Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot joined Alderman Jason Ervin (28th Ward), City leaders, and members of the Garfield Park Rite to Wellness Collaborative to cut the ribbon on the newly finished and state-of-the-art Roller Rink located at a formerly vacant lot at 4000 West Madison Street and conceived of by members of the neighborhood. In addition to the new Roller Rink, this lot is actively being transformed into a Community Plaza that will stand alongside the Roller Rink in West Garfield Park as part of the Mayor’s new Neighborhood Activation initiative. Neighborhood Activation is a focused violence prevention and community investment initiative that combines community aspirations with City investments and assets to implement programs, social services, and changes to the built environment at a hyper-local block level.  

“This beautiful new roller rink is the first completed project of many investments we have down the line as a part of our Neighborhood Activation Initiative, which will bring resources to communities that are facing high levels of violence,” said Chicago Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot. “Only through making investments like these are we able to give our most vulnerable residents the resources they need to stay engaged and stay safe. I want to thank all of our community, creative and City partners for bringing this roller rink to life for our West Garfield Park residents and look forward to our continued collaboration.” 

The rink was designed by Chicago-based landscape and architecture firm Site Design Group, Ltd.,  and constructed by the Chicago Park District over the last two months, but was conceived as part of a year-long community engagement process to evaluate the West Garfield Park neighborhood assets and needs, led by architecture and urban design practice Studio Gang and non-profit the Goldin Institute in partnership with local community organizations including the West Garfield Right To Wellness Collaborative.  

As the first neighborhood selected for Neighborhood Activation, West Garfield Park is a priority for increased safety. West Garfield Park had the highest rate of fatal and non-fatal shootings relative to the population of all community areas in the city. The West Garfield community is also in the top five when it comes to neighborhoods experiencing narcotics sales and opioid addiction.  The Neighborhood Activation initiative builds on Mayor Lightfoot’s all-hands-on-deck approach to public safety and seeks to address the root causes of violence by bringing a whole of government response to the community through the provision of social services, job programs, opportunities for residents of all ages, and changes to the physical landscape. 

“Access to affordable, engaging recreation activities is vital to the health and vitality of any community,” said Chicago Park District General Superintendent & CEO Michael Kelly. “Through our partnership with the City, we have transformed an unutilized space into a new roller rink and plaza in Garfield Park, offering residents space to gather and enjoy in a constructive way.” 

“I believe that design can be an agent of positive change and it has been deeply gratifying to use our skills as architects to lead this community-empowered visioning process, working directly with those who know the neighborhood best to articulate a better future for their community,” said Studio Gang Founding Partner Jeanne Gang. “It is wonderful to see the resulting project by Site Design Group that brings our planning work to life for the community.” 

Both Studio Gang and the Goldin Institute donated their services to design and conduct a robust community engagement process in West Garfield Park, resulting in proposals for community-led neighborhood changes. Building on Studio Gang’s 2017 work for the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice in New York, and the local peace-building knowledge from the Goldin Institute’s Chicago Peace Fellows program, the team researched the history of the neighborhood, the built environment, and existing initiatives in the community to suggest ways that design interventions could support community members’ aspirations, uplift the good work that is already happening, and identify opportunities for additional investment that could address the root causes of neighborhood violence.  

The Community Plaza and Roller Rink were proposed by community members who wanted to create safe community spaces and youth programming opportunities for residents. This newly completed Roller Rink and multi-purpose space are open to the public daily all summer long. Following this, the City aims to install permanent lighting, furniture, a stage, and outdoor activity space when the rink reopens in 2022, allowing it to serve the community year-round. 

While the Roller Rink and Community Plaza will be the first built components, Neighborhood Activation looks broadly at West Garfield Park and has involved departments across the City, working collaboratively to meet community needs and maximize impact. The Chicago Park District, Department of Transportation, Chicago Public Library, Department of Public Health, Department of Family & Support Services, Assets & Information Services, Department of Planning & Development, Chicago Police Department, Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, the Chicago-Cook Workforce Partnership, and the Department of Housing have all made important contributions to this initiative.  

In addition to this newly finished Roller Rink and upcoming Community Plaza, the West Garfield Park neighborhood anchors Legler Regional Library and Melody Elementary School. These facilities have recently made improvements and continue to provide supplemental resources to residents in connection with the Neighborhood Activation initiative.  

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One Chicago police officer was killed and another fighting for their life after being shot during a traffic stop on Saturday night, officials said.

Chicago Police Department 1st Dep. Supt. Eric Carter told a news conference that two suspects were in custody after the incident.

He said that the officers were fired upon while conducting a traffic stop and returned fire.

It was not immediately clear what precipitated the incident.

The violence took place in the city’s West Englewood community, NBC Chicago reported.

Chicago Police Department spokesman Tom Ahern earlier confirmed the shooting in a tweet and said the officers were taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center.

“It’s a very sad and tragic day for our city,” said Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. “My heart aches for the loss of life.”

Chicago has continued to struggle this summer with gun violence. Three people, including a 14-year-old boy, were killed and 17 people were injured in four separate shootings in a single night last month.

Dennis Romero

Dennis Romero writes for NBC News and is based in Los Angeles.

Joe Studley contributed.

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Joseph Robinson, better known as Joe Freshgoods, wants you to stop asking him when his second collaboration with New Balance—a pair of brown, green, and blue 990v3s—is coming out.

“This is like my sophomore album,” says Robinson over the phone, the day before he would drop the sneakers in Chicago first at the Garfield Park on the West Side where he grew up. “I treat all of this like music. So if my first album sold this and it was dope, then let me treat this like a perfect rollout. I can put all these shoes online, they can sell out in a couple of seconds, but I need you to understand the story behind everything. I’m like stories first, and then y’all can get the product.”

The story Robinson is trying to tell was beautifully depicted in the ad he released this week, which was directed Mike Carson and scored by Alchemist. It showcased being outside in Chicago on a warm, summer day—they shot the short film on his grandmother’s block. Many of the scenes felt familiar, like the uncle helming the grill wearing socks and sandals, or the Auntie asking the cousins to get together for a picture, or the mother telling her son he smells like “outside.” But in the grander scheme of sneaker marketing, Robinson says these types of visuals don’t typically happen.

“I just think that we are the top consumer for a lot of this, but a lot of the ads, a lot of the conversations are not for us, you know?” says Robinson, who also added that this is biggest marketing budget he’s worked with. 

Here, Robinson speaks about the inspiration behind the ad and the sneakers, if he felt like he had something to prove to New Balance enthusiasts, and wanting to be respected beyond sneakers.

Talk about the ad and what you wanted to achieve with it.
I am proud and Black as you know. And I think the bigger I get, the more brands are starting to trust me with budgets. I think for me the type of relationship I’m building with New Balance, there’s more trust. I’m feeling way more comfortable talking about my Black experiences. I think sometimes a lot of brands force [Blackness] down our throat. I grew up in Chicago. I wanted to capture candy store moments or on the porch moments. Simple things like seeing the dude with the nice car, or getting your hair done on the porch. These are things that we all experience across the world. I get comments from people in Australia saying, “Yo, I felt this, I used to go to the candy store.” So I’m just feeling very comfortable talking about my experiences on the West Side of Chicago. And the biggest thing for me is just making relatable content. The shoes might’ve been hard to digest, but even if you didn’t like the shoes, my goal was to attach some type of emotional marketing to the whole campaign. And there were 78 Black people in this commercial. Everyone got paid. I even got my grandma a check because we shot her on her porch.

Why did you say the sneakers are hard to digest?
A lot of people are commenting and saying, “I didn’t mind the shoes at first.” And it’s certain colors that you haven’t really seen before. It’s like, “Oh, shit, I haven’t seen those three color combos together.” I love it. The brown represents the dirt, the green, the grass, the blue, the sky. So it’s not like I hit people with some fucking spaced out, weird shit. My goal is always to provide brands with a point of view they’ve never seen before, you know? 

What was on the moodboard for the commercial? 
This commercial is basically inspired by Scarface’s “On My Block” video, Crooklyn, and Moonlight. When I was coming up with this, I was thinking about the football scene from Moonlight, the Crooklyn opening scene, and the transitions from “On My Block.” That was the inspo for this. 

I wanted to talk about the integration of the Washington, DC license plate. I’m from the DMV area so I loved that. Why was it important for you to include it? 
That was Mike Carson, the director. I understand what DC means to New Balance. He was the rich uncle who just drove back from DC with New Balances in the trunk. Me being from Chicago, obviously my goal is to bring a new flavor and get Chicagoans wearing New Balances, but I wanted to pay homage.

So many people are talking about the uncle on the grill wearing socks and sandals. You mentioned the different Easter eggs in the commercial. Can you talk about more of them?
The commercial starts off showcasing my Community Goods nonprofit on the back of the T-shirt and my partnership with the Chicago Park District. I want people to know that Community Goods is here to stay and I have a lot of big things happening with Community Goods and New Balance. The porch moment with the Black dads; t’s kind of showing a different viewpoint of Black men. I think sometimes you see these moodboards and it’s like, ghetto Black girl, or like just hood dude. Or it’s like the slow-motion mean mug with the pan down of the shoes. And I was just like, “I’ve never seen Black dads on a porch. Let me just do that.” So showcasing Black dads and positivity. Also at the barbecue, how the guy was sitting down with the plate on his lap, which connects to that meme where Black people can make a table out of their legs. Another big Easter egg is, everywhere it usually says “Made in the US” from the box to the shoe, I changed it to “Made for Us,” which I know I’m going to get flack for, but I just have to develop thicker skin.

With the sandals, I heard that one of the higher-ups wanted to know why he wasn’t wearing New Balances. So it’s just like, sometimes you have to do stuff and it’s educating people in real time. I can see why people would be like, why did you do that? Why did you zoom in on him if he’s not wearing New Balances? But it just had to be there. And I appreciate New Balance for just staying out of the way. And it worked. I strongly feel like I have one of the best sneaker ads in a long time, you know what I mean? And this is just proof of concept for me. 

That’s fantastic. Why did you want to work with Alchemist, Gunner Stahl, and Mike Carson?
Now I’m starting to have a budget and I get to work with my friends. I get to work with legends. So I’ve always loved Mike Carson’s work. I know a lot of these people will do stuff for me for free because of how we grew up in the industry together. But it’s like fuck it, you know? I got an opportunity to pay my friends. Gunner doesn’t usually do stuff like this. He’s like, in his own world with how he shoots. So just like bringing them to Chicago, having them come to the West Side. It’s like, let me stunt on everybody. Because I’m not like in LA or New York and on some “let me post all of my friends.” These are real friendships. Wale has my shoes because I dropped them off at his hotel. Everyone that has my shoes are people I’m cool with. And I’m not really going to be seeding crazy like that. I’m becoming anti-seeding ‘cause that’s kind of corny. 

But yeah, I’ve always wanted to work with Gunner and I wanted to see his point of view on something like this. With Alchemist it’s just like, who the fuck has Alchemist scoring their commercial? I’ve always been a big fan. “Hold You Down” with Prodigy is one of my favorite songs ever. So a lot of this stuff is like me being 13 and I’m like, “Yo, how are you doing this?” My best friend is my younger version of myself. I’m always talking to young me. The only person I’m trying to impress is 13-year-old Joe. 

Oh, that’s really sweet. I want to talk about the scenes with the Black women. Was that about entrepreneurship?
I don’t like how sneaker brands approach Black women, you know. It’s just the same moodboard. All of this commercial was shot on my grandmother’s block. And I remember walking past the house on that block and you would see a girl on the phone getting her hair braided. Or hear them talking about what happened last night. It wasn’t like, stereotypical ghetto moodboard. I remember walking past that house with the older girls and it was just like that. They had entrepreneurial spirit and might not have even known it. So that was what I was trying to represent with that.

People are very eager for these shoes. And I see you interacting with people on Twitter who keep asking you when are the shoes coming out. Has this long rollout been purposeful? 
I’m going to be honest. I don’t think people understand. COVID is fucking everything up when it’s coming to ports and shippings. Every sneaker release happening in the next few months is going to get delayed. Next year there’s going to be delays. So it’s a combination of me getting my concept together. But it’s also when you go to my website it says I’m crazy, I drop when I want to drop. And with me it’s like, y’all ain’t fittin’ to tell me what to do. Everything I do is like, you ain’t seen this done before. I’m like, “Thirteen-year-old Joe, do you approve of this wild shit?” And his response is, “Yeah, Joe, do it.” So for me, it’s a combination of me making sure I receive all my shoes. ‘Cause that was a big thing. And just getting my content. I have so much behind-the-scenes content. I’m dropping my lookbook today. Yesterday I dropped the campaign photos. I want people to, to take in everything. I announced that shoe via Sneaker Freaker three months ago. And for me this is the shoe after the magical shoe I dropped for All-Star weekend. This is like my sophomore album. I treat all of this like music. So if my first album sold this and it was dope, then let me treat this like a perfect rollout. I can put all these shoes online, they can sell out in a couple of seconds. I need you to understand the story behind everything. I’m like stories first, and then y’all can get the product. 

What are you thinking about outside of New Balance? What’s happening with your line?
I think I’ve kind of mastered being the sneaker guy. This is a new version of me. My followers are increasing. I hate that people are finding out about me through sneakers, which is cool, but like, man, my story and how I came up I wanted to be respected for my quality and the clothes I make. Even now my clothes for this collection are really good. This is like my first full cut and sew collection. There’s no blanks. I didn’t use sweatpants that already existed. Everything is crafted how I wanted it to be.Even down to the button. So I’m trying to live in this space where I’m still independent. You’re fittin’ to find me in 50,000 stores. I’m gonna make my stuff a little bit more available. I feel like there is an open void for a Black designer to put on his people. And like a lot of stuff I’m doing next year is all around women. So for me it’s just like, oh, nobody’s doing that. Let me invoke politics. You know? ‘Cause I’m kind of rubbing shoulders with Chicago politics now because I’m in the nonprofit world. While I always wanted to just be cool, smoke my weed and just put out stuff, now I realized I need to study up more on what I want to do, be a little bit more elegant in my approach, but also remain relatable. And when you get bigger, you become less relatable. I don’t want to become a coon to the system of being used. I’ve turned down million dollar deals from brands that just wanted me to be their Black face. I’m very transparent about my journey to a fault, which I’m going to chill on. Because now my tweets are becoming news. So I kind of have to chill. But yeah, it’s working on my clothes, working on my community efforts, chilling with collabs. I’m really homing in on partnerships as opposed to one-off collabs. I don’t like brands using me one time and that’s it and then doing the same thing with bigger talent like I’m the test dummy. 

Do you feel like you had something to prove to the New Balance enthusiast with the second collab? 
Well yeah. Because everybody was saying, “Joe’s shoe is cold, but he designed off the inline shit.” For me, everything is a subtweet. It’s supposed to say 990, I changed it to JFG. I did things you aren’t supposed to do with New Balances. I took of “Made in the US” and put “Made for Us.”  It’s like I’m going to show you motherfuckahs these aren’t custom. So yeah, I feel like I had something to prove because people are like, he’s a one-hit wonder. 

What about the ice cream cone tongue?
I could have had the option to do a different tongue but that tongue is usually on the 993s. 

Any other special details on the sneakers you want to talk about?
I’m a fan of the bottom of the shoe because it reminds me of the bottom of the earth. It’s my favorite part. That’s about it. I’m not trying to make it super deep. I’ve never seen these colors work and I’m a fan of that Bottega green. I made this last April. Even with the outside shit I was like, I think the world is going to be open. I miss outside and was thinking about what outside means to me. So Outside Clothes is pretty much me missing outside. I made this literally cooped up in the crib. 

Will the sneakers be more widely available?
Yes. That’s all I’ll say. It will be more than 800 pairs, like the last ones.

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The Chicago Park District’s leader has come under fire for the district’s handling of sexual harassment and misconduct allegations brought forth by former female lifeguards.

As first reported by WBEZ, Michael Kelly, the head of the Chicago Park District received a detailed, lengthy and disturbing complaint letter from a former lifeguard, and promised the woman he would act on the allegations of “extreme abuse.” But Kelly didn’t act until six weeks later, the radio station reported.

The letter, which Kelly said he received in February of 2020 from the daughter of a longtime acquaintance, included accusations against park district employees including physical abuse, sexual harassment and drug and alcohol abuse.

“The first thing I did was I responded right away,” he said. “I hadn’t even read it yet, and my reaction was that we were going to move, and we were going to move swiftly, and we are going to move passionately.”

The park district has repeatedly declined to answer questions about Kelly’s delay in forwarding the complaint letter, according to WBEZ.

Kelly, who has been the city’s parks’ chief since 2011, said he asked senior managers to check into the allegations and sent the letter to the park district’s inspector general.

Then, six weeks later, he received a letter from a second individual including a complaint of criminal sexual assault. That, Kelly said, resulted in an 18-month-long investigation into alleged wrongdoing by park district employees.

As many as five lifeguards implicated in the probe have left their positions, but the district said criminal charges are still being considered.

Kelly has instituted new training for lifeguards and other employees and continues to cooperate with the inspector general’s investigation.

“My commitment to the first call I got…from the dad…my commitment to her and any victim is that we are going to move this on and not give up until we do,” Kelly said.

Addressing the situation Thursday, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she feels the Park District has taken the necessary steps, but said, “We can never rest on issues like this.”

Kelly, meanwhile, says he has no plans to resign and the safety of children remains a top priority.

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Mike Madigan and Ed Burke got into politics the old fashioned way: through their dads.

When he was a law student at Loyola, Madigan introduced himself to Mayor Richard J. Daley as the son of Michael Madigan, a precinct captain and 13th Ward Streets and Sanitation superintendent. That made the young man good people in Daley’s eyes. He found Mike Jr. a job in the city’s law department, then supported his candidacy for the state house.

Burke’s filial connection to politics was even more direct: his father, Joseph Burke, was alderman of the 14th Ward. Joe died in 1968. A year later, Ed won a special election to fill his seat, and has held it ever since.

In those days, if you wanted to get ahead in Chicago politics, it helped to be a brat, born and raised in Chicago politics. In 1948, Abner Mikva, a young man from Milwaukee attending the University of Chicago, tried to volunteer at a ward committeeman’s office. He was told, “We don’t want nobody nobody sent.”

Mikva nonetheless went on to a successful career in Chicago politics, serving five terms in the legislature, and four terms in Congress. Back then, he was an outlier, boosted by the transplant-heavy Hyde Park vote—and later by the Evanston vote when the Machine redistricted him out of his alma mater’s neighborhood. Today, he’d be the norm. Consider the origins of some of today’s most successful local politicians.

• Former senator and president Barack Obama: Born and raised in Honolulu.
• Senator Tammy Duckworth: Born in Bangkok, went to high school in Honolulu.
• Cook County Board President and Democratic Party Chairwoman Toni Preckwinkle: Minneapolis, Minnesota.
• Mayor Lori Lightfoot: Massillon, Ohio
• Congresswoman and Illinois Democratic Party Chairwoman Robin Kelly: New York City.
• Former congressman and mayor Rahm Emanuel: Born in Chicago, but raised in Wilmette, where he attended New Trier High School.
• Governor J.B. Pritzker: Atherton, California.

Powerful offices once occupied by Irishmen whose roots in Chicago’s neighborhoods ran generations deep are now almost entirely filled by… transplants. What’s going on?

When Barack Obama arrived in Chicago, in 1985, he knew nobody here except a great-uncle who worked at the University of Chicago library. Not a guy who could help him in politics. Eleven years later, he was a state senator. Eight years after that, a U.S. senator. Four years after that, president. Obama successfully threaded the needle of being in Chicago without being of Chicago. As the city that has produced the most Black members of Congress, Chicago was essential to his political rise. But the fact that Obama was not a traditional Chicago politician meant that John McCain’s accusation that he was “born of the corrupt Chicago political machine” never stuck to him, the way it might have stuck to someone named Daley.

In his runs for Congress, and for mayor, Emanuel’s enemies tried to portray him as a carpetbagging suburban elitist. Nancy Kaszak, Emanuel’s 2002 primary opponent, cut an ad depicting a limousine cruising through the Northwest Side—meant to represent Rahm—then declared, “I’m from here.” During the 2011 mayoral campaign, candidate Miguel del Valle scoffed, “I’m from Humboldt Park. He’s from where—Wilmette, Winnetka? I went to Tuley High, he went to what—New Trier? And Rahm’s tougher than me?” Emanuel never lost an election.

In her campaign for mayor, Lightfoot turned her opponents’ backgrounds in traditional Chicago politics against them. A month and a half before the primary, the feds charged Burke with shaking down a Burger King owner for a permit. Lightfoot cut an ad identifying Preckwinkle, Bill Daley, Susana Mendoza and Gery Chico as the “Burke Four,” because of their ties to the shady alderman. She ran not as a Regular, but as a “goo goo”— a good government reformer—the same label that helped Preckwinkle become an alderman with by cleaning up the vote in Hyde Park and Kenwood in 1991. (The incumbent Preckwinkle defeated, Timothy Evans, now runs the county courts.) 

For more than a century, Chicago politics has been based on ethnic alliances. That’s how the experienced politicians were conducting their campaigns. Chico and Mendoza were going for the Latino vote. Willie Wilson was going for the black vote. Daley was going for the white vote. Lightfoot made it into the runoff by selling her anti-corruption message to her fellow goo-goos along the north lakefront—many of them transplants like herself. Then she crushed Preckwinkle by portraying her as a representative of Machine politics.

Why are newcomers to the city beating Chicagoans at their own game? Perhaps it’s because Chicago is a less provincial city than it used to be. Especially since the 1990s, the city has been a magnet for ambitious college-educated professionals from all over the Midwest, and all over the country—and not so much for other age groups. (Preckwinkle and Lightfoot came here to attend the University of Chicago, Kelly to attend Bradley University in Peoria, Duckworth to attend Northern Illinois University.) After making their marks in business, law, academia, and the arts, it was only natural that they would try to conquer politics, too. 

In politics, it often helps to be an outsider. Here in the city with the most corrupt political culture in America, it seems to be helping a lot. Lightfoot, who prosecuted bribe-taking aldermen during Operation Silver Shovel, staked her campaign on the fact that Chicagoans were sick of Chicago politicians. She was right. Chicago wanted somebody nobody sent.

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CHICAGO (CBS) — Chicago’s mayor announced the creation of a Community Safety Coordination Center (CSCC) to use information, the way the city did to respond to the number of COVID-19 cases, to now combat violence in the city.

“If COVID-19 taught us anything, it’s that in order to solve some of our greatest problems as a city, we have to work collaboratively, both across city departments and our many valued community partners and nonprofits,” said Mayor Lightfoot. “The CSCC is the city’s next step in our whole of government, all hands on deck approach to reducing and preventing violence in our communities; and enhancing the safety of all our residents and visitors.”

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Lightfoot said the Community Safety Coordination Center will be “an incredible new resource in Chicago’s fight against violence, and will create the opportunities for enhanced coordination and cooperation that have been instrumental in keeping Chicagoans safe and healthy through the pandemic.”

The CSCC will coordinate resources to help engage residents and community groups. The mayor said the space will have workers from “healthcare and mental health organizations, violence reduction nonprofits, youth services organizations, victim services organizations, education organizations, faith communities, local businesses, elected officials,” as well as city departments.

“Throughout the pandemic response and vaccine roll-out, we have worked very closely with our valued community partners, knowing that it is through them we would have the greatest impact,” said Dr. Allison Arwady, Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health. “The CSCC will do the same, strengthening community connections as part of this vital violence prevention work.”

Arwady said taking on violence in the city is a daunting task, but says the way the city responded to the COVID outbreak taught important lessons.

“For COVID, we don’t just say, ‘Where are we seeing the cases?’ We say, ‘What’s the data around what we’re doing about it? Where are we putting testing? What are we doing around vaccine? What are the community groups doing?’” said Arwady, adding that in talking about violence data, information can help Chicago with crucial elements to curb violence.

“We talk about the outcomes, we talk about the homicides, we talk about domestic based violence and other violence. And that’s critical and important,” Arwady said. “But we have to use that data, pair it with the data of our response.”

READ MORE: Chicago Firefighter-EMT Erik Zuma Indicted On Multiple Sex Assault Charges; CBS 2’s Dana Kozlov Reported On How He Was Still On Job Despite Allegations

She said response isn’t just law enforcement, but the many community groups on the ground seeing the violence first-hand.

“We do not have all of the answers about this. We don’t have a vaccine for violence in the way that we do for COVID, but we have seen the power of an entire city coming together around COVID,” she said.

The space will provide data sources and analysis on violent crime. The city said it will also examine the root causes of violence. Along with information on violence in the city, the center will “provide data on food insecurity, power and internet connectivity, affordable housing, and healthcare access.”

Lightfoot said that will help the city take “a more holistic and community-driven approach when using this data to prevent violence. She said the program will cost around $50 million dollars, and the mayor said she plans to ask City Council for more money as the center’s programs need more resources.

“What we’re doing is bringing together all of the city employees who are already working on this work, so they’re they’re engaged in programmatic work for monies that have already been allocated, and we’re bringing them all together in one space,” Lightfoot said. “There’s some nominal costs associated with bringing everybody together, but that’s really inconsequential, the focus is breaking people out of their silos, bringing them together.”

Community leaders said the goal of this center is to not only share information or data on violence statistics, but to bring people in affected neighborhoods to the table so people can talk about what works and what doesn’t in terms of violence prevention.

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“Reducing violence cannot be accomplished without direct input from those who are most impacted by it,” said Rodney Brown, Executive Director of North Lawndale Coordinating Council. “A violence prevention plan that is made at the highest levels and pushed downward will never work, which is why I commend the Mayor and her team for creating this center to serve as a force for the community to direct and appropriate the resources and staff that they need.”

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CHICAGO – Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot today announced Ruby Ferguson to serve as the City of Chicago’s first Food Equity Policy Lead. As an employee of the Greater Chicago Food Depository, Ferguson will report jointly to the Mayor’s Policy Office and the Food Depository to drive collaboration among members of the City’s Food Equity Council. Ferguson is an innovative leader in nutrition with nearly a decade of experience successfully implementing programming addressing food insecurity.  

“Ruby is an exceptional food and health equity champion whose talents and expertise are exactly what our city needs during this time of recovery and opportunity,” said Mayor Lightfoot. “The pandemic has laid bare the many inequities that exist within our city, with food insecurity and historic disinvestment being among the most pressing. Equitably enhancing our city’s food assets and ecosystem thus provides an important opportunity for us to address socioeconomic issues across our city and Ruby is truly the perfect person to help us accomplish this mission.” 

The ambition of creating an equitable food system requires innovation, expertise, and leadership from both the public and private sector. For that reason, as the Food Equity Policy Lead, Ferguson will drive collaboration between the City of Chicago, the Greater Chicago Food Depository, and other members of the City’s Food Equity Council to advance a strategic plan to realize a city-wide vision to build a more just and equitable food system. Additionally, she will be charged with advancing the 5 food policy priorities in the recently announced Food Equity Agenda.  

“For generations – long before the pandemic – systemic inequities have driven disproportionately higher rates of food insecurity in communities of color,” said Kate Maehr, executive director and CEO of the Food Depository. “A return to pre-pandemic normal isn’t acceptable. The City’s Food Equity Council’s mission is to foster a new food system that grants all Chicagoans equitable access to nutrition, health, and opportunity. We are so delighted that Ruby is with us to lead this vital work.” 

Prior to joining the Food Depository, Ferguson served as Director of Nutrition Services at Near North Health Service Corporation by supporting and expanding the WIC, clinical dietetic, and cooking programs. She believes that nutrition can return power to underserved populations, and thus provide the community with the agency to be an active stakeholder in its own health. Using the lens of cultural humility, she has been awarded grants that address food and health inequities through breastfeeding, nutrition education, hands-on cooking expertise, disease management, and sharing the narratives of the community.  

“I am immensely grateful to Mayor Lightfoot for this opportunity to serve as the City’s first ever Food Equity Policy Lead,” said Ruby Ferguson. “At a time where many Chicagoans are coping with food insecurity, lack of access to quality, and affordable food retail, it is crucial to have a concerted effort on alleviating that burden while creating a pathway to innovation. Examples of my commitment to community nutrition are seen in the development of pop-up WIC clinics at Head Starts, collaborations with local farms across the city, and the implementation of virtual cooking classes in a pandemic. Through this new role I plan to build on that work and advance our shared agenda of creating a more resilient food system that benefits all residents.”  

Ferguson is a registered dietitian and certified lactation specialist whose work has gained her recognition as a Health Equity Champion by the National WIC Association. She is a Phi Betta Kappa graduate of Spelman College where she earned her Bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and Chemistry. Additionally, she completed her Master’s in exercise physiology from Auburn University and Master’s in Human Nutrition from The University of Illinois at Chicago.  

 

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Within 12 hours of receiving a detailed, lengthy and disturbing complaint letter from a former lifeguard last year, the head of the Chicago Park District promised the young woman he would act on her allegations of “extreme abuse” against employees and other misconduct in the agency’s Aquatics Department, according to newly obtained documents.

“Thank you for your courage and call for change,” wrote Michael Kelly, the park district’s longtime general superintendent and chief executive officer, in a Feb. 7, 2020 email obtained by WBEZ.

But he did not make good on his promise to the young woman for 41 days, records show.

Kelly’s office only gave the initial whistleblower’s letter to the park district’s inspector general on March 19, 2020. That was two days after aides to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot forwarded Kelly a separate but even more disturbing complaint from another young woman.

The pair of graphic and impassioned letters set off what’s become a “broad” internal probe into complaints that dozens of workers in the Aquatics Department regularly committed “sexual harassment, abuse and assault against teenage girls and young women” on the park district’s payroll, a WBEZ investigation first revealed.

Three veteran male lifeguards accused of serious sexual misconduct have left the park district, and the investigators have said they are looking into many other cases and any “systemic” issues that could have allowed the problems to persist.

But the probe has dragged on for more than 16 months. The park district’s inspector general recently asserted that her office lacks the resources to deal with the unprecedented investigation, though Lightfoot has disputed that notion.

In a statement in June, Kelly said he “took immediate action” when first notified of the alleged abuses.

But WBEZ first reported in April that Kelly took nearly six weeks to forward the complaint from the young woman to the inspector general. Park district officials have declined repeatedly to answer questions about what immediate action Kelly took – and his office took as long as it did to forward the initial complaint.

Kelly – who is paid $230,000 a year – has declined repeatedly to grant an interview to WBEZ about his role in the matter, as has the park district’s board president, Avis LaVelle. Lightfoot’s predecessor, Rahm Emanuel, appointed both Kelly and LaVelle to those positions

They did not return messages Thursday. The spokeswoman for the park district declined to comment.

For months, officials have hidden the letter from the whistleblower who contacted Kelly and his response to her. The park district denied WBEZ’s open records request for the documents, and the station has filed a lawsuit against the agency in Cook County Circuit Court to force officials to release the emails.

The Chicago Sun-Times first reported on the contents of the messages between Kelly and the whistleblower Thursday, and WBEZ has obtained copies of the emails.

The documents provide new details on what Kelly was told initially and how he handled the complaint.

Records show the whistleblower sent the 11-page complaint to Kelly shortly after midnight on Feb. 7, 2020. The young woman wrote that she worked at Oak Street Beach in the summer of 2019, and she alleged to Kelly, “There was extreme abuse from the other lifeguards and I do not want to see anybody go through what I went through.”

At 12:16 p.m. that same day, Kelly replied: “Thank you for sending this report. I am forwarding it to our Inspector General for an independent investigation. I have not had a chance to read it yet but I will and I take your assertions very seriously. Thank you for your courage and call for change. Please don’t hesitate to stay in touch with me moving forward.”

Kelly signed the letter simply as “Mike.”

The following month, WBEZ has reported, Lightfoot’s office also got another complaint letter from a former lifeguard who said she had been sexually assaulted by a manager when she was 17 and that other high-ups at the park district mocked her about it.

Also in March 2020, that same woman who complained to Lightfoot’s office sent an almost identical letter to a high-ranking park district official, Adam Bueling. He’s paid $91,800 a year as the manager of beaches and pools.

According to the letters obtained by WBEZ, that woman told Bueling and Lightfoot’s office about being “sexually assaulted by another employee with a more senior position than I.” She said she then learned of a “huge” number of such incidents at the park district after telling three co-workers about the attack and about managers who mocked her when she had tried to speak up.

“They replied that they were not surprised because similar things had happened to them,” the woman wrote in the letters to Bueling and Lightfoot. “I was shocked. I asked them if they had made reports and some said that they had, but nothing was done about it. Others said that there were too many hoops to jump through to make a report and that they weren’t taken seriously, so it was not worth it.”

The mayor’s office has declined to release the complete copy of the letter she received from that lifeguard, prompting another lawsuit from WBEZ, alleging violations of the state’s Freedom of Information Act.

By the time of the letters to Bueling and Lightfoot, Kelly already had fielded similarly graphic allegations from the original complainant in February 2020.

That woman described regular drug use by lifeguards while on duty. She wrote that one male lifeguard “told me that he was so high when he was giving CPR to a man that just got pulled out of the water.”

She also alleged that a male lifeguard slammed her into the wall of a guard room and called her misogynistic slurs while he was “very high.”

The woman said she refused to drink alcohol as part of a hazing ritual, and she said that led to a lifeguard “grabbing me and trying to force a bottle of vodka down my throat.”

For the rest of the summer, she wrote, multiple lifeguards called her a litany of misogynistic slurs that “became my regular name.”

“Respect was something I never got, no matter how well I performed as a guard,” she wrote

Although the investigation began last year, nearly a dozen female former lifeguards have told WBEZ that sexism and other toxic workplace behaviors have been common at Chicago’s public pools and beaches virtually since women began working as lifeguards there more than 50 years ago.

Kelly has been the head of the park district since 2011 and he began working there eight years earlier.

Dan Mihalopoulos is an investigative reporter on WBEZ’s Government & Politics Team. Follow him @dmihalopoulos.

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Media top headlines August 4

In media news today, Chris Cuomo stays silent on CNN about the bombshell report on his brother’s sexual harassment charges, and more revelations come to light about the extent of Cuomo’s advising of his brother on the scandal.

Washington Post fact checker Glenn Kessler did not buy hometown D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s “poor spin” when she was caught going maskless indoors after reinstating the district’s indoor mask mandate, calling it an “embarrassing moment for the mayor.”

“She defended herself with partisan-laced spin and innuendo about ‘disinformation,’ making false accusations about the reporter who exposed her actions. She earns Four Pinocchios,” Kessler wrote in a piece headlined, “Mayor Bowser’s poor spin about not following her own mask mandate.”

Bowser announced last week the city would renew the indoor mask mandate for anyone over 2 years old following the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19. Less than 24 hours later, Washington Examiner commentary writer Tiana Lowe reported Bowser sat at a table at The Line DC hotel in the district’s Adams Morgan neighborhood. For at least half an hour, Lowe said, Bowser never put on her mask.

CRITICS SLAM DC MAYOR MURIEL BOWSER FOR VIOLATING HER OWN MASK MANDATE

Lowe had photographic evidence, but in a statement, Bowser’s office wrote the mayor “wore a mask indoors in compliance with the mandate, and the organizers and venue staff worked to create a safe environment for the staff and guests.” She didn’t explain why she was seen without a mask when she wasn’t “actively eating or drinking,” as her order said. Bowser, Kessler said in his analysis, essentially “rewrote her own rules” on masks.

Bowser also suggested Lowe was an anti-vax “right-wing nut” who was trying to spread disinformation. But Kessler pointed out that Lowe has consistently supported COVID-19 vaccinations.

“As we noted, Lowe is a strong advocate of vaccination,” he wrote. “Bowser’s staff needs to do better homework on her critics.”

DC MAYOR BOWSER PHOTOGRAPHED MASKLESS AT WEDDING RECEPTION AFTER REINSTATING MASK MANDATE 

But Kessler’s most biting criticism of the mayor came in his conclusion when he slapped Four Pinocchios, the outlet’s worst rating for falsehoods, on Bowser’s argument.

“This is an embarrassing moment for the mayor,” he wrote. “The video clearly shows she is seated at a table, when the meal is over, in violation of her own mask mandate that says masks are not required indoors in these circumstances only when ‘actively eating or drinking.’ But she could have used this an object lesson — that she got caught up in the celebratory mood and failed to put her mask back on. After all, everyone makes mistakes from time to time. But it’s important for political leaders to set an example — even when making an error.”

Bowser’s caught-on-camera moment makes her the latest politician to be called out as a COVID hypocrite.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, D., was photographed dining at the French Laundry restaurant in Napa last year despite banning indoor dining in most parts of the state. Last April, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, D., got a haircut during her citywide stay-at-home order, defending the visit by calling herself “the public face” of the city. In September, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was caught getting her hair done without wearing a mask while salons in San Francisco were shuttered.

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Nor is it the first time Bowser has been hit for breaking her own COVID mandates. In January, the mayor was ripped for traveling to Delaware to attend a victory party for President-elect Joe Biden, despite the state being on her travel advisory list. The mayor defended her trip as falling under essential travel.

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Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is now recommending anyone above 2 years old wear a coronavirus mask indoors, regardless of whether or not they’ve gotten a vaccine – even as she’s still urging Windy City residents to get their shots.

“Based on our current COVID-19 data, we’re now recommending that everyone over 2 years old, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks in public indoor settings,” her city-run account tweeted Tuesday. “Get vaxxed.”

She’s also asking unvaccinated travelers from almost 20 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to self-quarantine for 10-days  or provide a negative COVID-19 test result within 72 hours of landing in Chicago.

The move follows a major update in guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that prompted a push for renewed mask mandates in several states and cities last week.

CHICAGO MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT ATTENDS LOLLAPALOOZA MUSIC FESTIVAL AMID REINSTATING COVID RESTRICTIONS

The CDC says people should wear masks indoors in communities where the risk of COVID-19 transmission is “substantial” or greater – a threshold Chicago crossed last week when it reached an average of 200 new coronavirus cases a day.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot  (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File) 

Last week, Lightfoot was publicly discussing the possibility of a new mask mandate should the city reach that infection rate.

“If we start to see consistently going over that, we’re not only going to look at a mask mandate, but we’re going to look back at other tools that we’ve been compelled to use,” she told the New York Times columnist Kara Swisher on an episode of her “Sway” podcast.

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However this week, she stopped short of reinstating one and instead said she is recommending masks for Chicagoans. And masks will remain optional outside.

Over the weekend, the mayor attended the fan-packed Lollapalooza music festival, a potential super-spreader event, where she was photographed without a mask of her own as coronavirus cases once again climb in Chicago.

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