Saturday, May 12, 2007

* Around the Web

I was getting a few readers coming from a certain website today. So I checked out why. Here's a little essay a fellow neighbor wrote on her web journal. I'm not linking it up because it gives her full name on the site and it isn't a blog. If she wants to take credit, she can post a comment below with a link up. She calls her entry 'Soaked'.
******

I was walking down Glenwood yesterday on my way to catch the train when someone from above threw something wet all over me. At first I thought it was bleach, because it went in my eyes and it stung. But it was just water, I guess. Quite a lot.

Walking down the street and getting stuff thrown all over you pretty much defines the term "uncalled for." To get to the train I have to pass a badly maintained low income apartment building on the corner of Glenwood and Greenleaf. Because I'm female and dare to pass this building minding my own business, I get harassed. Even the very small, totally unsupervised children have words for me ("nice ass, white girl," et al.) People from that building let their dogs shit all over the front lawn, and never, ever clean it up. There are literally mountains of shitpiles everywhere (the City just recently tacked up an adorable "Pick Up Your Poo" sign on an adjacent tree, for whatever that's worth). The glass front door is frequently smashed to pieces (damn, forgot my key again).

But that's really the least of it, as I found out after my little incident. The building, as I well expected, is also the headquarters for an open air drug market that's been on the police radar for a while. From CAPS Beat 2423 Notes, April 19, '07, posted here:

"People double park in front of the building and honk or run up into the building. Kids and dealers cut through the laundromat and head into the back alleys and gangways. The police have asked for a key so that they can enter back there but as of yet, not received one."

I thought all those people weren't doing laundry...

Getting soaked brought out all my anger about feeling like a frequent target in Rogers Park for other people's rage, sexist fantasies, boredom, or whatever problems they have. I decided to call 911. After 20 minutes, the police didn't come. I called again. Another 20 minutes, nothing. I took my soggy ass around the corner to my apartment, and called the District 24 police, where a sympathetic officer advised me to make out a report and try 911 again, but this time ask for a supervisor to come out.

Finally the police came. Apparently a car did come by while I was back in my apartment calling District 24, and drying off. More upstanding residents of the building who were sick of observing their neighbors throw things on passersby (apparently it was going on all day) led the police to a pack of unsupervised children on the third floor, all well under 12.

I guess I could have seen this as a predictable outcome, if I wasn't temporarily shortsighted with anger. The supervisor cop said he lectured the kids, and suspected that the actual culprit was a 5-year-old, wearing only a pair of underpants. Then my feelings went on a similarly predictable track--sympathy for the kids. Still alone at 6:00 in the evening, left to throw stuff, play with lighters, whatever self-destructive damage that might bring them the attention they obviously crave.

In light of that, I began to feel bad for involving police with what seemed like my personal petty shit. I wasn't shot or seriously hurt. But then I got pissed for betraying my own justifiable anger. After all, a person should--no, MUST-- walk down the street without being violated in any way. Whoever is responsible for these kids, wherever the hell she/he may be, is not exactly doing a great job at conveying those kinds of lessons.

What's next in this neighborhood?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just moved to the area a little over a week ago and have to walk past that same building mentioned in the article to get to the train. All I can say that I'm not surprised. My first thought was that it was a street pharmacy and I had a feeling that I might run into trouble innocently walking past there at some point. You hate to make those assumptions, but this story confirmed my gut-instinct.

Craig Gernhardt said...

There is a CAPS beat 2423 meeting this up-coming Wednesday night, at 7PM.

The location of the CAPS meeting is on the third floor of the Trilogy building at Greenleaf and Glenwood. Northwest corner. West side of the EL tracks. Parking is plenty.

All neighbors are encouraged to attend and share their stories with the local beat officers.

By the way, our article writer, we'll call her Ms. Soaky, looks to be a very talented artist.

Uncle Wally said...

I think Joe Moore should shut that building down. Close it up. Have the city take it over and turn it into affordable housing.

Anonymous said...

Joe Moore should advocate for his constituents and ride Dubin Does the Town's ass until Dubin fixes the building. He should do this in spite of the fact that Dubin has donated to his campaign.

The police are tired of this building and the garbage that goes on here. Please come to the Beat Meeting and find out for yourself.

RogersParkBooster said...

People - I'm sorry - but you folks leave me flabbergasted. THIS IS AFFORDABLE HOUSING - JOE MORE STYLE!! That Dubin building is at least 99% voucher. Maybe more. And JOE ISN’T GOING TO CHANGE HIS WAYS when it comes to operations like this. And unless you’ve been in a coma for 20 years you should realize that means JOE MOORE WILL DO ZIP ABOUT IT. He absolutely could not care less that some punk threw unmentionable filth on to a decent person going off to her job. That's why we tried so hard to get rid of the son of a bitch - remember the election that was just stolen??? Were you people only listening to Joe's bullshit line “Anyone who dares to mention a black person doing something wrong in Rogers Park is a racist" hate spin? As far as Joe Moore is concerned any white person who complains about the way rent vouchers are administered or anything else about shithead uncivil people living here and dealing their drugs or selling their sex or pissing in public or harassing regular folks is a racist. If you happen not to be a lilly white banker, anything you do is absolutely OK – and if you break the law or act like an animal it was the banker’s fault. Were you SLEEPING for the last six months? As far as Joe Moore is concerned, if a person throws filth out a window at a person going off to her job, and that person who threw the filth at that decent person thinks it is a right funny joke, and if that person throwing shit is living on the dole, the fault was that the working decent person shouldn’t have gotten in the way of the filth flying at them.

You must be racist yourself to even NOTICE that poor people living on vouchers and the dole and pushed all together into one building turn into a horror show. You must be racist yourself to even NOTICE that some craphead punk threw filth on a decent passerby. You must be blind not to notice that Joe Moore will protect Dubin till the cows fly home – Dubin has loaded the place with un-screened voucher tenants and lets the result ruin our neighborhood. Landlords like that and people like the ones who threw filth or worse at a passerby, and will without doubt be playing Gooning Games again this summer, can do no wrong according to Joe Moore, Michael James or Katie Hogan. This is how Joe Moore thinks people who are poor and on vouchers are SUPPOSED to live. Pack 'em in, stack 'em up and turn a blind eye when they trash our homes and neighborhood. Pay ‘em 10 bucks a vote on election day and the status quo is maintained. And by all means, call anybody a racist who says ANYTHING about it. Didn't know you were racist haters did you? Lucky you weren’t running for alderman against that sociopath liar.

Dubin’s building is a classic example of the affordable housing “formula” in Rogers Park. Ask the folks north of Howard – they know it when they see it. Just in case you have been sleeping since Joe was first elected, here it is:

1) Buy a cheap shitty building – or even better get it “taken” by the government. Then buy it really really cheap.
2) Give Joe Moore a campaign contribution - he helped
3) Maybe get some nice government grant money and put it in your pocket instead of fixing the building like you were supposed to. Joe and his friends in congress will help with this.
4) Get certified for vouchers – Joe Moore will help with this too
5) Give Joe Moore a campaign contribution
6) Pack it full of Chicago’s finest citizens – no need to screen your tenants (see #5)
7) Collect premium rent for sub-standard housing, rents tax-payer guaranteed
8) Give Joe Moore and Jan Schakowski campaign contributions
9) Get protection from Joe Moore when the inspectors come a-calling
10) On election day give the tenants $10 gift cards at Dominicks and take them to vote
11) Repeat
12) Repeat
13) Repeat ……….

Until maybe some day you kick ‘em all out and sell condos instead. Give Joe Moore a campaign contribution. Dubin wants to buy the surrounding buildings on Glenwood. What better way to buy cheap than to run his building down and drag a block or two down with it? Give Joe Moore a campaign contribution. Hey Nathan – you figured it out yet????

And the tragedy – our community tragedy - is that this operation on Glenwood is just another Jay Johnson fire waiting to happen. Moore will protect Dubin, Dubin will run his destructive slum, and one of these mornings we will wake up and some more kids will have been burned to death.

And Rogers Park will not give one good god damn.

I honestly think that after 35 years here I'm going to move somewhere else.

RPBooster (retired)

marcy said...

Hi, I'm Ms. Soaky...er, Marcy Sperry. I feel fine about posting with my real name.

First, thanks to Craig for re-posting my...bad moment, we'll say, and thanks to all the readers here who give a damn about the neighborhood. The original post is here, you are welcome to visit:

http://www.thankyouforyoursubmission.com/sperryartetc/2007/05/soaked.html

I am a newbie to Rogers Park, having moved here from the rapidly gentrifying Edgewater only in October. Tired of paying ever-escalating rent for a dark, literally moldy one-room basement apartment there, our one bedroom in a well-maintained rehabbed courtyard building in Rogers Park seemed a real find.

But my joy's gone downhill after dealing with Dubin's masterpiece of slumlordship, and the stretch of Glenwood it is infringing upon (around Lunt to Estes).

One thing I didn't mention was that after I got soaked, a helpful resident pointed out to me that the building's janitor was just pulling up. The janitor offered to let me into the building and into the offender's apartment so that I could deal with them. Being a sane person, I declined that offer. I explained that I wanted the building manager's name, so that he/she could be alerted to the problem with this tenant, and I mentioned I was calling the police. The janitor turned into a clam, claiming he didn't know the name of the building manager (Doesn't know the name of his boss? That's logical...)

The North Coast said...

Chris M, you should have guessed by now that "Joe's constituents" are the kind of people who throw filth at innocent citizens strolling past; block the sidewalk and make you step off to get past them; fill the property they live on with filth, noise, and crime; scatter trash and personal filth allover the streets and beaches; and wake other citizens up at 3 AM with their fights and screaming.

Joe's constituents are also the slumlords who live in suburban palaces off the proceeds from the various government sponsored housing programs that enable them to collect "market" rents from properties that are unfit for human habitation.

The rest of us are NOT Joe's constituents and he knows it. He knows who his consituents are and always were, and he serves them well.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I know. Nothing will happen until the building goes condo or we do something about it. However, I'm still young and dumb and will continue to waste my breath until some other young and dumb people take my place.

Come to the 2423 CAPS Beat meeting on Wednesday the 16th at 7pm at 1400 W Greenleaf (right across the street from that fabulous building.)

Check out the community calendar on my blog at http://www.westestes.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Why don't you call CPS? It sounds like the kids aren't properly supervised, and they're high up. I'd hate to see another child fall out the window in RP.

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