Elaine Coorens

A male victim had his I phone stolen at gunpoint Thurs., Feb. 2, in the 1700 block of North Western at 5:15 p.m.

Two offenders fled the scene but an I phone application led police to them. They are in custody but are not charged as yet, according to Chicago Police Department's News Affairs Officer Daniel O'Brien.

While our official beginning date for Our Urban Times was Dec. 29, 2009, we did not start tracking our readership statistics of people coming to our site until Feb. 1, 2010.

By the end of today...which has not happened yet, in comparison to our first year, our numbers have jumped by 72% to 147%.

The Committee on Rules and Ethics of Chicago's City Council, chaired by Alderman Richard Mell is not only in charge of the redistricting of the Wards, it is the keeper of the processes and procedures for such activities.

A verbal altercation turned deadly at 5:40 p.m., Sat., Jan. 21 when L. Caballero, 21-year-old male, received multiple stab wounds to the neck at Western and Armitage Avenues.

According to a Jan. 12, news release from Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a new online forum launched to encourage public input.

In September 2006, Deree Kobets opened grow, 1943 W. Division in Wicker Park, her first retail business. Aimed at the baby market, it offered products locally that she wanted for her first born (2003) and her then soon to be second born. Products that were natural, non-toxic and furniture that was well made in designs that were more contemporary.  grow became her passion turned into action.

An extension to Damen Ave. of the pedestrian zone from Chicago Ave. and Ashland Ave. to Wood St. was the basis of a meeting in Commercial Park, 1845 W. Rice. St., on Jan. 9, organized by 1st Ward Alderman Proco "Joe" Moreno.

Approximately fifty Wicker Park and Bucktown community residents met Cesar Castellaos in the unheated former Dairy Queen at 1649 N. Damen at a meeting Wednesday night facilitated by 32nd Ward Alderman and his staff.

Atop a three-story building, Ronnie Martinez was finishing a roofing job on Bingham near Armitage when he and his fiancée Wilma del Ville thought they saw an opportunity for another job. The roof of a two-story cottage appeared to be so stressed that it probably would not withstand the first snowstorm.