Ald. David Moore, 17th, sits next to a tent where he plans to sleep for several nights, in the 1200 block of West 73rd Place, June 15, 2024, in Chicago. Moore has set up an encampment to bring attention to violent crime and drug dealing in the neighborhood. A South Side alderman temporarily halted his publicity campaign to have the city address an open-air drug market in his ward after a weekend shooting occurred a block from where he was camping out in a vacant lot in West Englewood.
Moore said a volunteer then heard one of the people on the block tell someone else to get their weapons and that someone had said to him that “if we on our street, this wouldn’t be happening.” When he came back again Monday, “it seemed like they were trying to set up again and we set my tent back up,” he said.
To the west of the block, on South Ada Street, a large group of people could be seen motioning cars through the intersection and directing traffic. Moore said the group were drug dealers and that ordinarily, the car traffic traveled east-west across 73rd. Moore said his hope was that his campout would spur CPD and state and federal law enforcement to crack down on the market.