DevCorp North is a government and taxpayer funded money pit. But where is the money going?
Ask yourself, how many businesses would survive when 1 in 5 people think your business did such a poor job? How long would your investers continue to invest.... if the investers never see a return?
Alderman Moore, show you are a reformer. Remove Special Service Are #19 and #24 from the tax rolls. Prove to us you are a reformer Alderman Moore. Reform DevCorp North. Remove executive director Kimberly Bares.
It's time for a change. Alderman Moore, take a look, the results are in!
By the way, today we had 30 new readers AND VOTERS, unless some of you found a way to vote twice on the system! The fliering last night night paid off. Thanks for reading everyone. A new poll is below. Cary Steinbuck, please don't vote during working hours.
6 comments:
Michael C,
Are you on DevCorp North's Board? Do you work on staff?
Are you related or in a relationship to someone from the above two questions? We know you support corruption. Tell us why?
Who's pockets do you have your hands in?
Well, I love Rogers Park and have lived here since 1991. However, I don't love spin and Alderman Moore and DevCorp seem to do a lot of it. Witness the 7/27 News-Star article on Gateway where all problems (the biggest of which are a dearth of tenants but I suggest likely also include a dearth of business for the few businesses in the center) are not the fault of the participants (Alderman, DevCorp) but of outside forces from the economic recession to CTA to design flaws, and so on (2nd best line in article reads "Some attribute the drought in renting the space to factors beyond anyone's control." News-Star apparently didn't think it worthwhile to interview those who might disagree with that thinking.) We are told that the shopping center is about to turn a corner though they can't tell us the names of the potential tenants because it's apparently double super secret. The good news is that Ald. Moore can confirm one new tenant -- Life Storage. While there is no doubt a demand for storage facilities within Chicago, what does it say about Ald. Moore and DevCorp that the only business they can bring us is a storage facility (oh, sorry, and the Dollar store slated for Morse)? What does this say about our wonderful community to the city, to businesses and entrepreneurs looking for a home? But the very best line in the article is saved for last where Ms. Bares offers ". . there's a lot happening," she added pointing to a construction boom that has swept through the neighborhood as evidence. "(Gateway) is having an impact that goes beyond the shopping center." Am I the only one that thinks that it's incredibly rich for DevCorp, operator of a failed shopping center, to be taking credit for the rehabbing and rejuvenation of the community? Does she really believe her own spin? One reads the piece and doesn't know quite whether one should be laughing hilariously while slapping their thigh or weeping uncontrollably. DevCorp and the principals and the Alderman's office routinely take credit for "events beyond their control" such as economic growth that has taken place across most parts of the U.S. (irrespective of recessions) and a low-interest environment where builders build and rehab (conversely, when bad things happen, it's "beyond their control" too). Yet despite the rehabbing, despite and influx of middle class incomes to the 'hood, Rogers Park still has very few new restaurants, shops, etc. Those who have the money for the $300k+ condos and $500k homes are getting in their cars and driving to Evanston (which means Chicago loses the sales tax revenues in addition to the jobs). These people are getting in their cars because: 1) they have few options in Rogers Park (which is a large community too); 2) they are afraid to walk much off the main Sheridan area after dark and sometimes during the day; 3) there is little to walk to (yes, I'm repeating myself but it so rankles -- there were more businesses to walk to on Morse when we moved here in 1991 than now!). If anyone would like to argue the point with me, have at it. My husband and I are out walking our dogs almost every night. We walk virtually all streets and alleys from Devon to Howard, from the lake to Ridge (and sometimes farther west). We see who is out and about and who isn't.
Yes, Craig has his issues with the Alderman's office and DevCorp. While I don't agree with all his sentiments, I appreciate his frustration with the political leadership in the community. Ask any business owner what they think of the Alderman and if they trust you, they will honestly tell you they don't think much. Now, go down to Andersonville and ask any small businessperson there what they think of their Alderman and they will sing her praises for hours. Ms. Smith, apparently, has created an enviornment friendly to small business -- and for good reason. It increases the city's tax base, brings jobs to people who need them, and makes for a more congenial community (for if people are out and about walking to businesses then it's more difficult for drug dealers and their ilk to conduct business). It wasn't all that long ago that Andersonville was down in the dumps, so to speak. Now it's so successful they are considering passing an ordinance to ban chain stores!
And this is why people like Craig, like me, are frustrated with our Alderman. Just on the other side of the tracks life is very different -- and it shouldn't be. We have a wonderfully rich, delightfully live and let live community in Rogers Park. All Rogers Park residents deserve better.
Pamela, thanks for your post. You highlighted a key irony in the quotes, the dimension of bad stuff being "beyond the control" but the good stuff being evidence of effectiveness. Thanks again.
I appreciate the comments. If everyone will indulge me I have one last thing I would like to point out (and I promise not to make a habit of long posts going forward).
Ward politics, patronage, and other political shenanigans aside, what bothers me most about the situation in Rogers Park is that the political leadership is simply unwilling to consider any other viewpoint, or to look to other wards for example. They march down their path of big development/get the chain businesses and any voice that suggests that maybe large-scale development and wooing big chain businesses (though not very effectively) is not the solution is quickly cut down (as it is viewed as an attack on the ward office and, by extension, the local political party office). Let's take a look at Edgewater which is most similar to Rogers Park in size and economic and ethnic diversity. Edgewater did not see rejuvenation because of big box stores and strip malls. It first experienced an influx of small business (that coincided with residential rehabbing). Big box stores, or even most (though not all) chains do not rejuvenate communities because they are mostly not gathering places and they are so plentiful (there are 4 other Marshall's within approx. 5 miles of Rogers Park, and 6 Dominick's within less than 3 miles) -- they are about convenience shopping. Futher, chain businesses are trend followers, not trail blazers. I am not opposed to big box stores such as Dominicks or Costco, etc. They serve a valuable purpose in communities from providing jobs to low-priced goods that some people otherwise would not be able to afford, and that provide savings to all. But we have had these kinds of retail outlets for some time on west Howard, on Ridge (the Dominick's). We have a plethora of dollar stores. A community needs unique businesses that serve all segments of the community and become destination points(rather like the Hispanic businesses along Clark serving that community).
Communities are built around the town square, so to speak, and virtually every ward has it's functional equivalent of that square with people promenading with their dogs, their children, their significant other, going to dine, shop, sitting outside with friends(and sometimes they have more than one strip). We kind of have that a bit along Sheridan Road but because of parking shortages it's been tough for businesses beyond cafes and similar to make a go of it.
While Edgewater and Mary Ann Smith have made use of TIF districts, what she did first was to learn how to support existing business, encourage new businesses, and create a walkable environment. If you go to her website you will see that "walkability" for the community has been a very big deal. Also look at the difference in Mary Ann's site and Mr. Moore's website. Mary Ann is about "Dear Neighbors," with a small pic. and news and user-friendly information about her ward. Alderman Moore's site is plastered with his picture and notice of a rally against Walmart which isn't even planning to open a store in our area though I could make a case that Gateway would be a great location for them. Rally aside, I'm confused; Moore's office wants big business, they don't want big business. It's enough to make your head spin.
Mary Ann helped Edgewater by attending important economic development conferences and tapping the brain power of experienced people. And she did it in cooperation with the community which included small business and the residents. She did not bring in developers (cloaked in non-profit status) and strong-arm people into selling their private property to create strip malls (compliments of same guy who is against Walmart). She simply encouraged natural free market forces that created a rising tide that lifted all boats while implementing a number of initiatives that stemmed capitalism gone wild (aka gentrification).
Ms. Smith leveraged the rehabbing by private citizens (smart, a politican who figures out how to take advantage of a strong tail wind provided free of charge by private individuals). She saw opportunity to turn her ward around and she ran with it while managing to protect the interests of those less fortunate. Meanwhile, Mr. Moore was still tossing out the gentrification bogeyman well into the late '90s and I really think that he only embraced development of some kind (any kind!) as a means to protect his job when the fear of the "new" residents who had been moving into the community since the late '80s and early '90s might finally exist in great enough numbers to vote him right out of office (besides which he could say he created nearly 200 new jobs and brought the 'hood an inconveniently located grocery store with the Dominick's). As a result, the entire community suffers. The vast majority of residents are still driving to the grocery store (whether it be to Gateway or Evanston). No one but Rogers Park residents come to our 'hood for dining unless it's to revisit that old haunt the Heartland or maybe, just maybe, to be adventurous and check out Cafe Suron. And who goes to Howard except those who live there? Howard still has one of the worst reps in the city. Even the people who live in that area rarely walk around it (I know, we feel pretty lonely walking the dogs around there), and denizens north of Howard tell me they don't venture out after dark -- at all. What kind of a community tolerates an environment where people are afraid to go out after dark?
Look to the 48th ward and see what has been done there; what is being done. Loyalty to the Alderman and the local DNC is admirable but loyalty to any politican and/or party in the face of ineffectiveness is at best foolish and at worst unethical for all then suffer for the power of a few. The voters and taxpayers of Rogers Park need to ask themselves if Rogers Park has improved during their tenure beyond improvements due to low interest rates and downright cheap housing. They need to look to the city as a whole and ask if this neighborhood has risen along with virtually the rest of the city (aside from long overdue rehabbing/building which, again, is about the housing stock, not the Alderman's office or DevCorp). Yes, Ennui has expanded (good for them!), we have a Starbuck's on Sheridan, and a handful of new restaurants/cafes, and a couple of new shops. In the 14 years I've been here -- that's it; given the rising fortunes of just about every community throughout the U.S., it's a very poor record, particularly in light of the wealth in the community -- wealth that Evanston and other locales benefit from more.
Rogers Park residents need to ask if their politicians have solved local problems; not if they have the same partisan beliefs. They need to ask if their party, their politicans, are serving their needs or pandering to their belief system. When Mr. Moore took time out of his busy schedule to rally city hall to protest the war against Iraq, to make appearances on Fox TV and CNN, was he solving Rogers Park's problems? Did we elect him because of his views on foreign policy? How is he helping Rogers Park by having a happy hour rally against potential south and west side Walmarts? We might like that his views match ours (if they do) but these matter are not, were never, his job. It's not what we, the taxpayers, pay him for. We pay him to attend to this community and this community alone every day. We have other politicans who we pay to tend to our foreign policy views, and cold as it sounds, the West and South side aldermen have to fight their own battles. We should not allow ourselves to be romanced by politicians who don't do their jobs but who sing songs that sound pleasing to our ears. Sadly, criticism of our Alderman's office incurs his wrath and the wrath of his loyalists who band together to silence other views. Meanwhile Edgewater continues to improve ever more every day. One imagines that Mary Ann Smith must take some pleasure in not having to compete with another northern, lakeside ward for business.
Pamela
Pamela,
You seem to have a following already, If you care to be a guest editoral blogger, send your stories to me and I will post it.
craiggernhardt@comcast.net
ps: Thanks for all the comments, you too Mr. Harrington.
Edgewater is so different? Come on give me a break.
If any of you have lived here long enough you should know that it is always residents in conjunction with their elected officials who turn neighborhoods around.
Mary Ann Smith did not wave some darn magic wand.....
BLAME BLAME BLAME
Read below and tell me if the same thing is not happening in RP as we speak.
Also ask yourself why so many indi minded people have chosen not to open a small business here.
Demographics are everything......some people just thing this hood a little too scary. I say they are all misguided.
However perception is reality......
Uptown's population declined in the 1950s as Chicago's western and southern suburbs were developed and opened, absorbing Chicago's middle and upper classes. With the flight of residents came disrepair and high crime rates for what once was one of the most affluent districts of Chicago.
In the 1980s, the Chicago City Council and local business owners orchestrated a revival for the Edgewater community. Edgewater seceded from the Uptown community and once again called itself its own community. New businesses were brought into the community, old buildings were refurbished and homes touched up to harken back to Edgewater's glory days of the past.
Gay and lesbian community
An unexpected influx of gay and lesbian residents moved in and land values skyrocketed. The community now boasts one of the largest homosexual populations in the United States. It shares that distinction with neighboring communities of Andersonville, Lakeview, and Rogers Park. Edgewater is home to the Gerber/Hart Library, the largest gay and lesbian library and archives in the midwestern United States.
Where the hell do you think Kimberly Bares worked before she came to run DevCorp North.
Michael you know this as well as anyone.
Sit tight folks and keep doing what your doing.
Our time is now........
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