3659 S. Halsted | Chicago, IL 60609 | 773.254.6677

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November 20, 2023

Hello Neighbors,

First, I want to offer my condolences to the friends, family, and Chicago Fire Department community on the death of Chicago firefighter Andrew Price, who tragically lost his life earlier this week battling a kitchen fire in Lincoln Park. His family and friends have put together a GoFundMe in Drew’s honor to support both the Price family and the firefighters as they navigate this loss and seek answers for how to protect future losses. If you would like to contribute to these efforts, please visit: https://www.gofundme.com/f/drew-price. 

On Saturday, I joined the Asian McDonald’s Operators Association for their 3rd Annual Thanksgiving Turkey Giveaway in Chinatown.  Many thanks to AMOA for their generous donation of 500 turkeys!  I also had the pleasure of attending the Chicago Chinatown Chamber of Commerce’s 40th Annual Gala, where business and community leaders came together from across the state to recognize the Chamber’s long standing efforts toward nurturing the economic vitality of our ever-growing neighborhood and community. This year’s event featured the 2024 Miss Chinatown Chicago Beauty Pageant. It was my honor to watch these extraordinary women celebrate their heritage and share their talents. Congratulations to Eleanor Kang, who will be the 2024 Miss Chinatown Chicago!

And a bit of fall news—thank you to everyone who participated in this year’s Pumpkin Smash events, you helped keep 53,000 pounds of pumpkins out of landfills! Good job! 

Public safety

A fire broke out at a commercial warehouse on the 4100 block of South Halsted Street, as you may have seen from the plumes of smoke that covered our ward on Tuesday morning. The fire appears to have originated from the Evans Food Group processing plant. Thank you to the  firefighting crews who arrived on the scene and were able to put out the fire in under three hours, and importantly, evacuated the plant while preventing the fire from spreading to adjacent buildings. The cause of the fire remains under investigation, but luckily no injuries have been reported. We are grateful to CFD for their bravery in containing the flames, and preventing any casualties, which was a remarkable feat for a fire of this scale.

Last week in City Council

• On Wednesday, City Council voted to approve Mayor Johnson’s 2024 budget. After weeks of public hearings, work on amendments and much consideration, I joined 40 of my colleagues in voting ‘yes’ on Mayor Johnson’s first budget. As I expressed in my remarks on the City Council floor, I had concerns about portions of the budget, especially with regard to the allocated spend for migrants, which is clearly unrealistic and insufficient. Yet, I was encouraged by the much needed increase in personnel for the Chicago Police Department, and efforts made to fulfill our pension obligations. I look forward to working with my colleagues to make progress with the resources that will become available through this budget.

• On Friday, the Mayor’s office announced it will soon implement a tiered-60 day stay limit for migrants in shelters. Late last week, Governor Pritzker also announced additional resources from the state to address the crisis. I am, like many of you, concerned about the growing migrant crisis, and these new resources will help new arrivals integrate into the community, as well as add personnel at arrival points who can help send migrants to new locations if they choose not to stay in Chicago.

11th Ward matters 

And finally, a few housekeeping announcements:

• We are moving Ward Night to Tuesday this week from 5pm-7:30pm.
• We will be closing our office at 2pm on Wednesday in observance of the Thanksgiving holidays.
• Our office hours for the coming week will be:
• Monday: 10am - 5pm
• Tuesday: 8:30am - 7:30pm
• Wednesday: 8:30am - 2pm
• Thursday: Closed
• Friday: Closed
• Regular office hours will resume on Monday, November 27 at 10AM.

I also want to remind everyone about our 11th Ward Snow Program - if you or someone you know is a senior or disabled neighbor who needs help shoveling snow in the winter, or if you would like to help neighbors as a volunteer, sign up here and see below for more details.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please contact ward11@cityofchicago.org or call 773-254-6677 and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

We wish you all a joyous holiday Thanksgiving!

Warmly,

Nicole

Cultural Affairs and Special Events

Join the the Offie of Cultural Affairs and Special Events for fun across the city!

Link to Calendar to Chicago Events.

https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/events2.html

Please see attached letters below for 11th Ward Community Meetings for Zoning Requests. Community Meetings are hosted on Zoom, Zoom information and instructions are provided in the letters below. Meetings last approximately thirty (30) minutes. Please test your computer connections in advance. If you are attending in person please call ahead and arrive five minutes early.

Recordings of past meetings are available on our YouTube Channel

The 11th Ward office is happy to announce has a free ‘Constituent Education Resource Card’ available to residents wishing to visit select museums and zoos in the Chicagoland area. Constituents can reserve our Constituent Education Resource Card on a first come first serve basis (more instructions below), to visit any of the following museums in 2023:

• Adler Planetarium
• The Art Institute of Chicago
• Brookfield Zoo
• Chicago Botanic Garden
• Chicago Children’s Museum
• Chicago History Museum
• Dusable Museum of African American History
• The Field Museum
• Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center
• Lincoln Park Zoo
• Museum of Contemporary Art
• Museum of Science and Industry
• National Museum of Mexican Art
• National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture
• Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum
• John G. Shedd Aquarium

Only one group of up to four (4) can reserve the pass at a time. The pass must be picked up and brought back to the 11th Ward Office. Constituents need to call for an appointment to come to the office to pick up the pass before visiting the museums. We recommend calling two business days before your scheduled visit. 

It is strongly recommended that families utilizing the card contact the museum they plan to visit to learn if pre-registration is required to visit. 

The migrant crisis in Chicago continues to grow and the crisis is putting an incredible amount of pressure on not only Police Districts across the city while city officials work to get more respite centers and shelters open. The city has now opened 24 shelters, currently housing approximately 11,849 people. More than 3,000 migrants are currently being "staged" at Police Districts across the city as well as at O'Hare Airport. The city continues to evaluate additional locations for shelters.

I continue to field questions and requests from residents about how we can help to find proper shelter for the migrants here in the 11th Ward while others have expressed their concerns and objections to any of our programs being displaced. Please know that if or when the time comes for a shelter or respite center in the 11th Ward, there will be an opportunity for the community to weigh in. In the meantime, let me know your thoughts and or concerns at our email address: ward11@cityofchicago.org. 

What's happening in the ward

1st District (State &18th)

Together with the help of the Ping Tom Park Advisory Council and the Chicago Park District, we are operating a program to allow migrants at the 1st District Police Station to use the showers at the Fieldhouse.

9th District (31st & Halsted)

This week, the 9th District has had on average 200 people, including many children, sleeping in the station.

We continue to operate the shower program at Wilson Community Center for migrants. We are continuing to evaluate and make adjustments as needed as the numbers of migrants at the 9th district changes.

The 11th Ward Office continues to collaborate with other area elected officials and a mutual aid group started by neighbors to support migrant families with meals and basic needs items for those at the 9th District. We have established a distribution center for donated items on Halsted near the 9th District that serves migrants at Police Districts in the surrounding area.



How you can help

We are in need of volunteers to help us organize and sort our free shop as we get ready for colder weather. Thanks to those who volunteered yesterday to help with the changeover to winter clothing. If you'd like to volunteer, please email us at: ward11@cityofchicago.org.

If you’re interested in helping, click here for the 11th Ward Migrant Support Group and learn how you can get involved. If you are interested in donating gently used or new items, we're asking you to hold off for a week. Due to the overwhelming response and donations we've received, we do not have any more space at the moment to store items. Stay tuned for when we can accept donations again.

Many thanks to all of our neighbors who have organized themselves and coordinated volunteers, and donated supplies and meals.

The City of Chicago is accepting donations through an Amazon Wishlist set up in partnership with Instituto del Progreso Latino. To donate, please click here.

If you are a landlord looking to aid the migrant mission with apartments for rent, Catholic Charities will conduct a vetting process to confirm eligibility, send us an email so we can connect you to the right team.

Chicago Furniture Bank In partnership with New Life Centers, the Chicago Furniture Bank is providing furniture to new arrivals resettling into permanent housing. Chicago Furniture Bank is also the largest provider of free furniture to Chicago’s unhoused population. To donate extra furniture to our unhoused neighbors, including new arrivals, go to: https://www.chicagofurniturebank.org/

a. Schedule Furniture Pick-Up here: https://www.chicagofurniturebank.org/pickups

b. Donation Drop-offs: 4801 S Whipple St, Chicago, IL, 60632 [Monday-Friday, 9am-4pm]

Beat 912

Beat913/15

Beat 925

The 2024 Schedule will be available at a later date.

Recordings of Beat meetings can be found on our Youtube channel here.

Are you a business in the ward that's hiring? 

Send us your job opportunities and we'll share them.

The office has extended hours on Monday nights until 7:30 p.m. is open on the first Saturday of each month from 9:00am - 12:00 pm, if it's a holiday weekend, the office will

be open the following Saturday and/or Monday.

Alderwoman Lee will be happy to see residents on Monday nights from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. If you'd like to make an appointment, please call the ward office at 773.254.6677.

11th Ward Office| 3659 South Halsted Chicago, IL 60609 |

773-254-6677