Author Archives: canojocelyn

Photo courtesy of the Amy Roberts

By: Jocelyn Cano

As of Dec. 8, 2016, The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has officially declared giraffes vulnerable for extinction, with their population declining 40 percent in the last 30 years. This decline is due to loss of habitats and illegal hunting. The Brookfield Zoo is doing their part to make sure these animals stay off of the endangered list.

“We all know about the big, mega vertebrates like rhinos and the elephants,” Bill Zeigler, senior vice president of animal programs for the Chicago Zoological Society, said, “where there’s international trade in ivory and rhino horn, but you don’t look at much international trade in giraffes, so it hasn’t been on the big radar as far as the general public is aware, but the fact is they’re suffering a greater decline than the rhinos and the elephants, because of poaching for meat as well as loss of habitat.”

The Giraffe Conservation foundation has named the Reticulated Giraffe the subspecies with the greatest decline in its population of about 80 percent. This means the population has gone from about 30,000 giraffes to about 5,000. This subspecies can be found at the Brookfield Zoo.

The Brookfield Zoo has been working towards giraffe conservation for some time now, but more recently has joined efforts with the Reticulated Giraffe Project in northern Kenya to provide the program with more resources, spread awareness and continue to strive towards greater giraffe conservation.

“The last two years we’ve made a significant investment in this program,” Amy Roberts, curator of mammals for the Brookfield Zoo, said, “we’re looking to not only connect the people that come to our zoo with wildlife nature but more on a global scale.”

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By Jocelyn Cano

President-elect Donald Trump’s often harsh rhetoric on immigration has some Berwyn leaders worried, and they’re taking action to make sure residents are protected.

They’ve put together a “Know Your Rights” forum for Berwyn residents this Saturday, Dec. 17 from 9:30 a.m.­­­–1 p.m. at Sokol Tabor Hall at 1602 Clarence Ave.

Elizabeth O. Jiménez, the first Latina to serve on the Board of Education for Berwyn’s South School District 100, and Cynthia Gutierrez, who is running for Berwyn city treasurer, have been the main force behind making this event happen.

“As a teacher and a school board member I feel obligated to ease the community and our student’s anxiety,” Jiménez said, “[Cynthia and I] started going to different workshops that other communities similar to ours were doing in reference to immigration rights and DACA students. We thought that we needed to respond to our community [and] the fears of our community.” Continue reading →

Richard Mondragon (bottom row, center), BDC Board President, poses for a photo with fellow Berwyn residents as Northalsted Market Days. Photo courtesy of the BDC.

By Jocelyn Cano

Over the last seven years the city of Berwyn has become a popular neighborhood among members of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) community.

This growth is due to a marketing push starting in 2009, when the Berwyn Development Corporation (BDC) started the “Why Berwyn?”  campaign. Advertisements were placed in multiple Chicago neighborhoods such as Andersonville and Lakeview. In 2016 alone, the city spent $70,000 on this marketing campaign.

Recently, Williams Institute of UCLA named Berwyn  “#3 in suburbs for same-sex couples” in the Chicagoland area, just behind Oak Park and Evanston.

According to a US Census reported by UCLA from 2000 to 2010, Berwyn had a 41 percent increase in households reporting same-sex couples. Continue reading →