Chicago’s Treasure Island; most of the Second City never had a clue about you

We often hear odes to how sad it is to see businesses close – particularly if they’re not a part of some large corporate entity or if they in any way try to cater to their specific neighborhoods.

Hyde Park store among those to soon be defunct

Yet let’s be honest, most of us will talk about loving such businesses and their personal touch, but we don’t really care to do anything to support such entities. We’ll go to wherever we can save a buck or two – which is why those places that sell goods in large volume can do so well.

AND BUSINESSES LIKE Treasure Island can claim to be a significant part of history, while having to concede they have no place in the modern world.

Now I’m sure many of you may think you’re lifelong Chicagoans who know everything there is to know about your home city. But you’re probably wondering, “What’s Treasure Island?” Either that, or you’re thinking it’s some old movie that you’ve never bothered to actually watch because it’s in black-and-white, but you might go see it if they’d do a re-make with modern sensibilities starring a Kardashian or two.

Actually, it was a supermarket. A chain, sort of – even though its peak was to have five stores in very select neighborhoods of Chicago.

Which means most of us would have had to make a special trip in order to shop in one of their stores, and most likely we never bothered to.

THE BEST I can do to describe a Treasure Island is to say it was a store that would stock not-so-common staples that would be needed for people interested in cooking some more exotic dishes for their meals.

It most definitely wasn’t Jewel (and I’m not badmouthing Jewel, I live near one and wind up purchasing many grocery items there because of its convenience).

In fact, when Whole Foods began opening their stores throughout the Chicago area, I remember explaining the concept of them to people as being something similar to Treasure Island.

It was actually a book first

Only Whole Foods has gone on an expansion that has caused them to locate in the Englewood neighborhood. A place you’d never have found a Treasure Island store.

IN MY OWN case, I have been in the Hyde Park neighborhood store on a few occasions, and on occasion in their former location on Clark Street (which the last time I happened to walk by I discovered is now a Potash Brothers grocery store). Their other locations that I never managed to patronize were in the Old Town, Lake View and Lincoln Park neighborhoods.

As you can see, they’re pretty much a North Lakefront type entity – with the exception of that Hyde Park location that tries to cater to the segment of Chicago that is in the city because of the University of Chicago and wants to reassert the notion that they're NOT typical South Side Chicago!

Not exactly a place a Sout’ Sider would easily access – particularly since I’m sure he/she would have his/her own specialty shops to access on those occasions they want to purchase select foodstuffs.

Many of which, I suspect, would be of a specific ethnic persuasion.

WHILE RELYING ON the larger-scale stores for the daily supplies of keeping ourselves fed on a regular basis. And in this 21^st Century world, some of us are turning more and more to those businesses that allow us to go on-line to place our grocery orders – and have someone deliver our supplies right to our front doors.

You want to know why a Treasure Island will no longer exist following a couple of weeks from now, it’s mostly because I suspect that the kind of people who would have made the trip to one of these stores are now thinking it more convenient (if not downright trendy) to place a grocery order without having to actually go shopping.

Will we ever miss 'da Jewels' the way some will yearn for Treasure Island?

As for those specialty items that a Treasure Island might have stocked, I suppose I’ll be inclined to hunt down a Whole Foods store (there’s one not far from where I’m living these days) to make those purchases. Although I’ll be honest – I suspect I can get through life without many of those goods.

Treasure Island was evidence of the kind of people many of us would like to think Chicago is all about; when in reality, we’re more than willing to go do “Da Jewels” – with an occasional stop at a neighborhood Aldi’s to get an even better price.

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Is Kennedy for governor campaign trying to follow family history?

One of the big disappointments of the upcoming election cycle – at least as far as some political observers are concerned – is just how weak and pathetic has been the campaign of Chris Kennedy for Illinois governor.

Jesus Garcia offers his support to Chris Kennedy's gubernatorial dreams. Will that make a difference?

There were those people who went into this campaigning thinking that Election ’18 would be a brawl between the big family money of J.B. Pritzker, versus the Kennedy family legacy backing Chris – who is the Chicago-area’s Kennedy connection (for years, he ran the family-owned Merchandise Mart).

BUT KENNEDY’S CAMPAIGNING has been weak, particularly in the area of raising finances. Kennedy has name recognition (sort of), but it would seem that unless Chris can get a jolt in coming weeks, it will be the other fringe political challengers who will offer the Pritzker people their political fight.

Just where that jolt could come from got political people to speculating that it could be the growing Latino population (29.7 percent of Chicago’s populace, and now larger than the city’s African-American population) that could be what revives the chances of Chris Kennedy becoming the first Kennedy to get elected in Illinois (his cousins have been elected to office in various other states).

Could the Latino people of Illinois seriously wind up banding together to give Chris Kennedy enough political support to win the Democratic primary to be held March 20?

Bobby Kennedy and Cesar Chavez, back in the day

Such talk got goosed up last week when Jesus Garcia, the one-time alderman and state senator who now serves on the Cook County Board and who unsuccessfully challenged Rahm Emanuel for mayor two years ago, endorsed Chris Kennedy for governor.

SPECULATION AMONGST SOME is that Garcia has enough influence amongst the Mexican-American community in Chicago, along with other Latino ethnicities, that they will turn out for Kennedy.

Which would give the Kennedy campaign at least one group willing to publicly support him. When one considers the half-dozen or so Democratic gubernatorial dreamers, it is likely the primary winner will NOT top 50 percent. It won’t be a majority, but last year’s political victory by Donald J. Trump showed us a majority isn’t required to win.

JFK seeks Mexican-American votes back in '60 bid

Could Latino backing be enough to win a primary?

Could it cause the Latino public officials (including Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza) who have already come out in favor of J.B. Pritzker to think they have to figure out a way to change sides, or else wind up looking like a vendido – selling out the interests of their community?

WHAT IS INTRIGUING is that if such a strategy works, it would merely mean that Kennedy followed in the family tradition. Chris is the son of one-time Attorney General, senator and presidential dreamer Bobby Kennedy, and the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy AND former Sen. Ted Kennedy – the long-time senator from Massachusetts.

All of whom had their own sense of Latino ties to bolster their chances of winning, with some using the label of “first Latino senator” to describe his Uncle Teddy.

A younger Jesus Garcia supportive of Harold Washington and Teddy Kennedy

Chris Kennedy himself, in announcing the Garcia endorsement, made a point of reminding people of his father’s ties to United Farm Workers founder Cesar Chavez. Bobby Kennedy included in his own presidential campaigning appearances with Chavez. Chris himself once joined with Chavez back in 1988 and fasted with him for three days when Cesar did a 36-day fast to highlight the impact of pesticides on the farm hands working the fields.

Could Chris Kennedy have 21st Century take on Viva ?

But if you go back to 1960 presidential campaign, the one that Mayor Richard J. Daley allegedly stole for JFK right here in Chicago, one could also make an argument that it was victories in California and Texas that put Kennedy in the White House.

MUCH OF THOSE state victories were due to the “Viva Kennedy” Club efforts – by which Mexican-American people were a focus on the Kennedy campaign, and their 10-1 voter support for JFK over Richard Nixon were considered significant elements of those victories.

Those “Viva Kennedy” club efforts were one of the first ever by a national political campaign to reach out to Latino voters – previously, such voters were ignored.

In Illinois, Chris Kennedy has developed a reputation as a guy who likes to talk about running for office, but doesn’t have the political will to follow through a campaign to its finish. Some political observers are convinced that Chris still doesn’t have what it takes, and will drop out before the primary.

Could it be that the lesson for Kennedy to figure how to get through an entire political campaign is to follow the examples of “Dad” and “Uncle Jack” and reach out to the group in Chicago that actually is on the rise? Although I doubt anybody will someday do songs in tribute to Chris the way Chicano activist/singer Lalo Guerrero did for his dad, Bobby.

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Does ethnic, racial diversity in slating really create voter candidate appeal?

It was a guiding principal of slating candidates to run for political office known as “the three I’s,” and it would seem to be in place in 21^st Century Chicago – albeit in a slightly adapted form.

VALENCIA: Keeping Latino streak alive

The “three I’s” implied that candidates have to work as a team in order get the most votes, and the “team” has to have an individual who would directly appeal to everybody – hence a perfect ticket ought to include someone who’s Irish, someone who’s Italian and also someone who’s Jewish, which for purposes of an easy label became Israel.

THE THIRD “I.”

We still have that principle in place, although now it means we need to have a white candidate, a black candidate and someone with ethnic origins in Latin America. Which doesn’t create for a cutesy label, but is the same basic idea.

It seems that Mayor Rahm Emanuel followed the principle earlier this week when he announced his appointment of a replacement city clerk – Anna Valencia, who had actually been one of his staffers before getting a post that gives her a title with some authority.

Of course, being city clerk means she’s in charge of the office that usually manages to frustrate people when they have to deal with it – particularly when it comes to that time of the year when people have to renew the vehicle registration stickers they’re required to post on their cars (and pay for) in order to legally drive.

BEING THE STICKER saleswoman may not sound like much. But it means that Valencia will have a chance to run for a city-wide government post come the 2019 election cycle.

Valencia will get her name on automobiles all across Chicago when new stickers come out

Valencia gets the post because previous Clerk Susana Mendoza gave the city office up to become the Illinois comptroller through 2018. She gained that post back in 2011 when then-Clerk Miguel del Valle ran unsuccessfully for mayor.

You literally have to go back to 2006 to find a non-Latino city clerk (it was James Laski, who had to resign following his criminal indictment and conviction),

Which put the pressure on Emanuel to appoint a replacement clerk with Latin American origins (del Valle was born in Puerto Rico and came to Chicago when he was 4, while Mendoza’s parents were immigrants from Mexico).

MENDOZA: Movin' on up from City Hall these days

OF COURSE, THERE also were those people with African-American origins who would have liked to have seen a black person put into another city-wide position. Although I doubt Emanuel would have had the nerve to take on the Latino community of Chicago (about one-quarter of the city’s population) in a political fight when he has so many other people to quarrel with.

Besides, there is city Treasurer Kurt Summers who is black, and it reinforces the idea of an ethnic/racial split of the city’s governmental power. Although I can’t help but chuckle at the confusion the old-school Irish of Chicago’s political culture feel about the notion of the “white” person (Emanuel as mayor) being represented by someone who is Jewish. And I also remember when the treasurer’s office was the one used by Miriam Santos, who was the first Latina official in Chicago city government back in the 1990s.

Insofar as Valencia is concerned, she was a city lobbyist, and also worked as a campaign manager for Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and for Reps. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., and Gary Peters, D-Mich. (now a senator, and NOT the one-time White Sox pitcher) with the Illinois Senate Democratic Victory Fund and for state Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago.

She has worked in various posts at city, state and federal government, which is impressive. Particularly since she’s only 31 – the fact that truly catches my attention. She was a mere baby back in the days when I roamed around the city looking for news stories for the now-defunct City News Bureau of Chicago.

EMANUEL: Playing by rules to keep power

BUT TIME DOES pass, and as Emanuel said himself, her youth means she’s the next generation of Chicago leadership rising through the ranks. Personally, I’m not quite ready to proclaim proclaim Valencia as the first Latina to become mayor (maybe around the 2035 election cycle?).

But it does amuse me to see how times change, while managing to incorporate some of the basic principles of maintaining political power to keep the peace.

Or else run the risk of having some trouble-making person with Republican political leanings from the Sauganash or Mount Greenwood neighborhoods from coming in and taking advantage of the resulting political dissent that could end the nearly 90-year streak of Democrats holding control of the mayor’s office.

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Long-time ethnic enclave turning white and wealthier, but is that a plus?

Gentrification is a label with negative connotations to some people, usually those whose long-time home neighborhoods get improved to the point where they can’t afford to live there any more.

Proximity to downtown makes Pilsen attractive to all

Some want to say there’s nothing wrong with upgrading a neighborhood. It ought to be desired.

BUT WHAT OF the situation where upgrade means creating improvements meant to attract newcomers, without any interest in improving life quality for the existing residents.

That seems to be the situation taking place in Pilsen, the long-time immigrant neighborhood whose character has evolved so much throughout the years and is undergoing yet another round of change.

Pilsen carries the name of a village now in the Czech Republic. Sure enough, it was once a Czech enclave in Chicago. It has been home to many ethnic groups as they first enter the United States. Since the 1960s, the neighborhood language has been Spanish – it has been a Mexican enclave.

But the DNA Info website reported on a University of Illinois at Chicago study of the neighborhood demographics – the Mexicans are moving out; being displaced not by other immigrants but by many white people.

THE NEIGHBORHOOD, ACCORDING to the study, is still majority Mexican-American in its composition; nearly 29,000, compared to about 4,300 white people. But that white figure is about 22 percent higher than it was in the year 2000.

While the number of families with children living in the neighborhood is down by 41 percent. Which brings about a drastic change in the neighborhood’s character.

Pilsen has the potential to become the kind of place where a young professional type of person lives for a few years (to gain some sort of Chicago street-cred, so to speak) before moving off to a suburb once they have their own kids.

And for those people whose lives depend upon being within a Spanish-speaking enclave (because their comfort level in English is lacking), they are the ones who could find themselves with minimal options for moving forward.

THAT’S ACTUALLY THE sad part. As a third-generation Mexican-American (albeit one with no ties to Pilsen nor its bordering community of Little Village), I’d like to think the reason Mexicans are moving out is because we’ve progressed beyond the ethnic enclave.

But as one who sees my own home neighborhood of South Chicago turn into a place for people with few other options, I know it’s not true.

I also know that the talk in recent years of turning the one-time U.S. Steel South Works plant into an upscale community of its own scared many South Chicago residents for the same reasons being expressed in Pilsen – the idea that this project was meant to chase out the existing residents.

I actually get why outsiders would be interested in Pilsen. It is fairly close in to downtown Chicago and has direct contact with the Loop through the ‘el.’ Someone living in Pilsen would have easy access to a downtown job, or to other places throughout Chicago through mass transit.

IT MAKES ME wonder if Pilsen is destined someday to become like Lincoln Park – which once upon a time ago was a Puerto Rican enclave, until developers saw that lakefront site and figured other people would benefit from it more.

Just as I’m sure some people probably think a place like Pilsen with good mass transit is being wasted on people who never want to leave the neighborhood.

The key to this situation is to comprehend that there are people already in the places where other people would like to live – if only they can get rid of what’s already there. The most drastic case of this may be the modern-day Cabrini-Green – whose near North location was always seen as wasted on the public housing that was built there back in the 1940s.

Now, many of those former public housing residents are scattered throughout the Chicago South Side and suburbs – where they are disrupting the decades-old routines of those communities. Which could easily happen with the Mexican ethnics whom the whites would love to move out of Pilsen – if things are not handled properly!

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