Because the 'Boys and Girls Club' wasn't involved in the opening of Gale Community Center, a overzealous political operative for Joe Moore has been spreading false information about the status of the building. It's sad that the community has to put up with this publicly elected official using slimy surrogates to put out false information regarding the new Gale Community Center. It's even slimier the elected official couldn't even acknowledge the facility is now open to the public in one of his so-called community email blasts.
What a spiteful and bitter man Joe Moore can be. He's also sore loser too.
21 comments:
Just another example of Joe moving forward and building consensus!
He's a man of the people!
What was the information being spread by the overzealous political operative?
Ask, and I shall receive.
August 5, 2008
11:20:13 AM CDT
Dear Neighbor,
The Gale Community Center at Howard and Marshfield is now open. The 18,000-sqaure-foot Chicago Park District facility comes complete with a full-size gym, a fitness center and a large club room, which can be subdivided into two smaller rooms.
The center will be open Monday through Friday from 12 Noon to 8 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The center will be closed on Sundays. The Community Center will be staffed and operated exclusively by the Park District.
The opening is the culmination of a twelve-year effort to bring to our neighborhood a community center that began when I secured a $500,000 commitment from the original developer of the Gateway Centre. Initially, many in the neighborhood envisioned the future Community Center as a Boys and Girls Club. When it became apparent that sufficient funds were not available to build and operate the center as a Boys and Girls Club, we turned our attention to the Park District, which agreed to underwrite a portion of the construction cost and operate the building as a Park District field house.
There were times when it appeared the City and Park District were about to back away from their pledge to build the community center. But thanks to the efforts of my office and a coalition of community groups, we were able to hold the City and the Park District to their commitment.
The idea of the Gale Community Center as home to a Boys and Girls Club came full circle when the Cotter Boys and Girls Club mentioned to me last April that they were looking for a new home. Given that the Community Center had yet to be fully staffed and occupied, and given earlier public support for a Boys and Girls Club in Rogers Park, I believed it was an idea worth exploring. I raised the idea with Park District Superintendent Tim Mitchell, who expressed strong interest.
I also shared the proposal with numerous residents and the leading community organizations in the area, nearly all of whom expressed strong support for the idea, including Neighbors for a Healthy Rogers Park, Dev Corp North, Gale Academy Principal Richard Glass, Family Matters Director Kim Delong, State Senator Heather Steans, and my former aldermanic opponent Jim Ginderske. They all agreed the Boys and Girls Club would bring to our local youth expanded programming and other enrichment activities, which the Park District currently does not provide. Gale Principal Glass, a Boys and Girls Club alumnus, was so excited about the proposal he offered Gale Academy as a satellite location to the Community Center.
Under the shared-use proposal, the Park District and the Boys and Girls Club would have jointly operated the Community Center Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. The Center would have also been open on both Saturdays and Sundays. Programming for adults, as well as children, would have been offered.
In addition to expanding the Gale Center hours and staffing, the Boys and Girls Club would have brought to Rogers Park some of their renowned character building and leadership programs, such as the Keystone Teen Leadership Club, which takes teens on trips to cities as varied as Atlanta, Orlando, and Washington, D.C.
The Boys and Girls Club also would have brought to Rogers Park mentoring and tutoring programs, such as their partnership with WGN-TV in which school age children and teens are paired with responsible caring adults who commit time each week to meet and work with the young people on school projects and homework assignments. As a result of these and other programs, nearly 90% of Cotter Boys and Girls Club members graduate from high school, a remarkable fete in a school system with a 50% graduation rate.
Despite the benefits a Boys and Girls Club would bring to the neighborhood, a few vocal people began organizing against the Boys and Girls Club idea even before a formal proposal was presented to the neighborhood. A few of the skeptics had thoughtful concerns about the proposal, including concerns about the precedent of turning over the Community Center to a private entity. The supporters of the proposal and I attempted to address those concerns by amending the proposal to ensure the building would continue to be owned by the Park District and staffed by Park District employees.
However, as Chicago Reader reporter Ben Joravsky noted in his article, "Endless War," most of the opposition to the Boys and Girls Club appeared to be politically motivated. The opponents said they were not against a Boys and Girls Club in Rogers Park. Yet, they opposed the only plan with a funding source that made it possible for a Boys and Girls Club to locate here.
In the end, Park District officials simply did not have the stomach for a fight and decided instead to pursue a significantly scaled down version of the original Boys and Girls Club proposal. Rather than subsidize a permanent year-round Boys and Girls Club presence in Rogers Park, the Park District now says it may be willing to subsidize a summer program in 2009.
I certainly support any kind of Boys and Girls Club presence in Rogers Park, even a limited summer program. But I'm extremely disappointed that our children will miss out on all the many benefits and opportunities that a year-round club would bring.
In the coming months, I will redouble my efforts to bring a full-time Boys and Girls Club to the 49th Ward, and I invite everyone, including those who opposed the Boys and Girls Club at the Community Center, to work with me to identify a funding source and location for such a club.
Sincerely,
Joe Moore
Jesus, could Joe come off as more of a whiney sore loser?
A few vocal individuals ruined everything?
Please, Joe's just pissed because he tried to make a typical Joe Moore end run for his own purposes, and he got slapped down for it!
Maybe Joe should separate himself from the big, bad union boys who worked so hard to help him keep his job.
Or maybe Joe should shut the fuck up and do what the community wants.
Jesus, that guy does nothing but embarrass himself.
Wow, so many outright lies and twisted facts, where to begin...
We'll have to come up with an annotated "truth" version.
Joe has lost it -- really off the deep end. No way Obama will find a job for this loser.
There is no other way to put it...Joe Moore is a LIAR, plain and simple!! Joe's e-mail closed with..."In the coming months, I will redouble my efforts to bring a full-time Boys and Girls Club to the 49th Ward, and I invite everyone, including those who opposed the Boys and Girls Club at the Community Center, to work with me to identify a funding source and location for such a club."
I suggest he contact Principal Richard Glass at the Gale Math and Science Academy who stated in a letter dated July 9, 2008, "I am writing this letter to express my very strong desire to have the Daniel Cotter Boys and Girls Club partner with the Gale Academy, becoming a new School-Based Club." This is exactly what S.O.C.C., the Gale park Advisory Council and over 400 petition signers have been advocating since learning of Moore's 'backroom deal' to privatize the long awaited Park District Community Center. The statement that the Community Center was "originally envisioned as a Boys and Girls Club" simply flys in the face of the TRUTH! It's one lie, among others, contained in his very disingenuous e-mail!
Joe Moore clearly needs a large dose of pills to maintain a grip on reality. Except today he forgot to take his medication.
Joe Moore is delusional.
Amazing how he made his email sound like he is such a wonderful and great guy trying to do the best thing - what a joke - he got knocked down by the people - way to go all !!
Moore said....> "The Boys and Girls Club also would have brought to Rogers Park mentoring and tutoring programs, such as their partnership with WGN-TV in which school age children and teens are paired with responsible caring adults who commit time each week to meet and work with the young people on school projects and homework assignments.
Are you saying only the Boys and Girls club partnering with WGN can do this?
Where are the parents, Mr. Moore. Isn't that their duty?
Wow! That is some report from no moore! I guess the "PEOPLE" of Roers Park see the world as a place
where when asked the Alderman replies "Why?' but the people who live and breathe Rogers Park ask " Why Not" and once again, despite the"Why" the people get the job done!
Go People of Rogers Park!!!!!
Power to the People! Join the neighborhood for our annual 'National Night Out & Block Party' at Gale Park tonight from 5:30 PM to 9 PM! For those who have not had a chance to see the new Park District operated, Gale Park Community Center, it will be open until 9PM!
nice job, neighbors. one more good project shot down by the whiners.
"Initially, many in the neighborhood envisioned the future Community Center as a Boys and Girls Club."
wha??????
Amazing isn't it? After 5 1/2 years of monthly meetings with an absence of Joe or his office - he comes up with the 'original plan was...! He came to meetings when asked (begged or demanded to) not to help with any planning. Of course, this project was in the making when I arrived in 2002. AND yes, I recall a cold January groundbreaking photo op.
Joe always referred to it as a community center - never a BGC until recently. I wish he'd clarify who contacted who. An earlier email blast stated a board member, Dick Gregory mentioned the need to find a new home and Joe turned it over to Ginderske and voila - a collective voice is heard. Today it spun into the BGC contacted him. In fact, todays blast was so much spin it was almost funny.
Is it 18000Sf or 16000SF after all the years of stalling? He keeps referring to 'last April' wouldn't you say this past April to clarify or define 07 from 08? Not to mention staff had been hired and was being shuffled from park to park waiting for the building to open - so it was staffed - not open yet. Minute detail for a lay person.
Bet the feds would love to know where dear Rudy Mulder is who pledged money but never gave a dime. He's on the lam isn't he?
Thank you petition signers, poll responders and rally neighbors. For Joe to make it a bunch of whiners was really sad. He changed direction, did not get any kind of input from EVERYONE and as he stated earlier, he would bring it to the community AFTER the agreement! Some input - another done deal to shove down our throats. Just like those poor ducks and geese huh?
That 10 to 1 support Moore so bragged about in June evaporated quickly.
That 10 to 1 support Joe talked about never existed and was just another of his many LIES about this. He's lost 'it'! I don't know how he can look at himself in the mirror or face anyone. In a sense, he's to be pitied.
"The Community Center will be staffed and operated exclusively by the Park District."
YEA!
" ... the Boys and Girls Club would bring to our local youth expanded programming and other enrichment activities ... "
huh
that's funny
no mention of returning the $14,500 Moore took from his pal the dead-beat demolisher of the Adelphi, which would enrich the lives of the Zuric children
perhaps Moore will address his plans for this dirty filthy money he stole from children in a future e-mail blast
" ... a few vocal people began organizing against the Boys and Girls Club
... most of the opposition to the Boys and Girls Club appeared to be politically motivated."
NO ONE organized against the Boys and Girls Club.
In his old age (50+) Moore sounds more & more like Bernie Stone: anyone who disagrees with him is "politically motivated"
"I'm extremely disappointed that our children will miss out on all the many benefits and opportunities that a year-round club would bring."
I wonder if Moore is disappointed at the Zuric children missing out on all the many benefits that food and clothing bring?
he doesn't say
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