Three groups or individuals in this week’s Chicago Journal deserve a feather in their respective caps:

Husband and wife Baljinder Bathla and Sagina Hanjrah are doctors who make a home in the South Loop and take their responsibilities as global citizens seriously. Together they came to a simple conclusion after they finished their medical school educations: They’d put the skills they had learned and the techniques they had honed to good uses in developing countries — and right here at home. Most recently, as we note this week, the couple traveled to Haiti to assist survivors of the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake that struck outside of Port-au-Prince. In 2004, they worked in Thailand following the tsunami. A year later, it was New Orleans post-Katrina. These are good folks, and congratulations to them.

Mercy Hospital is making a new commitment to environmental sustainability by purchasing 10 percent of their power supply from clean sources. Ultimately, tackling climate change will require a pricing system for carbon emissions — we think a carbon tax is ultimately the best way to do this, though cap and trade seems more likely — but in the meantime, we’re all trying to take incremental steps. Mercy’s doing their part.

Ald. Pat Dowell showed real leadership by co-sponsoring, with Ald. Fredrenna Lyle, a resolution that called for a one-year moratorium on closings, turnarounds, phase-outs and consolidations of institutions in the Chicago Public Schools system. The city council has no governing authority over CPS, of course, so this proposal was symbolic politics. But it was the right kind of symbolic politics. It gave Dowell and other aldermen a chance to hammer home a message about transparency and process at CPS. That’s a message those at helm of the school district simply must receive and take seriously. Over the past two years, Chicago Journal has covered the massive changes CPS has pitched for schools in the neighborhoods we cover. Parents at institutions facing change — Gladstone, Montefiore, NTA, the elementary schools in the Creiger building — continually are frustrated. Not to mention South Loop School parents. It’s vital to find a better way. Good for Dowell. This message is one we’ve got to drive home.

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By John from Grand Blvd
Posted: 02/26/2010 5:24 PM

Ald. Dowell did more than introduce a resolution. She required CPS to bring AUSL to hear concerns from the community, had CPS agree to the establishment of a community oversight committee, reduce the standard AUSL contract from 5 to 3 years, got Mollison and Wells Prep taken off the list. She was actively involved. If that's pandering I guess a little of that is better than none.

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By Marinauser from South Loop
Posted: 02/25/2010 1:47 PM

How does calling for a moratorium of school changes show "real leadership". It is nothing more than pandering to her constituencies. Real leadership would be to step up, admit that the schools have real problems, and offer solutions. Instead, you get the usual government reaction - let's keep spending money and keeping the people that vote for me employed and keep the status quo - kids not learning and those that don't want to learn hurting the kids that do want to learn.