The Sunday Times
Unionized teachers in 32 of the city’s charter schools voted to merge with the Chicago Teachers Union this week, officials announced Friday.
.
I was deeply saddened to hear Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s recent remarks criticizing efforts to create the first affordable housing for veterans and people with disabilities in Chicago’s Northwest Side neighborhood of Jefferson Park.
Residential segregation in Chicago has never been an accident. The corollary of this bitter truth is that today, intentional efforts by citizens and elected leaders to transcend our city’s segregation will not be free of contention, least of all when the deep fault lines of race and class are touched by a civic discussion. In this ongoing conversation, Emanuel’s recent words that anti-affordable housing activists “need to be heard” functions as an acquittal of racial animus, masquerading as a white-washed call for process.
I commend Ald. John Arena for his leadership and vision. The community process that he implemented was both rigorous and thoughtful. Hundreds of neighborhood residents attended informational meetings and some of them were contentious. What’s right is not always popular, and what’s popular is not always right. Arena isThe Sunday Times. | Fred Klonsky: