About Center Square Journal
The Center Square Journal and Roscoe View Journal are online-only news publications focusing exclusively on Chicago’s Lincoln Square, Northcenter and Ravenswood Manor (for Center Square) and Roscoe Village and West Lakeview (for Roscoe View) neighborhoods. The sites are published by a neighborhood resident, is edited by a professional journalist and includes writing from neighborhood residents. There’s a lot going on around here – we want to tell those stories.
We also believe that many of the stories going on in our communities need to be told by you. Perhaps there’s something going on in your neighborhood you’d like to tell. Maybe you want to write the story yourself in the Journal.
We’re looking for volunteer community correspondents, and we’d love to hear from you. Drop us a line.
If you’re interested in advertising, drop us a line. You can learn about our rates here.
Thanks for reading the Center Square Journal. We’re glad to be a part of the community.
-Mike Fourcher, Founder/Publisher
Special Thanks
Samantha Abernethy, Tatum Bartlett, Hunter Clauss, Laura Pearson, Cody Prentiss
Press Coverage of the Journal
Hyperlocal News Discussion on 848 - WBEZ-FM, February 28, 2012
Interview on Outside The Loop Radio – 88.7 FM, WLUW, March 16, 2011
What community reporters hear from constituents in the municipal race – WBEZ-FM, February 17, 2011
Waiting For The Web – Chicago Reader, January 13, 2011
Introducing the Roscoe View Journal – Chicago Reader, August 17, 2010
Hyperlocal News Site Covering Roscoe Village, West Lakeview Launches – Chicagoist.com, August 17, 2010
Interview on Outside The Loop Radio – 88.7 FM, WLUW, June 3, 2010
Chicago’s Black Caucus Pushes for Minority Head of Police and Fire Committee – WBEZ-FM, April 9, 2010
Our Team
Mike Fourcher
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mike@centersquarejournal.com
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Founder/Publisher -
Mike is a lifetime resident of Chicago, first a South Sider and then a North Sider. He's worked in Chicago and national politics, is drawn to the Cubs like a moth to a flame, and is always ready to visit the bakery. Mike and his family live in Lincoln Square.
Mike Fourcher
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mike@centersquarejournal.com
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Founder/Publisher -
Mike is a lifetime resident of Chicago, first a South Sider and then a North Sider. He's worked in Chicago and national politics, is drawn to the Cubs like a moth to a flame, and is always ready to visit the bakery. Mike and his family live in Lincoln Square.
Victoria Wiedel
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victoria@centersquarejournal.com
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Originally from Madison, Wisconsin, Victoria moved to Lincoln Square at the end of 2008. One of her favorite activities in her new 'hood is trying local restaurants, and she really appreciates the variety in the area. As a former public information officer, she is naturally inquisitive (some might say nosy) and she thanks Center Square Journal for giving her the opportunity to meet local business owners.
Mary Pendergast
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mike@brownlinemedia.com
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Hunter Clauss
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hunter@centersquarejournal.com
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Former Editor - Hunter Clauss was born in San Antonio, Texas, but grew up in Wilmette, Ill. He has done work for the Chicago Reader, BBC Radio 5, Punk Planet, The Beachwood Reporter, Chicagoist, the A.V. Club, and Chicago Public Radio. In 2007, Hunter won an Investigative Reporters and Editors Award for an investigation into how some members of the Chicago City Council were hiring their own relatives on their personal staffs. The investigation was published on The Beachwood Report and is featured in a college textbook, "Investigative Reporting From Premise to Publication."
Tatum Bartlett
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tatum@centersquarejournal.com
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Events - Tatum and her family are new transplants to Northcenter. A self-professed organizer, she is looking forward to tracking local events and keeping our calenders up-to-date with all things happening in the community. She divides her love among her two "little beauties" and her husband. She studied journalism and Italian, was fortunate enough to live a few years in Italy, speaks Italian and would like to learn French. She dreams of traveling to India and would love to meet Isabel Allende. Always on the quest for what is new and happening, send her your updates so she can keep us all updated!
Troy Covello
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troyinparticular@gmail.com
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Cody Prentiss
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cody.prentiss@gmail.com
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Intern - I am a recent graduate from Columbia College where I majored in journalism. I moved to Chicago three years ago from Memphis, TN, but I plan on staying in Chicago for awhile. I have a passion for the arts and politics. Fortunately, Chicago is filled with both.
Laura Pearson
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laura@centersquarejournal.com
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Former Editor - Laura grew up in Southwest Michigan and has lived in Chicago since 2005. She specializes in arts and culture journalism and has contributed to Time Out Chicago, the Chicago Reader, Punk Planet, Pitchfork, Gapers Block, and other publications. As an editor, she has worked on projects ranging from comics reviews to narrative essays to puzzle magazines. She is Artist Stories Coordinator and Literary Researcher for Chicago Artists Resource, a project of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, and she volunteers at Misericordia Heart of Mercy.
Andy Merits
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andy@centersquarejournal.com
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Patty Wetli
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pwetli@earthlink.net
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Editor - Patty was born in Indiana, raised in Ohio (Go Bucks!) and has lived in Chicago for more than 15 years, the last 9 in Lincoln Square. She's been an editor at a telecommunications magazine--which has proved of little assistance figuring out her cell phone--and worked in marketing communications at the Chicago Tribune before chucking her steady salary to study creative writing. Today she collects rejection letters, soothes her ego with lots of sweets, and pays the bills writing instructional guides for kids' activity kits, which allows her to indulge her love of the exclamation mark!
Stacy Jeziorowski
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sjezioro@centersquarejournal.com
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Stacy is a Lincoln Square resident. She thanks Center Square Journal for the opportunity to combine her love of writing with the ability to explore her neighborhood and its surrounding areas.
Rachael Judd
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rjudd_05@yahoo.com
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The Boss, The Driver, The Ultimate Survivor. Maybe the three statements that best describes mom, freelance writer and lover of blogs, Rachael. With 5 years in the freelance writing business, 3 years and 2 kids into motherhood, and 5 plus years into married life there isn't much in the area of family and kids that she isn't interested in. Rachael has been a resident of Chicago for a combined 10 years, 2 of those in Lincoln Square which she says is the "family friendliest place in the city".
Monte LaMonte
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monte7471@sbcglobal.net
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I have a lot of opinions, and just like everyone else's opinions, mine don't matter either. So if I write something you don't like, I don't wanna hear about it. I like what I like, and that's all that I like.
About me; I have been performing/writing locally for years, and will continue to do it till I am physically/mentally no longer able. I have been in Movies, on T.V. & Radio, and I have been in a bunch of live shows, as well as doin my own show "Off the Eatin' Path with Monte" bi-monthly at The Lincoln Lodge. I like pretty Women(which is most).
Kevin Robinson
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polichi@gmail.com
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Kevin was raised in the politics of Chicago's 10th Ward. Growing up in a family of steelworkers, he learned the value of hard work and standing up for your principals early on. He is a former union and community organizer and has played small roles in the periodic skirmishes for political power that define this city. After brief stints in Ohio, West Virginia, Chiapas and Mexico City, he returned to Chicago in 2003, and he resides anonymously in a gentrifying neighborhood. He finds skepticism and cheap whiskey to be good antidotes for political disillusionment.
Karl Klockars
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karl@karlklockars.com
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Karl Klockars contributes to CSJ from the Rockwell Commons neighborhood of Lincoln Square. His work has appeared on Centerstage Chicago, Chicago Magazine, Time Out Chicago and Chicagoist (sense a theme?) and formerly worked with WLS Radio as a producer of just about every program they ad. He also hosts and produces a podcast, helped create GuysDrinkingBeer.com and can generally be found at the Huettenbar, Bad Apple, or the Sulzer Library. You can find him on twitter @karlklockars.
Samantha Abernethy
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samaber@gmail.com
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Editor
Samantha grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania, but she's no bumpkin. After college, she lived and worked in Washington, D.C., then came to Chicago to get her masters in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
She left her beloved Chicago to take on the wild west at a newspaper in rural Wyoming, then the Denver bureau of the Associated Press. She is pleased as punch to be back at home in Chicago.
She can be found drinking coffee, taking notes, watching a Steeler game or singing Dolly Parton on karaoke.
Twitter.com/SamAbernethy
Brad Bretz
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bradbretz@gmail.com
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Photographer - Brad grew up in Chicago, the fourth generation of his family to be born in the city of big shoulders. For 15 years Brad has called the 47th ward home, living in both Northcenter and Ravenswood. Brad loves Chicago, is excited about the future of our happy hood and hopes that you are too.
Erica Wiley
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elw486@truman.edu
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Erica Wiley was born and raised in Missouri and graduated from Truman State University with a degree in History. She then moved to Chicago to pursue graduate studies and her passion of writing. In her free time, she also enjoys eating thousands of chocolate chip cookies a week and sampling local restaurants to find great eats for a great price in Chicago. Also, big shout out to CSJ for the opportunity to write freelance!
Katie Bijak
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kbijak125@yahoo.com
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Sarah Tilotta
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sarah.tilotta@gmail.com
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Sarah Tilotta is a relatively new resident of Center Square, after living in such exotic places as Baltimore, New York, China, and Australia, but none so exotic as this great city of Chicago, where rogue tamale men roam the bars freely. Sarah makes her living as a post-recession event photographer (please hold your applause), but her true passion and ambition lies in visual storytelling. As an enthusiastic contributor to the Journal, Sarah has the opportunity and privilege to document the stories of her neighbors and community.
Stephanie Sack
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vivelafemme@hotmail.com
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Chicago native Stephanie Sack eats, sleeps, and breathes Chicago! Born in Hyde Park, raised in Lakeview, educated in Old Town and Evanston, a former inhabitant of Boystown, West Lakeview, Wicker Park, Humboldt Park, and currently a resident of Lincoln Square, Stephanie is also a seasoned entrepreneur and owns two specialty boutiques in Bucktown. Her fierce passion for Chicago's independent business community has led her to a storied career as a longtime volunteer on the Wicker Park and Bucktown Chamber of Commerce, on which she presently serves as Vice-President and Chairwoman of the Marketing Committee. In her free time, Stephanie can often be found taking a Bikram yoga class, catching a film at the Music Box, or noshing on tater tots at The Daily.
Jason Kreke
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jasonrkreke@yahoo.com
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Jordan Graham
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jordan.s.graham@gmail.com
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Jordan Graham is a Chicago-based freelance journalist reporting on a variety of topics in the metropolitan area. His articles range in subject from examining the complexities of LGBTQ issues at Evanston Township High School, to breaking a story about a new health concern in Chicago Public School system classrooms, from covering the debate over Evanston’s proposed ban on disposable shopping bags, to dissecting the major players and obstacles in running Chicago’s street festivals. Jordan earned his MSJ from the Medill School of Journalism in 2010 and during his time there, served as director and editor of social content for a team helping to innovate and reformulate the Chicago Reader.
Anna Roberts
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annajoro13@yahoo.com
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Dave Kornecki
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davekornecki@sbcglobal.net
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Dave Kornecki has been hustling the great streets of Chicago’s North side by way of chef, policy/political analyst and, more recently, freelance writer for the good part of the last decade. He has yet to shy away from a dance competition and is an avid lover of all things that come in pairs. During the summer, when he is not jet setting to faraway and exotic locations such as Lake Delavan and Rainy Lake, he can be seen sporting Cubs paraphernalia and dining at the best joints that Lincoln Square has to offer. He has been nestled in a condo in the Lincoln Square neighborhood for over five years with his wife and young son.
Carrie Miller
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dcmilcat@gmail.com
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After a decade working at dailies in Kansas and Florida, Carrie is digging in to her new hometown of Chicago. Most of the journalism awards she's won have been for investigative reporting, and she won a mid-career international reporting fellowship from the Pew Charitable Trusts which she used to study the effects of large scale banana plantation farming on the environment and workers in Costa Rica. Now she's enjoying writing local news and features and meeting her neighbors on the bike paths and across pool tables.
Phil Thompson
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completemethod@gmail.com
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You may know Phil for his awesome Chicago Beer Bar Map, but we just like him for his art and local take on things.
