Parents occupying field house win demands

Chicago Public Schools agreed Monday to lease a field house next to Whittier Elementary School to a community group for $1 a year and build a library inside the school.

The action comes as a group of Pilsen parents continued a sit-in to gain control of the building and convert it into a library to prevent it from being razed.

more at Sun-Times

Pilsen parents occupy field house to protest demolition

Several dozen parents are staging a sit-in at a Pilsen elementary school field house, protesting the planned demolition of the dilapidated structure.

"We want it turned into a library, that's what we want," said Araceli Gonzalez of the Whittier Elementary school field house, 1900 W. 23rd St.

Gonzalez, who has a 10-year-old daughter at Whittier, had staked out the field house and surrounding playground with about 30 other parents and community members to stop the demolition of the building. Parents said they had been camped out in the field house since Wednesday.

The field house -- paint peeling, roof warped -- had been set to be destroyed this fall after a CPS engineer found it to be structurally unsound, said CPS spokeswoman Monique Bond. But the demolition is not happening this week, as permits have been delayed, Bond said.

Although parents have lobbied for the building to be repaired or rebuilt into a library, Bond said the district lacked the money.

"(With) the budgetary constraints we are under, nothing is going to happen," Bond said. "That building has to come down."

But community members said they hired their own engineer who came to a different conclusion. Pilsen resident Gema Gaete said their engineer determined that the building could be salvaged with minimal investment.

While nobody has been arrested, the sit-in at times has become tense. Police this morning pushed the doors of the field house open, but did not try to enter the building.

"Why are you treating us like criminals?" Gaeta said when school liaison Sgt. Ramone Ferrer pushed the door open. "Go fight the real criminals."

"I'm asking you guys to step out so we can talk," Ferrer said, during the heated conversation.

"You cannot take control of the building," he said.

The parents, who said they have been asking for a library for years, refused to move.

Although the school has classroom libraries parents said they are too small, their book collections incomplete.

"Our kids are missing out," said parent George Merga. "They want to read books, they don't have a place they can come and sit down."

Along the outside of the building, signs read "Mr. Huberman don't wreck our dreams" and "re-polish don't demolish."

Under the noon sun, the protest continued. Parents shouted, "Queremos Biblioteca!" CPS officials milled around outside the playground fence.

Police are working to facilitate a meeting between parents and school officials, blocking others from entering the school property.

"The residents want for their children, a library, a library that is dearly needed in this community," said 10th District Commander Scott Ruiz. "Hopefully both sides will get together and they will talk."

from the Trib

Arrest made for graffiti written in acid

Eddie D. Garcia told officers he began his graffiti career with a spray-paint can.
But he apparently wanted to leave a more permanent mark.

So Garcia etched his tag, "SOAR," on windows across the Southwest Side -- using acid, according to Chicago Police.

Garcia, 23, was arrested earlier this week and charged with felony damage to property.

"Some artists move from paint to sculpture," said Cmdr. John Kupczyk of the Chicago Lawn District. "But he said he started out in paint and moved to acid."

Garcia, a full-time student at Richard J. Daley College, was caught in an early morning stakeout in the 3700 block of West 63rd with a sponge-tipped marker filled with hydrofluoric acid and a cell phone containing photos of his handiwork, Kupczyk said.

Police searched his home in the 5800 block of South Rockwell and found spray-paint cans, a bottle of acid and sketch books of his graffiti, according to court records.

Garcia gave a statement implicating himself in the crimes, authorities say.

from the Sun-Times

Police bust underground club

The manager of an illegal West Side club has been arrested and charged after police shut down the establishment late Saturday, police said.

Markley Jenkins, 33, of the 2700 block of West Polk Street, was charged late Saturday with reckless conduct, contributing to the delinquency of minor, possession of drug paraphernalia, no business license, license required-public place of amusement, no occupancy signs, and no city tax emblem, all misdemeanors, according to a police News Affairs release

from the Sun-Times

Demolition of homes near O'Hare begins

The demolition of about 600 empty homes and businesses in west suburban Bensenville -- to make way for the O'Hare Airport expansion -- starts today.

The demolition, which follows years of litigation, is expected to continue through the summer, said Eve Rodriguez, Chicago Department of Aviation spokeswoman.

The buildings are coming down to make way for a runway.

from the Sun-Times

Chicago antifa crush "White Pride" march

It was a beautiful Sunday Spring afternoon where the Illinois National Socialist Front were supposed to march for “White Pride World Wide”. But for the few Nazis that dared show their face in the city of Chicago, there was nothing but a barrage of blows raining on their parade.

Southside ARA had been scouting in the downtown area early on, watching out for neo-Nazi skinheads and other white supremacists. Within minutes of their pathetic march of four boneheads waving white pride flags, clandestine anti-fascists took formation and confronted them, successfully delivering U-lock justice to the unsuspecting Nazi trash with trained precision. In broad daylight on Michigan Avenue, Nazis helplessly had flags ripped from their hands and were beaten down as pedestrians watched in awe. Later, a police car pulled up and arrested the bewildered and injured boneheads while the anti-fascists swiftly dissapeared into thin air. Showing up seconds later, the pro-diversity / anti-hate rally laid the final icing on the cake by surrounding the humiliated and obviously defeated boneheads and taunted them with chants, holding a rally directly in the path of their march.

from SSChicago ARA

Lowercase: Chicago squat blog

The Lowercase Collective now has a Wordpress blog, all the better to more easily disseminate information on their upcoming eviction and defense.

http://lowercasecollective.wordpress.com/

Taggers nail multimillion dollar Gold Coast home

Graffiti artists, for those inclined to call spray-painters something other than vandals, turned a 50-foot brick wall of a Gold Coast house into their canvas.

The taggers, who left at least three monikers, are believed to have scaled a fence at a construction site in the wee hours Monday, said the builder and neighbors. The street artists defaced the coach house in the 900 block of North Clark Street behind the protective cover of a tarp and then tore it off when they left to unveil their work.

Builders have been working on the multimillion-dollar, Architectural Digest-worthy site for two years. The original structure was built in the early 1900s as a ComEd substation. Two stories were added later to repurpose it as a home, along with the coach house that abuts the street.

from the Tribune

Lowercase squat facing eviction

The Lowercase Collective has existed for over three years now. It has been a public squat for two years, and opened its doors to countless people, projects, and events. One would be hard pressed to find an anarchist who has travelled through Chicago without ever spending time in this space. When a place becomes so integral to the collective ethos of a community, as Lowercase has in Chicago, its destruction can be simply debilitating.

On December 18th, we received an eviction notice for our landlord, who is in all likelihood a fictitious entity. Shortly thereafter, we proved to the state that we ourselves have been responsible for paying the bills for the past years, making repairs, etc. Unfortunately, our attempts were only able to buy us a few more weeks, as the eviction notice for all occupants
came like a cold wind. Despite the machinations of the Federal National Mortgage Association, or any other partial owners, we have no intention of leaving this space without a fight.

Social tension has been percolating throughout our neighborhood for some time now. There is a general hatred of the police, all the more so with the existence of gangs on our street. Within a two-block radius, three other families have already been evicted in the past few months. A month ago, a black man just riding his bicycle was knocked off it by the police, beat up, and left without his bike in front of the watching eyes of the neighborhood. With all of this occurring in the context of our neighbors reproducing capital and themselves on the daily, this situation could prove explosive, as we look to push those tensions to the breaking point.

As the legal situation surrounding the house crystallizes, we will be announcing the time in which we want to invite our friends, in Chicago, the Midwest, and elsewhere, to join us for the most crucial aspect of solidarity: collective action on the day of eviction. We hope to create something truly wild around the very place we eat, sleep, fuck, dream, and share ourselves with each other. We hope for solidarity actions from friends who can’t make it here, but are more hopeful to see your faces.

Defending space in which we live, share, and combat capital is integral to revolutionary movements. Our past has connected us to so many different trajectories, and in the near future, perhaps together through our actions we can give ourselves the time and space to create so many more.

from Occupy CA

see also: Chicago Indymedia

Police shut down illegal warehouse party

Party over.

Nine guns were recovered, three people were arrested and more than a half dozen others were cited early Sunday morning when police officers broke up an illegal night club on the West Side.

The warehouse, unbeknownst to the owners, had been transformed into an elaborate lounge with $5 drinks, pulsating music, crowd control stanchions, velvet ropes, rugs and industrial spot lights beaming down on a party advertisement, authorities said today.

As patrons waited to join the 300 revelers packed in the building, Dwayne Troupe, 22, and Ambrosio Silva, 28, allegedly patted them down. Both men were wearing soft body armor and had handguns, police said.

Officers with the department's Mobile Strike Force also recovered a gun from 28-year-old Zenobia Mills when they searched the building, in the 4400 block of Fifth Avenue, police said.

All three Chicago residents were charged with felony weapons violations.

Others were cited performing as a disk jockey without a license and serving alcohol without a license.

Bernard Harrison, 26, of Oakbrook Terrace, allegedly organized the party and was cited for numerous violations, including operating a public place of amusement without a license.

The owners had leased the space for storage and an office and had no idea of the raucous activities inside, their attorney, George Hodges, said.

Police had been called to the scene at least once before for similar complaints, Hodges said.

“Whoever was allowed in there had no right to be there,” he said.

from the Trib

Street signs honor slain officers

Almost 39 years to the day after two Chicago police officers were gunned down while on foot patrol in the Cabrini-Green housing project, the street outside the nearby police station was dedicated to their memory Saturday.

Street signs bearing the names of Anthony Rizzato and James Severin were unveiled at a ceremony attended by Police Supt. Jody Weis, members of their families and a crowd of former colleagues.

Mary Schlaak, Severin's niece, told attendees outside the station at 1160 N. Larrabee Ave. that the memorial will make it clear the deaths still matter.

"Thank you for understanding that 39 years later this loss of two 18th District cops who died in the line of duty, it's still meaningful and still relevant," Schlaak said.

Rizzato and Severin were on patrol near Seward Park on July 17, 1970, as part of the department's "Walk & Talk" program they volunteered for, when shots rang out from a nearby high rise, fatally injuring both.

Two men were sentenced to 199 years for the murders and are still in prison.

Weis said the two officers were heroes and that Chicagopolice remain targets now.

"It's not that different today," Weis said at the ceremony. "People try to murder our officers. I don't know what that says about society, but it says our mission isn't done."

A memorial to Rizzato and Severin stood on the spot where they were shot, but had to be moved recently because of a construction project, according to Near North District Cmdr. Steve Georgas.

Retired Chicago Police tactical Sgt. Ed Wodnicki remembered the two as extremely brave officers at a time the Near North District was a dangerous place.

"It was a combat zone, and they were combatants," Wodnicki said.

from the Trib

50 parking meters vandalized on North Side

About 50 coin-fed parking meters were vandalized today in the three adjacent North Side neighborhoods of Andersonville, Edgewater and Uptown, according to Chicago police.

The coin slots were obstructed with an adhesive thought to be glue or putty, Police News Affairs Officer Robert Perez said. The putty is removable "if they have something to scrape it with," Perez said.

The meters have also been sprayed with silver paint. Officials are on the scene.

Police said the meters are in the 5100 block of North Clark Street, the 5500 block of North Sheridan Road, the 1000 block of West Argyle Street, the 4900 block of North Winthrop Avenue and the 4900 block of North Kenmore Avenue.

Since the city leased the parking meters to a private company earlier this year, they have been the target of controversy, with complaints of price increases, computer glitches that made some pay boxes inoperable, non-working and mismarked meters.

It was not immediately known how long it would take to affect repairs or if police would refrain from writing tickets at the damaged meters.

from the Trib

Finding Our Roots: Notes on an Impossible Meeting

“Ultra-Platypus is here to embrace the degeneration.”

A few friends met in Chicago this weekend to attend a workshop titled: “The Left is Dead”: “Ultra-Cutronism” and the “Anarcho-Autonomous” Milieu

The intended discussion (”Ultra-Platypus has been trying to figure out what this anarcho-autonomous milieu is”) was not to be had, for the Platypii caught wind of their own flatulence, though for once the stench was too hefty for them as they saw the modified “Ultra” attached and came running. The Platypii showed up in two large groups, one in the back left corner of 6 or 12 people (they all sat close and huddled together, but as more than half the room was immensely boring I wasn’t sure who was simulacra of leftist Platypii or not) and one in the front right corner of 3 others (they came in late). Throwing eye and hand gestures from back corner to front right corner of the room, whispering amongst their small circles, all to try to make the most ideological correct response at the oedipal moment when the name of the father (Platypus or Cutrone) is disgraced.

And disgraced it was, as the presentation, to the chagrin of anyone with a serious intent to revive the corpse of the left, was utterly absurd, hilarious, and a well-performed satire. As the slideshow of riot porn, naked boys, and S&M photos were rolling, the presentation switched from discussing the Tarnac 9, to violent denunciations of the leftists we still are (”We’re meager and pathetic.”), the three point program and strategy (see above), and a general silence and defiance from the presenter who knew to not engage with the Platypii on their own loopy ideological circular dialogue for any reason whatsoever.

Some snippets of words spoken by the presenter: “Demand for total social revolution falls flat…My individual actions do nothing…Our greatest hindrance to experimentation is the left…” and “What to do with your friend networks?…abnormality… Exert power. Be strategic…Build a war-machine…Attack the Left.”

Coining a non-existent splinter group only to see the Platypii show up was partly expected, it was their big day to show how smart they were! Well, to be honest, we actually knew they were coming from the stupid listserv discussions they were having. The Platypii showed up, went on a power trip, made everyone a little too tense, asked for a critique, and were answered by the presenter in a show of eloquence: “No, I do not give a fuck about Platypus."

excerpted from Principia Dialectica

New Pilsen-area newspaper released at May Day

We will be distributing copies of a new pilsen-area radical newspaper "Paloma Negra" at this year's May Day actions.

Paloma Negra is a radical, independent, anti-profit community newspaper in Pilsen that connects local issues to the global resistance against oppression.

Paloma Negra es un periódico independiente, radical, sin ánimo de lucro y comunitario en Pilsen que conecta temas locales con la resistencia global contra la opresión.

The topic of this special May Day edition is immigrant and labor rights.

Pick up a copy at Lichen Lending Library 1921 S. Blue Island OR you can download a printable PDF copy of the newspaper at www.palomanegra.info/palomanegra-1-mayday.pdf

If you want to help distribute copies, participate in the next issue, or have general comments or questions contact us at info (at) palomanegra.info

from http://www.palomanegra.info

Anarchist attacks around Chicago Wednesday

Why do we fight? Why do we even attempt to fight the totality of domination and exploitation? If what we seek is a world in which we are free to truly express our desires, then we must create it by destroying all relations based on power and commerce. These three targets were chosen for that reason.

Last night, April 22nd, an Olympic ad was defaced and altered in East Pilsen. This target was chosen simply because we refuse to allow the city and its corporate pals to celebrate the intensification of capitalism and the displacement of people.The three sided ad originally had glorified pictures of athletes and the word "Imagine". The largest side now reads "NEVER" and has a nice big circle A as well. The right side now reads "Imagine RIOTS".

The next target was a building owned by capitalist land lord Podmajersky. Podmajersky is a major force in the gentrification of Pilsen. Once you look, you can see his high rise condos and buildings that plague the area all around. Two windows were smashed on a building owned by Podmajersky near his headquarters on Halsted. A third window was smashed with a parking meter that bore a message. The message reads "Dear Racist Capitalist Scum, You and your tenants are displacing us. This is our response and it is only the beginning." And we left a winking smiley face at the bottom just for you, Podmajersky!

But do we really need a campaign to attack all these oppressive institutions? Do we need any other reason then to destroy all relations based on domination and capital? To highlight this point, a large window was smashed and another window was damaged on a Standard Bank near the Sheridan red line. We did this for no other reason than to attack an institution that perpetuates our misery and feeds off our exploitation. Do we want the system to change or do we want its total abolition? Even if the city doesn't get its corporate circus and even if all the capitalist scum like Podmajersky stop gentrifying our neighborhood, we will continue to attack. Insurrection ends when domination does.

Towards a Spring Social War!

from Chicago IndyMedia

an interesting related article from the Sun-Times

Finding our Roots, April 24 - 26

Finding our Roots has posted its schedule and descriptions of the workshops for this weekend's conference.

Saturday 11-12:15
Department of Space and Land Reclamation: 8 Years Later
Gentrification: Containment, Displacement, Yuppie Infestations, and the Resistance to Come Which Way To Nowhere? A Short History of Anarchist Spatial Theory and Practice

Saturday 12:30-2
“The Left is Dead”: “Ultra-Cutronism” and the “Anarcho-Autonomous” Milieu
Bash Back 101: Tactically Queering Environments
Let’s Organize the Hood: Organizing in Poor Communities of Color and Among Impoverished Populations

Saturday 3-4:15
The Politics of Nonviolent Action
Mad Liberation and Safe Space

Saturday 3-6
Collective Living Spaces: A Roundtable Discussion
Teaching and Organizing In, Around, Alongside, and Between the Spaces of Academia

Saturday 4:30-6
Spaciality and Transformation
Prison as a Liberated Space: Anarchism and The Revolutionary Prison Movement of the 1970’s

Sunday 11-12:15
Anarchist Alternatives to Coerced Living Spaces
Creating and Maintaining Anti-Authoritarian Queer Space
The Seizure of Space and the Public Sphere: Enduring Lessons from the Zapatistas

Sunday 11-2
Relationship Anarchism: A 3-part Workshop

Sunday 12:30-2
Creating Safe Space in an Unsafe World: Supporting Survivors Whilst Respecting Their
Autonomy
Grey Pollution and Electronic Toxicity
Leisure’s Role in Space and the Anarchist Movement

Sunday 3-4:15
Demilitarizing Space
Public Sex and Social War
Sobriety Within the Struggle
A Return to the Land

Closing plenary, Sunday 4:30-6
A History of Anarchist Spaces in Chicago

Direct action against potholes

What to do when there are potholes on your street and the city won't pave them fast enough?

Patch them yourself.

That's what a West Side organization did today. Residents from the Austin neighborhood bought four bags of Quikrete from Home Depot for $50 and used shovels, rakes and a roller to fill about seven holes on the 4800 block of West Van Buren Street.

"The city's not doing it so residents need to take the matter into their own hands," said Elce Redmond, organizer with the South Austin Coalition.

The group fronted the $50 for the bags of asphalt mix. Neighbor Ernest Roberts luckily had a 50 pound roller in his garage -- left behind by a previous owner.

Roberts complained about Mayor Daley's slow efforts in repairing potholes in the neighborhood.
"He's too slow to getting around to here," he said.

Chicago Department of Transportation spokesman Brian Steele said that the agency plans repairs based on the volume of 311 pothole complaints and the amount of traffic streets experience.

CDOT received just one call about potholes in the 4800 block of Van Buren in the last two months, he said. The agency has repaired about 300,000 potholes since Dec. 1 and hasn't received state funding for resurfacing since 2006, he said.

from the Trib

Vandalism at parking meters up after rate hike

Chicago motorists are venting their anger about higher parking meter rates tied to a 75-year, $1.15 billion lease — with a spike in vandalism and a drop-off in on-street parking, the private contractor acknowledged Wednesday.

“We’ve certainly seen an uptick in the amount of vandalism at the meters. That suggests to me that some people are unhappy with the increase in the meter rates," said Mike Kuziak, chief operating officer of LAZ Parking, the operator hired by Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners.

"We've increased our resources to respond to meter maintenance issues to make sure the integrity of the system remains intact."

Kuziak said he was "not authorized to talk about revenue" and, therefore, could not put hard figures behind the anecdotal evidence supplied by Chicago Sun-Times columnist Carol Marin that a boycott is brewing to protest rates that require motorists to pump 28 quarters into Loop meters for two hours of parking.

But he said, "Clearly, as the rates have increased, there are people who are unhappy about it, and there are people who will seek alternative parking. That will free up more spaces on the street for the benefit of the merchant community."

Marin reported Sunday that she had observed open meters on Clark Street in Lincoln Park, on Milwaukee Avenue in Wicker Park and on Columbus Drive around the Sheraton Hotel during midweek, mid-day hours, when it would normally be difficult to find a space.

A barrage of angry e-mails only bolstered her contention that the empty spaces signal a backlash to the rate hikes, elimination of free Sunday parking and to the contractor's decision to issue parking tickets to "supplement" the city's enforcement efforts.

from the Sun-Times

Independent social space shutdown

In yet another blow to Chicago’s arts community, local performance space and nonprofit resource center AV-aerie has gone on “indefinite hiatus” following a visit from a dozen city officials this past Friday (which unfortunately put an early end to a benefit show for local upstart Dill Pickle Food Co-op).

As anyone who’s followed its trials and tribulations is well aware, this isn’t the first time the space—formerly Open-End gallery, Ideotech and the home of DEPART-ment—has run into problems with the zoning board. Last May, AV-aerie chief Marshall Preheim was slapped with a citation for not having a Public Place of Amusement license, and ever since he’s been ensnared in a lengthy and expensive tug of war with the city.

from Time Out