Whose Streets? Our Streets!

I am Chris Drew, the volunteer Executive Director of the Uptown Multi-Cultural Art Center for the past 24 years. I work for you without pay. Our groundbreaking lawsuit against the Chicago peddlers license is soon to be filed. The stakes are high. Your help is needed to make Chicago more friendly to artists.
Cindy is not her name but her story is common in Chicago. She is an artist facing poverty, out of a job, prolific, but unable to sell her art in public. Even with a peddlers license her opportunities are limited because there are no art scenes where she is able to sell her art. When she ventures out, she finds herself confused by the public with the homeless who they are used to seeing on the streets of Chicago. The homeless have won their First Amendment rights to meet the public in Chicago while artists have not. In the few marginalized areas of Chicago where the peddlers license allows her to sell, she is not joined by other artists in a vibrant street arts scene. The public sees her as a lone figure against a bleak cityscape and pass on by. She is unable to survive, as she should, by her art in Chicago because street art culture has been killed by unfriendly laws and prohibitive park policies.

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Posted on January 3, 2012

By The Beachwood Political Marketing Affairs Desk

“It’s Official: Obama Reelection Campaign Will Highlight His Defense Of The Middle Class,” the Blaze notes, relying on a McClatchy-Tribune report.
“[T]he Obama administration, up until this point, has relied mostly on the ‘It Could Be Worse’ tactic while defending its economic initiatives,” the Blaze’s Becket Adams writes. “However, for all the obvious reason, strategists in the Obama camp don’t think this message will go far with the average American.”
On the other hand, the New York Times reports that “Obama to Target Congress in 2012 Re-election Campaign,” suggesting the theme to replace Hope & Change is still in flux.
The Beachwood has learned, in fact, that the following themes are still under consideration:

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Posted on January 2, 2012

By StopChicago

“Mayor Emanuel’s 2012 Chicago City Budget proposes to close half of Chicago’s mental health clinics and privatize all seven of its neighborhood health centers, cutting off access to care to some of Chicago’s most vulnerable residents and under-served communities.
“The Mental Health Movement, launched by Southside Together Organizing for Power (STOP)’s in partnership with the Community Mental Health Board of Chicago and AFSCME Council 31, has been trying to meet with Mayor Emanuel since he was just a candidate. We delivered 4,000 letters explaining that closing clinics is dangerous for communities and will carry unanticipated costs in extra hospitalizations and police response to preventable crises.
“He ignored our letters and announced his plan to close and privatize our clinics. After asking for over a year to face the people his decision could kill, we sat-in for 10 hours at his office the day before the budget vote. Nonetheless, due to political arm-twisting, his budget passed 50-0.

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Posted on December 22, 2011

Intervention Planned By Anti-NATO/G8 Coalition

In the last business hours before the winter holidays, CANG8 – the Coalition Against NATO/G8 War & Poverty Agenda – will visit City Hall to offer suggested New Year’s resolutions to Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
“The mayor clearly needs support in developing more constructive ways to deal with stress, including his unfortunate tendency to threaten civil liberties and constitutional rights,” says Pat Hunt of CANG8. “Well, we’re coming to help him liberate himself from his abusive streak by resolving not to be a civil rights scrooge.”
Emanuel’s well-known reputation for abusive behavior surfaced again on December 14, when he asked the City Council for powers that would ruthlessly restrict the constitutionally guaranteed right to freely assemble and voice opposition to the NATO/G8 agenda of war and austerity.
The generals and banksters will gather in Chicago this May. Protesters have outlined four key resolutions Mayor Emanuel can embrace to check his angry elf and end his threatened constitutional abuses for the New Year:

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Posted on December 21, 2011

Uploaded to YouTube by the Chicago Independent Media Center

“One of the producers of Chicago Independent Television took a road trip from Boston to Chicago, visiting several occupations along the way. This is the video he produced from that trip.”

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Posted on December 20, 2011

Advocates Leasing Secret Formula To Morgan Stanley

“Former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley has joined Coca-Cola Co.’s board of directors effective immediately, the beverage giant announced Thursday.”
Daley’s influence was immediately felt, as the company also announced the following moves:
* All board votes will now be unanimous.
* The secret formula will be leased to Morgan Stanley for 75 years.
* Millennium Coke to debut five years late and $250 million over budget.
* Hired delivery trucks!
* Federal school lunch program declares Coke a vegetable.

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Posted on December 16, 2011

By Steve Rhodes

“If I see another story about how Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration is the most transparent government Chicago’s ever seen, I may bang my head against my desk,” Megan Cottrell writes for the Chicago Reporter.
“Yes, the mayor has put up some public data on the web. That’s useful and great. But if you ask most reporters if they’ve seen a change in the way the city answers questions or gives out data, the answer is no. When it comes to answering real questions or giving us information that we need, it still takes ridiculously long to get an answer.”
Cottrell is right, as was Mick Dumke earlier this month when he wrote a two-part examination of Rahm’s fake transparency.

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Posted on December 15, 2011

By The Beachwood Rock Local Affairs Desk

This is what democracy looks like.
1. A poem: “The 99 Percenter Anthem”

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Posted on December 12, 2011

By Steve Rhodes

This is what democracy looks like.
1. Taking Back K Street.
“Rev. CJ Hawking & Krista Rand w/Arise Chicago join Thom Hartmann. The 99% Movement took their message to K-Street yesterday to fight back against all the corporate corruption in our government. Over 1,000 people – including many unionized workers – took part in the day of action dubbed ‘Take Back the Capitol.'”

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Posted on December 9, 2011

By The Beachwood Contextual Affairs Desk

By the time Blago gets out . . .
* Patrick Daley will be mayor.
* The Cubs will have gone 118 years without winning a World Series.
* Lisa Madigan will have served two terms as governor.
* President Emanuel will be wrapping up his second term.
* 14 more aldermen will have been indicted.

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Posted on December 8, 2011