Friday, January 25, 2008

Residents Concerned Over Proposed Day Labor Office At 4830-34 N. Sheridan

We have received emails from residents concerned over the proposed "day labor" office to be located at 4830-34 N. Sheridan (the red arrows mark the location in the "Google Maps" photo above). Folks are concerned because the location of this proposed office is near the "McCormick Boys and Girls Club" and McCutcheon K-8 School. Historically, day labor offices are places where people looking for work gather early in the morning, and if no work is available, they hang around the office until work is available. If you pass by the "Public Storage" facility at 4050 N. Broadway any time of day, you are familiar with loitering. Is this the ideal location for this facility?
Residents concerned with this facility or its location are encouraged to contact Alderman Helen Shiller's office at 773-878-4646.

18 comments:

  1. Please Contact Helen Shiller and protest this facility. It will bring undesirables to the area where the boys and girls club is as well as the Elementary school. It will stunt any economic growth to this area of town and will creat a hug loitering issue for the area. Please Contact Helen Shiller and voice your Opinion.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Once again, Helen has not sought input from any blockclubs or residents living in the neighborhood. This is also affecting residents living in the 48th Ward who live across the street. I'm betting Mary Ann Smith is ready to strangle Helen.

    There's nothing wrong with day labor. There is something wrong with this proposed location.

    ReplyDelete
  3. How can Helen stop an office for an Employment office opening up?

    If it is zoned for office she can't stop it can she?

    It sounds like an employment temp firm to me.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That's great - because we need more loitering in the neighborhood! And around kids, too!

    ReplyDelete
  5. "How can Helen stop an office for an Employment office opening up?"

    You're not serious, are you? Are you from Chicago?

    ReplyDelete
  6. All Helen has to do is say it is not fit for the area. They are trying to get a variance pass by the zoning board which currently the zoning doesnt have. They are going beyond what the zoning is already set up for. If Helen doesnt want this business it wouldnt even be a question of a hearing coming up. That office has worked on getting this project here and to this specific location. I dont know who Ms Shiller thinks pays the taxes around here but I can gaurantee it will not come from the day laborers and we tax payers will not see any benefit from this business. In fact we will loose growth and opportunty from this and will have to work harder to better this community from this poor choice she has made. Hello not to mention the safety issues that will come from this. Why doesnt she put it next to where she lives...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Some, but certainly not all, persons who cannot get permanent jobs have employment issues related to criminal histories, drug records, sex offenses, alcohalism, illegal status, and mental health issues that aren't being properly treated.

    We've seen abuses of these people when we had day-temp operations in Uptown in the past. In particular we had our mentally ill persons being taken advantage of by unwittingly be paid little or nothing for their labor. Why would we want to put a day labor operation next to mental health institutions if we are truly interested in protecting the mentally ill?


    And why in the world would we want to put this incompatible use next to a school when there is no way to screen those coming to the job center for the jobs? It's not fair to the kids and it's not fair to those who desperately need the jobs and are otherwise barred from being near schools (such as registered sex offenders).

    ReplyDelete
  8. Interestingly, the east side of Sheridan is in Mary Ann's ward. It's only that one sliver of the west side of the street that is in Helen's ward.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Our Alderman Helen Shiller is much too busy to deal with this and methadone clinics. She is drafting that very important legislation forbidding the now- deceased Pigeon Man of Lincoln Square from feeding bird seed and preventing our nearly 100%apartment and condo comprised neighborhood from raising chickens in resident's living rooms.

    ReplyDelete
  10. So where is the Gunnison Block Club, which happens to include one of Mary Ann Smith's own staffers? Shouldn't they by fighting this battle?

    They certainly know something about the zoning process. They were the group that threw their full support behind Salvation Army in the zoning hearings for the expansion of the Salvation Army women's shelter at corner of Lawrence and Clarendon.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I know that Uptown United and Uptown Business Partners both wrote letters to the Alderman against having a day labor business open in this location.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Fat lot of good that will do. They need to file an objection and show up in person at the zoning hearing. And, they need to contact the Chicago Public School Region to get support.

    After all, in a time when the CPS Headquarters is looking to close schools, that would be one more reason to give that Uptown School the ax.

    ReplyDelete
  13. What the heck do we need an office for? Isn't all of the 46th ward practically a day labor office? Goodness. It is really just remarkable the difference between 46 and 48.

    ReplyDelete
  14. If Shiller wants the zoning variance, she will get the zoning variance. Period.

    ReplyDelete
  15. You'll notice that none of this stuff ever goes in the "diverse" Lakeview end of the Ward.

    How diverse is a ward when historically it has been comprised of a ghetto adjacent to a NIMBYland? When we ask why Lakeview Citizen Council doesn't push for these services and housing in their area they say their land is too expensive. Yet, they found plenty to give away or acquire for the LBTG community center, new police station, and CUBS expansion.

    This is one of the reason we have multiple methadone clinics, shelters, low income housing highrises, mental health centers, etc all compacted within blocks of our schools. Not only are these social services not spread across the North Side, they aren''t even spread across this entire Ward.

    Shiller when running for office denounced segregated, non-open communities. Yet by her rhetoric, her development policies, and her exercise of her zoning perogatives, she's split our ward into black and white, rich and poor, and have's and have not. She's had 17 years to change it and has chosen not to.

    And why should she? She gets her political mileage by pitting those factions against each other.

    ReplyDelete
  16. We are very concerned about the prospect of a day-labor center so close to a grade school, so close to the boys club and frankly, so close to our street and our home.

    Before the Labor Ready owners open their mouths, I'm wary that they will tell us what they think we want to hear. They will say anything to get the business in, knowing that once they are there, we will have a devil of a time getting them out if we're unhappy with the way they run the business. There MUST be better places to locate such an enterprise. Residents like myself will be very concerned about loitering, littering, drug use and possible harassment of the many, many kids in the neighborhood.

    What we need instead in that location is a restaurant, a coffee shop, or some other new business that would IMPROVE the neighborhood, not perpetuate a sketchy environment so close to so many residents and children.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I live across the street in Mary Ann's ward.
    Why the heck can't you 46th warders vote her out of office?? You've had 17 years to do that too!
    You need a real person representing you like we do in the 48th.
    Sheesh!

    ReplyDelete
  18. It is wonderful to see the discussion starting! The issue is clear: this is a bad location and a corporate cop-out solution by someone who likes to still be known as a radical. We need true leadership on the issue of day labor because many of our residents are day laborers. The issue is not going to go away. We've all seen the growth of contingent work in all sectors of the economy. Rather than inviting exploitative businesses into our neighborhood to ruin it for EVERYONE, we need socially responsible solutions that get to the heart of the issue.

    ReplyDelete