[in person] Community Safety Town Hall: Central Region
Chicago Office of the Mayor401 S Plymouth Ct, Chicago, Illinois 60605 Chicago, IL 60605 (Directions)
Harold Washington Library Center, Winter Garden, 9th Floor
This is an in person assignment and will include an additional hour of pay.
The Mayor’s Office is hosting several regional town halls on community safety and violence prevention. These events were initially scheduled to be held virtually but after the first event, the Mayor’s Office decided they wanted to reschedule for in-person events.
We recommend that you register on the Eventbrite page so that you are notified of any last-minute changes. As of this writing, some of the virtual event language still shows up when you reach the confirmation page. This is in error; please reach out if you have any other questions about this assignment!
This event will be held in the 9th floor winter garden. Use the west street entrance (401 S. Plymouth Ct.) and the elevators will be on your right.
Reporting
Edited and summarized by the Chicago - IL Documenters Team
Violence prevention, Community engagement
@CHIdocumenters Today’s 2:00pm town hall is being held at the Harold Washington Library Winter Garden. Event info here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/community-safety-town-halls-tickets-288801201167
The Mayor’s Office is hosting several regional town halls on community safety and violence prevention. These events were initially scheduled to be held virtually but after the first event, the Mayor’s Office decided they wanted to reschedule for in-person events.
Upcoming events:
Southwest Side Town Hall
Date: Monday, April 4th
Location: Daley College
7500 S Pulaski Rd, Chicago, IL 60652
Time: 6 PM
North/Northwest Side Town Hall
Date: Tuesday, April 5th
Location: Truman College Gymnasium
1145 W Wilson Ave, Chicago, IL 60640
Time: 6 PM
@cantvchicago has some audio recordings of recent town halls on SoundCloud. For example: https://soundcloud.com/cantvchicago/city-of-chicago-south-side-community-safety-town-hall
The town hall begins around 2:12pm. The public can submit questions via cards on every table. There will be no “open mic” today. https://t.co/jek4CYlBmP
Goals for each town hall:
- Inform (the City’s policies, programs, and investments)
- Learn from the public
- Respond to questions from the public
Tamara Mahal, Chief Coordination Officer for CSCC, discusses some root causes of community violence:
- under-performing schools
- under-resourced public services
- mistrusted between community and police
- Poverty and income inequality
- Under-funding of public housing
Each table is asked to come up with five things the city can do to improve pubic safety.
At my table, one person discusses a recent incident in which a group of teenagers corned and bullied them.
Another person comments that seemingly many people complain that the city should do more, but not many people show up to the community safety public engagements. Someone else responds that the city can do a better job publicizing the events.
Some of the ideas my table has been discussing:
- life skills, job training, mentoring, youth programming
- wrap-around services
- long term research of root causes
- more accessible ways of engaging with local government
Lightfoot says the City is down in shootings and car-jackings but “not enough.” Addressing car-jackings, Lightfoot says it’s alarming that increasing numbers of juveniles are being arrested and that folks do not feel safe in their own vehicles. https://t.co/ot9FUOb7NB
Lightfoot says we cannot just arrest ourselves out of public safety problems.
Panelists:
Pedro Martinez - CEO of @ChiPubSchools
David Brown - Supt of CPD
Mayor Lightfoot
Tamara Mahal
Allison Arwady - Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health
Brandie Knazze - Commissioner of the Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS)
In thinking about the causes of violent crime, Lightfoot discusses poverty and the lack of opportunity. She speaks of “absence of” things like green and safe spaces.
Lightfoot says locking up violent, dangerous people must be a priority for the City.
Lightfoot says last year CPD took 12k guns off the streets. “We are awash in guns… and they are ending up in the hands of children.”
Lightfoot is advocating for early outreach in order to prevent kids from choosing violence and crime and also focusing policing efforts on gangs, guns, and violent offenders.
One question asks what the CTA is doing to reduce violent crime. Brown says CTA is hiring additional private security and there will be increased coordination with CPD. Brown says that CPD is having success filling transit-related vacancies in the department.
Brown also says that @cta has very high quality security cameras and that CPD is committed to allocating more resources, so that more CPD officers will be riding CTA trains.
Another Q asks for specific strategies for dealing with gangs and organized crime. Brown says one strategy recently utilized is bringing federal gun trafficking charges (gun conspiracy charges).
Mahal discusses street outreach, in which former offenders turn their lives around and help others who want to get out of the gang life, providing job and educational opportunities. Arwady says, fundamentally public health is about prevention.
Arwady says that the City is receiving significant funding for violence prevention initiatives, and that this is relatively new.
Q: What are we doing to address mental illness and homelessness. Arwady says the Lightfoot administration has increased such funding for DPH by about seven times.
Knazze says the City tackles homelessness via outreach, but this isn’t enough. She says the City also has brought a doctor to camps so that the homeless can receive medical care. Knazze also discusses enhancements to Rapid Re-housing: https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/fss/provdrs/emerg/svcs/rapidrehousing.html
A question mentions other cities’ programs to re-use closed schools for youth programming. Lightfoot acknowledges that college isn’t for everyone and says the trades are a great alternative.
Martinez discusses a recent program in which 3k middle-schoolers received exposure to trade skills.
This article discusses the event Martinez talked about: https://blockclubchicago.org/2022/03/22/cps-students-can-learn-about-trades-at-3-day-career-fair-at-mccormick-place/
Q: What resources are available to those who want to clean up their neighborhoods. Cole Stallard, Commissioner of Streets and Sanitation, says community members can work with Streets and San to clean up their neighborhoods and have S&S pick up the trash.
Stallard and Lightfoot clarify that the State of Illinois is responsible for cleaning the trash and graffiti on expressways.
Mahal briefly discussed the Chicago’s Citywide Clean and Green Volunteer Cleanup program: https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/streets/supp_info/chicago-s-citywide-clean-and-green-volunteer-cleanup.html
In addressing a question about how the public can take advantage of funding and resources, Lightfoot says each alder received about $100k to allocate micro grants to community members. More: https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dcd/provdrs/ec_dev/svcs/chicago-recovery-grant-application.html
In closing remarks, Lightfoot thanks everyone for coming out and having important conversations with the folks at their tables. She mentioned that the City plans to release a book with the questions and concerns raised at these community safety town halls.
This concludes my coverage for @CHIdocumenters. #CHIDocumenters
Please see http://chicago.gov for more information. Reply to this thread or DM me with any questions.