Number of recycled plastic bottles required to make one eight-inch-square, six-foot-long plastic black “timber” for Chicago Park District play lots: 1,200.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
The bad news is that the good news did not apply to black people. Illinois’ statewide infant mortality rate dropped 9 percent in 1990, from 11.7 per 1,000 to 10.7–but the rate for African American babies rose slightly, from 22.0 to 22.1 (Illinois Department of Public Health).
Culture shock. Jo McGowan in the Chicago-based U.S. Catholic: “When I mentioned to a friend here in India that I was writing an article on why it was better for childen to live with two parents than with just one, she looked puzzled and asked me to repeat myself. When I did, she looked even more confused. ‘But what can you possibly say?’ she asked. ‘It’s like arguing that it’s better to have two hands than one! It’s so obvious, it’s boring.’”
When the system won’t work, you gotta work the system. Lorraine V. Forte, writing in Catalyst (April), describes how teacher Barbara MacDonald had to use “budgetary sleight of hand” to get a few science kits for students at Burke Elementary on South King: “The school’s regular budget did not have enough money for the kits; state Chapter 1 money could not be used because science equipment is not considered supplemental. But [she] realized that if she taught summer school (a supplemental program), she could tap state Chapter 1 money. So MacDonald taught summer school, bought the kits and now lends them to other teachers when her class isn’t using them.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration/Carl Kock.
