Democratic Party - 49th Ward

Laura Washington Speaks on County Board Race

Laura Washington   of the   Chicago Sun-Times

Stroger clout, loyalty leave Claypool drowning

January 16, 2006

When Forrest Claypool looks at himself in the mirror (and I hear that's quite often), he indubitably sees the next president of the Cook County Board. Undoubtedly, he's fooling himself.

There are 10 weeks left in his Democratic primary faceoff with board President John Stroger. Claypool has been raising money for more than a year -- close to $1 million at last count. His fund-raising prowess TKO'ed fellow Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley's selfsame campaign. They calculated, correctly, that two white reformers in the race would cancel each other out.

Claypool's got the right message. It's time to reform the county's bloated government and fix its broken bureaucracy. In a public policy speech last week before the City Club of Chicago, he railed against "unconscionable deaths" at the county's Provident Hospital on Chicago's South Side. He noted that the Illinois attorney general is investigating "beatings and riots" at the county's Juvenile Detention Center. He argues that Stroger's administration is "built on the "friends and family plan," where connections trump qualifications.

He's right. As someone who's long had friends and family languish at County and Provident -- black folks, poor folks -- I know we can do a lot better.

On paper, Claypool's resume is golden. His blue-chip campaign committee, headed by Quigley, sports a slew of good-government goo-goos, including my old buddy, Tom "Don Quixote" Geoghegan.

So why is the Claypool campaign calcified? Despite "all his failings," Ald. Ricardo Munoz told me, Munoz's 22nd Ward Organization is down with Stroger. The new Stroger Hospital is a top priority for Latinos, and the president "is a true advocate for health care in Cook County."

Munoz, who leans independent, argues that Claypool's stint as a slasher of Chicago Park District jobs "doesn't bode well" for the delivery of health services to the poor. "I shudder to think about what a Claypool administration could do to the health care system."

Claypool can't count on gays and lesbians, many of whom populate his North Side territory. That's because Stroger is a longtime and unwavering advocate for their rights, says Rick Garcia, political director for Equality Illinois, the state's leading gay rights group. Garcia and most of his board are backing the incumbent. "There's a very, very long history there," Garcia says. "What's the line? 'You dance with the one who brought you.' ''

Stroger Hospital has been "the place of last resort" for gays, especially those seeking HIV treatment, according to Garcia. "President Stroger organically understands the importance of that in a way that Claypool does not."

Garcia is not the first to note that Claypool, an aloof policy wonk, is "not a dynamic candidate." He wonders, "outside of his own base, who knows him?"

On Chicago's South and West sides, Stroger is the political grandpappy who has boosted many a career and doled out hundreds of jobs. John Paul Jones, chairman of the Greater Englewood Community and Family Task Force, says: "People are going for Stroger. Claypool is not exposed to the larger public in the African-American community."

Blacks know Claypool best for his tenure as Mayor Daley's chief of staff. He was Daley's pick to run the Chicago Park District, where he slashed 1,000 jobs. "He was so close to the Daley administration. People still see him as an administration man," Jones notes.

That's a tragic irony for Claypool, since Daley and his sibling, Cook County Commissioner John Daley, will pull out all the stops to keep him out of the president's seat.

Claypool's steering committee is dominated by North Shore and lakefront whites. He has corralled all of three -- count 'em -- endorsements from county elected officials: Aldermen Eugene Schulter (47th), Mary Ann Smith (48th) and Rey Colon (35th). Three bold souls.

A reform campaign that doesn't have significant black, Latino and gay support can forget it.

Claypool campaign manager Marj Halperin says it's still early in the run-up to the March 21 primary, and more endorsements are on the way. Quigley is working to bring his posse into the Claypool fold. Halperin says her candidate is reaching out countywide to "people who rely on the county for health care, people who care about how the criminal justice system is administered, and people who care about how their tax dollars are spent."

She assures me that Claypool plans to visit some African-American churches this month.

To the voters, clout and loyalty count more than newspaper endorsements, white papers and blue-ribbon committees. The mood in the 'hood says that once an office goes black, it never goes back.

The message is on target. The messenger needs some work. 

All About Bloggers

This is from Kathleen Parker in the Tribune 12/29/2005 and is her opinion about blogs, bloggers and blogging.  We have a few around the Ward including this one.

All about bloggers

Beware and resist the ego-gratifying pack that contributes only snark, sass and destruction

Kathleen Parker, a syndicated columnist for the Orlando Sentinel, a Tribune newspaper: Tribune Media Services
Published December 29, 2005

Of all the stories leading America's annual greatest-hits list, the one that subsumes the rest is the continuing evolution of information in the Age of Blogging.

Not since the birth of the printing press have our lives been so dramatically affected by the way we create and consume information--both to our enormous benefit and, perhaps, to our growing peril.

What is wonderful and miraculous about the Internet needs little elaboration. We all marvel at the ease with which we can access information--whether reading government documents previously available only to a few or tracking down old friends and new enemies.

It is this latter--our new enemies--that interests me most. I don't mean Al Qaeda or Osama bin Laden, but the less visible, insidious enemies of decency, humanity and civility--the angry offspring of narcissism's quickie marriage to instant gratification.

There's something frankly creepy about the explosion we now call the Blogosphere--the big-bang "electroniverse" where recently wired squatters set up new camps each day. As I write, the number of blogs (Web logs) and bloggers (those who blog) is estimated in the tens of millions worldwide.

Although I've been a blog fan since the beginning, and have written favorably about the value added to journalism and public knowledge thanks to the new "citizen journalist," I'm also wary of power untempered by restraint and accountability.

Say what you will about the so-called mainstream media, but no industry agonizes more about how to improve its product, police its own members and better serve its communities. Newspapers are filled with carpal-tunneled wretches, overworked and underpaid, who suffer near-pathological allegiance to getting it right.

That a Jayson Blair of The New York Times or a Jack Kelley of USA Today surfaces now and then as a plagiarist or a fabricator ultimately is testament to the high standards tens of thousands of others strive to uphold each day without recognition. Blair and Kelley are infamous, but they're also gone.

Bloggers persist no matter their contributions or quality, though most would have little to occupy their time were the mainstream media to disappear tomorrow. Some bloggers do their own reporting, but most rely on mainstream reporters to do the heavy lifting. Some bloggers also offer superb commentary, but most babble, buzz and blurt like caffeinated adolescents competing for the Ritalin generation's inevitable senior superlative: Most Obsessive-Compulsive.

Even so, they hold the same megaphone as the adults and enjoy perceived credibility owing to membership in the larger world of blog grown-ups. These effete and often clever baby "bloggies" are rich in time and toys but bereft of adult supervision.

Spoiled and undisciplined, they have grabbed the mike and seized the stage, a privilege granted not by years in the trenches, but by virtue of a three-pronged plug and the miracle of WiFi. They play tag team with hyperlinks ("I'll say you're important if you'll say I'm important") and shriek "Gotcha!" when they catch some weary wage earner in a mistake or oversight. Plenty smart but lacking in wisdom, they possess the power of a forum, but neither the maturity nor humility that years of experience impose.

Each time I wander into blogdom, I'm reminded of the savage children stranded on an island in William Golding's "Lord of the Flies." Without adult supervision, they organize themselves into rival tribes, learn to hunt and kill, and eventually become murderous barbarians in the absence of a civilizing structure.

What Golding demonstrated--and what we're witnessing as the Blogosphere's offspring multiply--is that people tend to abuse power when it is unearned and will bring down others to enhance themselves. Likewise, many bloggers seek the destruction of others for their own self-aggrandizement. When a mainstream journalist stumbles, they pile on like so many savages, hoisting his or her head on a bloody stick as Golding's children did the fly-covered head of a butchered sow.

Schadenfreude--pleasure in others' misfortunes--has become the new barbarity on an island called Blog. When someone trips, whether Dan Rather or Eason Jordan or Judith Miller, bloggers are the bloodthirsty masses slavering for a public flogging. Incivility is their weapon and humanity their victim.

I mean no disrespect to the many brilliant people out there--professors, lawyers, doctors, philosophers, scientists and other journalists who also happen to blog. Again, they know who they are. But we should beware and resist the rest of the ego-gratifying rabble who contribute only snark, sass and destruction.

We can't silence them, but for civilization's sake--and the integrity of information by which we all live or die--we can and should ignore them.

North & South vs. East and West

How much time have you spent thinking about the problems of retail in Rogers Park?  I have spent a lot of time.  It is a constant source of concern which makes it constantly on my mind.  I too would like to see a greater variety of retail, restaurants and other things I enjoy doing.  People often talk about Andersonville as a model.  People often talk about revitalizing Morse and Howard.  Occasional they speak of Jarvis. 

I have a thought:  East/West streets don’t work for retail.  Sound crazy?  Name a street that runs East and West between Howard and Addison that is commercially successful and east of Western.

Let me help you.  Argyle.  Some of you may say Bryn Mawr, but that is not accurate in my opinion.  There has been a great deal of investment and it looks nicer than it did, but it still has a great number of vacancies.  Nearly entire buildings on the corner of Winthrop and Bryn Mawr sit begging for tenants.  The difference between Bryn Mawr and Morse is that its retail is  geared towards the middle class shopper.  Lawrence might get a mention.  It isn’t there yet, but it’s better than it has been.

Where doesn’t it work well?  Howard, Jarvis Morse, Devon, Granville, Thorndale, Bryn Mawr, Berwyn, Lawrence, Wilson, Irving Park, Addison.  Every section of  these streets that is viable also borders Clark, Broadway or Sheridan.

Where doesn’t retail exist at all? Touhy, Pratt, Foster, Montrose, Damen, Ashland

Where East/West does work better is Belmont to downtown.  They have tremendous density, but even more so they have great amounts of disposable income.  To amass those resources they have the kind of housing stock that the proposed new zoning would allow for Clark and Western.  They used to have the kind of housing stock we have worked to protect: single families, two flats and three flats. 

Now think of North/South streets.  Clark is viable all the way down.  Broadway is viable.  Western is somewhat viable.  Most of Sheridan Rd., our most potentially viable commercial strip in Rogers Park, is largely not in play by community choice, but where it is commercial it works. Farther south Halsted is viable.

I am sure there is a reason.  My guess is that most people don’t have a reason to come east.  The streets that run east lead into the lake, but even when it leads to Lake Shore Drive it doesn’t help much.

So what do you think?

Follow Up Meeting with Lunt Building Owners

Tonight the Follow up meeting for 1237 and 1345 W. Lunt was held at the regularly scheduled Beat 2431 CAPS meeting. Kevin O’Neil, (of www.ctatattler.com fame), chaired the meeting.  A host of officers working 2431, their Sergeant and 2 officers from Community Relations were present.  Both Joe Moore and staff assistant Alicia Lopez were present as well.  The meeting covered a host of topics related to the beat.

When the agenda arrived at the Lunt properties Mr. Midena had left the meeting because of a family emergency that required his attention. Mr. Block was present for the entire meeting. Alderman Moore review the previous history for residents who were not present at the last meeting regarding the buildings in question.  It was reported that both of these owners meet with the 24^th District housing Officer, background information was review and in Mr. Block’s property 2 residents are now facing eviction, one for non-payment issues and one for criminal activity.

Mr. Block, being the only landlord present was asked to present his progress in meeting the previous requests. Mr. Block responded by indicating that he is going to:

1.) Install a camera to monitor the front of the Lunt property.

2.) Install a camera to monitor the front of the Morse property.

3.) Install a camera to monitor the Morse lobby.

4.) Will keep each tape for six days.

Police commented and resident questioned the fence on the Morse side. After a brief discussion regarding the various police officials positions it was decided that the property and the community would benefit from either the removal of the fence or an increase in height of the fence. Block agreed to one of the two.

A conversation focused on the ability of the police and fire personnel to gain access to the building followed. The Morse side does not allow officers or anyone else access to the buzzers which severely restricts access for safety personnel. Mr. Block indicated that at some point this week the intercom would be pulled to the street for access improvement reasons. Mr. Block agreed to offer the police the access code for the intercom system that will allow police better access.

Finally, a conversation regarding the identities of the owners of the 1345 W. Lunt/1340 W. Morse property was held with some residents wanting the name. Mr. Block agreed to provide the information to Alderman Moore. The police found this satisfactory while the opinion of the neighbors was divided.

The presentation for the second property, 1237 – 43 W. Lunt, suffered a bit from the absent owner, but nevertheless, it was reported that this property would make significant improvements by:

1.) Getting the security guards promised at the last meeting.

2.) Putting in an intercom system at the front side walk.

3.) Working with a problem tenant to either improve or be evicted.

4.) Issuing keys that cannot be copied for the property to the tenants.

5.) Posted “No Trespassing” signs.

6.) Issuing a letter to all residents regarding acceptable and unacceptable conduct.

A follow up report will be held on Monday, September 19, 2005 at the 2431 CAPS meeting.

Please feel free to add additions, amendments, or corrections and other comments in the comment section.

 

 

Where Is the Line?

So how interesting is it that Judge Anderson, the federal judge responsible for oversight on the Shakman decree, selected 2 of his friends and former employees to be 66.6% of the team to develop and monitor city hiring? I was thinking about the many ways people get jobs both in and out of government and there are many. Is the G going to crack down on frat brothers and sorority sisters, or family members like aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, sisters and brothers,  or text book authors that tell you to ask everyone you know if they can recommend you for a job?

I agree with the Shakman decree banning hiring and firing.  I think it is patently wrong to fix tests, take money, and in any other way cheat.  That should be prosecuted without question, but just where is the line when it comes to making recommendations?

Where do you think it is? I’d love to hear from you. And if Mr. Fitzgerald is reading this, I know about 50 Alderman who would love to know where you think it is.

Good News on Crime Reported In the Lerner

Citing various reasons, including citizen involvement, improved technology, working smarter and gentrification crime is down on the North side and specifically in the 24^th District. Both violent and property crime are down. According to the Chicago Police Department stats for our 24^th District show that we have seen a 20% drop in violent crimes and a 7.2% drop in property crime. Most significant was the drop in auto thefts.

When compared to our closest neighbor, the nearby 20^th District, we showed major improvement with significantly greater gains against crime. In the 20^th  violent crime was downonly  0.6% and burglaries and thefts wereactually  up 8.6%. Across all of the North side we are in the middle with three districts doing better and five doing worse in percentage change of violent crime.   In raw numbers, we were even better with 2 districts doing better and six doing worse.

A spokesman for our district made the point that over the last generation we have much more highly organized street gangs.  I am sure this is something that can be said about gangs not only across Chicago, but across the nation.

It would be great if we were all able to say that crime is gone from our neighborhood, but we all know better. These statistics represent improvement, but those of us on Lunt, and in other places as well, know that the gang activity is not only more organized and dangerous than in the distant past, but also that they are still out there.  Work remains to be done.

Those who have contributed to the recent success are to be congratulated and encouraged. Those who have stood on the sidelines should take notice: getting involved helps. Those of you who have been on Morse more often trying to make use of our local businesses are a group I am particularly proud of.  Even those of you who feel the only way to make it to the Morse CTA stop is to run as fast as possible and pray with every single step, thank you for not giving up and moving away.  By sticking around you make a difference as well.  And last, but not least, the police department deserves credit since we all know they will catch it all if the numbers turn the other way over the next six months.  Congratulations all.

But as I said, we still have a ways to go.  I am sure a couple of our neighbors have already formulated arguments why Rogers Park isn’t any safer at all.  Somehow the police and the North side Alderman are cooking up the numbers so they all look good.  They are welcome to their opinion.  I choose to believe that things are slightly better for now, whether that makes me a Pollyanna, a mere optimist or right.

Message for Mr. Robert Coe

Walls fall, gas leaks and we have only just begun building the center piece of what all of us here in the Morse area hope is the new Morse Ave.  I am concerned that we have trusted you Mr. Coe. We have entrusted to you the first piece of our rejuvenation of the heart of Rogers Park and so far I have seen tenants moved out early, homeless people squatting on your property with electricity no less, a gas line ruptured and abandoned by your demolition crew and now a wall that collapses into the public way.

One can only hope that the crew you hired is properly investigated by the city and that the appropriate consequences are visited upon those who would place so many in real and serious danger. I now question the quality of your judgment and am concerned about the future quality of your actual building of a property. You have done great damage to your reputation in my mind. One can only hope that since you will undoubtedly proceed with your project that you will prove me wrong.

You have decided that our community is a good place for you to make money. As a community, we are always interested in people who want to invest with us in making a better neighborhood. But, we are not interested in irresponsible developers that produce dangerous situations that jeopardize the lives and well being of our residents and our community generally.

We, meaning the entire community, are expecting you to start living up to the basic expectations of building a safe and good quality property. If you cannot find a way to do that then I suspect that you will find that the 49^th Ward is not going to be a hospitable place for you to do business. People here expect you to be honest, diligent, and to provide quality and show pride in your work.

There are many who are interested in developing here and most are willing to do a good job of it. If you aren’t, you might want to consider why you have decided to invest here.

David Fagus

Notes
Mr. Robert Coe is the developer responsible for the properties at Morse and Greenview (1448 W. Morse and 6957 N. Greenview).  You may recognize his name if you live in the immediate area because he sent out a legally required notice of a Zoning change for the property in question.  As a long time member of the zoning committee I was expecting this notice.  What I didn't expect was the poor work and judgment we have seen.  He has other properties in the ward that are done or in progress including the Pinewood project on Touhy and the building on the 1700 block of Estes with the big windows next to the "leopard house".

A Theory of Justice

"Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. A theory however elegant and economical must be rejected or revised if it is untrue; likewise laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well-arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust.

Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override. For this reason justice denies that the loss of freedom for some is made right by a greater good shared by others. It does not allow that the sacrifices imposed on a few are outweighed by the larger sum of advantages enjoyed by the many.

Therefore in a just society the liberties of equal citizenship are taken as settled; the rights secured by justice are not subject to political bargaining or to the calculus of social interests." 

"Being first virtues of human activities, truth and justice are uncompromising."

John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, Page 1

This is a very well written statement regarding justice. It is a theory of justice that is diametrically opposed to the judicial oversight the current conservative Congressional leaders Tom DeLay and Jim Sensenbrenner would like to impose on America in pursuit of their conservative, Christian (rather than U.S. Constitution based) agenda. How much different is their agenda from that of the "extreme" religious Muslim governments around the world they so strongly oppose?

Our Values Are the Target

Many times during the campaign for the White House politicians, pundits and people you never even heard of talked about how important the election of John Kerry would be to our morals and our values. The Republicans and sadly many of the Democrats think the G.O.P. has cornered the market on having values and morals. The only thing they really have cornered is the use of the words. But that is a point for another day. What is important today is the incredible fight we are facing over one of the most important fundamental principles we have in our government.

One of the most important principles we have is the protection of the minority. Not minorities as in people, but those who are not part of the majority. It has long been the role of the courts to stand up for the constitution without regard for the popular opinion. It has also been a longstanding part of our legislative process that in the United States Senate a minority could stop legislation through the use of the filibuster. The third branch of our government the Executive branch, has a power to veto which can be executed by the President of the United States. All of these measures are protections of the rights of minority opinion holders, none can be the final word, but all require a great effort to reverse.

Today, the conservative powerbrokers controlling our federal government are frustrated by the fact that they cannot simply ignore the minority opposition. They are, by and large, devout Christians. As devout Christians they are not tolerant of people who do not believe the Word as they interpret it. It is their mission to convert all who are not of their belief into becoming their fellow believers. Tolerance is reserved for people who want to wear white after Labor Day, for people who find great pleasure in building models with Popsicle sticks and those who are a little odd. There is no tolerance for people with different religious opinions, beliefs, value systems or faiths.

Pushing the conservative agenda through the White House and the House of Representatives is no difficulty at all. But there are two places where conservatives face problems. The judiciary is still not on board with the “moral majority” because many are non-conservative judges and even more importantly are strong believers that the role of the federal judges is to protect the constitution and the historical precedence of our court system. So what do you do if you are one of these “moral majority” true believers? It is simple if you truly believe your views are the only way to see things.  Change the system our Senate has used for decades by using the “nuclear option” to eliminate the filibuster and secondly, as strongly urged by Tom DeLay, greatly expand the public pressure put on judges by public opinion by significantly increasing congressional review of the judiciary, its operations, its proceedings and even its legal opinions.

That would constitute the most fundamental change in our governance that we have ever scene. It would create a winner take all type of government where the majority can greatly alter American life as we know it for a few years only to perhaps find that a new group is in and life changes dramatically again for a few more years. The stability that we all take for granted would be gone. Because we have never seen such dramatic change it is only possible to imagine the great swings that could occur, if one also assumes that power will change hands, ( a large assumption). Something’s could be legal one year and illegal the next. Religion would be a part of our public life one term and part of our private life the next. Our role as the world’s only superpower would be made much less predictable and would put the rest of the world on edge.

The American people are facing a dramatic challenge to our freedoms and our rights. It is our obligation to stand up for them not as good Democrats, but as good Americans. If we lay down and let Bush, DeLay, Frist and the others have their way we will have lost an America that we know and love.

Electronics That Are Life Altering

Over the last 15 years a huge amount of effort and resources have been invested in developing electronics that make our life better.  The advent of the PC, the Internet, PDA's, Pagers and then Cellular Phones have proven to be very helpful in keeping up with the business of being an elected official.  Even this blog is a creature of technology that has created, along with e-mail, an excellent way to communicate with some of the people who live in the 49th Ward..

Over the last few years, I have found nothing more enjoyable that the ability to increase my opportunity to get more information about the world we live in.  To some people, information means news, and to me it does mean news, but it also means weather, CSPAN, News shows such as 60 minutes or Meet the Press.  But it also means Law and Order, West Wing and my personal favorite baseball.

So how has technology helped me with this?  What new technology has made this possible?  Two things that are incredibly valuable tools, TiVO and XM Radio.  If you don't know what they are let me briefly explain.  TiVO is an exceptionally user friendly machine that records things you want to watch on television.  Unlike a VCR it can tell you what is on TV, when it is on, and if you tell it to do so, it will record the show every time it comes on or it will record only the new episodes.  XM radio is a satellite radio service that provides well over 100 stations that you can hear from coast to coast along with programming that may no be available in your area.

TiVO likes to advertise the quote from a user that says "TiVO changed my life!"  It sounds vastly overstated before you buy TiVO, but once you have it watch television is never the same again.  You favorite show is always on when you are ready to watch it and it will wait for you if you want to go do something in the middle.  It also allows you to skip through commercials.

The second thing I am enjoying far more than I expected is XM satellite radio.  No matter what you like on the radio its available in your car now.  Comedy channels, Music of  every type and kind you can imagine, many of the shows from public radio, new from several different sources, traffic and weather non-stop for Chicago, and a huge amount of talk radio from the right and Air America and others from the left.  All of this is informative and entertaining, making driving somewhere much more pleasant, particularly once you leave the Chicago radio market because all of the XM stations go with you anywhere in the continental U.S.  These are all great things.  But to a baseball junkie there is nothing better than the fact that every major league game is on XM now.  Baseball, from noon to midnight almost every day with the broadcast team from the home city calling the game.  It makes you appreciate how well our local guys do when you can hear the broadcast teams from around the nation.

Some of the new technology is annoying.  Some we just take for granted.  These two inventions have made my political life and my personal life far more enjoyable in ways that I never  imagined was possible 10 years ago.

Join the revolution!