Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Rogers Park Crime "Much Worse" than Edgewater, According to Ex-Edgewater Chamber of Commerce Director
Sheli Lulkin, retired executive director of the Edgewater Chamber of Commerce, lives on the boundary of the 20th and 24th districts and gets to compare the two. Lulkin says she has witnessed gang activity on numerous occasions and says Rogers Park in comparison to Edgewater "tends to be much worse, crime-wise." Source/Read more.
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32 comments:
The 024th District does have more crime than the 020th District. But that's not a good barometer because 020 is considered a retirement home by most coppers. Then again, so is the rest of Area 3.
WEll, that doesn't surprise me - what's a retirement home?
Its like the New Orleans Saint in the 80's and 90's.
Still a pro team but with a very senior staff.
Still a police headquarters but a very senior staff.
Wins the home games.
Archie Manning and Mortan Anderson were pretty cool. Morten just needed the ball on the 45 and he was %90 for 3.
Missed that second attempt at Soldier Field though.
Almost no comparison between Edgewater and Rogers Park, especially now that Senn is an ROTC school with nice, polite, friendly students.
In 1997, Edgewater was worse, so I came here.
Congrats to Mary Ann Smith, who maintains an online list of "problem" buildings and diligently goes after bad landlords. She does things I don't agree with, sometimes, after all she's human. But by and large she does a great job for the 48th.
It's a place where coppers you have worked high crime areas for years go to when they want to get away from it all. Little crime, good restaurants, real victims instead of todays victim, tommorrows offender type people, a nice lake etc.,etc. Generally a nice place to be. The sad thing is that there are now alot of young coppers working in places like that who haven't paid their dues. They get assigned to places like 020 and 024 right out of the academy. IMHO, no new copper should be sent to any district in Area 3. They should be sent to districts like 011,015,025,006,007 etc., none of which are in or anything like those districts that comprise Area3.
proGun, I love your analogy. My friend worked gangs for years and just got an nice desk job in the
20th.
You are all just crazy. Crime is down. The Alder-Joke says so.
Funny, but when crime happens in Edgewater, it gets reported on the news as either Uptown (20th) or Rogers Park (24th). That gives the perception that nothing happens in Edgewater.
Example with the dead body of the woman (wearing just a tee-shirt) was found recently in the alley at Foster and Kenmore many news organizations reported it as "Uptown".
The Chicago Lodge (now closed) on Foster by the Dominicks had a murder (dead woman found hanging in closet) this past summer, again it was reported as Uptown.
So don't be confused by the district as Edgewater overlaps two districts.
Also, let's give a cheer to the Edgewater block clubs and the Edgewater Community Council. There are lots and lots of people involved in their community thru their community organizations.
You can do it too. It just take work. Join something and do something.
I really agree with you, Big Daddy. We do need more cops down here in the 25th district. The cops seem to be trying real hard to prevent all the things popping off here in NW Avondale but they need more cops to patrol the area and stuff like that.
The woman found in the alley close to Kenmore and Foster was not murdered.
This was most likely a suicide. I hate that suicides even have to be reported and wish they weren't in the newspaper. It's a strictly personal tragedy and it just makes it harder for the poor victim's family when it's really public.
Wasn't Edgewater part of Uptown some years ago? That could be why people don't know where the boundaries are, although I think that was many years ago. That's why we're Neighborhood Area #77 out of 77 on the official maps. Foster to Devon, the Lake to Ravenswood or thereabouts...that's Edgewater. Reviewers keep giving places like Uncommon Ground to Rogers Park...UH uh...that's ours! :) Wish we had a good blog like this one and several other good Rogers Park ones. RP is much better blogged, as far as I can tell.
Could there be more single family housing in Edgewater? I don't know.
Look at the metrics of Edgewater / 48th Ward vs Rogers Park / 49th Ward.
Edgewater has a smaller footprint than RP. The 48th ward is smaller in square blocks because about 1/3 the residents live in highrises. Except for the area around Loyola, RP is mainly low rise buildings, and smaller single family, or two/three flats.
Adlermanic districts are determined by population. 49th ward is more spread out because the people live in smaller buildings. Go west and the ward bounderies are even bigger. Because about a 1/3 of the population of the 48th ward living in highrises on Sheridan, in buildings that are either condo or of higher rent you get a better class of people.
Even on Winthrop and Kenmore (from Lawrence to Devon) many of these smaller buildings have gone condo. For those of you that want to praise Alderman Smith for her care and concern, perhaps you should really look at the rate of condo conversions as a key to the drop in crime. The more homeownership, the less likely you will have crime.
Which brings me to wonder why, everytime a proposal comes to RP for larger type condo buildings writers on the blog howl and complain. Too much traffic you all whine about. Well if there was more traffic (both cars and pedistrians) on Morse, Jarvis and Howard maybe RP would be a better place.
sammys - I never get it and wonder the same thing - home owners and condo buildings will always take better care of the property - you can easily walk around and know which building are low rent by just looking at them and the snow isn't shoveled in front. So what? There's a few more cars - if that means less crime and better care of property - I'm all for it!
Minnie Mouse is correct: Any crime north of the 24th/20th district boundary, which is Thorndale from the lake to Broadway & Elmdale west of there is reported as a Rogers Park crime because the district's name is 'Rogers Park'. There was a movement to rename the district 'Far North' a short time ago just to end that.
Most of us in RP aren't opposed to condo conversions, just all the new condo buildings which are vastly out of scale compared to either the buildings they replace or the other buildings around them. These new buildings also don't have enough parking.
There is a small group of fools that are opposed to condo conversions, but most of them are unreconstructed 60s, movement types.
They're opposed to almost everything.
My guess why "the rate of condo conversions ... a key to the drop in crime. " is there are no section 8 condo owners.
You get a better class of people with higher rent and more home ownership.
In recent years, many people of limited means were able to get financing for condo ownership.
Better class is not a matter of economics.
Sammys is spot on.
good restaurants
Are you kidding?
Not in 024. 19, 23 have that.
The sandwich nazi on Touhy or Kabob are not good......
"...these new buildings also don't have enough parking" I know this is off-topic but am I the only one sick of people using the parking issue as an excuse to rail against new development. Maybe if there were fewer parking spaces there would be fewer cars? Isn't this what we all want?? Atrios has some great commentary about how urban city planning / development is really hamstrung by this notion of the parking space as inalienable god-given right.
Judging from the scanner lunch calls, police love the 6900 and 7000 block of north Western the most in 024. Farwell and Sheridan is another popular lunch call.
I'm with marcum....Rogers Park was built as a commuter community. We have a unique and important asset with the CTA running thru the center of our neighborhood. We need to focus on and make the most of this tremendous asset not clamor for more parking. For those who aren't aware, check out this new partnership between the CTA and I-GO; http://igocarsharing.blogspot.com/2009/01/cta-and-i-go-team-up.html
What a great idea and it's the kind of thing 'everybody',(condo developers, rental building owners and our Alderman) ought to be promoting big time.
Here's a better link to the
CTA/I-GO card program: http://www.igocars.org/chicago_card_plus
And on a related aesthetic / safety note: Edgewater may have less crime, but those god-awful parking structures at the base of all those high-rises lining Sheridan makes for one hell of an unpleasant pedestrian experience. I think a stroll along Sheridan in RP is much more enjoyable.
Well, better than where I work anyway.
But I'm not sure why you worry about parking - people figure it out and find a spot on street, buy/rent in a building that has parking, rent a spot or get rid of their car. I live in other neighborhoods where we had sticker street parking - I knew that if I wanted my car and not go crazy - I would have to pay for a spot - really no big mystery to it all.
Craig, you're correct about the 6900-7000 block of Western Ave. for lunch breaks. There are always cop cars parked by Mike's Gyros (Lunt & Western). In addition, I go to Mullen's every weekend to watch football and it is a very popular lunch spot for cops. Mullen's is named for Jim Mullen who was shot and paralyzed while on duty (near Lunt and Glenwood) and he is even in there sometimes.
RP60645,
Does Bridgett still tend bar at Mullen's on Sunday?
Mike's aka Kimmies is a friendly place for coppers. Kim threw out Naisy Dolar one Sunday morning for bothering customers while running against Bernie Stone.
I am not sure that you get a "better class of people" with higher rents.
I live in a wonderful rental, and my landlords make a point of pricing the apartments here under the market and keeping rents low for tenured tenants, so they get a bigger pool of renters to choose from and can be choosier about who to rent to.
This is one of the most beautiful buildings in the neighborhood and is in much better condition than many comparable condos I viewed, most of which would have been a steep comedown from the place I have rented here for 8 years.
On the other hand, absolutely wretched apartments in filthy buildings are priced as much as 30% higher than mine for apartments about the size of my place, yet much inferior. Why? Because they target Section 8 clients, who will only be paying a fraction of the rent charged- the government will pick up the rest.
I don't believe that a slum apt priced at $1200 a month draws a "better" class of people than my $900 apt, inhabited by people who are not subsidized and therefore have to live within their means and hopefully save money.
Higher priced apartments only draw better tenants if they are also higher quality. Overpriced apartments only draw subsidized tenants, and give the slumlord lavish profits for tearing up the neighborhood.
You will notice that Edgewater is liberally stuffed with cheap apartments, but community vigilance and the willingness to enforce codes makes all the difference. The hive-like 4+1 and corridor buildings are still there, lining Kenmore and Winthrop, but they are much better buildings than they were 10 years ago. Code enforcement and a rigid stance of non-tolerance for bad buildings is the difference between Edgewater and Rogers Park.
'GANG SHRINES' AND THE 24th POLICE DISTRICT
In relation to the crime situation in our community, I want to relate the following to all 49th Ward residents:
I attended a meeting last night (Friday, Jan. 16th) as a member of the NoH Parks' Advisory Council's Security Committee. In addition to Chicago Park District personnel (program, facilities and security), Sargent John Delgado, 24th District, was in attendance. When the subject of 'gang shrines' came up, Sgt. Delgado informed us that it was the 'policy' of the 24th District to allow 'gang shrines' to remain, in place on public property, for up to 48 hours. I was dumbfounded by this revelation, as I'm sure all law abiding RP (24th District) residents will be. I strongly voiced my objection to this 'policy' as completely absurd and ridiculous on a number of levels. This 'attitude'/policy is a serious affront to our residents and our community. It should be officially discontinued, immediately. There should be a zero tolerance to ANY glorification or tolerance of gang activity, period, particularly on the part of our Police District personnel. I intend to pursue this matter further, with STRONG objections to Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis, 24th District Commander David Sobczyk, as well as 49th Ward Alderman Joe Moore. I strongly urge ALL residents of our community to do the same.
Voice your feelings and opinion now to:
police@cityofchicago.org
jody.weis@chicagopolice.org
David.Sobczyk@chicagopolice.org
ward49@cityofchicago.org
mcl, I am absolutely stupefied by CPD's policy regarding gang shrines. If this is true- and I have no reason to doubt you- then it's easy to see not only why we and so many other communities can't get a handle on the crime.
This policy is known as "enabling."
I would call it "encouragement, or "criminal coddling."
Looks like we need to have another public safety meeting very soon, to address this, and discover what other policies there are that give encouragement and comfort to criminals.
What 'we' need immediately, is for the community to express their outrage at this by e-mailing and telephoning the offices of the 24 District Commander, Superintendent Weis and Joe Moore, in large numbers. I have sent this to the Tribune and The Chicago Journal as well the CPD Office of Professional Standards. Please spread the word.
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