The suburban village of Bensenville has a long history of getting eaten up by development. Resthaven Cemetery is a symbol of what remains.
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7:14
How one Midwestern community avoids road salt all winter
Chicago — like so many other frigid American cities — can’t seem to kick its dependence on road salt. Last episode, we talked about why chloride from salt is harmful to both our natural and built environments. So we spent some time looking around for a cold-weather community that avoids using it altogether.
And we found one! A little community way up north: Have you ever taken a ferry — or a plane — to Mackinac Island?
Today, we hear from Dominick Miller, chief of marketing at the Mackinac State Historic Parks, about how the island deals with snow and ice in the winter without laying down a single grain of salt. And it has a lot to do with the fact that cars have been banned on Mackinac Island for over a century.
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10:15
Could Chicago ever ditch the road salt?
Road salt helps us get around safely during snowy, Chicago winters. But salt is corrosive and harmful for the environment. Could the city ever go without road salt?
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6:08
The First Black-Owned And Operated Airport Was In Robbins
The Chicago area played a key role in Black aviation in the early 1900s. The founders of the first Black-owned airport learned to fly in Chicago and went on to teach thousands of others.
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20:04
“It’s too complicated”: The state of cannabis record expungement in Illinois
When Illinois legalized recreational use of marijuana five years ago, it came with a goal to right the wrongs of the war on drugs. “We’re addressing the past harms of discriminatory prosecution of drug laws,” Governor J.B. Pritzker said at the time. Many low level cannabis charges would automatically be expunged and legal aid would be made available.
Last episode, we looked at two areas where the state spent the largest share of its $500 million in marijuana sales tax revenue: the state budget and R3 funding, a program to invest in communities that have been harmed by violence, excessive incarceration and economic disinvestment.
Some of that sales tax revenue also goes toward social programs, like legal aid for cannabis record expungement. Today, we’re looking at how well Illinois’ expungement program is working. Advocates and people getting their records expunged tell us that “automatic” doesn’t apply to everything and the process itself is “too complicated.”
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