Joe Zekas R.I.P.

 Joe Zekas ran the real estate news website YoChicago. If you have been following that site and their social media channels i.e. YouTube or X/Twitter you might find that he hadn't updated since June 2023 which was the month that he was said to have passed away unexpectedly.

Zekas in the early days would link to us frequently and you might find a few comments here from him in the past. And he caught my eye thanks to his coverage of some of the south side neighborhoods such as Pill Hill, Pullman, Englewood, Chatham, West Chesterfield, etc.

Even did a video I featured here called "treating your skin disease" he railed against the bias toward buying and living in "certain" communities based upon the predominate ethnicities in those communities. For example I do believe he was speaking of Chatham he might say why isn't Chatham a destination for everyone to consider buying and living there? [VIDEO]

As of late I see YoChicago appears to be a one man shop with Zekas running everything. He's the only one listed on staff there. He's had people like Joe Askins, Eric Stonikas, Whet Moser, and others work with him over the years. In addition some of the people who worked with him at YoChicago had also joined Curbed Chicago back when the Curbed publication had more local editions. So I'm sure there's quite a learning tree out there for people who want to follow what's going on in Chicago real estate.

My condolences to Zekas' family.

As we head into 2024, I couldn't allow this to go unnoticed on this blog! 

Happy New Year & Updates

Remapped Wards 6, 9, & 21

I'm giving this blog a refresh given that for the foreseeable future it will remain in more or less an archival mode.

I'm working on an Election 2023 page, which I had very little time to really compile this time as I mostly focused on the mayor's race and the election for 9th Ward Alderperson ewww Alderman. This time around I want to compile candidates and results for the 6th Ward and the 21st Ward. Both were open seats in 2023 since Ald. Sawyer and Brookins weren't running for another term on the Chicago City Council.

Another part of the refresh is to share information on the new ward maps and on the new Aldermen who succeeded both Sawyer & Brookins in the runoff elections in April '23.

When I wrote this post there was a controversy over there not being a physical ward office in the 6th Ward when Ald. William Hall took office. I will make sure to create a 6th Ward page to help those who need to contact the Alderman the ability to do so whether electronically (on the internet that is) or to be able to call his office or even pay him a visit at his offices in city hall or in the neighborhood.

The last time a new Alderman took office in the 6th Ward our FB page and this blog had been hit with comments, people wanting assistance with the new Alderman and thankfully that hasn't been an issue this time. I took great pains to make clear we're not associated with any Alderman or public official. We might be able to assist where we can, however, what was the best course of action is try to refer people to who they should contact especially Alderpersons ewww Aldermen.

I've been taking the time out to refresh this blog. This blog isn't as regularly updated as it used to be in recent years, however, if there is something that we could put out that would be beneficial to the community feel free to contact us.

As always Happy New Years.

Strange

 I got this message from Blogger which is owned by Google last night.

A decade old post from this blog had gotten flagged. Here's how I have tried to operate, I usually like to find news stories to share. It's not often that I tried to do the footwork to be a journalist, I used to pretend and failed. :P

Anyway, someone or something flagged a legit news story from a local TV station deemed as sensitive content. The video itself probably is no longer available online. According to computer there's just a puzzle piece in the middle where the video was - in fact I presume the video was rendered in a flash player. Who uses flash these days anyway?

Anyway I found this odd and intend to appeal meanwhile you will see this message asking if you want to proceed to the page in question or not proceed. Almost as if you're being redirected to somewhere else.

Was this an AI or is this related to the mayoral race?

Happy New Year - 2022 recap sort of...

Found here

I spend most of this past year not posting here aside from one post by J.P. Paulus regarding the 2022 primary election for the 1st Congressional District seat which was won by Jonathan Jackson - who's brother Jesse Jackson Jr. served in Congress and his father was two-time Democrat candidate for President Jesse Jackson Sr. And then a few posts within the past two months which are more or less politically inclined and in reference to the 2023 municipal elections for Alderman and Mayor of Chicago.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot is running for re-election. Ald. Roderick Sawyer had recently survived a petition challenge that was dropped by his opponent Willie Wilson to remain on the ballot in the 2023 Mayoral Race. That means Ald. Sawyer will NOT be running for re-election for 6th Ward Alderman. So there is one open seat on the Chicago City Council.

We can include in the many open seats on the Chicago City Council the 21st Ward Alderman. Longtime 21st Ward Alderman Howard Brookins has opted not to run for re-election. In the June 2022 primary he failed in his bid to become a Cook County Judge.

Another thing we have covered over the years on this blog and I think is a notable event that I'm sorry to have not written about it here is the closure of Whole Foods Market Englewood. After a store closing clearout the store had closed on November 13, 2022 having been open since September 2016. We were glad to see Whole Foods expand onto the south side as they announced in 2013.

Heralded as an oasis in the food desert the closure had been announced earlier in the spring of 2022, another Chicago store had also closed this year the DePaul location located steps away from the Fullerton Red Line station. Originally it was advertised as being designed to keep the prices of product down for the people in the community. It was certainly a well meaning experiment.

However, as a customer I have found that most of the time I went there the store was often empty. This is something that was probably appealing say if I go to other stores in the area it would be very busy. However, that's not conducive to keeping any business open small business or a national chain.

I got a souvenir shopping bag from the 2016 Englewood grand opening. I also had bought from there over the years a water bottle I can't find for the moment and another Englewood shopping bag. So I do have some memorabilia from the now closed store which had opened with some excitement. I'll give credit to RAGE, this was their vision and it was realized.

Who knows perhaps the fortunes of Englewood will turn around and as opposed to the small outpost they had for over six years, the neighborhood could one day be home to a flagship similar to the one that opened this past spring at Chicago & State. Something to look forward to as a vision for Englewood.

All the same as I had been sharing on this blog I will be doing more posting at Ninth Ward Chicago. Hopefully do more with regards to the 2023 city elections and especially look at the race for Mayor and perhaps some City Council contests. The Mayor of Chicago is said to be vulnerable however the residents of the city will make that decision as far as who they want for mayor.

I hope that 2023 finds you in better spirits. Happy New Years! 

Anyone looking for a 2023 #Ward06 elections page?

Remapped 6th Ward - adopted May 2022

The map you see above is of a remapped 6th Ward which was adopted in May 2022. This is the ward that candidates for Alderman will be running to represent.

At this moment I don't know if there will be an election page here which will be typical for this blog since 2011. I have shared again publicly the links for all local elections in 2015 and 2019 we covered multiple wards especially in light of the 2011-12 ward remap.

I don't know if there is any interests from the other bloggers here in other wards especially other than wards 6, 9, and 21. As you know there is some turnover as Ward 6 Ald. Roderick Sawyer is running for mayor next year and Ward 21 Ald. Howard Brookins is retiring from the city council. The only incumbent since 2011 that weve covered who's running again next year is Ward 9 Ald. Anthony Beale.

BTW, in shameless self promotion there is a 2023 Elections page over at Ninth Ward Chicago.

If nothing else if you would like to see a separate page here on at least the race to succeed Ald. Sawyer for Ward 6 Alderman feel free to drop a comment and let us know.

Just to let you know right now Worlee Glover at Concerned Citizens of Chatham has a concise list of candidates who want to succeed Ald. Sawyer in Ward 6.

And, yes I need to update with vote totals the 2019 page. Not sure why that didn't happen back then although if you're looking for 2019 results for Ward 9 you can check Ninth Ward Chicago. 

2023 Municipal Elections

 Did you miss this blog? I've been posting more at another blog I started called Ninth Ward Chicago, I expect to post there for the forseeable future.

Though to be honest I do wonder about JP Paulus' thoughts on Congressman-elect Jonathan Jackson who was elected in the midterm election just last month. He discussed the race to succeed Congressman Bobby Rush of the 1st Congressional District from earlier this summer.

Well now that the gubernatorial and midterm elections are now over, we turn our attention to the municipal races in Chicago. We will be voting for the city council, city clerk, city treasurer, for people to serve on their police district boards, and of course for mayor.

One of the people running for mayor against the vulnerable incumbent Lori Lightfoot is one Ald. Roderick T. Sawyer. In 2011 we covered the race where Sawyer - the son of a former Alderman and Mayor in Eugene Sawyer - was able to defeat incumbent Ward 6 Ald. Freddrenna Lyle in a runoff. Now over a decade later, Sawyer hopes to be another son of a mayor to take the office on city hall's fifth floor.

A channel on YouTube called Next News Network which is a right ring channel takes a look at the mayor's race and quotes Ald. Sawyer who referred to Mayor Lightfoot as thin-skinned. [VIDEO]

Now with Sawyer seeking the mayor's office that means he must give up his seat on the Chicago city council and that means there are man candidates who want to succeed Ald. Sawyer. Worlee Glover at Concerned Citizens of Chicago shared a list of candidates for Ward 6 Alderman in 2023. Of course the deadline to submit petitions for the 2023 elections had passed on Monday and we're headed into the period of petition challenges.

We had one candidate for mayor to drop out in Ward 15 Ald. Ray Lopez who opted to run again for his seat on the city council.

Just to open the discussion here, who would be your preference for mayor next year? Would you give Mayor Lightfoot a second term in the mayor's office?

Also I have to ask about Eddie, he was a frequent commentor during the weirdness of 2020 through 2021. Where are you big guy? Let us know you're OK out there.

BTW, happy holidays to all.

We need better coverage of the 1st Congressional District race

 

Has anyone considered the lack of media coverage for the first congressional district race?  While I haven’t scoured each web page of every news site, from what I have seen, the coverage of where I lived for 12 years has been abysmal, especially considering the significance. This is the 1st time in more than a GENERATION that we have an incumbent-free election that is more open than ever. The choice made could be another Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (who regular gains national attention), or we could have just another of the 400 relatively obscure members, and receive very little for the votes.

 

And why should we care about a PRIMARY?  Well, in Chicago, Only TWO local candidates have ever won in the general election in Chicago in the past 40 years. One of them was state senator James Meeks,  who ran at the height of Salem Baptist church's popularity. Once he was elected, he quickly switched he switched to the Democratic Party so that his re election was assured the next term .

 

The 1st congressional district election is very meaningful to me because I lived in Chatham for 12 years. I have seen which of the candidates had been involved in the community and which have suddenly made and appearance when Bobby Rush. decided to retire to retire.

 

 I'm angry that we have had a lack of coverage, but also the journalists that do report seem to have a complete lack of knowledge of who is actually a community leader in the 1st district as opposed to those who are being promoted due to their association with more famous people  and/or funds. For example, Jonathan Jackson is the son of Jesse Jackson, but in my 12 years in Chatham I have never seen or heard him at any community event.  That is a stark difference to Jahmal Cole who has written a book about the community, and in my time there has risen from being a mere resident to a community influencer that has tried his best to help improve the community through his nonprofit activities (and accolades) that have stretched far beyond even the immediate community.

 

 Journalists have also completely failed to use basic math to show just the uniqueness of this election. For example, if all 17 Democratic candidates who are currently on the ballot were to almost equally get a percentage the winner of that election, then the final candidate would win by only with only 7% of the votes. That would mean over 90% of residents would not be able not be able to get their choice AT ALL. (Unlike the mayoral race, which featured a runoff, so that the 83% of people who did NOT vote for Lori Lightfoot at first, at least had an opportunity to choose from the top 2).  And if you were to be a little more realistic and just only assume that say, the top 4 candidates would get the majority of the votes , that would mean that the top candidate could win with only 26% of the vote. That would mean again over 70% of the voters would not have their choice in office at all .For this election (as opposed to mayoral or aldermanic races) we have no such opportunity for the majority to have their say.  

 

I have not heard one reporter do the traditional journalistic work of actually going out and talking with real people about what they are thinking.  It is not a difficult task nor would it take a lot of time. They can easily go they go to the 79th street, 87th street or 95th street Red Line stations during rush hour and it could easily get a few (or rather several)  opinions the perspectives on the candidates.

 

 While I understand that  in broadcast journalism it may not be feasible to even name all 17 candidates in one story, there is absolutely NO excuse to not refer people to a website that could have a listing of all of the candidates with some basic information on them for a journalist it would take less than a day to research, if not call AND talk with all of those candidates. It should be no problem at all just to find out basic contact information such as phone numbers, email addresses, and websites as well as a short biography (including where they now live, so one could get a sense of what communities they might best represent).

 

Journalists also have access to a number of high quality journalism schools such as Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism (which I am a graduate of ) as well as Columbia and others. It would be easy for them to recruit to recruit members from classes. Students would be able to do some of that basic research. One class alone could get the basic information

 

 I am especially disappointed with our nonprofit media, of which we have several distinctive organizations such as Chicago public media, WTTW, Axios, and Pro Propublica, all of which even if they had to share duties, could easily create forums for the public to be able to more adequately research their choices

 

 Also, in this day and age, one could easily take a test online test to see which Harry Potter house 1 could fit would be would fit in with and those things would actually be and that quiz would actually be accurate why could we not set up a quiz that not only speaks on the issues that are most important to constituents but also other items such as communication style leadership abilities or leadership experience that would help voters decide who would best represent them in Congress right now. The question is: will the 1st congressional district have someone like AOC who is able to make a national headlines despite being a freshman or with the representative be someone who would be forgotten amongst the other 434 representatives in the house today

 

I would love to hear from community residents of the 1st congressional district to hear what do they think about this issue of coverage. Do they feel that they are actually being represented in the news, or should things be changed or improved in some way. I also would love to hear from those in the media to see what are they going to do differently to help the residents of the 1st congressional district make a good choice as to who they would want to represent them answer represent them I hope

 

 I would also love to hear from media in the Chicagoland area to see what they are going to do different in the next few weeks before the election so that residents of the area would actually have a choice a fair choice as to who they should pick, and that it's not based on popularity that is predetermined by the media or by other media or by campaign funds

 

 

In a future post (probably October) I will also follow up to see how many Democratic candidates who DID win their primary election have decided to drop out which would allow Democratic Party to install somebody else so which would in effect create voter OMISSION, which is even worse than voters suppression because they would not have a choice at all in the matter that 99.99% of residents would not have a choice in their candidate

 

Please, Chicago media, DO BETTER. And for all Chicago residents who say they are concerned about voter rights – demand better from those who say they are here to inform us. Don’t we deserve it?

 

The following list is on the official Illinois election website.

 

https://www.elections.il.gov/ElectionOperations/CandidateList.aspx?ElectionID=63aIZoIunYs%3d&OfficeID=LMmcDTEwiCK%2fpmC%2ftG8m2A%3d%3d&Status=P2wRQXkiFoo%3d&BallotGroup=FTIb1gd6z9Y%3d&QueryType=xF443FTCAJbIL3atac%2fUjEg7Y4yklgT1&T=637897870742235127

You can also try

https://www.elections.il.gov/ElectionOperations/CandidateFilingSearch.aspx?ID=63aIZoIunYs%3d&T=637897870545532522

or look up candidate filings search at www.elections.il.gov

 

 

Name	Write-In	Objection Pending	Office	Party	File Date	Status
BIRGANS, KIRBY 7524 S. EVANS AVENUE UNIT 1 CHICAGO, IL 60619			1ST CONGRESS	DEMOCRATIC	3/14/2022 8:04 AM	Active 3/14/2022
BUTLER, CHRIS 1822 WEST 105TH STREET CHICAGO, IL 60643			1ST CONGRESS	DEMOCRATIC	3/7/2022 8:00 AM	Active 3/7/2022
CARLSON, ERIC 4 WILD PLUM CT. LEMONT, IL 60439			1ST CONGRESS	REPUBLICAN	3/10/2022 12:29 PM	Active 3/10/2022
COLE, JAHMAL 8035 S. WABASH AVE. CHICAGO, IL 60619			1ST CONGRESS	DEMOCRATIC	3/7/2022 8:00 AM	Active 3/7/2022
COLLINS, JACQUELINE "JACQUI" 7600 S. LOOMIS BLVD. CHICAGO, IL 60620			1ST CONGRESS	DEMOCRATIC	3/7/2022 8:00 AM	Active 3/7/2022
DeJOIE, STEVEN 8440 SOUTH KING DRIVE CHICAGO, IL 60619			1ST CONGRESS	DEMOCRATIC	3/14/2022 9:21 AM	Active 3/14/2022
DOWELL, PAT 4414 S. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. DR. CHICAGO, IL 60653			1ST CONGRESS	DEMOCRATIC	3/7/2022 8:00 AM	Active 3/7/2022
GOODRUM, CASSANDRA 7300 S. CONSTANCE AVE. CHICAGO, IL 60649			1ST CONGRESS	DEMOCRATIC	3/7/2022 8:00 AM	Active 3/7/2022
JACKSON, JONATHAN L. 6828 SOUTH CONSTANCE CHICAGO, IL 60649			1ST CONGRESS	DEMOCRATIC	3/7/2022 8:00 AM	Active 3/7/2022
LEWIS, MARCUS 3146 HOLDEN CIRCLE MATTESON, IL 60443			1ST CONGRESS	DEMOCRATIC	3/7/2022 8:00 AM	Active 3/7/2022
MATTHEWS, AMEENA 16719 ANNE MARIE AVENUE TINLEY PARK, IL 60477			1ST CONGRESS	DEMOCRATIC	3/14/2022 5:00 PM	Active 3/14/2022
McGRIFF, NYKEA PIPPION 6139 S. DREXEL AVENUE CHICAGO, IL 60637			1ST CONGRESS	DEMOCRATIC	3/14/2022 5:00 PM	Active 3/14/2022
NIX, DARIUS "DEE" 7145 S. CALIFORNIA AV. CHICAGO, IL 60629			1ST CONGRESS	DEMOCRATIC	3/9/2022 12:43 PM	Removed 4/21/2022
NORINGTON-REAVES, KARIN 8232 S. WABASH AVE. CHICAGO, IL 60619			1ST CONGRESS	DEMOCRATIC	3/7/2022 8:00 AM	Active 3/7/2022
O'KEEFE, MATTHEW "MATTO" 9930 S. WINCHESTER AVE CHICAGO, IL 60643			1ST CONGRESS	REPUBLICAN	3/14/2022 2:34 PM	Withdrawn 4/7/2022
PALMER, ROBERT A. 7315 S. UNIVERSITY AVE. CHICAGO, IL 60619			1ST CONGRESS	DEMOCRATIC	3/11/2022 3:51 PM	Active 3/11/2022
REGNIER, JEFFERY T 24104 S. OLD FARM ROAD MANHATTAN, IL 60442			1ST CONGRESS	REPUBLICAN	3/14/2022 5:00 PM	Active 3/14/2022
ROSNER, TERRE LAYNG 7442 W. LAKESIDE DRIVE FRANKFORT, IL 60423			1ST CONGRESS	DEMOCRATIC	3/10/2022 2:45 PM	Active 3/10/2022
SPAULDING, STEPHANY ROSE 10929 S STATE STREET, UNIT 1 CHICAGO, IL 60628			1ST CONGRESS	DEMOCRATIC	3/10/2022 11:27 AM	Removed 4/21/2022
SPILLER, HOWARD L. 9840 S. PULASKI RD OAK LAWN, IL 60453			1ST CONGRESS	DEMOCRATIC	3/14/2022 2:06 PM	Removed 4/21/2022
SWAIN, JONATHAN T. 1130 E. HYDE PARK BOULEVARD, APARTMENT 1 CHICAGO, IL 60615			1ST CONGRESS	DEMOCRATIC	3/14/2022 5:00 PM	Active 3/14/2022
THOMPSON JR., MICHAEL A. 4238 SOUTH WABASH AVENUE UNIT 1 CHICAGO, IL 60653			1ST CONGRESS	DEMOCRATIC	3/7/2022 8:00 AM	Active 3/7/2022
WHITE, PHILANISE 8447 S. PHILLIPS STREET CHICAGO, IL 60617			1ST CONGRESS	REPUBLICAN	3/14/2022 8:04 AM	Active 3/14/2022
WILLIAMS, CHARISE A. 1726 EAST 87TH PLACE CHICAGO, IL 60617			1ST CONGRESS	DEMOCRATIC	3/14/2022 5:00 PM	Active 3/14/2022
YOUNG, GENO 8858 S. KENWOOD, AVE. CHICAGO, IL 60619			1ST CONGRESS	REPUBLICAN	3/14/2022 5:00 PM	Active 3/14/2