The lack of access to fresh food is especially critical in certain Chicago neighborhoods – mostly poor and black. Many U.S. cities reflect said racial and economic disparities in public health issues. But many of those gaps, including those seen in asthma or breast cancer mortality, appeared greater in Chicago than the rest of the country. In the present era of government belt-tightening, improving public health is hardly a cinch. Still, Dr. Bechara Choucair said he was glad Mayor Emanuel kept him on as commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health. A week out from releasing an ambitious new agenda, Dr. Choucair joined Eight Forty-Eight to talk about Chicago’s public health challanges.

Music Button: If These Trees Could Talk, “The Flames of Herostratus”, from the CD Above The Earth Below The Sky, (self released)