Friday, July 14, 2017

Proposed Sober Living Facility at 928 Cullom Fails To Win Neighbors' Votes

photo courtesy Redfin
From Ald. Cappleman's office:

"After a community meeting on Thursday, July 6 Alderman Cappleman asked community members within 250 ft. of the proposed property to vote either by paper ballot or online starting July 6 and ending on July 13 at 5p.m.

After all votes were tallied, there were a total of 506 votes cast out of which 143 were valid from individuals voting resided within the 250 ft. Out of the valid votes that were tallied, 34 were yes votes and 109 were no.

Therefore, Alderman Cappleman will not be supporting a zoning variance for a sober living facility at this time."

10 comments:

  1. The people have spoken..........the bastards.

    This is what I expected. I do think the Stately Marxist Mansion will pass.

    We'll know next week. People seem less concerned about a cabal of commies than they were about an abundance of addicts.

    I feel bad for the coffee shop and pastry shop owners near Cullom. They would have made a nice buck off those folks. Can't drink alcohol, but coffee and sweets are OK.

    Ultimately Marxist Manor has larger implications regarding government and freedom of speech anyway. It's really problematic to say "Hey, we don't like your politics so you can't move in".

    My biggest problem with that Cullom property regardless of use is that the front is just plain fugly.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Aww... Now the For-Profit Texas corporation with absolutely no experience in urban communities will have to find another easy, weak-minded ex-social worker alderman with a re-election campaign needing to be funded, in a formerly-impoverished ward in a big city whose community realizes that all these corporations care about is profits.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm sorry this didn't pass. There are well-managed sober living facilities all over the city, including Uptown, that no one knows about because they work well and blend in. I'd rather live across the street from one of those than my frat-boy-wannabe neighbors who blow up the city garbage bins with M-80s and think party-on-the-deck hours begin at midnight.

    If the immediate neighbors are convinced that a sober living facility would be just like the nursing home on the same street, either they were willfully ignoring the facts or the people doing the presentation didn't explain it well enough.

    Well, there are other homes and other streets in Chicago, even in Uptown, that are more open-minded.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It must be standard social-speak to compare social service facilities and pretend they’re equally palatable, but filling Uptown with dozens of hallway houses and neglecting the concerns of citizens is what got former Alderman Shiller run out of office eventually. Uptown is changing for the better, and most are fed-up with failed social experiments and their nefarious existences and dangerous people. You're going to have to give Uptown citizens a better ROI than just the feckless, tired do-gooder mantra that might've worked better during the 80s, 90s and early 00s when Uptown was left for dead and considered the ashtray of the lakefront.

      Delete
  4. Can someone explain why these sober and rehab centers want to be INSIDE the city and not in the country? Seems to me if somebody wanted to get sober they would want to be as far away from a liquor store and bar as they could get.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That was one of the many questions someone asked the owners at the community meeting, since all of their other locations are in suburban settings. Their answer--which few people bought--was that their patients/clients would want to be employed and near public transit. Unanswered was the fact that they'd have to run the gauntlet of myriad liquor stores, addicts and prostitutes in the neighborhood.

      Delete
    2. Yes, because the only place you can get booze, meth or opioids is in a city liquor store.

      Delete
    3. Perhaps because living in the city is where these people have worked and lived their entire lives. mastering recovery requires that you master the process in the midst of your own environment and learn skills and use tools to ensure your sobriety and return to your normal life without succumbing to those temptations. Meetings and sharing space with other people struggling with the same issue is how they find strength. "I'm here with you. We can fight this together." I know many people who attend AA on a regular basis, but still enjoy attending events and fundraisers in bars, because they have mastered their skills and used tools they learned in meetings and recovery programs to avoid partaking in those substances which they know will send them into a downward spiral. A huge par of recovery is learning a new way to live in the REAL WORLD where all of the temptations exist. If your recovery is all about avoiding those things, you're setting yourself up for failure and relapse to some extent. Facing down your demons head on is key to the process of recovery. Understanding your weakness is key to recovery. Building a sober community you can rely on when you face difficulty is key to recovery. These are the reasons people live in a Sober Living House. To be supported in their efforts as they work to reconstruct a life free from what ever they were addicted to.

      Delete
  5. It's really telling that a man who used his Social Work credentials to get into office couldn't be bothered to explain to the "Cullom Neighbors" what a Sober Living House is how it's not the people who have sought out treatment and asked for and received help that they worrying about. Rather it's the drug dealers living in the apartment right next door to them and the gang bangers who are shooting at each other with abandon. You'd think that an Alderman who maintains a valid Illinois Social Work License could explain the recovery process better and protect those in his community who are also in recovery from the fear mongering and shame tactics that Cullom Neighbors resorted to day after day. But it's all about selling out I guess.

    ReplyDelete