If you live near the Harold Rider Building at 1345 West Lunt/1340 West Morse, you don't have a lot to be thankful for this holiday season. The property is a full blown drug and prostitute - flop house. All anyone has to do is view the tapes to see the cold hard facts. Even on Thanksgiving day.
Yesterday around 3 o'clockish until 3:30 p.m. there was a group of four look-out types - just mulling out front on the stoop on the Lunt Avenue side, keeping an eye if the police drove by to warn those inside. These four were passing the mysterious brown bag around, each taking a drink from what was inside the brown bag while they were waiting. They basically were trespassing and loitering under the large No Trespassing - No Loitering signs. Inside the glass vestibule were another three or four choir boy's huddled near the stairwell. Only the camera inside could tell what they were up to. I wasn't going to risk getting my camera involved.
Last week, on November 20th around midnight, aldermanic candidate Jim Ginderske called me, yes, called me, in the middle of the night no less, to inform me a dozen or so squad cars had converged on the Harold Rider Building on the Lunt Avenue side. I'm thinking he called to see if I wanted to get up in the middle of the night and cover the story with my camera. I wasn't going to risk getting my camera involved in this incident either. It was too dark.
(Note: This midnight police squad car invasion was confirmed by a neighbor in my building the next day. The police at the CAPS 2431 meeting knew nothing about it.)
At the CAPS beat 2431 meeting last Monday, five residents of the Harold Rider Building showed up to tell us the woes they go though - living in the hellest of hellholes, better known as the former Block building.
* One example is a vacant apartment that doesn't have locks and is used by prostitutes, squatters and drug users after they have bought their fix in the Harold Rider Building.
* Another example is muggings and the robberies in the stairwell of the Harold Rider Building to pay for the drug fix.
* Still another example is the drug dealers who have foot traffic coming and going at all hours of the day and night in the hallways of the Harold Rider Building.
* Another example is people who are passed out or possibly sleeping in the stairwell after getting a quick drug fix from the drug dealers in the Harold Rider building.
* Then another example is the people passed out or just flat out sleeping it off in the laundry room after drinking and getting a drug fix from the drug dealers located in the Harold Rider building.
* Yet another example is people peeing in the stairwell, hallway and laundry room after drinking and getting a fix from the drug dealers living in the Harold Rider Building.
If you don't get the picture - Mr. Harold Rider should have a copy.
3 comments:
Taking Care of U said.....>"I don't understand though why Jim couldn't have let you sleep and taken the pictures himself."
I agree 110% - TCOU. He could have called his own team of bloggers. I know for a fact Tomblogger #2 has a camera.
Tom Tunney and Harold are good buds. Maybe someone should call Tom about this situation and ask for advice, maybe Tom would be more helpful than the Current Local Alderman.
HAROLD D RIDER, President
Realty & Management Co.
2459 W PETERSON AVE CHGO 60659
$1,000.00 5/1/2006 to Citizens for Tunney
$1,000.00 8/2/2006 to Citizens for Tunney
Wow- I wish I was at the meeting to hear about that. That building is definitely dragging down the neighborhood to state the obvious. I feel terrible for the people who live inside the building- they must feel so unsafe. On another note, I like 2 blocks from the building and I've seen undercover police frisking people and stopping cars on my block quite a few times in the past month. Definitely an increase from before.
It's probably a really good thing that you and others continue to "beat the drum" on this building. Thank you.
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