AustinTalks (http://austintalks.org/tag/economic-development/)
The newly launched website -www.BlackShopFriday.com – provides a guide to more than 500 local Black-owned businesses – more than 40 of them in Austin – that can be searched by category and/or neighborhood. Black Shop Friday is a partnership of the city of Chicago, the Chicago Urban League and advertising agency O’Keefe Reinhard & Paul (OKRP).
As city continues to invest in Austin as part of its INVEST South/West program, city developers and non-profit partners are focusing their attention on several blocks of Chicago Avenue, from Cicero Avenue to Austin Boulevard.
A $25 million community center would be developed in Austin through a city-owned land sale recently introduced in the Chicago City Council. The proposed North Austin Community Center would be constructed on five acres of vacant, city-owned land at North Laramie Avenue and West Moffat Street.
Dozens of West Side residents gathered to commemorate Nelson Mandela and call for economic empowerment in Austin.
The businesses – Avery and Pryor Construction, DLV Printing Service, L. May Creations and T&C Fitness Club – will receive a total of $717,320 from the city’s Neighborhood Opportunity Fund. It was started in 2016 to help support commercial corridors in Chicago’s underserved neighborhoods. In the latest round of funding, 32 businesses on the West, South and Southwest Sides will be getting a total of $5.4 million.
Artists who live and work within Austin or other INVEST South/West neighborhoods are encouraged to apply. The deadline for submissions is 11:59 p.m. July 26. The budget for each capstone project will be $150,000.
Businesses along Austin’s major thoroughfares – including North Avenue, Chicago Avenue and Madison Street – were hit by looters after peaceful protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota.
Chicago officials will hold the second of four city-wide meetings to promote the new Invest South/West program Jan. 18 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Kehrein Center, 5608 W. Washington Blvd. The focus will be on the Austin, Humboldt Park and North Lawndale neighborhoods.
The donadtion – the largest corporate gift in United Way of Metro Chicago’s history – will be used to help implement Austin’s quality of life plan and to support social service infrastructure and development in the city’s most-populated community area. The investment was announced last week at an event hosted by Mayor Lori Lightfoot and attended by several local elected officials.
The $1 million gift from Rick and Cate Waddell, given to United Way of Metro Chicago, will be used to support economic development over the next five years in Austin through the Neighborhood Network Initiative. Austin Coming Together will play a key role in the initiative.