Dear Craig,
You don't know me. I live in the 1100 block of Morse. Last week you ran a story regarding a tree branch that was snapped by a storm a couple of months ago. Thankfully the park district cut the branch down that very morning the story appeared. I'm to believe you had a lot to do with that. But the park district only did half the job. They left behind all the dead branches. They're laying all over the ground. And if you take your camera down to the park you'll find piles of cut branches all over the park that have been dead so long they're brown. One homeless man I see all the time uses the dried up branches as a clothes line. I have another problem. The homeless sleep right in front of my building. And the gangs hang out and drink and do drugs on the park benches. It's impossible to get a good nights sleep lately. Now they've started to mark the area with graffiti. I've emailed the Joes' office. However he never got back to offer any help. Can you help?
Signed,
Tired of looking at a crappie looking park.
BLOGNOTES: Well TOLAACLP, all I can do is take a couple of photos like you asked. I could've taken more, but then Joe's people would've said I'm 'piling it on.'
In just one snapshot alone, I was able to capture the gang graffiti and the homeless man in the sleeping bag - in front of the lakefront condo building. I also noticed four other homeless people this morning in the park area between Morse and Lunt. I noticed the gang graffiti on the park bench. And I noticed the homeless person's clothes on the dead tree branch. I wonder if Joe or Nathan Moore ever noticed this?
23 comments:
you are supposed to call the cops if people are loitering and being loud,
thats what i do when kids are hanging out on the corner being excessively loud or the people in the building across the street are too loud,
i tried the non emergency number but they directed me to 911,
ive actually seen cops come over and tell people to be quiet, the people who were being loud actually had a police scanner so they knew ahead of time that a unit was on the way,
it was queiet after that.
persistent 911 calls will bring results and atleast let them know there is a problem there
Right after reading this post this morning, Iwent down to Loyola Park to get my car.
Now bear in mind, last night after parking my car, I walked past the lawn in front of the fieldhouse and there was a very large group there for what looked to be a kid's birthday party or something. I thought to myself how nice it was that so many people could get together right down the street from my house...
Well..... this morning there is shit everywhere. Plates, pinatas, food... It's disgusting. I think the worst part is that they obviously started to clean up after themselves and when the closest garbage can was filled they just stopped there..
This has nothing to do with the city. They wouldn't have had time to clea it up before I left for work this morning. This is all about the freaking slobs that left the mess.
CLEAN UP AFTER YOURSELVES
Sorry if there are a ton of typos. I'm typing this on my phone.
Well you better get on down to the local C.A.P.S. meeting and report this behavior. Oh yea, remember that the people that reside here are fucking slobs, always have been, always will be.
Yeah, it's really been nice in the park this year.
I watched a woman walking her dog the other evening between Morse and Farwell. She was completely minding her own business, when the local drug addicts started giving her a hard time. She ignored them and continued her walk, only be yelled at and called a bunch of obscenities.
Nice job, 49th Ward.
Loyola Park really has been a dump this summer. Notwithstanding the social issues and park patrons, the facility itself really is horribly cared-for.
-Bathrooms.
Worn and busted lights and fixtures, stalls badly in need of paint, looks like hell.
-Park Benches.
Bent and broken. A few aong the promenade have been almost buried in sand from early-season winds. How pathetic that something so visible and simple to maintain gets ignored.
-The Grounds.
As mentioned above, trees either overgrown, or cut branches left for weeks and months. Earlier this year there was a storm felled tree that was thee for weeks.
-Sidewalks.
Big potholes on the path by parking lot all summer, broken up concrete near the playground and concession.
-Garbage.
Litter is bad in this park (as in many around the city) but some simple things could help. On busy summer weekends there is never a proper litter cleanup. Why not send a crew on Sunday Morning for a couple hours to get the park in shape for another busy day. Seems they just let litter go 'til the weekday crews come in.
Whoever is in charge of this park should be ashamed of themselves. This could be such a jem with some common-sense care. The condition just reflects laziness and neglect. I want better from my property taxes.
I moved to Chicago in 1985,1300 block of Greenleaf, lived in 4 apts.within a block that of and one DIRECTLY across from the entrance to the Loyola Fieldhouse. WONDERFUL,reasonably-for the city- QUIET at night, and we had a few problems,the occaisional car window busted,and small time buglaries, but not the veritable CRIME WAVE that hit that area in the mid 1990's til now! I moved away for a few years, and upon my return in 1996, I naturally looked to Rogers Park, the Greenleaf and Sheridan Rd. area in particular. As I walked around the neighborhood, I COULD TELL it had changed, BIG TIME! The ,aahhh ... demographics had changed... and as if ON CUE, on the baseball field in front of the Loyola Park Fieldhouse, a bit of a rally formed, and let's just say, this was no Pro-Life Rally! there were 50 or 60 gangbangers, and yes, I have lived in the city long enough to know what I'm seeing IS what I'm seeing, and they were less than friendly to my presence on the sidewalk. They formed up around a center with arms raised and began screaming slogans and flashing signs, and at that point I got the hell outta there, as I know when it's time to go before someone, and it ONLY takes one before the piling on begins, decides I might have something of value that I'd be powerless to stop and quite possibly be beaten, or worse, in the process. I'm NOT prejudiced against color, some of my best friends have been peoples of all kinds of races, but I AM prejudiced against IGNORANCE and TOTAL DISREGARD for the basics of respect, courtesy, common sense, and a whole list of other behavioral issues. It should be of NO SURPRISE that the Rogers Park area has gone to hell, the city has essential forced them out of their previous enclaves in the process of the blatant land grabs, and have forced "the fringe" out to the fringe, ie:the Evanston border, and as long as they are not in the Real Money Zone, no gives a crap, and the city WON'T do anything ,because that's where they want them!!!!!
What alvo69 said about pushing folks out of their previous habitats and into fringe areas is right on the money. It appeared that the city, in its rush to gentrification, initially wanted to push the working class, poor, low-income eldery and handicapped and new immigrants out to the suburbs.
The politicians and condo developers forgot something -- many of the suburbanites ran out of the city to escape what they felt was major urban decline, especially after the late 1960's riots. The suburbanites don't want the city's crime and social problems in their areas, so they pushed back.
The politicians and condo developers aren't breaking their behinds to ensure that all people have affordable places to live. It's easier to dismiss them all as being undesirable, malcontents, not ambitious enough to strive for corner offices in corporations, etc. However, people still have to live somewhere, regardless of who they are or how much money they make. I wouldn't be surprised if certain neighborhoods have been pegged as "dumping grounds".
There aren't that many "dumping grounds" left because everything is being gentrified, even the old problematic west side neighborhood I grew up in. I've said it before -- this is a recipe for huge civil unrest. Gooning and harassment by gangs and drug dealers is just a small part of it. It'll get much worse.
i'm sick to death of people who don't clean up after themselves in the parks--this happens in all the lakefront parks and is particularly bad at Montrose where the soccer fields are (worse then Loyola park IMO).
while getting more park employees to pick up garbage on weekends is a good idea, there also needs to be more pressure on picnickers to take their garbage with them. Maybe more signs, trash bag dispensers, and potentially fines for not disposing waste properly.
alvo69, your commonts are so on the money!! I also have lived in the Greenleaf & Sheridan Rd area, I rented there for approx 5-6 yrs, in that time I saw things change for the worse, yes the condo conversion was rampant (who will buy these?- I hope they take a long walk in the area before signing the dotted line) but the park & beach where getting more & more unkept, yes the ignorance factor was growing (those who where claiming the park as theres)
When I walk to the beach where I bought my condo the beach is clean, diverse yet ignorance factor at a minimum. I live in the 49th ward but in the far south area where things are getting better! This is due to joey not in charge of most of the area where I live! What a difference a aldermen makes! It is a big shame that our aldermen keeps the 49th ward going down a dismal path, and that people in the ward for the last 16 years keep voteing for this goof!!
Boxing tomboy is right on the money. Folks pushed out of the demolished housing projects and other poor 'hoods have to go somewhere.
I've been wondering for a while how many may be doubling up with friends and family in Rogers Park and other more affordable neighborhoods because they've run out of options. Seems likely to get worse before it gets better.
I really have to hand it to Mary Ann Smith for doing so well with Edgewater in spite of Joe Moore to the north of her and Helen Schiller to the south.
Birds-of-a-feather Schiller and Moore have volunteered their wards as dumping grounds for ex-cons and other undesirables. I guess it's great for Da Mare to have two raving leftists up at this end of town to accomodate him in his push to clean up the inner-city areas ringing downtown.
It's too bad. Uptown has been deteriorating since WW2, but Rogers Park was a lovely neighborhood until the mid-eighties. Both areas have much beautiful housing stock and we have a great beach, without Uptown's burden of old industry and dozens of CHA projects and really bad rooming houses. But Moore seems determine to stack this ward with as many undesirables as he can.
I have always felt that it was a concerted thing, to shake out moderate income homeowners and renters, so they will sell cheaply to megabucks developers who contribute to the pols' campaign funds.
As of this evening, the park hasn't changed much. Guess no one from the downtown park district browsed the 'Broken Heart' today?
I noticed Loyola Park actually worsened since I featured it's neglected state this morning.
Now there's some huge, dangerous man-made trench that has mysteriously appeared. I'll be featuring that story tomorrow.
> I've been wondering for a while how many may be doubling up with friends and family in Rogers Park and other more affordable neighborhoods because they've run out of options.
Fargo, I'm not sure you really want an answer to that! The management companies of the large buildings don't like that question being posed.
Jeffo - next time you call 911 - ask for a 'silent alert' i.e. it doesn't go over the scanner. At least it isn't supposed to.
Toni - You're right. When folks double up in apartments (low income or otherwise), it's just what management companies don't want to see or acknowledge). Unfortunately, it's been the source of some chronic problems in the neighborhood.
When Junior gets out of jail and comes home to roost with Mama or Granny, he tends to bring more problems with him, and they become the neighborhood's problems (drug dealing, dog fighting, etc.). Junior gets busted and goes back to jail. Junior's brother gets out of jail. He moves in with Mama. The cycle continues.
Or a single mom from the projects moves to a mixed building and can't quite make ends meet. She opens an unlicensed day care in a 3rd floor apartment and takes in so many tots that the trash (food scraps and dirty diapers) gets overwhelming. It creates a major cockroach infestation in a formerly clean building. Children run around unsupervised at times. The noise of people coming and going at all hours keeps neighbors awake.
At times, the issue is serious crime and violence. Sometimes it's squalid living conditions and property damage due to overcrowding, which makes conditions worse for the neighbors.
These are real scenarios that have happened with real families north and south of Howard - in Jay Johnson's former properties on Fargo, in a few problem buildings on Bosworth and Greenview before they went condo, and in a nicer building where you wouldn't expect serious problems.
I think that situation is happening right next door in my condo building - there are 2 women and 4 kids (and I think a dog) living in a space that's only about 300 sq ft. They were up last night around 2 am, screaming at each other and throwing shit. I called 911, because it sounded pretty bad, even though it ended up being a futile effort b/c, as usual, the cops didn't give a shit. I don't think they even came around.
And this isn't the first time that we've had problems with these people. When they first moved in, it was very obvious that they were smoking pot in their unit. And while I know pot isn't that big a deal in the grand scheme of things, there are also plenty of drugs that don't have that obvious of an odor that they could very well have been using.
I am now going to do whatever I can to get these people evicted, b/c they are loud, dirty, inconsiderate and overall nasty. Oh, and did I mention that they dragged their leaking garbage down the hall to the trash can, leaving a lovely garbage juice trail on the floor that will never come up? Oh, and did I mention the fact that on multiple occasions they've had crap in front of their door? It looks like they swept their place and dumped the shit in the hall. Ergh!
v&j, did you say this is your CONDO building? A place where you own?
Another reason to have a well-run rental rather than a condo that didn't quite make the cut, and where the units are purchased by investors who are renting them out and where you have a totally unregulated rental situation, of small investors who don't know how to screen or otherwise run their units properly.
Good reason not to buy into a recent conversion. Thanks for the warning.
well, no one taught me (or warned me) of what to look for. so i'm stuck here, but i still should not have to deal with this crap. i know that i am going to fighting to get these people evicted. they can take their crap elsewhere. there's plenty of cheap housing in RP, after all. isn't that what RP is all about?
at least, when all is said and done, i won't have wasted about 24K on rent, for 2 years. that money will be all mine, to do whatever i please with. like buy another condo, far, far away from chicago. like the west coast.
Ha Ha, at least your not pissing your money away on rent, you're pissing it away on interest, insurance, assessments, taxes and repairs (probably twice as much per month). Everyone knows that it's always better to buy a place than to rent!
I remember mentioning the state of the park to a person who won't be named recently. Her comment was "They are naturalizing it." Well if naturalizing means allowing it to go to hell, I am not for it.
Also where was the "Allow Loyola Park to fall apart" infomercial we have come to know and love? The meeting where we are all told the park is going to be neglected, that this is in the best interest of the community, that birds might just benefit from deep sand trenches on the bike/walking paths and that left over branches, clippings and garbage will be allowed to compost where it lies.
This park is an embarresment!!!
V&J said, ". . . they can take their crap elsewhere. there's plenty of cheap housing in RP, after all. isn't that what RP is all about?"
Cheap housing? In Rogers Park?
I guess it depends on your definition of cheap. Decent rentals are falling like dominos to the condo gluttons and now even the run down buildings are charging outlandish rents. It really is getting to the point where, if you aren't in a government-subsidized apartment, you can barely afford to rent in this neighborhood. We need some sort of protection in this city for moderate-income-don't-qualify-for-sensible-mortagage-too-intelligent-to-apply-for-an-adjustable-mortgage-renters. Like me. I found a place that fits my needs perfectly, my neighbors are clean and quiet, I love the petty little street . . . so, of course, the landlord is getting ready to turn it into a condo building. I've started looking for a new apartment at approximately the same rent and haven't found anything even remotely acceptable. At the rate things are going by this time next year I won't be "Fargo Woman" anymore, I'll be "Denver Colorado Woman" or, God help me, "Columbus Ohio Woman." I love Chicago but Rogers Park is the only neighborhood I feel connected to (been here for 28 years!) and it was the only one I could afford - until now that is.
So, no, V&J, I have to disagree with you - Rogers Park is not about affordable rentals anymore and probably never will be again.
i might be spending more money on all those things that you mentioned, questionauthority, but at least im not paying off someone else's mortgage, but my own. and that sits a lot better with me than renting. b/c i wouldn't have intended on living in an apt forever, and this was a good way to get my foot in the door. i'm just hoping that i can sell it one day, seeing as the market sucks.
I grew up on Greenleaf across from the Loyola Park Fieldhouse in the 50's and early 60's. It saddens me to see what's being written about a place that was beautiful, tranquil and safe. My friends and I would play in the park or go to one of the many classes at the Fieldhouse till dark. No one ever worried about being harrassed and no one would even think of defacing public property. Ricky B.
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