Dear Craig:
I'm responding to your concerns about the Boys and Girls Club moving to the Gale Community Center.
Moving the Boys and Girls Club to Rogers Park has many merits. When I found out there was interest from some local residents, I quickly agreed to help facilitate conversations with The Boys and Girls Club and the Chicago Park District. While the Center itself is just outside my District, I am confident that many constituents and their children living just south of Howard will be served by these new youth programming services. As you and I have discussed briefly in the past around creation of a 4H program, our community needs more quality youth programming. I also believe such programming is one helpful part on providing safe options for area youth. Furthermore, we need to encourage responsible volunteerism and partnerships whenever we can. The Boys and Girls Club would be bringing much needed quality programming to Rogers Park.
To the best of my knowledge, these new services will not displace other valuable youth programming or prevent services for our broader community in the Gale Community Center. In fact, by using the space in a creative way it can encourage other programs to meet other needs of community residents quickly. My understanding is that there will be many additional services in the Center aimed to adults and seniors based on community input.
Certainly, issues of space allocation require community input. To my knowledge, nothing has been finalized regarding the Boys and Girls Club location other than a number of encouraging preliminary conversations. I understand there will be an upcoming community meeting to consider these issues in more detail.
You reference concern about back room political deals and cronyism in your email. Let me assure you this is nothing of the sort. Everyone involved in the preliminary conversations has no financial or political interest. We need more youth programming for this underserved part of our community. In fact, your concerns about violence and other problems in our community can only be helped by promoting positive youth activities and bringing additional youth mentors into Rogers Park.
There should be lively discussions about community priorities in Rogers Park. I'm sure these will continue around the Boys and Girls Club programs at the Gale Community Center. I hope we can come to enough of a consensus to welcome these useful services and not deny our children this programming over unecessary miscommunication or unfounded accusations. For my part, I will help when I can but stayed focused on my work on the state budget mess as well. You correctly point out that this is central to my responsibilities to the 7th District.
Best,
Heather
Blognotes: I did email Senator Steans regarding this issue. I would like to thank her for her prompt response. As for Joe Moore, he still remains silent on the issue.
22 comments:
Where is Julie Hamos in any of this???
I'm not fully up to speed on the background concerning this issue, but doesn't it seem possible for this center to offer Boys & Girls Clubs services, as well as a broader array of community services?
rp
It is great to see Heather reply to your message. I did how ever notice the very fast glossing over of the question concerning back room politics. She hit it, and left it, and repeated the same line concerning the youth programs.
Now I am all for the youth programs at Gale. But what I do not understand is the same issue everyone has is exactly how they intend to use the community center. Why do I not understand? Because Moore has kept most of the communications closed to the community. That is why everyone is upset. Decisions are being made and suggestions are gaining support but the community as a whole has yet to give their input. As with many of the things Moore likes to do concerning community, he will only bring the community into the mix after he has secured the whole thing up. Only after he has grabbed enough power and support for choices and suggestions that the community has had no input on, will he then invite the community for input, only to pull the old power move well, sorry but this is how we are going to do it, look here at all the support already, sorry.
I saw it more then a few times in several things involving the community in Rogers Park. He waits until the last minute to get community feedback so he can at least say well I get the communities input but all the support was for this means, so ya screw off, we are doing it this way.
Now I do not know Heather personally, or politically, I never met or spoken to her. So I can only say I feel as though she is just brushing this issue Craig brought up, as its for the youth, and I wash my hands of it, not my problem. I may be wrong, but that is how I feel when I read her reply to Craig.
Robert Orstadius
" ... our community needs more quality youth programming."
Leasing the building to a private, not-for-profit will mean LESS youth programming in our community.
Operating the building as a CHICAGO PARK DISTRICT field house has been the plan for a decade.
The Chicago Park District already has funding for a supervisor and assistants for Gale Park, and people have ALREADY been offered and have ACCEPTED jobs there!
The Boys&Girls Club will DISPLACE them, they will go elsewehere.
If the Boys&Girls Club could find their own roof elsewhere, it would be a WIN-WIN.
"We need more youth programming for this underserved part of our community."
the central issue is:
why is the Boys&Girls club idea INSTEAD of the Chicago Park District, not IN ADDITION TO?
why pass on Chicago Park District resources that neighbors have been working hard to secure for a decade?
Heather said....> "There should be lively discussions about community priorities in Rogers Park."
Lively discussions? By whom? How the heck do you propose reinvigorating the process when all the energy and faith was sucked out of the room when neighborhood volunteers and advocates were sandbagged?
Heather said...> "I quickly agreed to help facilitate conversations with The Boys and Girls Club and the Chicago Park District."
Quickly? Why? Was something on fire?
The Senator said...> "Certainly, issues of space allocation require community input."
Really? Just space allocation?
Senator Steans said... "You reference concern about back room political deals and cronyism in your email. Let me assure you this is nothing of the sort.
Perhaps. But why should I believe this? You can't even acknowledge how much money you have given Illinois politicians. You can't admit that you gave this Governor $200K or that you are No. 2 in the $25K club.
Furthermore. It's not always money that strokes the game of pay-to-play. Power is also a strong influence.
space
the final frontier
"You reference concern about back room political deals and cronyism in your email. Let me assure you this is nothing of the sort."
nothing of the sort?
no meetings took place w/o the park councils?
the meetings are either public or they're not
or it's not cronyism because Dick & Dorothy Gregory and Ginderske and Steans are not cronies?
Hugh said, "Leasing the building to a private, not-for-profit will mean LESS youth programming in our community." In my opinion this is exactly what will happen.
As a freelance writer, one of the services I offer is writing grant proposals for community groups and nonprofit organizations.
Nonprofits compete for governmental, corporate and private funds. It's not pretty but it is a fact. Fundraising and development are the cornerstones of any nonprofit. It has to be. Good intentions don’t pay the gas bill, keep the lights on or pay staff. Bringing in a national organization like the Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) will have a negative effect on the ability for these grassroots organizations to develop the programs and provide the infrastructure necessary for sustainability. They simply can’t compete on the same level with this titanic organization.
Sister Cecilia’s letter provided a litany of youth services already up and running in this area. She lists, “the youth programs run by Howard Area Community Center, Family Matters, Starfish, and Good News Partners Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts, and Northpoint Advancement Center at one point of their history, and Triangle Park Corporation which ran summer events for youth, including co-sponsoring with the Howard Area's seniors club a softball program every Sat afternoon with snacks for 2 years.”
Instead of bringing in yet another organization dedicated to building leadership in our youth, why isn’t Joe Moore working in partnership with the organizations already in place doing that very thing right here in Rogers Park? Why isn’t he working to make sure they have access to everything they need at the Gale Community Center to thrive? Why, instead, is he so eager to hand the place over to a national entity with no direct ties to the community, no investment in the community and no real need to be accountable to the community?
Is it because they can guarantee him yet more good press? (When was the last time you heard about Starfish on the local news programs?) Is it because they can afford multimillion dollar conferences, banquets and award dinners and he hopes/expects to be a key note speaker or special award winner – all this just in time for his run for Congress? Leaving a legacy of BGCA behind is a lot sexier than just a no-name community center, now isn’t it?
Family Matters is just one of the brilliant leadership, anti-gang, anti-drug youth programs offered in the North of Howard area and yet I feel certain that if the BGCA settle into the Gale Community Center they will be in danger of losing at least some of the funding they already have and will find it difficult to secure new funding to expand their programs. Why? Because there will be redundancy in the programs they offer or hope to offer verses BGCA. Because they do not have the numbers of participants BGCA can recruit from outside of the neighborhood. Because they do not have the high public, national profile BGCA enjoys. Need I go on? Oh, yeah, and Family Matters employs neighborhood and community residents. Will BGCA?
I’m not interested in starting a debate around whether the BGCA has something to offer Rogers Park’s youth, I’m just saying bringing it to the Gale Community Center could have a profoundly negative effect on the futures of the grassroots youth groups already working so hard in our community.
- PEACE -
You're all crazy fascists. Jim Ginderske wanted the Boys and Girls Club, so that should be good enough for you all! To question my dear, sweet friend Jim is an insult to this neighborhood. He will be your savior, but you're all too blind to see that! Accept what we hand you and be grateful.
Seems that folks are missing the bigger issue here: political commitment to open government. To my way of thinking, the issue isn't really B&G club, but politicans, government agencies (CPD), etc. being open from the get-go and inclusive of citizens -- volunteers and the general community.
For the sake of discussion, let's give everyone good (or mostly good) intentions. Steans was called and asked for help; being a helpful person (she has been nothing but helpful in my dealings with her), she rushes to help. CPD, wanting to open the Field house but having budget problems (or whatever) scrambles for a solution to get the facility serving the community; Moore, not wanting to suffer the eyesore of an unopen/unused facility, hustles to facilitate something, anything to get things moving. All these parties want the facility open (whether their motives are pure or not) and serving the community -- in some way -- asap. However, no one thought to call the citizen volunteers and notify the community of the problems/challenges at hand. Why not?
Because open government is HARD WORK. It means taking the time to communicate in a timely fashion; it means dealing with lots of stakeholders and their myriad wishes and desires and passions. It may even mean making yourself look not great (e.g., why weren't we informed of problems earlier?). It also means abdicating some power to a larger group. Consensus building is tough work and when you seek consensus you give up power and control. Find me 5 politicos and/or beaurocrats who are keen on that.
Everyone talks about open government, and they may even mean it. Until they are part of government. Then the story changes.
Meanwhile, us citizens scream about this incident, that issue, the micro matter at hand, and we lose sight of the real problem -- forcing politicans to actually DO open government, to invite us to the party. As long as we don't hold our politicians accountable to open government we'll fight a million little battles, some of which we'll win, but we're losing the war. We vote our pocket books, our political persuasion, this and that issue. But none of it really matters, does it, if the people we invite to hold office aren't committed to open government.
As for Steans' response to the queries: she responded to Craig and in a timely fashion. Like her response or not -- she answered which is more than I've seen from most of our elected officials, maybe ever. I wouldn't put more than $20 on it but I would bet that Steans will give consideration to the process involved in open government as she moves forward. As for the state senator who reps Touhy to the city limits -- well, has anyone ever seen that guy? Give Steans a gold star for doing something that won't get her one vote in the area at hand.
I'm not down with everything Steans thinks, does, says (she seems singularly focused on raising state revenues and not so interested in cutting waste, for instance, which drives me nuts, and what she's doing with J. Ginderske is beyond me), but she is responsive. Around these parts that is something novel and a step in the right direction. Maybe her ethic will raise the bar for the rest.
Pearl delivered a full and tasty dish of WOW for us today! Her entirely powerful and excellent comment included this insight:
"As long as we don't hold our politicians accountable to open government we'll fight a million little battles . . . But none of it really matters, does it, if the people we invite to hold office aren't committed to open government."
Hmmmm. The people we "invite?" I like that a lot. I thank you Pearl for keeping it real.
Here's a shout out from a Rogers Park guy to Pearl and all the WOMEN OF ROGERS PARK with razor sharp minds, a good heart, and the stamina to not just talk on our blogs, but also walk the walk in their own lives and on behalf of our community.
Starting with Pearl, and then to Toni, Jocelyn, Fargo Woman, Eva, Sister Cecilia, Pam, and all the others who I'm sorry I overlooked, you good neighbors ROCK!!!!!
Steans & Moore get along so well because they are both Republicans in their policies running as Democrats only because it is the only way to get elected in their districts
to wit:
Pro-privatization
Whatever it is, the private sector can do it better
Anti-Big Government
The single biggest sin you can commit is to create a public sector job
Pro-Free Market
Accountability is to free market economics, not to taxpayers
If North of Howard needs services, then the private sector will provide them, otherwise they are not needed, by definition
We will be better off if we can simply remove the artificial shackles cons training the free market.
Why should private industry be forbidden from operating out of publicly-built facilities?
"For my part, I will help when I can but stayed focused on my work on the state budget mess as well."
great idea
focus on YOUR JOB
then focus ON YOUR DISTRICT
then GO THE FUCK AWAY
this isn't innovative
a museum in Grant Park
a soccer field in Lincoln Park
a senior center in Warren Park
it's the same shit, different park
The land bank?
by Mick Dumke, Chicago Reader
"This is an encroachment on limited green space. ...
Why is parkland free land for them? We do really think the Park District is beginning to be considered the local land bank. We need our Park District to stand up right in the beginning—the commissioners should be our protectors."
Senator Steans said...> "I hope we can come to enough of a consensus to welcome these useful services and not deny our children this programming over unnecessary miscommunication or unfounded accusations."
The only one's making "unfounded accusations" is Joe Moore's underground public relations smear team. All the while Joe Moore remains silent on the issue.
Hugh said, "Steans & Moore get along so well because they are both Republicans in their policies running as Democrats only because it is the only way to get elected in their districts."
Hugh, you are spot on! I have never seen Joe's political policies (at least pertaining to Rogers Park) so succinctly put. Thanks!
- PEACE -
"Let the market decide."
-Joe Moore
Moore's Republican Attitude
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