Un-edited Rebuttal From The Owner
Craig,
I am not interested
in bashing you (but thanks for the invitation, can I take
a rain check?). I am disappointed in the story
you wrote though. I’d like to see a more appropriate story about what occurred last week at 1344 W Lunt.
I would expect an investigative reporter with good intentions to do more
homework before writing this kind of story. Shouldn’t you have attempted to
interview a LAMS representative before writing this story? Having that point
of view would have undoubtedly
made for a stronger story, wouldn’t it? My
guess is that your readers kind of assume you’ve done
your homework before
you go after someone. Given
the strength of the comments I’ve read from your
readers, maybe it is better to say they would demand that of you. They
certainly would demand the same level of performance from you as from the
people targeted in your blog commentaries, wouldn’t they?
This story completely missed the reason we put the board up over the broken
window. We were vandalized!
[attached picture goes here]
Someone committed a crime against our building. This occurred
on Christmas night, some time between 5-9PM. We do not know who did it or why. Even
though most of our employees were on vacation, we came in and took out the
old window, measured it for replacement and ordered a new piece of safety
glass. Then we scheduled the installation of the glass with the
supplier for first thing Monday morning. Should
it have been done faster? The week
between Christmas and New Years is not the best time to get fast response
times. I’d say our performance was pretty good.
We put in a plywood board because it is one of the best temporary fillers for
the space in a door that would otherwise have glass. It is solid and secure
and easy to install and take down. And it is almost always on hand, and it
is relatively inexpensive. Not
a good long term answer. A good short term
answer.
As for the note that was left on the door, “For Wu Tang-Holla for Wu Tang!
Our bza dont work!" you seem to have a strong reaction to it. It was not a
note written and endorsed by LAMS. I have serious doubts about whether it
was one of our tenants. Furthermore, from
the best information I can gather it was removed from the property by one of our people within an hour, and no
one tried to put up another one. It is our policy to remove unsolicited
notes from the outside our properties.
But, what if it was one of our tenants? Don’t they have at least the same
rights to put up a sign on the building they live in and pay rent
for as you do to tape your morsehellhole flyers on buildings all over the
neighborhood
without the
permission of the tenants or the management? There may be people
who find yours as objectionable as you found the note for Wu. Personally, I
think that note was not good for the property either, but that isn’t the
point.
As for the buzzer not working, we were aware of this problem and had been
working on it for days at the time of your story. We had already had the SBC
guys in and the intercom manufacturer in to look it over. The problem took a
while for the professionals to figure out
but we were working to get the job
done. Isn’t that as good a performance as can be reasonably expected from
any good management company? By the way, we fixed the problem after a second
visit from both the SBC guy and the
intercom guy. Sometimes things are like
that.
In closing, let me thank you for posting my comments, and allow me bring your
awareness level up a bit, if I may.
The people who manage and maintain and improve these buildings live here in
the neighborhood and they work very hard. They are
your neighbors. Some of
them are your readers. They are the ones you should be fighting FOR, not
raging against! Someone committed a
crime against this building they
maintain. They did not break the window or the intercom. I do not think one
of our tenants did either. Those of us
at LAMS are trying to make a
difference for the better here in RP, just like you. Why not support us?
As for all the other things you threw into the story, I must say they seemed
to be trying to make an assertion that anyone is doomed to failure if DevCorp
writes a nice story about them. I take this from the sentence you emphasized
by using bold lettering; “Once your business
is featured on DevCorp North's
website, the business then quickly falls apart. It's a curse to even be near
DevCorp North.”
Your past writings make it clear that you have distaste for DevCorp. But
maybe you are
letting that get in the way of your real objective, which
I
thought was to be an investigative reporter who accomplishes something
worthwhile by using courage,
intellect, wit and a keyboard.
Improving RP is a goal well worth
achieving. Don’t lose your focus.
Dan Sullivan
LAMS Real Estate Management
Blogmaster notes, photo by LAMS.
18 comments:
One bad photo. Wow, that sure didn't take long to get jeff-o back into the comments sections. Oh, and thanks for reading just the facts. You want propaganda read DevCorp North.
Sally, I got these > in the e-mail but did take them out. That was edited.
Lt. Dick Dangle promised.....>"I owe you one for outting you on the cop blog. "
I think you did enough for me already DICK.
I must say, down in Edgewater at least Hugh's been keeping us entertained with his latest rant about not having enough parking. And you guys have nothing better to get all riled up over than a couple of broken windows. Jeeze.
Why don't you guys at least keep Hugh bizy so he stays off our blog. 'Cuz heza bza' ;}
Tom, If you care to advertise your blog the fee is $300 a month, with a twelve month signed contract. All paid in advance of course.
I will post the web address in the comment section once a day. Otherwise the link will be deleted.
E-mail or call me for payment details.
> there are some blighted areas
> and fixing them is not going to get done
> when those pointing out the problems cause mirth instead of commitment.
No area on Chicago's north side is "blighted."
Life is short. Mirth is good.
Craig's blog has increased committment and engagement and involvement.
Thomas, thanks for your contribution, setting up a "metablog" to decry those who blog instead of doing.
Reading your blog for the first time in awhile. A new thought here:
Now that I've moved out of Rogers Park and when I go back to "visit", I get a much different impression now.
I don't think attacking DevCorp is useful. Rogers Park is a ghetto disguised as anything but. But no matter how you (or they) dress it up, it is a hopeless place. The best thing to do is to run every one out and bulldoze the whole damn area down.
You, my friend, running this blog, you are as in your own personal ghetto as much as anything in Rogers Park. So is DevCorp: they are stuck in their own hopeless business ghetto too.
Rogers Park is the little sister of Robert Taylor area. Anyone can see that. It's there to stay.
Congrats, Craig, 14 months online and your blog is itself a topic of numerous tribute blogs. You know you've made it when other bloggers spring up to blog about your blog.
As if to prove RP problems, a friend who moved to Jarvis area (very close to Alderman Moore's office)last month had their car broken into/window smashed this week. She thinks she's moved to the ghetto. I couldn't resist pointing out that was pretty obvious but didn't she notice that before she signed the sales agreement. Whoops!
Long live RP. It's awesome. But we do have our problems. . .
Thanks for all the comments, folks. And, Dan, thank you for noticing. I'll let my friend know (she was in the yellow car). I think she filed a police report but will double-check.
To the rest of y'all -- I've been in RP since 1991 (exactly 15 yrs. this month) and know all about the crime here vs. other neighborhoods and other cities. Given that I have been mugged in LA, home invaded in Chicago and D.C., car vandalized here, fence torn apart (several times), etc., I'm not a crime virgin. But the best was in D.C. when we woke to find a dead guy in our back yard. Nonetheless, our little hood does suffer a fair bit of ghetto type crime (drug dealing and using, prostitution, gangs, etc.) than many many other Chicago neighborhoods, most parts of NYC, SF, and many other cities. Let's not dismiss crime, regardless of how petty, as "just one of those things." In most parts of the civilized world it's not acceptable nor is it "one of those things." This crime was no doubt undertaken by a drug addict who needed to find something to be able to sell for the drugs he or she wanted to purchase. It is safe to say that said purchase was not going to happen in Evanston or Edgewater or even Uptown but here. This was ultimately a drug crime committed on a young woman with a small child who doesn't really have the money to replace the stolen goods or the window of her car. This crime will cause her and her family hardship. Since when do we poo poo victims? And since when do we start lecturing people on their transportation choices? Geez Paradise. You don't know where this person works, her commute, her routine. But what you should know is that we all ought to be grateful that young families like her are moving to RP. Our community benefits from folks like this. Now you want to tell prospective RP residents they shouldn't have cars? No one would even dream of living here, and half of us would move out.
"Since when do we poo poo victims? "
It's become a fad here by certain armchair judges and juries. Hours are spent disecting and convoluting the truth. One would think the election is next month, not next year.
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