The flowers and the planters. The Morse Avenue streetscape meeting focused a lot about this last night. Ask yourself, if these were your planters, would you be proud of them? Now remember, if you pay into the SSA #24, you are foolish paying for them to be maintained this way, yesterday, today and tomorrow.
The DevCorp North maintained planter last year in 2004. Filled with snow and garbage.....
....Here is the same DevCorp North maintained planter today. November 2005
Here's the story. Who cares for the planters? Well, the answer from CDOT's Ms. Gomez was, "it is DevCorp North and the SSA."
Really? Here is an old mystery that never got solved. This story was called, "SSA #24-Not at Work-Part 2, Multi-Purpose Waste Containers Go Un-Attended for Days"! Story circa January 10, 2005. Well folks, just look how well DevCorp North with Kimberly Bares at the helm took care of the planters with-in the Morse/Glenwood/Clark Special Service Area tax.
Not too good huh? The poor plastic tree started to wilt. Only under DevCorp North and Kimbery Bares can a plastic tree wilt. Ms. Bares and her team of horticulture specialists need some gardening lessons.
But what is the most embarrassing is they got PAID to take care of these these plastic trees. Somehow duping the SSA commissioners and taxpayers in 2004-05, DevCorp North budgeted in $12,000 dollars in SSA tax money for landscaping. To take care of these 4 plastic trees in 4 planters.
Another $17,000 was budgeted in furniture and banners. But we have no benches and banners on Morse/Glenwood or Clark, much less to take care of them?
Check it out, it's on the 2004-05 budget, take a look.
As you can see in the photos taken last year and this year, well this is what you paid for, NOTHING! Oh, sorry, I would hate for them to remind me, they bought wood chips.
No plants were planted in 2004 or 2005 on Morse/Clark or Glenwood. One fallen planter this year was pick up after I reported the crash.
So did the taxpayers get their #29,000 dollars worth of beautification in 2004-2005 out of the SSA #24 budget? The taxpayers were budgeted to receive these services.
How are we going to trust these foodstamp paid janitors to maintain a expensive $3.7 million dollar pork barrel streetscape project under DevCorp North & Ms. Bares when they can't handle 4 plastic trees they care for now?
16 comments:
Once again........as always Craig blames DevCorp for the litter on Morse. Including Hell Hole flyers?
Craig my dear. Do us all a favor. Stand around on Morse Ave and focus your little camera on the planters. TAKE PICTURES of people littlering!
Print those pictures and post them all over Morse Ave for all to see! Especially those who are doing the littering!
Sure you will be adding to the litter problem........oh wait you don't really have any issues with littering do you?
Well never you mind.......
This seems less a failure of DevCorp and more of dirtbags in the neighborhood who trash everything. The people who fill planters with trash, rip out the flowers, tag everything, crap in the alley, and follow my wife and shou obscenities are to blame not the people who tried to make it look nice.
>But we have no benches
We need more benches.
just a little promotional assist.
there are going to be critics of every move made in this entire process. i've stopped to pick up trash, and it doesn't help. the entire area is in a massive state of disrepair.
both sides can argue until they turn blue. what can't be denied is that the stop is in extremely poor condition and needs help. i'm not sure what the answer is, but until someone comes up with it, i figure making people aware is a good place to start.
good luck in the venture, i'll be keeping an eye out.
If I were to make a top 10 list of the most depressing things I come across on a daily basis- those planters would be high on the list.
10. Pathetic planters
9. Litter in front of my house
8. Litter around the corner
7. Overflowing garbage cans on Morse filled with lazy people's personal trash
6. The same loiterers walking around like they own the street
5. The lackluster new businesses on Morse
4. Unbelievable amount of litter on Morse.
3. Jeff O (I am kidding- really)
2. Drug dealing and scouts all about
and the number one most depressing thing? I'll leave that for you guys.
Lt. Dangle, I have some reasonable issues. The police need to do a reasonable job, when confronted with responsibilities. Yes, I understand priorities, but listening to Craig nag is part of your job. Post your number and I will be civil about it. I promise not to nag; just the facts, man.
It is beyond pathetic that Chicago is paying DevCorp to maintain plastic plants! The wilting plastic pine spring just totally cracked me up. Who are these people and why can't they think about it?
Craig's comments are both useful and humorous, but I want to know; Craig, did you leave the garbage in the planter or did you pitch it in the trash after the swift photo op?
If there is garbage or some retarded low life idiot decides to leave his umbrella in the planter, does anyone make the effort to clean it up? I mean, do you just marvel, stare and blame Streets and San? If you clean it up, then you will be noticed. Others may find it communally addicting or surprising, as well.
I admit, that I don't always have the hands to do other's work, but if everyone on this listserve did what I did, then the surroundings would improve. Also, those who throw trash might think twice.
If you see someone throw trash on the ground, then what does it take to give them an indignant look. Guts? If they reply, then you just got their attention. You don't have to respond, ignore them. Just make them think, twice. If you see them, again, give them the same indignant look. If they get enough looks from enough people, then they may eventually think twice about throwing trash. It is called "peer pressure." Just a common sense suggestion.
My son refers to those who pitch crap on the ground as "litter pigs." I am not referring to peace officers, who are allegedly overwhelmed with law enforcement and lost pens. Frankly, there are a few too afraid or lazy to pull out a citation form or stock pens. I mean, what will OPS think about issuing a few citation in Rogers Park? OPS is not exactly lions and tigers and bears over there!
Litter pigs who violate our ordinances deserve a little visual harassment, but regrettably the police rarely feel obligated to issue citations against them. Just too many violators, I guess, so less encourage more! [oops, sarcasm]. An officer can issue a citation with grace. I appreciate that not all will be paid up, but it may surprise some.
Officer Dangle, if you are really an officer of the peace, and the CAPs rep, then encourage the Commander to get officers to walk the beat and issue citations for littering. Haul some in for pissing on the Howard Street station in the morning. You have the law, use it!
Can't we get/use a law/ordinance that will treat repeated offenders who have disrespect with more severe consequences? I thought we had some laws on the books! Burkett is proposing laws like it is going out of style in DuPage County. What is stopping Devine or the Corp Counsel's office? The ACLU? Is littering a form of protected expression?
Yes, it takes time to draft legislation, but just a few citations and the hauling in of a few offenders might make them think twice and create some peace on this blog. Make them do community service and issue warrants to repremand them for BFWs.
Discretion, discretion, discretion. Doesn't an officer who does not use the tools of his trade to maintain the peace overlook his duty to serve and protect? Most of us believe that the OPS is a near total farst. No one wants to make a big deal over spilled litter except for residents who are turned off by it, so what are the risks of ignoring it? Maybe someone will actually think about the laws that are on the books.
Well, the alternative risks to avoiding enforcement are that you are repeatedly disrespected by people like Craig, who just want to live in a reasonably orderly environment, not a sterilized one. Craig's righteous indignation is not all bad. We know that we are not going to stop the trash, overnight, but a few citations to ignorant parents or kids may wake some of the dead.
We are not nagging. We are asking that the laws be upheld. Issue citations under the law or ordinances. Surprise a few kids and their parents into doing the right thing.
There are resources to teach respect. The internet is full of PSAs on cleaning up communities. The bottom line is that if we fine or inform those who disrupt, then they may look over their shoulder, but it has to be consistent policing. It also requires some of us restless natives to use a bit of street theater on those who need our attention. It cannot come from one disgruntled individual.
What ever happened to police who walk the beat? Does it actually happen? Are peace officers connecting with the community? They could issue warnings or use their wit, but who is really finding out how the neighborhood ticks?
I hope that someone appreciates that Craig's post was extremely amusing. However, it illustrates a point; we cannot depend upon DevCorp. We have to depend upon ourselves. Furthermore, if DevCorp is getting paid, then trash should not sit in a planter for more than 16 hours and their hired hands cannot repetitively lolly around. Craig is not the only one who has seen these guys ignore community service or their paid responsibilities.
Until Kevin Cosgrove and his staff get serious, not sarcastic, and find a way to attract those who are motivated into being attentive neighbors, we are not going to solve much. Pointing out challenges is a start, but cleaning up and pointing out waste is certainly important.
We know that DevCorp cannot be around 24/7 to pick up the trash in all the remote corners of Rogers Park. Nor can it unwilt every plastic plant at all hours of the day. However, if the situation is obvious, then we notice whether 'DevCorpse' TM pending, likes it or not. If we see it, off hours, we should do something about our concerns other than bitch and moan that we are not paid, so we should not lift our pinky finger, but only bum out.
Likewise, if Craig finds some worker asleep at the switch, then those who are being paid to manage the function should wake up! How long, yes, I said, how lonnng will this B*** S**** go on?
As long as there are neighbors who want to blame Craig for what he sees, rather than to pitch in as well as call a spade a spade and a heart, a heart, the situation will remain status quo and Craig's listserve will show glistening examples.
Craig, you can pull out some more hearts from the deck. You are not kissing a** when you point out the good with the bad. I have seen you do it. Not all of us suffer from arterial bleeding and few of us see quite a few improvements, but still some work to be done. There can be attitude adjustment, but thate requires a change in the present state of mind.
Calling Craig a dweeb is not going to solve the challenge that Craig is setting out.
A few light weights may not be able to take the skeptical nature of this blog. I mean, I see trash thrown in the more exclusive areas of the North Shore, as well. It is just that we don't have the landscapers to manicure our streets two to three times a week, nor the mindset, yet, at Streets and San, to get the deadbeats off the crew.
You don't have to be rich to want the trash off the lawns and streets. A few Kenilworthians go outside and pick up the beer cans off the neighbor's lawn. If they don't see it, yet, maybe a few of us can do them a favor. You may actually get some exercise cleaning up the neighborhood, among other things.
There are a few of us who clean up the grafiti without being paid servants of the City of Chicago, as well. We may not go out at 2pm in the afternoon, but we are discreet. Occasionally a few neighbors, who care, notice in shock and disbelief. That is the amusing part.
>What is it that they do, exactly?
>Part of what DevCorp is doing is providing jobs for people
depending on what you mean by job
isn't that what Wal-Mart does?
SSA worker is no job, it's indentured servitude
Alderman Dorothy Tillman should investigate DevCorp North
Margot,
Thanks for the info. Makes it sound like a CTA problem then.
Sherlock Holmes came to the conclusion.....>"Makes it sound like a CTA problem then.
You need to know where the problem is so you can fix it. I sent a letter to the CTA about the lack of trash cans and hope to get a response. Maybe if more people did the same something will get done.
Craig said > Sherlock Holmes came to the conclusion.
Craig - we all know what an incredible intellectual powerhouse you are...therefore, you should have nothing to prove to pipsqueaks like us! In future, please refrain from squashing us like flies.
Lafew: sorry, but....
"I hope that someone appreciates that Craig's post was extremely amusing"
*Oh right- Craig's posts are never amusing- you're the only one with a sense of humour...
"but if everyone on this listserve did what I did, then the surroundings would improve."
*I bet almost every person who posts on this blog also picks up litter. I know several who do including myself.
Thomas- wipe your chin please ;)
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