Conscious Choice: Controversial Cover?

March 2007 | Choice Feedback

Controversial Cover?

Lately, except for the January issue, CC has been putting out issues with provocative female images that evoke the mainstream exploitation of a very narrow version of contemporary feminine “beauty.” These sexualized images do not connote what this publication is truly about. I assume that CC uses these images to grab the attention of possible readers and this is the publishers’ intention. Do you think that by using images of naked or nearly naked young women you underestimate your audience? I am a 5’10,” 120 pound young woman who could easily model for these covers, but it bothers me that I have to see this type of repetitive imagery, even in CC.

— Courtney Kintz, Dekalb, IL

We Support Marriage Equality

Bravo for running the bold and beautiful, full-page collage in celebration of love without restrictions. It’s so rare that a magazine surprises its readers in a way that makes them really proud of the publication they’re holding in their hands. The Blake quote is chillingly apt, and the whole page is visually stunning—a heart-felt valentine from CC to its readers.

— Jolia, via email

CC Soft on Daley

I’m an avid reader of Conscious Choice and greatly appreciate the interesting information about environmental issues in the Chicago area. However, I found the discussion of Daley’s environmental policies in the January issue to be an uncritical presentation, which artificially separated environmental policy from social policy. Issues of environmental racism, such as polluting plants in Pilsen (see CC June 2002 and Jan. 2006), continue to be problems that don’t seem to fit nicely into Daley’s shining image as a green mayor. So I would have liked to ask Daley ”if indeed you are the ‘Great Green Augustus’ creating a sort of Pax Chicago, whom are you creating it for; and at whose expense?”

For the first time in 2005 there were more Latinos living in Chicago’s suburbs than in the city. Similarly, as of 1998, 79.3 percent of households affected by public housing closures or demolitions were in census tracts that were at least 90 percent Black. In addition, gentrification in housing also reverberates in city schools, as the initial plan for school closures under Renaissance 2010, called for closure of 20 of 22 public schools in a largely Black 3 mile area of the South Side.

One might argue that the changes I have outlined are beyond Daley’s control. But how is it that our city could afford to build Millennium Park, using $95 million from the Central Loop TIF fund, but couldn’t afford to make sure that elevators worked in public housing buildings? I would ask why we go to such lengths to acquire funding for a park, but not for simply maintaining public housing, representing the homes of tens of thousands of city residents. Surely we can’t miss the fact that it becomes “logical” to demolish anything that has been systematically neglected for decades.

How can we tout the successes of city “beautification” and green spaces, without noticing that the price of those scenic parks and “revitalized” business districts is the homes, schools and workplaces of the city’s “dark” secret: working class people of color.

As someone who grew up in the city, I cannot call myself an environmentalist in this urban context without considering the human rights and survival issues of the people of the Chicago environment. I believe a green city, like any ecosystem, must also be richly diverse (in this case in terms of class, race, sexuality, etc.) in order to be healthy.

— Karen Reyes, Chicago, IL

Corrections On Your Family History

I just finished reading your monthly contribution titled “Roots.” While much of what you say is true, I feel that your emphasis on “leaving the city” in order to enjoy green spaces and leaving my poor family to the grime of the city is unfair.

Although my family did not travel outside the city limits, we did not have to. We were able to enjoy the beauty of Lincoln Park, North Avenue Beach, Oak Street Beach, Hyde Park, Brookfield Zoo and many other parts of the city that offered green space, nature and recreation. Access was easy and inexpensive via public transportation. Although people were poor, they knew that to congregate gave them richness. Diversity and a multitude of ethnic backgrounds gathered together at the parks and beaches on weekends and comingled in harmony. Different cultures were observed and learned from and when they left these parks and beaches, they left them clean, realizing them as the treasures they were and knowing they would return the next time to enjoy the beauty of Chicago.

I did know your great-grandparents Eden and Mae well, and I think that they would agree with me. Why do you think he built the parks?

— Carol Shaw (the editor’s mother), Bonita Springs, FL

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