By Steve Balkin, Vice President of Maxwell Street Coalition and endorsed by the list of signatories below.

While lower creatures live solely in the physical environment into which they are born, human beings are unique in their capacity to live in history as well, to create, transmit, and preserve culture. We ask you to display your humanity to spare us and have compassion upon us.

Our struggle is not against the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), its students or faculty. We also want a strong and thriving UIC. Preserving the last remnants of the Maxwell Street is good for everyone. It is a win-win. But the UIC administrators, Trustees, and private developers do not agree.

To raise awareness and change minds, we ask UIC students, staff, and faculty to boycott University Village and the new UIC dorms at Halsted and Maxwell Street, which are opening next month. But if you insist on moving into those places, we beg of you to be a good neighbor.

Insist your UIC administrators and Trustees

1. Stop the demolitions, save the remaining 25 whole historic buildings.

2. Allow the hot dog stands, tailor shop, Smith Glass company, Reverend Johnson's Blues Bus, and the street vendors to stay in business.

3. Allow the old Romanian Synagogue (now Gethemene Baptist Church) and the Creative Reuse Warehouse to remain.

4. Allow the current residents facing evictions to stay and permit them to continue to own their own building.

5. Allow parking access for the St. Francis of Assisi Church.

6. Allow the construction of a community Blues bandstand at the corner of Halsted and Maxwell.

7. Provide some affordable housing in University Village for the very poor, those below 30% of the median income.

We owe it to our ancestors to keep Maxwell Street alive. They struggled and suffered to keep their culture alive, their most precious gift to you. We owe it to our descendents to give our past a future. Throughout the ages, people found in Maxwell Street encouragement and strength. Maxwell Street raised the poor from the dust and lifted the needy from the ash heap.

May your association with our Maxwell Street Coalition enrich your lives, and help you find refreshment of spirit, stimulation of the mind, warmth of fellowship, and a community of care and concern.

We pray to bless UIC students with the eagerness to learn and to acquire the priceless teachings of our heritage through maintaining Maxwell Street's last physical and cultural remnants.

For more information visit our websites <www.openair.org/maxwell/preserve.html> or <www.maxwellstreet.org>, or call 312-341-3696 or Email <mar@topicbox.com>.

We sponsor traditional Blues jams every Sunday at 1PM at Maxwell and Halsted, across from Original Jim's Hot dog Stand. Come by and ask questions or go for a free tour.

Below is the initial list of endorsers. The list will grow.

David Roediger, Kendrick C. Babcock Professor of History at the University of Illinois

Sterling Plumpp, Professor of English and African-American Stuides, UIC

Peter D. Moore, Professor of Molecular Genetics, UIC

Friar Jim Hoffman ofm, Sacred Heart Franciscan Province Office of JPIC

Dr. Calvin Morris, Executive Director of the Community Renewal Society, United Church of Christ

Reverend Richard Luecke, Director of Studies, Community Renewal Society

Carmella Thill, Catholic Voices for Economic Justice

Bishop John D. Walker, Pentecostal Deliverance Temple

Reverend Bob Young

L. Landry, Founding Member, Chicago Alliance of African-American Photographers

Pat Quinn, former State Treasurer

Don Rose, Political Consultant

Jackson Potter, founder of UIC Students Against Sweatshops

Sharon Lamp, co-founder of UIC Disabled Students Union

Helene Berlin, master's student in UIC's Urban Planning and Policy Program, and Research Director for the Neighborhood Capital Budget Group

Elise Martel, Graduate Student, UIC, and Strategic Planner, BBDO Chicago

Mary Baldwin, President of Local Advisory Council, Rockwell Gardens

Luster Jackson, President, Concerned Citizens of East Garfield Park

Rene Maxwell, Coalition to Protect Public Housing

David Aragon, Pilsen Community activist

Brad Breems, Professor of Sociology, Trinity Christian College

Leticia Cortez, Vice-President AFSME Local 3506

Tracy Kurowski, Adult Education, Truman College

Mike Radzilowsky, Attorney

Jerry Boyle, Attorney

Julie Welsh, Attorney

Tim McCarthy, Attorney

Barbara Cronin, Attorney

Steven Tomashefsky, Attorney, Jenner and Block

Neal Pollack, Journalist and author

Jim O'Neal, Founding Editor, Living Blues Magazine

James Fraher, Blues Photographer

Justin O'Brien, Chicago writer and contributor to Living Blues magazine

Brian Mier, Urbanologist and journalist, son of the founder of UIC's Center for Urban Economic Development

Judith Johnson, Executive Director, Memphis Heritage, Inc., Tennessee Preservation Trust advisor and Tennessee advisor to the National Trust for Historic Preservation

Lionel Bottari, Artist and Community Activist

Al Handa, Editor/Publisher of the Delta Snake Daily Blues

Richard Lamanna, Professor of Soiology at University of Notre Dame

Don Petrausky and Lori Lewis, Wisconsin Blues Society

Jimmie Lee Robinson, Blues musician

Frank 'Little Sonny' Scot Jr., Blues musician

Bobby 'Top Hat' Davis, Blues musician

Ruby Harris- King of the Blues Violin

Al Harris, Blues musician

Evangelist Clarence 'Lill Scotty' Scott, Community Activist and Blues musician

Mr. H, Bluesman and Naval veteran, two time recipient of the Bronze star

Bobby Too Tough, Blues musician and as a child, friend to Louis Armstrong

Henry Martin - "Albert King Jr.", Blues Musician

Jimmy Dawkins, Blues Musician

Adam "Big Rig" Riggle, Blues Musician

Todd Bartelstein Blues musician

Alon Friedman, Senior Systems Adminstrator, Illinois Institute of Technology

Slawko Olenczuk, owner of Paul and Bill's Tailor Shop

Gerardo Reyes, President of the St. Francis of Assisi Preservation Committee

Wes Wegar, current resident of Maxwell Street and Green Party activist

Bobby Lee Pane, Street Vendor

Professor Alfonso Morales, Ph. D. - Northwestern U, now Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at University of Texas at El Paso

Max Page, Professor of Architecture and History at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Janelle Walker, Ph.D., Folklorist

Lori Grove, Architectural Historian

Daniel Marmer, Environmental Engineer

Ed Koziarski, Filmmaker, "Homesick Blues"

Sally Stevens, Director, New Orleans Blues Project, Blues Highway Millennium Trail, Community Development Through Music

Andrew M. Cohen, blues researcher, presenter, musician, anthropologist, student of Jewish culture.

Jack Cruz, Manager & Bass, Walter "Wolfman' Washington & The Roadmasters

Tom Radai, The Blues Management Group

Steve Slaughter, Rock n Roll musician

Kermit Scales, Blues fan and Cab Driver

Dorothy Caeg, Blues fan

Brenda Trinkle, Blues fan

Bill Riggle, Entrepreneur, Blues Enthusiast

Henry Smith, former resident on Newberry Street

Liu Jianzhong, student, West China University of Medical Sciences

Jean-Pierre Urbain, PhD, blues writer/reviewer, Belgium

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