Would it disappoint you to find out a community planning process took place - only after it happened? Are you free on Saturday, September 26 for a few hours...?
This past Monday night, about 35 neighbors from in and around Rogers Park attended the first of what will hopefully be several community meetings to help chart the future direction of Partners for Rogers Park, a coalition of organizations and residents, which is working to foster positive community development and to secure a just and healthy Rogers Park. PRP includes an array of groups. There are also a handful of individual members, but right now residents are outnumbered by staff from organizations (though it is only fair to say about half of the group leaders like myself are also proud to say we live in the neighborhood).
For the last year-plus, PRP has been putting together a community planning effort. The project has included data collection, interviews with dozens of stakeholders, and the collection of nearly 1,400 surveys, including several hundred from Spanish speaking community residents. Monday's meeting was the first organized peek at what they've discovered and its pretty fascinating. At the, which was held at Loyola Park, participants spent time reviewing the data and talking with each other about what it all meant in terms of Rogers Park being a healthy and just community. The meeting was conducted in English with dual translation in Spanish. The data slides and presentation slides were also in English and Spanish, which was really great.
There was way more information than can be digested in the time provided, which is why PRP also posted the data slides to its website, in hopes people will take a look at the slides and have some conversations about it before they come to a meeting. The next one is September 26 at 10 am. You can get the agenda, slides, and more information at www.partnersforrogerspark.org.
As best I tell, not many people are aware the meetings are even taking place. That's a shame, because this is a community of ideas and opinions. PRP and its members could really benefit from hearing what neighbors think. Neighbors could really benefit from seeing the leaders of the groups at the meetings, asking for direction and guidance.
If this kind of thing sounds even remotely interesting, I am asking you to do 2 things:
1. First, plan to set aside some time on Saturday September 26 to give a few hours to reflecting on and sharing your views about the future of Rogers Park. (There will be food and someone to keep your kids occupied, if either is an issue). The meeting will be from 10 am to 1 pm. The location is being finalized, but you can at least set aside the time.
2. Second, ask a neighbor to come with you. Or maybe three.
Rogers Park is comprised of wonderful, creative, and energetic people who care about our community. You are one of those people. Please consider being a part of this effort, because we need you!
Peace,
Brian White
(by way of background, I work at Lakeside CDC, which is both a long-standing member of PRP and the lead agency of its housing committee. We also helped collect nearly 300 surveys and we want to see them get used by the community!)
33 comments:
Craig - as I read this - I thought it was written by you! Are you attending and/or a part of this group?
Me thinks Brian White may be making a play for a run at Alderman.
The future of Rogers Park?
It was supposed to be the "hot up-and-coming neighborhood", developers where buying crack houses and turning them into condos. It was told that the area was gonna "improve" within a few short years... Then the economy collapsed, people are trying to get the hell outta here but nobody is buying their lame properties (even with big discounts) Crime is as high as always, new half-way houses are opening, gangs are getting bigger and stronger, auto theft on the rise, assaults too... I feel sorry for my neighbors in my building with their newborns and toddlers; would you allow your 10 year old daughter to go play outside like you did when you where a kid?
All of this combined with the large amount of hippie residents that blind themselves into believing this is such an amazing neighborhood makes it for one of the worst areas to live in Chicago.
This may hurt you but deep in your heart you know is true. Rogers Park is gonna get EVEN WORST!
The solution? ...to move away, if you can.
My questions to you, Brian White, are....
Why can't we as a community get you to speak up on crime?
The shootings?
The Gangs?
The Sullivan issue.
The pay-to-play?
The Morse Streetscape?
Why DevCorp changed their name?
Why is Wayne Fraiser working for Joe's politcal campaign and getting paid by the city?
The Adelphi?
And many, many more questions you've remained in the dark on.
We've had dozens of these grand plans done behind our back before. Big whoopdie deal.
Those items listed above are far more important to talk about. Let's start with talking about all the shootings.
Where's the commerce?
Let's talk about all the vacant retail shops that litter Morse Avenue.
When's the Morse Theatre opening again
Craig, may I ask this (dumb question), but what's the "Sullivan issue" you're speaking of? I know we've got thugs in the school, but is there anything else you think we've got issues with @ Sullivan?
By the way, I'll be at Sullivan on Tuesday for sure. My bus driver for the year came by a little while ago, checking out the house to see where exactly I live.
Sullivan issues?
High drop out rate.
FIghting in classes nearly every day.
FIghting in the halls nearly every day.
Street brawls after school that scare the entire community.
The gangs.
H1N1.
Not to mention the football team hasn't had a winning season in years.
All of that fighting in classes/hallways is all from the gangs (mostly), so I just throw that in with gangs, which is all one really big issue. Fighting in schools and street brawls happen(s) alot, so I'm not really suprised by any of it anymore, but something SHOULD be done about this stuff. It still angers/scares me that this stuff happens. I have yet to see a full-blown Sullivan brawl up close and personal, but I've seen a Klimer one which scared the daylights out of me.
Something should be done by the high drop out rate, too.
As for H1N1, that's affecting everyone. It's not just a Sullivan issue. In fact, I think it's affecting the whole country.
And as for the football team, I guess they're not really winning because there's stronger teams out there. The team needs some more training, and players. But there are other sport teams at Sullivan that have won, so I'm glad for that.
midget is funny.
here is a problem midget.
midget answers, answer is to quit.
oh ok. easy.
i dont quit. i dont leave.
when the low income people feel threatened they try to intimidate people. it doesnt work on me though.
overall things have gotten better on my corner. but requires scrutiny, reporting of suspicious activity, of gang people or loudness and picking up trash.
ive put a trashcan outside which people use to throw trash out.
hmmm. or i could just do the midget method and throw my hands up in the air and say "aw forget it, im just lazy"
things are too tough,
the real people who have stayed for years are in it for the long haul, those are the people that i know on my block, people that arent going to say "aw shucks, its too tough", and move on
lame properties?
hmmm. maybe just were bought overpriced.
i wouldnt say there is a massive moveout movement.
there is this weird notion that the area will improve quickly,
its a very slow process.
there are holdout slumlandlords
and such, and absentee landlords,
as they turnover and people who actually care come into the neigborhood then things change.
once someone cares about a property then gangs arent allowed to loiter in front, they just find the next absentee/slum landlord building to hangout in front.
if you dont call the cops or do anything, that is what is lame.
you can complain if you are doing something, if you arent
then you are lame
Want to do something about? Vote in the next aldermatic election and remove Joe. I will bet the midget did not even get out an vote last time around.
My very dearest fellow Rogers Parkers:
Now this sounds like a idea we all should get behind and support. Rogers Park is an amazing and wonderful community full of young and old people of all races and financial levels. We have the very lucky successful people and the very disadvantaged. I think it would be to all of our benefits if we could come up with ways to convince the lucky to part with some of their means and give it to the disadvantaged. That certainly would help stop the perceived danger from "theft" and "muggings" that are so often complained about here. If Mr. Brian White is running for alderman, he certainly will need to convince me that he will do a better job than the generous and thoughtful Mr. Joe Moore. I wonder if my four dog-children will be allowed at this meeting and if there will be care provided for them as well. Thank you.
Why can't a group perform a comparative & comprehensive study of the Lincoln Park,West Loop Gate or Wicker Park models as it transformed from one of urban blight and continuous safety threats to a stable community factoring in geographical,economic and civic variables,neighborhood characteristic retention goals and diversity quotas and foster development plans towards this rather than caterwaul or resigned dismissiveness?
OR
Become cynically proactive by enticing investors to develop and
establish clandestine or camouflaged bottom-line potential,community growth infusion projects with unquestioned political clout in the community thereby establishing a flow of money and constraint?
OR
Why not develop a secret
relationship with a different
city alderman via a bribery of promises which would allow for established investor speculation and sustainable interest in a manner that could not be immediately detected by your current ward administration?
OR
Why not foster a period of temporarily building-up strict intolerence thereby forcing community hazards no other option than to remove themselves by forfeiting their lucrative stake,then gradually re-incorporating levels of guarded
to unconstrained permissiveness
for the focus population?
Admittedly these action outlines,or aspects thereof,may not be expiditiously permissible under the current financial climate yet there are professed signs of economic improvement.
Yet,as an example,what if the LSD expansion were approved.
I hope that it never happens yet if it did wouldn't a project like this infuse much money
and consistent vocational opportunity for the community?
Conceivably the economic benefits wouldn't stop with this!
Imagine having to make that arduous drive north from Uptown or little Indochine(Argyle street)to the Evanston-Skokie-Wilmette triangle and a quick stop at the McDonald's or Speedway gas station located at Pratt and Lake Shore Drive for a beverage.
btw if the neighborhood is a horrible place
then why are properties still being improved.
at the corner of paulina and fargo
the building is getting fixed up.
i wasnt happy that they removed all the old doors. but hey that is the price of "progress"
things arent improving as fast as they used to be, but they are still improving,
on glenwood the east side north of lunt the huge buildings there are being fixed up, they have moved the dumpster north to the next building they are fixing up.
you would have to be blind not to see the improvement of infrastructure and of buildings in the area, and that is what is the basis for neigborhood improvement.
if you dont give a crap about the building, then the neighborhood wont get better.
the bad elements dont like buildings getting fixed up and still linger in front of the still neglected buildings because they want to protect their interest in the neigbhorhood staying bad.
and they dont want it to improve.
but yet it still does, but in a piecemeal fashion.
just like it does all over the city of chicago.
people like midget are either blind or dont understand the process of gentrification or neighborhood improvement,
its building by building and block by block.
the drug dealers on my block live at the 16unit half courtyard building across from the old peoples home on wayne
why?
because the block building was redone into reside at morse
and the drug dealers cant live there anymore.
eventually they wont have any other places to live,
but there are alot of buildings in rogers park
alot of BIG buildings
signed jeffo
i dont leave.
when the low income people feel threatened they try to intimidate people.
Don't fall into this mindset that it's only "low income people" who threaten you. Those guys you feel are a threat? Not all of them are broke. They threaten you because they're NOT "low income" thanks to their...ahem...occupation and want to stay that way.
Unless you were using "low income" as some kind of code...
newgarder, if there's anything I hope,it's that there is NEVER NEVER EVER EVER A MCDONALDS OR GAS STATION AT PRATT AND LAKESHORE.
Most of all, I hope that there is NEVER NEVER a Lake Shore Drive through Rogers Park.
I live in the courtyard building just west of Sheridan on Pratt, a beautiful building, and one of the things I love is being a block from the lovely, quiet beach.
I wish only that the park there could be improved and maintained properly. This would cost much less than the Outer Drive Extension.
We don't want highway noise and we don't want to lose access to our beach.
And if there's anything Rogers Park, Chicago, and the United States absolutely and completely do not need, it's another goddamned limited-access, high-speed road for autos only. And we can't afford another highway, to say the least. This country is going to be hard put to it to maintain the 5.7 million miles of highways we already have.
Expect a lot of crumbling, and closed, roads and bridges in the years ahead because we don't have the money to maintain it all anymore.
code.
nah, not code.
lowest socioeconomic bracket,
in general has lowest education,
average drug dealer, hmmm
lets see here i copied an answer backed up by several sources and books on the internet
Usually less than minimum wage, it seems.
Not many illegal drug gangs publish their accounts. However, a maverick economist (Steven Levitt) was lucky enough to get some detailed financial records for a Chicago gang dealing crack cocaine in the 1980s (described in his book Freakonomics).
Most gang members were street-corner dealers, who gained very little profit for their time. They had about the same take-home pay as somebody on minimum wage. And had to put up with the hazards of violence from rival drug gangs, volatile clients and a strict discipline regime within the gang. The low pay is why most of them still lived with their mothers.
Occasionally a street-corner dealer would get promoted to a deputy, with some management duties, earning 2-3 times as much as minimum wage.
Only very rarely might a deputy get promoted to be Gang Boss, who earned a moderately well-paid salary, comparable to a senior university lecturer or upper-management in a medium-sized company.
The Gang Boss reported (and paid dues to) a Board of Directors who oversaw crack distribution in the Chicago area. We don't know what these individuals earned, but probably they had other criminal interests supplementing their incomes. And almost certainly there were more individuals in the supply chain further up, the people who really make a fortune out of drug-dealing
pimps dont make alot of money either
http://economics.uchicago.edu/pdf/Prostitution%205.pdf
i dont talk in code.
the lowest income bracket regardless of race stand to lose the most from the continuing improvement from the neigborhood and increase in rent.
Craig:
Me thinks Brian White sounds like he is trying to do something positive for Rogers Park without having his hand out like so many others.
My question to you: Why do you not support that effort?
Other than taking $72 thousand a year from an organization that takes government grants and has little or nothing to show for it, yeah, Brian's someone to get behind.
NOT.
Footnote: Year 2007. LCD took in about $150K. That means Brian drained the group of half it's resources.
http://tinyurl.com/nxuedn
Taking a pay-check for those results is almost criminal. Mr. White is no better than DevCorp with those high administration fees.
No disrespect, Craig, but to suggest Brian and his organization generate no results is entirely inaccurate.
Please do your homework before making those types of statements. You know better than that.
Well, Scott Phillips (AKA RogersParking), why don't you tell us your agenda in all this defense of Brian White?
Come on, Craig. That sort of childish comment does not make your previous statements any less inaccurate.
Oh Midget - now that's just ridiculous. It depends on where you live and how late you are out at night.
Jeffo - you make some great points - there is nothing more that the lowlifes would like than for everyone to just say "oh what the hell" and leave.
- jeff agree: low income, drug dealers etc etc, section 8 housing brings in a lot of less than desirable tenants, that's just how it is, there is significant research to show that's true
- Craig: thanks for the info on this Brian White, I also read into his little post that there was a hidden motivation behind it!
I'd like to know why you guys felt there was a need for offering home buying consulting when Rogers Park Community Development Corp already offers that service?
Or why we needed another survey when DevCorp already has enough surveys on the shelves?
Or why Lakeside is offering ZBedbug advice when that's Joe department?
Get real. Brian White has new to offer.
Like I said before: No disrespect, Craig, but you need to do your homework.
Perhaps that will eliminate the need to make accusations before even bothering to find the answers to your questions.
You didn't answer any of my questions, Scott. Anyway, it doesn't matter much to me, (except for the tax-payer funded part) you're the President of the board. If you're happy with Brian's work, then that's all that matters, right? Fuck what the community thinks.
Question. Has Brian White been an advocate for the 1791 West Howard building - and all it's problems?
Other than hold some silly class, what's Brian done to help these folks?
I mean no disrespect, but I'm not sure why you might be owed an explanation when you've already formed an opinion without even having any information.
I'll say it once more, Craig, and it's entirely your business, but you might consider doing your homework before making uneducated, inaccurate accusations.
why did brian white, an advocate for low density housing policy, exempt his own double lot property from an area downsizing?
another axe grinder. just what we need.
Good lord. I guess we can concur that any time Craig and Mo are on the same side of pointless rant that this conversation has officially tanked.
You two don't even know why you're ranting. Lord, what a couple of idiots.
Craig, why the animosity toward Brian White? For that matter, I've always wondered why do you post their requests on your blog when you have such dislike for the person/organization.
I haven't been reading here lately but when I saw this, I have to say that I agree with RogersParking on this one. I have no affiliation Brian but I've met him and he was very respectful and unbiased.
I've used the Rogers Park CDC and Lakeside. In my humble opinion, there is no contest that Brian really knows the ins and out of his field and offers valuable and thorough information. I rarely stick my neck out and comment but this makes me want to support him even more because I think he's decent person trying doing the right thing - more than what I could do for the community.
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