Comments on Uptown Update: Tribune Letter To The Editor: "Time For A Regime C...

No I am not blaming everything in Uptown on Shille...

2008-08-25T14:17:41.332-05:00

No I am not blaming everything in Uptown on Shiller but list for me accomplishments in the last year 4 years or 20 that has made the ward a better safer place. Or tell me where she has actually spent money to bring a vibrant mixed community of people and businesses?

Look at all the surrounding wards. Even the part of Boystown that isn't in her ward is nicer than the part that is.

Alderman have a lot of power when it comes to business coming to a hood. Lets not forget how she pushed through Labor Ready.

And yes she is now not a minor player in King Daley's machine.

Thanks god someone is good is going to run against him next time around as well.

Question - what new developments in Uptown has Ald...

2008-08-25T12:46:22.470-05:00

Question - what new developments in Uptown has Alderman Shiller brought to the 46th or surround Wards that is NOT related to SRO's, halfway houses or methadone clinics?

Meaning, what BUSINESS has she brought to Uptown in the past 20 years that generates money for Uptown?

I'm really curious to know. My impression is the majority of new bars and restaurants that have come in, were brought in by Mary Ann Smith.

Yes, I agree we can't blame every rainy day on Shiller, but can someone explain to me when she has brough the sun to Uptown?

C'mon B, why are you giving Suzanne such a hard ti...

2008-08-25T10:53:37.339-05:00

C'mon B, why are you giving Suzanne such a hard time? I don't think there is much to be gained "in the Chicago game" by sticking up for Shiller. She's been in office 20 years, she's unpopular with constituents, she's not powerful in City Hall! What could possibly be gained politically by sticking up for her? And I don't even think what she is doing is really sticking up for her. She's more saying that Shiller is a minor player in something larger (i.e. "the Chicago game") and her ability to be useful to this community is over. Therefore, if Shiller won't move along on her own we need to help her out the door.

Furthermore, I think Suzanne is right in that if we think that all of our troubles will be over once Shiller is gone---once goodness returns to the realm---that we will be misreading our current affairs. There seems to be a range of feelings about how central Shiller is in what is happening/what has happened in Uptown. Suzanne is just expressing one area of the range.

Suzanne is just trying to play the Chicago game by...

2008-08-25T10:08:51.792-05:00

Suzanne is just trying to play the Chicago game by sticking up for Shiller.

Vote Shiller out a retard could be a better Alderman.

It's pretty bad when you have to get the state reps involved because the Alderman isn't listening to the people.

YES VOTE OUT SHILLERI am so tired of see my home a...

2008-08-24T22:18:59.726-05:00

YES VOTE OUT SHILLER

I am so tired of see my home area taken over by the gangs and street people. I have voiced my feelings many time to shillers office but never even now get a responce. I was told once by her staff if I ddin`t like the way uptown area is I could consider moving to a place I would like. What a answer. I say yes it is up to us. Lets all vote her out and get a person who cares. It is up to us to take control of our uptown area and we can by getting a new alderman that will be on our side and not the gangs and homeless sides....

I am too. It was a choice you were able to exercis...

2008-08-24T21:24:47.238-05:00

I am too. It was a choice you were able to exercise, one you wouldn't have had if I or someone else didn't run. After fifty years of appointments, pre-selected candidates, and a chorus line of pension abusers, it was remarkable that we actually managed to have a primary. Reasonable people can disagree on ideas and candidates but when we allow the process become subverted, it's game over.

Glad I voted Heather.

2008-08-24T17:11:31.099-05:00

Glad I voted Heather.

B, this is exactly the kind of hyperbole that gets...

2008-08-24T15:36:30.137-05:00

B, this is exactly the kind of hyperbole that gets everybody riled up but doesn’t accomplish much. If Uptown today is Helen’s “fault,” then you have to credit her with what’s good too and you aren’t.

Is she a rotten Alderman? No. For examples of rotten, there are other Council occupants who truly deserve the “rotten” moniker, including Arenda Troutman, Rafael Frias, Ambrosio Medrano, Allan Streeter, Jesse Evans, Lawrence Bloom, Virgil Jones, Percy Giles and Ed Vrdolyak. To his credit, though, Ed is also charming which may have made is rottenness less odious. What Helen is? She’s non-responsive and ineffective.

She only cares about her “power base?” Wait, which is it? In your very next point you say she takes advantage of and steals from them. Btw, accusing someone of stealing is a bazooka of a charge and one that you should be prepared to prove. Also, as a person who has run for office, I can assure you, stealing from your base is no way to build power. ;-)

Look, I really get it how much Helen is disliked but ascribing to her this sort of hatefulness is really beyond the pale (“She loves the gang violence”). She may not be doing what you want her to do about (fill in the blank), but that’s a lot different than saying she’s aiding and abetting gang-bangers.

“She won't even take a meeting with half the residents?” You’re half right. I don’t think she takes meetings with ANY of the residents.

Middle class condo owners will move out? Maybe last year. Today, it’s more likely they’re stuck where they are or facing foreclosure.

“She is smarter and gaming it more than people think.” Yup, she is smarter than a lot of people think but Helen gaming the system? I'm afraid you may not be sufficiently familiar with the machinations of Chicago politics yet. For wholesale gaming, see the 48th Ward ;-)

Saskia- Will you please contact me at markscheider...

2008-08-24T14:49:28.032-05:00

Saskia-

Will you please contact me at markscheiderer@hotmail.com ?

Thanks,

Mark

Yes it is Helen's fault what Uptown is today. She...

2008-08-23T10:50:46.975-05:00

Yes it is Helen's fault what Uptown is today. She has been in 20 years and is a rotten Alderman.

Just look at how George Bush has screwed up in the last eight years.

Are we not to blame him as Commander in Chief for it?

This is the first time in Helen's 20 years where Helen is being held accountable for her piss poor Alderman skills.

She only cares about one thing her power base, her base, just like Bush.

She has taken advantage of the homeless, poor that she so says she stands for. While she lines her pockets and the pockets of her cronies like JPUSA.

She won't even take a meeting with half the residents?

She loves the gang violence and probably behind the scenes is encouraging it.

That is what keeps her in power.

If enough violence happens us middle class condo owners will move out and then we won't be her opposition or her clans opposition.

She is smarter and gaming it more than people think.

Uptown has had quite a bit of new development and ...

2008-08-23T03:14:13.260-05:00

Uptown has had quite a bit of new development and perhaps more than other areas. A more accurate picture would be comparing the overall percentage of low income housing with that found in other neighborhoods. We're over the top and Helen wants to build more in the Wilson Yards.

Funny we posted at the same time. What do they say...

2008-08-23T00:31:05.451-05:00

Funny we posted at the same time. What do they say about great minds? :) Good night!

I do agree with you wholeheartedly on what you say...

2008-08-23T00:29:31.630-05:00

I do agree with you wholeheartedly on what you say regarding Helen being a lightening rod and how that can be setting up our perceptions and expectations inappropriately. I never quite get around to that point but I am glad that you do, Suzanne.

Saskia, you are a delight. And maybe we do disagre...

2008-08-23T00:29:18.836-05:00

Saskia, you are a delight. And maybe we do disagree a bit but only in terms of the degree that Helen "chose" and her actual influence, i.e. how much she exacerbated the have / have-not divide and how much was ascribed to her. Obviously, I think it's more the latter. In any event, it is worth considering the total # units of market housing that have been created in 46 in the last 10 years versus, say, 48 or 49. Granted, too much is over-massed and, as my little brother would say -- butt-ugly -- but it's precisely because of the amount of new development in Uptown that wonky types like me find it hard to take a Sharpie and give Helen a mustache and horns. But Daley? That man has done more to earn Helen's reputation than Helen has. TIFs for everyone!

And yet we love you, "confused"!

2008-08-22T23:33:01.900-05:00

And yet we love you, "confused"!

You can tell from my first paragraph I love the wo...

2008-08-22T23:10:49.320-05:00

You can tell from my first paragraph I love the word "yet" :)

I'm perplexed by the several posts where folks hav...

2008-08-22T23:09:36.084-05:00

I'm perplexed by the several posts where folks have said they wouldn't yet vote for James because they don't know him well enough yet. Just through his posts on UU I have a sense that I already know him much more than our current Alderman.

I have never met James or Helen. However, I have read dozens of posts here from James that gives me what I feel is a reasonable picture of the man. I'm hard pressed to ever find any quote from Shiller on anything. The 46th Ward website is worthless. She's virtually invisible. When I do read or hear clips of Helen, I have a hard time understanding exactly what the heck she is saying. She has perfected the skill of talking and talking and talking without actually SAYING anything. She would be a good CEO in that regard.

I've never seen Helen out and about in the ward. I've seen James only once. He was running around like a man possessed up and down Kenmore Ave. with a big garbage bag picking up trash. I would venture to guess I'll never see Helen doing the same. That simple act alone has left an impression on me.

I would welcome more choices in the next election, but any new candidate needs to start talking now, because they will be hard-pressed to make themselves as visible and open as James has done over the last couple years.

Good discussion in this thread. I love this websi...

2008-08-22T22:08:10.272-05:00

Good discussion in this thread. I love this website.

Well I guess I want to put a finer point on this b...

2008-08-22T21:42:31.112-05:00

Well I guess I want to put a finer point on this business of her not keeping up with the times than maybe you do. To me it is more than her being a product of her time. To me, she chose to stay true to her "haves" vs. "have nots" view of the world and merely settled for playing robin hood when other courses were available to her. That set this neighborhood on a path of playing right into the machine's hands as they went about urban renewal v. 3 (as you might put it). The larger resistance and critiques ended but the beatings continued at home.

Ultimately, what good has that done us? Everyone depicts this history a bit differently but we all seem to agree that we are carrying a lot of responsibility, we are bitter, divided, experiencing violence and that Helen Shiller did have quite a bit to do with how we got here.

As for the mayor, I am personally not interested in giving him a pass at all. And, it really tics me off that Helen can. Our "independent" takes responsibilities off everyone else's shoulders but no longer even speaks about why it is so wrong for others to shirk their responsibilities? Unreal. And, in many cases these people are profiting heavily from it and Helen knows it!

Cha-Cha Jiminez once said, "by stabilizing this community, we can give the people political power, stop the rise in crime, end the sale of drugs and organize the youth so that they can become productive citizens in our society." Well, what the hell happened? I do acknowledge how hard these goals were to achieve but how is it possible that Uptowners are still after the same things today except the rhetoric has changed so that it is no longer permissible to say you want these things? It just blows my mind.

Saskia...if that's a tome, bring it on!I don't rea...

2008-08-22T20:35:06.118-05:00

Saskia...if that's a tome, bring it on!

I don't read disagreement between us. Your more fleshed out rendition of recent Uptown history is spot on and your take on Helen is largely accurate. Did the world change on her? Yes, that’s exactly my point. Saying she’s in over her skiis is just another way of saying that she didn’t keep up.

She was of her time. But that time has passed, the job is different and she's no longer the person for the job.

To make much more out of it, to credit Helen as the author or prime augmenter of Uptown’s present day ills is not only selective, it's dismissive of a much larger and more influential universe that includes markets—--markets, btw, that have managed to bare the Feds ass---and politicians who are larger and more influential than she was or is today.

Worse, making her villainous, some ogre to be vanquished is to unwittingly impute virtue into the one who eventually defeats her. That’s a horrible set-up that none of us deserve, including her challenger!

Btw, why make Helen such a lightening rod and give the Mayor a pass? IMHO, that really makes no sense.

Although I always think what you have to say is th...

2008-08-22T19:28:26.512-05:00

Although I always think what you have to say is thoughtful, I am afraid we will never agree on this one Suzanne. Helen Shiller is so much more than “up to her skiis.” She is in Uptown today because the Slim Coleman crowd recruited her to come down from Wisconsin and continue her work for a peoples’ movement here. I agree with your description of how Uptown got the way it was before she arrived. But the part you leave out in your depiction is what she and others chose to make out of it.

Between the Black Panthers, SDS and even the religious movements that filtered through here, Uptown became a local stage upon which to enact national level politics. Rainbow coalitions, welfare rights, tenants rights…Uptown, Uptown, Uptown. But gradually the world changed around her, cities had less money and the general public grew tired of the things she was saying. Therefore, she made lots and lots of compromises in order to pursue her social justice goals and to return an ever shrinking portion of the public pie to her constituency. God love her and her refusal to approve Daley’s budget each year and her well-intentioned (but rambling) attempts to get the city to focus on the least of us. But over time all the fire and brimstone that was once directed to a much larger audience became more internal and against the cloutless who stood in her way.

She’s a small woman but a hard-as-nails agitator through and through. She has never abandoned that, especially when it comes to her issues. If she is at all “up to her skiis” it is not that she got out of her depth but that the world changed on her. My guess is that she is just willing to strongarm her little piece of it into what she can because (she rationalizes) there is so much out there already for the “haves.” I can tell you right now that if I were fortunate to be one of those limousine liberals I would probably blithely cheer her on. Yet I live here and I believe that in the long run it is doing more harm than good for the health of this community---a place that could be terrific.

Once again I must apologize for another tome! It is almost embarrassing how much I care about this place. I think I need to go “uptown dad” and go cold turkey for a while. :)

"Nonetheless, it is a mistake to blame her wholesa...

2008-08-22T19:08:57.905-05:00

"Nonetheless, it is a mistake to blame her wholesale for social and housing policies made, in many cases, before she was born."

I think that is the frustration..she is repeating the same mistakes with Wilson Yard.

Other neighborhoods have learned there lessons yet Helen seems to not only ignore it, she gives the middle finger to everyone else while she does it.

She has had 20+ years to change those "housing policies"

Tim wrote, "Unfortunately Uptown has begun to reap...

2008-08-22T18:05:18.012-05:00

Tim wrote, "Unfortunately Uptown has begun to reap what Ald. Helen Shiller has sown."

I appreciate the frustration that many residents feel about our Alderman and her lack of responsiveness. Nonetheless, it is a mistake to blame her wholesale for social and housing policies made, in many cases, before she was born. It is not only an error of history but it is also an error that primes her successor to fail.

Just this week, here on Uptown Update, some readers were confused by the phrase “slum clearance,” just one of several terms used during the long history of housing and social need in Uptown and other urban communities. Post-war SROs emerged in response to the housing shortage. Many later served as affordable housing for migrants from the coal-spent southeast and others in the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1970s through the mid 1990s, Uptown’s housing stock made it a gateway for new immigrants and urban renewal v.2 which including scattered site housing, section 8 rental vouchers, etc.

This is a short recitation of Uptown’s past and for die-hard historians and sociologists, a wholly inadequate one, granted. But hopefully, I can nudge all of us to take in a cumulative view and see how the trajectory of Uptown’s development is less about an intransigent Alderman and more about events and politics that transpired generations ago.

There are plenty of reasons to be dissatisfied with Alderman Shiller that are rooted within her tenure, especially the last five years. But fashioning her as some sort of malicious über-farmer who has seeded Uptown cravenly and deliberately to serve her political ambitions is a heck of a lot more narrative than you need to explain what’s happened and why, which is really much simpler: She’s in over her skiis. It happens to the best of us. ;-)

Also if steps down she can or Daley and her will a...

2008-08-22T17:00:10.023-05:00

Also if steps down she can or Daley and her will appoint an replacement they chose before the election.

That is how Tunney got in.

It's another great trick they use here in Crook County, IL to keep all their cronies in.

The person gets appointed tells us all what we want to hear so then the election comes and boom that person is elected.

Then the person turns into another crappy Alderbeast.

No evidence, but ... the City Council gives its me...

2008-08-22T16:13:59.973-05:00

No evidence, but ... the City Council gives its members full pensions when the years of service plus the age of the alderperson add up to 85.

Helen will be 63 in February 2011 (election time) and will have 24 years of "service" (well, in office, at least) at that time. It'll add up to 87, so she'll be eligible for a full pension.

If she quits a year early, she'll still be eligible for a full pension at that time. With the climate running so hot and vocal against her, why stick around? That, at least, is what most people think will happen. It's all conjecture at this point.