Several high school students and parents from the Altgeld Gardens public housing complex on the Far South Side showed up to City Hall unannounced Wednesday to meet with the mayor.
Several high school students and parents from the Altgeld Gardens public housing complex on the Far South Side showed up to City Hall unannounced Wednesday to meet with the mayor. The students, who attend Christian Fenger High School, said they wanted to fill out college applications online during Christmas break but couldn’t because their local library (Altgeld Library) has been closed since March while a broken steam pipe is repaired. “We do not have computers at home and the next closest library is too far away,” said Keshia Williams, 17, a junior at Fenger. Williams’ mom, Ericka Thomas, added that if Altgeld students were to go to the next closest library, which is West Pullman Library at 119th and Halsted Streets, students would have to travel through dangerous neighborhoods. “My daughter should not have to take three buses and walk six blocks just to go to the library when there is a library where we live,” she said. “The weather is bad and it’s cold outside but the mayor expects these poor, Black kids to go an extra mile just to utilize free city services.” If a pipe had burst at a library in a more affluent community, “the pipe would have been fixed in less than a week,” said Otis Smith, whose son is a senior at Fenger. “They (city officials) treat the poor any kind of way but we know they do not treat rich white kids this way.” Mayor Richard M. Daley was unavailable to meet with the group but a spokesman for the mayor did meet with the group to acknowledge their presence and address their concerns. According to Chicago Public Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey, CPL hopes to open a new Altgeld branch by July at the Chicago Public Schools’ Wheatley Child Parent Center located at Altgeld. And Smith added that plans for a resident computer room at the Altgeld Community Center is already underway and is expected to open this month.
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