Kenwood

Tracee Blackburn picks up her daughter, 8-year-old Brynn Blackburn, from Bronzeville Classical Elementary School on Jan. 12, 2024. Tracee Blackburn is one of many Black parents who use Chicago’s school choice system to enroll outside their neighborhood elementary school.

Education

Black parents caught in middle of Chicago’s school choice debate

Black students bypass neighborhood schools for other options more than any other group. Two moms explain their different choices.

By Sarah Karp | WBEZ

News

‘I am absolutely livid’: Kenwood residents decry plan to turn hotel into migrant shelter

The Lake Shore Hotel, where some migrants were housed this spring, would begin taking up to 300 asylum-seekers.

By Emmanuel Camarillo

Cameron Bell, 3, plays with a toy car along the edge of a sand box earlier this month at Bixler Park in Hyde Park.

Columnists

Neighborhood playlot a fleeting wonderland of old toys, young faces, treasured moments

We could only spend the winter dreaming of the coming spring. “New” old toys would appear. Bixler would again fill with little kids, coming from blocks and miles and neighborhoods away to run and yell and be together.

By Lucy Biederman

Chicago

DUI, reckless homicide charges for driver in wrong-way CTA bus crash that killed Chicago woman celebrating birthday

Charice Rush, 37, was out with friends after a late night of celebrating her birthday when the car she was riding in drove the wrong way on DuSable Lake Shore Drive, colliding with a CTA bus about 6 a.m. Sunday.

By Allison Novelo

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson 4th on 53rd Parade Fourth of July

City Hall

‘Hyde Park is back’ at annual 4th on 53rd Parade on South Side, Brandon Johnson’s first as mayor

An estimated 5,000 people attended the Hyde Park tradition that dates back to 1992. The festivities included a battle of marching bands from two rival high schools.

By Michael Loria

Baltazar Enriquez from the Little Village Community Council speaking out Friday against the closing of a Walmart Neighborhood Market in Little Village.

Consumer Affairs

Protesters blast Walmart for closing store in Little Village: ‘We need this Walmart’

It’s one of four Walmart stores in Chicago being closed for good Sunday.

By Kaitlin Washburn

The Chatham Supercenter, with the Walmart Health center and the Walmart Academy, located at 8431 S. Stewart Ave., is set to close down Sunday along with three other Chicago Walmarts.

Chicago

South Siders slam Walmart over plan to close stores, threaten protests at other Walmarts

Community leaders at the Chatham Supercenter question the abrupt announcement of four Walmart closures this weekend: “If they’re going to walk out on us, we’re going to walk out on them.”

By Michael Loria

The Chatham Supercenter, Walmart Health center, and Walmart Academy, at 8431 S. Stewart Ave., is one of four Walmart locations that’ll be closing down by Sunday.

Chicago

Walmart plan to shut 4 stores by Sunday leaves customers perplexed: ‘You came in and filled a void — now you’re taking it away’

The Walmart Supercenter in Chatham is one of four stores in Chicago — along with supermarkets in Kenwood, Little Village and Lake View — that the company announced Tuesday will close. The supermarket chain called the sites “unprofitable.”

By Michael Loria and Mariah Rush

In this file photo, Micheail Ward listens to testimony in trial in the fatal shooting of Hadiya Pendleton in 2018.

Crime

Hadiya Pendleton murder conviction overturned; new trial ordered in Chicago teen’s slaying

Micheail Ward was sentenced to 84 years for the 2013 killing of the 15-year-old honor student, who had just returned from Obama’s second inauguration.

By Andy Grimm

Top row: 5th Ward candidates Tina Hone (left) and Desmon Yancy. Bottom row: 4th Ward candidates Prentice Butler (left) and Lamont Robinson.

Elections

South Side 4th, 5th Ward City Council candidates focus on public safety, development

A state lawmaker and the outgoing incumbent’s chief of staff are vying for the open seat in the 4th Ward. And just to the south, a lawyer is competing against a religious charity director in the 5th Ward.

By Mary Norkol

Chicago mayoral candidate Ald. Sophia King (4th) at a news conference outside the Chicago Police Department Central District station on Oct. 20, 2022.

Fran Spielman Show

Mayoral candidate Sophia King unveils education plan

King, who represents the 4th Ward on the Chicago City Council, was a chemistry teacher at the Latin School of Chicago and helped found Ariel Community Academy in North Kenwood-Oakland.

By Fran Spielman

Los robos ocurrieron entre las 7:20 y las 8:20 a.m. el jueves, según la policía. | Archivos Sun-Times

Crime

Man shot and killed in Kenwood

Justin Jones, 27, was on a sidewalk in the 4600 block of South Lake Park Avenue around 3:45 p.m. when someone approached him in a vehicle and fired shots, according to police.

By Mary Norkol

Dashawnna Threatt, 26, was killed in a shooting Oct. 25, 2024 on DuSable Lake Shore Drive.

News

Family wants answers after ‘loving, feisty’ mom of 2 fatally shot on DuSable Lake Shore Drive

Dashawnna Threatt, 26, was a passenger in a car when someone opened fire in the 4500 block of South DuSable Lake Shore Drive Tuesday afternoon.

By Sophie Sherry

News

Man shot in North Kenwood after confronting car thieves

The man, 38, saw the thieves inside his car in the 4600 block of South Lake Park about 12:15 a.m. and approached them, police said.

By Sun-Times Wire

Business

2 neighborhood news sources, the Hyde Park Herald and the South Side Weekly, team up

The merger under nonprofit ownership marks the retirement of the Herald’s longtime owner, Bruce Sagan, a leading figure in Chicago publishing.

By David Roeder

The Ellis Lakeview Apartments, 4624 S. Ellis Ave., where residents are asking that a court-appointed received take over the building because of a host of problems there.

Columnists

A year after South Side apartment residents asked a judge to address awful living conditions, it’s decision time

City Hall and HUD now agree: People shouldn’t have to live in the conditions faced by residents of the badly run, federally subsidized Ellis Lakeview Apartments in North Kenwood.

By Mark Brown

Books

New book tailored to young adults recalls Leopold and Loeb’s brutal deeds in Chicago

“Murder Among Friends” author Candace Fleming aims to appeal to teen true-crime aficionados but sidestep the “salacious details” of the 1924 murder.

By Abby McGanney Nolan

Rashidat Williams tells state Sen. Robert Peters about the maintenance problems at Ellis Lakeview Apartments, 4624 S. Ellis Ave.

Columnists

Residents of Kenwood apartment building try to halt its downward slide under new owner

‘I was so happy I came here then,’ one resident of the Ellis Lakeview Apartments says. “Now, everything is just turned upside-down..’ ‘Anything goes in this building at this point,’ another says.

By Mark Brown

A Chicago police star on a wall at headquarters.

Crime

Carjackings reported in Kenwood: police

In each incident, someone was sitting in their vehicle when they are approached by up to four armed males who demanded their phone and vehicle.

By Sun-Times Wire

This mural created by Ahmad Lee, also known as Reco the Great, includes a large jaguar and an eagle as well as writing utensils, ghosts and the Chicago flag. It was created as part of a beautification project at Martin Luther King Jr. College Preparatory High School.

Artists, volunteers transformed King College Prep’s halls with murals

By Kyle Brown