VIDEO: FULL 7-11 MEETING OF OCT. 23, 2007

The Bench presents video of the entire 7-Eleven community meeting of October 23, 2007 (below). While it is no longer “news,” it was an important meeting and so it is presented for the record. The video is presented in two parts, aptly titled "Part One" and "Part Two." Part One is presented below. Part Two will be posted soon... The meeting was called by Chicago’s 49th Ward Alderman Joe Moore to get community opinion regarding 7-Eleven’s request for a liquor license. The store is located at the confusing intersection of N. Glenwood and W. Pratt, and is about 550 feet from the even more confusing intersection of N. Greenview and W. Pratt, where westbound drivers rarely obey the stop sign directly in front of North Shore School, an elementary school. This video omits nothing except for a few minutes of introduction by North Shore School’s principal, who gives a brief history of the school. Since this is not relevant to the liquor license discussion, it was edited out. It is long (1 hour, 27 minutes) and starts out slowly, but is well worth watching. The slide show that 7-Eleven corporate representatives presented was, it would seem, nothing more than a poorly calculated attempt to impress the audience and, perhaps, even to distract them from the issue at hand. After the slide presentation, the storm hit. It is amazing to see the representatives of 7-Eleven get caught by such surprise. They obviously did not do their homework. Had they done some research, they would have known how passionate the residents of this part of Rogers Park are. They would have know that their bullshit slide show was for naught, that the neighborhood’s memory is long and we have not forgotten that Pratt Avenue was – not so long ago – a hell hole, and was so in large part due to alcohol being sold at one time by this same 7-Eleven store. In order for 7-Eleven to have gotten the license, Alderman Moore would have had to give his approval to the lifting of a moratorium on liquor licenses in that part of the 49th Ward, and then the entire Chicago City Council would have had to approve it. There were approximately 90 people in attendance. Local bloggers blogged about it. Alderman Moore posted his orange community meeting flyers. 7-Eleven had a petition at its checkout counter for a week. The Bench put up 130 flyers on doors and gates around a four-block radius from 7-Eleven. Many people spoke at the meeting, and only one person spoke in favor of the license request. The meeting became heated and emotional early on. As the meeting progressed, and speaker after speaker expressed opposition to the license, the owner of the 7-Eleven store became unsettled. At one point, he gave a long speech, so long that one of the 7-Eleven corporate representatives grabbed him by the elbow and pulled him off to the side to shut him up. One audience member recalled an incident that allegedly occurred years ago, in which, she told the audience, she was physically assaulted at the store while, she alleged, the 7-Eleven owner stood by and watched. Alderman Moore denied the store’s request for a liquor license the following morning. Moore did the right thing here, but a qualification is in order. The public outcry was overwhelmingly against the license. This meeting was highly publicized and well covered by local bloggers. At the meeting, both The Bench and The Broken Heart blogs had cameras rolling. Reporter Lorraine Swanson of the News-Star newspaper was in attendance, taking notes. Moore had little choice but to deny the license. To do otherwise would have been more than even he could have spun himself out of. Perhaps the saddest part of this episode is that 7-Eleven Corporation has exposed itself as being a neighbor that does not care about this community. We have more than our share of drug pushers selling crack, dope, meth, you name it, on our streets. They do so without caring a damn about the consequences for the neighborhood. The 7-Eleven franchise owner at Pratt and Glenwood has shown himself to be of the same moral character: Profit above consequence. Having had that store for 15 years, and having once lived in this neighborhood himself, the franchise owner cannot plead ignorance to the problems of Rogers Park. His application for a liquor license was purely for hoped for increased profits. While The Bench certainly has nothing against making a profit, to do so while knowing you are harming your neighbors in inexcusable. I do not advocate a boycott of the store, but I have made the decision to never shop at that 7-Eleven store again. RELATED: NO! NO! NO!