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"If you can mandate these meetings, mandate some money!" That was one of many recommendations greeted with applause and hollers at a local meeting last night, held at the National Museum of Mexican Fine Art in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood.Listen to Alison Cuddy on

Early last April, when Rahm Emanuel merely was Mayor-Elect, I used this blog space to send him an open letter about the CityArts Program. I never heard back from him.

Just a year after former Mayor Daley did a gut job on the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) over the strenuous objections of long-time Cultural Commish Lois Weisberg, the new mayor and his new Commish, Michelle T.

 In the second part of The First 100 community forum, Eight Forty-Eight's Alison Cuddy was joined by a panel of local leaders: Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, Chicago Transit Authority president Forrest Claypool, City of Chicago comptroller Amer Ahmad and Departm