Save Wrigleyville Petition Badly Flawed

The recent furor over a proposed commercial development in Wrigleyville has spawned one of the most poorly worded petitions I've ever read. First let's look at the petition, by savewrigleyville.org, that is posted on their website. Then, of course, I'll rip into it. We, the registered voters below, oppose the development of a new 8 story building demolishing current small businesses along the south side of Addison and the east side of the 3500 block of Clark Street. We believe it destroys a neighborhood of thriving local businesses in a struggling economy, and debilitates Wrigleyville's charm and history. For these reasons, we oppose this or any similar development. For these reasons we respectfully ask you to oppose the "Addison Park on Clark" proposal. Don't get me wrong. I'd like to see the group succeed in stopping the proposed development. This petition, however, just won't cut it, and here's why: Did you get the part where they specify "8 story building?" Even if this petition was binding (it's not), all the developer has to do is change the plans to, say, 7 or 9 stories and suddenly the petition applies to ... nothing. Nothing at all. The petition would then refer to a non-existent project. Perhaps the worst part of the petition is that part that asks signers to "oppose this or any similar development." That is so generic and all-encompassing that it could include ANY multi-story development in Wrigleyville. You want "similar?" How about ANY retail development? "Similar?" ANY hotel project. "Similar?" ANY commercial development. Think about it. A hypothetical four story development with space for several local retailers could be called "similar." Believe it or not, I was told that this petition was written by an attorney. Wrigleyville's Alderman Tom Tunney must be laughing his ass off.

Both "Save Wrigleyville" Videos Now Posted

See the videos here: Save Wrigleyville Meeting, 16 May 2010, Part 1 Save Wrigleyville Meeting, 16 May 2010, Part 2 Related: Save Wrigleyville Meeting

Video of Save Wrigleyville Meeting (Updated)

See both videos here: Save Wrigleyville Meeting, 16 May 2010, Part 1 Save Wrigleyville Meeting, 16 May 2010, Part 2 Can they fight City Hall? They're trying, oh they're trying. On Sunday, May 16 close to 100 concerned neighbors gathered at the world-famous iO Improv Theater, 3541 North Clark Street, to discuss ways to stop the destruction of an entire block in Wrigleyville, home of the the Chicago Cubs. Below is Part 1 (of 2) of our video, which shows Chandra Halpern, founder and director of iO Improv, and Tara DeFrancisco as they updated the group on their progress. 44th Ward Alderman Tom Tunney approved a plan by a developer to level the triangular block immediately south of Wrigley Field so that a huge mall can be built. This would destroy existing, vibrant businesses that together employ hundreds of people and bring millions of dollars to the neighborhood every year. The mall would feature a 9-story hotel, large retailers and condos. It would destroy the personality of this cherished neighborhood forever. You can follow the resistance group's progress two ways: On Facebook or their website.

Saving Wrigleyville

See both "Save Wrigleyville" Videos Oh, that's Tara DeFrancisco in the photo here. She's one of the resistance leaders, and she's a powerhouse...

Meeting To Save Wrigleyville

Update - See: Video of Save Wrigleyville Meeting Why would Alderman Tom Tunney (44th) agree to the destruction of an entire block filled with viable, working businesses that employ hundreds of people? Darned if I know, but that's the situation in Wrigleyville. The block just south of Wrigley Field is in danger of being forever altered, and not in a good way, and for no good reason. There is a 6:00 PM meeting on Sunday, May 16 at iO Improv (formerly known as "Improv Olympic"). They are located at 3541 N. Clark Street, on the threatened block (see map). For more info call iO at 773-880-0199. Also see the "People Against the "Malling of Wrigleyville" Facebook page, and the related news stories below. You may have read about the impending destruction of Wrigleyville recently. Tunney, it seems, doesn't give a damn about the flavor or history of Wrigleyville, a neighborhood that's special by anyone's measure. Has he made a pact with Satan? I dunno, but it sure looks as though he's made a very friendly (ahem) deal with developers who want to tear down a number of functioning and popular businesses. Tunney has shown himself to be just another Democrat Machine hack who cares more about developers than he cares about his own constituents and neighborhood. Sometimes, an alderman is justified in doing what Tunney has done. Perhaps a block is blighted. Maybe a neighborhood is in desperate need of jobs, or there is a cluster of abandoned buildings. None of that exits on, or even near, the block that Tunney wants to see leveled and turned into, essentially, a big frikking mall. It will replace great eateries, a theater, successful retailers and more. We wonder why. As somebody said to me today, we'll find out when we see Tunney's next campaign contribution disclosures. (Know what I'm saying?) Alderman Tunney is, pardon my language, full of crap on this issue. As reported by Chicagoist.com, "Alderman Tom Tunney is still upset over one little sign at Wrigley, but has signed off on the razing and rebuilding of an huge portion of land across the street. Earlier this week, Tunney announced his support for a hotel/condo/shopping center across Addison from Wrigley built by M&R Development. The plan would take out numerous businesses, including bars, pizza places, and ImprovOlympic, despite Tunney's claim that the part of real estate in contention is an 'under-developed piece of real estate'." Wrigleyville Mall Plan Infuriates Neighbors, Business Owners CBS Chicago Wrigleyville, That Mall's the Future. Get Used To It. NBC Chicago Tunney Gives Thumbs Up to Wrigleyville Mall NBC Chicago iO Must Go? ChicagoNow Flashback: Anti-Eminent Domain Meeting Successful CNB

Finally, We See Inside Block 37 (#fail)

Once known as "the world's most famous vacant block" and used as a public ice skating rink, Block 37 is now open for business. But it's a disappointing opening, apparently. YouTuber "YoChicago1" posted this inside view of the troubled "Block 37," a chunk of prime real estate in the middle of Chicago's downtown "Loop." Over the years, Block 37 has been profoundly screwed up as only Mayor Daley, the City Council and socialist meddling could. On Nov. 25, YoChicago1 visited Block 37 and writes: "The long-awaited opening of the shops at Block 37 has begun. Zara, Puma, Godiva and a few others have opened, but the mall was nearly barren of retail traffic when I visited at around noon the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I left thinking: Bleak 37; retail fail." Ah, and the drama continues as the Block 37 developer seeks investors as a receiver is appointed. Chicago: The city that works (kind of). Also See: Developer loses control of Block 37‎ Block 37 Mall opens…kind of Who's Daley supporting in the battle for Block 37? guest commentary: world's most famous vacant lot under development (2006) Leave a Comment Conservative T-Shirts Follow CNB on Twitter RSS Feed

Gutierrez, Another IL Democrat Scandal

Yet ANOTHER Illinois Democrat in a scandal. The hits just keep on coming, folks, in the Land of Stinkin'. CBS2 Chicago has this:

Luis G.

U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-4th) actively fronted for now-indicted real estate developer Calvin Boender, and the relationship led to a personal loan and at least one real estate deal for Gutierrez, sources tell CBS 2. Gutierrez allegedly squired Boender around City Hall and introduced him to aldermen. Those meetings led to discussions about potential development deals in various Chicago wards. 

Gutierrez, man of the people, all tight with the real estate developers. 

CBS2 goes on: 

But the revelation that Carothers worked for a year with the FBI secretly recording conversations means the investigation may involve many more. Among insiders said to be worried is Gutierrez.

It's difficult to keep up with all the Democrat scandals in Illinois. About the only winners are the lawyers. 

Marathon Pundit has a thought about that: 

Sen. Roland Burris (D-Blagojevich) isn't the only member of Illinois' Washington delegation feeling nervous. Congressman Luis Gutierrez will probably be thumbing through the "Lawyers" listings in the Yellow Pages this weekend.

RELATED:

• Luis Gutierrez Paid His Wife Over $300,000 From Campaign Funds - FreeBeacon (2016)
• Rep. Luis Gutiérrez Won’t Run for Re-Election - Roll Call (2017)

Chicago Ald. Ike Carothers Indicted, Corruption Charges

Strange as it may seem, another politician in Illinois has been indicted for corruption. This one, yet another Democrat, is Alderman Isaac "Ike" Carothers, 29th Ward. He is accused of funny business with the developer that was involved with the Galewood-Armitage Industrial TIF. More from Twitter... ChiNewsBench Indictment papers, Chicago Alderman Isaac Carothers http://tinyurl.com/n7aqoq ChiNewsBench Chicago Ald. Carothers indicted by feds http://tinyurl.com/carothers for Galewood TIF activity http://tinyurl.com/ktvphq Leave a Comment Here... See our cool merchandise... Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Hey! ChiNewsBench is on Twitter

Trade on Four Banned Items Might Resume

Commodity Online reports some good news out of Mumbai, India. Life goes on, life goes on... MUMBAI: The major commodity bourses in India, Multi-Commodity Exchange of India and National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX) is likely to resume trading soon in natural rubber, soybean oil, potatoes and chickpeas following the lifting of suspension of futures in these commodities, officials of Finance Ministry said. Full Story...

Petitioning Alderjoker Joe Moore

Bill Morton's got this story, and he's got it good:

The portion of our neighborhood from the lake to the alley just West of Sheridan Road and Chase to Birchwood is currently zoned for residential uses as an RT-4 zone. The maximum density allowed in an RT-4 zone is one dwelling unit for every 1,000 square feet of lot area. A developer now wants to put up a large apartment/commercial building in the middle of the 7300 block of North Sheridan Road.

In order to be allowed to do that, he needs to convince Alderman Moore to change the zoning law and re-zone the area as a business zone, which would permit four times the density permitted under the current law and would allow business uses. WHOLE THING at Rogers Park in 1,000 Words...

VILLAGE NORTH THEATER TO BE EVICTED

A beloved institution of Rogers Park will be evicted from its home at 6740 N. Sheridan Road. The two-story building also has a Starbucks coffee shop, a Thai restaurant and a Bank of American ATM center. The top floor of the building has been vacant for years.

The meeting took place this evening at 7:00 p.m., at Loyola University's Mertz Hall.

Alderman Joe Moore, 49th Ward, let it slip on both his web site and at tonight's public meeting that ADF Capital has an eviction order against the owners of the Village North theater. According to Moore's web site, Anthony Fox of ADF "purchased the property last year and plans extensive interior and exterior renovations. He is evicting the current owner of the Village North Theater, but hopes to keep the theater open after extensive renovations."

While Moore was introducing Mr. Fox (photo, right) to the audience of about 20 people, he mentioned in passing that there is an eviction order pending against Village North theater. Mr. Fox said that "the judge would not be happy" if that was discussed publicly, and the the subject was dropped.

The renovations will make use of $200,000 in Tax Increment Finance (TIF) District funding. Mr. Fox noted that the TIF money would be used to replace the crumbling terra cotta facade on the building with a concrete-glass compound "that looks exactly like the original terra cotta."

The TIF referred to is the Devon-Sheridan TIF district.

Mr. Fox also said that the interior of the building would not be renovated, but added that the space now occupied by the Village North theater is being considered for use as a live entertainment venue, possibly with a future liquor license.

Andy McGhee, partner in the still-developing Morse Theatre at Morse and Wayne, praised the use of TIF money for the replacement of the terra cotta.

"I would usually be against using TIF money for something like this," Mr. McGhee said. "I like TIF money to be used for really big projects. But this is a good use. Kudos to you," he told Mr. Fox.

Several neighbors in attendance asked whether this was the most appropriate use of TIF money. Mr. Fox cited a DevCorp North paper that claims that more than $150 million per year are lost to Rogers Park because people shop outside of it. Mr. Fox said that a beautified facade on the building at 6740 N. Sheridan Road would encourage more people to shop in Rogers Park. (He did not say how replacing some terra cotta would make Morse Avenue any more desirable or any safer.)

Notables in attendance: Rene Camarago (DevCorp North), James Ginderske (former aldermanic candidate and member of Moore's "Zoning and Land Use Advisory Committee"), Andy McGhee (The Morse Theatre project), Michael Land (49th Ward Service Office).

RELATED:
Devon-Sheridan TIF district
Public Funds, Private Windfall
Zoning, Economic Development & Land Use
* Hey ZULAC, Where's the Transparency?
* Is the ZULAC Committee Insane?
* Still No Transparency with ZULAC

Citizen Participation Act: Unleash the Hounds

Michael Miner is keeping abreast of a new law in Illinois that holds hope for bloggers and non-bloggers alike: Public Act 095-0506, also known as the Citizen Participation Act (CPA), passed last summer and yet to be tested in a court of law. Miner did an excellent report about the pending lawsuit in the April 3 issue of the Chicago Reader. Miner is a great writer, but I have one tiny bone to pick with him. It's nothing personal, I just wish to set the record straight. I reported on the case of Jaeger v. Okon, in which a developer sued a married couple for defamation - both on their blog and, allegedly, verbally. My Chicago Journal/Booster article, in the April 30 issue, broke the news that the developer and the bloggers had settled out of court. We were also the first to report that the new CPA was yet to be tested. Here's the bone picking: In the May 15 Reader, Miner had a few problems in an otherwise excellent article. "I wrote about Jaeger’s suit against the Okons in Hot Type on April 3," Miner wrote, "The Citizen Participation Act became law last August, and in March the Okons’s attorney, Daliah Saper, unleashed it on Jaeger and Donnelly." However, as I reported on April 30 (as noted by Miner), the Okon's and their attorney unleashed….nothing. Nothing at all, in fact, except a willingness to settle out of court and quietly go away. Granted, Ms. Saper would probably have "unleashed" the Citizen Partipation Act in court, had it gone to trial. With no trial, though, the CPA is yet to be tested, yet to be "unleashed." Miner continued, "Saper asked the court to dismiss Jaeger’s suit. Instead, the two sides promptly set­tled out of court." So, which is it? Did Saper "unleash" the CPA on developer Jaeger, or did Saper ask the court to dismiss the lawsuit? You don't "unleash" a law on anybody or in any court by asking for your case to be dismissed. It would be like a star football player "unleashing" his best plays against a team that lost the game because they didn't show up. In the next paragraph, Miner wrote, "According to an article in the Booster, the Okons wound up paying $20,000 and posting an apology on their blog, terms that don’t resemble victory and that make the Citizen Participation Act sound pretty toothless." "Toothless?" They settled out of court. Had the blogger's attorney, Ms. Saper, actually "unleashed" the CPA in a court of law, and had the CPA not swayed the court's decision, then it could correctly be said that the CPA sounds "pretty toothless." But a law that is yet to be tested cannot sound toothless - or toothy - until it's been tested. Such a case is called a "test" because, well, it tests the law to see just how good its teeth are. A couple of paragraphs later Miner wrote, "Because the two sides settled, Jaeger’s suit didn’t lead to what Saper had hoped it would: the first court test of the Illinois CPA." In my Booster article on April 30, I reported that Alex Memmen, an associate for developer Jaeger's legal counsel, "would have loved to litigate the case" [Jaeger v. Okon] "because it would have been the first case in Illinois" to test the CPA. The Illinois Legislature unanimously passed the Citizen Participation Act (Public Act 095-0506) last August. Approximately 20 other states have laws similar to Illinois' Public Act 095-0506, and more state legislatures are currently considering such laws. I rest my case.

Bloggers, Developer Settle Out of Court

A case of Blogger v. Developer ended quite differently than David and Goliath. Goliath won this round, but only after a few interesting twists and turns behind the scenes. FULL STORY at Chicago Journal/Booster...

What Did Joe Moore Know, And When DId He Know It?

Let's ask friend Craig Gernhardt, who gives us this update on the hazardous building demolition in the 49th Ward of the North Shore School:

Wow! The "contractor" identified over $1M in code deficiencies, yet this same "contractor" somehow MISSED deadly asbestos pipe wrapping in his walk-through of the North Shore School? READ THE REST OF THE STORY!...

UPDATED: North Shore Demo Just a Big "F#@% You"

UPDATED 04-01-98: DEMOLITION HALTED BY IEPA BECAUSE OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS... CLICK FOR FULL STORY

They were in such a hurry to tear it down. Such a hurry.

I was taking photos of the late, now mangled North Shore School yesterday. A woman who lives next door asked me why I was taking pictures.

"Posterity," I said, smiling.

"Oh, well, I hope they clean this up soon," she said. "It's been like this for weeks."

Yes, they did what you see in the photos - and then stopped. The woman said they did it in one day. It's been about three weeks since the demolition, and nothing else has happened since. "I've called Alderman Moore's office several times asking when they're going to clean up this mess. He's gotten back to me on other issues, but he hasn't called me back about this."

This begs the question: Knowing that a challenge was forming from Don Gordon and others who feel that at least a couple of portions of lake shore protection laws were violated, is it possible that the owner / demo company / developer / Joe Moore urged the immediate destruction? What else could explain the complete lack of "progress" in the days since the destruction of a beloved landmark?

BASTARD

49th Ward Alderbastard Joe Moore did it. He slipped yet another of his stealth development programs through, with demolition of the North Shore School building beginning early this afternoon. Just two days after a community meeting and public outcry, the Bastard Joe Moore proved - once again - that he doesn't give a crap about the people he "represents."

In the photo here, The Bench has preserved some precious memories of the children that learned their ABC's at North Shore. The drawing was photographed on the rear door Sunday.

More here: * RIP North Shore School

KNOW YOUR ALDERPIMP

Jam packed with dirt, this article at the Chicago Tribune hits home with a lot of us. The hardest hit, happily, are the dirty politicians. 49th Ward blogger Craig Gernhardt comments, "Joe Moore in the 49th Ward with 73 up-zones. In the calendar year of 2007 alone, Joe Moore has raised over $500,000 dollars in campaign contributions. Most of this money came from people wanting up-zoning changes or development favors." And he's got the best headline of the week: "Joe Moore Pimps Out Neighborhood While Padding His Political Pocketbook."

No Pussies

Cats kill, you know. In fact, more mice and sparrows are killed every year by cats than by cigarettes. A developer has won resource consent to build 150 houses in the "green belt" that stops urban Auckland pushing further north, promising to ban cats and create public access to its remote coastal fringes. MORE...

Bulldozing Loyola Beach, Chicago

This developer took bulldozer to beach on December 31, 2007. This exclusive photo by The Bench captures him in the act, breaking ground for his latest dream of castles and trenches, moats and fortresses.

Will Katy Hogan move to stop this evil developer? Can she do it in time?

Insults in Evanston: Howard/Damen Meeting Gets Hot

Insults flew at the Howard/Damen development meeting in Evanston last night. Kudos to Craig at Broken Heart for providing quotes from the fiery Alderwoman Ann Rainey (8th Ward, Evanston) hit hard. "Joe Moore should take a page from Alderman Rainey's play-book on this issue," writes Craig. "We all got a look at the owner of the property who is also the redeveloper. He has not a clue. In the meantime, he has no intention of doing anything to force his disgusting tenant to clean up their act." MORE more more... RELATED: Proposal for Howard/Damen Development