• Thursday, September 25
• Nick’s Uptown–4015 N. Sheridan
• 7:30 to 9:30 pm
• $30 includes an open bar

• Keep talking to neighbors & friends, let them know what’s going on
• Forward this email with a personal note
• Stay tuned for more meetings, FUNdraisers & updates

Wilson Yard is the key to Uptown’s future. Join us for an eye-opening meeting to learn how this plan has radically changed, its impact on Uptown, and citizens’ legal action.

Fix-Wilson-Yard Community Meeting:
• Thursday, August 14, 7 pm
• Buena Pointe, 4350 N. Broadway

“Wilson Yard is a future slum for Uptown”
Urban Planner, Urban Land Institute

Do you know the facts on Wilson Yard?
• Failed housing model: 200 units of 100% subsidized low-income housing
• Higher property taxes: Over $50 million of local property taxes pouring into the housing
• Increased crime: This housing will be a beacon for even more crime in Uptown!
• Target? Target has yet to sign a letter of agreement, or any other written agreement
• Traffic Congestion: City’s traffic study conducted in September, not peak summer months.

What you can do NOW!
1. Come to the meeting
2. Visit www.fixwilsonyard.org
3. Talk to your neighbors
4. Donate today

Get informed, support Uptown’s future. Tax-deductible donations can be made on-line at www.fixwilsonyard.org.

Rep. Greg Harris - July 31, 2008

Uptown Public Safety Meeting

Last night Sen. Heather Steans and I hosted a Town Hall meeting on public safety in Uptown. Having attended numerous CAPS and block club meetings in recent weeks and after hearing from the Uptown business community as well as individual concerned citizens, Sen. Steans and I decided we had to come together as an entire community to address the recent spikes in crime in Uptown.

The meeting was attended by well over 400 people from every walk of life in Uptown. It was an impressive crowd representing the diversity of Uptown: young and old, lifelong residents and new arrivals, gay and straight, rich and low income folks, owners and renters, businesspeople and social service providers..in short, the entire rainbow that makes Uptown a desirable neighborhood to live and work in.

Everyone was concerned about the recent shooting incidents and the apparent uptick in gang activity. Everyone was also concerned about pulling together as a community to increase enforcement, assist the police, provide better alternatives for youth, enhance the business environment and make all residents feel safer on the streets and in our parks.

Sen. Steans and I chaired the meeting. Participating in the panel were 23^rd District Commander Kathy Boehmer, 23^rd District Tactical Lieutenant Robert Stasch, Deputy Chief of Patrol Bruce Rottner, Deputy Police Superintendent Bea Cuello and Ald. Schulter’s Chief of Staff Dan Luna. Attending the meeting were 46^th Ward Ald. Helen Shiller, Ald. Smith’s Chief of Staff Doug Fraser and 46^th Ward Streets and San Superintendent Don Nowotny.

After two hours of compelling testimony including business owners, building managers, moms whose children had been lured into gangs, parents whose children and grandchildren have been exposed to violence, service providers and dozens of others, it was clear that people learned a lot, wanted to learn more and wanted to work together on community-wide solutions to problems. Broad themes of the areas identified to address include:

- Better communication within the community

- Increased participation in CAPS beat meetings to identify crime hotspots

- Increased police presence, including saturation presence following incidents

- More positive activities for area youth

- Focus on eliminating negative activities like public drinking/drugging, gang loitering, etc.

- More cameras on the streets, buildings and in the parks to deter criminal activities

- Police presence on foot, bicycling or using Segways in the area

- Closer working relationships between major neighborhood organizations, elected officials, public and private institutions

- Focus on securing schools, parks and playlots

As a next step, Sen. Steans and I will be convening a meeting of leaders of key stakeholders in the Uptown community including elected officials, community and business organizations, social service providers, youth service agencies, the Chicago Police Department and others. We will go through the pages of notes and recommendations made at the Town Hall meeting and begin to develop strategies and plans for moving forward.

Following the Uptown leadership meetings, we will convene another Town Hall meeting to present ideas and strategies for discussion by the community, and seek support and participation from the entire neighborhood.

Many, many thanks to the hundreds of people who attended and participated in last night’s meeting. Heather and I look forward to working with the community to continue to make Uptown one of the City’s most desirable and safest neighborhoods.

In response to recent violence, two meetings have been scheduled:

1. Thursday, 7/24, at 7 p.m. Emergency meeting of FORUM (Friends Organizing to Repair Uptown’s Mismanagement) at Kahawa Coffee House (838 West Montrose).

Owner will provide free coffee (they also have lattes, smoothies, pastries that, while not free, are nonetheless delicious!).

2. Community Safety Meeting with State Senator Heather Steans, State Rep. Greg Harris, and 23rd District Police Commander

Wednesday, July 30
6:30 p.m.
Truman College Cafeteria

Please plan on attending at least one of these meetings!

What’s going on & Why You should care

There’s big equipment and lots of dirt blowing all over Sheridan Park from Wilson Yard.  We’ve learned that the toxic soil located in Wilson Yard is going through a quasi-cleanup.   Levels of lead, sometimes 1000x higher than recommended human health safety levels, asbestos and arsenic are being partially being removed to make way for the low income buildings for families and seniors.

There will be more information forthcoming on how residents will be actively addressing the problems with Wilson Yard.

Gang Gunfire scatters pedestrians on Wilson & Malden this hot afternoon!

People walking near Wilson and Malden a little after 2 pm on this hot Tuesday afternoon were shocked into taking cover when gunfire erupted on this busy street. The gang warfare has been the worst our community has seen in more than a decade–with the Black P-Stone rangers who roam Sheridan Park fighting with their rival gangs including the Vice Lords who claim Clarendon Park as their territory.

See GWNA News for more!

Graceland-Wilson Neighbors Association was founded in 2002 by a group of neighbors. Our first years were busy with summer BBQs and a holiday progressive dinner people still talk about.

The Fire Station garden was the first community garden through a joint effort with GWNA and the great guys at our fire station. We hosted a fundraiser at Frankie J’s, now the Spot, and raised more than $3,000. The City’s community garden folks provided the plants and Steve Choe, a neighbor and landscape architecture, created the garden design.

But like all good things, block clubs take time and effort. Over the past few years our block club suffered from neglect. We decided it’s time to revive our block club, reacquaint ourselves with our neighbors and work for a better community.

Truman College officials unveiled plans to build a new student administration center and parking garage at the south end of the school at a July 26, 2007 community meeting. Construction of the block long building is expected to start spring 2008 and continue for eighteen months.

Truman administrators, the alderman and STV Inc, the architects, presented the plan including architectural renderings that showed a 6-story building running along Sunnyside from Racine to the El tracks.

The first floor will house the student administration offices and bike parking. The remaining stories will be a parking garage.

The south end of the building running along Sunnyside and Racine raised resident questions on safety. The architects stated the building will have windows along Sunnyside and Racine; yet no renderings were shown. This street-frontage area has crime issues and neighbors asked for more detail on lighting and security.

Residents were also concerned when they learned the eastern walk-way from Sunnyside to Wilson would be eliminated, cutting off pedestrian access to the Wilson El Station.

Parking garage access will be a two-way entrance/exit eliminating the existing mall between the Truman buildings. Cars will enter and exist off Wilson. Racine north of Wilson may be one-way.

Truman’s new president, Lynn Walker, stated, “We have a sincere desire to learn from your comments and feedback.” Resident questions/concerns were raised and will be addressed in the next community meeting. The next meeting will be set soon. Questions to be answered:

• What will be done to replace the pedestrian sidewalk from Clifton to Wilson?
• How will the building facing the Racine and Sunnyside address design and safety?
• How will the project be integrated into the Wilson Yard Plan?
• Will this project have a south entrance to the rehabbed Wilson El station?
• What security measures will be taken? Cameras? 24/7 security guards?

All of these concerns will be included in the next redesign on the building. The funding for this $55 million project comes from:

• $30 million City Colleges
• $15 million State of Illinois
• $10 million Wilson Yard TIF fund

Residents can ask questions or register to be notified by email for the next meeting at trumannewbuilding@ccc.edu. Please forward this email to your neighbors.

November 21, 2007

By LORRAINE SWANSON Staff Writer
Chicago News Star
Member of the Sun-Times News Group

Alderman Helen Shiller had lots to say about the 46th Ward’s side of Uptown at a business luncheon hosted by Uptown United on Nov. 8.

Shiller, who voted yes to approving all key elements of the city’s $5.9 billion spending plan, including an $86 million property tax hike at last week’s City Council meeting, kicked off the luncheon by talking about the 2008 budget.

Asking the business audience gathered at The Spot at 4437 N. Broadway, what they would like to see cut from the budget, an audience member stated “corruption.”

“Other than that response that doesn’t have a response to it, it’s an important one so I’m actually glad that you said it,” Shiller said.

Shiller explained that the costs related to corruption stemming from political hiring and inappropriate police activity, plus the three new city departments created to deal with corruption, drove up expenses in the city’s 2008 budget.

“I confess the really messy importance of the responsibility that (the City Council) had for this budget,” Shiller said. “What we have in front of us and what we have presented, in addition to the things that people want and nobody has told me what else concretely, because I agree that we want to get rid of corruption, but that means you have to create ways to do it.”

Shiller said that more than 70 percent of the city’s budget is tied up in salaries and entitlements, leaving little else for city services.

“(The city) has a rule that we’re not eliminating vacancies in the police, fire and (Office of Emergency Communications) even though some think those could be rearranged and organized,” Shiller said. “We’re not in a position to start cutting those because there is a very strong point of view that people want to have the best public safety possible.”

She cautioned that the budget shortfall opened the door to other types of fees and taxes.

“It is a popular feeling that property taxes are onerous for a good reason,” the alderman explained. “But the other fees in many ways are more expensive if you were to prorate them out on a monthly basis, but they’re more hidden and people don’t feel as strongly about them.”

Included in the city’s 2008 budget, Shiller said, are 20 to 30 traffic light cameras to catch cars that speed through intersections.

“I don’t know where they’re going, but there’s now going to be a $100 fine instead of a $90 fine,” Shiller said. “I would strongly recommend to everybody in this room because part of the reason (the city) is doing this actually is to create safer streets, and if we create safer streets we’ll save money. So I feel fine telling you don’t get the fine, just don’t go through a yellow light.”

Asked about the Wilson Avenue CTA Station, Shiller acknowledged that while the station was never part of the Wilson Yard TIF redevelopment plan, TIF money is being set aside “informally” if the CTA doesn’t have the capital dollars to pay for the station.

“We can at least leverage TIF dollars for federal monies that the CTA can no longer leverage because the state has been requiring that it pay off that money every year, and unless (the debt) is restructured, it’s not going to change,” Shiller said.

The audience also quizzed Shiller about Wilson Yard and when community residents can expect to see the next phase of construction to begin now that the new Aldi’s has been built.

“The last thing I was told, which was very recently, was that ground will be broken by the end of this year,” Shiller said. “Contrary to rumor there has been no change. Everything I said, I said a zillion times, and I’m not going to say it a zillion times again.”

Shiller said that the next phase of construction planned for Wilson Yard is a “parking tub” which will serve as a foundation for the development’s parking structure.

“I’m hesitant to give any more details because as you know they obviously changed a lot over the years,” Shiller said. “The details of the project haven’t changed but the timing is a little elusive as you know, but there is constant progress.”

http://www.pioneerlocal.com/newsstar/news/657735,SN-ShillerSpeaks-112107-s1.article<