■ Creating your own action figures PAGE 5
FREE Vol. 39 No. 20
May 21, 2025 ■ Also serving Garfield Park ■ austinweeklynews.com
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West Side mothers lobby in Springfield for Mother’s Day Encourage legislators to pass bills to protect immigrant and students and stop police from ticketing students in schools By JESSICA MORDACQ Staff Reporter
“Babies can’t wait!” was one of the chants heard throughout the Illinois State Capitol building’s rotunda on the afternoon of May 7, when over 250 Illinois mothers and children – 18 from Chicago’s West Side – gathered for a state-wide lobby day in Springfield. The mothers are a part of the statewide membership program POWER-PAC IL, which stands for Parents Organized to Win, Educate, and Renew – Policy Action Council. POWER-PAC IL is led by parents who are trained by Community Organizing and Family Issues, a Chicago-based organization that empowers parents to get involved in civic issues. See WEST SIDE MOTHERS on page 9
Biking for non-violence, page 3
Members of the Parkside Terrace Alliance and All-Chicago Tenant Alliance at rally at 130 N. Parkside on May 10.
Parkside neighbors form tenants’ union to fight landlord TODD BANNOR
Former Mercy Housing buildings now up for sale again By DAN HALEY Interim Managing Editor
Frustrated tenants of two apartment buildings on Parkside Avenue in Austin have organized a tenants’ union with demands for better maintenance, safety
and service from their landlord, Infinity Partners, an investment firm based in Atlanta, Georgia. Residents of 143 S. Parkside Ave. and 130 S. Parkside Ave. gathered in their parking lot on Saturday, May 10 to protest a raft of issues including a gate to the parking lot tenants said does not work, no ongoing maintenance or routine janitorial services and difficulty contacting the building management firm to register complaints, discuss leases or pay rent. The dozen residents of the buildings
were joined by about the same number of representatives of the All-Chicago Tenant Alliance, a group which is working to organize the recently formed Parkside Terrace Alliance. Hattie Winston has lived in the 32-unit Parkside Terrace building for 14 years. She said that, because of conditions in the building, she has lived the “last two years in pain. The worst I’ve experienced in my life. But I won’t be afraid.” After See TENANTS’ UNION on page 6
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