Roseland Heights Community Association

RHCA Plans 2013

FYI VERY IMPORTATION.

Please read this. As you read please NOTE none of this will happen without YOUR help. Let us know if you want to participate or just share an idea or resource after you read this.

What has RHCA done for you lately?

It's been four months since the last RHCA monthly meeting (Oct. 2012.)

RHCA has been working on a M. L. King Jr. Gateway Initiative;

We got the state to rename the overpass at 99th & King Dr. The Dr. Martin L. King Jr. Memorial Bridge.

After the Dedication of the bridge, our long-range goal is to place memorials to honor the prestigious civil rights leader on both the North and South side of the bridge.

The sign was installed Jan. 15, 2013 (his real birthday)

RHCA Represented Roseland Heights Saturday, January 26, 2013 at Chicago State University, the South Area Civic League

(SACL) engaged and educated the community (in as non-political environment as possible) by hosting its first “Civic Discussion,” It involved a panel of distinguished experts, famed economists, a team of financial experts, and most important, “average Americans”. The panel of experts was well represented, but there were not many average persons there.

  RHCA plans for 2013

RHCA wants to find ways to lift up this community. The goal is for us to thrive. We need to stop settling for just “getting by.” There will be other “Civic Discussion" meetings so I hope that residents will attend.

Here are our strategies for 2013.  

Strategy One: Promote the history and culture that made Black Communities famous. In Chicago's Bronzeville, where jazzman Louis Armstrong and writer Richard Wright once made their homes, activists and politicians are trying to promote cultural tourism and persuade President Obama to locate his presidential library there. In Roseland Heights we are doing the same with the proposed Martin L. King Memorial (99th & King Dr.) As the country recovers from the recession, black communities and others like them are playing up what has made them famous.... African-American history and culture. Our community is new built in the 1940s & 50s so we have little history. But we are hoping the memorial; community gardens and bike paths will give our neighborhood uniqueness and give us an edge in attracting new residents, businesses, shoppers and diners for 95th.

     Strategy Two: Better networking with the power structure or with institutions that have cash to invest.  Roseland Heights has something to offer, a clean, crime free place to live. I think it's a matter of self-esteem on a community level, realizing the worth of the local history and where we live. I want to weave these things into revitalization plans. Our motto will be... "We are as good as or better than any community in this city. Say it, believe it and promote it!

RHCA would like to have a Chipotle to replace Wendy's on 95th Street. (More info at RHCA's April's meeting)

http://goo.gl/mBYnb clicks here to get information on the site.  Please go to this website http://www.chipotle.com/en-us/talk_to_us/development/development.aspx RHCA wants you to email the real estate developer to put a Chipotle on 95 Street. Click on" Email" at top of page and make your request. Mr. Taylor put this information together for you to use in your Site Description: Site of a former Wendy's. Across a major intersection from Chicago State University. Across the Street from a Walgreen's.  Next to a Popeye's franchise. Situated 1/2 mile each from a commuter rail station, a Transit Rail Terminal, and a high school.  Surrounded by an upper middle class neighborhood where high quality restaurants are desired but in short supply. Add your own comments.

  Strategy Three: Our community, in some respects, was struggling before the recession and the housing collapsed and unemployment are not helping us. We need to do our best to make where we live look well; many neighborhoods are trying different ways to recover. Along with the city & politicians we need to attract new residents.  So the plan is to talk-up our neighborhood at work, church, GO TO MEETINGS so people will know we are here! We need residential and commercial development" We need programs for our schools, (If Shedd is closed what will replace it?) The Roseland Heights MLK Committee plans (with CSU) to promote cultural heritage & tourism by proposing a Cultural Heritage Corridor stretching down King Dr. from Bronzeville to 115th Street. (How many years will that take?) And we are hoping to connect with the Last Four Miles (Lake Front bike routes), merged by the National Park in Pullman. There are several historic properties on King Dr. which have been granted landmark status by the city already so the Old Field house in Abbott Park (park in this community) could also be worked into plan.  

*Note: The Woodson Library houses the "Defender" artifacts. The vestiges of this collection have been donated to the Vivian Harsh Collection at this library. The Cultural Center (Abbott Park, 49 E. 95th Street) has new landscaping. It has historic & architectural significance and wouldn't this be a great time to think about revitalization for the park and community?  "Make no little plans" Daniel Burnham's motto fits the proposed ideas for The Abbott Park Cultural Center. Couldn't it feature part of the Defender artifacts (copies) or have exhibits (multimedia archives)? Then be placed on the culturally rich neighborhood tours; it would be an option for people coming to the Woodson exhibit to stop and see the park named after the newspaper’s founder. How about a visitor's center for the far south side, offering a neighborhood place to discover Chicago's African-American history? Abbott Park's Cultural Center could become one of the fun things to do in Chicago, the where to go, exciting neighborhood to do. Abbott could offer a unique, enjoyable, memorable experience in the 6th Ward. The Abbott Park Cultural Center is too new to be granted landmark status, but we all need to dream sometime! I have been planning to write the History of our community's name Roseland Heights, (hope it will motivate residents)

Contact RHCA struggling to live at clevantuckerjr@mail.com

RHCA is looking for officers, journalists, online publishers, organizers and someone under 70 to work.

RHCA President Clevan Tucker Jr.

“The only way ... for our community to be a better place to live is for the people of the community to understand and accept their personal responsibility for what happens.” –Davis Merritt, Jr.

 “Ordinary people have the power to change our country if we work together." So I will fight-on for "respect and empowerment. What are your plans?