Good News: May 4, 2018

Welcome to Good News! In this space we feature positive stories of community impact and development, relevant to the areas Metropolitan serves or the programs we offer.

Students learn grass-roots activism while campaigning to rename Douglas Park
Chicago Tribune
The group of fifth-graders bounced and danced around the Blue Line LaSalle Street subway platform, their playful vigor turning to steely nerve as they approached a few dozen morning commuters and started their pitch. The Village Leadership Academy fifth-graders were assigned to persuade commuters to sign a petition to add an “s” to Douglas Park, renaming it for former slave and groundbreaking orator Frederick Douglass rather than onetime U.S. Sen. Stephen A. Douglas.

Bike-sharing pilot program launches in South Side communities
Chicago Sun-Times
Two dockless bike-share companies put a total of 100 bikes into circulation in the South Side area of 79th Street to the north, 138th Street to the south, the Skyway to the east and Pulaski Road to the west. The area, for the most part, has been a bike-sharing desert until now.

Twenty-Sixth Street is Chicago’s Mexican Magnificent Mile
Chicago Reader
Twenty-Sixth Street reportedly generates more revenue than any other commercial corridor in the city save Michigan Avenue. “It’s the place that you go to buy stuff that reminds you of home, or your grandpa. This is the place where Spanish is spoken, where you feel Mexican,” says Jaime Di Paulo, executive director of the Little Village Chamber of Commerce.