A Day On Wikipedia

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The Chicago Better Housing Association was created by Kenny B Smith and his wife Karen to turn vacant and blighted housing lots into community parks, to beautify the Chicago neighborhoods and increase property values. The CBHA gained momentum with a $100k Illinois housing grant to create a botanic garden out of a vacant lot in South Side Englewood as a demonstration project. The CBHA was subsequently awarded an additional $20k supplemental in 2007 at the request of Illinois State Senator [[Barak Obama]].

The ‘Englewood Botanic Garden Project’ was announced at a January 2000 news conference at Englewood High School. The garden was to be ‘an oasis of trees and paths’ instead of a vacant lot full of weeds and garbage under the mass transit (so-called ‘[[L]]’) tracks between 59th Place and 62nd Place. Organizers promised to raise $1.1 million for this and similar lots. The garden site is situated near where Smith was developing affordable housing.

In 2008, an investigative news article discovered that very little work had been done by CBHA. Trash and dead trees had been removed, but construction had not begun on the designed garden space. ‘The only noticeable improvement is a gazebo.’ <ref=http://www.suntimes.com/news/watchdogs/1184049,CST-NWS-watchdog25.article>

Attorney General Lisa Madigan is investigating the financial transactions related to the grant. Particularly troubling was that the expenses were limited to $65k in salary payments for Karen D. Smith, the wife of founder Kenny B Smith, and $20k paid to KD Construction (which is owned by Karen D. Smith, but has since ceased operations).

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