Security Plans for this Weekend
How to Help Other Communities
Help Our Restaurants in 43rd Ward
9 PM Curfew Continues
Dear Neighbors,

Now is the time for us to act to help our neighbors throughout the city and to help local businesses to get up and running.

I ask everyone in our ward to consider making a contribution, to lend a hand, or do some footwork to help local businesses to get up to speed as quickly as possible and to help communities in need now and in the future. Here's a few ways to help.

Helping Communities In Need

Here are several charities doing direct work to rebuild on the South and West side:

My Block My Hood My City
Nonprofit with relief for black-owned small-businesses, cleanup efforts, PPE/supplied for seniors, and free meals.

Good Kids Mad City
Nonprofit serving meals to youth and providing trauma-informed social services. 

Brave Space Alliance
It’s pride month! Nonprofit LGBTQ+ center lead by black and trans Chicagoans that provides resources/programming and helps distribute meals to CPS students 
Donate

Margaret’s Village
Their mission is to provide transitional housing for homeless women, children and families, and provide experiences that empower, mentor, and support women and the broader community. The organization has an Amazon Smile list to make it easy to contribute.

Donate by Check:    Margaret’s Village - 7315 South Yale Avenue - Chicago, IL 60621-3441, or donate by phone:  Call 773.651.8372. Donate online through Amazon Smile .
Visit Margaret's Village Webpage for more details.

Pitch In to Help: Neighborhood Cleanups

4201 W. Jackson
Saturday, June 6
10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

5411 S. Ashland
Saturday, June 6
10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Helping Our Local Businesses
Please Volunteer to Join our Canvas

Community groups and the Chamber of Commerce need your help now to canvas our neighborhood to see the needs of local businesses and to offer our help. There are two programs to help right now:

1) Extended sidewalk Cafes:
We are pushing for a program that would allow restaurants and taverns to have sidewalk cafes that go beyond the limits of their own property. Here's how it would work:

A restaurant could have a cafe along the curb (like Nookies does, for example). The proposal would allow them to extend their sidewalk cafe further down the street, so long as it doesn't interfere with other businesses.

2) The Expanded Outdoor Dining Permit allows establishments with valid Retail Food Establishment Licenses to temporarily expand operations into the street or other private property (i.e. parking lots). This requires an agreement between a minimum of three food businesses within a contiguous block. And of course, this requires quite a bit of coordination with the City. At this point, we are just trying to gauge interest.

These are new concepts, and we need to get the word out to the many restaurants that operate in our ward. We are also working to obtain borrowed or low-cost sidewalk furniture to loan to businesses for the duration of the pandemic. We believe this is very doable.

You might think that our office has comprehensive lists of every business and can reach out on command to our businesses - that's partly true. We have some high turnover, and we also have many businesses that just operate as best they can without much contact with our office. But right now we need some fast action.

Our community groups have agreed to help us and our Chamber of Commerce to contact businesses to ask their interest and to collect feedback. We are asking you to participate in a personal canvass of our neighborhood's businesses.

Here's how:

1) Contact Your Community Group.
To see what community area you are in, click here .

2) Email your Community Group President and say you want to help.

Here are the presidents of our community groups :


3) Tell your community group president what part of the streets in your area you will walk.
Even a block or two is fine.

4) Drop in on the businesses and hand them this flyer . Chat with them about the concepts available. Write down the name, phone number and email of your contact and email it to your Community President.

5) Let the community group president know who you talked to.

Thanks for volunteering - this is a critical way to quickly get the information we need.
What's Open? Check This List

Please email yourvoice@ward43.org to add your business to this list. Next week, we'll include retailers and salons.
Together Now - Chicago's Fund to Rebuild Our Neighborhoods

The Together Now fund is designated to support the City of Chicago's efforts to deploy additional resources to small businesses to rebuild and recover following the coronavirus outbreak and events of the weekend of May 29.  

Your donation will support the most impacted of these small businesses across our city to ensure they have the resources they need in this ongoing time of crisis.

Please make your donation here.
Be Safe Chicago Survey

During the "Be Safe. Chicago" phases of reopening, the City of Chicago leadership wants to ensure that businesses are meeting or exceeding requirements of the "Be Safe. Chicago" guidelines put in place by Chicago's city government to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Employers are encouraged to indicate your ability to comply with the city's standards by completing the self-certification process.

If interested, please be sure to do the following :
  • Review the industry guidelines  to ensure that you understand the city's business operational standards for each phase of reopening.
  • Prepare your reopening business plan and ensure that it is operationally compliant with the city's standards.
  • Once your plan is complete, complete the survey below  to indicate your willingness and ability to comply and commit to the "Be Safe. Chicago" guidelines during reopening.

Take the Self-Certification Survey for Phase 3.
Sign Up for CHIBIZ Emergency Alerts

Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP) and the Office of Emergency Management & Communications (OEMC) urge businesses to opt-in to receive targeted emergency alerts for the business community via CHIBIZ Emergency Alerts.  If you are interested, please text “CHIBIZ” to 6-7-2-8-3 or visit  chicago.gov/chibizalerts .

Once you have opted in to receive CHIBIZ Emergency Alerts, you will be directed to a website to complete a simple registration that will allow the City to send an alert to businesses in targeted areas for severe weather, fire, medical emergency or public safety disturbances that may impact business operations.
9 PM Citywide Curfew Continues

Please be advised that the citywide curfew remains in place. Until further notice, the city is operating under a curfew for all residents and visitors effective from 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m . This includes restaurants that are eligible to reopen today for outdoor dining. We will communicate any updates to this curfew as soon as they are announced.
City Imposes Street Closures, CTA Closures and Increased Security for the Weekend

Chicago Police and the CTA have just announced they are imposing closures and enhancing security throughout the city beginning tonight. More than 300 city trucks will be used to block access to 175 commercial corridors, particularly on the South and West Sides.The city is also working with private security guards to enhance security in the neighborhoods, working alongside the police. Private security will not be armed.

As with last weekend, City salt trucks, garbage trucks and water trucks will be used to block all access to the Central Business District in the overnight hours. Every street in the downtown perimeter will be manned by law enforcement with the Illinois State Police and the National Guard along with City departments, freeing up CPD units for neighborhood coverage. 

Central Business District and Loop Area Boundaries (Non-essential vehicle traffic prohibited)
  • Division from Halsted to LSD
  • Halsted from Division to Milwaukee
  • Milwaukee from Division to Kinzie
  • Kinzie from Milwaukee to Canal
  • Canal from Kinzie to Cermak
  • Cermak from Canal to MLK JR. Drive

Central Business District Bridge Closures
  • Michigan Avenue, Wabash Street, State Street, Franklin Street, Monroe Street, Adams Street, Jackson Street, Madison Ave, Randolph Street, Van Buren Street and Kinzie Street

Freeway Closures
  • Lake Shore Drive will be closed from Fullerton to 31st Street for vehicles
  • I-90/94 will be closed on all exit ramps from Fullerton to 18th Street.
  • I-290 will be closed at Ida B. Wells.
  • All traffic from I-55 will be diverted onto I-90/94.

Public Transportation
  • CTA train and bus service will be available, however, some train stops located within the Central Business District and Loop area will remain closed. Service will be updated regularly throughout the day at www.transitchicago.com to ensure residents and employees have access to the latest transit information.

Tomorrow, Grant Park and Union Park will be open tomorrow to accommodate a planned protests. Bridges will be up except for Lake Street, Wells Street, Washington Street and LaSalle Street, which will provide access for demonstrators.

While there are no expected protests in the 43rd Ward, we recommend you to remain cautious and pull in your trash cans or wet them down for the evening.
Virtual Webinars
Health and Sanitation Practices in the Age of COVID19: PP What? - The Protection Needed to Reopen Your Business
Thursday, June 11
1:00 p.m. - 1:45 p.m.

Join the LPCC as we hear from Dr. Rahul Khare, Founder & President of Innovative Express Care. He will share his knowledge and advice on the importance of PPE and why it’s important to have it available in your business. Dr. Khare will also discuss health screenings for your employees and the best ways to conduct those in the workplace.
BACP Industry-Specific Webinars on YouTube

Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP) has a series of informative videos to help guide businesses. Be Safe Chicago Phase III: Cautiously Reopen webinars provide an overview of industry-specific guidelines for safely operating within Phase III.

Visit the YouTube Channel for the playlist of webinars.
#43 Wears Masks

Please continue sending us photos of you wearing your masks! As businesses cautiously reopen, please do not forget we are in still in a global pandemic and it is crucial to wear a facial covering while out in public spaces.

One of our community members, wearing a mask and supporting the reopening of Galway Arms!
Our very own 19th District Commander Papaioannou hugging a protester during a peaceful protest in Uptown. *Photo by @Photomohammad
Have a nice weekend,






43rd Ward Office Hours: M - F 9 AM - 6 PM 
  2523 N Halsted  |  773-348-9500 yourvoice@ward43.org www.ward43.org