Can the village idiots stop defacing the sign a the Morse Theatre and Century Pub construction site? This is the second time in two weeks the sign has been tagged. This shows a total lack of respect for someone's property. Kinda like going around and yanking tulips out of the neighborhood resident's flower gardens. As one business owner said, "Why would a business person even want to open up shop on Morse with crap like this that constantly happens?"
These aren't just isolated incidents either. In the next few weeks, we're going to feature 'Quality of life' issues that need to be addressed again on Morse Avenue. For the past year, lip service is all we've gotten. Now, we're going back to the beginning. Square one.
Again, I could add those endless links to these stories. Peeing in the alleys. Open air drinking, then littering the waste on the ground. Scrawling messages on private and public property like above. Breaking windows (Tomorrows story). Instead of sweeping them under the rug, it's time to rehash old issues that haven't been solved or addressed.
We're tired of all the fucking surveys and costly plans collecting dust at DevCorp's North offices. It's time something actually gets solved. It's time to stop these 'quality of life' crimes. We need to single out the people committing them. I'm guessing they're teens with too much time on their hands? Teens who are unsupervised. Teens who haven't been taught what is right or what is wrong.
Well, it's time to tell these vandals, this is wrong. We need stronger enforcement of our laws on the books. If caught, they should be required to work community service along side the Special Service Area janitors cleaning up the neighborhood. They need to pay for damages they caused. And we need to publicly humiliate them on all the blogs.
26 comments:
I hate the little assuming they're kids fucks. But what can we do? The cop will say they have bigger fish to fry, if one of us approaches them we could face an armed teenager or his big brother who might be a real gang banger. I'm sick of the studies and all the excuse making...elect a dem in the white house so we can restore funding for more police on the street. Bush has cut funding to the point that we here in blue state Chicago have less money to put more cops on the street. Other wise concerned folks like you just end up putting a target on your back.
But that's just a rant. What can we do? Really.
Maybe someday these gangbangers and gooners will run into someone packing heat and shoot the little bastards. A little dose of the wild wild west may not be such a bad idea.
Allow the citizens to defend themselves. Period. The gangbangers, criminals and gooners do what they do because they know no one will or can stop them. Almost of them have weapons (guns, knives, etc.) available and they know the rest of the residents do not.
Do you think criminals respect or even care about the city's gun ban and a gun-free zones?
WOW... fellow Libertarians i see.
amen to self defense! its crazy that a person cannot defend themselves in this city/cook county. if everyone had the ability to arm themselves and protect their home... certain types of crime would virtually disappear.
IMHO
I'm a libertarian, and used to agree with the pro-gun position. I'm still not totally anti.
However, seeing the results of Missouri's extremely permissive, pro-gun legislation in St. Louis, my native city, I'm not sure that arming everyone is the solution.
St. Louis was, let it be said, already the most dangerous city in the country before the state legislature legalized conceal-carry.
Now it's worse. The city's murder rate has shot up 40% since dropping restrictions on personal weapons.
Still worse, it's making the police nervous wrecks, and there have been many instances of police shooting totally innocuous civilians because they thought the guy was weilding a weapon, but it was a cell phone. In the latest incident, a police officer blew away a guy who answered his door holding his cell, because they thought it was a weapon.
I like the idea of a citizen being able to apply "heat" to some rabid little gooner. However, I don't like the idea of even more stray bullets flying around, oftentimes to end up lodged in the innards of some innocent person who happened to be sitting by a window.
We had better carefully consider any loosening of weapons restrictions. We really don't need more nervous, untrained people walking the streets with firepower.
Personally, I'd rather get rid of the element that generates the crime. Riding herd on bad landlords and apt buildings would help out a lot.
north coast... your comment is as always thought provoking.
i think you hit on the 'key' word...
Training.
it seems odd that as a child we are taught to drive/and operate an automobile. why not train our kids about guns?
For adults:
everyone should have to take a course and PASS before getting a license to own gun.
IMHO
and while i'm thinking of it...
what about training kids to be PARENTS?
a course in proper child care and child psychology wouldn't hurt either.
How about training parents to be parents before they are parents.
EXACTLY... craig.
Touché
Does anyone reading this live near enough to the theater to where we could post a web cam? Have it snap JPEGs every 5 seconds or so.
You would about have to live right next door to the place. Maybe a nearby business owner could be pursuaded.
These types of things are exactly what a person can get sick and tired of- seeing the neighborhood dragged down by those who are either ignorant or do not care. It is annoying, but I don't know what we can do except remove it asap when we see it and call the police on anyone caught red-handed.
The thing is, people complain about us coming down on the loitering, but these types of anti-social and disrespectful behaviors is part of why we see loitering as a problem.
Some people seem to throw litter as an act of defiance. That will not get them far in life, and unfortunately we have to keep picking up their mess until they go away. I pick up litter daily often twice a day in the area surrounding my property. It gets annoying.
Hey there Jocelyn,
thanks for steering us back on topic.
I agree.. i abhor littering.
Drives me nuts to see the car in front
of me throw out an entire chicken
dinner from their car window without
a care in the world! And i've seen it
plenty.
For some reason these 'cretins' think
its someone else's duty to clean up
after them.
As a tiny kid i remember seeing the
Native American crying due to littering.
It has stuck with me ever since.
I think its an important issue for the world. (that and less people)
Bush has cut funding to Blue State police depts, as well as transit, schools, and every other civic necessity, to fund the badly fought war and to build ten-lane highways to pack with more cars.
Houston TX is slated to get a 12-lane expressway 11 miles long that will cost $270 MM (before cost overruns), or rather over $20 MM a mile.
But it isn't all Bush- you can blame our local pols for draining the city treasury for TIFs and for $40 MM gifts to Home Depot, Target, Walmart, and other national chains, in the form of tax abatements. Enjoy those "discount" prices- you paid for them with your rent or house taxes.
Chicago Low-Income Housing Trust Fund:
Summary of Projects funded unther the rental subsidy program.
January 1 thru December 31 2006
Rogers Park:
AM Realty Group LLC
6748 N. Ashland
Total Received $118,745
# of Units: 29
Kass Management Services, Inc.
1456 W. Birchwood
Total Received $32,520
# of Units: 8
CMHDC
1714-24 W. Jonquil
Total Received $7,560
# of Units: 1
Council for Jewish Elderly
1221 W. Sherwin
Total Received $74,400
# of Units: 20
Juneway Terrace c/o CMHDC
1700 W. Juneway
Total Received:$32,208
# of Units: 10
H.O.M.E.
7320 N. Sheridan
Total Received: $71,564
# of Units: 30
Pedraza Realty, Inc.
7375-79 N. Damen
Total Received $14,280
# of Units: 2
Su Casa Assoc
1614 W. Jonquil
Total Received: $26,409
# of Units: 8
WW Limited Partnership
6928 W. Wayne
Total Received: $91,896
# of Units: 50
Millie Management
1447 W. Arthur
Total Received: $3,852
# of Units: 1
I am so glad that this topic was blogged about. I live right on Wayne and Farwell and walk to the Morse el every day. On several occasions as I approach Morse and see the new theater, I think to myself "Who in their right mind would want to start a business here?" Sure enough, it has been tagged several times and it isn't even open yet ! I also noticed that there is a new Jamaican restaurant on the South side of Morse that had it's front door shattered. I don't know how it happened, but I'm willing to bet that it was a result of deliberate stupidity.
I would also like to say that I feel uncomfortable, (being a defenseless woman) when I'm walking to and from the L. Not that men can't feel uncomfortable, but I experience constant cat calling and unwanted attention. And I feel that if I say anything to stand up for myself, someone is going to bust out a gun or beat me up or follow me home, or who knows what.
So far I've been followed home and verbally assaulted, no weapons yet, thank god.
Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for posting this. I was excited to find this site and find that I am not the only one who gives a crap about this neighborhood.
Ok, so one week you are against the theater and the next you are not.........Hmmmmmm.........
Grafitti is just graffitti, litter is just litter and piss is just piss, , hmm, I'm not very responsive to people who hate and call other people ignorant though, and then talk about getting far in life, who knows the purpose of life, alot of people get spiritual guidance from the many and varied sources for that, which ones teach tolerance and which ones teach intolerance, I can't say that I personally get angry if I see the evidence of what a person did, I've spent alot of time trying to decipher graffitti, it's really art, so maybe that's why artists and art districts tend to locate in shabby places. However I've actually seen people do those things and the first thing that comes to mind is the person I'm seeing, down and out, close to death alcoholic, (the dead wino was an awful thing to see) mischevious kid, cold blooded criminal...being able to look at a person as an individual, is getting far in life, I would argue. Being frightened is something I have sympathy for. Jennifer, you need to go and study self defense right away, if you haven't done it. This city and that's any neighborhood, is dangerous. You'll not only learn how to protect yourself, but how to feel safer, which is very important. Every person alive on this earth should feel safe, being scared is no joke. Unfortunately, I have a busy day and no time to resource self defense programs for you. Perhaps Craig or some one could do that. But please take the classes, right away, and cheer up, the city is also pretty safe, I've never been attacked, but I've dodged some threatening situations practicing the safety tips.
Vanessa- I think it's obvious that when it comes to litter, grafitti, and loitering many of us here have different values from yours where that is concerned. You are ready to excuse alot quite often and we are not.
You seem to think of these things as neighborhood decoration while most of the world disagrees with you. We're not here to win your approval either, though you seem to think so.
I have seen lots of graffitti in this city that could qualify as art if only it were done with the property owner's permission. If it's a "permission piece" with lots of flair and color, that is fine with me-it's the property owner's biz.
When it's 4 feet high wild style block letters, or gang scrawls, or whatever, on a structure whose ownership distinctly did NOT authorize it, then it's a violation, sorry.
The childish, primitive scrawls on the sign, pictured in Craig's photograph, do not qualify as art, and in any case detract from the message of the sign. They are a violation and a blight, sorry.
Most of all, litter and public disposal of very personal waste is blight and filth, sorry, and you can't have a civilized community where people feel free to do this.
Graffitti, litter, and personal filth all greatly degrade the public space we all share. What's the argument here? People should keep their filth to themselves.
I've spent alot of time trying to decipher graffitti, it's really art, so maybe that's why artists and art districts tend to locate in shabby places.,
Oh Vanessa. This grafitti may be a social artifact (like many things produced by humans) but it clearly isn't aspiring to be "art". (Before you go off all half-cocked, yes, I am very familiar with the graffiti culture of the 70's/early '80's you are thinking of, having seen much of it first hand in many cities around the world). What we've got here is either gang communication or something emulating gang communication, like a gang office memo more or less.
As for your theory about artists and "art districts" (does anyone else find this concept disturbing?) following graffiti because it is "art"...good heavens, what a dreamy dream world we live in! Artists are far more practical than that. Practicing artists don't choose "shabby places" for the romance of la boheme. They choose them because the rents are lower and because most artists have a high-ish tolerance for unconventional ways of living and risk (although they certainly aren't the only ones). Most artists don't make a lot of money and many need space bigger than a spare bedroom to work in, work with messy/noisy/smelly stuff, etc. It's as simple as that.
Vanessa... why does Jennifer have to pay to defend herself to walk around in HER NEIGHBORHOOD?
WTF!
Quit defending the undesirable elements in this neighborhood.
I'm with lakefrontlarry. I was born and raised on the west side. These wannabe and pretend gangstas in RP have no clue how rough some people can be; if they were dropped in my old neighborhood, they couldn't handle it. What they don't get is everybody is not intimidated nor impressed by their antics. It's just a matter of them rolling up on the wrong person one day.
It pays to know some self-defense. I'm not saying that anyone has to hold a black belt or take up boxing, but just know enough to stun a perp so you can safety get away. Or get a non-lethal weapon that you can lawfully carry and learn how to use it.
Amen Boxing Tomboy,
Attitude has a lot to do with it as well. I walk Morse and Howard late at night and I am not scared.
Why? Because I respect the element out there and let them know I am not intimidated by them. Yes they all know I have dogs and most of the time I am accompanied by my dogs. However, there are plenty of times when the dogs are at home. They always greet me and ask me how the dogs are. I reply and inquire how they are.
I may not aqree with what their chosen occupation or why they choose to loiter, but they are still a human being and I choose to treat them that way. In return, they greet me and leave me be. By the way, many call me "cop lady" because they know I will not tolerate anything outside my residence and if the cops don't show, my dogs will.
Yet they still show me respect and grant me passage. Just shows that we all want a wee bit of respect and understanding. Even if we don't expect agreement or understanding in regards to our life style.
Why don't you pull out your video cam, zoom in, and film the pissers and provide a copy to the 24th District. Even throw it up on YouTube. Perhaps, they can ident the chumps?
If they are in the public way, they arguably have no expectation of privacy.
I splurged and bought a camera/video cam on Ebay, which stopped working after 6 months. I will prbably have to send it back to the vendor to either get it fixed or replaced. In the meantime, all I have is my cell phone which doesn't take good resolution pictures or videos in the dark. Otherwise, believe me I would be documenting that kind of activity!!!!
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