Lunt Neighbors Show Up In Force

In a strong show of support and solidarity 30 of the neighbors on and surrounding the 1200 and 1300 block of Lunt showed up to meet with problem building landlords Alex Medena of 1237-43 W. Lunt and Harris Block of 1345 W. Lunt. The meeting was scheduled to have representatives from the Chicago Police Department, but due to unanticipated events in Londonthat lead to extensive commitments related to mass transit safety and a bomb call hoax for the Morse stop of the Red line they were not able to provide the experts. Alderman Moore has made sure they will be included in the next meeting by scheduling a follow up meeting with the owners at the Beat 2431 CAPS meeting for August.

1237 to 1243 W. Lunt
The meeting first addressed the building owned by Alex Medena, 1237 to 1243 W. Lunt. A host of complaints were made that centered around several key points; drug dealing in a highly organized fashion, loitering, public drinking, extraordinary noise into all hours of the night sometimes lasting until morning and double parking on some nights repeatedly and for long periods of time. There were eyewitness accounts of what are believe to be drug transactions.

Mr. Medena has owned the 22 unit building for 5 years, is the on-site manager of the property, and indicated that he spends 12 hours a day on the property, a claim not believed by some who live near by. 19 of his units are rented at market rate to various tenants and currently he has 3 units occupied by Section 8 or social service clients.

He does screen his tenants, although his screening company is suspect, all tenants are on 1 year leases that come due at various times through out the year. He has a working relationship with the local police, although he has not shared his complete tenants roll with them for background checks.

Suggestions for 1237 to 1243 W. Lunt, made by the neighbors and the Alderman are:

- get a new background screening company with a better reputation

- want him to hire security for the evening and early morning hours

- want him to have the police in the 24^th District run a check on every resident

- needs to get a list of all calls to 911 regarding his addresses to see if level is high

- install a security gate at the sidewalk

- will consider installing more lights after the new street lights are assessed

- will meet with a local building manager from the immediate area to discuss tenants and strategies for turning around the building.

- will request and sign criminal trespass complaints with support from the neighbors and the Alderman’s office for court and other shows of strength.

- Provided his cell phone number, (773) 317-0270, for calls 24/7 for neighbors with complaints about the building.

Mr. Medena expressed a willingness to abide by and work towards meeting and fulfilling each and every one of these suggestions.

1345 W. Lunt
Conversation then moved to the 1345 W. Lunt building after about 90 minutes. Mr. Block of Realty and Mortgage is part of a large company the has 132 units at 1345 Lunt and 1340 Morse. Through out the Chicago area they manage 5,000 to 6,000 units. These two buildings are the only properties in Rogers Park. All tenants sign a one year lease to start and most sign additional leases. Currently he estimates that approximately 12 tenants are on month-to-month leases as a result of not signing a new lease. He uses TRW for credit and criminal background checks.

Complaints and problems were more succinct do in part the ever growing length of the meeting. About a third of those present left after completion of the previous building.. Nevertheless most neighbors remained and many if not all of the complaints regarding this building are the same as the problems that exist at the other building down the street. Unique problems included missing/burnt out lights on the front of his building, abandoned autos in the parking lot, garbage being strewn around cans rather than in them and the gate for the parking lot always is open.

Mr. Block responded favorably to working with Mr. Medena to hire private security on a temporary basis, indicated he will replace the lights in front tomorrow, has tried to have several cars removed and has encountered resistance from the towing company, but will follow up with higher management of the company, indicated that the building has garbage pick up 6 times a week, has all ready begun working to evict a tenant that is a problem, will meet with the Alderman and the Police to discuss the fence on the Morse side after he has some pricing options for a different fence. He is also very willing to share his tenant list with the police and committed to working to evict any problem tenant that is identified.

Mr.  Block provided three numbers to contact him through is staff and his office. They are: Office (773) 989-8000, backline for the office (773)989-1914 and the number for his on-site building manager and maintenance man Chris Hill at (773) 334-8931.

The next meeting will be a follow up meeting to review progress and provide an update. As mentioned initially, the next meeting will include the police because it is being held in conjunction with the 2431 Beat Meting on Monday, August 15 at 7:00 PM at the Rogers Park Community Council Office located at 1530 W. Morse.

Alderman Moore ran a tight meeting and even still it went on for 2.5 hours. The notes reflect that more time was spent on the 1237 building, but the impact was not lost on Mr. Block. He is actually in a position that has the neighbors more upset than Mr. Medena, but they are both problems in serious need of action and commitment. This was a good starting point. We will have to see on August 15^th what we have accomplished. Clearly Mr. Block and Mr. Medena now have the notion in their head that these are serious problem that the neighborhood is not taking lightly. As Lunt neighbors we should all be very proud of the effort tonight.

One important request made over and over was to get descriptions of person, vehicles and other identifying factors.  This will help the Landlords and the police to do their work.

Finally, a new building was added into the mix, 1321 and 1323 W. Lunt.  The building is vacant as the owner is preparing to convert the units to condos.  It is not secured well and is serving as a satellite office of 1345 W. Lunt.  The owner of this property was not revealed and what to do was not addressed.  This is an oversight. I will point this out to the Alderman's Office and expect they will look further into the problems and ownership of this property.

The comment section is open for corrections to this report as needed and to allow additional comments and coverage.   Please feel free to respond.

David Fagus

Comments

[Craig Gernhardt]

Great meeting notes David. It's no secret, if we all work together, problems can and will be solved.

[T. Smith]

I live in the neighborhood but am typically not able to attend these meetings due to full-time work, school, and volunteer commitments. I appreciate the work many folks have done to try to make our neighborhood safer. However, I am concerned about two points noted above:

"- want him to have the police in the 24th District run a check on every resident"

and

"He is also very willing to share his tenant list with the police and committed to working to evict any problem tenant that is identified."

The first item is disturbing because it goes against the idea of “innocent until proven guilty” which is the cornerstone of our democratic legal system. My understanding is that police are not allowed to “fish” for arrests by randomly checking cars’ license plates, for example, and they have to have probable cause to search someone’s home. I think the same idea would apply to running a check on people just because of the building where they live, wouldn’t it? To allow police to run checks on people based on place of residence would seem to be discriminatory, because we know police won’t be running searches on all the residents of a lakefront highrise condo, for instance. Such a search could have negative effects on someone who made mistakes in the past, but is trying to turn his or her life around. I’d hate to see someone in that situation be evicted just because he or she could not afford to live in a different building.

My concern with the second item is related. It seems to me that a “problem tenant” should be identified by his or her current bad behavior. Will a responsible tenant be evicted simply because he or she has an imperfect past?