Category: Neighborhood News

“It’s sort of like my own personal obsession,” says Bob Wulkowicz, the inventor. “I can’t say for certain exactly why I do it. I’m not Joan of Arc. I’m not a martyr or an angel. But I figure kids are dying. They’re killing themselves. If there’s something I can do, I should do it.” As […]

There was not a slice of sashimi nor a sliver of Hunan-peppered anything in sight, but that didn’t keep it from being a typical Asian American spread: Popeye’s fried chicken, potato chips, and Pepsi. Across the paper plates seven pairs of eyes met in a gaze that for me was anything but inscrutable. I recognized […]

At first glance, 5320-26 S. Drexel looks like any other courtyard building on the western edge of Hyde Park. Windows of a first-floor apartment are boarded up, the result of a recent fire. Some of the doorways show need of a paint job, others display peeling plaster. Hastily scribbled names adorn some mailboxes, one sign […]

The house on Howe Street near Armitage is, you’d have to say, one very elegant residence. The frame structure, situated snugly behind a wrought-iron fence, has a second-story balcony and forest-green paint and trim. The living room and dining room on the first floor are linked by a shared fireplace, and there’s a solarium off […]

It took at least a half dozen years of wrangling, arm twisting, and haggling, but last September the Chicago City Council adopted a tenants’ bill of rights. And then in a spasm of legislative fury, the state’s house of representatives tried to repeal it, with a bill designed to circumvent home rule (Chicago’s and other […]

From the look of the place, you might not want to buy your groceries here. The garish electric sign could be what makes you hesitate, or the peeling white and yellow aluminum siding or fake rock work on the walls or bricked-in windows. Maybe the sagging, peeling tile floor now has you ready to turn […]

Jerry Johnson does not look mean or evil. He’s polite and friendly, favors blue jeans and sweatshirts, and has plain boyish features. In fact, he looks like your average 15-year-old. But several months ago he ran away from home. He doesn’t like to talk about it all that much. Life at home, he says, got […]

If at first you take Dr. Michael Bakalis as an ol’ sobersides, it’s understandable, for he has, at age 49, a statesmanlike facade. The former state superintendent of public instruction and state comptroller can now be found at Loyola University, where he’s dean of the education school. He has a nice office, befitting a man […]

For Dwight Conquergood, the slow movement of Hmong refugees into Uptown was like a dream come true. The Hmong’s spiritual leaders are shamans — folk healers who rid the body of evil and ill spirits with chants, animal sacrifices, and elaborate rituals dating back to ancient times. And Conquergood, by trade, is an ethnographer, a […]

Sixteen-year-old Latoya Dawson comes home to an apartment in Cabrini-Green after classes at Whitney Young Magnet High School. She drops off her math and biology books and picks up her handbook of teaching guidelines. Now it’s her turn to be the teacher. Dawson is one of 48 teenagers from Cabrini-Green who spend their after-school hours […]

Harvey Clark had this great idea. He would move his wife and baby daughter to new digs in the suburb of Cicero, just across the street from Chicago’s west side. It seemed like a safe bet — low rent, a clean neighborhood, a nice apartment — except for one catch: Clark was black. And Cicero […]

The blue-and-yellow Cine Olympia (nee Commodore) stands on Irving Park Road just west of Sacramento. A poster advertises Superman II, the last film (circa 1982) that played here. Further west, at Austin, the Patio theater lies vacant. The marquee announces “Closed for renovation,” which the manager of another theater describes as a euphemism for “We […]

When the hard-boiled types in City Hall got wind of Pat Quinn’s latest gig as director of the city’s Revenue Department, they all agreed that something flashy was going to happen. And you can’t blame them, really. The standard reaction to Pat Quinn is skepticism. It’s practically contagious. He is, remember, the most eager good-government […]

By almost all accounts, Harry Mazzoni is a big pain in the neck. And that’s the generous point of view. A lot of people who know him think he’s a kook. Why else, they argue, would Mazzoni, a 62-year-old widower and retired carpenter, wage a five-year vendetta over a parking garage? That’s right. A one-man […]