Friday, August 19, 2005

* RE: The Alderman's Note's - Continued

To all concerned:

Below is a summary of the CAPS meeting for Beat 2431 held on Monday, August 15th, with regard to 1237 W. Lunt and 1340 W. Morse - 1345 W. Lunt.

1237-43 W. Lunt

Mr. Alex Mindea, owner of 1237-43 W. Lunt, appeared at the meeting but had to leave early due to a family emergency. He assured those assembled that he would be attending the next CAPS meeting on Monday, September 19th at 7:00 p.m.

Mr. Mindea has begun to install an intercom system at the front gate and has re-keyed all the locks with a security key system. The keys have been distributed to his tenants. Mr. Mindea also provided a tenant log to the 24th police district for possible background checks if needed. He posted no trespassing signs and reiterated his willingness to sign complaints. He has also asked the tenant that resides in the garden unit to be more considerate of his neighbors or risk being evicted. While he initially agreed to hire a private security company, he asked that the improvements be given a chance to work before he is held to that agreement.

1340 W. Morse - 1345 W. Lunt

Mr. Harris Block of Realty Management Co. leasing agent for the building was present at the meeting and gave an update on the steps that he is taking to improve conditions at his building.

1. He will install two cameras to monitor the entire perimeter of the building. The installation began on Monday and work is expected to be completed by the end of the week. The cameras will be actively recording 24 hours a day and the tapes will be kept for six days. Community members or the police will be able to view the tape. Community residents will be asked to sign for the tape and return it.

2. He will either remove the fence on the Morse side of the building or build a higher fence so as to discouraged people from sitting on the wall and loitering in front of the building.

3. He has provided my office with the names and city of residence for all the owners of the building. That list is available at my office upon request.

4. He has provided a tenant log to the 24th District Police to do background checks if necessary. Police review of the tenant log has resulted in one tenant being served eviction papers for having been recently arrested for possession of narcotics.

5. He will provide the beat officers with an intercom code to the building to allow for quicker access by police and fire safety personnel.

Again, both landlords are expected to report back to the community via the CAPS meeting to be held Monday, September 19th at 1530 W. Morse at 7:00 p.m.

If you have any question, please feel free to contact Alicia Lopez or me at my office.

Alderman Joe Moore

10 comments:

Craig Gernhardt said...

David Fagus notes from Kevin O'Neil.

Nothing mentioned on the Special Service Area Security Scandal called the security logs.

Tell us again Rene, how many times have you chummed up with Commander Rottner?

We should call you Rene, the name dropper.

Jim Witts said...

I just checked out he citizen's icam fo rbeat 2431. According to that, between july 30 and August 12, there was only 1 crime.

Are the drug dealers pictured on this site not commiting crimes? I would love to believe that there was only 1 crime commited, but somehow, i can't believe that.

Any thoughts?

Hugh said...

Most of the Moore-Fagus-O'Neil "progress" report is in the future tense. The report skinnies way up if you just consider concrete accomplishments instead of promises.

Hugh said...

James posted...

>It is becoming more and more apparent that the CAPS program should be re-designed with results in mind.

Fagus wrote...

>Follow Up Meeting with Lunt Building Owners

>Tonight the Follow up meeting for 1237 and 1345 W. Lunt was held at the regularly scheduled Beat 2431 CAPS meeting.
>Kevin O’Neil, (of www.ctatattler.com fame), chaired the meeting.

Kevin O'Neil,

* member and Secretary of the Board of Directors of DevCorp North

* member and Chairman of DevCorp North's Publicity and Public Relations Committee

* member and Past President of DevCorp North

As President of DevCorp North, O'Neil signed the agreement that involved DevCorp North in real estate speculation in our neighborhood, as reported recently in the News-Star. He and Alderman Moore were among the architects of DevCorp North's hiding their speculation in real estate development from the IRS, from grant-making institutions, and from the taxpaying public.

* Chairman of DevCorp North's standing committee for promoting real estate development. This same committee also provides a feeble sort of cover for Alderman Moore as his "community" zoning committee. Moore calls it his "Zoning And Land Use Advisory Committee (ZALUAC)." This committee serves Moore by enabling him to make claims about open process as he feathers his campaign coffers by accommodating developers.

Mr. O'Neil's service to DevCorp North and to Alderman Moore's real estate developer pals are in direct conflict with his role as beat facilitator for one of the most troubled beats in our neighborhood. DevCorp North's and Alderman Moore's mission of promoting real estate development is fundamentally incompatible with the mission of cleaning up the open air drug market in the heart of our neighborhood. Alderman Moore, DevCorp North, and Mr. O'Neil are so concerned with the perception of crime that they cannot deal with the reality. This conflict of interest is one of the main reasons we talk and talk while the gang-bangers wheel and deal.

Hugh said...

James posted...

>It is becoming more and more apparent that the CAPS program should be re-designed with results in mind.

Before you generalize from this CAP beat to all CAPS beats, you should understand that there are some very specific factors contributing to this CAP beat's record of failure.

In most CAPS beats, the beat facilitator is not the Publicity Chairman for a not-for-profit, that, with help from the local Alderman, raised taxes on the beat to fund themselves.

In most CAPS beats, the beat facilitator is not the chairman of the Alderman's committee to promote real estate development.

If it seems like the 2431 CAPS meetings devolve into a info-mercial for tear-downs and concrete block condo projects, or an opportunity to promote DevCorp North and all the wonderful things they and their Special Service Area (SSA) programs are doing for the community, please understand that this is far from typical.

dan2 said...

I'll consider that post from Mr. Fargus the response I never received to the letter I sent.

Problems are still occuring around that property, and some of it has shifted to surrounding blocks. Surpirse, surprise.

Mr. Fargus: Don't confuse inability/unwillingness to attend community meetings as tacit approval. I couldn't attend the meeting. Last time, I left work 2 hours early to make it on time only to wait an additional half hour for the meeting to start, and for most community comments to be ignored.

I don't want to lose wages for that again. In all honesty, after attending the last meeting, I simply see these sessions with my community leaders and politicans as two hours of my life that I'll never get back. The Police and Ald. Moore didn't seem interested in community involvement at all. It seemed like they had a solution already in place before the meeting even started.

I got the impression at the last meeting that Ald. Moore and the police were going to handle things in their own manner behind closed doors without community involvement (outside of us calling 911 and getting detailed descriptions of wrong-doers).

If you sincerely think that many neighbors aren't showing up because they feel things are so much better that they don't need to attend, Ald. Moore and various other officials are going to be seriously surprised come the next election. We all talk about what's going on in the neighborhood. It's not just on this thread. It's at the mercado, while walking our dogs, at the Heartland Cafe, and lots of other places. Many people are pissed off and ready for a change.

Why? I'm not Karl Rove or James Carville, but Ald. Moore would do well to focus on issues in his own ward for awhile and less on Wal-mart, Iraq, Time Magazine, attacking Daley, proposing bills he knows don't stand a chance of passing for political gain (that's a time-tested favorite among politicans in the Caribbean), and focusing on national issues. This rubs people in his own ward the wrong way, especially when we walk aong trash strewn streets, past empty baggies of crack cocaine, to one of the handful of businesses that are struggling to stay in business.

Furthermore, I shouldn't have to give a monthly update to my Alderman, community leaders, and police officials giving descriptions of drug dealers or explaining that the crime has moved a block west, south, etc. and that they still need to do more work.

Let me tell you what happened in the last month or so: Mr. Block and Mr. Medina made a good-faith effort to move these problems off their property -- to mixed results. When said troublemakers moved off the property, they moved to the corners and other areas. If the Police would have attended the meeting, or paid closer attention, they could have seen these people committing crimes in more prominant areas. Instead, they now operate in these areas, and move back to said properties when the police patrol these corners and parks. So, the problems still exist.

If my officials have time to talk to the national and local media about issues not directly related to the problems in my neighborhood, they should have time to devote to their own wards. I don't mind the media publicity and statements. It's good to get your name out there. However, it's eclipsing the problems in Rogers Park. Additionally, I find it funny that Moore could attack Daley given the state of our ward. Moore seems like a good guy, and I hope he decides to roll-up his sleaves and really work with the community on improving crime, bringing in new businesses, and finding a way to bring real estate development to RP without gentrification.

Thanks for the work done so far, but there is a great deal that SHOULD have already been done that isn't. If I were you, I'd spend less time patroling the internet responding to angry citizens, and more time making simple phone calls to root out the SAME dealers operating in the SAME areas with impunity.

This is NOT a complicated issue. You can put up all the lights you want, hold all the community meetings you want, the fact remains:

If you don't dismantle the open air markets, they will continue to operate with impunity.

If you continue to bust them in the same places, they will eventually move elsewhere, or go out of business because said "employees" are in jail. These guys are not stupid. They are not going to set-up in areas where they are going to get shut down on a regular basis.

If Ald. Moore et. all can "evict" the majority of drug dealers from Rogers Park come election time, I'll vote for him. Hell, I'll endorse him. If he continues at the clip he's at, I'll vote for whoever runs against him -- Karl Rove or whomever.

dan

morseville said...

Ditto, Dan!

Pamela said...

Dan2 notes that other crime stopping measures won't be effective against the drug trade in Rogers Park until the open air markets are shut down. I don't disagree but if you really want to pull the weed out by its roots then you have to go after the gangs and make it unpleasant and uncomfortable for them to operate in any capacity in Rogers Park. Who do you think owns the drug trade? The gangs. The only reason gangs want members is to have "employees" (in various positions from spotters to soldiers, etc.) so that they can ply their profitable enterprise of selling drugs. As we saw with the killing of Alex Vernon on 8/7 and the "community" reaction, the gangs run Rogers Park. In a weird way I find myself impressed by their ability to obsfucate and get everyone from the Alderman's office to the Sun-Times and the Chicago Trib to deny they even exist. Clearly they have taken a page out of legit politicos' pockets and have mastered the art of spin and deniability.

I understand there was another shooting on Howard last night. But I'm sure it had nothing to do with drugs or gangs. Not in this 'hood!

Hugh said...

Accountability

Call O'Neil and ask him to please step down.

Call the Alderman and ask for a new beat facilitator.

Beat 2431 needs a CAPS facilitator on this beat without a documented track record of back-room deals with real estate developers.

Beat 2413 needs a beat facilitator who is not also the chairman of the Alderman's committee to promote real estate development.

Beat 2431 needs a beat facilitator who is not also the chairman of DevCorp North's Publicity and Public Relations committee.

Too many hats.

dan2 said...

Michael C - If after reading all the comments in this thread you are still focusing on the notes, than you simply prove my point of why the politicians and police are so ineffective and unwilling to listen. comments like that give me the impression that they just don't care, or can't see past their own tadwry goals.

In my opinion, this is the same type of response we get to our complaints. After all that has been said in the above messages, the notes from the meeting are still more important than our friends being beaten, people being shot, the effectiveness of these meetings in the first place, and the police patrols on Morse and Lunt Aves., right?

I forgot, since the notes are the "official record" of the meeting, those are more important. That's what everyone will read online when the meeting is over. So, the impressions people will be left with are clearly more important.

Granted, the notes were the start of the conversation in this thread. If you read closely, you'll see it's about much more than that.

Please read this thread again and give me your impressions about our comments about the crime, the lack of business, and the effectiveness -- or lack thereof -- of these CAPS and community meetings.

Furthermore, tell me what you think the largest barrier to solving the crime problem, and lack of business is? I'm rather curious. In my view, I am starting to see this blog take an interesting turn...we're starting to talk about how to tackle these problems on our own through obtaining security tapes, etc. It's not just a forum for complaining about our leaders anymore.

If I were Mr. Fargus, I would take note of this (no pun intended).

'Broken Heart' Past Blogs