“What we reject is the ‘Help the Negro Industry,’ people coming into our community thinking they know best, trying to save us. We can save ourselves. The ‘Help the Negro Industry’ is what allowed billions of dollars to come down for urban renewal but the urban did not get renewed. We are absolutely committed that urban renewal not be repeated.”
Chicago is a city of interesting people but few are more engaging than the woman who uttered those words, Naomi Davis, a 54-year-old lawyer turned environmental evangelist that the Chicago News Cooperative’s Don Terry profiles in the Chicago pages of Friday’s New York Times.
Don came to CNC from stints as a highly-regarded journalist at the Chicago Sun-Times, the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. We’re lucky to have him. He’s a graceful writer, an incisive reporter and a keen social observer. The only thing that exceeds his passion for reporting on social issues is his deft touch on subjects small and large, including his piece on Ms. Davis, the founder and president of Blacks in Green, a three-year-old organization set up to help blacks capitalize on the emerging “green” economy. She’s been everything from a “gaslight girl” (“the poor cousin of the Playboy Bunnies,” she said) to a lawyer and entrepreneur with her own consulting firm. Now she’s preaching the “power of green.” You can read why in Don’s piece in Friday’s Times.
The corner of North and Meade avenues on Chicago’s west side is far away from Highland Park, where the CNC’s Katie Fretland grew up. Yet that’s where she landed recently when she reported a piece for CNC “Street Corners.” The idea of the Street Corners feature is to inject into our stories some of the voices from the incredible mix of cultures and people that make Chicago so unique. Katie dropped into a barbershop near North and Meade where the buzz was much more intense that the whirring sound of the electric razors.
Billy Petrick realized every ballplayer’s dream when he pitched at Wrigley Field at age 23–but then injuries took the speed out of his fastball. CNC Sports Columnist Dan McGrath portrays Petrick’s determined trek to see big-league action again.
Some weeks ago, CNC introduced a piece called “The Chicago Way.” The movie “The Untouchables” popularized the phrase. Recently the political chattering class in Washington borrowed the name to describe the tactics of hard-driving Obama aides like White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Some people just can’t take sharp elbow or two.
Here at CNC we figured we’re as good as anyone in Washington at borrowing things so we grabbed “The Chicago Way” to describe characters and deals that could only be found in Chicago. So where else but in this city could you find a program that recycles clout as efficiently as plastic bottles. No one is better at spotting “The Chicago Way” than City Hall Bureau Chief Dan Mihalopoulos.
The Chicago News Cooperative produces two pages of Chicago news for the New York Times every Friday and Sunday. We strive for original coverage for Chicago readers who deserve the best from the city’s journalists. If you have ideas about subjects that merit out coverage, please let us know at newstips@chicagonewscoop.org.
Thanks so much.
