AustinTalks (http://austintalks.org/tag/coalition-to-save-community-banking/)
The Coalition to Save Community Banking will brief the West Side community on its efforts to reach a community benefits agreement with US Bank at an upcoming meeting. The coalition met this week with bank officials and elected officials. US Bank took over the branch offices of Park National Bank, which federal regulators shut down in fall 2009.
Holding the property owner/s responsible can be challenging, housing and neighborhood advocates say.
The Coalition For Community Banking wants local residents to speak Aug. 12 at a hearing in Downtown Chicago.
No matter what the outcome in the Park National Bank seizure, the situation has broken down barriers between the Austin community and Oak Park residents. It’s the silver lining in the cloud that has hung over those two communities since October. That’s when the popular neighborhood bank, located in Oak Park, was seized by federal regulators, said Rev. Marshall Hatch, a member of the Coalition to Save Community Banking, a grassroots organization formed in response to the takeover and forced sale. “There’s much less of a barrier between Austin and Oak Park,” said Hatch, representing the New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church in West Garfield Park. “This has brought people together.