A reader writes in:"FYI, an ad from today's sport section of the Sun Times. Once again another non tax generating enterprise in the Wilson Yard TIF district.
The tag line is particularly intriguing, " Same Day Dosing, LOW COST & CONFIDENTIAL. No need to go to Starbucks, they offer Free Gourmet Coffee, Free Phone use ( local & long distance) free daily vitamin packs, free week of services on your birthday and a free Seven Day Bus Pass.
What a ward!!"
Isn't it better to have a service like this for people who seek it than to not have it at all? These people are actually trying to make their lives better; the people who aren't are the ones we should be concerned about.
ReplyDeleteThis ad is in nearly every redeye. I'm glad it exists.
ReplyDeleteTodd, it's not that anyone's opposed to these existing. But there're at least two of these in Uptown, a couple blocks from each other. They're in our TIF district, which is supposed to be generating $ to get the area out of blight.
ReplyDeleteI think the feeling is, Uptown has absorbed enough of these services. Can you imagine two methadone clinics on the middle of a main retail corridor in Lakeview? Andersonville? Old Irving Park? Lincoln Square?
There are some very good reasons why those areas have grown into retail hubs for residents, and they attract business from outside the ward as well.
Every single area surrounding Uptown has prospered economically, and yet Uptown residents still have to leave the ward to be able to buy a lot of things our neighbors take for granted.
There are reasons Uptown's got lousy retail, and I think this ad (which is actually pretty amusing) points to a couple pretty good ones.
Again. no one's against people trying to improve their lives. I think we're all just sick of Uptown always being the place where they come to do it ... when the oversaturation is to the detriment of the residents and businesses here.
That's a good question. I hope someone with some expertise in social services can comment.
ReplyDeleteMy speculation is that this place gets some kind of public/private grant $$ for every person they "treat" so is probably more interested in numbers than it is actually helping people. Based on that ad, it's hard to see how this place could be following "best practices".
I guess an ad like that just puts into question the seriousness of the program.
ReplyDeleteI think many of us recall the Harper House drug rehabilitation program at Sheridan and Lakeside. It was run by a former drug addict and could be legally located in a residential zoned area under the Olmsted court decision.
Harper House's residential treatment center at 4715 N Sheridan was located almost across the street from the City of Chicago's various social service offices and our Ward Superintendant's office at the 4750 N. Sheridan building
What we remember most is watching their clientele walking out the rear door to shoot up in the back of the building most of the time.
For a blast from the past read:
http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Quarters/6674/
I'm all for reponsibly run social service agencies that help drug addicted people get their lives back on track. Unfortunately many agencies only perpetuate the problem.
ReplyDeleteWhen a friend of mine, who had a coke addication, sought help, he told me, "When you have an addiction, you have to find a place that has very strict processes to help you through the first few months. Uptown is mostly filled with agencies where addicts come to hang out with other addicts, then go back on the street and score."
Take a walk on a warm day past the many social service places like this and see how many people are hanging out on the street. Does this look like a place that's really helping people?
This facility is helping people...helping them hook up with dealers.
ReplyDeleteEach morning this week as I walked to the train I saw a group of people milling about outside the entrance and deals taking place. There were also some people on the inside of the fence getting stuff passed through it.
And how is a facility like this allowed to operate less than a block from an elementary school?
Oh...I forgot....this is Uptown.
One of these places just killed my friend.
ReplyDeleteCoffee, vitamin packs, and a bus pass??? I'm there!
ReplyDeleteTo the police credit, they are patroling this area and stopping fights and other foolishness when things get out of hand as lines form around the entrance.
ReplyDeleteBut is that what we want on our retail corridors? (Not dissing the police, just the business that makes their presence necessary.)
ReplyDeleteMakes me wish I had a smack problem, the free long distance calling and coffee and CTA passes.
ReplyDeleteHell with Kinkos if they just added wifi and free fax services, I could save some money.
I don't belive that this an advertisement for a new clinic as it's the one my wife and I have been attending for close to four years - I'm not aware of any third clinic scheduled to open in the area (though I could be wrong). I can tell you that statistically, as well as anecdotally, Methadone maintenence (especially when utilized properly as most Chicago-based clinics are) drastically lowers both drug use as well as the criminal activity associated with opiate addiction. Four years ago (when I started Methadone maintenance) my wife and I were Uptown street junkys, committing crimes literally every single day in order to score - nowadays I'm getting my Master's at DePaul and my wife is an Interior Decorator downtown. Methadone Maintenance has been studied for over 40 years and the pragmatic results to the surrounding community are both dramatic and hard to dispute in terms of lowered crime, drug use and prisioner recidivism. So anyway, you might want to consider what the neighborhood would look like without these services. By the way, the coffe thing was short lived - maybe a week, and I never got a CTA pass there, but it's still a great clinic.
ReplyDelete-David Frank
Thanks for Sharing David. Great success story.
ReplyDeleteMethadone clinics work. There are many success stories, and as a social worker, I applaud them.
ReplyDeleteThere's a running mantra that many residents want diversity in shopping opportunities throughout the ward. Same is true with the types of services that are provided.
If you walk down N. Broadway at 10am on a Saturday, I would suspect you would observe both a lack of diversity and a shocking few number of stores that are open at that time. I would think there's general agreement that this retail corridor should be diverse, safe, and vibrant. That hasn't been my experience and I would imagine others might say the same. The study done by the Urban Land Institute also is in agreement with the lack of diversity.
Maybe we don't need 2 methadone clinics this close together.
thanks for sharing your story, highwaydave.
ReplyDeleteoh, and anon 2:16, sorry for your loss. i've been there, and it sucks.
Does the City of Chicago even have a zoning code that addresses incompatible uses and undue concentration anymore?
ReplyDeleteChicago zoning requirements state nail and hair salons must be 1000 feet away from one another in order to avoid concentration of these types of businesses. However, in the 46th Ward, this zoning requirement is lifted routinely without input from residents. Walk down Broadway and see for yourself.
ReplyDeleteDitto for X-rated video shops.
ReplyDeleteTruly you guys have no idea how many people are helped by methadone. The ones you see on the street are the minority--the ones you DON'T see--the ones who are working, look cleaned up and stable, are not abusing other drugs, and who have earned up to a month's worth of takehome medication by proving their stability and lack of criminal behavior or illicit drug use--THOSE are the ones being helped, and they are in the majority at most clinics. You don't see them becaue they show up once a week or once a month for 5 minutes and leave and go about their business, be it work, child rearing, school, etc. They are the "invisible" patients, and there are MANY of them. The success rate for methadone clinics--and by success I mean people who have been restored to a normal law abiding life--is anywhere from 65% to 90% depending on the clinic--far higher than abstinence based rehabs.
ReplyDeleteTruly you don't get it. When we think about diverse shopping opportunities, more methadone clinics don't pop into our imaginations. How many methadone clinics do we need on one block? How many is enough? When I think of shopping opportunities on Broadway, I think of mostly hair & nail salons, cheap clothing stores, methadone clinics, social services, dollar stores, a liquor store, a bong store, and a tattoo parlor. Is there something wrong with this picture? But mostly we have empty store fronts.
ReplyDeleteAlong that whole stretch of stores, the only 2 that I've ever shopped at are Ace Hardware and the Uptown Bike Store.
Uptown Bikes rocks. I am so glad they are here.
ReplyDeleteSince you know a lot about methadone clinics, 6:22, could you tell us how dispersed methadone clinics are throughout the city & immediate suburbs?
It seems to me that if there is a silent majority of people on methadone throughout the area, why not make these clinics more easily accessible to them?
Never having done drugs, I don't know very much about all of this but it does seem to me that Uptown is both a destination for descending into your vices and picking yourself up out of them. That is a lot for a community to handle while at the same time it wants to have what other communities desire: clean & safe streets, vibrant retail, good schools, and a diverse and active civic character.
How far do people come from to get to Uptown's methadone clinics?
Well, unfortunately Methadone clinics are not distributed well throughout the country (10 states have no clinics at all), and every time a new clinic tries to open, it is met with local resistance - though we have some in the suburbs and more than most cities. So, yes, it is logical, that Uptown (a neighborhood with a long history as an entertainment/vice district) would end up shouldering a greater percentage of the burden. I agree that two clinics seems like enough, and I know of no plans for any third clinic (my clinic does not seem overly crowded). Chicagoans in general can take pride that our clinics are among the most well-run, and thus recieve the most pragmatic benefits from their clinics, in terms of reducing area crime and other societal ills associated with drug addiction. As far as the ditsnce traveled, I know that the clinic on Wells street downtown (run by the pioneering physician Dr. Shindermann) probably has the highest patient count by far. When I go to the clinic (only once a month) I see a lot of people from the neighborhood but a few cars as well - it's an interesting question. As to the silent majority, of the people I know best in Uptown and on MMT, one is an engineer, one earning a pyschology degree, I'm a grad student, and I also know a lawyer who actually lives in Ravenswood. So who knows, maybe we're bringing up the property value.
ReplyDelete-David Frank
I hardly think methadone clinics came here because of Uptown's history with entertainment. We have a disproportionate amount of social services and methadone clinics because the powers that be encourage it while also not encouraging accountability to the community.
ReplyDeleteToo many of the social services have a bad name and they have themselves to blame for it. I hope they reap what they've sown. The social services that are a little decent don't speak up to the ones that are lousy, so they shouldn't be surprised when they are lumped in with the bad social services.