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FREE Vol. 37 No. 22
May 31, 2023 ■ Also serving Garfield Park ■ austinweeklynews.com
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Vision of Central Avenue as Austin’s ‘Main Street’ A north-south Austin connection highlighting existing assets By IGOR STUDENKOV Staff Reporter
Austin residents turned out May 23 to listen and give feedback on a plan to transform Central Avenue from a largely undistinguished residential corridor into a north-south connector promoting existing cultural landmarks and functioning more as Austin’s “Main Street.” Gathered under the auspices of Austin Coming Together (ACT), real estate and land use experts from Chicago’s Urban Land Institute (ULI) came to the Kehrein Center for the Arts, 5628 W. Washington Blvd. Also participating in the planning process were representatives of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), which has been working with ACT for several months. Reinvigorating Central Avenue is one of the major priorities outlined in the ACT coalition’s Austin Quality of Life Plan. The thinking is that Central Avenue could link Austin’s major WestSee CENTRAL AVENUE on page 9
‘Eager to work’ FRANCIA GARCIA HERNANDEZ
South American asylum-seekers at 15th Chicago Police District office on May 22, 2023.
Housed at 15th District police station, South American asylum-seekers share stories By FRANCIA GARCIA HERNANDEZ Staff Reporter
On a sunny and windy Monday evening, some 10 asylum-seekers, mostly from Venezuela, stood outside Chicago’s 15th district police station, 5701 W. Madison St. The Austin-based police station looked entirely different than it did a month ago, before hundreds of asylum-seekers arrived in Chicago on buses from Texas, joining about 8,000 people who have arrived in the city
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since the fall of 2022. As the city of Chicago’s shelters and respite centers are full, hundreds of migrants are temporarily sheltering at police stations across the city. In the 15th district police station lobby, a group of asylum-seekers, mostly men, sleep on the floor in sleeping See ASYLUM-SEKKERS on page 10
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