Well, this is getting really depressing. A reader writes:
There was another shooting last night around 3am. At Wilson and Clifton [Uptown Update notes: the infamous "Blood Alley"]. The victim got himself to Weiss Hospital and the police were called to do a report. This victim was also uncooperative, and was not too sure where he got shot, but police surmise that it was at Wilson and Clifton.
And once again at 3:00 a.m. Alderman Helen Shiller slumbered, dreaming of new chicken and pigeon legisltation.
ReplyDeleteWhile in the same building, son Brendan dreamed of new ways to sue the police.
ReplyDeleteNo you are wrong. I have it on absolute authority that she was dreaming of how she ended the Iraq War by a Chicago City Council vote in 2003.
ReplyDeleteThis is 4/20 That wasn't a dream Brendon was having.
ReplyDeleteAt least we can all sleep soundly, knowing that crack ziplock bags are still freely used by 46th Ward beaders, without fear of being arrested.
ReplyDeleteIsn't Blood Alley a lovely 2-block back alley for the city to place a children's day care center, and women's shelter, and family shelter?
ReplyDeleteBut, I guess we can't complain about the gross waste and mismanagement of tax payer dollars in Uptown by City Departments because that would lead to swift retorts about us being gentrifying yuppies.
And, I guess they prefer not to correlate the dead and wounded lying on the street to the causes like we do. Let's all go on pretending this doesn't exist. After all, social theories are much easier to accept if you don't have to live with them.
And the gunshot victim got himself to Weiss Hospital .....
ReplyDelete.....which unbenownst to him is the second worst ranked hospital in the City of Chicago. Thus, if he goes into heart failure, suffers a stroke or is exposed to hosptial borne infection his chances of a successful outcome aren't so good after all.
Source: http://www.netdoc.com/hospital-rankings/
Blood "alley" is not an alley at all, but rather an avenue.
ReplyDeleteTo bad, if it were an alley it could be closed at each end and privatized to keep the loiterer out. So much for that crime strategy.
ReplyDeleteBut the Jesus People are there.
ReplyDeleteThey would pray and make it all go away but then there wouldn't be any need for the lucrative city social service contracts that Shiller uses to funnel money into their commune.
And then how could the Jesus People hide that their members claim that they are impoverished persons needing to live on government welfare while their "earnings" are funneled to their million dollar corporation run by Jon Lott?
Hey? By Golly, that is they same financial scheme used by the child polygomy group down in Texas! How about that.
Even the Duke wouldn't walk down Uptown's Blood Alley.
ReplyDeleteFull "Blood Alley" poster.
Maybe Shiller will put out another news letter this summer on how we need to pick up our dog crap. Thats what important.
ReplyDeleteWhy should we expect Shiller to do anything? She's probably at home working hard on brillant city ordinances, like the "Nuclear Free Ward" of a few years ago. She really understands the issues of this ward.
ReplyDeleteI think it's time to ratchet up the pentalties for gang members. I say that if you're found to be a member of a violent street gang.... you go to jail. Period. Maybe then these guys will realize where they're headed and re-think their priorities.
ReplyDeleteI realize that the legal system as it stands doesn't allow for it, but maybe it should.
I personally am sick of these punks thinking they're invincible and that can just do whatever they please. Lock 'em up for God sakes. I'd be happy to shell out $10 extra bucks a year in taxes to cover their prison meals. end of rant.
To the last poster, I understand your frustration but your idea is a nonstarter and obviously presents some problems with, you know, the constitution. More practically though, our jails are overcrowded as it is - that's why so many charges get dismissed. The U.S. went on a jail building binge in the nineties and early '00's and it's accomplished nothing.
ReplyDeleteThe most practical solution that will have much more immediate results is to make that mall an unattractive place to deal drugs. We do that by using it for ourselves! By enjoying that mall as it was designed to be used, it will have the effect of kicking out the gangbangers. Sure that mall is for everyone to enjoy, and I'm not talking about any kind of exclusionary practices. But "everyone" does not include drug dealers!
Anonymous at 1:59--it won't happen. There's another 2 1/2 years to go before the next aldermanic election season creaks into gear, you silly sot! So you shouldn't be expecting a Shiller newsletter for at least that long, and it will probably include raves about her new "green program" to recycle dog crap for rooftop garden fertilizer.
ReplyDeleteActually, Illinois has had an brand spankin new empty prison sitting out in Thomson Illinois for the past six years. Politicians who don't want to lose guard jobs from the Joliet Statesville prison area have prevented it from being used. Thus, we have plenty of available of jail beds in Illinois.
ReplyDeleteSo feel free to sit out in the mall with a bullseye over your heart and do your part for the cause. (Just kidding.)
"So feel free to sit out in the mall with a bullseye over your heart and do your part for the cause. (Just kidding.)"
ReplyDeleteHa ha. What do you plan on doing, starting a campaign for more prisons? Like that's gonna have an immediate positive impact on this neighborhood...
I missed Shiller's Nuclear Free Ward proposal.
ReplyDeleteWas this before or after Uptown Wilson Hotel resident, Gale Nettles, using the alias "Ben Laden", was seized by the Feds out at the Lawrence Avenue parking lot? Nettles had a pickup loaded with 1350 pounds of ammonium nitrate to bomb the Dirkson Federal Building in downtown Chicago.
Because this was the first post-911 terrorist incident in Chicago, one would have thought that Shiller ---and the city --- would have realized the danger that these unregistered or falsely licensed trucks could pose to the city and cracked down on the rogue junk trucks parked in Uptown and traveling within blocks of downtown as they deliver to General Iron Industries at 1900 N. Clybourn. But no, that would make too much common sense.
Instead, we received truck Parking Passover and Nuclear Free Ward legislation from our alderman Boom!!!
Whaaa? I never heard about that. Did it hit any of the major papers?
ReplyDeleteI mean, did the fact that he was from Uptown make it into the papers?
ReplyDeleteOh, yeah. The Wilson Men's Club was all over the news. The drug dealers from Wilson were all pissed off that they had to move to Leland because of all the Feds who swooped down on the hotel. Bad for business.
ReplyDeleteI only wish I were kidding!
And given all of the publicity (which apparently I missed!) no one remarked at the squalor these people were living in and that something should be done? Between this and the heatwave publicity it is quite remarkable that no one "important" took an interest in this property.
ReplyDeleteMy family is coming to Chicago, I think I'm going to get them a room at the Wilson Hotel. It's only $11dollars, what a steal.
ReplyDeleteUPTOWN'S WILSON (TERRORIST) HOTEL:
ReplyDeleteFBI 2006 Press Release Re: Nettles Convicted & sentenced to 8 consecutive 20 year prison terms: http://tinyurl.com/4dmaql
Medill News Service, 08/5/04 by Megan Murray:
North Side Man Arrested for Plotting to Blow Up the Federal Building. A North Side man was arrested Thursday and charged with plotting to use a fertilizer truck bomb to blow up the federal building in the Loop.
Gale Nettles, who lives at the Wilson Club Hotel, 1124 W. Wilson Ave., was taken into custody by agents of the FBI-led Chicago Joint Terrorism Task Force at Wilson Beach Park early Thursday morning. .....In July, Fitzgerald said Nettles contacted a woman and asked if she knew anyone associated with the terrorist groups Al Qaeda or Hamas to carry out his planned attack. The woman, who was cooperating with the FBI, put Nettles in touch with an undercover agent posing as a member of a terrorist group.
....(U.S. Attorney Patrick) Fitzgerald said Nettles rented a storage facility at 4431 N. Clark St. and on Wednesday received a delivery from an undercover agent of approximately 500 pounds of purported ammonium nitrate fertilizer which he stored there...
It's almost 11:00 p.m. Nighty, Nighty Helen. If you can't fall asleep, try counting chickens.
ReplyDeleteWhy was nothing done about the Wilson Men's Club you ask? Well, when Sean Derrig was the owner during this time, he contributed tons of money to Helen. All total, it was over $9,000. That would have been nice to use that money to fix up the hotel.
ReplyDeleteSince Jay Bomberg bought it, he started contributing to Helen as well, but's Helen is cheap with him. He got by with just giving her $250.
When you don't know the answer to something in Chicago, just follow the money.
Is the building @ 4526 N. Sheridan a Derrig or former Derrig building? Just wondering since there was a shooting there over the weekened.
ReplyDeleteActually, the shooting took place on Sunnyside. Apparently the guy staggered into the lobby at 4526 Sheridan after he'd been shot.
ReplyDeleteSean Derrig's offices are right across the street, but I don't know if that's one of his buildings.