CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the city is not letting COVID-19 keep it from making needed investments on the South and West sides.
The declaration comes at the one-year mark for the “Invest South/West” initiative.
One year ago, Lightfoot launched Invest South/West to focus on city and private investment towards some of the needier areas of Chicago. Some $70 million dollars worth of investments later, West Side Alderman Michael Scott said you can see the results.
"I am a 45-year resident of North Lawndale and I have been waiting since the day I was born for something like this to come about," Scott said.
Lightfoot said it’s happened in partnership with people and organizations in the affected neighborhoods.
"In order for us — the collective us — to be successful, we need to start by listening to the very communities we wanted to work in partnership with to transform," Lightfoot said.
Greg Chico, director of the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council says he’s had a front row seat at some of the debate.
"The community has been participating in that conversation and that is why I use the word 'debate,' — it's intentional and thoughtful and it has to be if it's going to be inclusive," Chico said.
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The philosophy, according the mayor, is “nothing about me without me. Melvin Buckley, owner of the Ogden Commons Steak and Shake said he’s gotten help to bring jobs to the Little Italy area, and said he's also doing some training.
This kind of program that assists us from a grant perspective goes one step further: there are more things in our community that we need and one of those things is training," Buckley said.