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Statement of Alderman Laurino, Chicago Children's Museum
print this articleChicago Children's Museum
Statement of Alderman Margaret Laurino, 39th Ward
In the City Council, Aldermen often have to vote on controversial matters. Recently, we were asked to consider the relocation of the Chicago Children's Museum from its current location at Navy Pier to a new location replacing the Daley Bicentennial Plaza at Grant Park.
Proponents of the Chicago Children's Museum move said the new site was the only location that would offer a centralized location, convenient to public transportation and parking, and accessible to open green space. Opponents claimed that moving the museum would violate the open, clean and free standards of Grant Park.
I appreciate the hundreds of 39th Ward residents who contacted my office expressing their views, both in favor of and opposed to the move to Daley Bicentennial Plaza. This became a very emotional issue, with both the proponents and opponents presented good arguments expressing their point of view. In considering my vote, I weighed both sides of the issue. After careful deliberation, I decided to support the move of the Chicago Children's Museum to Daley Bicentennial Plaza.
In my view, the most troublesome rhetoric surrounding this issue was the suggestion that the Chicago Children's Museum would be built on open park land, both reducing green space and violating longstanding open space precedents in Grant Park.
This is not the case. The Chicago Children's Museum would replace an existing structure, the Daley Bicentennial Plaza fieldhouse and entrance to the Monroe parking garage. The new Chicago Children's Museum will add significant green space to the park by removing the existing concrete plaza presently at the location.
The museum will be built with private philanthropic and corporate funds. No tax dollars will be used for the construction of the museum. In addition, the museum will build a new park fieldhouse, replacing the outdated structure currently in the park, and will donate the fieldhouse to the Park District. Again, this will be built without using tax dollars. The Chicago Park District will continue to own the land and will lease it to the Chicago Children's Museum.
More than 6,800 school children from the 39th Ward have visited and benefited from programming at the Chicago Children's Museum. The new location will allow the museum to better serve even more children from the 39th Ward, all Chicago neighborhoods, and families visiting our great city.
Chicago Sun Times" Chicago Has Solution in the Bag
City has solution in the bag
Chicago Sun-Times Commentary
April 25, 2008
When it comes to attacking the problem of plastic shopping bags, Chicago is thinking small.
And that's not a bad thing.
Chicago officials could try to ban the environmental pests -- produced by the billions each year -- as San Francisco has.
Or tax them nearly out of existence, as in Ireland.
But Chicago isn't San Francisco. And heaven knows, we're taxed enough. So after much discussion with business and environmental groups, City Hall has come up with a more modest proposal, to be considered by the City Council next month.
The plan calls for grocery stores and pharmacies to provide bins for customers to drop off their plastic bags for recycling and also to sell reusable bags, such as those trendy canvas sacks.
Some environmentalists want Chicago to do more, and Ald. Margaret Laurino (39th), who is co-sponsoring the measure with Ald. Ed Burke (14th), stresses this is just a first step. The idea is to get people in the habit of recycling their plastic bags at a place they routinely visit.
That's smart. Make it convenient, and people will get on board.
Some large stores already offer the bins. Mom-and-pop shops, under the plan, would be allowed more time to get with the program.
It's nothing radical, just a nudge in the right direction that can make the Earth a little cleaner, our lives a bit brighter.
Chicago Tribune Editorial: Recycle plastic? Fantastic.
Chicago Tribune
Editorial
Recycle plastic? Fantastic.
February 25, 2008
In recent years, a number of countries and U.S. cities have moved to curtail the use of disposable plastic bags. The hundreds of billions of bags used annually worldwide cause environmental mischief. Marine animals mistake them for food and then suffocate or starve to death. Sea turtles mistake them for jellyfish, their primary food source. In 2002, a whale that washed ashore on a Normandy beach had an 800-kilogram knot of plastic in its stomach.
Chicago Ald. Margaret Laurino (39th) and Edward Burke (14th) have sponsored an ordinance that would require chains with five or more large stores -- at least 5,000 square feet -- to have easily accessible recycling bins for their bags. The stores would be required to sell reusable bags, such as cloth sacks.
Many grocery chains already do this. The ordinance sounds reasonable and is preferable to a city ban on plastic bags. Most grocery stores sell reusable bags for a nominal fee -- often $1. Options abound at various prices: canvas, linen, bamboo, lightweight nylon.
Designers are even getting into the act. Those focused on convenience can buy bags that fold into a pouch small enough to fit in a coat pocket, glove compartment or handbag. Many reusable bags can carry more content than the standard plastic bags. Fewer bags of groceries equal fewer trips to the car to unload after a shopping trip.
The plastic bags are still convenient, and a lot of people reuse them around the house. But if you're not reusing them, try to recycle them at the grocery store. (You can take dry-cleaning and newspaper bags too.) It's precisely the attributes that make plastic bags convenient -- their virtual weightlessness and their compactness -- that make them easy to carry to recycle.
Plastic never biodegrades -- meaning its waste can do harm forever. Using less plastic is best, and recycling is a good way to dispose of the plastic you do use. The proposed city ordinance would encourage that.
Copyright 2008, Chicago Tribune
Chicago's Food Deserts
CBS 2 Chicago
City's 'Food Deserts' Can Lead To Big Health Risks
Many Minority Communities Have No Easy Access To Fresh Food In Chicago
February 20, 2008
Reporting Diann Burns
CHICAGO (CBS) ― Many people in Chicago take for granted that they can run a quick errand and pick up fresh fruits and vegetables in their neighborhood. Half a million people here cannot do that because they live in what's called a "food desert" -- an isolated area with no major grocery stores, but a lot of fast food, on practically every corner.
To buy a single head of lettuce Delores Wedgeworth took two buses on a 45 minute ride each way, with a transfer.
"I think it's important for me to make the effort to go out of the neighborhood 'caise if I eat just fast food all week, I can tell, I'm sluggish, not, as they say, on the edge..." Wedgeworth said.
She is a working senior -- a teacher at a preschool.
"I jump, I climb. I'm not a spring chicken, but I have a lot of energy. I gotta fuel my body," she said.
CBS 2's Dianne Burns reports most of Chicago's food deserts are on the South and West sides, and almost all of them are predominantly African American.
A liquor store is at every turn in those food desserts, as well as a blinding array of fast food. Many people buy meals there, and at the gas station.
"If you live in these communities you're more likely to suffer from hypertension, diabetes, certain kinds of cancers, so it's very serious," said Mari Gallagher of MG Research and Consulting.
MG Research looked at all 18,000 blocks in the city. The study found that fresh fruits and vegetables are very difficult to find in food deserts because the major grocery stores fled the inner city.
"I'm embarrassed, outraged," said Congressman Bobby Rush. "You can buy French fries, but you can't buy fresh potatoes. You can get ketchup, but no tomatoes. Something is wrong with that."
Rep. Rush saw the trend firsthand in his First District, and pushed for lawmakers in Washington to acknowledge the food desert with a designation in the 2008 farm bill to help Chicago pay for solutions.
"It's not gonna happen overnight," said Ald. Margaret Laurino. "It's a real slow process. I feel we've brought enough people to the table that are committed to this project."
Ald. Laurino's city council committee every year puts together the grocery expo -- a report that offers a list of attractive properties for locations in the city where a grocery store could open, with perhaps a chance for success.
The city hopes to lure independent, medium-sized stores to the grocery deserts. With childhood obesity reaching the epidemic stage, time is critical. And studies show that healthy eating promotes better learning.
"It's shameful, it's again a death sentence to generations of people and it shouldn't be that way and it's got to stop," Rep. Rush said.
The Chicago City Council is also reaching out to a Pennsylvania group that helped tackle the food desert problem in Philadelphia. They will be conducting more research on what can be done here in Chicago.
( MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Legislation Passed to Curb Cyberstalking
On January 9, 2008 the Chicago City Council passed legislation sponsored by Alderman Margaret Laurino (39th Ward) and Alderman Edward Burke (14th Ward) which expands the tools available to protect people from cyberstalking. Cyberstalking is defined in the legislation as harassing and threatening someone through electronic communication on at least two or more occasions.
In the wake of recent incidents of harmfu1 cyberstalking nationwide, the Chicago City Council has taken a proactive stance that such crimes will not be tolerated. The legislation imposes fines of up to $500 for a first offense and $1,000 for subsequent offenses as well as up to 90 days in jail or up to 1,500 hours of community service.
Illinois is one of forty-five states that have cyberstalking laws on the books and this city legislation broadens the options available to law enforcement officials and judges to punish this conduct.
As Chairman of the Chicago City Council's Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development, Alderman Margaret Laurino is concerned with making sure our city's legislation keeps up with technology. "As we heard from law enforcement officials from both the city and county at our committee hearing, this legislation gives us an additional tool to help fight crime and keep our citizens safe, particularly our children", said Alderman Laurino.
City Council Begins Live Video Streaming
Live, from Chicago, it's the City Council
Chicago Sun-Times
September 27, 2007
By: Fran Spielman
Chicago has come a long way since the days when television cameras were not allowed to broadcast or record City Council meetings. In those days, it took an order from then-Finance Committee Chairman Tom Keane, introduced at each meeting, to let the cameras roll.
Fast forward more than three decades. After years of talk, City Council meetings will finally be televised live on the Internet, starting today.
Welcome to the 21st Century.
"I've got to check with my makeup artist," joked Ald. Pat O'Connor (40th).
"Speeches are probably gonna get about fifteen minutes longer. [Ald. Edward] Burke's history lessons will probably ramble on for hours," said Rules Committee Chairman Richard Mell (33rd).
3 CAMERAS FIXED ON SPEAKER
Ever since the city was wired for cable, there's been talk of televising Council meetings.
An ordinance authorizing the live streaming video on the Internet was approved by the City Council in January 2004.
It never happened, largely because of a heated debate about where to position the cameras.
Some aldermen complained that cameras free to pan the Council floor could paint an unflattering portrait of inattentive aldermen, aldermen who arrive fashionably late, wheel and deal on the Council floor or doze off during long-winded speeches.
"For guys like me who walk around a little bit, talk to people and do head-counts, my constituents might not see me in my chair all the time," O'Connor said.
To placate aldermen, cameras were installed at a cost of $100,000 in three locations. Each will be fixed on the speaker. No panning the floor for reaction shots from aldermen while colleagues are speaking. No shots of the audience. "It's not gonna be like it's on television. It's gonna be a very stilted version of what goes on in the City Council," O'Connor said.
The live video will be available on two Web sites: www.chicityclerk.com and www.committeeonfinance.org.
Copyright 2007 Chicago Sun-Times. All rights reserved.
Legislative Corner
As Chairman of the Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development, Alderman Laurino not only looks after the needs of her ward but also tackles citywide issues that affect quality of life for all Chicagoans. She has been the driving force behind several key pieces of legislation.
Alderman Laurino has worked closely with Finance Committee Chairman Edward Burke (14th Ward) on creating a wireless infrastructure that would allow ubiquitous, citywide high speed internet access for Chicago residents. She chaired four public hearings in communities around the city on this topic and currently sits on the Mayor's Advisory Council on Closing the Digital Divide. Significant progress has been made on this project in the past year, with the city of Chicago issuing a Request for Proposals for installation of the infrastructure. The City is expecting to evaluate responses to the proposals in 2007.
Alderman Laurino introduced an ordinance which would expand mandatory ethics training to include all city employees on a yearly basis. In order to implement such training at minimal cost, one of the innovative ideas included in this ordinance is to make the training available as an online program. This program was up and running by the end of 2006.
Again partnering with Alderman Burke, Alderman Laurino sponsored legislation that requires the City to have realtime webcasts of the Chicago City Council meetings. Equipment will be installed in the City Council Chambers, with the first live webcast expected in 2007.
Joining with Alderman Manuel Flores (1st Ward), Alderman Laurino sponsored a ground breaking ordinance that regulates restrictive covenants that are placed on property once occupied by grocery and drug stores. In the past grocery and drug stores would close and leave behind anticompetitive covenants attached to their deeds, which prevented other similar stores from occupying the property, even if the original store had no intention of returning to the area. This new law is thought to be the first of its kind and greatly limits the duration of such restrictive covenants, enabling future development and hastening the return of needed services to communities.
Recently Alderman Laurino again joined with Alderman Flores to introduce a resolution that called together various civic groups and industry associations to shed light on the disparity in distribution of grocery stores throughout the city. At her Committee meeting, Chairman Laurino convened a Task Force, with member on both sides of this issue, to provide recommendations that would help to alleviate this problem.
In the coming year, Alderman Laurino is looking forward to further advancing these and other economic and technological advances.
Task force pushes for grocery stores in every neighborhood
Daily Southtown
By Jonathan Lipman
Chicago can do more to get grocery stores into neighborhoods that don't have them, says a task force tackling the problem of "food access."
Some Chicago communities, such as West Lawn, have no neighborhood grocery stores.
The southern half of the city has fewer grocers overall, business consultant Mari Gallagher said. While there are pockets of problems on the Southwest Side, the problem is worse in poor and minority communities to the east.
"It can be very difficult to buy healthy food, ... which is especially troubling because of a lot of people living in these communities have high blood pressure and other health needs," Gallagher said.
Aldermen began focusing on the issue last summer, when community groups such
as the West Lawn Chamber of Commerce pointed out many South Side residents
must travel north or to the suburbs to find a grocery store.
"If you want to bring fresh produce, fresh meats to communities ... we have to look at some additional ways to help finance these projects," said task force member David Vite, president of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association.
Alds. Manuel Flores (1st) and Margaret Laurino (39th) last month created the task force of community advocates, academics and industry representatives. The group made its first report to Laurino's economic development committee Monday.
The group applauded a city plan to hold a "grocery store expo" Feb. 14 that will let grocers meet with city officials who hope to encourage investment in new stores.
The planning department has invited established chains such as Jewel Food Stores and Dominick's Finer Foods as well as companies that haven't opened stores in Chicago yet, spokeswoman Constance Buscemi said.
Grocery store owners need financial help in some communities, Vite said, suggesting Chicago use sales tax rebates that are popular incentives in some suburbs. He also pressed for less regulation, a perennial complaint of store owners in Chicago.