Monday, March 24, 2008

Call To Action! Call To 311

A reader asks Uptown Update readers to make a quick call to 311 to remedy an overflowing dumpster situation.


I found a number of dumpsters overflowing from trash, some of it with food. The address is 4750 N. Sheridan; the Institute of Cultural Affairs Building.

If it was the first time, I wouldn’t make a big deal about it, but it’s not. We’ve called 311 several times before and my thought is that a fine might help them to remember to be a good neighbor to the rest of the community.

22 comments:

  1. I would suggest calling the 46th ward Streets and San office. We have had a lot of good experiences with them regarding trash in our alley in the past. 312 744-5030. I have had the best luck at 7am before they get a lot of things to do for the day. But the business that uses these dumpsters needs to become a better neighbor. Streets and San might be able to help them become so.

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  2. These dumpsters are directly behind the Streets & San office,which is located inside that building. I would hope they should have an easy time getting out there. They just have to walk out their back door.

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  3. Yes, we used to know the neighbor who lived directly across the alley from the 4750 N. Sheridan Road building and she told some pretty wild stories about what went on in that alley.

    She also pointed out that she had no luck whatesoever getting the Streets and Sanitation 46th Ward Superintendent to walk out that back door to remedy the overflowing dumpster problem. Nor did she have any luck reporting it to 311.

    You missed that there are people living illegally in one of the social service agencies on one of the upper floors. Several years ago, she finally decided to move out of the neighborhood, which is Helen Shiller's preferred solution to problems such as these.


    This highrise is packed from basement to roof with government funded non-for-profits. They seem to be exempt from any municipal law enforcement under that strangely morphed document, The Uptown version of the Chicago Municipal Code.

    For those of you who follow politics, this is that ghetto law, that poor-side-of-town-law, that "Black People's" law that Barack Obama just referred to in his speech. It exists to serve a lot of people's interests including the poverty pimps.

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  4. Ok. So if official channels don't work, let's try others. How about a photo exhibition (and website) of Uptown's dumpsters and garbage? It will be the Dumptown Exhibition.

    In a strangely grotesque-yet-compelling way, I think the colors and textures in the second picture are interesting. We've certainly got a lot of artists and photographers around here. Why not document the part that doesn't work in the "City that Works." If you are systematic about it and can show that these locations routinely look like this, then you've got something quite compelling.

    Also, the city was able to correlate west nile virus outbreaks by 311 calls they were getting about dead crows. It would stand to reason that rat infestation areas would correlate with overflowing dumpsters in a similar way.

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  5. Shiller blames the dog owners for rats. Make that condo dog owners to be exact.

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  6. Admittedly, I haven't been back there today, but that picture has got to be a bit old. (Not much -- maybe two weeks.) The alleyway was crud a few weeks ago. It looked like someone had just decided trashbags and trashbins were pointless and dumped their stuff everywhere. But that's been cleaned up for a bit. The alleyway actually looked just fine yesterday.

    And others are right. This is the Streets and San building for the neighborhood.

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  7. Actually, the photo was taken at 8 am today. I know because I took it and sent it in.

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  8. Then a hell of a lot happened in the past 24 hours, because they alley-way looked nothing like that around 3 yesterday afternoon

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  9. Did Barack Obama must have live in Uptown?
    From his speech– ""....a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods – parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement – all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.”

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  10. Well, this AM it was still a mess. The chicken was picked up, but the garbage was still overflowing. I spent 15 minutes this AM picking up trash that had blown over to the back of my condo building, fearing I would be fined for the mess that originated behind Streets & San.

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  11. What do you expect from Flydumping Don? Nowatny used to run Shiller's flydumping operation at Lakeside and Marine. He intereferred with the stop and ticketing of one of the flydumpers, who was only caught because the 20th District responded to the 911 call after he he crossed the Lawrence line.

    The Dept of Revenue traffic van was there during the flydumping and fled the scene and the 23rd District police refused the multiple 911 calls to come to the scene.

    And Don was caught knocking the CAPS service requests for the entire area North of Irving Park Road out of the S&S computer system to keep this neighborhood trashed, just as Shiller demanded. Got to keep those poor people and their neighborhood down and out you know.

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  12. WHAT are you talking about anon 9:09? What the heck is flydumping?

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  13. well, fwiw, at 6pm today it was far less than what these pictures show

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  14. Fly dumping is when contractors back up to empty lots and dump loads of debris and take off. They thereby avoid the trip and haul away fee it takes to dump in a legitimate dump. They dump and fly away.

    Meanwhile, each month or so, Streets and San comes out at taxpayers expense to clean up the debris from the vacant lot.

    If this happens only once and a while and there is a diligent effort to catch the dumpters, then it involves rogue truckers.

    If it happens like clockwork for years and the Ward Superintendent is there when it is going on and the police and Dept of Revenue traffic van are in within viewing distance and refuse to respond to citizen complaints to do something, it is corrupt. Someone's usually getting paid off to allow the contractors to dump in the vacant lots and use taxpayer resources to haul it to the city garbage dumps.

    When the Lakside and Marine dumper crossed into our neighboring police district and a straight-up police officer finally responded to 911 calls, the circle of friends was broken. That was when Fly-Dumping Don made his mistake, drove to where the officer had the trucker stopped, inserted himself in the complaint process,and used his title, demanding that the police officer let the guy go because he gave the dumper permission to dump in the vacant lot. (No one ever said Don's the brightest light bulb in the pack).

    This accomplished several goals. While Shiller railed publically against contractors who were converting slum housing to condos, she had this dumping relationship operating with them. Yet, by having burned out vehicles and garbage dumped in vacant lots, she could stem the tide of future development by keeping those dreaded gentrifying yuppies away. Finally, she could point to those filty lots and say that she was there to be the Savior of Uptown because the Mayor wouldn't deliver any city services to her area. Meanwhile, she and Don were really the ones trashing Uptown.

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  15. "It takes a village to raise a child" .... Hillary Clinton

    "It takes an Alderman and Ward Superintendant to build a ghetto" ....Helen Shiller

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  16. Again, the trash bins were overflowing, but not as much spilling over today. I live in Uptown, so I understand that I am supposed to keep my standards low.

    Maybe they need more trash bins. I don't know.

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  17. "Finally, she could point to those filthy lots and say that she was there to be the Savior of Uptown because the Mayor wouldn't deliver any city services to her area."

    ...and get the Tribune to endorse her because she has overseen positive transformation in the ward lo' these many years.

    Thanks for the info. Dr. Flydumping!

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  18. Around 11:00 this morning, I thought this alley looked uncommonly clean. The ground was completely cleaned up and only one dumpster was ajar. Is Cleanslate around now?

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  19. Cleanslate was very busy today, but I must admit that I saw Ward Super Don trolling around the alleys in his flashy white pick-it-up truck around 10:00 a.m.

    I saw him crossing Wilson West of Truman College once and going down Montrose or Wilson a second time.

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  20. At 8 am I see it overflowing. (took pictures)
    Later that day, someone says it's fine.

    At 8 am the next day, I see it overflowing. (took pictures)
    Later that day, someone says it's fine.

    At 8 am the next day, I see it overflowing. (took pictures)
    Later that day, someone says it's fine.

    I'm thinking they need more dumpsters, at least that's whay I told the person when I called 311 today.

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  21. I didn't write what I did to discredit or otherwise contradict the photographer. The alley looks like crap again this morning.

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