So, back on September 24, I wound up going to the meeting of t he writing group all the way down by Chicago/Indiana border. Like I said - I enjoyed myself back in August, and I had to take some photos in Woodlawn for an article anyway. And WOodlawn, while not quite as far south as East Side, was still more south than I usually go, so going from 63rd ( Read more... )

On Monday, August 27, I went to Chicago's East Side neighborhood for a reason that may seem kind of silly. I regularly check Chicago Public Library system's calendar of events for writing/literature events, and I saw a mention of a writing group that meets at the neighborhood's branch library. That was one of the few Mondays I had free, and I ( Read more... )

In Chicago political races, video ads are rare. On TV, we've seen plenty of ads for Rahm Emanuel, but not much from his opponents in the mayoral race. And in ward races... most candidates simply don't have that kind of money.

So when one of the four candidates in the 9th Ward race put out a video ad, that, in on itself, made news.

Click to view

( Some commentary - and the part of the video I really wasn't keen on )

( Read more... )

Last Saturday, Chicago Sun-Times published a story about a study of Chicago violent crime by Yale professor Andrew Papachristos. The study looked into several things, but the part that got most attention were the parts looking at violent crime rates in Chicago community areas ( as you may recall from an earlier post, community areas are similar, but ( Read more... )