The Buck Stops Here, Mayor Lightfoot

Saturday July 30, 2022

Dear Mayor Lightfoot

It has recently come to my (and everyone's!) attention that:

Compared to the wealthier communities in Chicago, the more-poor communities have the following: Fewer healthy activities of ALL kinds for our children and teenagers. Here are some examples, for the more-poor neighborhoods of Chicago:
1. Fewer sports classes and after-school recreation/sports in our south/west parks and schools
3. Fewer art and music programs in our and in our south/west schools and parks.
3. Fewer staff and programs in the south/west Chicago Park District parks in the summer. Zero working Park-District staff on Saturdays and Sundays in some parks!
4. Fewer art, music, recreation,and sports programs in our south/west Chicago Public Schools

NEEDED FROM YOU AND FROM OUR OTHER ELECTED LEADERS:
A. Can you provide or publish some numbers and statistics on the actual size of this wealthy-neighborhood vs poor-neighborhood disparity?
B. Can you host meetings that will publicize this huge problem, and offer political solutions that will make this huge wealthy-area vs poor-area discrepancy ... disappear?

C. Rather than depend on communities to get help only by applying for grants, you yourself must directly add these essential arts and recreation programs to our public schools and to our public parks!

The consensus now growing to near unanimity: Get rid of this disparity. Provide teens and children similar good activities in EVERY neighborhood in the City. SEE CRIME STATISTICS GO CONSISTENTLY DOWN, AS A CONSEQUENCE!

Thank you so much.

Sincerely,
Sid Colton
Patch Mayor for the Hyde Park Patch
My columns are at: https://patch.com/users/sid-colton