* CAPS Beat Notes from 2423

There were over 15 community members at the May 16th beat meeting at the Trilogy Center, 1400 W Greenleaf. Also in attendance were Chris Adams, former aldermanic candidate, Katy Hogan, from the Heartland Cafe, Alisha Lopez, 49th Ward Office, and Alderman Joe Moore (he arrived a bit after the meeting started) and Marti from Acorn Properties.

Previous Business:
The facilitator was not present so Previous Business wasn't covered in depth. However foot patrol officers have been at the Loyola Field House after open gym the past week. They reported that there were not too many participants at the open gym, that Wednesdays are the busiest days and that they expect to have more participants once it warms up for good.

The request from last month to have a Parks Officer there was brought up, since no one was there from the Park District. The police confirmed that the request was made but that the Park District is so understaffed that it may be a while before they are able to have someone attend a beat meeting.

The subject of drug dealing on Estes and Glenwood and the people parking on Glenwood on street cleaning days was also covered. The drug activity has ceased as well people parking during sweeping times, although street sweeping has not been regular.

New Business/Continued Business:

The major issue of this beat meeting was the Dubin/Acorn property at Greenleaf and Glenwood, which was discussed last month.

In addition to all the complaints about this building from the past meetings including those by the police of the building management being unresponsive to their requests that be property be locked up and managed better.

This past week on community member had a liquid dumped on her from a window.

This drew additional attention onto the building and resulted in the attendance of the Alderman and a representative of his as well as two people representing the property management. The police reported the property to the Buildings Officer who sent correspondence to Acorn as a result of the last Beat Meeting.

Acorn had incorrect information regarding the incident believing that it was a water balloon thrown out the window.

However, the victim was in attendance and stated that she was unsure about the liquid and the method of delivery.

Marti from Acorn also brought up a posted comment from the Broken Heart blog stating that 99% of the building is voucher based. She said the building was 5% voucher, it has 52 units and 10 of them are subsidized, 5 CHAC with senior citizens and the other 5 Hull House and youth outreach. That actually works out to 19.23% voucher.

She says that the janitor reported on problem tenants and three have been evicted in the past week and that she thinks and hopes this takes care of the problems. The management says they do criminal, credit and employment checks as well as check with previous landlord. They blame tenant problems on tenants who make poor choices with whom they associate (boyfriends/relatives/friends).

The 20 machine Laundromat was also mentioned since it is the main way people get into and out of the building when evading police or working/patronizing the open air drug market. Since it is a public Laundromat it needs to have a business licence, which the property managers say keeps getting torn down.

The police said that since it is a business someone needs to be there to supervise it or they need to close it down because it is such a problem for the community. Joe Moore said he would look into how the Laundromat was licenced.

The issue of the unlocked doors was brought up. The management say that they are constantly replacing/repairing locks and windows. They said that they have tried cameras but they were torn down. The police and community present said that they need to do a better job of keeping up with everything as they are ultimately responsible for the property they own.

The Community Officer said he wanted the Building Officer to meet with the property managers to come to some type of nonbinding resolution. He also explained to residents that if the nonbinding agreement didn't work, there was always the option of housing court.

Other New Business:

Katy Hogan reported that two windows were broken at the Heartland General Store while customers were actually inside.

People mentioned the swarms of kids on the street after schools let out and the brawling that has started, especially amongst girls. The police said that they have two officers assigned to Sullivan High after school and two more cars that patrol the routes home. There is just not enough manpower to cover everything at once.

The police have inquired about staggered release times within Sullivan to lighten the flow, but say that it never gets very far most likely due to teachers unions.

Joe Moore said he would look into it with the schools. Katy Hogan mentioned going for walks/foot patrol at release times. She says they meet at 2:35 PM outside of Old Field School. For more information you should contact the Heartland.

A resident also inquired about getting a radar that displays motorists speeds, like the one at Ridge and Greenleaf on Sheridan. Joe said he would look into how it the first one was obtained.

That's about it. I would like to start having other people email me notes from their Beat Meetings so that I can post them on my blog since so many people are not able to attend Beat Meetings.

Also, I have created a community calendar that compiles other calendars from around Rogers Park on my blog. At the bottom of the 'Broken Heart' blog, a link will also take you there also.

Please feel free to comment on the calendar and let me know of any community events that you would like posted. Feel free to send them to me at iheart60626@gmail.com.

Thanks for reading.

Chris Miller

The next CAPS Beat 2423 Meeting is Wednesday, June 20th, 7pm at 1400 W Greenleaf Ave, 4th Floor of the Trilogy Center.