For 40 years he was the voice of the feisty Voice newspapers serving Chicago’s Far West Side neighborhoods of Austin, North Lawndale and Garfield Park.

His voicemail — “This is Brad Cummings” — was bold and brassy, like a TV news anchor. He sure liked to talk. At the same time, he was always listening, always learning, always knitting people together.

But on June 26 his bold voice fell forever silent when a tragic fire in the Austin neighborhood took three innocent lives, his among them. Fires change things. For the first time ever, the Voice missed its weekly publication date. Some 36,000 copies failed to appear at the 700 drop-off points where West Side residents normally scoop them up every Wednesday. And 137,000 West Siders were stuck with the endless crime-zone coverage o

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