Englewood hopes Starbucks, Whole Foods create ‘ripple effect’

Hagar Johnson, center, a Starbucks shift supervisor, wipes down the glass of the pastry and foods at the new Englewood Square shopping center in Chicago on Sept. 27, 2016. Starbucks and Whole Foods open Weds Sept. 28 in the new Englewood Square shopping center. Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune

Hagar Johnson, center, a Starbucks shift supervisor, wipes down the glass of the pastry and foods at the new Englewood Square shopping center in Chicago on Sept. 27, 2016. Starbucks and Whole Foods open Weds Sept. 28 in the new Englewood Square shopping center. Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune

A Chicago Tribune story on the opening of Starbucks and Whole Foods in Englewood cites neighborhood unemployment data from a January 2016 UIC Great Cities Institute report on youth joblessness in Chicago.

Some of the new employees at the Englewood store were hired as part of a national initiative launched last year and led by Starbucks to help 100,000 so-called opportunity youth — 16- to 24-year-olds not working or in school — find employment by 2018.

Unemployment among youth, particularly black youth in Chicago, has been called a crisis. In Englewood, 89 percent of 16- to 19-year-olds and 72 percent of 20- to 24-year-olds did not have jobs in 2014, according to the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Great Cities Institute.

Full Story from Chicago Tribune »

Wim Wiewel to Attend Great Cities Institute 21st Anniversary Celebration

10-04-16 AnniversaryBlog

We are excited that Wim Wiewel, the first director of the Great Cities Institute, will be able to attend the November 16 anniversary celebration.

Wim was also the first Dean of the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs (CUPPA). Before that, Wim was Director of the Center for Urban and Economic Development (CUED), during which time, CUED produced extensive analysis and reports on the changing economic landscape of the region. Dr. Wiewel is currently the President of Portland State University.

In our conversations with Wim he has emphasized the value and importance of a legacy such as the Great Cities concept. We look forward to his sharing some of his thoughts about why this concept remains important. UIC is notable in its commitment to being an urban university engaged in serving Chicago and its surrounding region.

UIC Chancellor Michael Amiridis will provide the welcome. Former Chancellor and University of Illinois President James J. Stukel will speak. In addition, we will pay tribute to Robert Mier, former UIC Professor of Urban Planning and Policy and City of Chicago Commissioner of Economic Development under Harold Washington. Rob’s sister, Nell Newton, Dean of the University of Notre Dame Law School will join us, as will Joan Fitzgerald, Professor in the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University in Boston, who was married to Rob. Professor Fitzgerald will also present her research on green innovation on Friday, November 18 at noon at GCI.

We hope that you will be able to join us on November 16, 4:30 – 7:30 at the East Terrace Room of the Student Center East, 750 S. Halsted. Many of you have already sent an RSVP. Thank you. We are very excited that former members of the original committee that created the Great Cities concept will attend, along with former and current staff, faculty scholars, research fellows and various community and civic partners. We plan for a great afternoon, with good food, of course. Come celebrate, see old friends, and learn more about UIC’s Great Cities Institute.

UTC Event: Policy Impact of Shared Mobility

Managing the adoption and integration of new and emerging mobility innovations to achieve a successful new transportation paradigm is a defining issue of our time. Learn about development of several mobility plans for cities and transit agencies to consider at the first Fall 2016 Seminar Series event hosted by the Urban Transportation Center at UIC. The presentation will be held September 29 and will be led by Joe Iacobucci, Director of Transit for Sam Schwartz Consulting. The event begins at noon and will be held in the Great Cities Institute conference room, 4th floor at CUPPA Hall. Visit — https://utc.uic.edu/utc-2016-seminar-series/.

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Riverdale area suffers highest level of economic hardship in Chicago

The Riverdale community area on Chicago's Far South Side has the city's highest level of economic hardship, according to a ranking released this week. (City of Chicago 2015)

The Riverdale community area on Chicago’s Far South Side has the city’s highest level of economic hardship, according to a ranking released this week. (City of Chicago 2015)

A Chicago Tribune article highlights a UIC Great Cities Institute report ranking economic hardship in Chicago’s 77 communities. Matthew Wilson, an economic development planner at the institute, is quoted on the rankings and local conditions.

With a per capita income of less than $7,500 and an unemployment rate at 40 percent, the Riverdale community area on Chicago’s southern edge has the most economic hardship in the city.

That’s according to a ranking of Chicago’s 77 community areas released this week by the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago, which used 2010 to 2014 five-year estimates from the American Community Survey to measure hardship based on a number of indicators, including education level and poverty rate.

Full Story from Chicago Tribune »

A Nation Engaged: New Study Finds Disparity In Economic Hardship In Chicago

Rob Hurson/Flickr

Rob Hurson/Flickr

Teresa Cordova, UIC professor and director of the Great Cities Institute, was interviewed today on Chicago Public Radio’s (WBEZ-FM 91.5) “Morning Shift” about the institute’s index of economic hardship in Chicago’s 77 communities.

A new study has found many Chicagoans living on the South and West sides are struggling financially, while many living Downtown and in many North Side communities are not.

Teresa Cordova, director of the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said there isn’t the same access to jobs in many South and West Side neighborhoods. Cordova said she believes investing in these communities is necessary to reverse the economic inequality.

Interview from WBEZ »

The Deportation-to-Prison Pipeline: America’s New Immigration Regime

09-26-16 PatrisiaNews

Patrisia Macias-Rojas, UIC assistant professor of sociology and Latin American and Latino studies, recently joined PBS’ “Tavis Smiley” show to discuss her upcoming book, “The Deportation-to-Prison Pipeline: America’s New Immigration Regime.”

Patrisia Macias-Rojas recently joined the Global Urban Immigration Cluster Initiative at UIC. Her research interests are in race, law, and migration. Macias-Rojas’ current project, which draws on ethnographic and historical methods, contributes to the interdisciplinary field of law and society, particularly scholarship concerned with the intersections of criminal justice and immigration enforcement. She is the author of the forthcoming book, The Deportation-to-Prison Pipeline: America’s New Immigration Regime. Her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, Ford Foundation, Andrew Mellon Program in Latin American Sociology, and the Social Science Research Council.

Video from PBS’ Tavis Smiley Show »

 

Chicago faces aftermath of a bloody summer

Mother’s love: Tonya Burch holds a photo last month of her son Deontae Smith, who was killed in Chicago. Getty Images

Mother’s love: Tonya Burch holds a photo last month of her son Deontae Smith, who was killed in Chicago. Getty Images

A Financial Times article on Chicago’s violence and issues of inequality and poverty cites findings from a January 2016 UIC Great Cities Institute report on youth joblessness in Chicago.

Research from the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Great Cities Institute published this year showed that 40 per cent of African Americans aged between 20 and 24 were either out of work or out of school, compared with 18 per cent for the Latino population and 6.3 per cent for whites in 2014. The rate was higher in Chicago then elsewhere in the US, where the average for blacks was 28 per cent.

Full Story from Financial Times »

Emanuel: Violence-plagued Chicago needs to bolster ‘moral compass’

A USA Today story about Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s newly announced plan to reduce Chicago violence cites findings from a January 2016 UIC Great Cities Institute report on youth joblessness in Chicago.

An estimated 47% of the city’s black youth, between the ages 20-24, are neither in school nor employed, according to a report from the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Great Cities Institute. Under the new mentoring program, a public-private partnership, all young people in the city’s 20 most impoverished neighborhood would have an opportunity to be mentored.

Full Story from USA Today »

In Chicago, 35,000 people have been murdered in 50 years

A protester walks past a line of police officers standing guard in front of the District 1 police headquarters in Chicago, Illinois November 24, 2015. Photo by REUTERS/Frank Polich

A protester walks past a line of police officers standing guard in front of the District 1 police headquarters in Chicago, Illinois November 24, 2015. Photo by REUTERS/Frank Polich

A January 2016 UIC Great Cities Institute report on youth joblessness in Chicago is cited in a PBS NewsHour online story about homicides in the city.

Lance Williams is an associate professor of urban affairs at Northeastern Illinois University and a youth advocate. He says Chicago’s latest violent trends also stem from poverty and unemployment. The two combine to leave Chicago’s young black men feeling penned in, he said. Nearly half of Chicago’s black men age 20 to 24 are unemployed, according to a report from the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Great Cities Institute.

“You can hire all of the police that you want, you’re not going to solve this problem because these young men are acting in alignment with their cultural value system,” Williams told the NewsHour in a report that will air Wednesday.

Full Story from PBS NewsHour »