If you have ever been by the Alderman's office, I'm sure you have seen the promotion. If not, here it is. It's been rammed down our throat. Now it's litter on the ground like the old, washed up, posters from Alderman Moore.
Rogers Park Respect. A anti-litter campaign.Three word of hype. That's what it should be called. What we have here is another example of waste and mismanagement!
This is what's called "the first phase." We don't need two more phases of this mess. That's what the litter says. Three phases. This is just another way to make money selling t-shirts. What a scam!
What we have here is DevCorp North, who already is stealing the taxpayers money for cleaning services, looking to recruit volunteers. They are asking us to sign a pledge form?
Asking for volunteers to help. Help what? Help litter? Nevermind the fact we need volunteers for many other pressing issues and worthy causes like the Red Cross and Hurricane Katrina. What really stinks is DevCorp North, who claims being for cleanliness, and all the while, littering the neighborhood themselves.
Look at this litter. How hypocritical. Rogers Park Respect....No Respect at all.
I say Sandi Price from DevCorp North, come out and clean up your mess, your name is on it.
10 comments:
I got an e-mail from Jake More of the Roger's Park No-Respect, litter group. He owned up to the mess and promised to clean it up. Jake also gave me an ear-full when I questioned his scam.
Jake claims 100% of the profits on t-shirt('s,) bumper sticker('s), button'(s) and hat money goes back into the program.
Jake added, " I would appreciate your not question my integrity on this."
Sorry Jake, with a last name like More, I do.
The litter poster/t-shirt program is simply absurd. A poster never made anyone do much of anything. Hell, even someone who I've heard is considering running for alderman next go round hasn't been spotted by yours truly picking up trash in his parkway. That said, Joe did get a lot of votes in the early years because folks saw him picking up trash around the Newgard area. Apparently there are those who think that if we keep reminding people nicely, they'll oblige -- or it will lead to higher office.
Meanwhile, tomorrow Joe is sponsoring two public hearings before the Chicago City Council -- one to ban the sale of foie gras -- a burning issue for Rogers Park residents. The other hearing is to demand the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. That's our Joey-boy, making local change happen. We can only pray that his brave efforts to protect geese from evil French chefs and to protect Iraqis from evil U.S. military men and women will get the attention of the national DNC so that they might find better use for him in our nation's capitol.
I think the harsh criticism on the program is overblown. This guy Jake got fed up with the litter and filth that is all over RP. He got so frustrated that he decided to do something about it.
Craig started the hellhole, which does get results. Jake decided to go a different route and try to work WITH the businesses of RP. If his program is adopted, and businesses take care of their own storefronts, it will help improve RP.
In fact, if all businesses did this, it would eliminate much of the need for the SSA's.
Jake is a member of OUR community who is trying to do something to help. If he is successful, others may follow in similar efforts. If he is called out as a villain of the community, his efforts will fail, and others may be dissuaded from starting other initiatives to help RP.
Every single day I pick up the litter in the 1/2 block area on my street- usually twice a day. I propose that if everyone did this, we'd have alot less litter and lack of litter sends a subliminal message to people that littering isn't acceptable.
Now there will always be some rebels of course, but lack of litter is a deterrant. If you see litter everywhere, what's one more piece of trash?
The problem is that many people litter because they don't care and/or can't be bothered to find a trash can. My block is the beneficiary of Field school students' litter. We pick it up virtually every day so that our block is litter free. Until school is out the next day and the litterbugs and their trash returns (if anyone cares, this week they are drinking Red Bull Energy drink).
No anti-litter campaign will make these people not litter. The only kind of campaign that will have an impact is one that encourages home owners and businesses to take care of "their block" to make for less litter and maybe discourage some from littering (if we can get one kid not to litter we will have saved one child!). A campaign urging residents and businesses to clean up to help maintain the community (read: protect their property values) might have some impact. Maybe those posters and flyers could be turned into an information sheet to put in peoples' mail boxes.
Jake,
If you sign this promise to keep the streets clean ( and actually do it ), you will stay Broken Heart Free.
This is a pledge of sorts, no paperwork. Peace Dude, thanks for joining in.
Hello Jake,
I would like to learn more about your program, Rogers Park: Respect.
Is your program for-profit or not-for-profit?
Is it a program of DevCorp North, or is it a separate registered Illinois not-for-profit?
I notice DevCorp North's logo on the flyers. Who paid for the printing of the flyers? What did it cost?
Will your expenses and revenue (for example, from T-shirt sales) be reported as part of DevCorp North's financial disclosures or will it be reported elsewhere?
Does Rogers Park: Respect have a board?
Does Rogers Park: Respect have any paid staff?
Thank you in advance for your reply.
I had the chance to view Jake's posters at the Howard Street L hub. It is pretty appropriate given the chewing gum splotches that blacken the pavement. I wonder if Charles over at rp.com will ever appreciate the advantage of exposing this information. I think that Moore should have a chance to post.
To censor is really innappropriate unless the content is mean spirited and/or vulgar. However, this is Craig's blog, so he is the one who makes the final call.
Some claim that angry youth are somehow littering as some sort of political statement; I mean, how lame! What an excuse. This is laziness, possibly as a result of observing family members or those who they think should be respected; that is all. They are not sophisticated enough to come up with the boneheaded excuse, I am littering to lower property values.
Litter not only stinks, but is a blight. It creates attitudes like Craigs. I don't know that Jake's t-shirt is catchy enough to get me to both buy and wear the shirt, but it is a concept. Jake, just needs to come up with a new and more catchy slogan and design after he somehow manages to sell his inventory. I am sure that there are quite a few artists that might have helped Jake to get a more marketable item.
I mean, "Pitch In," lasted until it was overused. "Give a Hoot," well, it has aged a bit. The Native American on Horseback; that left images. The shoes, broom and can looks too European for Rogers Park. I dunno.
Someone with a sense of humor, who likes their job at Streets and San, who works in the area willing to pose, "may" have made a great poster child. Perhaps, no one wants to pose, so a characature of some typical S&S worker. "Pitch it!" Maybe, but the idea of linking clean up to RP is missing in those two words.
Jake deserves quite a bit more credit, even if the pdf pledge was a bit too gooey for some of our tastes. I think we all have sometimes looked back at our notes and said, what was I thinking?
Kids are just going to make fun of this sort of thing, where they even bother to notice it. A few kindergarteners and first graders? Maybe. If you want to get someones attention, then you have got to find the right place to run 'the right' rap session focus group and see what some kids who care come up with; if they exist and actually want to admit it. Of course, you would likely have to pay kids to sit in on that one and feed them some decent food over at the Heartland or a more popular stop.
I hope that Jake sticks with the idea and comes up with something that all of us will eventually respect.
The idea that kids are somehow political about their littering just totally makes me think of an acquaintance or two from the late seventies, who lived off Touhy and Sheridan. They were a bit more mature, when they came up with that strategy. I don't think that it did much other than to depress others. Frankly, there are too many snobs who have to live up north to realize the advantages of living here. With the varying income brackets, no one is going to truly mess up our neighborhood. More change is good.
A little clean up and development is not going to chase out those who want to stay, no matter what their complexion looks like.
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