"Curves," a gym for women, is packing up and high-tailing it out of Uptown and we can't imagine why. A female gym just steps from a SRO packed with sex offenders that loiter on the sidewalk and cat-call women as they walk by? We wonder why they couldn't make it work. "Wilson Club Hotel" needs to be shut down. That needs to be top priority now folks. A good start would be getting the Chicago Fire Inspector in this building. There are reports of countless fire code violations yet someone appears to be protecting this building from inspections. We need to bombard the fire department with requests for inspection on this building at 1124 W. Wilson. Give the fire department at ring at 312-745-3705 and demand that a inspector be dispatched to inspect this hazard. You can also call 311 and request an inspection for this building but be sure to get a TRACKING NUMBER so you can check on the progress either online or by calling 311 again. Very little is going to thrive in that 2 block stretch until people feel safe to walk down the sidewalk and not have to dodge shopping carts full of beer cans and solicitors. Oh, by the way, the gentleman loitering in front of the building (marked with the red arrow below) chucked his empty Dunkin-Donuts coffee cup down on the sidewalk when he was finished. He surely takes great pride in his community. It's clear to see why the sidewalk is constantly trashed in front of this building.Leasing agents for this space can be contacted at 312-676-1871 or 312-676-1861
Update: Check out the Chicago Tribune for a story highlighting "Heat Wave" which is playing at the Pegasus Theater now. It also features an interview with Wilson Club Hotel owner Jay Bomberg and even mentions the chicken wire ceilings. Here is an excerpt, check out the whole article and video here.
Wilson Club Hotel owner Jay Bomberg understands. He has owned the SRO across from the Pegasus, where Edward Hoffman died, for only six months. Yet he is filming his own half-hour documentary about the place, featuring interviews with his residents. Like Simoncic, he wants to raise awareness of those at the fringes.
"This documentary would establish that these men have lived here, and continue to live here," he says.
As Uptown gentrifies around it, the Wilson remains a crusty holdout: one of Chicago's last "cubicle hotels," where rooms rent for $202 a month. Chicken-wire ceilings deter the 257 men from sneaking into each other's spaces.
"Frankly, it's not a friendly environment," Bomberg says. "But if people got to know the men inside there, they'd understand it's a very friendly community."
To Bomberg, that notion of community spreads beyond the Wilson's doors. (His office is two blocks down on the 900 block of West Wilson.) Wanting insight into what his residents might've endured, he plans to attend a showing of "Heat Wave" before it closes April 6.
"I did purchase [Klinenberg's] book because I want to understand more," Bomberg says. "I zoomed right into the pages that talked about SROs and I think it's going to take another read for me. There's a lot for me to learn about the subject—and I think it deserves a full read."
He adds, noting the connection between his home movie and the stage play: "I just don't want this history lost."
Don't expect the city to be much help on the littering issue. I caught a streets and san worker finish his cup of coffee and chuck into into the sewer grate on the corner of Hollywood and Sheridan at around 9:10 a.m. this past Tuesday. Unfortunately, I was driving and I didn't have a camera. I couldn't believe it.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Curves, UU is right. Women want to walk on well-lit streets in the evenings in order to patronize a work-out center. While the loitering men may not be doing any real harm, all women view such conditions with some level of caution.
OMG. for real. curves now too? this is so annoying. yes, time to MARCH against the wilson mens club.
ReplyDeleteI just called 311 and they are sending inspectors! Everyone needs to call...just tell them about the pink insulation visible on Clifton in the window, and all the possible fire code violations inside, ie, chicken wire holding up the ceilings. Do it now! If they ask for the owner, its Jay Bomberg. Get a complaint number also. You can do this all anonymously.
ReplyDeleteIt will be mighty hard to close Wilson Club---it is a venerable institution in the eyes of some people.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that the reaction will be this: "Boo-hoo...just because some women are too scared to burn off their lattes you want to force these men into homelessness?"
These aren't my sentiments. They are just a very experienced perspective on the rhetoric around here. Wilson Club is beloved.
If people want this neighborhood to be safe and welcoming, then establishments housing loitering sex offenders in death trap buildings just so someone can make money off of it is not helping. Isn't it funny how once you cross Clifton going westbound on Wilson it's like you enter another universe? Wonder why? Call 311.
ReplyDeleteI wonder why Truman College isn't more vocal in shutting down this place. Don't you think their enrollment would be up if students felt safe getting off the L at Wilson and walking down the street to class? That may be a good question for the meeting on the 24th.
ReplyDeleteI'm tellin' ya, Shiller does not recognize "loitering" as anything to be concerned about at all. And, she gets really offended when people call homeless, transient or poor men sex offenders.
ReplyDeleteNo one knows how she reconciles the data that can be found in the sex offender registry with buildings in our neighborhood. My only guess is that she chooses to ignore it.
Is there any visual evidence of violations from the outside? I remember a few months back there were some photos posted of the windows, but I don't remember what the problems were. It'd be great to have that kind of information when calling either 311 or the inspectors offices.
ReplyDeleteClick the link in the post (colored orange) and there is a photo from the Clifton side showing insulation filling a window covered in ripped off particle board.
ReplyDeleteSean Derrig just sold this flea bag place in 9/07 for $3,450,000 to Jay Bomberg (Sean bought it in 1/98 for $1,550,000). That's one hell of a return on investment - especially when he put nothing into the place (that we can see).
ReplyDeleteNow, Jay is charging $202 a month to 257 men, which is $51,914 a month! Wow! No wonder this place never gets shut down. Its a gold mine! Wonder how much of that goes to our alderman, since according to officials at a recent CAPS meeting, she is protecting the place from their numerous code violations? She's gotta be protecting the place for some reason.
Wow. $202 is still pretty expensive for them. If they trying to live off disability checks, this death trap may still be costing some of them up to 50% of their monthly income.
ReplyDeleteHow many of you have called 311 on this?
ReplyDeleteMAKE SURE TO GET A TRACKING NUMBER WHEN YOU CALL 311 OR YOUR CALL IS WORTHLESS. JUST SO YOU KNOW>
ReplyDeleteCould someone from the fire dpt. be invited to beat 2311 CAPS? After all we are talking about public safety
ReplyDeleteThis is not "one of" the last cubicle hotels in Chicago.
ReplyDeleteIt has been the "THE LAST CUBICLE HOTEL" in the city of Chicago for over 15 years. Even before it changed hands the last two times, even before the Heat Crisis, those of us who lived here approached the city demanding that it be closed as an inhumane form of living. After the 1993 Paxton Hotel fire we asked who can safely live in plywood boxes with chicken wire walls and no ventalation?
We were told that this cubicle hotel was grandfathered in and that it would lose that status when it was next sold. As you can see from the multiple subsequent sales, that was a crock of BS.
This place could be legislated out of existance immediately by getting rid of the cubicle hotel status in the city's zoning ordinances. But it never happens.
Ask our legislator's why this was not done in time to save these lives.
Ask our legislators why it has not been done in the many years since.
Then ask our legislators how many vote-the-rope schemes and homeless-voter schemes get played out of that building and you will understand their priorities. That is the currency our great lone liberal, Helen Shiller, trades to Daley and the the Democratic party. And Bob Creamer and Jan Schakowky and Sara Feigenholz are right their helping.
Those votes will be as vital for Dave Axelrod's Obama campaign as were those last minute Illinois votes, which made Kennedy President. The powers-that-be will not give up this voter mill no matter how many sex offenders pack the place and no matter how many deaths occur.
Shame on them. Too bad for our community and for those who live in that firetrap.
"I did purchase [Klinenberg's] book because I want to understand more," Bomberg says. "I zoomed right into the pages that talked about SROs and I think it's going to take another read for me. There's a lot for me to learn about the subject—and I think it deserves a full read."
ReplyDeleteHe adds, noting the connection between his home movie and the stage play: "I just don't want this history lost."
This is a sick glorification of something that should not be allowed. If this facility was for animals, it would be closed down by the city for being unsafe. Jay Bomberg scares me.
I am not sure what the previous poster was calling "sick glorification"? I haven't seen the play but I am veryknowledgeable about Klinenberg's book and the body of research that it spurred.
ReplyDeleteI will agree that Bomberg's "movie" is not likely to be the informed and sensitive piece that someone else might produce if that is what the previous poster was getting at. However, SROs, cage hotels, and flophouses are an important part of urban social history. They are disappearing from urban landscapes across the country for all of the reasons people on this blog mention.
Whatever you may think about Wilson Club, there is a community in there. If Bomberg is at all trusted by the men he might actually produce an important historical document. So little is known about the men who live in those hotels and the owners of the buildings hardly ever let outsiders in.
Hopefully, he will take a true interest in the subject and clean up his place for the benefit of all.
In the 2.5 years I have been in the 46th ward I have seen more places go out of business than come in. So sick of this!!
ReplyDeleteAnd MOST of the businesses leaving on Wilson can be traced back to this place. Get on the phone and call 311 and the Fire Department people!
ReplyDeleteThe really sad part of this whole thing is that if these were animals living in these coditions, we have news, Shiller, other animal rights groups screamming outside looking calling for the head of the owner. Makes great press they they are protecting the poor lil animals. When it comes to humans who are just votes, it is hard to get anyone to listen. Shame on you Shiller.
ReplyDeleteBomberg Property Management
ReplyDelete915 W Wilson
$500.00 2/14/2007 to Citizens for Shiller
Bachelor Apartments
915 W. Wilson Ave.
$500.00 11/16/2007 to Citizens for Shiller
Wilson-Windsor Apartments
915 W. Wilson
$300.00 11/30/2006
$250.00 12/12/2005
$250.00 12/6/2002
$100.00 8/13/2002
$250.00 11/18/2003
$300.00 12/17/2004
Campaign Disclosure
Hello??? Is there any news media (besides News-Star) out there paying attention to anything going on in Uptown? How about the Chicago Tribune do an in-depth report on how this death trap is never inspected and how a building housing sex offenders can be across the street from a school and why public drinking, and god knows what else, is allowed in front of this place.
ReplyDeleteI've called 311, have you?
The Trib loves Shiller and would never cast her ward in a bad light. I would be shocked to see anything negative or investigative to be written about this place. Trib, prove me wrong!
ReplyDeleteI don't mean to pick, but did the owners of the Curves franchise actually say that they were closing due to the Wilson Men's Club?
ReplyDeleteI don't think they would come out and say just that. But its pretty darn obvious.
ReplyDeleteStep 1. Tribune own Cubs.
ReplyDeleteStep 2. Shiller gives our Clarendon Park to to Cubs to use as a Cubs Parking lot in a renewable contract.
Step 3. Tribune is "renewably beholden" to Shiller so long as Cubs parking contract needs to be renewed in the future.
Step 4. Shiller gives all of Clark Street north of Cubs field to Cubs for Tour bus parking. Shiller gives all of Irving Park west of Kenmore to Cubs for Cubs Tour bus parking.
Thus, the end of all objective reporting about Shiller by the Tribune. Shame on them. They have been bought with our public park and parking spaces.
In addition to the fire department, please call the building department to report it: 312-743-3504.
ReplyDeleteNotice that the 44th Ward never provides any street parking for the Cubs, even though CUBS field is in their ward and the CUBS give alot of money to their community.
ReplyDeleteNotice that the 44th Ward is not demanding bus parking in the new development project going in across the street from Cubs field. Notice that no one invited the Uptown neighbors to participate in the CUBs development surveys or the community forums even though all the traffic is routed through Uptown (Addison is closed to LSD) and Uptown is used as the Cub's parking lot.
The goodies go to Lakeview, the shit end goes to Uptown. And where is our Alderman? Cutting side deals for herself!
True, true, true Anon 2:56. That is why I don't subscribe to the Chicago Tribune and in the larger sense why they need to sell the Cubs. But, with a new alderman the parking deals can evaporate. Or, at least that person can cut some deals that help all Uptown residents. I mean, is it that impossible to find "make the voters happy" projects with broad appeal in Uptown??!! I am thinking lighting, cleaner streets, improved public transit...the list goes on.
ReplyDelete"Whatever you may think about Wilson Club, there is a community in there. If Bomberg is at all trusted by the men he might actually produce an important historical document. So little is known about the men who live in those hotels and the owners of the buildings hardly ever let outsiders in."
ReplyDeleteThe history to learn from this is that we shouldn't have this type of flop house allowed in Chicago. It certainly isn't helping the people living there. There are better alternatives and that's why we don't see them anymore except in one neighborhood where standards are kept low because people confuse pity with love.
BOMBERG IS MAKING A MOVIE ON THIS HELL HOTEL?SOUNDS LIKE HE'S TRYING TO MAKE THIS PLACE LOOK LIKE SOME GREAT SOCIAL ACHIVEMENT HE BOUGHT
ReplyDeleteA picture is worth a thousand words, and this picture is just one of many of Uptown's street traffic. Desperate people hanging out in front of SRO's, meth clinics, shelters and raggety run social service agencies.
ReplyDeleteThis is a neighborhood where there is no salvation or opporunity.
@OP said: Curves, a gym for women, is packing up and high-tailing it out of Uptown and we can't imagine why.
ReplyDelete@schrisa: I don't mean to pick, but did the owners of the Curves franchise actually say that they were closing due to the Wilson Men's Club?
@Anon said: I don't think they would come out and say just that. But its pretty darn obvious.
Well, except that it's not obvious and without the facts it's pure speculation. I can't be specific about the details, but this was not the reason that Curves closed down. I certainly won't argue that having the Wilson Club nearby was not a detriment to making the business successful, just that it wasn't the primary reason for the closure.
And what's up with all the Anonymous posters here?
Wilson Club might be part of it, but I also wonder about how much business that gym got. I hoped to join when it first opened, but the hours there were ridiculously short, even on the weekends -- they opened at 9 or 10 during the week, and 11 on weekends. And they closed at 5 or 6. Too narrow a window for a 9-to-5er.
ReplyDelete"I can't be specific about the details, but this was not the reason that Curves closed down. I certainly won't argue that having the Wilson Club nearby was not a detriment to making the business successful, just that it wasn't the primary reason for the closure."
ReplyDeleteWell, I've been a member for several years, and the first I heard about it closing was here on Uptown Update. Since you can't be more specific, do you know if the memberships are going to another Curves? Very distressing, not only to have the gym close, but not to hear about it directly from them.
Thanks.
"they opened at 9 or 10 during the week, and 11 on weekends. And they closed at 5 or 6. Too narrow a window for a 9-to-5er."
ReplyDeleteAre you serious? Those hours are ridiculous for a health club.
Isn't there some new restaurant going up along that stretch? I thought I read that here. Anyone know the status?
My experience was that they were open early in the morning, until around noon, and then in the afternoon, from 4 until 7 or something.
ReplyDeleteAs a second shift worker, the afternoon was the only time I could go, unless I wanted to split my sleep schedule in half. Early afternoon was precisely the time I would have wanted them open.
Sorry to see they closed. It's a loss to that part of Wilson.
I bet they closed because World Gym & that other place on Leland & Broadway had more accessible hours.
ReplyDeleteHello, just wanted to let everyone know that I just called 311 to request a fire inspection at the Wilson Hotel, and Ms. Jackson at the city of Chicago told me there is only 1 other request besides mine.
ReplyDeleteI do urge everyone to call 311 and request a tracking number. This area is incredibly scary for women to walk through. It amazes me that the college across the street allows sex offenders to loiter across the street.
I was told there were "electrical inspections" and "fire inspections." Both involve sending an inspector out, and I wonder if there are more electrical inspections requested than fire.
ReplyDelete