Good morning! ⛅ It's a little cooler today in the 50s, but the sun is still shining!
Residents want to ensure affordable housing near the Obama Presidential Center as construction for the $500 million Jackson Park campus is set to begin this summer. Citing a Woodlawn ordinance's housing protections for low-income renters and low- and middle-income homebuyers, residents in nearby neighborhoods said they need similar protections to avoid displacement.
Chicago already has about 120,000 fewer affordable housing units than it needs, the city's Department of Housing commissioner said. Even with new ordinances that aim to create and preserve affordable housing in gentrifying areas, residents said they also need equitable transportation and job opportunities. Instead of signing the binding community benefits agreement, the Obama Center made its own promises to address these concerns. [Block Club Chicago; Chicago Tribune]
—Sidney Madden (@sidney_madden_)
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▪️ Groups advocate for reopening public mental health clinics. It's been nine years since the city closed half of its 12 mental health clinics, and activists said at a rally on Monday that Mayor Lori Lightfoot should make good on her election promise and reopen the clinics. [United Working Families; WBEZ]
👉 What you can do: Sign the petition.
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▪️ City supported General Iron move. Top city officials in former Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration had been discussing the metal shredder's move from Lincoln Park to the East Side neighborhood since 2018, according to newly obtained emails. [Chicago Sun-Times; City Cast Chicago]
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▪️ In-person visits to begin again at Illinois prisons. Over the next three weeks, more facilities will allow loved ones to visit incarcerated people for the first time in over a year. Visits will happen with plexiglass barriers on tables, and can be scheduled online. [WTTW]
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▪️ Cherry blossom trees in full bloom near Columbia Basin 🌸 Planted in 2013 for the 120th anniversary of the Chicago World's Fair and the 50th anniversary of the city's Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the cherry blossom trees brought out 3,000 viewers on Sunday. [Chicago Tribune]
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The Chicago Teachers Union is pushing to delay in-person learning for high school students. City Cast Chicago talks to a parent about why he sent his first-grader back to the classroom last month.
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💉The United Center will offer all Johnson & Johnson doses to walk-in appointments starting Monday. Register on ZocDoc, or call 312-746-4835. [NBC Chicago]
😷 Check out the Illinois vaccine spotter website, which looks for vaccine appointments in the state every minute. Want to help with the coding? Email vaccine@nickm.org.
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Calling all storytellers, artists, and historians! The Chicago Archive Collective is hosting a competition where participants create documentaries, poems, visual art, or some combination of mediums from archival footage, aiming to answer prompts posed by the committee.
▪️ Register for an informational kick-off session happening today at 3 p.m.
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The hunt for the next "Jeopardy" host is on, and it's, uh, getting competitive. Actor LeVar Burton started a petition for the gig, and television's Dr. Oz and "Jeporady" mega winner Ken Jennings are rumored to be feuding over the job.
Chicagoans tired of current guest host Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers — no disrespect to Shailene Woodley — can take this Chicago sports–themed "Jeporady" quiz. Midway Minute's Kevin Kaduk culled through questions from the show's archives and created a mini game testing Chicago sports trivia.
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Jeopardy/Giphy
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