Bolstered by the results of a vote conducted during the recent citywide election, Chicago residents of the 3^rd and 4^th wards are expressing “a strong desire” for a police substation on 47^th Street, according to a local resident group in the South Side’s historic Bronzeville community.

Young professionals from the Concerned Citizens of Bronzeville stated in a press release last month that the small stretch between the Green and Red CTA lines is now “unrecognizable” compared to its heyday when jazz legends like Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong frequented lavish night clubs along 47^th Street.

The area “is filled with debris, used needles and condoms, illicit narcotic activity, rampant public drinking and urination,” the group stated.

This vacant lot, located in the 4700 block of South Prairie Avenue, is among one of those Concerned Citizens of Bronzeville suggest be the site of a sub-police station as a deterrent to crime and loitering in the area. Photo by Mary C. Johns

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More than 600,000 Chicagoans lack easy access to a grocery store offering healthy and fresh foods, according to mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel.

To eradicate food deserts in low-income communities throughout the city, Emmanuel plans to increase access to fresh food options, by “engaging smaller local grocery stores, facilitating public-private partnerships and encouraging community gardens to thrive,” he said at a Feb. 1 press conference at Growing Power Iron Street Farm, 3333 S. Iron St.

Chicago mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel fielding reporters questions, during his press conference at the Growing Power Iron Street Farm, on Feb. 1, where he talked about his plans to combat food deserts in low-income communities across the city. Photo by Mary C. Johns

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The 4 ½ -year sentence handed down to former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge recently for federal crimes of lying and obstructing justice did not sit well with a lot of people, including Mark Clements, who is one of those tortured by detectives under Burge’s command.

This protester was among the many encouraging Mayor Daley to take part in jailing former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge, and to go after Detectives under his watch accused of torturing murder suspects in their custody in the 1970 and 1980s, during a rally outside City Hall in May 2010. Photo by Mary C. Johns

“It was outrageous,” Clements declared to Residents’ Journal during a phone interview on Jan. 25, a few days after the sentencing. “It was a smack in the face to the African American community concerning what Mr. Burge did.”

Clements, a longtime advocate to jail Burge, was tortured in June 1981, when he was 16 years old.

Burge, 63, was sentenced Jan. 21 to serve 4 ½ years in a federal prison for lying in a federal civil trial about torture committed against more than 100 African American men and women at Area 2 and 3 Police Headquarters in the 1970s and 1980s. The torture victims were murder suspects in police custody. Burge was fired as police commander in 1993.

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Young men and women in sharp military uniforms marched through the heart of Bronzeville on Veterans Day, twirling batons, blowing trumpets, and beating on drums and cymbals in perfect line formation, led by the shouted commands of their school drill sergeants.

The marchers were cadets of the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC) from the Chicago Public Schools, parading through the community as they held their school banners all the way from 43rd Street and King Drive.

They marched to the Victory Monument at 35th Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, marking the 84th annual Veterans Day Parade and Ceremony on November 11, 2010, a date that commemorates the end of World War I in 1918.

Marine Math & Science Academy, won first place for being the best marching band in this year's Veterans Day Parade on November 11, 2010. Photo by Mary C. Johns

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Click on the image to view the last episode of this season’s “RJ TV,” on September 27, 2010.

Watch Residents’ Journal‘s Senior Reporter Jacqueline Thompson, discussing the placement of historical Obelisk monuments honoring the rich Black heritage throughout the Chicago Bronzeville community, with her guest Esther M. M. Barnett, president of the Bronzeville Merchants Association.

Tune in tonight at 6:30 p.m. to Residents’ Journal’s live 25-minute call-in television show on Cable Access Network’s Hotline Channel 21.

RJ’s Editor-in-chief Mary C. Johns will interview Mary Gutierrez, from The Bronzeville Movement, about her organization’s efforts in closing down all 14 Liquor/Package Goods Stores, located in Chicago’s 3rd ward south side low-income Bronzeville community.

Call 773-738-1060 during airtime, if you want to join in on the discussion.