Corporatist State- Owned Whole Foods and Starbucks! Englewood is Kennilworth!

 

The Rahm Smoothies - a little ginger, a little honey and maybe more than a little Hal Baskin, maybe?

Whole Food shoppers you are subsidizing Englewood
Eggs are $1.99 in Englewood vs $3.099 in Lincoln Park
Milk is $1.99 vs $4.19 in Lincoln Park
Gallon of vanilla ice cream $3.99 vs $5.99 in Lincoln Park
When you shop at Whole Foods ask for the Englewood prices. Comment from Chicago Tribune Editorial

        

And if you go chasing rabbits

And you know you're going to fall

Tell 'em a hookah-smoking caterpillar

Has given you the call - Bruce Dold Editor Chicago Tribune

When Bruce Dold is told to get excited about something by the powers that be in this Rube Berg of a Banana Republic* he fairly micturates until he pounds out a mirthful tittering of gleeful Alice in Engelwheel hop about . . . whatever.

Today's cheer leading exercises is an especially hoydenish delight!

It's been said of Deerfield, Sauganash and countless other communities: This must be a nice place since it's got a Whole Foods and a Starbucks.
So what happens when you plunk down two of the country's most culturally powerful brands in impoverished Englewood? Do these stores become just a sideshow to the violent crime, or can they change perceptions about the quality of life in one of Chicago's most beaten-down neighborhoods?

Yes!!!!!! Number 2, Bruce !!!!!!!!!       Perceptions stop the trajectory of bullets!

I live in the 19th Ward, racially diverse but no Whole Foods. Would Dold et al opine a la Betty Davis from Beyond the Forest?



You bet!  This is Urbs in Horto, Dude!

 We got a Starbucks over by the 103rd Street Station and CVS, but more people go to Kareem's Dunkin Donuts on 104th & Western, even though it has not the culturally powerful brand-age cache of Starbucks, but then again at Double D's you don't need to pick Arabica coffee grounds out your gums after a few swallows.

Aside from my snide remarks, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

Is a neighborhood only a fit place to live because two of the country's most culturally powerful brands plump their rumps within its confines?

Or, is neighborhood a place where most, if not all of the people look out for one another, respect one another and behave like citizens.

Well, Whole Foods and Starbucks are political players and 63rd Street has been a Development mess for Chicago's Planning & Development Department for more than twenty years.  Elder Hal Baskin has his mitts wide open to all venture opportunists and get-out the vote - for a wad of cash surety at the Ward level of the 3, 6, 15, 16, 17 and 20 Wards.  Six, count 'em six Wards for one Neigh. . .  (sorry) Community - an impoverished, delapidated, dangerous and gang-infested Community.

Much like Hyde Park?  Could be?  Really,Bruce?

My 19th Ward encompasses Beverly, West Beverly, Morgan Park and Mount Greenwood. Huge difference.  Hal Baskin, a Democratic Party legitimized activist and Gangster Disciple Emeritus has 'reached out to touch' every community development project.

I have had the pleasure of waving bye-bye to a handcuffed Hal in the back of a 6th District Chicago Police squad car, when he and the Englewood Task Force tried to shake down Leo High School.

Lord knows the trouble I've seen!

Activist arrested at school protest
September 02, 2004 

Community activist and former gang member Hal Baskin was arrested for allegedly shoving a police officer Wednesday during a protest outside Leo High School on the South Side, authorities said.
Baskin, who has run for alderman several times and was once an associate of convicted Gangster Disciples kingpin Larry Hoover, was charged with misdemeanor battery, mob action and obstruction in the incident shortly before noon near the Catholic school at 7901 S. Sangamon St., police said. 

Two patrol officers confronted Baskin and several others after they saw a group of people with signs step off the sidewalk and obstruct traffic on 79th Street, Chicago police spokesman David Bayless said.

Baskin, released from custody at Gresham District police headquarters about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, said the protest was a peaceful appeal to the school to hire two neighborhood men for a construction project. He denied shoving the officer and said the group was on the sidewalk but was forced onto the street at times by police.
"Common sense would tell you that I've been doing this for 25 years. I know not to lay hands on a police officer," he said. "Why would I do something idiotic like that?"
Police alleged that when the officers asked the group to get out of the street, Baskin responded by shoving an officer. Three others also were arrested. Attempts to reach school officials were unsuccessful.  Chicago Tribune

Not really, we said plenty and none of it printable, this a few years before Corporatist Mayor Daley and his boy Rahm pulled all of the teeth out CPD.  Imagine cops putting the bracelets on Elder Hal today?

Well, just because Hal Baskin tried to pry open construction wallets universal in Englewood for more than thirty years, does not necessarily mean that he still has his huge mitts dug deeply into the britches of two of the country's most culturally powerful brands.  We won't know that, because the newspapers will never tell.

Bruce Dold is now editor of Chicago Tribune and he takes orders from City Hall and the most culturally powerful brands (Disney, Starbucks, Whole Foods, Audi et al) and you, the consumer, pay the prices and the get to feel good in knowing that you have stopped the laws of physics (speeding bullets) and the thug impulses in Englewood - home to some great people and some really nasty thugs.

Our society buys into nonsense when nonsense is the only thing being offered.

Some do well in such a society ( an Oligarchy) and most try to survive.

Nice one, Bruce.

* Corporatism, also known as corporativism, is the sociopolitical organization of a society by major interest groups, or corporate groups, such as agricultural, business, ethnic, labour, military, patronage, or scientific affiliations, on the basis of common interests.

Time to Turn To St. Rocco - Our World Is Diseased

O Great St. Rocco, deliver us, we beseech you, from contagious diseases, and the contagion of sin. Obtain, for us, a purity of heart which will assist us to make good use of health, and to bear sufferings with patience. Teach us to follow your example in the practice of penance and charity, so that we may, one day enjoy the happiness of being with Christ, Our Savior, in Heaven. Amen. Prayer to St. Rocco

I remember the Feast of Saint Rocco, when it was celebrated at St. Mary of Mount Carmel* Parish in West Englewood back in the late 1950's and 1960's. The Feast of St. Rocco was celebrated in August usually the 12th - 15th.  We lived on the south side of Burlington Northern-Santa Fe tracks at 75th Street, in the Mick-land of Little Flower, but went with our folks to the great Italian main street on 69th Street to Sardi's for meats, Naples Bakery and to eat well at Louis George's.

Many of my Italian neighbors moved from the wood framed two story apartments, or single family cottages in St. Mary's to the Georgians and brick bungalows in Little Flower and they introduced us Turkeybirds to glories of the feast of St. Roccos - games, Italian beef and sausage 'samich-es wit green peppers 'n onions.' Most of all the great fireworks attendant to the close of feast.  When I was about five Terry Smith, Al and Charlie McFarland, by brother Whitey and me asked the smartest guy south of the Wood Street viaduct, Maury Lanigan where the great fireworks came from and were shamed by the shaman, " That's the Dago Carnival."  Oh.

As we got older (grow up? as if.) we went with our Italian buddies over the tracks and to the great carnival.

The Procession of St. Rocco travelled the circuit of the parish from the Church on Hermitage down 67th Street to Damen and south to 69th Street ( home of the 69th street Loafers) and east to Ashland and then back to the church.  After stuffing our potato-holes with cotton candy and those no-longer existent red hard-crusted cinnamon candied apples, Italian ices and beefs we hiked back over the tracks (rather through the swampy viaduct behind the steel factory) to our Georgians and raised ranches on 75th Place and Wood Street.

Once home, before street lights out mind you, we would sit on the curb and watch the greatest sky show of the summer.  From St. Mary's huge and majestic pyrotechnics dominated the skies over Englewood in what seemed an endless fire works show.  All in celebration of the 13th Century Frenchman from Montpelliar who is so venerated by generations of Italians.

Rocco was born with a red birthmark on the left side of his chest.  Shortly he was orphaned and raised by his uncle the Duke of Montpellier.

St. Rocco grew up about three hours west of Nice in south of France.  Yesterday, Islamist savages drove a panel truck through a crowd of innocents celebrating the French Fourth of July -Bastille Day. These activists slaughtered four score human beings in the cause of the Caliphate.

Here in America, we are trying to recover from the slaughter of five Dallas Police Officers and dozen more by a savage activist.  You can call him what you will.

There will be no healing in the near future here any more than in the Non-Caliphate world.  Professional Oligarchs running for President, activists in the pay of a Hungarian Bond Villain, media clowns and group-thought academic facists will keep the scabs yanked off any healing. Sad to say.

Our world is diseased.  Our world is diseased by charlatans and thieves who would "Deconstruct" humanity.  We have no common humanity. We are Diverse, because we must stay Balkanized and aggrieved.

Disease knows no class, no race, no faith and no mercy.

St. Rocco was a well-to-do young man related to the Duke of Montpellier.  He denied the material world and dedicated his life to God and everyone on God's earth who suffers.

Rocco went to Italy, where a plague was decimating the population . Rocco prayed for the sick and cared for them with his RoccoCare.

He too caught the plague and developed a horrible oozing ulcer on his left leg.  He slept on leaves and drank water from a creek, but he was fed crusts of bread from a dog who had discovered the suffering Rocco and grabbed a loaf of bread off of his master's table. The dog belonged to a local nobleman who took notice of the bread snatching and followed the mutt to where the saint was holed up.

The nobleman tended to Rocco's health, but the leg never improved. Rocco had become legendary for his works among the suffering people of northern Italy over the next three years and then rturned to France sick, suffering and broke and was tossed into prison as a "spy." It turned out that the official who arrested Rocco was his uncle - The Duke of Montpellier.  On August 16, 1378,  a guard went to Rooco's cell and found him near death When the Duke demanded to know the true identity of this Italian spy, Rocco replied, " I am your nephew."  The Duke ordered the man stripped to waist and revealed the red birth-mark. He also had a red oozing sore to go with what God had blessed him with at birth. A voice was heard by the Duke and all of the townspeople saying that Rocco had merited eternal life and had gone home to Christ.

Many miracles were attributed to Rocco.

I am going to try and remember to pray to Saint Rocco and pray that our divided and diseased world comes to its senses.

St. Rocco was a big part of my childish summers,  I hope and pray that I grow up and the world turns to Rocco, as opposed to activists, oligarchs and frauds.


*"St Mary of Mount Carmel. 6722 S Hermitage (west Englewood) Most original parishoners came from Salerno. Now a Protestant church. Original church was woodframe 1891-1976."


Many thanks to this great Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/69th-Street-South-Side-Chitowners-271041162496/?fref=ts

Sharing Rides With Clyde , Leo High School Freshman

Clyde and the X Country Team - The Man is Dead Center Front Row Tossing the Leo Lion "L"

I pick up ten guys every morning along a route that comprises Englewood, Grand Crossing and Bronzevill neighborhoods. My first passenger is a freshman named Clyde B@@#$^% who lives in the concrete pocket that intersects the Metra line, the Skyway and Vincennes/Wentworth along the Dan Ryan.

Leo freshman Clyde is a perfect gentleman, mature beyond his years, thoughtful, tough and suffers from no self-esteem issues, whatsoever. Clyde is unarguably the shortest man at Leo High School, but stands much taller than some of classmates.  He ran cross-country and is a member of the freshman basketball team now playing .500 ball with a victory over Calumet (Perspectives) and a tough loss to the Fighting Irish of Bishop McNamara on Friday.  Clyde can steal and handle the ball, but can not shoot to save his life and neither can his team mates. They'll get there.

I take the grey van from the lot on Sangamom each morning and drive north on Halsted to 74th Street, make a right to south bound Stewart, a left on 75th Street and quick left at Normal.  I am at Clyde's in less than six minutes.  His Mom is a nurse raising two boys in Englewood and paying Catholic school tuition.  She is a valiant young woman.  Clyde's brother attends a Chicago public grade school.  He too will attend Leo High School.

Clyde emerges from the warmth of this home promptly at 6:30AM, climbs in to the passenger seat next to me with genuine,   " Good Morning, Mr. Hickey!"  Morning Clyde! We begin the morning dialog.

We then talk all manner of things from stray dogs in the neighborhood, to Josh  McCown's rightful place as Bears QB, to basketball practice, to the glorious Chicago architecture between 63rd and 35th Street along Dr. King Drive. We pick up Chris A##$%^^ in the project homes still called South Park at 66th.  Chris is a classmate of Clyde's and a profoundly serious guy who keeps his own counsel.  For the last couple of weeks, construction projects on King Drive required us to detour through Washington Park to 55th Street.  This was grist for the Columbian Exposition narratives mill and Burnham's far-sighted development of the south side from the Lake west to State Street.

As I mentioned, we take in the beautiful homes and apartment buildings on Dr. King Drive.  My favorite is on the north east corner of  43rd Street. 

Clyde prefers the Chicken and Waffle House at 39th & King Drive for more than just the aesthetic but culinary graces bestowed beyond its portals.

We pass the Victory Monument of the Fighting 8th Illinois Regiment and arrive at 35th & and Dr. King Drive, take a right and quick left into the strip mall for the Dunkin Donuts Munchkins that will tide over the seven to eight gents who will join my two passengers for the journey to another day in Catholic education. Clyde's appearance in the door is cause for excitement among the early morning Coffee Anne  crowd,  Roy the mall maintenance manager and Miss Marie get greeted by the young man and then query Clyde's doings as he places the order for his fellow travellers. This fourteen year old gentleman is one of the best examples of what Leo High School is all about.

I look forward to my drives with Clyde.