we shouldn’t make it more expensive than market rate.”

Village President Vicki Scaman suggested reducing those renters’ parking permit fee if they have an electric vehicle, to avoid

“A lot of what we charge and what we decide to tax at the board table applies only to residents,” Trustee Lucia Robinson said. “This is an opportunity to spread that out between residents and non-residents.”

The village also plans to monitor how the fee will af fect usage of these stations.

Additional revenue

If the board moves forward with the staf f’s recommendation of 25¢ fee per kWh, the revenue generated is expected to cover expenses associated with electric vehicle station infrastructure and maintenance with about $14,000 left over. In the other proposed options, the village would run a deficit.

If the board pursues an option that would allow them to have money left over from this fee, they will then have to decide how to spend it. Village staf f’s recommendation is to dedicate that revenue to the sustainability fund. This option would allow the village to work toward other goals in Climate Ready Oak Park, though nothing specific was earmarked. It’s about future planning, Village Manager Kevin Jackson said.

“I don’t think we’re going to deplete the sustainability fund in the next nine months or year,” Jackson said.

Other options include dedicating addi-

tional revenue to the parking enterprise fund or splitting the revenue between both that and the sustainability fund

T he parking enterprise fund has a deficit due to capital improvement expenses and debt service obligations, according to village officials, associated with village parking lots and structures. T he village board expressed an interest in utilizing the additional revenue from the electric vehicle charging fee to cover that parking fund deficit.

T he parking fund incurred the cost of establishing electric vehicle charging stations and pays for the maintenance of garages, where some charging stations are housed, Robinson said, so it makes sense to recover those costs.

Straw and Buchanan, however, were in favor of having some or all that extra money go into the sustainability fund.

“I would like to see the surplus that we’re devoting to the sustainability fund be a little bit larger because I want it to be driving more sustainability initiatives,” Straw said. “The reason the parking fund is ne gative is because we give away a lot of free parking.”

Most of the village’s greenhouse gas emissions come from building s, so Buchanan said she wants additional revenue made through this user fee to help lower those emissions

The board did not vote on a decision yet and f uture co nversations about pricin g for electric vehicle c harging stations are expected

Community Foundation bolsters racial equity

By LUZANE DRAUGHON Staff Reporter

The Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation has announced a new investment partnership with Bivium Westfuller to help address systemic racial inequities

The new, outsourced chief investment officer will begin to manage the foundation’s $35 million investment portfolio June 1. An OCIO handles investment needs with expertise without being in-house, according to a statement from the foundation. The fir m will work with senior leadership to ensure the foundation’s investment goals are in line with its mission.

that everything we do, that we use a racial justice and equity lens,” Martinez said. “So that way, we can start making some really deep changes.”

According to the announcement, the foundation needs to address racial disparities for community members to prosper. To reach this goal, the foundation decided to partner with Bivium Westfuller, a Blackowned and -led financial services firm.

““Bivium Westfuller shares our values and our commitment to grow our charitable dollars by investing through a 100-percent racial justice and equity lens,” Martinez said in a news release

The foundation’s mission is to “unite community members to mobilize resources to advance a racially just society and equitable outcomes of Oak Park, River Forest and surrounding communities.”

The foundation, founded in 1959, is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization that provides grant opportunities, bolsters philanthropic efforts and manages access to scholarships. It’s a public charity, said Tony Martinez, Jr., the president and chief executive officer of the foundation.

T he spark for this change was to ensure every facet of the foundation was operating in a way that promotes racial j ustice, Martinez said, and Bivium Westfuller has experience in investing charitable d ollars in a way that reflects the foundation’s mission.

“We want our investments to be structured in a way that displays best practices in the field in terms of sustainability, in terms of responsible investing with special interest given to racial equity and justice,” he said. “We wanted to make sure that we walk the walk, so to speak.”

An example of the foundation’s work is in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Martinez said. During that time, the foundation was able to motivate donors to contribute to the rapid response and recovery fund, which in turn provided nonprofits and other organizations the dollars they needed to supply services to the community. Donors also benefitted by getting a tax credit

“The investments made by BWF on behalf of the Foundation will encourage publicly traded companies to end practices that har m communities of color and adopt practices that promote racial justice through shareholder pressure,” according to a news release.

Bivium Westfuller will invest in things such as companies, stocks or organizations that support racial equity work and are looking to end practices that harm communities of color, Martinez said. Ways they could determine this are by having companies disclose the racial makeup of their staff or having a racial equity audit

“Knowing that our communities are diverse in every facet, we wanted to make sure

Bivium Capital has been managing investors for 22 years and Westfuller is one of the biggest Black-, woman- and LGBTQ-owned wealth management and investment advisory firms in the United States, according to the news release

“By investing consciously with a racial equity lens, we are building wealth within communities of color, and therefore hopefully preventing the very symptoms of poverty and injustice that we address with our grantmaking,” Martinez said in the release.

The fir m has experience leading philanthropic institutions, according to the announcement, including the New York Foundation.

Bivium Westfuller was chosen after a request for proposals and vetting process.

“We look forward to working in collaboration with the Foundation to deploy resources that advance equitable outcomes for residents within its communities,” said Ian Fuller, the chief executive officer of Westfuller and co-head of Bivium Westfuller

Join us in celebrating two decades of authentic homemade Mexican cuisine and heartfelt hospitality in the heart of the Berwyn community! From our humble beginnings as a small, four-table establishment, La Lupita has grown into a beloved local icon, renowned for our dedication to delicious, authentic dishes. Lupita and her three kids are immensely proud of this incredible journey and grateful to all our patrons

Loving school so much they spent the night there

Washington Irving School students hold their annual sleepover

More than 300 Irving School students camped out last weekend as part of the annual Irving Sleepover, an event that started in 1998.

From 7 p.m. Friday night through Saturday at 8 a.m., the students played outside and participated in night-time activities inside, such as playing in the gym, or sand art, spin art, airbrush tattoos, board games and Lego. A DJ – building engineer Frank DiPaolo – dropped tunes for ambiance. The students slept in classrooms, the library and the gym with parent and staff chaperones.

“I loved that my mom could come and help chaperone and we could be there together with lots of choices of fun activities,” said third-grader Carys Draper

Gagliardo Group, which includes 4 generations of realtors, has over 20 licensed realtors, who are highly recognized and respected in the Oak Park, River Forest and greater Chicagoland area. They are among the most knowledgeable real estate agents in the

Gagliardo Group, which includes 4 generations of realtors, has over 20 licensed realtors, who are highly recognized and respected in the Oak Park, River Forest and greater Chicagoland area. They are among the most knowledgeable real estate agents in the field with personal roots

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PHOTO S BY TINA HARLE

History, up close and personal

GCM’s Lourdes Nicholls shares poignant stories about life as a Japanese American

Who in Oak Park doesn’t know – and love – Lourdes Nicholls? But how many of you have heard the GCM senior media strategist’s personal history?

Last weekend at the River Forest Library, Nicholls, a longtime advocate for Asian-American issues, shared her family’s story of intergenerational trauma in honor of Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Heritage Month. Her mother was born in Manzanar, California, one of 10 camps where the United States Government incarcerated more than 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. Lourdes’ grandfather, Kiyotsugu Tsuchiya, who was the curator of the Harding Museum in Hyde Park from 1923-1940, was asked to start the Visual Education Museum for incarcerees at Manzanar. Lourdes’ family is the subject of an upcoming documentary “Belonging in the U.S.A: The Story of the Tsuchiya Family.”

Missed her? She speaks again at 10 a.m., Saturday, Dec. 7 at the Hyde Park Historical Society at 5529 S La ke Park Ave.

Parking Lo 10 under constructio

The popular lot is expecte to reopen later this summer

By LUZANE DRAUGHON Staff Reporter

Residents who frequent Lot 10, the popular parking lot on North Boulevard between Marion Street and Forest Avenue in downtown Oak Park’s business district, can expect construction this spring.

The sidewalk will be re placed along the north of the parking lot. Then, the lot will be closed for four to six weeks while crews install water permeable brick pavers, according to the village newsletter, which is part of green infrastructure upgrades.

Lot 10 will have a new traffic pattern when the construction is complete, which officials estimate will be this summer before special events in August and September. Cars will enter on Forest Avenue and go west to Marion Street.

The lot will also have angled parking for more sidewalk space, according to the village, which will allow for more outdoor dining space in the summer, too.

This construction project also includes resurfacing North Boulevard between Marion Street and Forest Avenue.

TODD BANNOR

Lourdes Nicholls gives a presentation on her family’s experiences dur ing the World War II incarceration of Americans of Japanese descent at the River Forest Public Library May 19.

JAVIER GOVEA

‘Warriors’ share what Lupus Awareness Mont means to them

It’s a time to raise awareness, tell stories and advocate for funding

By LUZANE DRAUGHON Staff Reporter

Kirsten Williams was diagnosed with lupus in June 2016 after a misdiagnosis that led to a stay in a mental health hospital compelled her family to take her to a RUSH hospital in Chicago.

“Lupus has changed my life,” she said. “Every year, it’s something new. Either that’s a new diagnosis, or a new symptom. Every year, it’s different.”

May is Lupus Awareness Month with May 10 singled out as World Lupus Day. During this month, “lupus warriors” and advocacy groups work to raise awareness and educate the public about this autoimmune disease, said LaShon Gurrola, an Oak Park resident who was diagnosed with lupus in 2011.

“Anytime you have a disease or illness that there is no cure, and people still do not know what it is, then that’s a problem,” Gurrola said. “When you have people who know what it is, then you can draw them as supporters.”

Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease that can cause inflammation and pain throughout the body. It is often difficult to diagnosis because symptoms tend to mimic other disorders. Misdiagnosis is common — both Gurrola and Kirsten Williams were misdiagnosed before understanding they had lupus.

Anyone can develop lupus, but 90% are women between ages 15 and 44 and it is two to three times more likely in women of color, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Often times you’re not believed with your symptoms,” Gurrola said. “At first they might think it’s more of a ps ychological problem … Half the battle is convincing [medical professionals] that your symptoms are true to what you’ re saying.” Kirsten Williams, for instance, was mis-

diagnosed with schizophrenia prior to her lupus diagnosis. At RUSH, doctors discovered through blood work that she had CNS lupus, which attacks the central nervous system. She also has SLE, or systemic lupus erythematosus, the most common type, and lupus nephritis, which affects the kidneys. She deals with chronic migr joint pain and fractures. She’s had a stroke and has had to go on dialysis.

“I just persevere through it,” she said. “I can’t just sit around and mope around. I have to keep busy.”

After she was well enough, Kirsten Williams decided to attend Northeastern Illinois University, which became her outlet to cope with lupus and the pain she faces. She graduated in May 2024 with a master’s de gree in social work, and wants to work with people who have disabilities or are experiencing homelessness, she said.

Kirsten Williams experienced homelessness herself because of a lack of a support system and stable housing. But a social worker at RUSH helped her find housing and get set up with a housing voucher.

Although May is a good time to network with other lupus survivors and share stories, as well as advocating for what the lupus community needs, including funding and medical research, it’s not the only time to do so. They try to advocate year-round, Kirsten Williams said. Gurrola, for example, runs a support group with about 40 members who meet once a month, including Kirsten Williams.

In raising awareness, Kirsten Williams said one of her biggest goals is to advocate for those with lupus who struggle to secure housing and stable finances. Individuals with lupus are often not able to work, she said, and need resources.

“I’m so grateful to have completed my de gree in social work, where I can add to advocating for these things, for people with chronic conditions,” she said.

In September of each year, there’s a walk for lupus hosted by the Lupus Society of Illinois in Chicago. In August, it’ll be in the western suburbs. Gurrola, a nurse practitioner and lupus liaison at RUSH

University Medical Center, said she leads the RUSH team and her friends and family participate, too. The Lupus Foundation of America also hosts a walk in September.

Gamma Pi Rho Lupus Sorority, Inc., a non-collegiate sorority for adult women who have lupus, typically hosts a virtual walk to raise awareness for lupus in May, too, Gurrola said.

On May 3, Gurrola helped org anize a Lupus Awareness Jazz Concert at First Baptist Church of Oak Park. Dion Langley, a man who was diagnosed with lupus in 2010, played the drums at the event.

“It was amazing,” she said. “People loved it and they’ re asking for it annual.”

About 66 individuals attended the event, Gurrola said, including friends and coworkers. During the concert, Gurrola and Langley spoke about their experiences with lupus with a professional from LSI fielding questions

On May 1, Gurrola served on a panel for University of Chicago Medicine and Comer Children’s Hospital along with LaVita Williams, another woman who has lupus, and others. She and Kirsten Williams are not related. The panel was geared toward kids with lupus, Gurrola said, and their parents.

“[The panel gave] parents an idea of how their child will age with lupus and how lupus doesn’t win,” she said.

Gurrola also spoke on May 4 in Milwaukee at the “Lupus Has No Face” event about lupus advocacy and selfcare. One way she practices selfcare is with music therapy, which she said is calming and can help take one’s

mind off perception of pain levels.

LaVita Williams, like Gur rola, now hosts a support group in Zion. She was diagnosed with lupus in 2009 and previously attended Gur rola’s support group. She started her own so people living on the north side of Chicago would not have as far to travel for support

“You c an be more than j ust your diagnosi s, ” La Vi ta Wi lliams said. “Sometimes you need somewhere to talk or to let out your frustration or to talk to p eople wh o understand wh at you’ re going through.”

Lupus Awareness Month is a good time to help people understand what lupus is, LaVita Williams said. She and her friends and family often share social media posts and wear purple, the color associated with lupus awareness, during May.

“There’s no cure [for lupus],” she said. “We want to have people donate to any type of lupus research, donate to any foundations that help raise money to fund research to find a cure.”

From May 19 to May 22, LaVita Williams is attending a summit for lupus in Washinton, D.C., organized by the Lupus Foundation of America. During the summit, she’ll talk with state re presentatives about her story with lupus and about funding for lupus research. She’ll also attend a panel made up of healthcare professionals discussing new treatments and discoveries in the field.

“Yes, lupus is ugly,” Kirsten Williams said. “But when you’re focused and you have the right support, you can get through it.”

COURTESY OF LASHON GURROLA

e Lupus Awareness Jazz Concert, on May 3 at First Baptist Church of Oak Park.

They’re back: 17-year cicadas return from underground

This brood will be emerging through early June

By LUZANE DRAUGHON Staff Reporter

Some cicadas come every summer, announcing their arrival with a high-pitched hum during Fourth of July parades, backyard barbecues and late-night bonfires

This year, Brood XIII, a species of cicadas that only appear every 17 years, are returning to Oak Park and other communities in northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin and northwest Indiana this spring.

These cicadas live underground until their 17-year cycle is up. Many will crawl out from underground around May and early June, when the soil is 64 degrees at a depth of 8 inches. They’ ll be around for about four to six weeks

Scientists don’t know how these cicadas know when 17 years are up. But the theory is that they have an internal clock that tracks the life cycle and chemical changes of tree roots around them, according to The Morton Arboretum.

Cicadas that emerge yearly normally come out in late July and August. Periodic cicadas have a black body, orange or red wings and red eyes, according to The Morton Arboretum.

In forested areas, there will be about 1.5 million of these cicadas per acre, according to The Morton Arboretum. Oak Park will likely have less since it’s a more developed and populated area. New construction since 2007, the last emergence of periodic cicadas, could have disrupted the soil, too

Most of these cicadas will only fly, at most, a half of a mile in their lifetime, said Grant Jones, the village’s forestry superintendent. That means their odds of coming from forested areas or other communities to Oak Park are low.

Jones said when speaking with residents who lived here the last time these cicadas emerged 17 years ago, they said Oak Park definitely had less emerge than in neighboring communities

Cicadas are not harmful to humans as they don’t bite or sting. But they can produce a lot of noise residents are likely to notice this spring. This sound is male cicadas’ mating call to attract female partners.

“A lot of people are paying attention and kind of curious about cicadas,” Jones said.

“People are usually not used to them being around.”

These insects won’t chow down on trees, but they will drill into smaller branches to lay eggs and continue their legacy. This, unfortunately, can cause small branches to break of f or die, Jones said. Trees with a trunk less than two inches in diameter and few branches are likely at the most risk.

“Their main purpose is to reproduce and get the next generation going,” Jones said.

These cicadas typically lay eggs in oak, maple, hickory, apple, birch, dogwood, linden, willow, elm, ginkgo and pear trees, according to The Morton Arboretum. They may also lay eggs in shrubs.

The Oak Park parkways have a total of more than 18,000 trees, Jones said. These trees are mostly larger than cicadas can damage. Tips of branches could be affected, but the trunks are generally too large, Jones said.

Residents worried about protecting their trees can protect it with mesh netting to prevent cicadas from drilling into their plants. The netting should have holes no larger than a fourth of an inch, Jones said. This type of netting can be found at hardware stores

Some tree owners even use tulle to protect their plants, Jones said. Openings can be secured with staples, string or zip ties

“If your little finger fits through a hole, it’s big enough to admit a cicada,” according to The Morton Arboretum.

Sprays or insecticides won’t have an impact on cicadas, either. Exclusion through

netting is the best way to keep plants healthy from cicadas, Jones said. But cicadas aren’t the only thing that can potentially damage plants

“As we get into the heat and often times, dryness, of the summer, that’s another good time to make sure that you’re watering your plants properly just to keep them healthy,” he said. “That way, if there is any damage, they’re not also being stressed by a lack of moisture.”

Others might want to wait to plant smaller trees until the cicadas are gone again.

When removing netting, residents should be sure to do so carefully, Jones said. Branches and leaves can get intertwined and damaged easily during this process

One common question, Jones said, is if pets eating cicadas could be dangerous. Cicadas are not harmful or toxic to pets, he said, but if a pet eats too many, they might get a stomachache.

After the cicadas mate and lay eggs, they will die. According to The Morton Arboretum, “there will be dead cicadas everywhere,” so residents can expect to see them walking or driving around. As they decay, there may be an odor

HOMES IS TAKING A BREAK

Hard news reporting starts at street level

When Oak Park reporter Luzane Draughon reviewed publicly available data showing Oak Park police disproportionately stopping Black drivers, Wednesday Journal told the story.

Her analytical reporting highlighted an important issue. And the Village of Oak Park Police Oversight Committee requested an investigation into police practices.

Local reporting. Authentic. Factbased. Close to home.

The kind you can only get with Wednesday Journal.

Help keep this reporting going.

WEDNESDAY

Luzane Draughon, Wednesday Journal reporter

Author Joe Janes is living the dream … and failing miserably

At least in his new play, which is headed to Oak Park

By JACK HELBIG Contributing Reporter

Failure is funny. If a comic character falls, we laugh. If the same character gets up, and falls again, we laugh louder and longer. That principle is behind Chicago writer Joe Janes’ latest comedy, a four-person play titled “Meet the Author.”

“The play is about a guy who dreams of being a bestselling author.” James tells me, adding that this guy, Casey Stumpner, is kind of a loser – he has written a lot of online novels, all of them bad, none of them published.

His latest is a lousy spy thriller in which Stumpner attempts to be the next “Ian Fleming, John le Carré, Tom Clancy.” The book is called “Pig in a Blanket of Danger” and, like all of the previous novels, it is not very good.

Still, Stumpner decides to take “all the money he has in the world and gets his latest book printed up.” He puts together a book tour, and, after a long search, he finds “this independent bookstore in the middle of nowhere where they said, “Yes, come here, do your book launch.””

Janes’ play is about the book signing, and all the things that go wrong during it.

“He’s living the dream — and failing miserably,” Janes quipped.

Not a bad premise for a comedy. But Janes goes one ste p fur ther

“The best set that I could possibly have for this play would look like a bookstore,” Janes said. So why not stage it in an actual bookstore?

He and his collaborator, director Andrea Dymond, are doing just that. The show premiered May 16 at Tangible Books in Chicago. It is being performed May 22 in Oak Park at The Looking Glass at 823 S. Oak Park Ave.

Inner Casey Stumpner

Writing has always been a thing for Janes. “Even as a kid, I would do a lot of writing. I think it was, oh, in the fourth grade I did a sketch review for my class,” he recalled. “I stole from Hee-haw and Stan Freeberg. And then in fifth grade, I had a teacher, Mrs. Kendall, who, God bless her, always assigned us to write short stories. Like we were always writing short stories. And she would always ask me to read mine to the class. So, in school I got known as the guy like, ‘hey, we gotta do a presentation, let’s get Joe to write it, you know?’”

Janes also knows the world of self-publishing. He has self-published three collections of plays, “365 Sketches,” “50 Plays,” and “Seven Deadly Plays” which can be found on Lulu.com And, like all writers, Janes knows what it’s like to create a work and wonder how it will be received, hoping for the best, expecting the worst. Every writer has

his or her own inner Casey Stumpner.

Unlike Stumpner, his unlucky alter ego, Janes has earned his place as a writer and performer in the Chicago’s comedy scene, and has been since the late 80s, when he moved here from Ohio to pursue a career in comedy. The move turned out to be a good one; Janes found his niche in Chicago comedy. He has directed for Second City, where he still teaches comedy writing and improv. He has written for SNL’s “Weekend Update,” and for Jellyvision’s “You Don’t Know Jack.” He has also produced a host of plays produced at the small theater he helped create, WNEP.

More recently Janes and Dymond have turned their sites on the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. Star ting in 2016, they have occasionally taken one of Janes’ plays to the Festival. Last summer, for example, they took Janes’ parody of the Scottish Play, “Macbeth by the Sea.”

The reception was positive enough that Janes and Dymond plan to return to the fest in 2025 with a sequel, “Macbeth in Space.” It was while Janes was writing “Macbeth in Space” that he came up with the idea for “Meet the Author.”

“I had a little downtime after finishing the first draft of [‘’Macbeth in Space”] and I just started writing this one,” he said.

The play was an elaboration of an idea Janes had explored in one of the pieces in Janes’ 2011 collection of short plays, “365 Sketches.”

“[That sketch] was about somebody who works at a Borders bookstore,” he said. “And on a day that they think their manager is not there they go ahead and do an unofficial book signing [of their own self-published book] because they want desperately to be a famous author and then the sketch is about them getting busted.”

Andrea Dymond said cannot remember exactly when Janes first mentioned the idea of staging his latest play in a book. Or when he showed her the first draft.

“He usually just says, ‘hey I’m writing this thing’ and then when he has a draft, he asks if I want to take a look and have a chat about it.”

Dymond is clear, though, that whenever he first starts talking about the project, she is all in. She always enjoys working with Janes. And this particular project, in which Janes plays the failed writer he ridicules, has been a particular treat.

“It’s great fun,” she said. “We laugh a lot. Joe is very open as both a writer and an actor to notes and clarification of his intentions. He doesn’t hold much as precious and we’ve developed a good give and take. We have a lot in common, I think. In addition to truly loving peaty scotch, we have a similar approach, which may be generational, to just getting the work done, whatever that may take.”

“‘Go before you’re ready.’ I can’t remember where that comes from, but we do it and it’s a thrill-ride.”

If you can t

Steve Kirshenbaum, owner of The Looking Glass, said he knows exactly when he first heard about Janes’ project.

“Janes sent out an email to a lot of bookstores in the Chicago area,” Kirshenbaum said.

He added that he liked Janes’s query, and responded that Janes should come in and see if his hole-in-the-wall bookstore fit his needs.

“I told him I only have seven chairs,” he said.

Still, Kirshenbaum said that re gularly hosts book signings and readings. Among the authors Kirchenbaum has hosted in the past: mystery writer Thomas J. Thorson and educator and author David Schaafsma.

“It’s a way to get new and different people into the store,” he said.

When Janes visited The Looking Glass, he said he was not daunted by how cozy the space is.

“Steve was so enthusiastic that I was like, oh, I can’t tur n this guy down. He said we could use the table, or I have a folding table that we’re always going to bring and we’ ll do whatever makes sense. The way, we’ ll set it up is in the back of the room with a little curtain for characters entering and exiting; it’ll be small. He said it could seat about seven. And anybody else who can stand is welcome to. But you know, it’s a short show. It’s 40 minutes. I think it’ll be fun.”

Where to see ‘Meet the Author’

5/22/24 - The Looking Glass Books (Oak Park)

5/23/24 - Unchartered Books (Andersonville)

5/29/24 - Women and Children First (Andersonville)

5/30/24 - Book Cellar Inc. (Lincoln Square)

6/06/24 - Mad Street Books (West Loop)

6/12/24 - Kibbitz Nest (Lincoln Park)

6/14/24 - Tangible Books (Bridgeport)

CREDIT: JOEJANES.NET

Joe Janes

ktrainor@wjinc.com 24 Wednesday Journal, May 22, 2024

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS FRIDAY 5 P.M.

Call Viewpoints editor

Ken Trainor at 613-3310

Ae secret to Parky’s awesome fries

sunny Sunday afternoon was the right time to have my first hot dog of the season at Parky’s on Harlem.

Setting up at a picnic table, I was eating for a few minutes before I realized I hadn’t touched the hot dog. I like Parky’s hot dogs, but their fries are so stratospherically fantastic that for the first few minutes of lunch, I had eyes only for those glistening straight-cut potatoes

HAMMOND

Local Dining & Food Blogger

There are several reasons that account for the excellence of Parky’s fries. As at other classic places like Gene & Jude’s on River Road, Parky’s cuts their fries by hand, and they leave on the skins, which add texture and flavor. Their potatoes are not delivered frozen, as they are at many quick-service restaurants, and so Parky’s has a fresher tasting fry.

But the main reason Parky’s fries are so ood is that they’re fried in beef fat, which yields a crisper fry and deeper flavor

McDonald’s used to cook their “world famous” fries in a mixture of vegetable oil and beef fat (also called tallow or suet). In the mid-’80s, McDonald’s was facing heat for serving unhealthy food, and the beef fat in the fries was just one of the targets for organizations like the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a watchdog group that pressured McDonald’s to serve healthier food.

McDonald’s hired me to respond to such threats with an ingredients booklet that would detail every ingredient in every McDonald’s product. In writing this first McDonald’s ingredient listing, I discovered that they were putting beef fat in their cookies as well, which I agree sounds kind of gross, but the best pies contain pork fat (leaf lard in the crust), so really what’s the big deal? And beef fat adds flavor

Ironically, when McDonald’s bowed to pressure and stopped using beef fat, they started using trans-fats, which were found to be perhaps even more injurious to one’s health than beef fat. And the fries, though still a big seller, didn’t seem to taste as good

I spoke to guys at Carnivore (because who knows beef better?) and was told that they used to fry potatoes in beef fat, but they got pushback from customers who, for dietary and religious reasons, don’t consume beef. In addition, apparently beef fat frying solution needs to be changed out twice as frequently as vegetable oil, which is an extra expense and a task that sounds very messy and unpleasant. Still, if you like to fry in beef fat, Carnivore keeps some tubs of the stuff on hand just for you.

Of course, I’m a fan of Parky’s hot dogs as well, even though they lack the traditional poppy seed bun and two of the Magnificent Seven condiments of the classic Chicago dog: they have the mustard, bluegreen relish, sport peppers, chopped onions and tomatoes, though they lack a pickle spear and celery salt.

Still, it’s a good hot dog … though I must give highest praise to Parky’s marvelous fries.

David Hammond writes regularly for Oak Park Eats at oakpark.com.

VIEWPOINTS

Adding Oak Park’s voice

Since April 9, hundreds of your Oak Park neighbors have urged the Oak Park Village Board to pass a resolution supporting a per manent ceasefire in Gaza. This would create the necessary conditions for vital humanitarian aid to reach the besieged, suffering people of Gaza and for the hostages to be released.

We are asking the board to bring the process of building community support to fruition by putting a resolution on its June 4 agenda. We are notifying them in writing of this request.

We are also asking Oak Park residents to support a ceasefire resolution by sending an email to trustees: board@oak-park.us. Please speak from your heart and personal experience.

Since April 9, fellow residents have spoken at board meetings and met with trustees and village staff. We have met with some residents who opposed our proposed ceasefire resolution to determine what, if any, common ground exists. Unfortunately, no suggestions have been forthcoming

We are still adding to the hundreds of community signatures at https://www.change.org/OakParkCeasefireResolution (please sign if you haven’t already). Ken Trainor in the Wednesday Journal has called on the trustees to support some form of a

statement: “There is something to be said for the Oak Park community making a public declaration on an issue of moral import. There are precedents for starting such groundswells — voice by voice, butterfly wing to hurricane” (1). As you write your letters in support of this issue, you may want to respond to one of the objections trustees have heard, including:

■ They should not be spending any time on this issue: More than 203 municipalities in the U.S. beg to differ. These community gover nments have discussed resolutions and 75% have passed them (2) Our community members have been models of civic engagement with our federal officials — doing all the necessary emails, phone calls, and visits to their offices. We need our village board to amplify our message to them.

■ This situation is an international issue, not of any relevance to other gover nmental bodies: We don’t think that objection can be selectively applied. Municipalities took positions against apartheid in South Africa and the Iraq War. When Russia invaded Ukraine, Illinois officials, including state Senator Har mon and Gover nor Pritzker took both a public stand and action against it (3). Since it is American

ERICA BENSON

OUR VIEWS

Oak Park’s cop shortage

Oak Parkers love their beat cops. Whether it’s a neighborhood beat cop available and ready to stop by and hear a neighbor’s concer n or a business district foot patrol officer who over years becomes known to both business owners and shoppers, this is an intimate, connected version of community policing that is real and works.

So while we understand the short-ter m necessity of redeploying these officers into squad cars to take over patrol shifts, we take Chief Shatonya Johnson at her word that this change will be temporary.

This was necessitated by what has become the department’s nowchronic but still accelerating shortage of swor n officers. Wednesday Jour nal has been following this story over time and our questions continue. As of this moment, Oak Park’s force which is budgeted to have 118 swor n officers is down 35 cops. That is 30% fewer officers than fair minded people have decided are necessary.

We understand that, since the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers, and complicated by the pandemic, departments across America have faced dual challenges of retaining officers and recruiting new ones. But other departments, including some in our vicinity, have rebounded and refilled their ranks. Some have made policy changes regarding required schooling and have been open to accepting mid-career lateral moves.

We understand that officers who have put in their time might choose in this complex moment to exit on the generous terms of a police retirement. We believe the village needs to better understand the reasons a good number of our officers have simply decamped to another police department.

Chief Johnson’s goal is to add a dozen new officers by the end of 2024. That seems ambitious but necessary. She says that, with the reassignments of officers and considerable overtime, the department continues to keep Oak Park safe.

Perhaps by some direct measures that is still true. But by the definition Oak Park has arrived at re garding public safety — true eng agement, better listening, simple presence — this department needs a full contingent of officers.

ings we like

Oak Park and River Forest High School is winding down its celebration of 150 years of service. Sunday’s all-community Block Party was a proper party with music (Jade ’50s!), food, bounce houses, and a lot of enthusiasm among so many students making their mark on our community high school right now.

We have, over time, had our criticisms of this school. For these complex communities though, we believe OPRF has never been better, more attuned, more willing to acknowledge its shortcomings and to take risks to thrive.

River Forest has become a small village leader on issues of climate. Right now it is taking in the ambitious recommendations on climate from a partnership with the Urban Studies graduate program at UIC. Another positive step to facing climate change in our community.

And finally, our simple thanks and caring respect to Harriette Robinet on her death. A quiet icon of activism and uplift, Mrs. Robinet was the best of Oak Park

When life overwhelms, practice denial !

An invasion of red-eyed monster insects buried for over a decade and a half, climbing out of the dirt and into our trees?

Nonsense! Bugwash! Sleepyheads sucking on tree roots? The Rip Van Winkles of the insect world? With an internal alar m clock set for exactly 17 years? Preposterous!

I was around in 2007 … and 1990 … and 1973 … even 1956. I don’t remember being invaded by any buzzing brood

If you agree, then join our ranks — proud, free-thinking cicada-deniers. Let everyone else get lathered up over the Cicada-pocalypse. We know fake news when we see it, and we know the likely perpetrator: The guvamint is behind this. By “we” I mean denial support groups springing up all over this great land of ours.

TRAINOR

You and Me, Cicada Free. It’s 1999 all over again. I’m OK, You’re Y2K. Nothing happened, right?

This is just another guvamint (or commie) plot to control us and keep us cowering inside, instead of enjoying the free, fresh, God-given, All-American air. What a story they cooked up! Red-eyed prehistoric insects, like something out of a B (as in bug) horror movie. Millions of creepy crawlers, incubating for 17 years (a prime number, no less), making a dramatic entrance and enough noise to drown out our AllAmerican leafblowers, which are protected by the Almighty Second Amendment. Is that even believable?

We here at Cicada Deniers believe the racket is easily explained: it comes from tiny speakers, installed by the guvamint in all our trees to keep us off balance and out of focus.

That’s far more believable than people covering their young trees with wedding veils, making them look more like blushing brides ready for church Someone is getting rich on that idea. Probably the guvamint. Reminds us of that phony baloney COVID, war ning us to cover our All-American mouths with masks, messing with our free speech, and trying to scare us into getting vaccinated. Mind control. Just watch, they’ll be announcing a cicada vaccine any day now.

After hibernating for 17 years, these critters allegedly crawl out of God’s good earth and within 10 minutes they’re swallowed by hungry sparrows What kind of life is that? Is that what the Bible meant by taking care of the sparrows in the field? This makes a mockery of God’s beautiful plan for creation. How could the Supreme Being possibly create something as ugly as a cicada? It could only spring from the twisted imaginations of secular atheists. If birds were feasting on these monsters, we’d surely find them lying on their backs and groaning, “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing!”

Non-deniers say, what about all those images in the media? We say, artificial intelligence! Funded by the guvamint! Suspicious, isn’t it, that all this should occur right after the so-called “COVID” pandemic. We believe COVID stands for Cicadas’ Outrageous Virtual Insect Deployment, a covert guvamint operation. Probably code for the next phase of the Great Mind Control experiment.

Next thing you know we’ll be inundated with video games and movies about insecticidal maniacs taking over the world, fanning the flames of our fears. In fact, as I write this in one of our cicadafree parks, three black helicopters just flew past. No kidding. They’re probably overseeing the distribution and installation of mechanical devices, dropping them into trees, designed to look like cicadas, powerful noise-making speakers inside, programmed with subliminal messages. Who knows what they might be telling us to do “Vote Democratic. Don’t vote for RFK Jr. He has a worm hole in his brain.”

This sort of thing has been going on a long time. It started with iodine in our salt, then fluoride in our water, then vaccines, then artificial sweeteners polluting our precious bodily fluids, then signals from outer space filtering through the fillings in our teeth, then communism, then Mr Rogers and Sesame Street brainwashing our youth, then the internet, then Black Lives Matter, then mail-in voting Cicadas are our latest worm hole. Next thing you know, they’ll be trying to convince us that people actually walked on the moon!

Cicadas are the new celebrities. They’re sexier than Taylor Swift. Nature in general is becoming “The Show.” Total eclipses, northern lights, and now the Cicada Invasion. It’s bigger than the Beatles Invasion. But nature also brings wildfires, drought, floods, tornadoes and hurricanes. And now, coming to a theater near you, Pestilence! Who knows how long the cicada craze will last? But as we in the Denial Movement like to say, “When life overwhelms, deny!”

You say cicaydas, I say cicahdas, let’s call the whole thing off.

That’s what we do in our free-thinker cicada-denier support groups. We’re really good at it. We practice by denying each other until we end up alone in the room.

You may say we’re contrarians, but we’re not the only ones. Someday you’ll join us and the world will be cicada-free. Pay no attention to those bugs behind the bushes. Human denial is the greatest force in the universe — or would be if we believed in the universe. Denial is how people can wear shorts on a 20-degree day!

Denial has worked with climate change.

So far, so good

WEDNESD AY

JOURNAL

of Oak Park and River Forest

Editor Erika Hobbs

Digital Manager Stacy Coleman

Sta Repor ter Amaris E. Rodriguez, Luzane Draughon

Viewpoints Editor Ken Trainor

Real Estate Editor Lacey Sikora

Digital Media Coordinator Brooke Duncan

Columnists Marc Bleso , Jack Crowe, Doug Deuchler, Mary Kay O’Grady, Kwame Salter, John Stanger

Shrubtown Cartoonist Marc Stopeck

Design/Production Manager Andrew Mead

Editorial Design Manager Javier Govea

Designers Susan McKelvey, Vanessa Garza

Marketing Representatives Lourdes Nicholls, Ben Stumpe

Business & Development Manager Mary Ellen Nelligan

Circulation Manager Jill Wagner E-MAIL jill@oakpark.com

Special Projects Manager Susan Walker

Chairman Emeritus Robert K. Downs

Publisher Dan Haley

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Chair Judy Gre n Treasurer Nile Wendorf Deb Abrahamson, Gary Collins, Steve Edwards Darnell Shields, Sheila Solomon, Eric Weinheimer

About Viewpoints

Our mission is to lead educated conversation about the people, government, schools, businesses and culture of Oak Park and River Forest. As we share the consensus of Wednesday Journal’s editorial board on local matters, we hope our voice will help focus your thinking and, when need be, re you to action.

In a healthy conversation about community concerns, your voice is also vital. We welcome your views, on any topic of community interest, as essays and as letters to the editor. Noted here are our stipulations for ling.

Please understand our veri cation process and circumstances that would lead us not to print a letter or essay. We will call to check that what we received with your signature is something you sent. If we can’t make that veri cation, we will not print what was sent. When, in addition to opinion, a letter or essay includes information presented as fact, we will check the reference. If we cannot con rm a detail, we may not print the letter or essay.

If you have questions, email Viewpoints editor Ken Trainor at ktrainor@wjinc.com.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

■ 250-word limit

■ Must include rst and last names, municipality in which you live, phone number (for veri cation only)

‘ONE VIEW’ ESSAY

■ 500-word limit

■ One-sentence footnote about yourself, your connection to the topic

■ Signature details as at left

Email Ken Trainor at ktrainor@wjinc.com or mail to Wednesday Journal, Viewpoints, 141 S. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park, IL 60302

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A one-year subscription costs $52 within Cook County and $72 outside of Cook County Adver tising rates may be obtained by calling our o ce. Periodical rate postage paid at Oak Park, IL (USPS 10138). Postmaster, send address corrections to Wednesday Journal, 141 S. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park, IL 60302. © 2024 Growing Community Media, NFP.

SHRUB TO WN by Marc Stopeck

Leaf-bagging is not the apocalypse

My yard is graced by three giant Norway maples with an abundance of very large leaves that make a huge “mess” when they fall; yet I do not believe the leaf-bagging ordinance foretells the coming of the apocalypse.

Once I visited Kansas City, Missouri at leaf-bagging time. The neighborhood featured old houses, small yards and hug e sweet gum and black walnut trees. Leaves and fruits were everywhere. Everyone got their bags and got going. Over several days, my husband and I helped our hosts, and then helped an older man living next door. Some people raked, while others rounded up the leaves with a leaf-blower before transfer ring into the bags. It really didn’t seem so onerous.

Bags are an imperfect solution with environmental costs. Seeing fallen leaves as a resource for sustainable gardening can help minimize their use. Using leaves in garden beds and under trees and shr ubs is ideal. Composting at home also helps. Some people run their lawn mowers over the dry leaves in the grass for free fertilizer. My husband and I subscribe

to the village composting service. Every week, in addition to food scraps and yard waste, I pile in leaves that didn’t make it to the garden beds. We don’t try to rake all at once but do so g radually, as leaves fall. We roll the bin into the front yard and then back to the alley. Last year I’m not sure we put much, if anything, in the street. My garden is thriving, thanks to the nutrients and mulching the leaves provide. It can be hard to change long-settled habits, practices and assumptions — and even cultural and aesthetic values and beliefs — that surround yard care. It can seem difficult to try a new approach. If you’d like to lear n more about sustainable gardening and how leaf management pl ays a key role, Oak Park Climate Action Network has a group of climate coaches who can help. Or you can contact West Cook Wild Ones for advice and encouragement. After all, a leaf-bagging ordinance doesn’t necessarily mean you actually have to bag the leaves.

Adrian Ayres Fisher Oak Park

A clinic on civics

Well, I’m surprised. In a One View, a for mer Oak Park educator and high school board member characterizes a proposed ceasefire resolution for Palestine as “divisive and wrongheaded.”

DAVID GILBERT One View

[No to a resolution, yes to civil discourse, Viewpoints, May 8]

One would expect an educator to know, and teach, that America’s politics, culture and economy are divisive by design. A clash of ideas, beliefs and interests is built into our Constitution (e.g., tripartite power sharing, frequent elections and freedom of expression), protected in commercial law (anti-trust provisions and other safeguards for competition) and celebrated in public discourse (the “disruptive technologies” that challenge our protocols). I was taught that persuasion and argument ultimately strengthen us, and whether or not that proposition is correct, our culture has always marinated in persuasion and argument.

Besides, our village is already divided on Palestine, as demonstrated by the very advocacy of the supporters of the ceasefire resolution and its opponents before the village board, and as demonstrated by public protests, signage and incessant letters to the Jour nal. The ceasefire resolution didn’t cause disagreement among Israel’s critics and supporters; it emerged from it. Experienced Oak Park educators would presumably acknowledge this — unless their actual intention is to avert the symbolic impact of yet another community deploring Israeli vengeance.

Which brings us to “wrongheaded.” The educator’s principal objection is that the Oak

Park board has “no expertise in foreign policy” and shouldn’ t pass resolutions “on issues that have nothing to do with its governance responsibilities.”

First, a couple of for malisms. A “resolution” is not an enforceable municipal law. It’s an expression of the community’s stance. Also, the federal gover nment, to which the educator says Oak Park must defer, has no “gover nance responsibilities” over a ceasefire involving another sovereign nation. The U.S. can stop arming and supporting Israel, but it cannot make Israel stop shooting.

But for malisms aside, the educator commits another fundamental error about our culture and politics. Our citizens aren’t required to have the foreign policy acumen of, say, a Lauren Boebert, Jim Jordan or MTG in order to have and convey policy opinions to and through their elected representatives. Our public policies are inherently expected to express the will of the people themselves (informed by, but also skeptical toward, policy specialists).

Such is the purpose of the ceasefire resolution. The resolution’s opponents know this, and that’s what they hope to stifle.

Finally, the ceasefire resolution concerns a genocide — or, to avoid definitional quibbling, a slaughter, a massacre, a mass killing, primarily of non-combatants, including thousands of kids. Each reader can decide whether they have sufficient “expertise” to address this.

I suspect even readers without a background in “military strategy” would prefer an alter native approach.

David Gilbert is a resident of Oak Park

Why should we talk?

Ken Trainor’s May 8 opinion piece [Toward a moral declaration, Viewpoints] suggested we should try to overcome our animosities over the war in Gaza by sitting down and talking with people who think differently. Don’t call on me to participate. When I appeared at the village board meeting on April 9 to oppose the proposed ceasefire resolution I was shouted at by at least one resolution supporter. I was called a “liar,” taking the harassment beyond political to personal. More than a month has passed and no

I can speak up for those who can’t

The week before last, the University of Chicago invaded and tore down the student encampment set up to protest the university’s investment in corporations and institutions that support Israel’s attacks on Gaza. University police removed the protesters, destroyed the camp, and cleared the ground.

JIM SCHWARTZ

One View

The night before, Israel had ordered an evacuation of Rafah in preparation for its ground invasion, in spite of the fact that Palestinians have nowhere to go. They already evacuated to Rafah as the rest of Gaza was destroyed, and now many families may simply stay in Rafah and try to survive the military campaign that has already killed at least 34,000 people.

The previous day, we held a funeral for my uncle after his life was taken by Alzheimer’s disease. He was an active, intelligent man, but over time the disease took his understanding of time and location. He kept trying to leave his home and walk back to the town where he was born some 40 miles away, causing untold stress to my aunt and cousins. By the end of this life, he no longer recognized many of those he loved, could not walk, and could not care for himself

The conditions of our lives can push us into submission, taking away our safety, our dignity, our courage. Our plans, our ideas, our hopes are ground down into an unrecognizable version of themselves. This is what despair feels like, when it seems all that remains is the paper façade, which, when

tor n, leaves us standing alone on the edge of an abyss.

The death of all those we love is real. Our death is real. The death of everyone and everything in this world is, by definition, real. But the abyss is not all that is real. When we stare utterly into the abyss, we miss half of reality.

We must face the abyss, but we must also maintain our ability to turn our back on it. This world exists now. There is beauty in this world now. Our loves exist now. A wise person told me that grief is the price we pay for love, and there is so much truth in that. We feel the pain of the abyss because we feel the fullness of our love. I feel love for my uncle. I feel love for the students whose efforts toward justice have been temporarily scuttled. I feel love for the Palestinian people in the firing line in Rafah. And I feel grief for all of them, too. This grief can be an engine for us to do what we can in the time that we have

I know that many more Palestinians will be killed, are being killed as we speak. And I know that I must continue to speak up for them, to act for them, to do more for them, to speak to those around me about them. I can have those conversations in my own family. I can have those conversations with friends and colleagues. I can bring their voices where they cannot themselves go And I know this is not enough. But I will keep trying to make it enough.

Jim Schwartz is an Oak Park resident, an educator, and a blogger at Entwining.org.

RFK Jr. is no environmentalist

one has reached out from the pro-resolution side to talk about the incident. To “atone,” as Trainor talked about in his column, it is especially painful as among the resolution organizers and supporters present were two people I met on the first day we moved to Oak Park, 42 years ago. We became like family. How could I possibly feel that my participation in such a conversation is a worthwhile use of my time?

Alan Peres

Oak Park

Among the tactics by which Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hopes to draw voters, such as Oak Park Democrats, from Biden are his credentials as an environmentalist, based on his work cleaning up New York’s Hudson River. Don’t believe it

Get the facts about Kennedy’s involvement with Riverkeeper, the organization that spearheaded the Hudson’s rescue from toxic pollution: read the Washington Post’s March 2, 2024, article “How RFK Jr. Hiring a Bird Smuggler Threw His Environmental Group into Turmoil.” According to awardwinning journalist Peter Jamison, Kennedy has consistently demonstrated qualities that should alarm thoughtful voters: “obstinacy,

an itch to challenge authority, a mastery of scientific minutiae that is paradoxically coupled with a loose allegiance to facts.”

No wonder he is the champion of conspiracy thinking, from his claim that COVID-19 vaccines cause autism to his assertion that the U.S. and Switzerland have comparable per-capita gun ownership numbers (it’s actually 120.5 per 100 in the U.S. versus 27.6 in Switzerland).

A vote for Kennedy is a vote for Trump Biden’s record as an environmentalist trumps both.

Wendy Greenhouse Oak Park

Don’t go backward with leaf-bagging

In addition to all the other views, what is the environmental impact of the recent decision to bag leaves? This verdict doesn’t seem to be aligned with the village board’s adoption of Climate Ready Oak Park (CROP).

Even though these leaf bags are compostable, they consume enor mous amounts of natural resources (water, wood pulp, etc.) and energy in their manufacture and are done so in a toxic chemical solution that contributes to air and water pollution.

If 5-10 bags per week are used over the six weeks of leaf collection, each home would likely use 30 - 60 bags, if not more. Multiply that by the number of homes in Oak Park, and it has a big environmental impact every year that could easily be

avoided.

We already have an environmentally friendly approach to leaf collection. I understand the valid concerns of this, so let’s responsibly address these matters and not voluntarily create another issue that is misaligned with our climate pledge.

As is stated on our village of Oak Park website regarding single-use bags (including paper bags): “It is the right thing to do for the environment to encourage source reduction and minimize the negative direct impacts of pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and litter.”

Let’s not go backward.

Sharing the (leaf) harvest

I’m writing in support of the new leaf program. The point of it isn’t to bag leaves, it’s about changing how we treat these precious resources. Leaves are not trash to be hauled away, but something that has value

Leaving the leaves in our yards also supports the goals of our Climate Ready Oak Park sustainability plan.

Last year, 60 Oak Park residents on the Oak Park Fall Tree Stroll, hosted by Climate Ready Community Outreach to Oak Park (COOP), learned from three tree experts from Morton Arboretum, the Cook County Forest Preserves, and West Cook Wild Ones that leaving the leaves is the best thing we can do for our trees, especially in this time of rapid climate change.

Leaves are nature’s best fertilizer and they support biodiversity in a big way. Leaves can feed our soil for our trees and gardens. Leaving a nice layer of leaves in your beds houses butterflies and other beneficial insects over winter. If you mulch them, leaves can fertilize your grass.

And this new way of treating leaves can even feed our relationships with our neighbors as we figure out how to divide the “fall harvest.”

Chris Lutz Oak Park

Case in point: I have a large yard and mostly young trees, so I’m often scrounging leaves out of the piles on the street because I don’t have enough leaves for my needs. I wonder if neighbors on blocks could eventually work out leaf distribution together. Like sharing tomatoes or zucchini during the summer … or sharing tools like a snow blower or tasks like snow shoveling for an elderly neighbor.

Maybe folks will start saving their old sheets and using those to rake leaves into, and then dragging them down the block to someone who wants them. Or small/young entrepreneurs might offer this service.

Years ago I read a book on permaculture and it talked about sharing resources inside one’s immediate community, and how powerful that can be. Here’s another opportunity.

Laurie Casey Programs director, One Earth Local Member of Oak Park Climate Action Network (OPCAN) Member of Climate Ready Community Outreach to Oak Park (COOP)

Clari cations needed

In a letter to the editor, it was stated that Flock cameras photographed license plates, leading to traffic stops. [Support safety, not surveillance, Viewpoints, May 8]

What are the reasons cars are stopped after a license plate is identified? What is the percentage of cars stopped after a license plate is identified?

In the editorial on May 15 about West Suburban Medical Center [Our Views, Viewpoints], I believe the statement that there have been seven owners over the past 28 years is inaccurate. (I worked there as a family physician from 1984 to 2021.) I do not

think Loyola ever for mally owned the hospital; there was an affiliation that was designed to lead to merger (Loyola ownership), but that plan was abandoned.

Earlier owners (Resurrection, Vanguard) displayed varying degrees of interest in facility and program development, especially during initial periods of the ownership. It seemed Tenet was never interested in West Suburban; it just came with the purchase of Vanguard. Pipeline’s time was marked by neglect and plunder.

Kevin Cullinane Oak Park

Being unhoused in Oak Park

What Oak Parkers are doing for the illegal immigrants is ego-driven, nothing more than a subtle projection of their own false sense of goodness, a surface morality with hidden hypocrisy. I say this from personal experience and a heightened level of awareness of human nature, not from a physical distance or a sense of selfrighteousness. I, and others have been unhoused in Oak Park for years without the slightest offer of assistance from anyone, public or private, for per manent housing.

Michael Peterson

Homeless in Oak Park

CAREN VAN SLYKE

Add your voice from page 24

military aid and diplomatic maneuvers that keep the Gaza tragedy going, our community has a special responsibility to speak out.

■ This resolution is anti-Semitic: Not only are many of the organizers and supporters of this campaign Jewish residents of Oak Park, but the resolution specifically says, “We condemn all incidents of anti-Jewish, anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim, xenophobic, and racist rhetoric and attacks that are on the rise nationally.” Those who claim otherwise are uninformed or refuse to recognize the ongoing harm to Palestinian and Jewish community members as long as the situation continues

■ This resolution is divisive: Calling something “divisive” can be used to shut down necessary but difficult conversations or actions. There are people in this community who oppose a ceasefire or any resolution on this issue. But given that 70 percent of likely U.S. voters support a permanent ceasefire (4), this assertion cannot be used as a cudgel to suppress public discussion or debate ■ They should not take sides: The resolution calls for a ceasefire, which would be bilateral and would end the horrific destruction of Gaza and its people and support the return of the hostages held in Gaza, and the flow of critical lifesaving humanitarian aid. If anyone wants to argue that continuing the bombing, destruction, and deliberate starvation of the people of Gaza and continuing the detention of hostages is beneficial to Palestinians, Israelis, or Americans, Jewish, Palestinian, or otherwise, we welcome that discussion during an open community discussion of an Oak Park resolution. If you know a trustee, please talk with him or her before May 28 to express your support. And please write a letter to the board, urging them to support this issue Margaret Mead’s words are instructive: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.” With your help, our community can be part of the rising tide of citizens who are committed to justice and peace for the people of Palestine and of Israel.

Deborah Adelman, Faisal Alabsy, Melisa Alabsy, Charlene Cli , Dean Christ, Pauline Co man, Tara Dull, John Du y, Henry Fulkerson, Hajjar Mohammed-Herbert, Lynnae Hill, Sophie Kaluziak, Leila Massouh, Jim Madigan, Tim Milinovich, Angelica Nunez, Rebekah Levin, Nicole Lombardi, Susan Messer, Jim Poznak, Caren Van Slyke Oak Park

1) “Toward a moral declaration,” Wednesday Journal, 5/8/24

2) U.S. Municipal Ceasefire Tracker, 5/17/24

3) “Gover nor Pritzker, Senate President Harmon, Speaker Welch Issue Joint Statement on Ukraine,” https://gov.illinois.gov/newsroom/press-release.24653. html, 3/16/22

4) “Support for Per manent Ceasefire in Gaza Increases Across Party Lines,” Data for Progress, 5/8/24

le Richerson, 90

Red-lipped Grandma Candy

Merle M. Richerson 90, of Downers for merly of Park, died on May 14, 2024. Born to Dorothy and George Dougherty in Chicago on Feb. 8, 1934, she raised children, occasionally taking t periods of time, volunteered to help those less for tunate, and was an avid Beach Bum, especially enhores, Alabama and Panama City Beach, Florida.

Known affectionately by some of her grandkids as Grandma Candy, or Grandma Red Lips, she enjoyed her family parties (one of the first to arrive and often one of the last to leave) and supplied the clam chowder, her gravy, and occasionally her own home-brewed lemoncello. She liked to sing and chant, which she passed on to several of her children, grandchildren and nieces/nephews.

She was preceded in death by two of her daughters, Pe ggi Masella Pooler and Patti Masella Basford, her parents Dorothy and George Dougherty, her brother Bud Dougherty, her sister Karen Mocarski, and one granddaughter, Cyndi Gabrysiak. She is survived by six of her children, Gene Masella, Terri (Wayne) Holapple, Tom Masella, Kevin (Mary) Masella, Marijane (Jim) Kelly and John (Diana) Masella; 21 grandchildren; 18 great-grandchildren; numerous nieces and ne phews, as well as a multitude of friends.

Visitation will be held at Ascension Church, 808 S. East Ave., Oak Park on Saturday, May 18 from 9-10 a.m., followed by Mass at 10 a.m. and interment at Queen of Heaven Cemetery in Hillside.

In lieu of flowers, she would have pre-

fer red any donations to go to the research and treatment of Breast Cancer or the American Cancer Society.

Arrangements were handled by Zimmerman-Harnett Funeral Home Forest Park

Leona Pyrce, 97

Community leader in Berw yn

Leona Pyrce (nee Iwaniczko), 97, of River Forest, previously from Berwyn, died on Friday, May 17, surrounded by her family. Bor n on June 15, 1926, she grew up in Chicago, daughter of the late John and the late Aniela (nee Micek) Iwaniczko and sister of the late Joseph (Jean) and Walter Iwaniczko.

In Chicago, she met the love of her life, Charles Pyrce, and was married for 45 years until his passing in 1994. She was a community leader in Berwyn, serving on the school board, All Berwyn Committee, and a founding member of the North Berwyn Park District. Pyrce Park in Berwyn was named in her honor in 1996. She continued to celebrate her Polish heritage in her three-generation home with many family, friends, and extended-family celebrations

Leona was the very proud mother of Janice (Gary Kagan), Robert (Marcia), David (Meri), and Philip (Kathy) Pyrce; the grandmother of Robert, Jennifer, Kathleen, Gabriella, Charles, Sarah, Luke and Anna Pyrce, Maryann Albano (Rob Albano) and Alexandra, and Jonathan Kagan; and the great-grandmother of Madison Pyrce, Steven Gonzalez, Ethan Gonzalez, and Robert Albano Jr.

Visitation was held on May 20, at Salerno’s Galewood Chapel, 1857 N. Harlem Ave., Chicago. A funeral Mass of Remembrance will be celebrated by Rev. Richard Peddicord O.P. at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, May 21 at St Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church in River Forest, followed by entombment at Resurrection Mausoleum in Justice

In lieu of flowers, please consider donations in memory of Leona Pyrce to Thrive Counseling Center, Oak Park, and Fenwick High School in Oak Park.

Je rey Herner, 37 Water skier, volleyball organizer

Je ff rey J Herner, 37, die in his home on May 7, 2024. Bor on May 12, 1986 in Oak Pa rk , he had a bright smile and charming personality. His natural charisma brought joy wherever he went. He gr aduated from Oak Pa rk and Rive r Fo rest High School in 2004 and went on to earn a bachelor’s de gree in marketing from E astern I llinois Unive rsity in 2010. During his time at EI U, he was a p ivotal pa rt of developing the men’s tr avel volleyball team and they went on to win a national championshi p in Salt La ke Cit y, Utah.

Richard Bodner, 80

Taught chemistry, loved the outdoors

Richard Bodner, 80, died at home surrounded by his wife, children and grandchildren on May 8, 2024. Born in Sandusky, Ohio, he was a 51-year resident of Oak Park He studied chemistry at the University of Dayton and went on to Ohio University and Michigan State University where he obtained his PhD in chemistry. He worked for engineering firms and taught chemistry at Triton Community College

His summers grow ing up we re spent in Hay ward, Wi sconsin, where he developed a second f amily wh i le wo rk ing and playing on Round La ke. During that time he became an expert water skier and wo rked at the O riginal Famous Dave’s restaurant on Round La ke for many summer s. He became the first skiing Wi lber the Pig mascot, bringing many smiles to f amilies and is still remembered for it tod ay.

Je ff is survive d by his father and mother, Je ff and Christine Herner; his sister, Elizabeth Krall, her husband Ru dy, and their two children Jacob and Nicholas He is also remembered by gr andparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friend s.

A c elebration of l ife was held on May 14 at Zimmerman-Harnett Funeral Home in Fo rest Pa rk

In lieu of fl ower s, you c an honor Je ff by d onating to Hazelden Betty Fo rd Foundation, or your favo rite nonprofit , in his name.

He met his wife, Barbara, at the University of Dayton and they married in 1968. Moving to Oak Park in 1973, they had four children: Allison, Caroline, Rebecca, and Timothy. He had a special appreciation of the outdoors and loved to sail, ski, and spend time at their cabin on Beaver Island, Michigan. He was gifted at being able to fix anything and everything, earning the nickname in the neighborhood of “Mister Fix-It.” He loved spending time with his family, including his 11 grandchildren (Matthew, Andrew, Kane, Cameron, Jack, Graham, Alexander, Connor, Braedan, Bennett, and Kennedy), as well as two greatgrandchildren (Jett and Hunter).

Rich and his wife, Barbara, recently moved to Baltimore, Maryland to be closer to family. Rich always tried to help anyone in need — even in his death he hoped to help others afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease by donating his body to Alzheimer’s research

Gifts to support Alzheimer’s research may be directed to the Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation, P.O. Box 220, New York, NY 10150.

A celebration of his life will be held at a later date.

SPORTS Huskies’ hopes rise a er dominant track sectional

By BILL STONE & MELVIN TATE Contributing Reporters

Oak Park and River Forest senior Santiago Valle is a returning top-nine all-stater in boys track and field. This season, he’s returning even stronger for the Class 3A state meet Friday and Saturday at Eastern Illinois University after qualifying in the maximum four events: three relays and the 100-meter dash after running the qualifying time at the Proviso East Sectional May 15.

“I feel like I’ve widened my range. I’ve shaved my time in my 100 a lot, the 400, improved my endurance, the 200 as well,” said Valle, part of last year’s seventh-place 4 x 100 state relay.

“[Sectionals] was great, 17 out of 18 events going down [to state]. It’s an amazing day.”

After winning their seventh consecutive West Suburban Conference Silver Division outdoor title and 10th straight sectional

(224 points), the Huskies should contend for their first top-three trophy since taking third in 2019 and perhaps their first state title since 1987.

The 2023 Huskies had seven top-nine, allstate ef for ts but other high-seeded entries didn’t pan out and they were seventh (32 points).

“We did what we needed to do [at sectionals]. Now it’s about advancing on through [prelims] Friday on to [finals] Saturday,” OPRF coach Tim Hasso said.

“I learned a ton [last season] but I think the kids got valuable experience. We peaked too early last year, so I intentionally held these kids back and we’re starting to run better.”

Sectional champions were senior Kaden Garland in discus (51.24 meters/168 feet-1 1/4 inches) and shot put (18.63m/61-1 1/2 in shot put), juniors Kwabena Osei-Yeboah in long jump (7.12m/23-4 1/4) and triple jump (13.53m/44-4 3/4), Caleb Schulz in the 100 (10.64) and 200 (21.75), Lukas Brauc

(4.68m/15-4 1/4 in pole vault), and Liam O’Connor (1,600 in 9:18.41), freshman Cameren Janury (1.85m/6-1 in high jump), the 4 x 100 of junior Kahrmelo Weaver, Valle, Osei-Yebooah and Schulz (42.00), the 4 x 200 of senior Kevin McGovern, Valle, sophomore Kingston Petersen and Schulz (1:27.96), the 4 x 400 of sophomore Brian Carter Jackson, Valle, Brauc and junior Connor Schupp (3:21.94) and the 4 x 800 of seniors Mariano Escobedo, Lewis O’Connor, Daniel Johnson and Michael Michelotti (7:51.84).

Second-place state qualifiers were senior Khalil Nichols (110 high hurdles in 16.00) after a race disqualification, Schupp (800 in 1:57.70), junior Tristan Kidd (3.56m/118 in pole vault), sophomore Riley Jackson (13.50m/44-3 1/2 in triple jump) and Brian Carter Jackson (400 in 50.50). Thirdplace sophomore Jonathan Sibley-Diggs (15.75m/51-8 in shot) and fourth-place Michelotti (1,600 in 4:21.69) and Valle (100 in 10.88) achieved state-qualifying standards to advance.

Even Garland was fast. After his throws, Garland raced to OPRF to receive a senior athlete award and officially sign with USC. He then returned to Proviso East.

“I tried to get back here as fast as I could so I could watch the 4 x 400 and I saw us dominate. Extremely happy about what happened today,” Garland said.

His school-record 63-11 3/4 in shot April 13 is the state’s top performance this outdoor season. Season bests for Schulz (100 and 200), Osei-Yeboah (long and triple jump), Brauc (pole vault) and the 4 x 200, 4 x 400 and 4 x 800 rank among the state’s top 10.

All-staters in 2023 included Garland (shot) and Osei-Yeboah (long jump) taking fifth, the sixth-place 4 x 800 and Schulz (100) and the 4 x 100 seventh.

“I think just nerves got to a lot of people [at 2023 state] because it was their first time,” Valle said. “This year, we’re all older and have the experience. We’re excited and hungry for that state title.”

OPRF so ball holds o Fenwick

By MELVIN TATE Contributing Reporter

In the latest installment of Oak Park’s high school Crosstown Showdown, host Oak Park and River Forest knocked of f Fenwick 4-1, May 16, in a non-conference softball game.

“Fenwick’s a really good team,” said OPRF coach J.P. Coughlin. “I’d be very surprised if they don’t win their sectional. They battled, played good defense, and their kids threw strikes. They’re a tough team, and I’m really impressed.”

This year’s game was much more competitive than last year (13-0 OPRF victory), and that made Fenwick coach Valerie Jisa happy despite the outcome.

“I’m really proud of the girls,” she said. “Our pitching was solid, and we know what we need to work on — stringing hits together.”

OPRF (26-8) started fast in the bottom of the first on a solo homer to left by Elyssa

Hasapis and an Anna Topel RBI single. Fenwick (12-9) bounced back in the top of the second with a Leah Lowery solo homer to left-center. But the Huskies responded in the bottom half with an RBI triple from Sofia Ayala and an RBI groundout by Gloria Hronek.

That concluded the g ame’s scoring as the pitchers on both sides took over. Aria Hammerschmidt went the distance for OPRF, allowing one r un on five hits with three walks and six strikeouts.

“Aria’s had some success over the years [a gainst Fenwick],” Coughlin said of the senior, who’s won all three of her starts against the Friars

Lowery, a senior, started in the circle for Fenwick, allowing four r uns on four hits with a walk and three strikeouts in two innings. Sophie Stone, her classmate, took over the circle in the third and tossed four scoreless frames, allowing two hits and three walks with two strikeouts

But Lowery still had a positive impact on the g ame for the F riars with a pair of great defensive plays in right field. She had a sliding catch in the third, then threw out Julia Mattiace trying to score on a hit by Ayala in the sixth.

Fenwick had chances for more runs, putting multiple runners on base in the fourth, sixth, and seventh innings. But the Friars weren’ t able to come up with the big hit each time.

“We’ve got to be more productive to get across the plate,” Jisa said.

Even so, she felt her team got valuable preparation for the upcoming IHSA Class 3A state tournament.

“For sure,” she said. “Having this along with Riverside-Brookfield, those were teams I wanted them to go up against to have those challenges. OPRF is a team of hitters and I wanted our defense to keep doing what they’ve been doing — locking things down.” OPRF, which finished third in Class 4A

last year, is the top seed in the Maine South Sectional. The Huskies have a bye and will meet either Niles West or St. Ignatius in the re gional title game at Niles West, May 24 at 4:30 p.m.

“I thought last year we were the best defensive team in the state, and I think this year we’re better,” Coughlin said. “If we make plays, we can beat any team in the state.” Fenwick is seeded third at the Class 3A Glenbard South Sectional. The Friars faced Noble Street in a semifinal of the Trinity Re gional at Triton Colle ge in River Grove, May 21 (after press time). Assuming a win, Fenwick would meet either the host Blazers or Montini for the re gional title, May 24 at 5 p.m.

“As long as they stay focused and keep working hard, I’m confident,” Jisa said. “We really haven’t tapped our full potential, and that’s the coolest part. There are so many small things that once we tweak will make a dif ference.”

PUBLIC NOTICE

Notice is hereby given that the Village of Oak Park, on behalf of Housing Forward, is applying for the final round of CDBG-CV funds in the amount of $2,000,000 to help support Housing Forward’s rehabilitation of the former Write Inn Hotel, a fixed-site transitional housing shelter purchased by the organization in December, 2023 with funding provided by Cook County.

On March 27th, 2020, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) to directly address the impacts of COVID-19. As part of the CARES Act, Congress appropriated $5 billion to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for allocation to cities and states through the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. The State of Illinois has been allocated $70,753,404 of these CARES

Act CDBG funds (CDBG-CV funds). CDBG-CV funds must be utilized to prevent, prepare for, and respond to COVID-19.

The grant application is available for public review and comment during business hours MondayFriday, effective May 23 to May 31, 2024 at the Oak Park Village Hall, Neighborhood Services Department, 123 Madison; on the Village Grants webpage; and at the Public Library, Main Branch, 834 Lake Street.

Reasonable accommodations will be made for persons with disabilities and non-English speaking persons, as needed.

Any comments concerning this grant application can be submitted in writing to Vanessa Matheny, Grants Manager, at grants@oak-park.us, as well as at the CDBG-CV Application Public Hearing to be held at Village Hall room 101 from 3:305:00 p.m. on May 31, 2024.

Published in Wednesday Journal, May 22, 2024

PUBLIC NOTICE

The River Forest Park District has placed its 2024-2025 Combined Budget and Appropriation Ordinance on file for public inspection. Said Ordinance may be examined on the River Forest Park District website. A public hearing on said Ordinance will be held at 6:00pm on Monday, June 24, 2024, at the Depot, 401 Thatcher Avenue, River Forest, Illinois.

Michael J. Sletten, Secretary River Forest Park District

Published in Wednesday Journal May 22, 2024

PUBLIC HEARING VILLAGE OF NORTH RIVERSIDE

NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY OF THE PROPOSED APPROPRIATION FOR PUBLIC INSPECTION AND OF HOLDING A PUBLIC HEARING THEREIN

Notice is hereby given that copies of the Proposed Appropriation for the Village of North Riverside for the Fiscal Year commencing May 1, 2024, to April 30, 2025, are available for public inspection during normal business hours at the Village Commons, 2401 South Des Plaines Avenue, North Riverside, Illinois or on the Village’s website at: www.northriverside-il.org.

Notice is hereby given that a Public Appropriation Hearing shall be held by the Mayor and the Board of Trustees for the Village of North Riverside:

Date:

Monday, June 3, 2024

Time: 6:00 PM Place: Village Commons 2401 South Des Plaines Avenue North Riverside, Illinois

All interested persons may attend the meeting and shall have the right to present oral and written comments and suggestions regarding the proposed appropriation. After the public hearing and before final action is taken on the proposed annual appropriation ordinance, the Mayor and Board of Trustees may revise, alter, increase, or decrease any line item contained in the proposed annual appropriation ordinance.

Final action on the proposed annual appropriation ordinance will occur on June 17, 2024.

KATHY RANIERI VILLAGE CLERK NORTH RIVERSIDE, ILLINOIS

Published in RBLandmark May 22, 2024

MAY IS MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS MONTH

WE ALL HAVE MENTAL HEALTH

Whether you are struggling with a temporary challenge or if you are living with a chronic condition, your mental health is just as important as your physical health.

50%

More than 50% of Americans will be diagnosed with a mental illness or disorder at some point in their lifetime

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

GROWING CRISIS AMONG YOUTH

America’s youth mental health crisis has been worsened by the COVID�19 pandemic.

Persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness INCREASED

69% between 2009 and 2021 for U.S. high school students

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

INVESTING IN OUR FUTURE

The Community Mental Health Board of Oak Park Township �CMHB� and the River Forest Township Mental Health Committee invest in a continuum of mental health care that is responsive to our unique and evolving community needs. Together, we provided over $1.6M last year to help local organizations and schools offer prevention, early intervention, treatment, and quality-of-life services to Oak Park and River Forest residents. Our grants resulted in:

COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH BOARD OF OAK PARK TOWNSHIP

� Over 9,500 Oak Park residents accessing services

� Nearly 7,000 units of mental health treatment for Oak Park residents

� Over 300 educational presentations on mental health to Oak Park residents

� Over 1,000 Oak Park high school students trained in suicide prevention

In fiscal year 2024, CMHB provided over $1.4M in funding for mental health, substance use, and intellectual/developmental disability services. To learn more about our work in this area, visit oakparktownship.org/CMHB.

RIVER

FOREST TOWNSHIP MENTAL HEALTH COMMITTEE

� Over 18,000 hours of services provided to River Forest residents

� Nearly 50 hours of educational presentations on mental health to River Forest residents

� Over 250 River Forest high school students trained in suicide prevention

In fiscal year 2024, RFT provided over $215,000 in funding for mental health, substance use, and intellectual/developmental disability services. To learn more about our work in this area, visit www.riverforesttownship.org/mental-health.

Growing Green 2024

LO CA L • AC TIONABLE • HOPE

Growing Green 2024

Forest Park Bank makes it possible.

Growing Green 2024

Takeout without:

How Oak Park’s restaurants – and customers – are handling the Styrofoam ban

Need a plastic fork,too?

you have to ask for one

ABy HOPE BAKER Contributing reporter

ban on polystyrene, commonly known by the brand name Styrofoam, went into effect in Oak Park on Jan. 1. The ban established that businesses cannot sell or distribute disposable food containers that partially incorporate or are entirely composed of polystyrene foam packaging.

According to Dan Yopchick, the village’s chief communications officer, implementing the ban has gone smoothly so far.

“From our perspective, the rece ption from business owners has been positive,” he said. “I haven’t heard anything ne gative or any pushback against it.”

The ban does not apply to food establishments with an annual gross income less than $500,000 per location until Jan. 1, 2025.

Yopchick said that when eliminating the use of polystyrene was being discussed by the Village Board, concerns were mainly related to smaller establishments with low-

been working closely with food establishments to educate them about the new policy. They have also provided downloadable signage and talked with businesses about the seven exceptions in which single-use plastic food ware is allowed.

According to Engage Oak Park, drinking straws are still permitted as well as single-use plastic food ware that is necessary to address safety concerns, comes in a vending machine or is pre-packaged by a manufacturer

Not-for-profit corporations and federal, state or local government agencies that provide food to needy individuals are exempt from the new policy.

“Staf f, led by our Environmental Health division within the Health Department, is responsive to questions and I personally have not heard of any issues with enforcement,” Yopchick said.

Rob Guenthner, owner of Kettlestrings Restaurant Group and President of the Oak Park Chamber of Commerce, said his businesses are not impacted by the ban on polystyrene.

request from customers.

According to Yopchick, village staf f has

had any impact on us use Styrofoam before,”

“At all of our places in e used compostable takeout for a long time.”

Guenthner added that although his busiimpacted by the single-use food ware ordinance, implementing the new rules has ended up being easy. e still get a fair amount of people askerware, but it’s certainly ,” he said.

Kettlestrings Restaurant Group includes rn at 800 S. Oak Park e., Kettlestrings Grove at 105 S. Marion St. and Betty’s Pizza and Pasta at 1103 which are in Oak Park, as well Starship Restaurant & Catering at Forest Park

“The concern I hear from other people about the Styrofoam ban is that places that use Styrofoam tend to be lower-cost establishments that do a lot of carry-out and at r price point, so moving from Styrofoam to something else is probably going to for those folks,” Guen-

He said he has also heard that some business owners feel like certain products, ver better in Styrofoam because soup stays warm and is easy to rning one’s hand when s packaged in Styrofoam.

“But I think the benefits will still ultimately outweigh the inconvenience and the slight increased cost,” Guenthner said.

Growing Green 2024

Pollinators: They need you. You need them.

Climate change is real. So

is climate anxiet

As we move through spring toward the arrival of summer, the colors of the landscape will come to life as many plants begin to flower. All this would not be possible without the dutiful work of our pollinators. Without this generally unnoticed effort, agricultural economies, food supply, and the surrounding landscapes would collapse. Did you know somewhere between 75% and 95% of all flowering plants on earth need help with pollination?

To give a sense of scale, that’s over 180,000 plant species, 1,200 crops, and it adds over $200 billion a year to the global economy. Honeybees alone contribute $1 billion to $5 billion in agricultural productivity in the United States. Safe to say, these birds, bats, bees, butterflies, beetles and other small mammals are vitally important to the world. So, what else do they do? In addition to our food, they support healthy ecosystems that clean the air, stabilize soils to prevent erosion, sequester carbon, and support other wildlife.

How can you help? Providing a habitat that supports them is the key. Research has shown that local pollinators prefer local, native plantings. Making this small change makes a difference—so I encourage you, if you’ve not already done so, to make 2024 the year to grow your role in this collective effort.

Ay. Climate cafes may help

By JACK HELBIG Contributing Reporter

2021 survey of young people ages 16 to 25 in 10 countries published in the British medical journal The Lancet found that 59% of those who responded said they were “very or extremely” worried about climate change while 84% said they were at least “moderately” worried.

More than half said they experienced strong, ne gative emotions about it, whether sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless or guilty. Another threefourths of respondents said they were frightened about the future.

So, how do you address concerns about the climate without triggering paralyzing anxiety?

Climate cafes may provide a solution.

Jess Pe pper, the person credited with holding that first climate cafe, told the Guardian newspaper in 2021 that she hosted her first cafe in in Dunkeld and Birnam, Scotland, because, “It just dawned on me that people needed to be speaking with each other, and not just in a one-of f kind of session.”

The result was both political and therapeutic. Climate cafes provide a for um where information is shared, but in a way that is not overwhelming. Too often these days what you want is a glass of water, and instead you get a blast from a firehose.

“It just dawned on me that people needed to be speaking with each other, and not just in a one-o kind of session.”

Begun in Scotland in 2015, climate cafes provide informal get togethers in which attendees intentionally discuss topics many find too inconvenient or troubling to discuss in larger, more for mal venues. Some climate cafes meet re gularly. Some meet online. Others just pop up for a couple of sessions and then disappear again.

JESS PEPPER

One participant in a climate cafe told a re porter at the Guardian that she had “shed a lot of tears, and gotten in touch with some powerful feelings” that came from sharing her anxieties with like-minded people.

All politics is local, and you can’t get much more local than a group of people getting together to discuss the issues. Participants in climate cafes have re ported they feel relief from anxiety and numb helplessness.

One of Chicago’s first climate cafes, held last December at the Pe gg y Notebaert Nature Museum in Lincoln Park, was organized by a Chicago-based psychotherapist

and clinical social worker, Libby Bachhuber. Her climate cafe also was part of an ongoing program of climate cafes associated with the Climate Psychology Alliance North America.

The Climate Psychology Alliance’s online answer to the question “What is a Climate Café?” sounds as much like a group therapy session with snacks than a political action committee: “a gathering of people meeting with facilitators to share their responses to the climate crisis,” “a confidential, warm, friendly, hospitable occasion –involving cake, hot drinks, maybe a glass of wine or beer,” “the focus… thoughts and feelings about climate change, rather than what we ’re doing about climate change.”

Bachhuber’s climate cafe at the Pe gg y Notebaert Nature Museum definitely had a group therapy feel. As she told a Tribune re porter in a December 28, 2023 article: “Unless we can process our internal responses to climate change, we are not going to be able to respond appropriately to it.”

The Chicago-based Climate Psychology Alliance, North America, hosts a virtual climate care the fourth Tuesday of each month, 6 to 7:30 pm Central (https://www. climat ep syc holo gy.us/climate-cafes/climate-cafe).

Those interested in the inter national climate cafe movement can also visit the Climate Cafe Network Hub (https://www.climate.cafe/).

ADOBE STOCK

Scott McAdam Jr.

Growing Green 2024

The climate is changing: How will local residents be impacted in

By ELIZABETH SHORT

Contributing reporter

As wildfires, severe storms, droughts, and flooding impact daily lives of Americans in all 50 states as a result of climate change, some media outlets have upheld the Great Lake region as a potential climate refuge.

Yet the region is not exempt from the changing climate currently impacting and uprooting lives all over the world.

Consider the facts.

In the last decade, Lake Michigan rose more than six feet in less than eight years and then fell three feet in three years. In February, Chicago-area residents flocked outside as temperatures reached 74 degrees, making it the warmest February on record. Last summer, temperatures in Chicago reached 100 degrees, a rarity in the city. In early July, Chicago-area residents witnessed a cluster of severe storms cause flash flooding and power outages, including on the West Side. It also forced the cancellation of the NASCAR Chicago Street Race.

Yet at the same time, Illinois was experiencing a drought (April 1 through June 30 brought the 11th-driest period on record in Illinois), a disaster that cost billions of dollars. This drought, which re-intensified at the end of the summer, impacted Illinois farms and dropped river levels

“In the coming decades, Chicago will experience warmer and wetter winters and hotter and drier summers due to climate change. These temperature and humidity shifts will also lead to changes in weather and increased frequency of severe, dangerous, and financially damaging storms,” said Jelena Collins, founder of the Climate Youth Coalition and 2022 OPRF graduate studying climate science and physics at McGill University.

Extreme temperatures and floods disproportionately impact poorer and minority communities, as experts say climate change exacerbates problems for under-invested communities, like those on the West Side, including Austin.

“Nearly every climate model has projected an intense increase in precipitation in the Midwest, leading to greater risks of flood-

ing, stress on infrastructure, and, conversely, more intense dry seasons,” Collins said.

“These dry seasons are damaging to agriculture, increase respiratory hazards, and again place undue strain on infrastructure.”

This begs the question: In coming years, how can Illinoisans expect to be further impacted by climate change?

And what should we do to pre pare?

Illinois Extension, University of Illinois network of educators and experts working to sustainably protect the health and wellbeing of Illinois residents, reported that the primary impacts of climate change in the region will be an amplified risk of high temperatures and heavy precipitation.

These changes can also create public health hazards and expand mosquito and tick populations, as well as corresponding diseases. To prevent these bites, the CDC recommends using insect-repellent, wearing loose and long clothes, treating clothes with 0.5% permethrin, and checking for ticks after being outdoors.

Higher temperatures and heavier rainfall can impact air quality, affecting people with healthy lungs and exacerbating issues for people with seasonal allergies or asthma. Climate change also impacts residents’ mental health. The Mental Health and Climate Change Alliance has collected resources for individuals experiencing climate distress.

Above all, Collins stressed the importance of flood preparation. “I think residents of Chicago would be wise to prepare for flooding in the immediate years to come,” she said. “This could mean updating their basements or housing foundations, but also having emergency equipment on hand in case of severe rainstor ms.”

To prepare houses for floods, the Natural Resources Defense Council recommends buying flood insurance, elevating your boiler, and reconsidering your landscaping to help water seep into the ground.

In emergency flood situations, Illinois Extension recommends that households prepare for extreme weather by gathering supplies including a first aid kit, water, canned food, and medications Additional resources for emergency situations can be found on its Extreme Weather Preparedness site

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from the

7 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Saturday ● May 18 - October 26 ●

Olmsted Society

www.oak-park.us/

Stewards of the land and Olmsted’s Plan

Walking Tours of Riverside return May 26 and continue on the last Sunday of the month through October. 2-4 PM. Riverside train station. $25 per person (discounts for seniors and Olmsted Society members). Visitors will enjoy stories about homes, people, landscape and history. See website for details.

Walking Tour: North Sunday, May 26, 2024 2:00 pm

Workday: Big Ball Park Saturday, June 1, 2024 9:00 am

THANKS TO

Workday: Big Ball Park Saturday, June 29, 2024 9:00 am

Walking Tour: South Sunday, June 30, 2024 2:00 pm

FWith programs and lm festivals

By JESSIC A MACKINNON Contributing reporter

rom its humble beginning in 2010 as an informal community meeting organized by green pioneers Sally Stovall and her partner Dick Alton, One Earth Collective has grown to encompass a plethora ofdiverse programs dedicated to increasing awareness ofthe impact of climate change and inspiring action regarding the environment and social justice

T he initial group, wh ich quickly ga i ned traction in progr essive Oak Pa rk , focused on developing local green block pa rt i es offering info rm ation on p lanting milkweed , essential for the survival of monarch butterflie s, as ell as omposting and hemicalfree lawn care

In 2017, the organization launched a summer pilot pr on Chicago’s west side. The pr eventually became ration with youth development pr side nonprofits, offers cooking instruction, a speaker series and field trips. Young people involved in the pr an urban

The broad-based One Earth Collecti “mothership” now comprises One Earth Local, for One Earth Youth developing young sustainability leaders; and the highly popular One Earth Film Festival, widely

Organic Lawn Care Since 2007

Compost tea soil feedings

Natural techniques for pest control

Biochar & microbiological soil amendments

Yard Drainage Solutions

Sustainable Landscaping

Native Pollinator Gardens

Vegetable Gardens

We

By HECTOR CERVANTES

Contributing reporter

Illinois is gearing up for Invasive Species

Awareness Month this May, a critical period spotlighting the ongoing battle against ecological intruder s.

Patti Staley, Director of Horticulture and Conservatory Operations at the Park District of Oak Park, delves deep into the topic of invasive species in garden environments and offers insights on effective management strat egies.

Staley said that this month provides an opportunity for increased education and action on the dangers of invasive species in the garden.

According to Staley, invasive species are plants or animals from different environments or parts of the world that do not belong where they are locally found. These invasive species are typically not native to the ecosystem they inhabit and can cause harm to the ecosystem.

“It’s important to distinguish between invasive and non-native or exotic species. Many people use the term ‘invasive’ loosely, it’s a strong word that shouldn’t be used lightly,” Staley said. “Terminology is crucial for understanding. It’s not just invasive; some plants can be aggressive without causing harm to our ecosystem,”

In Illinois, some common invasive species include garlic mustard, honeysuckle, buckthor n, burning bush, and certain shrubs and trees.

Studies indicate that garlic mustard exhibits allelopathic traits, whereby it emits substances that hinder the growth of competing plant species.

In terms of animals, emerald ash borer, a green buprestid or jewel beetle native to north-eastern Asia and Asian carp are also significant concerns. Asian carp refers to a group of invasive fish species native to Asia, including the silver, bighead, black, and grass carp, which have rapidly proliferated in waterways across North America, posing significant ecological and economic threats.

“Invasive species, as shocking as they may be, are introduced into environments, ecosystems and even your own backyard by humans, whether done purposefully or inadvertently,” Staley said.

Staley, who used to work in the landscape industry, said they sometimes planted invasive plants without the knowledge that they were har mful

Growing Green 2024

Is your pret ty garden hiding a danger?

Unlocking the battle against invasive species in the garden with tips and tricks

“Science is always evolving and changing and our ecosystems are adapting, and what we know now, we didn’t know back then, and what we knew then, we won’t know now,” Staley said. “Paying attention to science and keeping updated on species, and we talk about climate change and how that will impact invasives, it’s not black and white.”

Weather, including climate change, plays a huge role in the spread of invasive species.

“I’ve observed how climate change impacts plants, whether invasive or not, and we saw those effects this spring with the early war m-up,” Staley said.

According to Staley, invasive species can choke out native species, pushing them to the brink of extinction.

“Education is crucial; understanding what plants you have in your garden and replacing invasive species with native or nonaggressive plants is essential,” Staley said.

Staley suggested that once the invasive species has been identified and removed, one should ideally opt to grow a native plant or a plant without ag gressive tendencies.

Staley added that there are some great nonnative perennials that can be planted that can extend the growing season that

be mixed in with native plants. A perennial plant is a plant that lives more than two years.

When asked about the significance of public awareness and education in addressing the spread of invasive species, as well as the role of gardens and conservatories in this ef fort, Staley emphasized the crucial importance of public awareness and education.

“Organizations like garden locations and conservatories can play a significant role in educating the community about invasive species and what individuals can do to help prevent their spread,” Staley said.

Staley acknowledges the wealth of resources available for combating invasives, citing the remarkable ef for ts of organizations like the Kane County Forest Preserve Staley highlights their impactful cleanup initiatives along the Fox River and the multitude of volunteer groups involved.

As for this warm winter: Could warmer temperatures and climate change lead to an increase in invasive species in the garden?

Perhaps.

“With a prolonged growing season, there are increased chances for plants to propag ate over an extended timeframe,” Staley said.

Spotted Lantern y

Insects:

can

ONE EARTH Hopeful climate

from page B7

vironmental film festival.

One Earth Film Festival, which was launched in 2012 by local sustainability leader Ana Garcia Doyle, has garnered international reco gnition. The first festival, which primarily featured films by local filmmakers, attracted 500 attendees; last year the festival reached 4,500 virtual and in-person viewers. This year’s festival, which ended April 23, was held in venues throughout the Chicago area, including the Chicago Cultural Center and Pe gg y Notebaert Nature Museum as well as the Oak Park Public Library and Unity Temple, and showcased submissions from filmmakers around the world.

In 2013, the organization debuted the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest, launched by for mer River Forest resident Sue Crothers Gee. T he progr am has grown significantly in the past do zen years; last year it received more than 400 entries from young filmmakers throughout the country and as far away as Australia, Taiwan, Brazil and Mexico.

T he contest is open to youth as young as third graders to post-graduate colle ge students. With the support of the Manaaki Foundation, winning filmmakers receive cash awards between $100 (third graders) to $1,000 (colle ge students). In an ingenious “pay-it-forward” initiative, winners also receive matching grants that they, in turn, award to nonprofits dedicated to projects that align with the themes of

Growing Green 2024

their films. In addition, several nonprofits, including the Sierra Club, Jane Goodall Institute, and Wild Ones West Cook, offer $500 Environmental Action Awards.

“The Young Filmmakers Contest encourages young people to create films that propose solutions and inspire action to combat the impact of global climate chang e,” said Lisa Biehle Files, who joined the YFC team in 2016. “And the matching grant progr am gives them the agency to make an impact that ripples throughout the sustainability movement.”

Winning YFC films are shown throughout the annual One Earth Film Festival. Beyond the contest, young people are supported by connecting them with professional filmmakers and providing them with opportunities to strengthen their skills

Files was pleased to see that, in general, this year’s films were more hopeful than last year’s submissions, which included film titles like Code Red, The Apocalypse, and Our Generation, a film exploring the environmental challenges faced by the younger generation due to the actions of previous generations. She attributes some of this to the waning of COVID, which was so isolating and depressing for many young people.

“Some of the films submitted in 2022 were kind of dark and filled with dread. But, in the past year, they seemed to be more optimistic about the future,” Files said.

The deadline for submitting films for the 2024 One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest is June 25. Winning films will premier on September 22 at the Gene Siskel Film Center and will be shown during the 2025 One Earth Film Festival. For more information, contact https://www.oneearthfilmfest.org/ contest-details.

The Village of Brookfield recently adopted its first five-year Sustainability Plan, which sets ambitious goals and creates opportunities for residents, businesses, local partners, and village o cials to act on sustainability e orts in Brookfield.

Visit our new Brookfield Sustainability Resources webpage to check out the plan, read about current initiatives, find local resources, and learn about opportunities to get involved. Scan and visit the website!

Growing Green

How the city is addressing Chicago’s environmental injustice issues

An inter view with the Chicago Department of Public Health

By DEBORAH BAYLISS Contributing Reporter

The release last year of the Chicago Cumulative Impact Assessment found that Austin, East Garfield Park, West Garfield Park and North Lawndale communities are among the areas disproportionately impacted by higher heat-related illnesses, industry pollution, increased amounts of ground level ozone and particulate matter, flooding, lack of green space, higher density of buildings and pavement — and historic disinvestment. All of these environmental conditions intersect to play a role in the life-expectancy gap between Black and white Chicagoans. Studies show on average, Black Chicagoans live 8.8 years less than whites do.

Austin Weekly News spoke with Grace V. Johnson Adams, a spokesperson with the Chicago Department of Public Health to see which actions are being considered and put in place to deal with the environmental injustice

According to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, environmental justice is achieved when all residents have the same de gree of protections from environmental and health hazards.

AWN: Since the release of the assessment, which actionable measures have been put in place so far to address the study’s findings?

CDPH: Several actions have been taken already since the release of the Cumulative Impact Assessment in September 2023 to address the findings. For example, one Environmental Justice Action Plan tactic called for at least 5,000 trees to be planted per year in targeted communities using tree canopy data, and 78% of trees planted in 2023 in the arterial tree planting program were in priority areas. Additional measures began before or during the As-

sessment process and have continued since then, such as the development and implementation of a data collection strateg y to inform and re port on the effectiveness of community engagement activities. There are other measures that have not yet begun, but will be completed per the Environmental Justice Action Plan.

CDPH and community partners, including Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, Center for Neighborhood Technology, and the UIC School of Public Health’s Environmental and Occupational Health Science, are co-leading a community air monitoring network strategy, with a focus on environmental justice neighborhoods. A planning award for co-developing this strategy is provided by The Partnership for Healthy Cities and funding from the Chicago Recovery Plan will be used to implement a co-developed and sustainable community air monitoring network and create a unified public-facing platform for air quality data. Once operational, the air monitoring network will address the identified data gap of local air quality in Chicago from the CIA.

AWN: What is the Environmental Justice Action Plan?

CDPH: The Interdepartmental Environmental Justice Working Group was for med in March 2023 by the Department of Environment and the Department of Public Health to ensure that all city departments are working together to promote environmental justice by identifying and addressing inequities. Out of this group came the Environmental Justice Action Plan, which includes dozens of specific, actionable policy changes that can be implemented in partnership with more than 10 city departments The city committed to publishing an annual report based on progress made toward the Environmental Justice Action Plan, beginning in December 2023. The first version of the report was released December 22.

e resulting Chicago EJ Index map shows that the areas of greatest concern for pollution burdens and vulnerability to its e ects are located on the South and West Sides of the city. ese EJ Neighborhoods are o en bisected by major highways and have high concentrations of industry, including community areas such as Austin, East Gar eld Park, Englewood, Humboldt Park, Lower West Side, McKinley Park, New City, North Lawndale, Roseland, South Deering, South Lawndale, West Englewood and West Gar eld Park.

es, strategies, policies being considered to address heat zones, and the other environmental issues residents on Chicago’s West Side are facing?

CDPH: The cumulative impact ordinance is cur rently being drafted and is expected to be introduced to City Council this year. Additionally, work through the Defusing Disasters Working Group, which encompasses researchers, public health officials, policy advisors, emergency management teams and community partners, will leverage data and local knowledge to identify those most vulnerable to extreme heat in Chicago’s communities. Last summer, researchers and local community members be g an collecting the data needed to characterize heat vulnerabilities through Chicago’s Heat Watch 2023 initiative as part of the National Oceanic

Watch Campaign, which aims to help cities across the U.S. identify specific neighborhoods where heat-mitigating interventions could save lives. Now, the Defusing Disasters Working Group is creating heat vulnerability tools that function at both the community and clinical levels. The community-level tool will be used operationally by the City of Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communication and CDPH in both emergency prevention/response and long-term mitigation contexts. The clinical tool will be used at the doctor-patient level to identify and protect at-risk individuals. Actions remain in progress, and as additional information becomes available, CDPH and DOE will continue to share these updates with Chicago residents, especially those in community areas.”

Growing Green 2024