{"id":103798,"date":"2024-02-23T11:11:41","date_gmt":"2024-02-23T17:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=103798"},"modified":"2024-04-04T11:23:15","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T16:23:15","slug":"watch-edgewater-residents-fight-to-reopen-broadway-armory-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/watch-edgewater-residents-fight-to-reopen-broadway-armory-park\/","title":{"rendered":"WATCH: Edgewater residents fight to reopen Broadway Armory Park"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>By King Jemison<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i>Medill Reports<\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Broadway Armory Park has been a vital community center in Edgewater for decades. But in August, the city closed the park to the public and converted it to a migrant shelter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">More than six months later, city officials still have no answers about when it will reopen. Edgewater residents say the closure has hurt their community&#8217;s families and businesses. They\u2019re now fighting to get their park back.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Broadway Armory\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/916009714?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>TRANSCRIPT<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>HUSSAIN MOHAMMED<\/strong>: The people of Chicago are fed up. And the 48th Ward wants our programming back.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>JEMISON<\/strong>: Hussain Mohammed wants to reopen Broadway Armory Park, which has been a fixture of the Edgewater community for years, providing active programming for all ages. But in August, it closed suddenly, as the city converted it to a migrant shelter to house over 300 recent arrivals. Mohammed says that has been difficult for Edgewater families who counted on its after-school programming.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>MOHAMMED<\/strong>: A lot of people rely on these facilities on a day-to-day basis. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The mayor&#8217;s kids are probably attending programming somewhere else. But what about our community? Our community has been taken away from.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>JEMISON<\/strong>: Local residents say the park closure has hurt the business community along Thorndale Avenue, where many storefronts are boarded up and some businesses say they\u2019ve closed or moved to other locations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>MOHAMMED<\/strong>: So, it&#8217;s been a struggle, I would say, for a lot of the people here.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>JEMISON<\/strong>: The park\u2019s status as a shelter was set to be reevaluated on Feb. 1. Alderwoman Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth offered this update.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>MANAA-HOPPENWORTH<\/strong>: It&#8217;s very difficult to say exactly when we&#8217;re going to be able to see our parks open.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>JEMISON<\/strong>: Migrants I spoke to said the conditions inside the shelter were good. Some were told they\u2019ll be able to stay for at least the next two months. However, many have been forced to panhandle in the surrounding community to provide for their families. Mohammed believes that reopening programming in the park, even while some migrants still call it home, can be a help to everyone involved.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>MOHAMMED<\/strong>: We can potentially reopen the gym and actually integrate not only the community but the migrants as well, because the migrants can benefit from programming as well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>JEMISON<\/strong>: Concerned citizens are encouraged to attend one of the monthly meetings of the Broadway Armory Park Advisory Council, held on the third Thursday of every month at the park.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Edgewater, I&#8217;m King Jemison for Medill Reports.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">King Jemison is a sports media graduate student at Medill. You can follow him on X <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/king_jemison\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">@king_jemison<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By King Jemison Medill Reports Broadway Armory Park has been a vital community center in Edgewater for decades. But in August, the city closed the park to the public and converted it to a migrant shelter.\u00a0 More than six months later, city officials still have no answers about when it will reopen. Edgewater residents say [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":937,"featured_media":103801,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,5251,28,30,5398],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-chicago","category-general-interest","category-public-affairs","category-winter-2024"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>WATCH: Edgewater residents fight to reopen Broadway Armory Park - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Broadway Armory Park has served as a migrant shelter for over six months. 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