People | CHICAGOOD

Chicagood is an online magazine launched by The Chi-Town Project. It is a magazine for social conscious Chicagoans that focuses on social awareness issues and those who step up to make Chicago a better place for tomorrow. We also like to have fun and celebrate what it means to be Chicagoan and what is good in our city. Be Chicagood.

We love saying that we live in the greatest city in the world. The beautiful skylines, innovative monuments and strong-willed spirits that dwell within the city gives us more reason to boast about Chicago’s greatness. However, as we progress into a rapidly changing future, many of our great city’s downfalls become glaringly obvious as we strive to become a world class city. Poverty, corruption, education and gang violence are only few of the many social awareness issues that have surfaced within Chicago’s inner walls. That’s where The Chi-Town Project steps in. We serve as a platform of fresh ideas, as a series of projects with the ability to ignite passion, discussion and action among Chicagoans for the greater good. Together we can strive for one ultimate goal: guiding Chicago to a better tomorrow. As a curation of social goodness, we celebrate not only the city’s identity but also the achievements that define what makes Chicagood. Join us as we inspIre. dreAM. aCHIeve.

Fresh Moves bus

Fresh Moves gives a fresh look on ending food deserts

Take a CTA bus, add a grocery store with the initiative to end food deserts in Chicago and there you have Fresh Moves. Fresh Moves is an organization in the city of Chicago that aims to end food deserts through a mobile produce market. The organization took an old CTA bus and revamped into a mobile produce market that travels to different neighborhoods delivering fresh fruits and vegetables.

After three community activists Steve Casey, Sheelah Muhammad and Jeff Pinzino came together it was decided that the Fresh Moves non-for-profit would address the issue of neighborhoods in Chicago not having direct access to healthy fresh foods.

Continue Reading →

9869207_36012f60eb

Chicago Public Schools sees highest-ever graduation rate this year!

We have some good news! Chicago Public Schools is seeing the highest ever graduation rate this year!

CPS CEO Jean-Claude Brizard says this year’s graduation rate is projected at 60.6 percent. CPS cites increased graduation rates over the past five years. Brizard calls it “impressive,” but says more work needs to be done to make sure every CPS student graduates and is ready for college or a career.

Brizard singled out schools for individual graduation rate growth. One school was Phoenix Military Academy, where the graduation rate went from 42 percent in 2007 and 2008 to nearly 75 percent in 2010 and 2011.

There are about 405,000 CPS students who attend more than 675 schools. It’s the third-largest school system in the U.S.

Congrats Class of 2012!

chicago_0

Chicago Jumps to 5th in the Best Bike Cities of America

Chicago bumped up to the 5th best bike city in America according to Bicycling.com . Up from the #10 spot of last year! Let’s hope we keep moving up!

Continue Reading →

chicagovchicago

Chicago vs Chicago: Round 2

Chicago vs Chicago Round 2. If you haven’t seen Round one- Check it out here!

The Office’s Darryl Philbin (Craig Robinson) challenges Parks and Recreation’s Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) (both who are Chicagoans by the way) to see how far he’s willing to go for that World Series. Hilarious! How far are you willing to go for a World Series?

Continue Reading →

stop the shooting

Chicago Mothers Rally against Violence

This weekend was Mother’s day, but for many mothers in Chicago, this was their first Mother’s Day without their children.

This weekend, more than 50 woman who have lost their children rallied against Chicago’s high crime rate in honor of Mother’s Day.

The rally was punctuated with 5 deaths and over 20 others wounded over the weekend.

The women assembled Sunday say reports like these need to stop. The Mother’s Day march is an annual tradition led Rev. Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Parish, both to protest the ongoing violence that threatens youth in the city and to provide support for mothers who have recently lost children.

“Some mothers, this is their first Mother’s Day without their child and they don’t know what to do,” Pfleger told the Chicago Sun-Times. “So I let them know that we think about them, care about them, and I don’t want the pain of this day to override them being a mother.”

Despite an initiative by the Chicago Police Department to up police resources in some of the city’s most dangerous areas, homicides in the cityincreased by 60 percent during the first three months of the year.

VIA: Huffington Post

149749_288398637913388_100436776709576_633352_1429202343_n

Truck Farm Chicago Helps Kids Understand What They’re Eating

On Good Magazine’s Good Maker, rounding out the Top 3 in March’s challenge is a Chicago start up called Truck Farm. During the Month of March, Good readers nominated local woman who makes a world of difference. Truck Farmer, Shari Brown got the nod and deserving so.

The idea is simple. Shari took a biodiesel pickup truck and planted a mini farm in its bed and then toured Chicago connecting over 2700 kids to good food in 2011. This “Garden on Wheels” is a traveling education tool. Shari’s passion for sharing good food and educating people is very contagious. Through the Truck Farm project she was able to teach and empower young Chicagoans to be active, grow food locally, cook and eat healthy. They like to say that what they do shows that good food can be grown anywhere there’s sun, space, and creativity. And we agree. This project is so simple and creative but will be so valuable and effective to our communities!

Continue Reading →

dabble

Dabble in Something New

Bored? Want to learn about doing your own craftbeer? Want to learn how to code html? What about cooking or painting? Yea we know, it’s something we’d all love to learn someday but signing up for classes is a big commitment, time and can get pretty costly.

What if there was a website where you can find classes in just about anything for a low price of $20 that’s near you. Heck yea, SIGN ME UP!

Continue Reading →

Screen Shot 2012-04-23 at 11.13.17 PM

Chicago vs Chicago

The Office’s Darryl Philbin (Craig Robinson) and Parks and Recreation’s Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) (both who are Chicagoans by the way) duke it out at the local bar over some heated Cubs Sox rivalry smack talk. Hilarious! What’s your favorite line of the commercial?

Continue Reading →

cabrinigreen

Chicago Public Housing Comes Down. Did it Decrease Violent Crime or Just Moved It Elsewhere?

Chicago Magazine had an interesting article that explored Hanna Rosin’s fascinating and controversial article in The Atlantic, “American Murder Mystery,” which claims that tearing down public housing in high poverty neighborhoods didn’t decrease cime and poverty but rather pushed it out to the outer neighborhoods and suburbs. Rosin mainly explored Memphis but Chicago Magazine makes a compelling comparison that draws many similarities with Chicago.

Continue Reading →

Screen Shot 2012-04-08 at 6.47.47 PM

Slow Housing Market Forcing many Families to Stay Put in Chicago. What does this mean for CPS?

The Situation

For many families in Chicago, once their child is of age to enter school, the idea was to sell their home in Chicago and move to a better school district with safer neighborhoods and bigger homes in the burbs. But with the sluggish economy and crippled housing market, many families are not able to sell their homes. Instead they are forced to stay put in Chicago, meaning a small but growing group of middle-class families are turning to Chicago’s public and private schools. Mayor Rahm and The Chicago Public School are now faced with a new element in dealing with improving Chicago Public Schools. This can be a good thing or a more of a headache in the plans the City has to revamp their education system.

Continue Reading →

onesummechicago

Chicago Launches One Summer to Find Summer Jobs for Chicago Youth

The City of Chicago and Cook County has joined resources together to find summer jobs for Chicago youth.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle announced One Summer Chicago on Friday. It’s a partnership between government and community groups and will provide 17,000 summer jobs and 168,000 educational and recreational opportunities.

Continue Reading →

Chicago Zombie Survival Map

Zombie Survival Guide Chicago

The city of Chicago has become overrun with the fast spreading zombie virus. With a population of 9.8 million folks in the Chicagoland area, you’re in some big doodoo. Yup, you’ve got your 1st grade crush, your hated math teacher, the neighborhood cat lady and boss all a little undead and all glad to see you. But a big city offers lots of resources so you still have a fighting chance. Quickly stock up on supplies and get the heck out or bunker down somewhere and make a stand. But where do you go to get your water, medical supplies and food? Well there’s an app for that. Doejo has created a web app, Map of the Dead that shows what’s useful around you.

Continue Reading →

LincolnSquare_Web_large

StudioChris Celebrates Chicago Neighborhoods with Amazing Posters

Awhile back we’ve talked about Steve Shanabruch and his awesome The Chicago Neighborhoods project where he will be tackling each and every one of Chicago’s neighborhoods and be giving them a logo.

You can’t applaud Steve without applauding Chris. Chris of StudioChris is also tackling each of Chicago’s neighborhoods but will be doing a poster that represents an iconic landmark of that particular neighborhood. Now that’s Chicagood!

Continue Reading →

CT MET-AJ-FILE-URBAN-PREP-0330

More Success from Urban Prep: 100% Of (Remaining) Class of 2012 Accepted to College

Urban Prep Academy for Young Men has emerged from the troubled communities of Englewood where it serves as an unlikely success story. Year after year they are showing impressive numbers of 100% graduation rates and high college retention rates the following year. Sounds all great, but are Charter Schools really the hope they claim to be?

Continue Reading →

hood-head-does-not-mean-hoodlum-head

Illinois Rep. Bobby Rush escorted from House Floor for Wearing a Hoodie

Democratic Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois 1st Congressional District of Southside Chicago, took center stage of the House floor on Wednesday, donning a hoodie and sunglasses in honor of slain Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, a big no-no in the House. Consequently Rush was escorted off the floor.

Continue Reading →

Screen Shot 2012-03-27 at 1.02.04 AM

Will you strip for Earth Hour? A UIC student did.

How far will you go for Earth Hour?

Continue Reading →

Don't Shoot

Temperatures Soaring, so are the Gang Violence

Today marks the first day of spring and we Chicagoans have been spoiled with beautiful summer weather for the last week. Everyone is taking advantage of the unusual warmth and heading outdoors. But it’s not all fun in the sun for all. Warmer temperatures translates to a spike in gang violence and this year’s warm winter season hasn’t been particularly great on the Chicago’s gang violence stats.

Continue Reading →

14vfe2aa18nht7skqgo0p8jtxsdo79a

Chicago has what NY doesn’t: ‘Really nice people’

Mayor Emanuel took a dig at New York City touting that Chicago has everything that NYC has and something more, “Really nice people”.

“It is the greatest city in the greatest country. It is the most American of American cities. We have everything that New York has — except for one thing we got that they don’t: really nice people,” Emanuel told reporters.

“I love New York and I love Mayor Bloomberg. He’s been great,” Emanuel said.

“But I think Chicago has something special.”

We couldn’t agree any more Mayor. Take a look through our online Chicagood magazine. It is a testament to all the good Chicago has to offer. Yes Chicago is Chicagood and we don’t see anybody in New York trying to find good in their city’s name.

Screen Shot 2012-03-10 at 12.34.27 AM

“Some Things Aren’t Acceptable” Bicyclist Chases Down Mugger

“There’s nowhere in my city, there’s no where in this planet that that’s allowed.”

Meet Eric Puetz (51 yrs), a Chicagoland native who is not your ordinary bicyclist. He rides his bike to work everyday from Arlington Heights to Logan Square (That’s 21 miles!) He enjoys the ride because he “sees the city in a different light”.

Perhaps seeing the city in a different light prompted him to take action when he saw a mugger wrestling with a 75-year-old woman on the ground, then grabbing her purse and running away. He took off after the mugger disregarding his own safety through parking lots and alleyways. He wasn’t even deterred when the mugger repeatedly claimed to have a gun. He kept a safe distance at 30 ft away but after the third claim, Eric called his bluff and went in for the finish. He finally was able to tackle the mugger after about two blocks and sat on top of the thief with all his 220 pounds until the police came.

Continue Reading →

Sizing Up the Angles

Tinkering School Chicago is Chicagood!

Now this is Chicagood. A school that lets their students play with hammers, saws, climb trees, weld metal and more. For students that sounds glorious; for parents, well you’re probably thinking we’re crazy and about to bust out your lawyer’s contact information. Hold on to that and let us explain.

Tinkering School, is something I wish I had been able to go to as a kid. It provides an environment where children experience hands-on exploration of open-ended problems while developing patient problem solving, adventure and self-directed learning skills. Kids come in and laid before them are all sorts of materials and tools to help them achieve their goals and explore their creativity. Just as important, kids learn what responsibility and trust is while working with these materials and tools.

Continue Reading →

Screen Shot 2012-03-09 at 10.15.02 AM

Open City launches New App to Help Parents Know Which Chicago Public Schools Tier They Live In

Open City is a great civic startup. Periodically they release a new app that aims to bring open gov and open source apps to your hands that make our city work better. A few of their past apps includes:

Vacant Building Finder- an app that locates all vacant buildings in Chicago.

ClearStreets- see where snow plows have been patrolling

Chicago Lobbyist- aims to bring transparency of how government and lobbyists interact

Look at Cook- explore Cook County’s budget from 1993 to 2011 and learn how the money is being spent.

Metra Schedule- a look at how trains and schedules are effected by Metra’s budget cuts

Now they are introducing a new App called Chicago Public School Tiers which simply lets parents know what tier they live in, information they need when applying for one of Chicago’s top selective schools. Selective schools in Chicago are required to reserve the same number of spots for the students from each of the four tiers that the Chicago Public School divides the city up into. Tier 4 areas make more money and have more education. Tier 1 areas make less money have less education. This is a great and simple app that Open City has added to their list of great apps that makes information and our lives better in Chicago.

Open City- your apps
are Chicagood!

viewer

Walgreens to Expand Hiring Disabled

Walgreens, the nation’s largest drug store chain headquarted in Deerfield, IL is piloting a program to hire cognitively and physically disabled employees in its retail stores across the country.

Continue Reading →

homicide chalk(1)

Stabbings account for 12% of 2012 homicides

We hate to start the morning off on a depressing note, but the Redeye has published some stats regarding Chicago homicide that we need to share. We need to focus on any social awareness issues that arise along side our celebration of this great city. One glaring issue Chicago has been struggling with is homicide rates.

Redeye, as you may know, has a homicide tracker where they track homicide across the city on a per month basis. It is a valuable resource to gain insight on this troubling issue. Here are the facts that are before us. Nine people have been stabbed to death in Chicago homicides so far this year. Stabbings account for nearly 12 percent of the 76 homicides in the city in 2012. Six percent of the 441 homicides last year were stabbings.

February ended last week with 28 homicides, up from 25 homicides in February 2011. Eight homicides have been recorded so far this month. Police logged 22 homicides in March last year.

Continue Reading →

polar-swim

2012 Polar Plunge Raises $552,000 for Chicago Special Olympics

Forbes Magazine ranked Chicago the 6th most miserable city to live in the United States. Partly because of our “brutal winters”. Last time we checked, nobody here complains about our winters. We don’t care about some below zero temps and a few sprinkles of snowflakes. And Forbes Magazine FOR sure hasn’t seen our annual Polar Plunge.

This year on March 4th 100s of participants braved near freezing temperatures and plunged into the Lake to raise money for Chicago’s Special Olympics. In all over $552,000 was raised.

Be sure to participate next year. It’s for a great cause!

Chicago Polar Plunge
Facebook

To all the participants of the
Polar Plunge past and present,
you are all Chicagood.

chicagoneighborhood

1 Logo a Day- Chicago Designer Brands Every Chicago Neighborhoods

Steve Shanabruch is a designer from Chicago. He loves both, so he decided to bring them together into an ambitious but awesome project, called The Chicago Neighborhoods. Steve will be branding every one of Chicago’s 77 neighborhoods with a logo. He plans to release one every Monday, Wednesday and Friday until he covers them all.

He describes the project as, “One designer’s take on Chicago.” My vision might not match yours, but I hope that we can agree that a neighborhood with a logo is better than a neighborhood without.

Continue Reading →