Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Lining Up Early For The Graeme Stewart Park Opening



A reader sent us this photo from this afternoon at Broadway and Sunnyside. It appears that this corner, next to the upcoming Graeme Stewart School Park, is the happening new hangout for Uptown residents. The reader saw these gentlemen cracking open beers and passing them around, all in front of a "No Loitering" sign, no less, AND steps from a school. Whose idea was it to put a park here? Nice.

12 comments:

  1. i walked by there at about 10 at night, and there was a group there arguing...very loudly...about god knows what.

    can't wait for that park.

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  2. I hope the photographer called 911 for open concumption of liquor. Calling 911 is imperative to keeping our neighborhoods safe.

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  3. So this is supposed to be a public park and not a school park? I always assumed it was going to be part of the school. Awesome planning by whoever to make it public. When does CPS start again? Should be a fun fall for the kids...

    They are there all the time. Drinking, smoking and doing god knows what else.

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  4. we went by there last night in the car and aldi shoppers were walking down the middle of the street to avoid them. the cops went right up to them and disbursed them, but obviously, they immediately returned.

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  5. This is a relatively small group for this location. The construction barriers provide a shady spot where seemingly unemployed people can loiter and raise a racket. I walk by it twice a day; looks like the perfect spot to sell drugs to me...

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  6. Sometimes it seems the only peaceful and
    safe time to stroll the neighborhood, is
    mid-January, when it's minus five out.

    It is worse now, then 17 years ago when I moved here.

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  7. I've personally addressed this with George in Shiller's office. This and the methadone clinic that is, literally, two doors down from this school which is NEXT DOOR to an alchohol rehab center. Keep in mind that Shiller voted for the Children's museum relocation in the park because she cares about children. The locale of these two dubious haunts sums up exactly how much.

    I walk by every day at noon and see open containers of beer and on many occasions the smoking of weed. Not to mention the drug dealing in the alley just to the south. Rest assured I am calling 911 at each viewing. I will be filling out half-sheets I retrieve from the next CAPS meeting which, I'm told confidently by our next alderman James Cappleman, work much better at solving issues such as these.

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  8. I passed by here the other day and saw about 25 of them hanging out. It was not a good scene. When did this become a hangout spot / public drinking zone?

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  9. Guess why there there? Salvation Army's poorly run day center is there. It has never occurred to them that they are enabling these people to stay stuck in the cycle of homelessness. But I don't blame Salvation Army. I blame those who fund Salvation Army.

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  10. By Supporting the Salvation Army that does make you an enabler! In case you haven't noticed, any organization or place that provides any services (sometimes just a park or an alley will do) can easily become a hangout for people stuck in the cycle of homelessness. If you look around Uptown, there are people hanging out drinking in a number of public places at all hours of the day, but mostly in the evening. I think the only thing that gets done about it is when the neighbors and store owners keep calling the police, stand outside and demand something is done about it. Of course even then the "positive loitering" is not enough and ends up being temporary. We want to help those that need it, but not by handing out money to panhandlers on the street, that only leads to them hanging around and asking for more. I don't have all the answers, but I would say that you have to persist on calling 911 and going to the community events. The one thing I think we all need to do is get new Aldermen elected for our wards -- Shulter and Shiller are ineffective and need to go! An alderman who wants to deal with the community issues, not just collect a paycheck and act like we're living in Naperville!

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