Recent Contributions
Tracking CHA Voucher Holders
by MICK DUMKE | Apr 29, 2011
As part of the Chicago News Cooperative’s reporting on how the dismantling of concentrated public housing might have affected crime rates in neighborhoods across the city, the CNC sought information from the Chicago Housing Authority about the movement of former tenants. The CHA released information showing what neighborhoods some former tenants have moved to, but
Connecting the Data Dots: What City Agencies Did and Did Not Divulge
by MICK DUMKE | Apr 28, 2011
There is a wide range of theories about how much, and in what ways, the dismantling of concentrated public housing might have affected crime rates in neighborhoods across the city. But data is difficult to pin down, and city agencies have refused to share key information with the public. Though elected officials, journalists and neighborhood
Displaced CHA Tenants Face Own Hurdles
by MICK DUMKE | Apr 28, 2011
The Chicago Housing Authority’s Plan for Transformation is widely blamed for sending crime and violence into neighborhoods across the South Side. But former CHA tenants who moved as part of the plan are often concerned about their own safety, advocates say. Uprooted from their homes, with few financial resources and often with no connections to
A Neighborhood’s Steady Decline
by MICK DUMKE | Apr 28, 2011
The Auburn-Gresham community has become home to 159 former public housing households with rental-subsidy vouchers, more than Chatham, its more middle-class neighbor to the west. But the problems besetting Auburn-Gresham were locked in long before the new tenants arrived. The neighborhood has suffered since businesses and investment capital disappeared in the aftermath of the “white
As Neighborhood Changes, Who’s at Fault?
by MICK DUMKE | Apr 28, 2011
It has been asserted so widely for so long that it is accepted as fact: When Chicago’s public housing projects came down, many of their former residents moved into middle-class South Side neighborhoods and brought crime with them. But whether it is true remains the subject of an intense and sensitive debate more than a
Runoffs for Aldermen Pose First Test for Emanuel
by DAN MIHALOPOULOS and MICK DUMKE | Feb 24, 2011
After winning the mayoral election with a highly polished campaign that seemed more like a run for governor or president, Rahm Emanuel immediately turned his focus to the bare-knuckle, parochial world of Chicago ward politics.
Change Comes to the City Council
by HUNTER CLAUSS and MICK DUMKE | Feb 22, 2011
The races to determine the makeup of the next City Council have been as tumultuous as expected: 14 races are headed for runoffs, and among the candidates on the ropes are several veteran alderman and a couple of anointed successors to powerful ward organizations.
For Candidates, the 15th Ward’s Ills Are Daunting
by JOHN KONSTANTARAS, JOSE MORE, and MICK DUMKE | Feb 17, 2011
Click here for corresponding article.
For Candidates, the 15th Ward’s Ills Are Daunting
by MICK DUMKE | Feb 17, 2011
In the eyes of Lisa Thomas, the needs of the 15th Ward are so extensive it is difficult to list them all.
Service Couldn’t Be Better, and at $200 a Ton It Should Be
by DAN MIHALOPOULOS and MICK DUMKE | Feb 12, 2011
The 600,000 households in Chicago that rely on City Hall to collect and dispose of their trash enjoy first-rate service. Regardless of what residents leave in alleys, the city carts it away to a landfill at no extra charge.