When it comes to Chicago’s future, Vinay Ravi dreams big. “Perhaps recent events have made me unduly optimistic,” writes the 11th Ward resident, “but the idea of popular revolt does not seem as distant as it once did.” So does Frank Edwards of the 49th. “The Chicago I want to live in recognizes that strong communities make everyone safer,” Edwards comments. “This Chicago would defund the Audy Home, Cook County Jail, the state prisons, and the Chicago Police, and reinvest those savings in communities that have been starved for resources for a hundred years.” Ravi and Edwards are among 16 Chicagoans who penned “vision statements” for a project led by AREA Chicago magazine founder Daniel Tucker. Inspired by the impending changes at City Hall, Tucker also distributed over 100 blank yard signs to Chicago activists and high school students, who filled them with their own messages for the future. Dave Pabellon’s consists of the word PLAY with the L crossed out. Roxy Trudeau wants Participatory Budgeting In Every Chicago Ward. And the Thasiah family got together on Good Schools for All. These and lots more responses were photographed by Lauren Cumbia and Hillary Anne Strack, and the results have been gathered into a book, Visions for Chicago (Green Lantern Press), which will be released on the day Rahm Emanuel officially takes over as mayor. The release party features music, snacks, and Don Washington’s “mayoral tutorial,” which is calculated to keep you “dangerously informed.” Mon 5/16, 6-8 PM, Jane Addams Hull House Museum, 800 S. Halsted, 312-413-5353, visionsforchicago.wordpress.com.
Visions for Chicago—on yard signs
