Sunday, May 1, 2016

Howdy, Neighbor: Columnist Mark Brown Makes A Move

We've chided Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown in the past for living in Oak Park while being very critical about how things are done in Uptown.

We're pleased to learn that he has switched "Oak" to "Buena" in his address and moved to Uptown after 26 years in the 'burbs ("Downsizing to Uptown brings challenges and charms").

We're always happy to have new people make the move to our community. Welcome to our little section of Chicago, Mr. Brown. We hope you grow to love it as much as we do.

5 comments:

  1. That's interesting. I missed that but I gave up on the Sun Times when they endorsed Rauner. No endorsement policy and then suddenly Rauner. Ack. Not Brown's fault.

    We'll have to see whether it's Good Uptown Mark or Bad Uptown Mark that has moved in. Time will tell and time marches on. Moving to the Ward/Lair of his bete noir Cappleman?

    I just did a google search on his columns and he has seemed to lay off Cappleman in the last year or so. Has mentioned his name a few times, but doesn't seem willing/able to give Capp credit for the senior buildings being bought by the CHA or some of the homeless programs going on. He mentions him as an aside with Alderman Pawar in the proposed Airbomb tax.

    Maybe just maybe he will come to see the wisdom of "best practices". Simply put it's not
    doing the same old stuff that doesn't work. That's what the problem with the Salvation Army was. Trying to get these well meaning social service organizations to cooperate/coordinate and maybe change how they deliver services was never going to be easy.

    Anyhooo dilly ho dilly I welcome him to Uptown. Sounds like he lives in one of the highrises on Marine. If so I hope he didn't replace one of the "indigenous" elderly Jewish people who used to dominate the demographics of those buildings. I always find it amusing to use the word "indigenous" regarding Chicago nabes. Mexicans are "indigenous" to Pilsen. Puerto Ricans to Humboldt. Twerkers/Appalachians to Uptown. ETC ETC ETC. Time marches on.

    In other Uptown moving news I was told the other day that Denice Davis, former Chief of Staff to Shiller and former aldermanic candidate in 2015 is now a former Chicagoan. Yes, boys and girls ladies and gents another failed aldermanic candidate has left the nabe. Seems she moved "home" to Ohio. Someone sent me a screenshot of her using "home" describing her new place.

    So we lost Davis and gained Brown. The world remains in balance.

    PS We can still chide Brown for living in a doorman building, if he does, and looking down on the rest of us.

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  2. Oh I forgot one thing. My good/bad Mark bit was a play on a Chicago Tribune columnist, Richard Ciccone, who used to use Good Jane/Bad Jane to explain Mayor Byrne back in the day. Yes, I'm that old that I recall reading those columns. Chicago Magazine even put out one issue with two different covers. One has a smiling Jane one had a frowning Jane. The frowning cover outsold the smiling cover.

    End of Chicago history minute.

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  3. IrishPirate, you keep doing you. Always a pleasure to read your take on things.

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  4. Well, I see two scenarios. Scenario One: Mark Brown is given a gag order to avoid writing any stories about his own neighborhood just as happened to Pam Zekman after her husband tackled two Maryville youths as there were mugging a senior citizen on my block. I'm dreaming. The "democratic faction controlled voice box" known as the Sun Times won't let that happen to their puppet.

    Scenario Two: Mark Brown becomes the next in a long line of carpetbagger candidates to run for office in our area.

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  5. Denise is gone? No more Shanene? Who will come running across the street to cover up for Shiller Staffer's son when he fires shots over my head blowing the front window out of the Dunkin Donuts? Who will call me a racist every time I raise a community issue? Who will vote-the-rope at the nursing homes, hand out free cigarettes to indigent voters, and manage the gang-banger volunteer "getting high party" on Waveland each election day? Who is going to call the low income housing managers with names of tenants that Shiller's gang demands be placed at the top of the available unit waiting list? Who will bleed money out of the local schools to reward community loyalists? Is it really over? All that valuable "working the system" expertise going by the wayside? Hooray!!!!!

    I have this vision of our gal charging up to an Amish farmer out there in the hinderlands. Instead of putting up with her antics, like we did in this neighborhood, he'd simply gives her gives her a good poke with his pitchfork and turns away and ignores her. For someone who craved attention as much as Denise, being ignored would be the cruelest rebuke of all.

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