Just two days ago, this page discussed the many facets of the public debate on the $7 billion 1901 Project, a huge concert venue, hotel, retail and housing development surrounding the United Center, as proposed by that stadium’s owners.
Little did we know that, as we were writing, one of the West Side’s leaders for ensuring those in the neighborhood will be able to benefit economically from that megadevelopment was gunned down in broad daylight on Madison Street just a few blocks west of the United Center.
Jerry Lewis, 67, was shot dead Tuesday in what appeared to be an ambush, according to reports. Charged Thursday with first-degree murder in Lewis’ death were Nassie Mason, 28, and Erving Harris, 31. They also were charged with being felons in possession of a weapon.
Chicago has seen more than its share of tragic shootings in recent days, and Lewis’ is yet another. For all the discussion of how much Chicago’s homicide rate has dropped in the past year or so, this city remains entirely too dangerous. And some of our best people are paying the ultimate price.
Lewis was one of those. The owner of a construction firm, Lewis over the years hired men from the West Side, some of whom had past gang ties or criminal records. Born and raised on the West Side, Lewis raised his family in the south suburbs but never lost connection with his roots. He dedicated himself to mentoring others from his old neighborhood who aspired to follow in his footsteps.
To that end, Lewis was executive director of the 1901 Community Implementation Committee, the focal point for training minority-owned contractors to participate in future work on the 1901 Project. The Wirtz and Reinsdorf families, owners together of the United Center and of the Chicago Blackhawks and Chicago Bulls, respectively, envision the 55-acre development as a catalyst for rejuvenating the West Side.
Zach Lewis, only child of Jerry Lewis and his wife of 40 years, Zandra, ably framed this tragedy beyond the grief he and his mother are feeling. “We need to put the guns down and give everybody a chance,” he told the Tribune. “And when somebody does make it out of the neighborhood, they should be able to come back to the neighborhood to make it better.”
Amen to that.
Lewis risked much in trying to help those who had a tough start in life up the ladder. In doing so, he surely knew he could find himself in harm’s way one day.
He testified in May 2024 before Chicago’s Community Development Commission regarding an affordable housing project on part of what used to be Cabrini-Green in which his firm was involved. “We’ve taken 15 previously incarcerated gang leaders and helped them start their own businesses,” he said then, according to the meeting transcript. “And they are the companies working on these individual projects, and they are the ones that are hiring from the community to assure that the violence is reduced, that there’s … high-paying jobs with the unions. We’ve sponsored them into the unions.”
How deeply sad that a man who worked so effectively to give young men an alternative to lives of violence would have his own life snuffed out, self-evidently by young men who chose the wrong path.
“He believed in developing others for the best, showing people a different way,” Zandra Lewis told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Lewis died, then, doing what he believed in. May that provide some comfort to his widow and his son, as well as to the many in the neighborhood who knew him as a mentor and an inspiration.
Chicago, for all its current travails, is home to many unsung heroes like Jerry Lewis. We might not have known Mr. Lewis personally, as will be true for most of our readers, but we should all mourn his passing.
Chicago is worse off for this senseless loss.
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