Monday noon at Dominican University’s Parmer Hall, the Chamber of Commerce hosted its annual economic lunch. In a moment when tall buildings are being erected in Oak Park and there is a trendy brewpub opening in every business district, the Chamber made an interesting and brave choice in defining economic issues.
“Crime and Its Impact on Economic Development in Our Community” was the title of the fascinating program. And the two main speakers were not from among the usual suspects of mayors, bankers or developers. They weren’t even from Oak Park or River Forest.
Instead a crowd of maybe 150 of the usual suspects heard from Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart and Ald. Chris Taliaferro of the 29th Ward, which includes both Austin and Galewood.
It was a low-key but stunning exposition of the massive failure of the county-wide criminal justice system, which locks up mainly non-violent criminals and the mentally ill and the parallel explosion of often-unsolved gun violence cases on the West and South sides.
Dart, casual in dress and speaking style, is impressive in his simple and direct approach. We arrest too many people, we hold them in Cook County Jail too long because the court system is a botch, recidivism is rampant because the failed schools and lack of work shunt people straight back to an arrest on drug charges or petty property crime. The jail, built for short-term custody, has few education or job-training programs, although this is an area, he says, of slow progress.
Where he is most eloquent is in describing the thousands of inmates at Cook County Jail who are mentally ill, who have no resources for care outside of the jail, because our state has cut most funding for community-based mental health treatment. He talks about mentally-ill inmates who tell him the jail offers the finest mental health care they have ever received.
A stunning and stupid situation that we have allowed to develop and become institutionalized. And it is not just in failed Illinois, he says. In 44 of 50 states, the largest mental health facility is a jail or prison.
Taliaferro has been an alderman for just one year. A cop in the city for two decades, he has a rare perspective on the direct, smothering impact of crime on any sort of economic growth on the West Side. He described corner liquor store owners effectively held captive by street gang members who congregate on the corner dealing drugs but promising to protect the store from robbery, theft or violence.
While pragmatic, Taliaferro is also asking that Oak Parkers see not just the woes but the potential of the West Side, of its people. He is, by far, the West Side alderman most engaged with Oak Park in memory. His active role along the shared border on North Avenue is responsive and decisive. Coupled with the strongest citizen connections now building between Oak Park and Galewood — kudos to Judith Alexander — this is an effective, necessary alliance.
And in a quiet display of the increasing confidence of Oak Park’s Chamber leadership, it was Amara Enyia, head of the Chamber in Austin, who forcefully introduced Taliaferro as a vital agent of change.
There are bridges being built, based on realistic premises, a moral imperative and shared need. So far to go but such an interesting road.
