Monday, April 14, 2008

Wilson L Takes Top Prize, And Not The Good Kind

Our Wilson L stop was overwhelmingly voted the CTA station that needs the most attention. We think that if Ron Huberman made it a PRIORITY to rent out all the vacant CTA owned spaces around Wilson, the increase in eyes on the street would help dramatically in reducing crime and grime here.
Read all about this dubious honor at the Sun-Times here.
Its not all doom and gloom on Wilson. Check out this link for a listing of great restaurants to check out on our favorite avenue.

14 comments:

  1. Of course they aren't going to invest any money in the stop since they plan on closing it and building a stop at Montrose. The repairs they made were necessary to avoid lawsuits from people falling through the stairs/platforms.

    The problem isn't the station, it's the drug dealers and beggers that are on the street when you come out of the station. One positive note is that Huberman (head of the CTA) lives in the neighborhood so we can expect that at least he will want it to be nice.

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  2. I think Huberman's "announcement" at the Truman College Parking Garage Meeting was purely a diversion. Shiller knew everyone was going to question why our TIF money was going to a parking garage when we have a dilapidated L stop just feet from this college. He was brought in to divert the discussion from the L stop and give us another glimmer of hope that someday we will have a nice L stop. We keep being told that we are at a 30% design phase. What the hell does that mean? Does it take 10 years to design a rehab for a station? They built BRAND NEW stations from the ground up on the brown line in just months, yet we wait years for a sliver of hope in Uptown for our station. I don't recall him ever saying at the meeting that a station would be built at Montrose, but maybe someone can better explain what he did say. I remember him mentioning retail under the tracks but I was so taken aback that my brain turned off after that.

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  3. Huberman said something about moving the stop down to Montrose and having one further north - which makes no sense - are they going to put it right next to Lawrence??? I'd be fine with a new stop at Montrose and a rehabbed station at Lawrence. The Wilson building should be cleaned up and rented out to retail. And, if it is moved down to Montrose (which is ideal) how does this affect the housing Helen has planned there? An El stop right next to the senior housing? Certainly convenient, but noisy too. And if there is going to be 2 highrises there, where is the stop going to be? Weird. I agree that he was only there as a diversion, which makes me think shame on him.

    He also mentioned renting properties owned by the CTA along Broadway - with the help of the alderman - BEWARE. Why does he need her help to rent out these properties? What happened to the free market? If she is involved retail equals social services or homeless shelters.

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  4. Are we really sure that Ron Huberman still lives in Uptown? A friend of mine swears he saw Ron at a condo open house last summer down in LAKEVIEW. For all we know, he might be using the Addison or Belmont stop these days. Or if he's smart, he drives to work.

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  5. Huberman lives on Racine south of Sunnyside.

    And, not sure why you think it would be a good idea for him to drive.

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  6. CTA Chairman Ron Huberman living at his near-Uptown address has proven to be about as helpful as Chicago Park District Superintendent Timmy Mitchell living on Winnemac west of Ravenswood Avenue.

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  7. Except Hubermann isn't the Mayor's cousin.

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  8. I agree that if we just got these damned vacant CTA spots filled, crime would go down immediately. Too many nooks and crannies for the skeeves to hide in around the Wilson L stop. Uptown Business Partners needs to offer grants for legitimate businesses to relocated in these spots.

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  9. I was at the BPN general meeting last night, and Joyce Dugan said that Uptown United has been begging the CTA for YEARS to let them fill the empty storefronts. Even if tenants aren't immediately forthcoming, they want to put art, etc. there and make them attractive.

    It's the CTA that's the roadblock here. They have rebuffed all efforts to put tenants in those empty stores, or even allow Uptown United do anything to make them better looking.

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  10. Let's hold Huberman to the goals and actions he made at the Truman meeting in March 2008:
    "The Wilson El station and CTA buildings are a blighted area."

    1. We will be holding a series of community meetings THIS SUMMER for community input.

    2. We are seriously considering moving the Wilson El station to Montrose. (Just where on Montrose)

    3. We may move the Wilson El station north. (Where, piggy backed on the Lawrence El station?)

    4 We plan to revive this blighted stretch of Broadway with new storefronts and shops.

    We're waiting for the announcement of the first CTA Wilson El & shops community meeting.

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  11. Why would the CTA rebuff all efforts to make their decrepit station more inviting? Why are they not actively working to improve this situation? Sounds like Mr. Huberman has some explaining to do.

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  12. Today was street cleaning cleaning for Racine so no parking on the west side of the street. What I presume was Huberman's private car (govt plates, plus I've been told it's his) was the only one parked on that side. Of course no ticket, even though I saw a few cars with tickets on Montrose and Magnolia. Shady!!!!

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  13. Parking Passover again.

    And yet on Sunday my girlfriend got a ticket near the Music Box theatre because she didn't feed the meter on a Sunday. The instructions on the coin side of the meter said it only operated on Mon-Friday.

    BUT, on the street side of the meter where no one would ever think to look - down where the meter meets the post ---was a small sticker that said parking was enforced on Sundays starting at 10:00 p.m.

    Gottacha Taxpayer. Now fork over $50 bucks.

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  14. I know it hurts now, but Chicago machine politics are on their way out. The only question is how long it will take. The City is just becoming too concentrated with educated wealthier citizens who are going to demand cleaner government. That is not to say there won't be corruption---it just won't be this corruption run by ethnic ward politics a la Daley. Actually, he's quite different from his Dad in that regard...but it will be even more so in the future.

    I wouldn't be happier if it happened in the next election but it would mean more people waking up to what is going on around in their neck of the woods. I am hoping angry northsiders & the people for the parks can form a coalition maybe even with the far south side...we'll see.

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