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May 24, 2023 ■ Also serving Garfield Park ■ austinweeklynews.com
Vol. 37 No. 21
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Newly elected Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson speaks at an event celebrating his first week in office at New Life Holiness Church on May 20, 2023.
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Special section, page B1
McDonald’s eyes long-vacant Galewood Walgreens site Neighbors express concerns about impact on traffic, noise By IGOR STUDENKOV Staff Reporter
TODD A. BANNOR
Stay engaged, Johnson tells West Siders on his home turf May 20 Austin event organized by Cong. Danny Davis
By IGOR STUDENKOV Staff Reporter
As the recently elected mayor of Chicago, Brandon Johnson arrived at Austin’s New Life Holiness Church, 5440 W. Gladys St., just as a church
choir was about to finish up a song. Without missing a beat, the choir kept singing as church officials and U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (D-7) led the mayor up to the stage, and people stood to clap and capture his arrival on their phones.
“Let’s give him another, another, another round of applause, absolutely,” Davis exclaimed as the song concluded.
A long vacant Walgreen’s store on North Avenue in Galewood could become a McDonald’s though some neighbors objected at a community meeting last week saying the site is already a traffic tangle as Ridgeland, Narragansett, North Avenue and Mobile Avenue all cross at the foot of the elevated development parcel. The developer and Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29th Ward) promised a follow-up meeting in short order that would also include representatives from the fast-food chain. Troutman & Dams, a real estate firm based in Chicago’s Elston Industrial Corridor, is working with McDonald’s to open a restaurant with a drive-thru at 1606 N. Mobile Ave., Chicago. Eric Dams, one of the firm’s principals, unveiled the proposal during Taliaferro’s May 17 community meeting, which was held at Rutherford Sayre fieldhouse, 6871 W. Belden Ave. He said his firm is in the process of buying the site, and, if the deal is complete, they will lease it to McDonald’s. The plans call for them to demolish the Walgreens building and build a smaller building with a wraparound
See BRANDON JOHNSON on page 8
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