Because every neighborhood is its own awesome universe

Read about our locals and their favorite spots in the neighborhoods below: PILSEN Annie Novotny   BERWYN Lisa Predko-Vasquez and Robert Vasquez   LOGAN SQUARE The Langfords EVANSTON Jamie Anderson   BRONZEVILLE Dee Hawkins   ALBANY PARK Nan Cibula-Jenkins and John Jenkins   ANNIE NOVOTNY PILSEN Although she admits Pilsen could use a bookstore, Annie … Read more

Gery Chico Lands Key Endorsement: Harold Washington's Pastor, B. Herbert Martin

Gery Chico will score a key endorsement Monday afternoon from B. Herbert Martin, pastor of the Progressive Community Church at 48th and Wabash in the city’s Bronzeville neighborhood. Martin, 68, Harold Washington’s close friend and pastor, was raised in Mound Bayou, Mississippi and came to Chicago in 1967 to earn his master’s in divinity at Northwestern…

A Potential Conflict of Interest in the Rahm Residency Case?

Rahm Emanuel’s residency challenge is heating up, and it will likely end up in the Illinois Supreme Court. Sitting on that top court is Justice Anne Burke, who is married to Ald. Ed Burke, a City Council heavyweight as chairman of the finance committee. Although he has not yet issued the endorsement, the 14th Ward alderman gives every signal of supporting one of Rahm’s serious challengers, Gery Chico…

Louis Susman, Our Man in WikiLeaks (and London)

In the wake of the WikiLeaks document dump and the ensuing media frenzy, I wondered what I would find on Obama’s diplomatic appointees from Chicago. Of the four local Obama campaign donors who were rewarded with cushy ambassadorships—banker Louis Susman to England, lawyer David Jacobson to Canada, TV producer Charles Rivkin to France…

Rev. James Meeks: the Closest Thing to a Republican in the Mayor's Race?

When Rahm Emanuel, Carol Moseley Braun, and Danny Davis officially announced their candidacies earlier this month, there was something of letdown about it all—nothing much new in what they said or whom they introduced as members of their teams. The one surprise was Democratic state Sen. James Meeks. He was introduced by Andy McKenna, Jr., the former head of the Republican Party in Illinois and a failed candidate in…

Because we still realize the American dream

Pilsen filmmaker Esaú Meléndez   When 15-year-old Esaú Meléndez joined his family in Chicago two decades ago, thoughts of a life beyond the borders of his Bucktown neighborhood were as far off as the city—Mexico City—he had left behind. “I basically was in survival mode,” Meléndez, now 35, recalls. “I didn’t really think about opportunities … Read more