It's been too long, huh? One whole week. Did everyone miss me?
Is everyone hungry for new "Broken Hearted" Hell Hole stories?
Well not today. Here is a couple of repeats.
By now you all know about the big drug bust Alderman Moore organized around Howard Street. Kind of like the drug sting on Morse Avenue.
You all know he single-handedly got the police to install a Pod camera. But he's a tip Alderman Moore. When you send out the new press release, please do not credit the wrong agency this time. You look like a real boob when you do such dumb stuff like that.
Here is a story that hasn't changed in one year.
DevCorp North has collected good money to make economic change. They just haven't done anything. Forgive me if I am being so cynical. Walk down Morse Avenue this holiday season and see if there is anything different from shopping on Morse Avenue last holiday season.
The only change, Morse Avenue added another dollar store!
How many of you will be spending money in Rogers Park for gifts this holiday season?
30 comments:
Welcome back Craig- it was a little too quiet in the blogosphere without you!
I did buy a centerpiece for T-giving at the Morse Flower Shop, but I think I'll skip the Dollar Stores for x-mas gifts.
Last night around 5pm we left to take the train to Lakeview to go see some theater and saw a few of the usual suspects at the train station: one guy whose photo I've seen on your blog- bike riding drug dealer type and then we saw poor "Scottie" pan handling and drunk. He's one of those homeless people who was sleeping in the park all summer. Anyone know him?
OH Boy!
James, I'd like to hear about the carjacking in front of the Morseland when you hae time.
Not only is it unlikely that RP will benefit from any of my holiday shopping, but Chicago is unlikely to get much of the way in sales tax dollars either since the tax is now about the highest in the nation and I can save boatloads by leaving town or hopping online. Further, RP won't get much in the way of the dollars I'll be spending on holiday dining or drinking either. No need to elaborate on dining options here. As for packaged liquor, I don't know about the rest of you but I buy wine and beer to drink at home; unfortunately there are effectively no shops that sell the kind of wine or beer I like to drink so Evanston will get those dollars too. Chicago will get a few cents when I make the annual pilgrimmage to Sam's.
James said to Just the meaningless facts......> "One of the things that happens before elections, any elections is people start talking about how great things are, even if, and especially if they are not. I thought you were doing that. I checked your other posts, and you do defend Devcorp often.
See James, this is what DevCorp North is great at, getting closet posters to come on a toot a few meaningless facts for the worthless Ms. Bares and company because she doesn't have the spine to do it herself.
If Ms. Bares did her job "half ass" instead of doing her job ""piss poor", I wouldn't be so hard on her.
>I'm just a little tired of Craig getting away with his constant slams on DevCorp.
What do you mean, get away with? Craig is not slipping anything past his editor, he doesn't have one. There's no blog truth police, unless you are appointing yourself, are you? Do you ever worry about giving Craig to much credence? Unless you are worried he has might have some substance behind his posts. How could a dumb guy with a computer besmirch a wonderful organization like DevCorp North? Why are you so worried? Why do you feel compelled to defend DevCorp North? What's it to you?
>They used facade rebate money, and the only way to get that is through
>a city delegate agency like DevCorp North.
Oooo! A new façade! All righty then. All is forgiven.
The Façade Rebate Program is a program of the City of Chicago. No DevCorp North money was used. DevCorp North kept application forms on file and gave one to the owners of the building and maybe helped them fill out the form. Woo hoo.
For the hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars DevCorp North makes disappear every year, this is the most expensive façade remodelling of a storefront in history.
>Ten of Craig's last 15 posts have been about DevCorp.
You posted 11 points and the best you could came up with was to take credit for a façade remodelling partially paid for by the taxpayers of the City of Chicago and partially paid for by the owner?
>Rogers Park Florist ...
>participated in Devcorp North's Windows Project.
You stuck some stuff up in a storefront window?
>Duke's Sports Bar on Glenwood ...
>DevCorp North had one of its networking events there
You had a meeting in a bar?
Don't you feel just a little silly?
> ... it's necessary to provide Just the Facts occasionally.
>I checked your other posts, and you do defend Devcorp often. I don't
>want to discourage that. I assume you have some connection to them,
>perhaps you are an employee.
How about posting just a few facts in this area?
Do you any dea how silly you sound when someone like Craig posts questioning DevCorp North's effectiveness at economic development and you come back with the "DevCorp North Windows Project?"
Just for the record, when you refer to the Morse Streetscape, could you please be more specific about whether you are refering to the 1992 Morse streetscape plan or the 1994 Morse streetscape plan or the 2005 Morse streetscape plan? Thank you.
>I did another quick Google search on them and came up with this:
>Bright new look for Rogers Park Florist on Morse Ave.
>Turns out that they participated in Devcorp North's Windows Project.
>Google is a good friend to Just the Facts, Ma'am.
Your Google seems to be stuck on DevCorp North.
DevCorp North is the answer to all your queries. You should have someone look into that.
As for that DevCorp North Windows project...although a partnership like this is interesting in theory, and it appears that the time and materials for the project were donated...I don't really think it is much to write home about, much less point to as an example of great urban renewal. It's just feel goodism, without any real vision behind it. Look at the details of the project. The SAIC students involved were real novices...the class that dealt with the "real world" of the Morse ave. streetscape was "Intro to Interior Architecture". As a veteran of two visual arts degrees, I can tell you that this is hardly the kind of project these little nippers should be cutting their teeth on...and the results? Hardly the kind of thing that will win any design awards...it won't even make it into the kids portfolios, at least not if they intend on getting hired as professional designers after they graduate. I guess the best you can say about it is "well, they got a fresh coat of paint and took all that clutter out of the windows"...which is nice for the individual store owners, but really is it anything to crow about? I think not.
The other thing that I found a bit annoying was that the stores that were "helped" by the project were hardly the most distressing visually. I mean, it's fine for the kids to want to do the nice flower store instead of the horrid skeevy dollar store, but if I were the design teacher on that project, I would have made them at least TRY to do a dollar store...it could have been a lot more interesting.
Anyway, I'm not trying to take pot shots at the flower store...I'm glad they got a fresh new paint job. But to trumpet about it in a local newsletter like it just won the Pritzger prize is a bit sad. Next time, either ratchet up the ambition of the project (at least invite grad students...) or tone down the hype.
BTW - the headline story for the newsletter that featured the story about the Morse Windows project was "Morse Avenue Teeming with Development". That's right - TEEMING! And yet you wonder why we occasionally raise our eyebrow at DevCorps assessment of it's own contribution to the community...
Just the fact maam said.....>"So Craig made not just one but TWO posts criticizing Moore for getting his facts wrong when in fact it was Craig who got it wrong in the first place. "
The photo shows it's the Dept. of Emergency Communications.
The truth of a photograph. Just the facts.
I did some shopping at Marshalls and Gamestop at Gateway. I noticed that Atheletes Foot is now on Howard. I looked at the newer Dollar Stores and noticed the new laundramat in the Walgreens Mall to the south of the Chinese buffet.
I also noticed the CVS, but all it does is compete with Walgreens. Gold Coast Dogs has been established, among other fast food joints that I will spend dollars on.
I also noticed that P&S at Western&Touhy is now open on Sundays. It is a better option than Bakers Square, IMHO.
Of course, the Candlelite has been open with 2for1 pizzas on Tuesdays, as if all of the pessimists were paying any attention to expanding eating options.
I could continue, but I suppose that the moss is always growing greener under someone else's sump pump unless any of us are willing to look around a bit. Heartland made it on PBS' Check Please.
We, those pessimists, and a few of us bumbling optimists, could push for tenants at the Howard Street Terminal. All of us could be sending e-mail to those stores' URLs that we want to encourage into the Terminal's empty space. We can encourage vendors that are looking for that second location. We can push the mall to get real and provide legitimate incentives to fill all of that empty space.
If enough of us provided e-mail addresses and URLs along with contact numbers for the mall's operators, we can encourage more interest and more shopping options. It seems too simply, but demand can bring supply. It is called "pull."
I purchased a used Gameboy from Gamestop for my daughter and a used game cartridge, Barbie Secret Agent that she played all the way to Charlottesville, VA. Actually, we purchased more goods in RP, then in VA. We spent more on food and tours, though.
Some of us can look to booster or bolster without creating a Kiwanis, Mason, or Rotary Club. However, turnkey organizations make it easier, not necessarily effective.
FWIW.
>I got an email last week from Kevin O'Neil that said index crime in Beat 2431 (which includes Morse) was down almost 23% year-to-date compared to the same period last year.
Could you please be more specific?
Was the e-mail from Kevin O'Neil, the CAPS Beat Facilitator?
Or was it from Kevin O'Neil, DevCorp North member?
Or Kevin O'Neil, member of the Board of Directors of DevCorp North?
Or Kevin O'Neil, Secretary of the Board of Directors of DevCorp North?
Or Kevin O'Neil, Chairman of DevCorp North's Publicity and Public Relations Committee?
Or Kevin O'Neil, Chairman of DevCorp North's standing committee to promote real estate development?
> ... the old-fashioned way -- through research
Where did you learn to do research? From Dan Butts?
Rule number 1 in research is to know your sources. If you are not aware of your sources, subtle biases may creep into your conclusions.
Anyway, why don't you ask Kevin O'Neil to make his own posts, under his own name? Crime is down! You'd think he would want to shout it from the rooftops. What are you, his stooge?
Why don't you demonstrate your commitment to facts and post the data that supports the 23%? Why does Citizen ICAM only keep the last 90 days of crime data? Is that so pols and their flunkies cannot be held accountable? If you want to brag on the numbers, don't you have an obligation to provide the underlying data? Did the 23% come from some kind of for-beat-facilitator-eyes-only report?
everyone can come and spend their holiday monies at the eidolon art opening on december 10. keep the money in the 'hood!
Just the Spin, Maam,
What great news! Crime is down! Why don't you ask your friend Kevin O'Neil to post under his own name?
> ... year-to-date compared to the same period last year.
> ... (through October)
This is the same cheap statistical trick DevCorp North tried last year: throw out the 3rd quarter. This selectivity about which months to include in the report, and which to exclude, is not justified when the underlying data is known to have seasonal trends, like crime data. Since Q4 2005 data is not available, the more valid approach is to compare October-through-September periods, but this was not done. The effect is to dilute the crime. Every year the holidays see a sharp spike in crime on our neighborhoods, as the consumer-orientation of our society puts increasing pressure on people and more of our neighbors are out and about spending and returning home from their parked cars or from the trains. The same holidays that bring out the most generous side in most of us brings out the worst in the criminal element. More car trunks and car windows are smashed, more purses are snatched, more muggings.
>Here are details behind those numbers
These are not details. These are more summary statisitics. Details would be sharing the crime data.
Why does Citizen ICAM only keep the last 90 days of crime data? Is that so pols and their apologists like yourself and Kevin O'Neil cannot be held accountable? If you want to brag on the numbers, don't you have an obligation to provide the underlying data?
Are you some kind of PR specialist? If you want to get your safety information from the Secretary of the Board of Directors of DevCorp North or the Chairman of DevCorp North's Publicity and Public Relations Committee or the Chairman of DevCorp North's standing committee to promote real estate development, go ahead, just don't call yourself a researcher.
>He doesn't say where he got his stats, but there's so much detail he must have gotten them from the 24th District coppers.
Are you speculating here? What happened to "just the facts"?
Why don't you ask Kevin where he got them? What happened to "good old-fashioned research"?
In your methodology, a homicide or sexual assault has the same weight as an auto theft?
Just the Facts, you don't lend credibility to your position when you quote from what appears to be a press release that uses aggregate stats rather than actual data...if there is a source easily accessible to the public to get the full annual data set, I am not aware of it. Hugh is right about ICAM - I find it very disturbing that you can only get the last few months of data at any given point. I suppose if one were really vigilant, one could amass a years worth of data by visiting the site all the time, and create a spead sheet of one's own. Don't you think it would be better though if ICAM could give us a year end tally that would compare any combinition of beats you select? Or better yet, a rolling comparison of beats based on the last 12 months worth of data at any given point in time. After all, a few months worth of data really isn't enough to map any meaningful trends, is it? Of course, that assumes that the data on ICAM is accurate to begin with...which the more sceptical among us might have doubts about.
Trends in types of crime matters too, as Hugh pointed out. I could just as easily use the same stats from Kevin's correspondence to write a press release stating that in Beat 2431 homicides increased 200% and sexual assaults increased 25% in the last year. Wouldn't most people see this as a rather inflammatory, even distorted, way of putting it? Well, it works both ways...
I wish they would stop assuming that we are idiots and really give us JUST THE FACTS!
> ... what exactly is the difference between "aggregate stats" and "actual data"?
You don't know, or are you being conveniently slow?
The data is individual incidents of crime. Everything else is summary statistics.
You answered my question, though: the data is reserved for the provileged, not to be trusted to ordinary citizens.
>Homicide and sexual assault are just two components of Index crime
If I were the cops, I would sure want to roll homicides and sexual assaults in with anything I could find.
>Good test here for Moore.
James, you are generous. 14 years is long enough. We need to call time on this test.
>Devcorp has a serious image problem. They need to fix that.
Who is the Chariman of DevCorp North's Publcity and Public Relations Committee?
Morse has a crime problem.
Who is the beat facilitator?
> ... ICAM - I find it very disturbing that you can only get the last few months of data ...
> ... a few months worth of data really isn't enough to map any meaningful trends, is it?
Thanks for the post, mom.
> Of course, that assumes that the data on ICAM is accurate ...
We have seen several examples of crimes we all know about, from observation or from the papers, that never show up on Citizen ICAM. But we can work on that later. Right now, we need a real MULTI-YEAR database of crime data, so we can keep our Police, our politicians, and their flunkies accountable when they boast on the numbers.
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