How Chicago's Neighborhoods Got Their Names | Mental Floss

Nick Greene

 

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It's often said that "Chicago is a city of neighborhoods." This may seem redundant—isn't every city a city of neighborhoods?—but Chicago really is a big, wonderful amalgamation of unique enclaves. Where do the names for all these neighborhoods come from? We sought to find out.

Keep in mind that there are at least 200 neighborhoods in Chicago. While this list is extensive, it isn't absolute. For example, some areas were left off because they were obvious extensions of other neighborhoods (hello, West Rogers Park), while others lacked reliable info (or any information at all). If you don't see your neighborhood below, please write your alderman, who will then negotiate with us and we'll hash out an under-the-table deal.

The Chicago History Museum's Encyclopedia of Chicago and the Chicago Park District's parks database were extremely helpful resources for this—be sure to check them out.

Andersonville

Wikimedia Commons

After the Chicago Fire, many of the city's Swedes moved to this area on the North Side to rebuild their lives. It's believed that the neighborhood is named after Reverend Paul Andersen Norland, who was integral in attracting folks to join the community during its early years (neighborhood's pros: not engulfed in flames).

Archer Heights

Named after Archer Avenue, which itself is named after William Beatty Archer, the first commissioner of the Illinois and Michigan Canal.

Ashburn

Not the most glamorous of origins, but in the 1800s, Chicago families would dump their furnace ashes in this area, and the name "Ashburn" stuck.

Austin

reallyboring via Compfight cc

Named for Henry W. Austin, the real estate mogul who acquired and subdivided the land in 1866. The area was originally in the township of Cicero. Austin held the most power in that municipality, and its politicians brought major roads and elevated trains to the neighborhood. The other Cicero citizens objected and voted to expel Austin and have it annexed into Chicago.

Un-fun fact about Henry W. Austin: He was an ardent temperance advocate and worked to ban all saloons and liquor sales within his community.

Avalon Park

This neighborhood was originally named "Pennytown" for Penny, a local general store owner who sold popcorn balls. The area's Avalon Park Community Church lobbied to have the name changed, and Pennytown—and Penny's popcorn balls—are no more.

Back of the Yards

Union Stock Yards, 1947 via Wikimedia Commons

Named for its location in relation to the famed Union Stock Yards, this neighborhood was home to most of the Yards' workers. It's where the hog butchers for the world rested their heads at night.

Beverly

There is some argument about whether this neighborhood is named after Beverly, Massachusetts, or Beverly Hills, California. It's often referred to as "Beverly Hills" because it sits on a glacial ridge that, at 672 feet, is the tallest natural point in Chicago.

Boystown

Wikimedia Commons

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New: 87 Deceased NFL Players Test Positive for Brain Disease | Concussion Watch | FRONTLINE A PBS

 

A total of 87 out of 91 former NFL players have tested positive for the brain disease at the center of the debate over concussions in football, according to new figures from the nation’s largest brain bank focused on the study of traumatic head injury.

Researchers with the Department of Veterans Affairs and Boston University have now identified the degenerative disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, in 96 percent of NFL players that they’ve examined and in 79 percent of all football players. The disease is widely believed to stem from repetitive trauma to the head, and can lead to conditions such as memory loss, depression and dementia.

In total, the lab has found CTE in the brain tissue in 131 out of 165 individuals who, before their deaths, played football either professionally, semi-professionally, in college or in high school.

Forty percent of those who tested positive were the offensive and defensive linemen who come into contact with one another on every play of a game, according to numbers shared by the brain bank with FRONTLINE. That finding supports past research suggesting that it’s the repeat, more minor head trauma that occurs regularly in football that may pose the greatest risk to players, as opposed to just the sometimes violent collisions that cause concussions.

But the figures come with several important caveats, as testing for the disease can be an imperfect process. Brain scans have been used to identify signs of CTE in living players, but the disease can only be definitively identified posthumously. As such, many of the players who have donated their brains for testing suspected that they had the disease while still alive, leaving researchers with a skewed population to work with.

Even with those caveats, the latest numbers are “remarkably consistent” with past research from the center suggesting a link between football and long-term brain disease, said Dr. Ann McKee, the facility’s director and chief of neuropathology at the VA Boston Healthcare System.

“People think that we’re blowing this out of proportion, that this is a very rare disease and that we’re sensationalizing it,” said McKee, who runs the lab as part of a collaboration between the VA and BU. “My response is that where I sit, this is a very real disease. We have had no problem identifying it in hundreds of players.”

In a statement, a spokesman for the NFL said, “We are dedicated to making football safer and continue to take steps to protect players, including rule changes, advanced sideline technology, and expanded medical resources. We continue to make significant investments in independent research through our gifts to Boston University, the [National Institutes of Health] and other efforts to accelerate the science and understanding of these issues.”

The latest update from the brain bank, which in 2010 received a $1 million research grant from the NFL, comes at a time when the league is able to boast measurable progress in reducing head injuries. In its 2015 Health & Safety Report, the NFL said that concussions in regular season games fell 35 percent over the past two seasons, from 173 in 2012 to 112 last season. A separate analysis by FRONTLINE that factors in concussions reported by teams during the preseason and the playoffs shows a smaller decrease of 28 percent.

Off the field, the league has revised safety rules to minimize head-to-head hits, and invested millions into research. In April, it also won final approval for a potential $1 billion settlement with roughly 5,000 former players who have sued it over past head injuries.

Still, at the start of a new season of play, the NFL once again finds itself grappling to turn the page on the central argument in the class-action lawsuit: that for years it sought to conceal a link between football and long-term brain disease.

The latest challenge to that effort came two weeks ago with the trailer for a forthcoming Hollywood film about the neuropathologist who first discovered CTE. When the trailer was released, it quickly went viral, leaving the NFL bracing for a new round of scrutiny over past efforts to deny any such connection.

The film, Concussion, starring Will Smith, traces the story of Bennet Omalu, who in 2005 shocked the football establishment with an article in the journal Neurosurgery detailing his discovery of CTE in the brain of former Pittsburgh Steelers center Mike Webster. At the VA lab and elsewhere, CTE has since been found in players such as Hall of Famer Junior Seau, former NFL Man of the Year Dave Duerson, and Indianapolis Colts tight end John Mackey, a past head of the player’s union.

While the story is not a new one, for the NFL, it represents a high-profile and potentially embarrassing cinematic interpretation of a period in which the league sought to refute research suggesting football may contribute to brain disease.

From 2003 to 2009, for example, the NFL’s now disbanded Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee concluded in a series of scientific papers that “no NFL player” had experienced chronic brain damage from repeat concussions, and that “Professional football players do not sustain frequent repetitive blows to the brain on a regular basis.”

In the case of Omalu, league doctors publicly assailed his research, and in a rare move, demanded a retraction of his study. When Omalu spoke to FRONTLINE about the incident for the 2013 documentary, League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis, he said, “You can’t go against the NFL. They’ll squash you.”

In a conversation with FRONTLINE, McKee said that her biggest challenge remains “convincing people this is an actual disease.” Whatever pockets of resistance still exist, she said, have primarily come from those with a “vested interest” in football.

“People want to make this just Alzheimer’s disease or aging and not really a disease,” according to McKee. “I think there’s fewer of those people, but that’s still one of our major hurdles.”

New: 87 Deceased NFL Players Test Positive for Brain Disease | Concussion Watch | FRONTLINE | PBS

Letter: Brereton supports Michelle Courier - Opinion - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

 

Since first becoming elected as Boone County’s state’s attorney, Michelle Courier has managed the duties associated with that position with the highest degree of care and concern for the people of Boone County. Along the way, she has convinced many of those who at first doubted her capabilities to fulfill the challenges of the office.

Michelle has demonstrated sound judgment by reaching out to hire assistant state’s attorneys, who competently protect our community by prosecuting those individuals responsible for the ills of our community.

Michelle also has reflected the compassionate side of our community with the establishment of the First Offender Program, thereby offering the opportunity to a keep a conviction from being permanently entered on a first-time, nonviolent felony offenders record.

Michelle continues to work hard and maintains strong and open relationships with city and county law enforcement agencies. These relationships are vital for the safety of our community’s officers and citizens.

With my own strong desire to still find ways to build a better Belvidere, I solicit continued support to retain Michelle Courier as Boone County’s state’s attorney.

— Mayor Frederic C. Brereton, Belvidere

Letter: I support Michelle Courier - Opinion - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

Primary Dealers Rigged Treasury Auctions, Investor Lawsuit Says - Bloomberg Business

 

• 69% of reissued Treasury auctions were suspicious, suit says

• Same type of analysis caught cheating in currencies, Libor

The same analytical technique that uncovered cheating in currency markets and the Libor rates benchmark -- resulting in about $20 billion of fines -- suggests the dealers who control the U.S. Treasury market rigged bond auctions for years, according to a lawsuit.

The analysis was part of a 115-page lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court on Aug. 26 by Quinn Emmanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP and other law firms. The plaintiffs built their case against the 22 primary dealers who serve as the backbone of Treasury trading -- including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley -- using data from Rosa Abrantes-Metz, an adjunct associate professor at New York University who has provided expert testimony in rigging cases.

Her conclusion: More than two-thirds of a certain type of Treasury auction appear to have been rigged. She found issues with other auctions, too.

“The only plausible explanation is that Defendants coordinated artificially to influence the results of the auctions in the primary market,” according to the complaint filed by the Cleveland Bakers and Teamsters Pension Fund and other investors.

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, comes as the U.S. Justice Department probes whether information in the Treasury auction market is being shared improperly by financial institutions, three people with knowledge of the investigation said in June. Treasury traders at some banks learn of customer demand hours before auctions, and were communicating with their counterparts at other firms via chat rooms as recently as last year, Bloomberg News reported earlier this year.

Abrantes-Metz’s analysis is similar to one used in lawsuits claiming bank and broker manipulation of the London interbank offer rate, or Libor. Those cases resulted in about $9 billion in settlements from the financial firms. Banks and brokers have paid about $9.9 billion in fines to global regulators related to manipulation of currency markets as of May.

Representatives of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley declined to comment on the Treasury lawsuit’s allegations.

The U.S. Treasury initially sells securities to the primary dealers who in turn sell them to clients, creating a secondary market for trading. Sometimes, after auctioning off debt, the government later issues an identical batch of securities -- known as reissued Treasuries.

When the second set of Treasuries is issued, their prices and yields can be compared with the identical securities already trading in the secondary market. If there are pricing differences, that could be evidence of a problem. According to the plaintiffs, 69 percent of the auctions of reissued Treasuries from 2009 to 2015 appear to have been rigged, artificially boosting yields by 0.91 basis points.

The plaintiffs said there’s evidence of cheating from at least 2007 through earlier this year, when press reports revealed the Justice Department investigation into the auction process.

“These analyses reveal a consistent pattern: Treasury auction yields were artificially high (and prices correspondingly low),” according to the complaint. “Defendants then turned around and sold the Treasuries at higher prices (and correspondingly lower yields) in the secondary markets, reaping substantial profits.”

The data analysis showed similar discrepancies when prices at Treasury auctions were compared to those in the secondary market as well as the when-issued market. Treasury futures experienced similar downward pressure on prices leading up to auctions, the lawsuit claims.

Among the lawyers representing the investors is Daniel Brockett, a Quinn Emmanuel attorney who recently won a $1.87 billion settlement against Wall Street’s largest banks in a case alleging they conspired to limit competition in the market for credit-default swaps.

Brockett said in an interview that the new lawsuit alleges the artificially low auction prices grew in direct proportion to how many primary dealers were involved in an auction.

“No matter which way you measure it, they end up benefiting in ways that wouldn’t otherwise be possible in a liquid market of this size,” he said. The $12.8 trillion Treasury market helps sets interest rates on everything from home mortgages to credit cards and is often described as the largest, most-liquid market in the world.

Another group of investors, including Boston’s public employee retirement system, has filed a similar suit against Wall Street primary dealers. Experts interviewed by Labaton Sucharow LLP, the law firm that filed that suit, analyzed auctions and the market for when-issued securities, which are essentially agreements to buy or sell Treasury bonds, notes or bills once they’re issued.

They claim that banks colluded to push prices artificially low at auctions, and to drive prices for when-issued securities to artificially high levels, until December 2012, when news broke of investigations into how Libor was set.

“These scenarios all turn on a very simple conflict of interest,” attorney Michael Stocker said in a telephone interview. “You had banks who were auction participants who also had the power to move the prices that those markets depended on.”

The new case is Cleveland Bakers and Teamsters Pension Fund v. Bank of Nova Scotia, 15-cv-06782, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

Primary Dealers Rigged Treasury Auctions, Investor Lawsuit Says - Bloomberg Business

AP Exclusive: Highly paid Rauner aides did work for governor while on comptroller's payroll

 

SPRINGFIELD, Illinois — Three government administrators began working on hiring employees for Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration last winter while on the comptroller's office payroll, using taxpayer dollars from a separate constitutional office before Rauner had even taken the state's reins.

Rauner, a Republican who promised to clean up clout-laced government hiring, relied on at least three comptroller employees to get his administration running, including recommending candidates for politically affiliated jobs, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. Two went on to become senior Rauner managers, including one who oversees hiring for the governor's office.

Rauner aides say the practice was an appropriate and efficient way to get the new administration up and running, and that the comptroller's independent inspector general gave approval in advance. But political experts and reform advocates say the practice was improper and breached divisions between constitutional offices.

"You want to help out the governor? Do it on your time, on your nickel," said Kent Redfield, an expert on political ethics at the University of Illinois-Springfield. "To me, that's pretty clearly wrong. One of the functions of the state comptroller's office is not to act as an HR department for the governor's office."

A new governor's transition costs are typically covered by private funds. So, the use of comptroller employees by the multimillionaire former venture capitalist, who vowed to "shake up" how Springfield does business, raises questions about whether he didn't want to be hampered by bureaucratic restraints or was cutting corners and blurring lines set up to prevent conflicts between separate units of government.

Rauner spokesman Lance Trover scoffed at the reproach, emphasizing the inspector general's blessing.

"Only in Illinois do you get attacked for doing things the right way," he said.

It's impossible to say how many taxpayer dollars, appropriated for the comptroller's job of paying the state's bills, financed the work of Judith McAnarney and Matthew Magalis, who were were setting up meetings with Cabinet-level agencies and discussing applicants to fill jobs during the workday while Rauner was still a private citizen.

The emails reviewed by the AP came from a half-dozen state agencies under a Freedom of Information Act request. But 20 agencies — including the comptroller's office — are keeping related documents secret, despite Rauner's pledge of government transparency.

Redfield called the situation improper, if not illegal. The state Constitution bars using tax dollars for private purposes, he said, suggesting the situation could fall into that realm, particularly because Rauner wasn't sworn in until Jan. 12.

"It raises ethical issues," he said. "It's better to have bright-line distinctions and if you start justifying getting into gray areas on the basis of whether it's for a 'good cause' or a person's 'motives are good,' that's a slippery slope."

Inspectors general for each constitutional office routinely investigate and recommend discipline for employees who abuse work time, engage in activities outside their job descriptions or conduct political tasks.

The pre-approval by Michael Drake, appointed 10 years ago by a Democratic comptroller, allowed the transition committee to use "experienced government human resource professionals with bipartisan backgrounds to ensure state hiring was done legally and appropriately," Trover said.

Brad Hahn, chief of staff to current GOP Comptroller Leslie Munger, released a letter from Drake dated Nov. 24, 2014, in which he OK'd transition-team participation by Nancy Kimme, chief of staff for late Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka, whom officials said had approved before her death in December. "Gov. Rauner will need critical advice from qualified people within government," he wrote. The letter does not mention McAnarney, Magalis or other comptroller employees, saying to Kimme, "It is likely that you will need to perform transition committee tasks while on state time."

The emails began in mid-December, about six weeks after the Rauner won the election. State ethics law prohibits political activity on state time, but the emails indicate that, in many cases, McAnarney and Magalis were discussing positions that are exempt from hiring rules — meaning the governor may fill the posts based on political considerations.

McAnarney had been a contractual employee making $55 per hour; now she is Rauner's $115,000-a-year human resources manager. Magalis, a human resources manager who made $95,000 with the comptroller, became the Transportation Department's chief of staff with a $120,000 salary.

Kimme is mentioned rarely in the emails, although one dated Dec. 16, 2014, from McAnarney invites the Department of Veterans Affairs' chief of staff to a discussion about personnel issues in Kimme's Chicago office. Kimme did not respond to a request for comment.

McAnarney and Magalis communicated with at least two dozen state agencies, six of which provided documents in response to the FOIA request. Another 22 reported having no relevant documents. The 20 agencies refusing to disclose relevant records overwhelmingly contended that the documents may be withheld under an exemption for "preliminary" records, in which officials express opinions or formulate policy.

None of the FOIA denials addressed whether the comptroller's office has the authority to engage in discussions with state agencies over hiring that belongs to the governor.

"They have their own duties as members of the comptroller's staff," said David Melton, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. "That is what they're supposed to be doing on state time."

---

Contact Political Writer John O'Connor at https://twitter.com/apoconnor

AP Exclusive: Highly paid Rauner aides did work for governor while on comptroller's payroll

Cupich to Chicago union workers: 'I am with you' - Story | WFLD

 

CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) - Chicago is considered to be expensive because the cost of doing business in the area, which often includes higher wages won by labor unions.

But Archbishop Blase Cupich is singing unions' praises, and they gave him a series of standing ovations on Thursday.

As FOX 32’s Political Editor Mike Flannery reports, the debate over ‘Right to Work’ has Chicago at the tipping point.

Cupich to Chicago union workers: 'I am with you'

 

Chicago at the Tipping Point

Cupich to Chicago union workers: 'I am with you'

Chicago is considered to be expensive because the cost of doing business in the area, which often includes higher wages won by labor unions.

Gov. Bruce Rauner says one way to reduce the cost of government, and the cost to taxpayers, is to reduce the power of government worker unions. Democrats oppose that.

There's now little doubt where the archbishop stands.

“I have come today to tell Chicago workers, the Catholic Church is with you. Pope Francis is with you. I am with you,” Cupich said.

Unionists at Plumbers Hall jumped to their feet when Archbishop Cupich challenged Gov. Rauner's Turnaround Agenda. The governor insists a balanced budget must include measures to save taxpayers money by weakening the bargaining power of labor unions, often called "Right to Work."

“So-called Right-to-Work laws - the Church is duty bound to challenge such efforts by raising questions based on longstanding principles. We have to ask, "Do these measures undermine the capacity of unions to organize, to represent workers and to negotiate contracts?"

While the answer is yes, that's precisely the point of Right-to-Work. Supporters argue it ultimately helps the poorest of the poor, the unemployed, by stimulating new business investment and creating more jobs.

Click to see the video:  Cupich to Chicago union workers: 'I am with you' - Story | WFLD