The [Tuesday] Papers

"Chicago Public Schools says it will try to speed up the process of finding new uses for buildings shuttered by school closings in 2013 by putting about 30 vacant properties on the market," the Tribune (and Sun-Times) reports.

"Putting the remaining properties up for bid 'will accelerate the reuse and revitalization of former school sites and help spur new value from properties throughout the city,' CPS spokesman Michael Passman said in a statement."

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The backstory, from the first of a series on the effect of Rahm's mass school closings, the Chicago Reporter found:

Emanuel said residents would have a say in turning the former schools into facilities that would benefit the surrounding neighborhoods. Yet four years later, two-thirds of the buildings are still vacant. There are no common standards for community involvement in determining their reuse. And aldermen, who until recently oversaw the process, have not held public meetings to discuss the future of about half of the schools.

In response to a widely criticized and failing reuse plan, Chicago Public Schools put 28 vacant schools that were shuttered in 2013 on the market this week, taking decision-making about their future out of aldermen's hands. The announcement came months after The Chicago Reporter began questioning CPS officials about the status of the repurposing.

This isn't the way it was supposed to work - though it is the way many suspected it would work.

"[R]esidents, who have complained that they were denied a voice in the fate of their neighborhood schools, could have even less say under the new plan. Potential buyers cannot open charter schools and they will have to honor existing use restrictions established by residents, but moving forward, aldermen won't have to hold public meetings about the sales of schools. CPS will negotiate with the top two bidders, part of its normal process, and consult with aldermen before finalizing sales.

"Community advocates criticized the decision, calling it a move by the school district to unload real estate for a profit at the expense of involving residents in finding quality uses for the closed schools. And they fear that changing the process only exacerbates the distrust and resentment generated by the school closures in the first place."

Just like the DOJ report on the CPD shows that "critics" have been right about the police department all along, the Reporter shows that events have borne out what "critics" argued about Rahm's school closings.

"From the beginning, educators, parents, community members and school experts warned that Emanuel's plan for the schools was shortsighted and hit poor and African-American communities the hardest. Their fears have been borne out in the past four years. The remaining vacant schools are concentrated in poor, black neighborhoods on the city's West and South sides, where a legacy of disinvestment and segregation led to enrollment declines, and eventually, the school closures.

"Chicago's reuse proposal didn't consider how to help these fragile pockets of the city. Aldermen and the district have focused on selling empty schools on the more affluent North Side or in gentrifying communities on the South and West sides. As a result, critics argue, they have squandered an unprecedented opportunity to link school reuse with community redevelopment in neighborhoods that could most benefit from investment."

There's much more - the headline is "Behind Sale Of Closed Schools, A Legacy Of Segregation." Go read it.

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Chicagoetry: Damocles In K-Town
Like some Beaux Arts Brigadoon.

Eight Men Own Same Wealth As Half Of Humanity
That would be the 3.6 billion people who make up the poorest half.

The Racist Invention Of The White Working Class
'Race is always a social construction, a human invention used to create a hierarchy of power. It is not genetics. It is not biology. And in the case of the 'white working class,' it's not even accurate sociology."

U.S. HS Soccer Concussions On The Rise
Even as non-concussion injuries are down.

Bulls Verging On Respectability?
"I am not of the mind that it is such a horror for a team to find itself 'in the middle,' especially in the NBA," our very own Jim "Coach" Coffman writes.

The Weekend In Chicago Rock
Featuring: The Artist Formally Known As Vance Band, Bash & Pop, Weekend Nachos, Loa Hex, August Burns Red, and Kevin Lux.

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BeachBook

Harold Washington's Day.

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A 1968 Blackhawks Game.

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Bernie Madoff Is Cornering The Prison Market In Swiss Miss.

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TweetWood
A sampling.

Black Lives Matter #Chicago and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. https://t.co/GceHfk9U9E via @TheRoot

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) January 16, 2017

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Joe Maddon, via NYT: https://t.co/sgop6WCTqK pic.twitter.com/LyuYPJaXjt

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) January 16, 2017

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WOW ---> @BernieSanders shames lawmakers who claimed they voted against lower priced meds out of concern for safety https://t.co/IC40yTnflm pic.twitter.com/6J7lLfUj3t

— David Sirota (@davidsirota) January 16, 2017

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Your daily piece of reporting wisdom from Edna Buchanan, on why she always asked what was in people's pockets when they died. pic.twitter.com/v44UA22D9H

— CJ Ciaramella (@cjciaramella) January 15, 2017

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Rich people should not be allowed to socialize with each other. Put the RICO laws on that shit https://t.co/rqIAq6njBj pic.twitter.com/0qF3tnjCD1

— Hamilton Nolan (@hamiltonnolan) January 16, 2017

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The Beachwood Tronc Line: RICO Suave.

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