From Pioneer Press News-Star10. Year of the blog
Always interesting, always opinionated and at times, more rancorous than a middle-school lunch room, neighborhood bloggers have both delighted and consternated their readers, as well as becoming the bane of some local aldermen's existence.
Chicago's blogosphere has helped create a "virtual back fence" where neighbors now gather to shape each other's civic lives, whether to complain about "the Stroger fund" where their property taxes drain like water through a sieve, or exchange information about neighborhood issues that otherwise get overlooked by the major daily newspapers or evening news.
Bloggers added brutal honesty as well as frivolity to the 2007 city elections. Like them or not, Mr. or Ms. Elected Official, they are here to stay and hold you accountable.
So here's to 24/7 North of Howard Watchers, Aldertrack II, Alderman's Intern, The Bench, Broken Heart of Rogers Park, Buena Park Neighbors, CTA Tattler, Dog Fight in the 50th, The Living Room of Rogers Park, Rogers Park Inconsistent, Rogers Park Neighbors, Rogers Park Rake, That's My Opinion, Uptown Update, What the Helen, and all the others that haven't been updated in six months.
Power to the people.
ReplyDeleteNow, we can sit back and wait to hear the aldermen complain that the downtrodden don't have a voice if they don't have an internet connection.
How long until we see a "fairness doctrine" applied to blogs?
Regardless, sites like UU are good for the community and I commend the folks here, and at all of the other blogs, for sacrificing their time to help us all.
Thank you.
Seriously, you go Uptown Update! That's awesome. I read this blog every day for happenin's in the neighborhood. Congrats on the mention!
ReplyDeleteyes it's all the blogs.
ReplyDeletelol
pat yourself on the back
Blogs are the new info highway. People look to blogs for the real deal in local news. It's raw, it's ugly and it's life in real time. Blogger's let you see things pols are afraid to show you. Without blogs we'd be in the dark. Blogs show us pics you don't see anywhere else. I love blogs. The only thing bad about blogs is JP Paulus actually knows how to comment on them. UU is the best blog in Chi-town.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing bad about blogs is JP Paulus actually knows how to comment on them. UU is the best blog in Chi-town.
ReplyDeleteso blogs are so great but you only want people on them that agree with you?
i hope you don't believe everything you read or hear.
I think the JP Paulus line was a half-joke. Which is fitting because JP Paulus is at least half a troll.
ReplyDeleteuu best blog period......
ReplyDeletejp is a troll who tosses a few judgmental thoughts into a forum and watches the chaos he causes. His purpose is not to enlighten or provide a viewpoint. When he is confronted with the facts about a false point he's made, he ignores it and goes on and does the same thing again.
ReplyDeleteI want to be challenged to think on a blog. JP does not do that and has no interest in doing that.
We have a blogwanker like JP in Rogers Park. We call him Tommy Wee Wee.
ReplyDeleteWell the last commenter shure lives in Uptown you can tell by the classless comment about Shit.
ReplyDeleteIs Uptown and the JC people a bunch of scat lovers?
At least the (previous) last commenter knew how to spell and utilize proper sentence structure.
ReplyDeleteJC people? Do we have Obama people and Clinton people who have certain characteristics that distinguishes them from one another? What's with this?
ReplyDeletei'd like to see the uu to post more regularly like mhh
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for your hard work over the last year! Regardless of the many negative attitudes out there, our neighborhood IS getting better all the time - maybe not at the speed some would like, but we are on a one-way track to gentrification whether people like it or not. I hope very much that you will continue to be motivated in your efforts to educate and point out things going on in this neighborhood that the Alderman would just assume people not be aware of. I also hope very much that the people who interact on this and other boards may take a moment to ask themselves whether their negative comments really help to achieve our overall goal. I wish everyone a happy, healthy, and thought provoking 2008.
ReplyDeleteScott
(Koocachoo72)
Blogs are fine as long as people don't believe everything they read on them. And understand they are not fair and balanced.
ReplyDeleteHelen Shiller's press releases are fine as long as people don't believe everything they read on them. And understand her press releases are not fair and balanced.
ReplyDeletelol
ReplyDeletewho started this blog is what I would like to know
What i like about some of the Rogers Park blogs is that on some of the more popular ones, such as Morse Hellhole/Broken Heart of Rogers Park, and Rogers Park Bench, is that the blogmasters are "real" -- they have a name , so you could interact with them in real life. Craig Gernhardt, for sure, goes to community meetings, so he's out there And i could look up Tom Mannis if needed.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, they have blogs which hold the other blogs accountable, or at least provide some alternative view.
Some RP blogs are pretty nasty & negative (such as Broken Liver of Rogers Park, some seem more in the middle, like a blog from the "infamous" Tom Westgard at http://morosehellhole.blogspot.com/
It's fine if you don't think my posts challenge you...but can you show me any that have provided, in your opinion, good debate? The last message thread that i remember was on Buena Park neighbors, where Truman Square Neighbor & IrishPirate had drastically different opinions on using eminent domain for the abandoned lot on the 4600 block of Winthrop. it's since been deleted from the list, unfortunately.
There are many young people in high school & college from Uptown, and it would be nice to see their voices here But if you really want to see them, i 'll leave that up to you to recruit them i promise not to call it a conspiracy to keep them out if you don't! :)
If it's not challenging, then it's not good debate. JP, your comments have never been meant to debate and you know it.
ReplyDeleteThere has been a running theme to your comments and a running theme from all sorts of people about responses to your comments. You wouldn't hear it if Jesus Christ told you himself. You simply choose not to listen.
Again, can you give an example of where there IS debate in the Uptown blogs & message boards?
ReplyDeleteIt seems very rare -- the Truman Square thread was at leats a year old.
Uptown is a diverse community, correct? If so, shouldn't the public discourse reflect that? (Rather than seemingly one mind...even if not everyone agrees with how or what is being said, there is no challenge to it.
Not everything needs to be challenged, but certainly you must agree that the attitude seems more negative than it should.
You can't argue with JP, he's on a mission from God.
ReplyDeleteThe community IS diverse, and I'm sure UU et al would love to host such debate, but, other than you (and a small number of those who have gone ahead and sacrificed their sanity on the alter of Helen) - everyone else seems to be of like mind.
Kinda' need that divergence of opinion to get a good debate champ.
You're an evangelical, right? How much time do you and your friends sit around debating and challenging the divinity of Jesus?
Not everyone is of like mind specifically the ones that voted for HS and gave her the win. Remember the majority voted for HS and there was no run off.
ReplyDeleteI for one can look at HS and JC both objectively. Neither of them are all good or all bad.
But I will say all the newspapers and specifically the Windy City Times and the Free Press endorsed her.
As well as the Tunney and Mayor Daley so say what you want about it but there is some open minds when it comes to Shiller.
I will keep an open mind and vote in the next election but you always dogging JP and HS is just a big turn off to a lot of us mature voters that are open minded.
Also if HS is going to lose the election next time they machine will already know it and she will step aside a year or so before it and Daley will put in who he wants to finish her term that will win in the next election. (I doubt it would be JC.)
Whinny people don't make in big city politics.
JP has every right to post here because he lives in the Chicago and I am sure him and I would disagree on about every religious and moral front but I don't mind his posts.
It's very Junior High to call people Trolls and names and easy to do when you use Anonymous the web is a wonderful thing but it is you fools that will ultimately get Blogs regulated by using it to harass people that have different view of things than you do.
r ryan 4700 north uptown
ps: I think you are having the opposite effect of what you are trying to accomplish.
Anon
ReplyDeleteWe don't argue the divinity of Jesus, but Chris Brooks Blog, we do talk about what "our" people are doing -- and how do either do it better or not do it at all, rather than blame Satan and the "sinners" for all the problems going on in the world.
With Uptown Update, i think it's a given for most that people here agree that 1. Helen Shiller is a bad alderman 2. Her supporters are bad (like JPUSA) 3. Uptown needs improving through different leadership (BPN message board should do a "sticky" note with all that info).
i know that would shoot down many comments, but hopefully that which is left would be helpful.
---
Ryan, can you e-mail me at uptownupdate@uptown-chicago.com
Hey, if the dictionary definition fits, what's so wrong about labeling JP a blog troll if that is what he is? Are you the word police?
ReplyDeleteHere's a portion of Wikipedia's entry on Internet Trolls
ReplyDeleteThe term troll is highly subjective. Some readers may characterize a post as trolling, while others may regard the same post as a legitimate contribution to the discussion, even if controversial. The term is often erroneously used to discredit an opposing position, or its proponent, by argument fallacy ad hominem.
Often, calling someone a troll makes assumptions about a writer's motives. Regardless of the circumstances, controversial posts may attract a particularly strong response from those unfamiliar with the robust dialogue found in some online, rather than physical, communities.
Experienced participants in online forums know that the most effective way to discourage a troll is usually to ignore him or her, because responding encourages a true troll to continue disruptive posts — hence the often-seen warning "Please do not feed the troll".[citation needed]
Frequently, someone who has been labelled a troll by a group may seek to redeem their reputation by discrediting their opponents, for example by claiming that other members of the group are closed-minded, conspirators, or trolls themselves.
"I’m a good alderman. If it works, why mess with it?"
ReplyDelete- Ald Helen Shiller in the Windy City Times 2/07
Guess that WCT and FP endorsement comes without asking her about what, exactly, she thinks is working and how that which is working still looks a hell of a lot like urban blight.
Citing Daley as an endorsement is a simple crock. He's even dirtier than she is.
Seriously?! Is Helen on a PR campaign with these commenters?
Probably not, considering she still sees email as a significant technological hurdle to overcome:
" I’m not fighting and screaming to get into technology—I’m just struggling to learn things that, for people who are much younger than me, come naturally. The irony is [ that ] it’s become harder to meet the communication gap than easier as technology has developed. …I read every single e-mail, and I try to respond or give the information to my staff to respond, and then I work on following up on this stuff. … I’m trying to learn to navigate that better."
And JP - my divinity question was one of a rhetorical nature - but thanks for making my point.
Windy City Times did not endorse anyone for alderman. They only provided interviews. The editor of the Free Press is a huge Shiller fan who is only focused on a fear of gentrification. That paper neglects to mention the word Uptown in their map of the bars in Chicago. Crew is referred to as part of Andersonville.
ReplyDeleteI would be curious to hear from gay leaders who are active in Uptown organizations and the block clubs about what their thoughts are about Shiller.
Sounds like firing off a letter to the editor of "Free Press" is in order. If they endorse an alderman for re-election, then surely that ward can be properly noted on a map of GLBT establishments in their paper. What could they possibly be afraid of?
ReplyDeleteThe "Free Press" offices are listed as 3845 N. Broadway (the building at Sheridan and Broadway with Starbucks).
ReplyDeleteWe are pretty sure that building falls in the 46th ward.