Saturday, August 5, 2006

* CAPS Beat 2431 'First Friday Walk' A Failure

Friday night - 7p.m. The location - 1340 West Morse Avenue: This time I purposely didn't flyer for this CAPS event. This time I purposely didn't post the information on the blog about the CAPS Beat 2431 - first of the month walk. This time six people showed up. CAPS 2431 beat facilitator Kevin O'Neil - Jayne M. Hoffman, the CAPS 2431 minutes note-taker, (she showed by accident, she was getting off work from the EL) - Eve Brownstone a Rogers Park historian - James Ginderske, (I saw him at a coffee shop and informed him a hour earlier) - Cota and myself. Cota is my trusty, four legged friend, she counts. So, instead of walking this month, the small, yet very determined group - positive loitered on the north-east corner of Morse Avenue and Glenwood for 45 minutes. Is this what happens when I don't take charge?

On the other side of the street, in front of Morse Gyros, a half dozen Open Air Drug Market salesman watched us with keen eyes. Under the Morse Pod #19 - blue police camera, four to six panhandlers were openly drinking their booze on the sidewalk.

So, it only took two - 'first Friday of the month walks' before the neighborhood residents had enough of trying to make beat 2431 a safer place with these feel good - neighborhood walks. Is this what happens when I don't take charge?

Blognotes:

To Lady on Farwell and Greenleaf Annie who said this panhandler doesn't drink, well shocking enough, she was seen with a 24 .oz beer can in her hand during this event. The cans contents were seen being poured in her mouth.... by her own hand.

For two months now the Alderman's office promised to have the overhanging branches from the trees trimmed along the North Glenwood area from Morse Avenue to Lunt. The branches block the light from the street lamps causing the area to be dark and unsafe at night. This project has been all but ignored. Safety doesn't seem to be a high priority of Alderman Moore and his staff.
Police @ Block Building


More Block building problems. Here is a picture from 5:30-6:00 PM yesterday (one hour before the CAPS walk) sent to me from a loyal reader. From what he could see, one black male was in hand-cuffs and placed against the Block building fence. There was one ATV officer, two police squad cars on the scene. The ATV was parked on the sidewalk. All the officers were looking over the Block building fence trying to find something.

A night of walking one month ago.

6 comments:

Jocelyn said...

I was not feeling well and had to opt out of this one. I'm sorry more people didn't show, but we'll be back for September.

Someone needs to flyer- it does not have to be Craig- but people need to be reminded and alerted to it. And why is it a bad thing if your blog and flyering makes a difference?

I say we make the September walk one to remember. Maybe I'll do the flyers this time!

Pamela said...

Walks don't work. Isn't this painfully obvious? Even if you plastered the world and got 1000 people to attend, they don't work because the next night (or later same night!), when there is no walk, all the bad apples rise to the surface again. Even if the alderman's office got out the marchers this kind of activity is a waste of time. Can we just have some more police on Morse? Maybe some pressure on building owners to rent to some stable businesses? Hell, let's hire security. But a once a month march? Does anyone really think marching one Friday every month will do anything?

Archie T.S. Gait said...

Pamela -- the walks are something. Like marches on Washington, they're a way of letting everyone know that people care and want to do something about problems they perceive in their society/neighborhood/whatever. Don't discount the efforts others are making, and don't be so shortsighted as to think that the only purpose of the walk is the effect it has on the neighborhood the night that it takes place. Any and every effort is a step in the right direction. You say we should get more police on Morse or put pressure on building owners -- what are you doing to make that happen?

rogerspark60645 said...

It seems that I find myself on Morse almost everyday. That is one of the reasons I became so interested in the Hell Hole. I see so much going on there and it is right in front of the police. On the afternoon of June 18th I watched a drug deal go down at the west end of the Washington Mutual parking lot (on the sidewalk). There was a cop car parked right the in front of them, less than 12 yards away, with a cop in it. I watched and the cop didn't do a thing. It was so blatant that I actually stared the cop down in hopes that he'd be shamed into doing something. No such luck.

Hugh said...

The open-air free-market zone on Morse is tolerated because it helps the 24th stats overall.

rogerspark60645 said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

'Broken Heart' Past Blogs