The recent activities of a famously named young man have reminded me of the tough times of a bygone era. I was watching the tube when I saw a youth named Fred Hampton, Jr. interrupt a gun-control meeting being held by Mayor Richard M. Daley. Hampton asked Daley what was going to be done about the killing of 18-year-old Darryl Hamilton.
Community activist Fred Hampton Jr.
Happy Election Time, Readers!
Hmmm…this all feels so familiar. You probably remember when you would sit in the school auditorium and listen to the student council promise better food in the school cafeteria. The last I checked, the menu hasn’t changed. Read more »
Patton first moved to the development from Meridian, Mississippi. She describes the move as going from middle income to the ghetto and says it was a culture shock to see the way people lived. She says CHA tried but there was always a different commissioner.
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There’s one thing for sure you can always count on in Harold Ickes Homes. Common conveniences such as a public laundry room, an elevator that works and work orders being filled in a timely manner are things you will never get.
For years, our Local Advisory Council President, Gloria Williams, has been urging each management group that replaces the last one to simply supply the residents with clean, safe, essential laundry facilities.
To this date, we have no such facility, which causes residents to own and operate their own personal washers that, while in use, spinning away dirty water, flood other residents’ apartments, hallways and stairwells.
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There have been numerous suits in the world of Chicago public housing. Some hang around like old suits in a thrift shop, and some new ones are tailor made just for the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) and the Chicago Police Department (CPD) by the residents of public housing.
The suits that I’m talking about are not clothes but lawsuits. But these suits are clinging to CHA all the same. Class action lawsuits are what I’m talking about – many of them are being hung out there to air dry, while some of them were considered form fitting.
In some cases, they were tailor made for the residents, and the residents won. Or did they?
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Public housing residents of the Stateway Gardens complex recently scored a slam-dunk victory over the Chicago Police Department in a one-half million dollar over illegal police searches at a basketball game in February 2001.
The Lawsuit
On Feb. 4, 2003, in the case of Williams v. Brown, the City of Chicago and attorneys representing residents of Stateway Gardens entered into a written agreement to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department. The attorneys for the residents from the Edwin F. Mandel Legal Aid Clinic of the University of Chicago Law School settled with the city for the amount of roughly $500,000.
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For perhaps the first time in this country’s history, an ex-offender, who was recently pardoned after 17 years on death row, is challenging the powers that be and running for a state political office.
Aaron Patterson is the challenger against state Rep. Patricia Bailey (D-6), who is also a probation officer. Many people are wondering who will lock down the 6th District seat.
To many of the people, this is an historic event.
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