An important milestone in policing reform, plenty of events his busy Saturday and other West Side news
The Westside Weekly Review for the week of April 13, 2025 - April 19, 2025
As I am writing it, it is still technically Easter, so happy Easter, readers and subscribers.
I would remiss not to kick off this newsletter by saying that I appreciate a handful of you who reached out to me after our last newsletter. I wish I could say that I was feeling better, or that I am getting therapy, but the former is a no, and the latter is still a work in progress. I suppose an addendum to my earlier post is that, if you do seek help, or know someone who would like to see get help, be prepared for process to take time, whether the mental health provider takes Medicaid or private insurance.
Whether I make it or not, if there is one thing I hope you get out of it is to keep at it. And do try to get help. Or help others get help.
Hopefully, I will see you all next week. But for now, let’s get to the news.
Igor Studenkov
Editor, Westside Review
First draft of the new traffic stop policy to be unveiled on Thursday
This is something that your editor is honestly surprised hasn’t gotten much coverage. For the past few months, the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA) has been holding public outreach sessions about potential changes to Chicago Police Department traffic stop policy. Most significantly, CCPSA wanted to hear what the community has to say about changes to how officers can use the so-called pretextual traffic stops. As the name implies, this is when officers use relatively minor violations, such as a tail light being out, as a pretext to stop a car, when the real goal is to search it for guns and/or drugs, and/or investigate other, more serious crimes.
The commission held hearings all over the city, including on the West Side (at East Garfield Park’s JLM Abundant Life Center, 2622 W Jackson Blvd., back in Dec. 17). Now, CCPSA will be releasing the first draft at its upcoming meeting, which will be held on April 24 at 6:30 p.m. at Chinatown’s Pui Tak Center 2216 S. Wentworth Ave.
(The commission likes to rotate its meetings in different parts of the city)
We don’t know what the policy will look like. During the last hearing, which was held at Uptown’s Truman College, 1145 W. Wilson, on April 16, Commissioner Remel Terry (a West Sider with a long history of community advocacy) said that, after the draft is released, there will be meetings with stakeholder groups and perhaps some other community meetings, and she very carefully said that she has no idea when the final draft might be up for vote.
It doesn’t help that,, under the current police oversight structure, nothing becomes policy unless CCPSA and CPD’s top brass can agree on it. And as if that wasn’t complicated enough, the changes may become part of the consent decree the city is currently under, which adds yet another layer of bureaucracy (Terry and other commissioners previously said that this is a major reason why they’ve been vague about timelines and what exactly might be up for consideration).
For now, just the proposed policy draft being released is a major milestone.
For those who can’t make it to Thursday’s meeting in person, CCPSA livestreams its meetings and gives attendees an option to join via Zoom. All livestreams are archived, so anyone who can’t watch/join the stream can catch up later.
Last week in West Side news
Block Club Chicago followed up with North Lawndale residents and activists to see how they feel about Riot Fest deciding to keep using Douglass Park after all.
Chicago YIMBY gave an update Homan Square movie theater originally built as part of Inner City Entertainment (ICE) Theaters movie theater chain becoming an indoor soccer field. As the article noted, the building as a long history of opening and closing since ICE went out of business. Nothing seemed to stick around for long lately, and the building has been abandoned for several years.
While it reopening as a movie theater, or just an entertainment venue, would’ve been ideal, this is probably better than nothing. Assuming the plans come to fruition, which is an if.
Austin Weekly News covered a Broader Urban Involvement & Leadership Development (BUILD) Chicago fundraiser, where the CEO Adam Alonso talked about continuing to provide services for Austin youth in the age of the second Trump Administration.
Block Club Chicago covered recently announced Chicago Park District projects in Douglass Park 1401 S. Sacramento Dr., and Little Village’s Piotrowski Park, 4247 W. 31st St. Douglass Park’s iconic fieldhouse’s somewhat neglected lower level will get a new dance studio and more multipurpose spaces.
Austin Weekly News had two stories dealing with healthy eating - one about PCC Wellness’ program supporting patients with diabetes (something that residents in majority-Black communities like Austin are statistically more likely to deal with than Chicagoans overall) and Austin’s Front Porch Art Center launching a storytelling and healthy eating program this summer.
Coming up this week on the West Side
April 26 is Earth Day, and there are more Earth Day clean-ups happening around the West Side than we can even begin to list. We’d recommend looking at what’s happening in the park near you and see if you want to participate.
But other than that:
On Wednesday, April 23, Garfield Park Community Council is holding its regular Open Space and Land Use Committee meeting to update residents on developments coming to the two Garfield Parks and give some other updates. The meeting will take place between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m., and registration is required.
On Thursday, April 24, U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (D-7) will hold a virtual town hall about he barriers returning citizens face as they try to rebuild their lives and do better. The town hall will begin at 9 a.m. and wrap up at 11 a.m.
Also on April 24, at 6 p.m., 25th Police District Council will hold a meeting that will have representatives of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability and 25th police district higher-ups. The district includes the half of the Austin community are north of Division Street (including all of Galewood). The meeting will take place at the Northwest Community Church, 5318 W. Diversey Ave.
On Saturday, April 26, Root2Fruit Youth Foundation is looking for volunteers to help clean up a vacant lot they recently acquired in Austin, a bit south of the Central Green Line ‘L’ station platforms, west of Central. The foundation is looking to put a land to constructive, peace-building use, but that’s a lot of vacant land. Volunteers are asked to meet in front of the nearby Austin Town Hall Cultural Center, 5610 W. Lake St., at 10 a.m. Registration is encouraged.
Also on April 26, a group of North Lawndale and Little Village community organizations are putting on a One Lawndale Unity Dinner and Youth Showcase. One Lawndale initiative is something that I’ve been hearing about but haven’t really been able to tackle while writing for Austin Weekly (because I’m only one person getting pulled in many directions), but it seems to be about bridging the divides between two Lawndales (“South Lawndale” is still the community area name for Little Village, but nobody really uses it anymore).
The event is described as “an evening of shared conversation and bread breaking, led by Lawndale youth working to spark meaningful dialogue around the past, present, and future of One Lawndale.”
The dinner will be held at North Lawndale’s Starling event venue,
3243 W. 16th St., at 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. The event is free, but attendees are asked to register ahead of time.