The Southwest Observer has been named Chicagoland's top neighborhood-specific Web site by the Knight Foundation and the Chicago Community Trust. The Southwest Observer covers the Chicago neighborhoods of Mount Greenwood, Beverly and Morgan Park.

Earlier this year the two organizations conducted a report of community news around the city. The results of "The New News: Journalism We Want and Need," which were released in June, found that the Southwest Observer is one of the local online news publications that is "leading the way in covering Chicago." The Sun-Times agreed, reporting that "the reinvention of the news gathering industry is being engineered...in Chicago."

Ranked 23 out of 84 total Web sites, the Southwest Observer topped nearly a dozen other neighborhood-specific Web sites such as the Chicago News Bench (Rogers Park), the Sixth Ward (Chatham) and the Hyde Park Progress.

Launched in March 2007, the Southwest Observer is also more established than popular news aggregators Everyblock and OutsideIn, which ranked 24 and 30, respectively.

Although blogs and news aggregators dominate the Chicago online news scene, the Southwest Observer is at the forefront of the next generation of community journalism, using more Web 2.0 tools--including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Maps, polls and photo-sharing--than any other Web site on the list.

"Our business model is simple," said Editor and Co-Founder Michael Fielding, a professional journalist who offers original reporting and news aggregation coupled with user-generated content such as forum discussions, blogs and videos. "It's a very fluid process that really encourages the many-to-many approach of news gathering and dissemination. We refuse to be pigeonholed as an online newspaper or a blog."

Fielding and Publisher/Co-Founder Steve Delmont said the recognition came at an opportune time: In October they launched a major overhaul of the site, which now has enhanced news capabilities such as increased live streaming coverage of neighborhood events, a robust business directory and a detailed, user-friendly crime map. It also offers users new ways to connect with their neighbors by posting their own photos, chatting in real time with friends, using their computer's microphone to leave voice messages on the home page and signing neighborhood petitions that highlight hot-button local issues.

Founded to share unbiased, informative neighborhood content, the Southwest Observer turns to neighbors, local organizations and businesses to maintain the "community" in community journalism--and to participate around ideas online in order to make those ideas reality offline.

It has become the Web's most dependable source of hyperlocal news for the Southwest Side of Chicago--from live coverage of breaking news to streaming video of entertainment and sporting events as well as multimedia profiles of noteworthy neighbors.

As a result, the site has been recognized by the Chicago Tribune and the ChicagoNow blog.

Fielding has been a guest on popular television talk show Garrard McClendon Live, and his photographs of the neighborhood have been used by the Chicago Office of Tourism.

The Southwest Observer is guided by a simple mission: to use the Internet to reenergize the community with solutions to local concerns. "It's about neighbors connecting with neighbors and adding their own voice to the larger context," Fielding said. "And by doing that, we're offering connections--not just news. In the end, we are our neighborhoods."

The Southwest Observer has been named Chicagoland's top neighborhood-specific Web site by the Knight Foundation and the Chicago Community Trust. The Southwest Observer covers the Chicago neighborhoods of Mount Greenwood, Beverly and Morgan Park.

Earlier this year the two organizations conducted a report of community news around the city. The results of "The New News: Journalism We Want and Need," which were released in June, found that the Southwest Observer is one of the local online news publications that is "leading the way in covering Chicago." The Sun-Times agreed, reporting that "the reinvention of the news gathering industry is being engineered...in Chicago."

Ranked 23 out of 84 total Web sites, the Southwest Observer topped nearly a dozen other neighborhood-specific Web sites such as the Chicago News Bench (Rogers Park), the Sixth Ward (Chatham) and the Hyde Park Progress.

Launched in March 2007, the Southwest Observer is also more established than popular news aggregators Everyblock and OutsideIn, which ranked 24 and 30, respectively.

Although blogs and news aggregators dominate the Chicago online news scene, the Southwest Observer is at the forefront of the next generation of community journalism, using more Web 2.0 tools--including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Maps, polls and photo-sharing--than any other Web site on the list.

"Our business model is simple," said Editor and Co-Founder Michael Fielding, a professional journalist who offers original reporting and news aggregation coupled with user-generated content such as forum discussions, blogs and videos. "It's a very fluid process that really encourages the many-to-many approach of news gathering and dissemination. We refuse to be pigeonholed as an online newspaper or a blog."

Fielding and Publisher/Co-Founder Steve Delmont said the recognition came at an opportune time: In October they launched a major overhaul of the site, which now has enhanced news capabilities such as increased live streaming coverage of neighborhood events, a robust business directory and a detailed, user-friendly crime map. It also offers users new ways to connect with their neighbors by posting their own photos, chatting in real time with friends, using their computer's microphone to leave voice messages on the home page and signing neighborhood petitions that highlight hot-button local issues.

Founded to share unbiased, informative neighborhood content, the Southwest Observer turns to neighbors, local organizations and businesses to maintain the "community" in community journalism--and to participate around ideas online in order to make those ideas reality offline.

It has become the Web's most dependable source of hyperlocal news for the Southwest Side of Chicago--from live coverage of breaking news to streaming video of entertainment and sporting events as well as multimedia profiles of noteworthy neighbors.

As a result, the site has been recognized by the Chicago Tribune and the ChicagoNow blog.

Fielding has been a guest on popular television talk show Garrard McClendon Live, and his photographs of the neighborhood have been used by the Chicago Office of Tourism.

The Southwest Observer is guided by a simple mission: to use the Internet to reenergize the community with solutions to local concerns. "It's about neighbors connecting with neighbors and adding their own voice to the larger context," Fielding said. "And by doing that, we're offering connections--not just news. In the end, we are our neighborhoods."

On the eve of the president's signing of one of the most sweeping pieces of social legislation in nearly half a century, my wife was two days away from a simple out-patient surgery at Little Company of Mary Hospital.

Some time in the early afternoon on Monday she received a call from the hospital's financial office. The woman on the other line told my wife that she wanted to confirm her surgery date. My wife concurred.

Then the woman said that she had checked with our health insurance company to double check the terms of our policy. Again, my wife confirmed the details.

"We understand you have a $300 deductible," the woman then said.

"Yes," my wife answered.

"How much of that will you be paying today?" she asked, matter-of-factly.

My wife laughed. "Um, none."

"You will not even be making a partial payment?"

"Nope."

"Ok, just checking." The woman then hung up.

Little Company wants us to pre-pay toward my wife's surgery? What the hell is wrong here? And did the massive, "historic" health care reform bill address this issue?

My wife's a polite woman, but if I had been the subject of that phone call, I probably would have made reference to the hospital's clientele who don't pay their bills. Maybe she should have been strong-arming them into pre-paying.

I probably would have commented about the hospital's reputation for threatening patients with sending them to collection unless their bill is paid in full within just a few months of treatment.

Shouldn't this health care discussion have addressed how medical facilities and doctors can get the deadbeat patients to pay up? We pay what we can on time each month, every month. It's called being conscientious.

That's why that phone call was so insulting. My wife was suddenly lumped in with the rest of the deadbeats who walk through Little Company's ER doors and expect a little "free" treatment - at the expense of people like us.

Apparently there's very little "care" for the patient in modern health care. And - at least for me and my family - I don't see any reform helping us any time soon either. Good times ahead!

Let me introduce myself. My name is Kenneth "Kenny" Aggen Born 5/28/40 in Blue Island. Back in July while on a business trip to the Chicago area I visited the "Last Chicago Farm" on 111th Street. I am one of two brothers still living who grew up on the farm as kids. We both worked the land growing up with my parents and grandparents. After graduating High School and getting married my wife and I moved into the house my dad built for his bride at 3855 west 111th. I worked the farm and the farmstand with my dad, uncle and grandmother until 1968 when my wife and I moved to Texas with three little boys. My dad and uncle worked the land till 1972 till they retired and turned over the lease to a neighbor farmer who farmed and ran his stand there till the mid 80s and the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences was built and opened. I have a pretty good collection of old photos and other memorbelia from the years the Aggen family were caretakers of the farmland. I would enjoy sharing memories with anyone interested in Mount Greenwood and its agricultural history. It was nice to look south and west from the school and see the view is not changed except for the direction the rows of vegetables are planted. I did not go east on 111th past the farm so did not see the Mount Greenwood Reformed Church where I met my wife and were married and the kids were baptized as we were.

The Southwest Observer has been named Chicagoland's top neighborhood-specific Web site by the Knight Foundation and the Chicago Community Trust. The Southwest Observer covers the Chicago neighborhoods of Mount Greenwood, Beverly and Morgan Park.

Earlier this year the two organizations conducted a report of community news around the city. The results of "The New News: Journalism We Want and Need," which were released in June, found that the Southwest Observer is one of the local online news publications that is "leading the way in covering Chicago." The Sun-Times agreed, reporting that "the reinvention of the news gathering industry is being engineered...in Chicago."

Ranked 23 out of 84 total Web sites, the Southwest Observer topped nearly a dozen other neighborhood-specific Web sites such as the Chicago News Bench (Rogers Park), the Sixth Ward (Chatham) and the Hyde Park Progress.

Launched in March 2007, the Southwest Observer is also more established than popular news aggregators Everyblock and OutsideIn, which ranked 24 and 30, respectively.

Although blogs and news aggregators dominate the Chicago online news scene, the Southwest Observer is at the forefront of the next generation of community journalism, using more Web 2.0 tools--including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Maps, polls and photo-sharing--than any other Web site on the list.

"Our business model is simple," said Editor and Co-Founder Michael Fielding, a professional journalist who offers original reporting and news aggregation coupled with user-generated content such as forum discussions, blogs and videos. "It's a very fluid process that really encourages the many-to-many approach of news gathering and dissemination. We refuse to be pigeonholed as an online newspaper or a blog."

Fielding and Publisher/Co-Founder Steve Delmont said the recognition came at an opportune time: In October they launched a major overhaul of the site, which now has enhanced news capabilities such as increased live streaming coverage of neighborhood events, a robust business directory and a detailed, user-friendly crime map. It also offers users new ways to connect with their neighbors by posting their own photos, chatting in real time with friends, using their computer's microphone to leave voice messages on the home page and signing neighborhood petitions that highlight hot-button local issues.

Founded to share unbiased, informative neighborhood content, the Southwest Observer turns to neighbors, local organizations and businesses to maintain the "community" in community journalism--and to participate around ideas online in order to make those ideas reality offline.

It has become the Web's most dependable source of hyperlocal news for the Southwest Side of Chicago--from live coverage of breaking news to streaming video of entertainment and sporting events as well as multimedia profiles of noteworthy neighbors.

As a result, the site has been recognized by the Chicago Tribune and the ChicagoNow blog.

Fielding has been a guest on popular television talk show Garrard McClendon Live, and his photographs of the neighborhood have been used by the Chicago Office of Tourism.

The Southwest Observer is guided by a simple mission: to use the Internet to reenergize the community with solutions to local concerns. "It's about neighbors connecting with neighbors and adding their own voice to the larger context," Fielding said. "And by doing that, we're offering connections--not just news. In the end, we are our neighborhoods."

The Southwest Observer has been named Chicagoland's top neighborhood-specific Web site by the Knight Foundation and the Chicago Community Trust. The Southwest Observer covers the Chicago neighborhoods of Mount Greenwood, Beverly and Morgan Park.

Earlier this year the two organizations conducted a report of community news around the city. The results of "The New News: Journalism We Want and Need," which were released in June, found that the Southwest Observer is one of the local online news publications that is "leading the way in covering Chicago." The Sun-Times agreed, reporting that "the reinvention of the news gathering industry is being engineered...in Chicago."

Ranked 23 out of 84 total Web sites, the Southwest Observer topped nearly a dozen other neighborhood-specific Web sites such as the Chicago News Bench (Rogers Park), the Sixth Ward (Chatham) and the Hyde Park Progress.

Launched in March 2007, the Southwest Observer is also more established than popular news aggregators Everyblock and OutsideIn, which ranked 24 and 30, respectively.

Although blogs and news aggregators dominate the Chicago online news scene, the Southwest Observer is at the forefront of the next generation of community journalism, using more Web 2.0 tools--including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Maps, polls and photo-sharing--than any other Web site on the list.

"Our business model is simple," said Editor and Co-Founder Michael Fielding, a professional journalist who offers original reporting and news aggregation coupled with user-generated content such as forum discussions, blogs and videos. "It's a very fluid process that really encourages the many-to-many approach of news gathering and dissemination. We refuse to be pigeonholed as an online newspaper or a blog."

Fielding and Publisher/Co-Founder Steve Delmont said the recognition came at an opportune time: In October they launched a major overhaul of the site, which now has enhanced news capabilities such as increased live streaming coverage of neighborhood events, a robust business directory and a detailed, user-friendly crime map. It also offers users new ways to connect with their neighbors by posting their own photos, chatting in real time with friends, using their computer's microphone to leave voice messages on the home page and signing neighborhood petitions that highlight hot-button local issues.

Founded to share unbiased, informative neighborhood content, the Southwest Observer turns to neighbors, local organizations and businesses to maintain the "community" in community journalism--and to participate around ideas online in order to make those ideas reality offline.

It has become the Web's most dependable source of hyperlocal news for the Southwest Side of Chicago--from live coverage of breaking news to streaming video of entertainment and sporting events as well as multimedia profiles of noteworthy neighbors.

As a result, the site has been recognized by the Chicago Tribune and the ChicagoNow blog.

Fielding has been a guest on popular television talk show Garrard McClendon Live, and his photographs of the neighborhood have been used by the Chicago Office of Tourism.

The Southwest Observer is guided by a simple mission: to use the Internet to reenergize the community with solutions to local concerns. "It's about neighbors connecting with neighbors and adding their own voice to the larger context," Fielding said. "And by doing that, we're offering connections--not just news. In the end, we are our neighborhoods."

The Southwest Observer has been named Chicagoland's top neighborhood-specific Web site by the Knight Foundation and the Chicago Community Trust. The Southwest Observer covers the Chicago neighborhoods of Mount Greenwood, Beverly and Morgan Park.

Earlier this year the two organizations conducted a report of community news around the city. The results of "The New News: Journalism We Want and Need," which were released in June, found that the Southwest Observer is one of the local online news publications that is "leading the way in covering Chicago." The Sun-Times agreed, reporting that "the reinvention of the news gathering industry is being engineered...in Chicago."

Ranked 23 out of 84 total Web sites, the Southwest Observer topped nearly a dozen other neighborhood-specific Web sites such as the Chicago News Bench (Rogers Park), the Sixth Ward (Chatham) and the Hyde Park Progress.

Launched in March 2007, the Southwest Observer is also more established than popular news aggregators Everyblock and OutsideIn, which ranked 24 and 30, respectively.

Although blogs and news aggregators dominate the Chicago online news scene, the Southwest Observer is at the forefront of the next generation of community journalism, using more Web 2.0 tools--including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Maps, polls and photo-sharing--than any other Web site on the list.

"Our business model is simple," said Editor and Co-Founder Michael Fielding, a professional journalist who offers original reporting and news aggregation coupled with user-generated content such as forum discussions, blogs and videos. "It's a very fluid process that really encourages the many-to-many approach of news gathering and dissemination. We refuse to be pigeonholed as an online newspaper or a blog."

Fielding and Publisher/Co-Founder Steve Delmont said the recognition came at an opportune time: In October they launched a major overhaul of the site, which now has enhanced news capabilities such as increased live streaming coverage of neighborhood events, a robust business directory and a detailed, user-friendly crime map. It also offers users new ways to connect with their neighbors by posting their own photos, chatting in real time with friends, using their computer's microphone to leave voice messages on the home page and signing neighborhood petitions that highlight hot-button local issues.

Founded to share unbiased, informative neighborhood content, the Southwest Observer turns to neighbors, local organizations and businesses to maintain the "community" in community journalism--and to participate around ideas online in order to make those ideas reality offline.

It has become the Web's most dependable source of hyperlocal news for the Southwest Side of Chicago--from live coverage of breaking news to streaming video of entertainment and sporting events as well as multimedia profiles of noteworthy neighbors.

As a result, the site has been recognized by the Chicago Tribune and the ChicagoNow blog.

Fielding has been a guest on popular television talk show Garrard McClendon Live, and his photographs of the neighborhood have been used by the Chicago Office of Tourism.

The Southwest Observer is guided by a simple mission: to use the Internet to reenergize the community with solutions to local concerns. "It's about neighbors connecting with neighbors and adding their own voice to the larger context," Fielding said. "And by doing that, we're offering connections--not just news. In the end, we are our neighborhoods."

Every year just before Lent begins a faded movie replays in my memory, a movie that’s been on repeat like a thousand episodes of “Law & Order” during a TNT marathon. There’s a distinct scene in which I'm sitting on a bench at a long table at one of the area VFWs (or was it the American Legion?) with my family some time in the late ‘70s.

I recall a big metal drum either full of beer or loaded with freshly fried whitefish. Either way, the scene – and all the sensory recollections that accompany it, including the cacophony of a hundred happy conversations and the blur of old men and little children and new friends – continue to replay to this day.

Catholicism is so deeply rooted in the area that non-South Siders don’t believe me when I tell them that we introduce each other as members of the local parish (St. Cajetan, St. Christina, St. Barnabas) rather what neighborhood we're from (Morgan Park, Mount Greenwood, Beverly). You are, after all, defined by your parish.

And what’s always gone hand-in-hand with Lenten Fridays is the trusted old fish fry. That night back in the late ‘70s was my first, and I remember it well.

I recall long tables, friendly strangers, cigarette smoke, the smell of beer and grease. And I remember feeling right at home.

And that tradition of the Lenten fish fry thrives to this day throughout the area, where countless mom-and-pop operations and local churches offer great deals on delicious all-you-can-stuff-yourself-with juicy battered cod and perch and pollock, homemade cole slaw, steamin’ hot baked beans, crunchy french fries and a cold, refreshing brew.

Although most restaurants and bars graduated from perch to cod several years ago, the parish basement affairs tend to stick to the basics. For example the popular St. Christina fish fry, which serves hundreds of Mount Greenwood families each week during Lent, is in its 15th year, but dozens of volunteers spend every Friday during the penitential season still serve up the old standby – perch – alongside spaghetti and grilled cheese.

In true South Side, get-to-the-point fashion, the fish fry remains a hardy tradition – but one whose origins are rarely discussed. Some say it stems from the Catholic custom of abstaining from meat on Fridays, but these days diners of various denominations pack local restaurants and bars and American Legion halls for a cheap end-of-the-week supper during the cold, dark days of late winter. Some of the more popular fish fries turn over customers four or five times a night every Friday.

Many of them retain their signature carnival-like atmosphere – noisy, crowded and a feast for the senses. And that’s the way we like it.

So as we begin the 2011 Lenten season, let’s agree that as long as there’s a fish fry – with its friendly strangers, long tables, the sweet smell of beer and, of course, deep-fried fish – we’ll be there.

There’s more than one fish (fry) around. Check out these within a 15-minute drive:

St. Cajetan Parish, Memorial Hall
2445 W. 112th St.
(773) 238-4100
5 p.m.-7:30 p.m. March 11 & 25
$8 adults, $5 seniors or $25 per family
Sponsored by the Men’s Club
Extras: Plenty of room for the kids to run off that energy

St. Bernadette Church, O’Brien Hall
9343 S. Francisco Ave., Evergreen Park
(708) 422-8995
5 p.m.-7:30 p.m. April 15
Sponsored by the Holy Name Society

Stony Creek Golf Course Clubhouse
5850 W. 103rd St., Oak Lawn
(708) 857-2433
5 p.m.-8 p.m. Fridays
$10.99 adults, $5.99 children ages 10 and younger
Extras: It's all-you-can-eat

St. Christina School basement
11005 S. Homan Ave., Chicago
(773) 779-7181
4:30 p.m.-8 p.m. every Friday during Lent
$9 adults, $6 for children ages 5 to 12
Sponsored by the Holy Name Society
Extras: Cheap pitchers of beer

St. Benedict Church
2339 York St., Blue Island
(708) 385-8510
11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. and 4 p.m.-7:30 p.m. every Friday during Lent
$8 adults, $3 children ages 3 to 12 and $1 younger children
Extras: Full cash bar

St. Albert the Great Parish
5555 W. State Road, Burbank
(708) 423-0321
$9 per person
4 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. every Friday during Lent

Midlothian VFW Hall
14817 S. Pulaski Road, Midlothian
(708) 371-5227
5 p.m.-8 p.m. every Friday during Lent
$8 adults, $4 children ages 12 and younger

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