....Visiting Rogers Park became too depressing, too heartrending. My memories of the old neighborhood are too sharp, too distinct, my love for the neighborhood that I grew up in too intense, and my visits too infrequent, to bear the change that I, like any sane person, recognize as inevitable in an urban environment. On my last trip back—to inter my mother’s remains in Calvary Cemetery—my brother informed me that the Adelphi theater, which had been a second-run house when we were kids, our neighborhood movie theater, had been torn down.After reading all these 'Reader' stories, I got a new slogan for our neighborhood.
So I retreated, on visits home, to neighborhoods I knew less well, to places that were familiar enough but where I barely noticed the tiny alterations and didn’t take the big ones personally. Chicago will always be home. So I’ll continue to come home for visits, and I’ll continue to annoy the boyfriend. But I’ll continue to miss—as in skip—Rogers Park......
Source/Read more.
Avoid Rogers Park.
22 comments:
That stuff was mild. I've loved living here (near Farwell and Glenwood) since 2004 and in that time no one has trashed and misrepresented this neighborhood as much as this blog has.
Larry catches on fast.
Here is is boys & girls the offical word from joey on crime.
We all must believe!!!!
Statistics Reveal Mixed Results on Crime
Dear Neighbor,
The Chicago Police Department released its 2008 crime statistics, and it's a mixed bag for our neighborhood.
The good news is that total index crime in the 24th Police District fell 1.3% in 2008 as compared to 2007. The 24th District was one of only four police districts in the city that experienced an overall reduction in index crime. Citywide, index crime was up 2.5%.
Index crimes include violent crimes, such as murder, sexual assault, robbery and aggravated assault and aggravated battery, and serious property crimes, such as burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft and arson.
The 2008 drop in overall crime continues a trend that began in our neighborhood in the mid-1990s with the introduction of community policing. Since 1994, index crime in the 24th District has fallen by over 50%.
The news is not all good, however. The statistics reveal an increase in violent index crime in the 24th District, mostly due to a sharp increase in robberies in the Howard Street area. The 24th District saw a 13.9% increase in violent index crime, including a 28.4% increase in robberies.
This spike in robberies and other violent crime led 24th District Police Commander David Sobczyk to launch his Howard Street anti-crime initiative, which includes an increased police presence and zero tolerance strategy in the Howard Street area. Commander Sobczyk just started his new job in January, and is determined to bring down the violent crime levels in our neighborhood.
Making our neighborhood safe is not just a police responsibility--it's everyone's responsibility. The safest neighborhoods are the neighborhoods where the residents get involved. I urge you to join the hundreds of community residents who attend CAPS meetings and who vigilantly report any incidents of crime and suspicious behavior. Neighborhood safety is truly a team effort, and the 49th Ward boasts the most active and committed citizenry of any ward in the city.
If you haven't yet done so, I urge you to become involved with CAPS , Chicago's community policing effort. Citizens meet with the police officers who patrol their neighborhood every month in each of the nine police beats in the 24th District. Together, the police and citizens identify neighborhood hotspots and develop crime reduction strategies.
Click here to find the date and location of the beat meeting in your area.
Together, we will make the 49th Ward the safest ward in the city!
Sincerely,
Joe Moore
joey knows & speaks the truth!! YEA RIGHT!! joey get your head out your ass!!
Joe Moore has to be the dumbest elected official in the city of Chicago with this comment.
===Making our neighborhood safe is not just a police responsibility--it's everyone's responsibility. The safest neighborhoods are the neighborhoods where the residents get involved.===
Remember folks, Joe's very own office is on Jarvis. In the last couple months there has been two armed hold-ups (that we're aware of), including one to his very own chief of staff.
There's been a gang murder.
Note to Joe. When you send out this dribble, make sure you've got your own bases covered first. You hypocrite.
What? We now consider Dan Savage and his brother Bill as legitimate critics of Rogers Park? I don't know who Bill Savage is so I'll give him a pass, but Dan Savage makes a living by writing useless filthy columns that are intended to shock idiots and morons who have no sex lives of their own. Next time he visits R.P., he should wipe the homosexual cum out of his eyes first.
Actually, the Savage brothers memories were bittersweet, and Dan is right, the loss of so many of our landmarks is sad.
After reading all these 'Reader' stories, I got a new slogan for our neighborhood.
I have my own slogan that I find relevant here.
Fuck the Reader.
No no, seriously. What would a tabloid know, anyhow?
One of the funniest things to come out of this who thing is the online ranting of Tom Mannis about how the Reader asked him to remove their photo from his blog. Who the hell wails the lousest if someone dares to use one of his snapshots?
I love it. The most two-faced blogger in Rogers Park!
I don't measure Rogers Park against other neighborhoods in the City.
I measure it against other lower rent areas of the city. I've lived in four. This is the first that felt like a vibrant living neighborhood.
I love it here.
LOL Roger, thanks for pointing out that silliness.
I really don't get the big deal here. It's not like the Reader is, or ever was, a publication that carries with it any hint of respect to begin with. Shit, I'm more likely to take the Red Eye seriously than the Reader. Especially, if all of a sudden they're now pretending to be big blogging critics.
I really think everybody is taking this too seriously.
I followed the link and read the whole article. My father used to rave about the Grenada Theater- he went to Loyola, Rogers Park campus in the 50's and my mother attended the downtown campus.
Some of my fondest theater memories were at the Patio, another of my dad's favorites. I wonder what's going to happen to the Patio- seems like it's been abandoned for a while... Talking with my father put the city in perspective- he used to go to school mixers at the Aragon Ballroom, when it was a ballroom, and he recalled when Uptown, was actually "uptown"!
I feel like I missed a time when living in the city was exciting, now living in Rogers Park just feels like an extension of living in the near suburbs, places like Forest Park, Norridge and Niles... sterile. What Rogers Park needs is an indoor mall with a multilevel parking structure!
Larry, atleast you can thank this blog for keeping the rents low)
I remember Rogers Park before blogs and "strangers" came here. What a beutiful place it was. I have over 28 years of memories from this place the 80's and early 90's were the best!
Keep up the good work.
Um, if anyone knew how to read they might see that The Reader is not trashing Rogers Park. But again, you might want to learn to read before you pick up “The Reader.” Oh, and Chip, you’re kind of an asshole, aren’t you?
I agree that the tantrum being thrown by Tom Mannis is the best part of this whole tempest in a teapot.
The Reader politely asks him not to use their photography (something he's always screaming at others about) and he starts making crazy demands of them on his blog and talking about throwing newspapers in the streets.
If there is no real issue at hand, he'll make one up!
I cannot stop laughing.
Oh. My. God.
Just when you thought it couldn't get any funnier, that Mannis guy continues his tirade about the Chicago Reader!! It is such an incredible non-issue, were it not for this Mannis guy continuing to babble about it!
I'll bet my last dime that the guys over at The Reader, who he has now seemingly called, are getting quite a few office giggles out of this.
This is truly the best show in town!
Lord the Mannis thing is hilarious.
I'm seriously starting to wonder if Tom Mannis is a Joe Moore plant, meant to discredit those that would be critical of him.
you know what area i avoid?
lincoln park
I grew up there and it has been sanitized to the point that i barely recognize it.
its been autoclaved....
not gentrified.
boohoo mr or miss
pity party....
and when i say i avoid lincoln park, i really only avoid my old building and its immediate vicinity, there are some traces of the old neigborhood so i still go thru it, i wont ever ban any neigborhood completely, so the commenters comments are ofcourse stupid....
ok what about the morse theatre writer person?
how many other theatres have been knocked down?
i dont avoid evanston because the evanston and coronet theatres are now gone, i do miss them dearly, but what can i do?
i cant go back in time with a bunch of dough and save them......
can I?
ok wait, im going to try....
Autoclaved...I do like that word, Jeffo. Not having grown up in Lincoln Park, I do go there sometimes. I'm in Edgewater and lament its dullness but sometimes forget we have Andersonville.
Scott, Edgewater may be "dull", but it is also safe (mostly), sweet, relaxed, friendly, and pretty, with lots of amenities in the form of necessary commercial and good transit, very close at hand. Additionally, it has lovely beaches,a big variety of interesting architecture, and it's very affordable while being reasonably safe and very clean.
You can't have everything. If we want "excitement", we can surely jump a train down to trendier nabes for an evening, or walk over to Andersonville.
Or..we can start building our own excitement. The possibilities are there. The Broadway anti-streetscape is begging to be rebuilt along lines more in keeping with an urban neighborhood, and over the years this will be done, brick by brick, building by building.
Edgewater and Rogers Park are two of the most attractive areas on the lakefront, and could be havens for middle class people priced out of trendier nabes. Leave those to the kids just out of college who like paying $1000 a month for a 400 sq ft studio. Rogers Park admittedly has more work to do, but if Edgewater can overcome the problems it had until 10 years ago, when it was one of the scariest nabes on the north side, then so can Rogers Park, and I'm convinced it will. What will help is that now that housing prices have fallen, many more moderate and middle income buyers will be able to afford to buy Rogers Park condos, and more units will be priced to their expectations. In a couple of years, when the credit situation has stabilized, buyers will come and snap up suddenly affordable units. And they will be good, solid buyers who can genuinely afford their units and not be looking at foreclosure at the first reset.
fondest theater memories were at the Patio, ...seems like it's been abandoned for a while...
Beautiful old place. Reminded me of the old Valencia in Evanston. It's been closed a few years now. I hope it will reopen in some form.
I feel like I missed a time when living in the city was exciting, now living in Rogers Park just feels like an extension of living in the near suburbs, places like Forest Park, Norridge and Niles... sterile. What Rogers Park needs is an indoor mall with a multilevel parking structure!
Please tell me this was intended as sarcasm. RP is anything but sterile.
one other thing
the savage brothers
just focus on the negative
in addition to the morse theatre rehabbed,
the village north is getting a make over and the old theatre at clark and devon is part of the hardware store
so two theatres bit the dust,
thats a tragedy and sad but doesnt warrant avoiding an area,
Loyola is really spurring a revitalization of devon and sheridan,
we can always focus on the positive or negative....
lincoln park definitely had more of an edge to it, esp the north part, but yeah it wasnt ever that bad, but it was a regular neigborhood when i was a kid,
a little fancier than others, but nothing like it is now,
somethings are better and somethings are worse and somethings havent changed just like anywhere else in chicago
So, when you trash Rogers Park its okay but when the reader does it its wrong. You take 2 or 3 areas of this large neighborhood, focus entirely on them, leaving anyone who reads your blog with the impression that the whole area is a hell hole. I've been in Rogers Park for a long time and the areas you continually rail on Morse, Howard, Rogers, have always been the worst areas of the neighborhood. That's not gonna change until residents stop being apathetic and kick Moore's do nothing arse out of office. But you fella, are being a total hypocrite in your indignation over the reader's article. Nothing written in the piece was as harsh as some of your posts.
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