Monday, March 24, 2008

Shots Fired At Agatite And Hazel

A resident alerted us to the fact that shots were fired tonight around 6:30pm at Agatite and Hazel.
It seems no one was hurt, but a stray bullet flew into the first floor apartment on the NE corner of the intersection. The corner is currently closed off with police tape.

24 comments:

  1. Wow. I almost moved to Sunnyside off Hazel last year. Looks like I dodged a bullet there. (bad pun intended)

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  2. I live on Hazel at Montrose. There are reasons I don't walk north down my own street...

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  3. Well, there was another huge fight at Lawrence and Sheridan tonight at 8:15! Called CPD, they were a NO SHOW!

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  4. That is weird anon 9:00. I was walking back from the Truman meeting and was at Lawrence and Sheridan around that time. A big paddy wagon pulled up at the corner (near S-L pantry) but no one was around. At the time I thought it was strange because there are usually a bunch of people hanging around S-L. The cops never got out of the paddy wagon, though.

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  5. I am so fed up with the NO SHOWS of our police department and of the REFUSALS OF SERVICE. And with the LIES ABOUT THE LAW. They show no respect to the people of this community.

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  6. "I am so fed up with the NO SHOWS of our police department and of the REFUSALS OF SERVICE. And with the LIES ABOUT THE LAW. They show no respect to the people of this community."

    Go to your next CAPS meeting then and tell them that. Saying it here does nothing but vent frustration - which I understand and do frequently as well :)

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  7. I listen to a police scanner for the 19 and 23 districts in Chicago, also known as zone 2 her in Chicago. I can tell you for a fact the police take there job seriously, and are doing the best they can. It is not their fault that the Alderman in this area cares more for the people that are a drain in the funds that supply her income than she does for the people who contribute to the general fund. Close the SRO s for a start and the neighborhood will improve.

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  8. 11:20, is it your claim that the alderman is preventing the cops from doing their job (i.e. dispersals rather than arrests?) or just that she welcomes poor people to this neighborhood (some of whom will be a part of the crime and violence?)

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  9. This is the second shooting in two weeks. There was a man shot in the leg a few thursdays ago on Hazel and Sunnyside. How come we don't hear about any of this in the news? What is going on?? Are we bracing ourselves for a bad summer, I hope not.

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  10. Yeah, I knew about the shooting a couple of weeks ago, but didn't mention it because my condo is on the market. I really don't need the negative publicity. If I thought bringing attention to it would help make the neighborhood safer I would, but nothing has changed since the 2 murders last September.

    It's shocking to me that I can be out walking my dogs, in an area known for violence for up to a half hour and never see one CPD vehicle.

    The know where the violence occurs, they know where the drug dealers hang out, but they still choose not to be proactive.

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  11. There were also gun shots just before midnight last Tuesday March 18th near the corner of Malden and Leland. The police arrived soon after. I called the police station the following day to get more information. They had gotten a report that shots were fired but there were no injuries or arrests.

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  12. Loitering, panhandling and such are one thing, but there should be zero tolerance for gun violence in Uptown. This neighborhood has not been known for gun violence. I wonder if things are changing?

    Chances are it will be a young kid who gets killed.

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  13. What can we do to reduce crime. Simple steps to start with.

    Get your block club to formally request the brighter pedestrian friendly lighting that is on every street at the south end of our ward. Brighter street lights means less crime.

    Form phone trees with your neighbors, when you see something going on, make a 911 call with as much detail as possible. Call your neighbors on the phone tree and get them to call 911. Note if certain buildings, locations are harboring criminal activity.

    Consider security cameras.

    Target the high crime areas and make this to continued topic at your CAPS meetings. Stay on top of the problem areas and buildings.

    There are a number of Uplift students who commute from the south side. They are registered at a relative's home. Not all of these kids are the problem.

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  14. Clarendon Park added the brighter lighting after the murders last September, it hasn't changed a damn thing.

    We do have security cameras at our building, and the drug dealing stopped next door once they were added. We have tried to get the other condo associations to add them, but for some reason they have not. It was a relatively cheap expense ($2,000-$3,000) for so much safety. And that's for several cameras around the entire building. Nothing goes on in front of our building anymore.

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  15. Adding brighter light's don't necessarily work considering this incident happened with the sun still shining. I'm gonna follow the easy solution, "Move to Lincoln Park." Three years of this crap is enough for me. And this is coming from someone who used to live in downtown Detroit.

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  16. haha. that's my window! i was the lucky guy in the apartment when the bullet landed.

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  17. Oh, my! What a surprise! A shooting along the Food Town to Philip Rotheimer to Voice-of-the-People building corridor.

    Like shootings and deaths haven't been happening there for the past 30 years.

    That's not far from where they used to sell drugs from a bucket lowered from the roof. The worst was when a tact team was trapped between the gang members on the roof and in the stairwell. It was like Vietnam with helicoptors and ground teams locking down the neighborhood.

    The tact team was extracated everyone else, well... as the police said, "They shot, we shot, they're dead." Yikes.

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  18. I was looking into buying a condo across from Pensacola Place. Lovely condo, but my cousin is a cop and refused to let me leave on Hazel, even though it was technically in the mansion district. I see why now...

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  19. Pensecola Place is fine.

    Going South on Hazel is not bad like it used to be. When the Latin Kings were huge up here there was a dividing line between them and the Gangster Disciples. The GD's would travel from the Wilson area down Hazel to Buena and then to Broadway, which formed the dividing line until you reached Cuyler, where if crossed back to Clarendon.

    The Latin Kings held from Montrose going south and West of Broadway. Most Latin Kings have moved out of that area so there is no longer a need for everyone to head down the Hazel back street.

    People just go straight down Broadway these days (except when everyone knows there is going to be a retaliation shooting -- like right now!)

    I would have no qualms about Hazel south of Montrose. I walk my dog there at night all the time.

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  20. Don't say the brighter lights at Clarendon Park haven't changed a damned thing. They have kept me and my neighbors in the surrounding highrises awake at night.

    Can't the park district figure out how to order lights with shields????? I do believe it is a zoning law.

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  21. You wonder why anyone would live on Agatite. Then you visit friends who live in some of those vintage buildings and it is immediately clear.

    Those places are gorgeous inside. And Huge.

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  22. That is a good point, 12:04. Part of the appeal of this area is that the housing stock is big and often quite beautiful. The spaciousness of the vintage apartments is what made this a preferred residential location back in Uptown's heyday, part of the reason for its decline (i.e., there was lots of space to subdivide in order to increase income on declining properties) and why it is appealing to people now. A lot of young people who move here do so in order to get reasonably priced space for their families (or soon-to-be-families). Have you ever looked at real estate photos for condos? IMHO, 80% of second bedrooms come decorated for a young child.

    There are those in this community who believe that the degradation of public space and resources (i.e., the schools, the cleanliness and safety around schools, the streets, the infrastructure, the allowing of incompatible zoning use, the unequal application of city ordinances, limitations on upscale businesses)is a specific tactic being used to make this area inhospitable to wealthier residents who want that kind of space Uptown has to offer. (See the recent post about Uplift School under the "Popeyes" item---not mine, BTW.)

    I used to be more skeptical of the position that there were forces actively working to keep this place a slum. I think I might be coming around. Here is a quote from Slim Coleman back in 1982 when Heart of Uptown fought a legal case against the Pensacola Place development, “The real estate companies just want to raze each block and build condos. But as long as we can keep public housing on the block, they won’t be able to do that.” (Chicago Tribune, 8/5/1982)

    It makes you think, huh?

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  23. Now that's uncalled for.

    UU, do your thing and yank that last comment, please.

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  24. Our thing has been done WTH.
    That moron's comment has been erased. Carry on.

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