I wonder why I'm not on the Northside Power direct e-mail tree? This "call to arms" e-mail is floating around the world wide web and wound up here this Sunday.
For those who don't know who Northside Power is, they are the group that dumped Michael Harrington from their ranks last year in a classic Northside POWER struggle. The group is led by Rev. Marilyn Pagan-Banks from the Good News Kitchen on North Paulina near West Jonquil.
Northside POWER is sad to report that earlier this morning Alderman Joe Moore abandoned his commitment to develop a local pre-apprenticeship program in Rogers Park. Instead, he has decided that job training programs run by the city at 68th & Wentworth and at 39th & State are preferable to a locally run pre-apprenticeship program which he helped to start. Community groups that Alderman Moore brought together in the fall of 2004 to run the program, Northside POWER and Building Bridges, and area residents who were optimistic about getting trained for local jobs are left holding the bag.
"Why reinvent the wheel?" the Alderman asked as he demanded that the groups justify their worthiness. The groups have spent a year and a half organizing and recruiting applicants for the project without one penny of compensation. Alderman Moore further insulted Northside POWER and Building Bridges by accusing the groups of being more interested in turf than getting people trained and hired for work while he simultaneously portrayed himself as the savior of the unemployed. Rogers Park has historically carried a higher than average rate of unemployment and, in North of Howard, the unemployment rate is off the charts.
"It is shameful and a slap in the face that after working with him for 18 months our alderman has given up on representing and empowering his own constituents", says Reverend Marilyn Pagan-Banks.
"This is a sad day for our neighborhood but you can rest assured that we will not stand by and pout. All bets are off and we will hold our alderman to full account." Says Pagan-Banks.
A community response and press conference will be held on the afternoon of Friday, May 12 at the Good News Community Church to mobilize support and provide an outlet for their frustration. More details to follow.
Daniel Romero, Organizer
Good News Community Kitchen
Blognotes:
In December 2002, Alderman Moore held a political stunt-shoe give-away event at the Good News Kitchen with Rev. Pagan-Banks blessing.
24/7 Howardwatchers covered a Northside Power community circulated e-mail a couple of months ago.
Photos on the web:
Job training at the Good News Kitchen? Ever wonder if this is how the Good News Kitchen envisions the North of Howard area? Serving all-white bread? Where are the people of color?
Update:
A positive outlook article.
10 comments:
"Community groups that Alderman Moore brought together in the fall of 2004 to run the program, Northside POWER and Building Bridges, and area residents who were optimistic about getting trained for local jobs are left holding the bag."
What is the down to earth truth in this statement? Did Joe bring the groups together by his own doing or was it part of the bullying by the author to promote the soup kitchen and his power group?
Toto sez:
What is meant by the term "pre-apprenticeship program"? Is it just another program that goes nowhere, where they get a bunch of people together and tell them that to get a job,
1)you have to get up in the morning,
2) be clean,
3) have money to get the bus,
4) be on time to your employer,
5) stay at your job and do the work assigned to you,
6) come back the next day and do the same thing over again.
I don't know if these so called "pre-apprenticeship programs" do anything. What skills are these people supposed to learn? If they don't have a clue yet, will sitting in a room full of other clueless people really help? Give me some long term statistics. Otherwise it just sound like another money giveaway program. Job traning at the Good News kitchen looks like it run by a bunch of white suburban college kids. One of your links says its used by people from Evanston. Why don't they show people who need jobs working there? Even an unpaid volunteer could get valuable experience for a future employer by working there. Where are those people?
I got to say if the organization does not have the right strategy ready with long term goals, perhaps JoMo's right in turning them down for funds.
Has anyone stopped to wonder just how many charitable and do good organizations serve Rogers Park, and whether this fractionalization (perhaps not intentional but nonethless a reality) has done anything substantive for the community? I'm not dissing Northside Power, or any of the groups. They all seem to be run by well meaning, big hearted people who want to make a difference. Just seems that with all these people working to make a difference, and all the money that flows to them, we'd actually see more of a difference. Perhaps we should be scrutinizing these efforts to see which are effective v. those that are falling short of the mark. And also, look to see how much overlap, and whether any of the organizations are helping to move people up, as opposed to just keeping them treading water.
As for gun buybacks: it's the most ridiculous thing I ever heard of. If you buy a product, you create a market for a product. Period the end. This has been shown to be true with everything from human trafficking to, gee, drugs. Do we really think that if the police and some do good groups do the buying that the laws of economics will be turned on their head? The market doesn't care who the buyer is . . . just that there is a buyer.
Not by that rationale, Westie. You show your ignorance of economics. You coulod toddle on down the road and take a course at U. Chicago, and while you are there, argue your point with the bevy of Nobel prize winning economists. Or, call Greenspan, and argue the point with him. The outcome is pre-ordained: you lose. The analogy was that if you BUY something a market will rise up to sell it to you. If people stopped buying junk cars, there would be less JUNK cars on the road. The purchase of junk cars would have no overall impact on the number of cars on the road. Buying illegal goods, as a means of getting them off the market, has proven, time and again, that said illegal goods will be supplied to feed the market that is buying, irrespective of who the buyer is. There are many fine economics texts on the market. Try Economic Way of Thinking.
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