■ How to apply to FEMA PAGE 5
FREE Vol. 37 No. 36
September 6, 2023 ■ Also serving Garfield Park ■ austinweeklynews.com
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No end in sight to West Side’s opioid crisis, but one drug can help
How to find and use naloxone to help save a person’s life By FRANCIA GARCIA HERNANDEZ Staff Reporter
Vincent Lee saved a person’s life a few months ago. He was at the intersection of West Van Buren Street and South Pulaski Road when he saw a man on the ground. The man was unconscious and his breathing was shallow. He recognized the symptoms: A drug overdose. So he and some coworkers rushed to the person to administer Narcan. “We had to apply two doses,” Lee said. It worked. The person lived. To be sure, Lee’s job is to recognize such symptoms. He’s an outreach worker for a mobile van that provides harm reduction services for people who use drugs. He’s out there with medical students and volunteers from the University of Chicago several days a week as part of the school’s community health outreach prevention program. He had naloxone, known as Narcan, on hand. See DRUG OVERDOSE on page 8
FRANCIA GARCIA HERNANDEZ
Zina M. Crawford sells “unique products” at the intersection of Central Avenue and Race Avenue.
Vendors make a living on Austin streets West Side street vendors face challenges and opportunities
By FRANCIA GARCIA HERNANDEZ Staff Reporter
For nearly 35 years, Zina M. Crawford has posted up at the intersection of Central Avenue and Race Avenue to sell her “unique products.” In a small stand on the sidewalk, a two-minute walk from the Chicago
Public Library Austin branch, she sells “what people need,” she said. Throughout the years, her product selection has spanned from candy, snow cones and water in the summer to household items and cleaning supplies on any given day. On a recent weekday, individual paper towel rolls, laundry soap bottles, Lysol spray, Shea butter containers and bags
WS ! NEF H S A L
with socks and T-shirts laid on her portable table. Prices vary based on the items. Individual paper towel rolls cost $1 while a bag with two T-shirts costs $10. Shea butter, $10, is one of her best-selling products. See STREET VENDORS on page 9
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