Chicagoland CNN (Bush: celebrity, assault, phone)

[thefallensrvnge]

Every time I try to watch this show, it turns out CNN has ditched it for an hour long coverage of the Malaysian plane disappearance. CNN actually brought on a psychic to discusses the visions they've had about the plane. WTF? Are the ratings on Chicagoland that bad? I swear the 24 hour news cycle is evil...

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by thefallensrvnge

Every time I try to watch this show, it turns out CNN has ditched it for an hour long coverage of the Malaysian plane disappearance. CNN actually brought on a psychic to discusses the visions they've had about the plane. WTF? Are the ratings on Chicagoland that bad? I swear the 24 hour news cycle is evil...

A psychic, really?

[IntlFalls56649]

I was really encouraged by this show as Chicago is my favorite city and someday I hope to leave frigid International Falls, Minn to be closer to my friends in Greektown (Jackson & Halstead). When I think of Chicago...I think of it's history. The fire. The variety of diversity of races, gay people, different religions, new definitions of what makes a family, immigrants. And of course, my favorite of all, the Chicago Marathon.

I don't say these things with too much idealism, because I've spent enough time in Chicago to know that when you put that many people together, anything good or bad can happen. My thing with Chicago is this program identifies anyone as a 'community leader' but never what their real job is. I think people like Ms. Dozier are what's RIGHT about Chicago. She is open to new ideas, she steps outside her comfort zone, anything to get to talk to people who'll listen to her vision. On the other hand, people like Karen Lewis take the low road with arrogance, race baiting, name calling as well as coming across as a crazy person to get her way.

Bigger picture...fewer and fewer people between 1996 and now are having kids. Many who do have found for the first time that suburbs and small towns are one third of the cost of living as urban areas. As well, a lot of parents, after seeing the violence in schools, bullying, etc have decided to enrol their kids in online-format schools. So there are many more choices now than even ten years ago. Schools are going to close, and yes, teachers will lose jobs. Unless you go back and either get your masters or a second degree to make yourself more marketable, right now it's damn hard to feel secure in your field in teaching. I've heard of some university programs where they have next to no male students wanting to become teachers now because of all the false lawsuits that have happened. Who would want to risk that?

There are no neighbourhood schools anymore. In most cities, that disappeared in the early 1970's. The only reason Chicago had them for so long was because of civil rights activists, charter schools and political connections. But now there's just not enough money anymore.

One thing that angered me was watching that 3rd grade kid get up on that podium and call the mayor a racist. The kid is an idiot whose mother is using him to exploit her self-interests. Rather than complain about the fact that kids will have to walk through certain areas - and I get it that gangs control certain areas - where are these community activists? Why aren't they saying we will NOT be held hostage in our homes while our kids are forced to play inside all summer because of gang members and drug dealers? Why aren't they doing something constructive to make life as uncomfortable and unpleasant as possible to be a gang member in Chicago instead of doing nothing and deciding that closing schools is the issue? I've got an example of this thinking:

A friend of mine volunteered to help rebuild after Katrina. These groups from church, mainly young women, stood there and sweat trying to build homes for people in New Orleans while people across the street - many young men in their 30s and 40s, did nothing but sit and watch. These houses were being built for them and those in their community; why weren't they helping? It's this 'let someone else do it' mentality and then after it's built, since they put forth no effort and often pay nothing to live there, they and their kids ruin the place within a year. Until that mentality is gone, things will never change.

[rubbersoul89]

Originally Posted by IntlFalls56649

where are these community activists? Why aren't they saying we will NOT be held hostage in our homes while our kids are forced to play inside all summer because of gang members and drug dealers? Why aren't they doing something constructive to make life as uncomfortable and unpleasant as possible to be a gang member in Chicago instead of doing nothing and deciding that closing schools is the issue? I've got an example of this thinking:

there are plenty of people in the rough areas of the city trying to make a difference, but it's not quite as easy as you frame it.

plenty of people in gang infested neighborhoods have family ties to that lifestyle or simply are afraid of retribution for talking to the police.

making life "uncomfortable" for gangs might not work out so well for you.

[jman07]

The last episode almost showed more than a minute of non southside murder and education problems. I was actually excited for a minute when they showed a startup. Of course, that only lasted for about a minute. Then we got about a 3 second flash of some white people on the North Side. No wonder the ratings are tanking on this show. It should be no more than 50% having to do with crime problems on the South Side.

[viv_smi98]

I'm disappointed as well. Not because its about south side issues, but they're really only focused on this one school. Can we move on beyond Fenger already? It's very narrow in scope and boring. Someone mentioned its about Englewood-- did I miss that episode? I saw the first two and the most recent one and they were still stuck on Fenger in the Roseland neighborhood.

[gwillyfromphilly]

The series has been good overall so far but I would like to see more focus on the Northside of Chicago.

[Chicago60614]

Originally Posted by gwillyfromphilly

The series has been good overall so far but I would like to see more focus on the Northside of Chicago.

It's been interesting, but it's snowing a small slice of the overall city, which people are getting tired of. What about the other 80%?

[marothisu]

Still only seen the first episode. The one time I tried to DVR it - I watch later and the entire hour was dedicated to "breaking news" about the Malaysian Airlines crash.

[i_am_hydrogen]

CNN has been going wall-to-wall on the plane crash for the entire month. It's beyond ridiculous at this point.