Fear and Loathing in Rogers Park: Gordonite Calls Section 8 Recipients "Druggies and Whores"

A blogger who supports Don Gordon, candidate for alderman in Chicago's 49th ward, has made racially insensitive remarks about recipients of Section 8 benefits. Laura Louzader, who maintains "The North Coast" blog site at http://thenorthcoast.blogspot.com/, made the remarks in a comments section of another local blog, "24/7 North of Howard Watcher." Her remarks were made against the recipients of Section 8 housing and implied ugly stereotypes about black residents of Rogers Park. The remarks in question were made on February 14 in response to a blog posting entitled, "Moving In A New Direction" and have been archived by RPB. The comments by Louzander (a.k.a., The North Coast) follow: "Usually, they hang a sign or run an ad that says SECTION 8 WELCOME, which pretty much is guaranteed to attract the wrong elements. It pretty well signals that the management will take all vouchers, first come first serve, with minimal screening, if any. "According to my landlords, all landlords with large properties must now take Section 8 vouchers, so you must screen rigorously to keep the bad element out of your building, and be prepared to justify turning someone down for rental. Therefore, when someone advertises that they WELCOME section 8 vouchers, that usually means that they are loose as a goose when it comes to enforcing any standards. "And once the building is slummed up with undesirables, there is trash and vomit in the halls and corridors, and the reputation of the place is trashed, it can no way attract decent tenants. The sickest joke of all is that buildings like this, believe it or not, charge rents that are usually over what you can pay for a truly nice place, but only if you make it through the nice place's screening process. "So, yeah, Joe's pet slumlords operate their places in such a fashion that they might as well hang signs up painted in 80-point type that say DRUGGIES AND WHORES WELCOME HERE!! and GANGSTER DISCIPLES NORTHTOWN HEADQUARTERS and GREAT COMMERCIAL LOCATION FOR PHARMEUCETICAL DEALERS." Such hate speech coming from Don Gordon's supporters is no surprise to many, who have long suspected that many Gordonites do not like people who are recent arrivals to Rogers Park. Much like natives of Texas or New Hampshire, the Gordonites seem to have a difficult time accepting residents who have not lived in Rogers Park as long as they have. Such hateful remarks and stereotyping of black people as "druggies and whores" by a staunch Gordon supporter is descpicable. It is also a revelation.