Daywatch: What’s it like to live above a Chicago restaurant?
Good morning, Chicago.
The Chicago Board of Education will vote today on whether to revoke the charters for two campuses of Urban Prep Academy — an institution lauded for getting all of its seniors into college but beset in recent years by claims of management and oversight problems.
Urban Prep is known for serving young Black men as well as for its high graduation rates and academic achievement. But the recommendation from Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez to revoke two of Urban Prep’s charter asserts that the schools violated the terms of the terms of those charters, violated the law and “failed to meet generally accepted standards of fiscal management.”
However, at the Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men in Englewood, a different story emerged — one accusing CPS of aggressive oversight and demands, effective “attacks” against Urban Prep’s independence amid an anti-charter school political climate, administrators said. Read the full story here.
Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day.
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Man who claimed abuse by CPD detectives had sentence commuted, but a prosecutor now alleges ‘three-state crime spree’ after his release
Gerald Reed, a former Illinois inmate who alleged he was beaten by Chicago police detectives who worked under disgraced former Cmdr. Jon Burge, was released from prison last year after Gov. J.B. Pritzker commuted his life sentence amid a series of bizarre turns that saw Reed’s murder conviction overturned, reinstated and then overturned again.
But Reed’s case took another pivot Tuesday when a special prosecutor retrying the double murder case asked a judge to set bond for him. Prosecutor Robert Milan alleged Reed went on a “three-state crime spree” that involved cases in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin after his release.
City Colleges of Chicago union says it will strike next week without a new contract
The faculty and staff of City Colleges of Chicago will walk off the job next week if they don’t secure a new contract, their union said.
Leaders of the union representing almost 1,500 instructors and other employees of the community colleges said that they’ve set a Nov. 2 strike date amid ongoing negotiations for a new labor agreement.
The women behind the resurrected Seipp Brewing Company and Brewseum know their beer
Liz Garibay grew up in Old Town, the youngest of four children and the first in her family to be born in the United States instead of Mexico. She has formed a nonprofit organization and gathered a board of directors with the intention of opening a museum dedicated to beer, to be called the Brewseum. She orchestrated fascinating and entertaining exhibitions, including one that ran at the Field Museum from 2018 to 2020.
Laurin Mack is the great-great-great granddaughter of Conrad Seipp, a name that had sadly faded into history. But what a marvel he was, a success who deserves a spot alongside such other business owners as Marshall Field or George Pullman. From Germany, he came to Chicago in the 1850s and founded the Conrad Seipp Brewing Company on the South Side in 1854.
Column: 7 reasons to root for Dusty Baker, whose unconventional managerial career has him back in the World Series for a 3rd time
Dusty Baker is back in the World Series for another shot at an elusive title. His Houston Astros are prohibitive favorites against the Philadelphia Phillies in the 118th World Series, which begins Friday at Minute Maid Park, and the toothpick-chewing, 73-year-old Baker once again will be in the spotlight.
In the final year of his contract, this could be Baker’s final shot at capping a managerial career that has defied convention. Here are seven reminders of why Baker is someone you can root for, even if you have a difficult time liking the Astros.
When your downstairs neighbor is a Chicago restaurant, there’s noise, wafting smells and ‘sweet, shared-building stuff’
Urban dwelling comes with an unspoken pact that sensory intrusions will inevitably punctuate your life. Car alarms and the screeching, rumbling “L” pierce the air at all hours; neon signs rudely blink into apartment windows; rows of dumpsters assault passersby in the thick August heat, while sudden changes in the wind’s direction may bring friendlier wafts from the Blommer Chocolate Co. building.
If you’ve ever lived above a restaurant, these encroachments may even take on rhythms by which to set your days and nights.
