🌱 COVID Case Rate Continues Climb + Film Festival Coming To Lakeview

Good day, neighbors! It's me again, Georgi Presecky, your host of the Lakeview Daily.

First, today's weather:

Partly sunny and chilly. High: 50 Low: 36.

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Here are the top 4 stories today in Lakeview:

1. COVID-19 cases in Illinois increased by more than 40 percent over the past seven days, according to the state health department. The state is averaging more than 3,100 new cases per day, a 170 percent increase from 30 days ago. (NBC)

2. A group of Lincoln Park residents is raising money to hire a private security firm as crime rates rise in the neighborhood. Some neighbors are concerned about the effort’s vague details. “It’s not clear whether these guards would be armed, what actions these security officers might take, how they’d identify a suspicious person or activity, when they’d intervene and what that intervention would look like,” a Lincoln Park woman told Block Club. (Block Club)

3. The Chicago Resilient Community Pilot program is now accepting applications, offering $500 per month cash assistance to 5,000 low-income Chicagoans. Applications are open through May 13. (NBC)

4. The Chicago Film Critics Association announced the lineup for its upcoming festival, to be held May 13-19 at the Music Box Theatre. Selections include a “Boogie Nights” anniversary screening and the Chicago premiere of Sundance favorite “Cha Cha Real Smooth.” Tickets and passes for the Chicago Critics Film Festival are on sale now. (Patch)

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Today in Lakeview:

• Four films screen at the Landmark for the Chicago Latino Film Festival, which runs through May 1. (5:45 p.m.)
• Local organizations partner to present “WE ARE HERE,” a concert of songs written in the ghettos and concentration camps of occupied-Europe during the Holocaust. (6:30 p.m.)
• Trivia Night at Guthrie’s Tavern. (7:30 p.m.)
• Comedian Joe Pera performs at Park West. (7:30 p.m.)
• Test your Taylor Swift trivia knowledge at Sidetrack. (8 p.m.)

From my notebook:

• Longtime Lincoln Park Zoo employee Steve Ross died April 20 at the age of 52. He worked at the zoo for more than 20 years, most recently as director of the Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study of Conservation of Apes. (ABC)
• Waldos Forever Fest was canceled last weekend after a fire broke out early Saturday morning in the 5000 block of North Clark Street. (Block Club)
• A Cubs-obsessed Oak Park family faces personal and political struggles in Jennifer Close’s new novel “Marrying the Ketchups,” on bookshelves today. (Patch)

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Events:

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• Emma's Revolution CD-Release Concert (April 30)
• Baby Day Event hosted by Metta Baby (May 1)
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That's all for today, Lakeview! See you tomorrow for more neighborhood news.

— Georgi Presecky

About me: Georgi is a Chicago-based newsletter writer and partner content curator. She spent five years on the entertainment beat for FF2 Media covering film festivals across the U.S. Her feature articles have been recognized with awards from the Illinois Women's Press Association and National Federation of Press Women. As editor-in-chief of the Lewis University newspaper, she and her staff earned honors from the Associated Collegiate Press and American Scholastic Press Associations. She began working for Patch in 2019.