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Bond set at $300,000 in sexual assault case involving 11-year-old girl

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:35:40 -0500

Bond was set at $300,000 Tuesday for a Chicago man charged with sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl he met on the internet.

Marcus Kuykendoll, 24, who was arrested in South Holland, appeared before a judge in the Cook County circuit court house in Markham. He was charged with predatory criminal sexual assault involving a minor. He was in custody at Cook County jail as of late Tuesday afternoon.

Jackie Leavy on Chicago transit, her advocacy work, and what you can do to help

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 12:01:12 -0600

Jackie Leavy worked as a director for the Neighborhood Capital Budget Group for its entire 18-year run, but the success that sticks out the most is saving the CTA’s Green Line.

“That catapulted transit on to the front page,” Leavy says, recalling the fight sparked in February 1992 by the CTA’s announcement that they would be closing the Lake Street branch of the Green Line. NCBG launched an aggressive campaign in response and convinced the CTA that the Green Line was worth the investment needed to bring it into good repair.

“Demanding better service from the CTA, seeing performance data, all of these [things] grew from the Green Line fight,” Leavy says.
The campaign to save the Green Line represented NCBG’s first major foray into Chicago transit. Created in 1988 from many local community groups, the grassroots organization focused on physical improvements and economic revitalization in Chicago neighborhoods. Transportation became an increasingly important aspect of the group’s work after the Green Line victory, spurring NCBG to create a specific transit initiative called the Campaign for Better Transit in late 1999.

Leavy joined NCBG as a part-time director in 1988 after stints in urban planning and committee organizing and work with Friends of the Parks. She eventually rose to executive director of NCBG, but that chapter of her career has now come to an end. The NCBG closed their doors February 1 because of what Leavy describes as a “perfect storm” of bad financial circumstances.

“It really has been a growing financial crisis over the past three years,” Leavy says. “Sadly, we’re not the only ones [to close because of a lack of funding].”

NCBG, a non-profit group, relied mainly on private funding to implement its projects. Leavy, along with Director of Community Outreach John Paul Jones, who joined NCBG in 1992, worked to educate neighborhood groups such as Greater Rockwell Organization and North Lawndale Community Action Group on how to take control of improving their areas.

Leavy calls NCBG’s work with small groups a “cross- fertilization process”. Neighborhood groups would describe their specific issues, such crumbling streets and sewers or a lack of public schools, and NCBG would advise them on how to work with the city to solve those issues.

“Jackie would help you think things through,” says Reverend Michael Evans of the Developing Communities Project, who first met Leavy at a rally to keep night-owl service on the Halsted bus in 1991. “I think one of the biggest things [NCBG has] done is made people realize they didn’t need to take bus route closings for granted. We’re the ones that keep ridership going.”

For big projects, NCBG spearheaded efforts itself. That was the case with the fight to save the Green Line. Infuriated by the CTA’s claim that the Green Line had fallen into disrepair and there was no money to fix it, Leavy rallied the support of the state legislature, aldermen and especially the media to draw attention to the struggle. Leavy says that pressure put on the CTA by “unabated” media coverage during NCBG’s campaign was the tipping point, ultimately persuading the CTA to revitalize the Green Line.

“We won a specific and concrete victory,” Leavy says. “The CTA went from saying they had zero dollars to saying they had $300 million to improve the Green Line, which is stunning.”

That success paved the way for other CTA campaigning, including NCBG’s lobbying for Blue and Brown Line funding in the mid-1990’s, and the formation of the Campaign for Better Transit. Leavy emphasizes that the longer NCBG was in existence, the more important transit became to the group.

“If you go back 10 years,” she says, “it was unheard of that citizens would challenge the CTA. It was accepted as part of the landscape. One of the things we achieved was making public transit a major issue.”

The group enjoyed funding from diverse sources such as the New York-based Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the regional Joyce Foundation and Illinois’ Field Foundation, but funding from all of their sources slowed to a trickle over the years. Leavy cites “funder fatigue”, a total decrease in available non-profit money and foundations’ desire to continuously see short-term results in explaining why funding dried up.

Leavy also says that in the case of local groups such as the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, or LISC, NCBG was passed over in favor of funding for smaller neighborhood groups.

Developing Communities Project, which is actively campaigning for a Red Line extension, and Little Village Environmental Justice Organization are among the groups Leavy trusts to continue NCBG’s work, especially in transit.

“They understand transit development and how the federal government provides money,” she says.

Leavy hasn’t made any firm plans for herself since NCBG’s closure. She hopes to keep in touch with the neighborhood groups associated with NCBG, and has planned a reunion for NCBG “Friends and Allies” later in March. She says she would like to become more involved in helping youth, possibly by speaking at local schools.

She also hopes that NCBG’s work over the years has touched a chord in Chicago residents, showing them that anyone can effect change when armed with the proper knowledge.

“The average citizen has to take on responsibility,” Leavy says. “Citizens and transit riders have to make a leap to understanding how transit works in order to make progress.”

Old Man Winter gives way to Long, Slow Spring for CTA Riders

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 11:33:07 -0600

Chicago residents and businesses are reluctantly readying themselves for a long, slow spring once the Chicago Transit Authority's service changes take effect April 2.

The CTA plans to compensate for impending train service cuts mainly by boosting bus service along seven major routes, they explained in a Feb. 14 press release. Brown Line construction at the Belmont and Fullerton stations, starting in April and expected to last through 2009, will close one track along the North Side corridor and force the CTA to cut nine trains from their morning schedule and 24 trains from their evening schedule.

Local community watchdog groups insist that the CTA take accountability for the thousands of commuters affected by these changes.

"People in the community are not pleased," said Jason Liechty, an Edgewater Community Council spokesman. "We get all the downsides and none of the positives," referring to the fact that Edgewater houses a portion of the Red Line but does not include any Brown Line stops.

Other measures to combat commuting woes outlined by the CTA include operating the Purple Line counter-clockwise around the Loop to allow passengers waiting for a Brown Line to board either route and increasing service on the Blue Line near downtown.

CTA President Frank Kruesi said in the release that the agency would observe traffic patterns and "add capacity where and when it is most needed," suggesting that the CTA would take a wait-and-see approach before adding additional buses on other routes.

Anne Kamykowski, Executive Director of the Ravenswood Community Council, said that several local aldermen involved in the Brown Line Task Force were meeting regularly with CTA officials to address potential problems. Hesitance on the CTA's part to acknowledge how much time the changes would tack on to commutes is a big issue, she added.

"If [CTA President] Frank Kruesi is an hour late to work because of the CTA, who cares?" she said. "A housekeeper at the Hilton, who has to take two buses and a train to get to work, she'll be fired if she's late."

Downtown businesses expect that CTA changes will affect many of their employees' commutes and say they will do their best to accommodate longer trips during the first few weeks after the change.

"We will be lenient because no one knows what they delays are going to be," said Robin Bresemann, manager of Pearl Art and Craft Supplies at 225 W. Chicago Ave. The store has 18 employees and all but a handful of them use the CTA to get to work. "That said, in a business situation, that flexibility can be abused, so we have to be careful."

MEETING SCHEDULE"

The CTA has scheduled four community meetings in March to explain the impending service changes, all to be held from 6 to 8 p.m.:

March 12, Lane Technical High School auditorium, 2501 W. Addison St.

March 15, Agassiz Elementary School auditorium, 2851 N. Seminary Ave.

March 19, Truman College cafeteria, 1145 W. Wilson Ave.

March 26, CTA headquarters, 567 W. Lake St.

Albany Park task force to investigate tax-breaks for Chicago hospitals

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 16:38:29 -0600

Ald. Richard Mell of the 33rd Ward announced the formation of a Health Care Task Force Wednesday. The task force, led by Albany Park Neighborhood Council, will conduct an analysis of the tax-breaks Chicago hospitals receive and compare them to benefits afforded to patients.

The investigation will focus on discrepancies between tax-breaks and charity care spending in hospitals’ accounts.

“We’re giving you [hospitals] all these tax breaks, we want you to be responsible and give the type of care to these folks who cannot afford it” Mell said, “very simple.”

Hospital associations, however, disagree. Defining charity care is complicated and needs to take into account “community benefits” – an umbrella that includes charity care and nine other categories – according to Kevin Scanlan, president of Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council.

On Nov. 7, residents of the 33rd Ward passed a referendum that would require hospitals to rebate their tax breaks if they fail to provide free or discounted benefits, equal in amount to their tax breaks, to low-income and uninsured patients.

“To get a tax break in Illinois, a hospital must provide charity care,” said Diane Limas, neighborhood leader of APNC. “With 17,000 residents in the 33rd Ward potentially eligible for this free care, concerned residents of the 33rd Ward pushed to reform charity care policies,” she said, referring to the 90 percent approval rate of the referendum.

Mell said there are discrepancies between the tax breaks hospitals receive and their reported charity care expenditures. Tax exemptions to hospitals are estimated at $325.6 million, according to a 2006 Center for Tax and Accountability study. Reported charity care is $105.2 million, according to the same study.

The task force wants “to hold the hospitals accountable” for the gap, APNC President Dennis Lawson said. Mell said the task force wants to see the services hospitals provide.

Mell supported APNC and put the referendum on the ballot for Nov. 7. APNC campaigned hard to pass the referendum and argued that hospitals should not get the tax break unless the money is spent on treating low-income and uninsured patients.

Scanlan said during an interview Wednesday that the issue has not been viewed in its entirety. “One size fits all definition of charity care doesn’t work,” he said.

A report on tax-exempt hospitals by the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council, which represents Chicago-area hospitals and the Illinois Hospital Association includes charity care spending under the bigger umbrella of “community benefits.” Community benefits comprise ten parts. Three of the parts – charity care, bad debt and government sponsored indigent care – accounted for $1.65 billion in 2004, or 79 percent of the complete community benefits spending by tax-exempt hospitals, according to the report.

“Bad debt should be included in any definition of tax-exempt status,” Scanlan said, referring to the $641 million of outstanding payments in 2004. He said bad debt ends up as free treatment because hospitals never receive payment for services rendered.

Government-sponsored indigent care, according to the two groups, is the sum of underpayments for Medicare and Medicaid patients. According to the report Medicare reimburses 92 percent of expenditures and Medicaid reimburses 73 percent. In 2004, the difference added up to $856.7 million. “Uncompensated care is again an additional benefit that the hospital provides to the community,” Scanlan said.

Referring to the ten part community benefits criteria – which also includes government sponsored programs, subsidized health services, education, and research, among others – Scanlan said, “this combination of benefits is the best yardstick to determine community benefits.”

Tax-exempt hospitals in Cook County provided services worth $2.09 billion in 2004, according to the report. That is more than six times the tax break Cook County hospitals received.

The task force requested a meeting with Ald. Ed Smith of the 28th Ward, chair of the Committee on Health. Limas said the task force wanted to hear from Smith how the hospitals spent money allocated for charity care and what the hospitals wrote off as charity care.

“We want to make sure that these people get the care that is mandated by the law,” Limas said.

New Bronzeville residents bring entrepreneurial spirit and demand for more services

Mon, 06 Nov 2006 15:10:13 -0600

Darren Jones found everything he was looking for in his duplex condominium on 37th Street: hardwood floors, granite countertops, picture windows. The only catch: If he wants grab a drink with friends, pick up a prescription or go out to dinner with his wife, he has to leave the neighborhood.

Young, middle-class professionals like Jones are transforming Bronzeville, but business has not yet caught up with their demand for services and retail. According to a market analysis commissioned by the Quad Communities Development Corporation (QCDC), over $450 million of spending leaves the neighborhood annually due to a lack of retailers in the area.

“We all talk about it all the time,” Jones said, “We always talk about the need for a sports bar.”

While Bronzeville has more than its fair share of fried chicken joints and liquor stores, basic amenities are hard to find. Many residents do their grocery shopping in the South Loop to get the quality produce they say they can’t find at the local Jewel. While there, they also drop off their drycleaning and run the other errands they wish they could do in the neighborhood.

“I had to drive two miles to get ice,” Osei David Andrews-Hutchinson, an IT Systems Administrator and community activist said.

But efforts are being made to change all this. Bernita Johnson-Gabriel, New Communities Director for the QCDC is one of those working to stimulate commercial development in Bronzeville.

The QCDC has lobbied shopping center developers and partnered with the Little Black Pearl
community arts organization to create a more hospitable commercial corridor along Cottage Grove Avenue.
Working with high school students, the group designed and installed 82 banners from 39th to 51st streets bearing the logo “The Grove: A Place to Grow.”

According to Jennifer Zellner of P&W Partners, a commercial developer along Cottage Grove Avenue, these efforts are starting to pay off. People call her every day “with brand new ideas” looking for retail space along the avenue. She turns down payday loan stores and dollar stores in favor of more upscale retail businesses, which she said will help generate sales taxes and foot traffic.

“The future of that strip is not what it was before.”

Another strip where new businesses are starting to spring up is on 35th Street between State and Indiana.

Kimberly Crawford, opened a Postnet franchise on 35th Street last September to provide services she knew her neighbors needed. Business has been good, she said, and the overall response positive.

“They enjoy being able to walk down the street, or to make a short trip. They’re happy that we’re here.”

Condo owner Jones said that he and his friends are also interested in starting a business in the area to capitalize on the growth they see is inevitable.

“I think the condo market in Bronzeville is going to take a slight hit over the next two years,” he said, “but even if it takes a hit, it’s going to rebound when the commercial starts. ”

Zellner agreed and pointed out that one of Bronzeville’s biggest assets is land.

“It’s one of the last areas in Chicago where you have a largely blank slate.” Zellner said. “ You can put so much more creativity behind it.”

Rogers Park community center offers cross-cultural understanding to Chicago’s Muslim community

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 21:25:19 -0600

Hamdard: a friend who understands your pain. This Farsi word carries great significance for Chicago’s Muslim immigrants: Hamdard Center in West Rogers Park understands their culture and provides assistance to victims of domestic violence.

There are an estimated 500,000 South Asian, Middle Eastern and Bosnian immigrants in the Chicago area. They face not only the difficulties of integration into a new society, but also the lack of traditional support groups that help them with issues such as domestic violence and mental health. Hamdard makes their transition easier by providing culturally-tailored services.

“You have to realize that the first generation immigrants who are here, especially from these cultures, when they are involved in domestic violence, come to the shelter seeking refuge and help. When they leave the shelter, in most cases, there is no place for them to go back to, because the community does not want to see them back,” said clinical psychologist Dr. Mohammad Hamid, chairman and executive director of the Hamdard Center.

Dr. Hamid and his wife, Dr. Farzana Farooq Hamid, founded Hamdard in 1992 while working at the Elgin Mental Health Center. They realized that mainstream services did not appeal to the Muslim immigrant population, and took action to help.

Hamdard expanded fast. Initially the Hamids relied on contributions and pro-bono services from 35 colleagues and worked out of a one-room rental. Now, Hamdard owns and operates 10 facilities, has a staff of 51 and a $2 million annual budget. Farzana Hamid, who her husband described as the driving force behind the center, passed away in 2005, but her legacy lives on.

Hamid said that domestic abuse is significantly different among the center’s target clientele. “In mainstream American culture there is only one abuser: either the husband or the boyfriend.” He explained that in immigrant communities, there are multiple abusers: brothers, sisters and parents of the husband. Once a woman seeks shelter, she needs to be self-sufficient to survive.

Victims are also deterred by the lack of cultural understanding in mainstream hospitals, according to Hamid. Hospital workers should not tell a bruised Pakistani woman who visits the emergency room that, “She did not fall, and it could be abuse by her husband,” Hamid said. cultural and religious sensitivities have to be taken into account in addressing a victim’s problems.

Hamdard established the Transitional Housing Program in September 2001 to meet the needs of abused women. Last year the program served 245 people. Upon completion of their stay, Hamdard clients moved into their own apartments and got jobs. Now, they lead independent lives.

Domestic violence is not the sole focus of Hamdard. There are also programs for child welfare, assisting the elderly and providing expansive aid to immigrants. Hamid describes Hamdard as a “one-stop shop.” “We speak your language,” Hamid said, stressing the importance of relating to each client on a personal, familiar level.

Hamdard Center served 3,069 clients last year, according to the 2005-2006 Annual Report. The expanding clientele is a direct result of Hamdard’s activities in Chicago. “One of the reasons we have been so successful in our mission is because we have lived in the community for a long time,” Hamid said.

Hamid continues a family tradition. His parents were involved in assisting their community in India, and his two sons assist at Hamdard. Hamid is active in the heavily Muslim immigrant community, he said, because he believes that the first step to improvement is action.

Hamid said Hamdard continues to expand its services and aims to reach out to a larger cross-section of the community, because “the need is great, and we are barely scratching the surface.”

Park Boulevard development receives negative reviews from some Bronzeville residents.

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 15:02:01 -0600

The new Park Boulevard development on 35th and State promises a “welcoming mix” of homes “at price ranges for all budgets”-- but some area residents say that it won’t meet their needs.

“I make $50,000 a year, how am I going to afford a $200,000 condominium to stay in a neighborhood that I’ve lived in all my life?” Debra Daniel, 56 said. “These people need to get real.”

Daniel, who lives with her grandson in a two-bedroom apartment on the 3300 block of Cottage Grove Ave. is looking for a new place to live because her home of 17 years is being converted to condominiums. Although she admits that her situation is better than many of her friends and neighbors, she still faces tough choices. If she can’t find someplace affordable within the city limits, she will have to move in with her son, who lives in the far south suburbs—a two-hour commute from her job at the Merchandise Mart.

“Gentrification is great unless you’re one of the people being gentrified,” she said.

Park Boulevard replaces the drab high-rise complexes of Stateway Gardens, where low-income residents were siloed together. The new development calls for an integrated community of low-rise townhouses, pedestrian-friendly streets and green spaces.

As the model for future Chicago Housing Authority projects, one-third of the 1,300 new units will be sold at market rate, one-third will be rented to those with CHA vouchers and the rest sold at affordable rates. Under the guidelines set out by the developers, a two-person household earning less than $72,350 could purchase a two-bedroom affordable unit for $232,000; a comparable unit at market rate would start at $290,000.

Even those who can afford market-rate apartments, however, were surprised at the prices of the Park Boulevard units.

Lanre Kalejaiye, 25, who wants to move to Chicago from Bloomington, Ill., was turned off by the cost relative to the lack of amenities in the area.

“They’re too expensive for being so close to the highway and across the street from the McDonald’s,” Kalejaiye said.

While ground level retail space will create a new commercial corridor along the currently underdeveloped stretch of 35th and State, Kalejaiye said he was unwilling to wait for the community to transform.

Nearby, at the last remaining Stateway Gardens building, residents and former tenants seemed resigned to the changes.

“It’s building back up, but they don’t want us back down here,” James Wilcot, 24, said. “They want all of us moved away from here.”

Others seemed skeptical that those who were displaced from the housing projects would be able to move back. Under the Plan for Transformation, CHA residents who meet certain criteria will be re-located into rental housing on the site of the new development.

“They look alright,” Sean Watson, 28, said, “but to have people think that they will be moved back in […] They’re just selling them the dream.”

James Morgan, an area resident, who grew up in the Robert Taylor Homes, said a lot of blacks won’t be able to afford the condos, but he was taking a wait-and-see attitude on the new project.

“They’re beautifying it and it looks great, but I don’t know if it’s going to work,” he said. “There are a lot of rich people who might not want to live with poor people.”

If the mixed-income model did work, Morgan said, it could benefit lower-income residents by making them “strive to do better.”

“I hope it happens,” he added, “but I just don’t know.”

A new candidate for 3rd ward alderman challenges politics-as-usual in Bronzeville

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 15:06:07 -0600

Stepping into Mell Monroe's Victorian graystone on a recent Sunday afternoon felt less like a political fundraiser than a family Thanksgiving. Cooking smells filled the air, children scampered on the staircase, friends and neighbors greeted each other with warm embraces.

At the center of the happy bustle, wearing a blue shirt and a sport coat, Mell Monroe stood in the entryway, shaking hands, talking on the phone and coordinating volunteers. Monroe is a candidate for 3rd ward alderman in a bid to unseat incumbent Dorothy Tillman, who has held the office for over 20 years.

"I'm going to fight for people who might not always be able to fight for themselves," Monroe said in an interview Wednesday. "That's why I'm in it."

Although he seems like a natural at politics, Monroe didn't start out with political ambitions when he first moved to Bronzeville from the South Loop five years ago.

As founder of the Bronzeville Area Residents and Commerce Council (BARCC), a group that advocates for property owners and businesses, Monroe said he grew frustrated when Tillman continually declined invitations to their meetings.

The issue that really pushed him over the edge, however, was when the alderman turned down the Kroc center, a $135 million gift from McDonald's heiress, Joan Kroc that would have built a "family life center" on 47th Street. Plans for the center included an Olympic-sized swimming pool, a gymnasium, a Senior center and a theater.

Like many Bronzeville residents, Monroe was baffled by Tillman's refusal of the facility, which would have generated hundreds of jobs and provided a much-needed recreational outlet for youths. Even worse, Monroe said, was that the community was not allowed to participate in the decision-making process.

"I take her decision to reject the center for our kids, families and future, personally," Monroe wrote in an editorial in the Chicago Journal in April. "The fact is, someone needs to speak out about the lack of power held by near South Side residents."

"But the center can serve a purpose," he continued. "For me, the Kroc Center is the beginning of the end of machine-style politics in the 3rd Ward."

Last Spring, Monroe stepped away from his career as head of a successful executive recruiting firm to campaign full time. He started by knocking on doors to introduce himself and learn more about the needs of the community.

The three key areas that emerged from his work form the backbone of his campaign: education, innovative businesses and families. These platforms, Monroe says, are aimed to address the needs of a diverse ward comprising the South Loop, the Gap, Bronzeville, Englewood, Fuller Park and Back of the Yards.

At his home on Sunday, where fashionably dressed professionals mingled with business owners, Chicago Housing Authority residents and community leaders, his strategy seemed to be paying off.

"What you're seeing today is just an example of the renaissance that Bronzeville was known for," Monroe said. "When you build it, they will come."

Malcolm Hannnah, who bought his condominium in the 3300 block of Michigan Avenue more than a year ago, said he supported Monroe because he wants an alderman who will listen to the community.

"The biggest problem with Dorothy Tillman," Hannah said, "is that she's unattached to her constituents. People are investing money and they want to see things happen."

Others, like Chris Curtis, community leader at the Harold ICKES Home, put it more bluntly when he said, "Dorothy Tillman never did anything for us."

Curtis, who helps run Monroe's petition gathering campaign, said Monroe understands the needs of the low-income residents because he was once one himself.

Raised by a single mother in East Orange, N.J., Monroe grew up on public assistance and the little money that his mother could earn by cleaning houses. He went to Rider University on scholarships and grants to study business and worked as a teacher in Jersey City after graduation.

After making the switch to corporate America, Monroe worked his way up as a salesman for companies like Johnson & Johnson, Coca Cola and GE. In 1990, he became a partner in Execusearch, where he specialized in recruiting under-represented people like women and minorities.

"I can relate to all sides because I've been there," Monroe said.

As alderman, Monroe promises to bring what he describes as his unique balance of passion and business to stimulate commercial development in the 3rd ward and negotiate for a living wage for workers.

He is a supporter of the Big Box living wage proposal that would have guaranteed workers at Wal-Mart and other big retailers $10 an hour, plus benefits.

"The CEO of Wal-Mart makes $8 million and they pay their workers $6.50 an hour. There's something about our society says that's OK. But I'm saying it's not."

Looking out for the entire community, he believes is the duty of an alderman.

"If I have the opportunity to do it, I'm going to fight for my people, for all people," he said. "I will get results. I will get results."

From days as a student leader in High School to his work as a member of the South Loop School Education Alliance and his work as a neighborhood organizer Monroe has always given back to the communities he belongs to.

He mentors "seven or eight" boys from the area, who he says are always coming and going from his house, playing on the computers he has set up for them, or cooking with him in the extra kitchen he uses to keep them busy.

This connection to his community, he says, won't change if he's elected.

As his wife, Angie told those gathered Sunday, "I always tell everybody that the office will probably be just like the house." Monroe agreed, adding, "We'll always be regular folks."

ALDERMANIC ELECTION STORIES: Catherine Zaryczny (32nd) Scott Waguespack (32nd) Mell Monroe (3rd) Pat Dowell (3rd) 48th Ward Challenger Sues Incumbent.