Wed Jan 16, 2008 at 1:00 AMBy: George N. Schmidt Abandoned West Side High School Mystery Nice job.

Yes, Westinghouse. That's the gym where Mark Aguirre, among others, played ball.

That was back in the Bad Old Days before Mr. Basketball helped continue "school reform" -- when Chicago's Red West was nationally famous and helped keep kids from dropping out, and the West Side from sliding further...

But, Arne and his boss, Mayor Daley, is now providing a jobs program for washed up basketball players recycled as bureaucrats, now that he has single handedly destroyed Red West and West Side basketball.

Thanks for the reminder.

Those bottles of poison? Anyone want to bet that CPS forgot to include environmental waste disposal in the politically wired contracts for the demolition of the "old" Westinghouse? That stuff (and more like it) will soon wind up in some clout heavy landfill near you.

Any more photographs?

Alexander: If we're going to do photo essays on abandoned schools that Arne Duncan has allowed to decay, this is a good month to begin. Duncan has closed schools in the past with lots of rhetoric, usually because CPS is holding them until gentrification can be enhanced by giving them away to developers.

Would people here like photographs of Near North Career Magnet High School (1450 N. Larrabbee, 60610)?

How about Mulligan Elementary (1855 N. Sheffield, 60614)?

Or the biggest and most notorious of all -- Spalding High School (1628 W. Washington, 60612).

In each case, Arne and that Daley crew shut the places down (and scattered the kids) amid promises about what would happen next. These stories about how the Chicago Board of Education manipulates land use and buildings come back into the news in a week when Arne recycles all that sanctimonious bilge about closing schools to save the children, blah blah, and improve the city, blathering blat...

I just chose those three above because they are awaiting the Great Giveaway (flipping for gentrification) after the Great Lie (part of the Big Lie) that said they were being closed to be fixed up for future use.

It's worth talking about now because next week, CPS will begin another round of sanctimonious prattle about how it "has to" close some more "underutilized" and "underperforming" public schools as part of begin responsible to the taxpayers. Arne promised to rehab Spalding when it was closed down four years ago.

Although CPS is currently spending at least $17 million on exterior work on Austin (after claiming for 25 years there was "no money") Spalding is still waiting.

While telling half the city there is "no money" for fixing up schools that really need it, as soon as Austin was shut down, Duncan found the dollars (massively) to do the work. (Two small schools; on a charter).

Ditto now that Grant has been militarized. (Both Phoenix and the Marine Military Academy).

Ditto now that Morse has been charterized. (Polaris).

The Near North building had an interior space designed for shops (er., Education to Careers) and was last used to house Jones during part of the enormously expensive conversion of the Jones black to one public school.

And, of course, Mulligan sits dustily up there...