Mick Dumke & Ben Joravsky host First Tuesdays at the Hideout

Mick Dumke (left) and Ben Joravsky of the Chicago Reader

Not sure how I missed this, but I just learned today that on Tuesday, April 1, Mick Dumke & Ben Joravsky of the Chicago Reader will host the first in what is hopefully a longstanding series called “First Tuesdays,” in which Mick & Ben host a political roundtable at the Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia.

Event details can be found on Facebook. Ben’s take at the Reader can be found here. Outside the Loop Radio’s interview with Mick about the event is here.

Guests for the first show are a pair of aldermen and one retired alderman: Proco “Joe” Moreno (1st), Scott Waguespack (32nd), and longtime alderman of the 33rd ward Richard Mell.

Mick & Ben (just sounds natural, don’t it? Like Simon & Garfunkel or Siskel & Ebert?) are two of Chicago’s finest reporters. Ben uses his humor, reporting chops and ethical standards to cut to the heart of civic issues such as school closings, back room dealmaking and all things Rahm & CPS; his work on the Reader’s blog is a link-crazed catalog of the city’s ills.

Mick, meanwhile, is part bloodhound, part excavator, part palaeontologist and all storyteller. His investigative pieces include these two stories on Chicago’s heroin trade from 2013 (February, December) and this five-part series on the impact of the death of Dantrell Davis (part one here).

As a duo, their reporting has influenced public debate on the city’s use of the TIF budget and the wasteful parking meter deal.

I met them in 2011 for my Chicago Journalism People With Passion series (links below) and found each one to be the same in person as they are in print: passionate and informed, with Mick kind and soft-spoken and Ben energetic and acerbic.

Lastly, I should mention that in my interview with Ben, he spoke unflatteringly about 1st Ward voters (myself included) and, by extension, his soon-to-be guest Ald. Moreno (something he does in his column as well).

Joe is my alderman — I’ve interviewed both him and Ald. Waguespack and done some 1st Ward events with Joe — and I have always found him to be intelligent, passionate, approachable and unafraid of conflict.

Thus I’m hoping that Ben does not sidestep his feelings and that we get to watch these two men at their most honest and unflinching. (And if there’s one thing we know about Ben Joravsky, it’s that sidestepping his feelings is not in his playbook.)

I have no involvement in the Hideout series — I am simply a fan who wants to spread the word. In the immortal words of Bart Scott, can’t wait.

Additional links of note:

Ben Joravsky talking TIFs at an Occupy Chicago event in 2011: