Program Overview
Ken Davis is joined in the first segment by Kim Wasserman, Director of the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization. They discuss the group’s initiatives to persuade the City to conduct a full re-evaluation of the neighborhood’s industrial corridor, and ways to stimulate sustainable, meaningful employment within Little Village. They have expressed public concerns that, as the North Branch Industrial Corridor in Lincoln Park transitions into offices, residences and recreational spaces, many of the less-desirable, polluting industries will be driven into their neighborhoods and others further from the central core.
The second segment features a discussion with Chicago Tribune writer and critic Chris Jones, who has written a series of recent columns about the possible revival of Chicago’s Uptown Theater. Shuttered for over thirty years and severely deteriorated, the building was once among America’s largest movie palaces, featuring an acre of seats. Jones says that a confluence of demographic and economic change in the neighborhood, combined with strong interest from city government, has drawn interest from the City’s most influential business leaders, including Jam Productions. They appear to believe that their $75 million plan to reopen the theater has a better chance to succeed than the dozen-or-so schemes that have failed over the decades, and that they may actually have the money to accomplish it.
This program was produced by Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV).