http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... story.htmlDemocratic governor candidate Chris Kennedy on Wednesday accused Mayor Rahm Emanuel of leading a “strategic gentrification plan” aimed at forcing African-Americans and other minorities out of Chicago to make the city “whiter” and wealthier.
“I believe that black people are being pushed out of Chicago intentionally by a strategy that involves disinvestment in communities being implemented by the city administration, and I believe Rahm Emanuel is the head of the city administration and therefore needs to be held responsible for those outcomes,” Kennedy said during a news conference about gun violence in North Lawndale.
“This is involuntary. That we’re cutting off funding for schools, cutting off funding for police, allowing people to be forced to live in food deserts, closing hospitals, closing access to mental health facilities. What choice do people have but to move, to leave?” Kennedy added. “And I think that’s part of a strategic gentrification plan being implemented by the city of Chicago to push people of color out of the city. The city is becoming smaller, and as it becomes smaller, it’s become whiter.”
Kennedy, the son of Robert Kennedy and nephew of President John F Kennedy, is falling behind on fund raising for the primary this spring and is appealing to the black community for assistance...or course, the Emmanuel Administration is denying the charge...
Progressives eating progressives...Emanuel’s office did not directly respond to the schools criticism but cast Kennedy’s comments as little more than campaign season rhetoric.
“The noise of this particular election will come and go,” said McGrath, Emanuel’s spokesman. “And when it does, we’ll still be focusing on boosting neighborhood small businesses, investing in our schools and improving public safety.”
