Thursday, September 24, 2009

Uptown Pub Crawl This Saturday, 3-7pm

Uptown Business Partners and Kilo Kai Rum invite you to join us at:

  • The Spot
  • Nick's on Wilson
  • Fat Cat
  • Uptown Lounge
  • Wild Pug

With the $5 donation, participants will be eligible for one of many raffle prizes. The festivities commence with a 2:30 check-in at Bridgeview Bank - 4753 N. Broadway - where you can pick up your crawl map and get your starting location. Enter through revolving doors on Broadway.

Contact Uptown Business Partners to sign up today!

Wild Pug (who supplied the photo of "Party Pug" above) adds: "Each will have drink specials and raffle prizes. Try our Doggy Beach Sunrise."

39 comments:

  1. This sounds like a really nice time, but after Uptown Business Partners' (Christie Hahn)overwhelming support for the Wilson Yard amendment at the CDC meeting, I won't be participating in anything that they sponsor. They're utterly useless in my book.

    Not to worry though, these business already get my support anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That picture so looks like this girl I used to date from Indiana. True Story!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Miss Kitty

    Amen Sistah!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. That's some serious beer goggling, Chip.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I agree with Miss Kitty. Compare other wards' biz groups. I can just walk outside the border of Uptown and notice POSITIVE biz activity. Ten years now and I still have to leave Uptown for most things, because I do not have to walk past ten empty store fronts to get somewhere. Empty Store fronts A+, Postivie biz growth F-. This is what happens when you answer to a backwards Ald.
    Come to Uptown where you can get Meth treatment next to a bong shop and an el station which caters to drug dealers.

    ReplyDelete
  6. For $20 my partner and I saved well over $100 when we did the "Experience Uptown" event sponsored by WAMA, and there were over 30 businesses that participated in that. Besides that, it's good to support a community organization NOT in the alderman's back pocket. I, too, agree with Miss Kitty and won't be participating in this event. I'll pay full price at these establishments instead.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Just an FYI - Christie Hahn is the "worker bee" of Business Partners. I don't know what her opinion is on the WYTIF, but when she testifies, I'm sure she's reflecting the opinion of the Board of Directors. Who are they? Check it out here. Look who's President. Look who's "Safety Committee Chair." These folks have no interest - none - in rocking Ald. Shiller's boat.

    I've said it before, I'll say it now: The only way to get rid of Uptown's Business-As-Usual is to VOTE and GET YOUR NEIGHBORS TO VOTE in the next aldermanic election. Helen didn't win that election - voter apathy did.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I don't know what her opinion is on the WYTIF,

    She spoke in support of the WYTIF amendment; in front of the CDC who .. oddly enough, supplies funding to the UBP.

    Sadly, it appears that I have more business to scratch off my list of places to go.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Yo, I'm willing to give Christie a pass here. She's worked at a good Chamber of Commerce (Lincoln Square) and she knows what it takes to make a good neighborhood.

    But she's employed to represent the opinion of the President and Board of Directors of UBP. If they tell her to speak their views at the CDC, she's going to, or they'll hire someone who will. (I have no idea of her personal opinions, because that's not what she was representing.)

    I can't repeat it enough: The only way to stop business as usual is to vote out the current alderman.

    ReplyDelete
  10. TSN,

    I didn't mean to get personal re: Christie.

    And, I know that neither she nor the UBP are 100% evil - it's just that the WYTIF amendment hearing left such a bitter aftertaste behind ...

    ReplyDelete
  11. I know, Yo, you seem like a reasonable guy. ;-)

    It's just that the Powers That Be behind Business Partners and Uptown United are so damned invisible, and Joyce Dugan and Christie Hahn are seen as the faces of the organizations, and I don't think many people know who's really calling the shots.

    I've heard so many good things about Christie from her time with Lincoln Square CofC that I'd love to see what she can do when she's involved with an agency that's not so involved with kissing the alderman's ass.

    My suspicion is that when Helen goes, a great many of the Board will decide to leave as well.

    ReplyDelete
  12. "Christie Hahn ... when she testifies, I'm sure she's reflecting the opinion of the Board of Directors. ... she's employed to represent the opinion of the President and Board of Directors of UBP. If they tell her to speak their views at the CDC, she's going to

    "Joyce Dugan and Christie Hahn ... I don't think many people know who's really calling the shots."

    Hahn and Dugan are good people, it's the Board, it's the alderman: that's a very tenuous finesse

    "I'm willing to give Christie a pass..."

    your call of course TSN but I don't think that's rational

    most of us have things we are not willing to do even for pay, for most betraying the community you claim to serve while representing yourselves as the spokespersons for that community when in fact you are a salaried shill is over the line

    ReplyDelete
  13. "I've heard so many good things about Christie from her time with Lincoln Square CofC..."

    sure, sure

    she organized their pub crawl, too

    "Christie ... worked at a good Chamber of Commerce (Lincoln Square) ... "

    at Lincoln Square they did exatcly the same thing they are doing here: in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars of city funding they present themselves as the voice of the community and write letters and testify in favor of City legislation like TIFs and SSAs

    dear neighbors,

    if it seems like when you go down to City Hall and engage at public hearings, that it's almost as if they don't need to listen to you, it's because they don't - the City has paid good money for the opinion of the community. They can get all the community feedback they want from their network of delegate agency contractors. They don't need you.

    ReplyDelete
  14. "Christie ... knows what it takes to make a good neighborhood."

    TIF expansion?

    ReplyDelete
  15. TSN, you saw what happened at the CDC

    the City used your taxpayer dollars to counterfeit your voice

    2 weeks later all is forgiven???

    ReplyDelete
  16. one thing you're doing when you head downtown to testify is speak your piece, another is see who's advocating the other side

    When you see who's advocating the City's side, and then you understand they are contractors of the very City dept originating the proposal you oppose, and that they are being paid hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars, and you're taxpayer, and no one is listening to you, and they are claiming to represent your community, and they're getting paid, and you're taking time off from work...

    well, then, you know what needs to be done

    ReplyDelete
  17. "Christie ... knows what it takes to make a good neighborhood."

    fish farms????

    ReplyDelete
  18. "I didn't mean to get personal re: Christie."

    it's important that we DO get personal with her and her ilk

    there are people in our community who are willing to take money from the City to go downtown and say whatever the City wants them to say

    there are people in our community who are willing to take your taxpayer dollars to impersonate you and usurp your right to petition your govt

    that's very, very personal

    ReplyDelete
  19. " ... she's employed to represent the opinion of the President and Board of Directors of UBP. If they tell her to speak their views at the CDC, she's going to ... "

    a HUMAN BEING, one of our neighbors, read that letter, not UBP or its President or its Board

    we are all responsible for our actions

    ReplyDelete
  20. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Paul, you're President of the Chamber. Care to let us know why the Chamber felt it was a good idea to back the WY amendment? Maybe the truth will set you free?

    People are mad as hell. Taking Hugh to lunch is not going to make everything ok. An explaination might.

    ReplyDelete
  22. And Paul, please tell us how a fish farm and parking lots are going to make Uptown a better place for everyone. Your group supported it.

    We really need these things while we have HUGE gang problem and people getting shot at on an almost daily basis - and an alderman who completely ignores it.

    Yeah, a STUPID f-ing fish farm and parking lots are going to make Uptown a better place. Give me a break!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Free to watch hard working people do their best to make Uptown a better place for everyone.

    *cough*

    ReplyDelete
  24. Paul, a tip for future ref, take a lesson: if you want to have lunch w/ someone, don't lead off by calling them a douche bag online

    personally I find dining with people who think you are a douche bag to be unsettling for the digestion

    ReplyDelete
  25. dear neighbors,

    support Uptown United, support Business Partners, send them a check even, do it today

    by all means participate in your own marginalization

    ReplyDelete
  26. Paul...please DO tell....what have you done for our neighborhood???

    ...that is besides kiss the alderman's ass every chance you get and take a truckload of TIF money in return?

    WE LIVE HERE, unlike you. And we are the ones who deal with the crime, gangs, corruption and lack of basic city services while you make backroom deals with the devil. No conspiracy theories needed here....you are a walking example of all that is wrong with Uptown United.

    ReplyDelete
  27. people, why can't we get along?

    what say let's go out and get our drink on and try and forget about that whole TIF expansion nonsense, after all, what's done is done, what's $54M of the taxpayer dollars of the future over the next couple of decades between neighbors?

    send $5 today to Uptown Business Partners, Your Voice in the 46th

    ReplyDelete
  28. Local residents don't need more parking lots. We're close enough to walk but we need to feel safe doing so. Shootings in the middle of the afternoon do not exactly entice me to revv up the stroller and go patronize local businesses. I wish it weren't true...and I feel as if it once wasn't true... but maybe my standards for safety changed when I became a parent?

    I'd like to know where the study is that says that Uptown's commercial development problem is a dearth of off-street parking? Or, which study says that if such parking were here it would help us generate critical mass? Andersonville, Lincoln Square and the Southport Corridor haven't used TIF funds to build off-street parking and those commercial corridors are booming. Why? One big factor is that young people, old people, males, females, singles and families all feel very safe walking for blocks in these areas during the afternoon and early evening hours. Sure, crime happens everywhere and you've got to use your street smarts but I guarantee you that if kids were shooting each other in front of Blaine Elementary or engaged in "fisticuffs" in the middle of Clark Street at 9:00 p.m. those areas would tank quickly.

    Leisure consumption: that is where the economic development and job opportunities are in this service economy. Must I really have to point this out?

    ReplyDelete
  29. Good point Sassy, If there was any study done, no one was informed about it. However, Helen and her fans don't like to listen to studies anyways because they just get in the way of what they want to do. Other nearby communities have done retail studies to assess the needs of neighborhood residents but we don't do that in Uptown. That would cloud up Helen's plans to do whatever she wants.

    I'm guessing the Chamber thought more parking was needed because they know people feel to unsafe to walk at dusk. The Chamber isn't savvy enough to know that they should really be relying on market surveys to assess community needs. Remember, this is Uptown "where low standards rule." Whoo hoo!

    ReplyDelete
  30. I'm guessing the Chamber thought more parking was needed because they know people feel to unsafe to walk at dusk.

    Who else here feels ridiculous getting in their car to go 1.5 blocks? When you've got kids, it takes longer to buckle everyone up and get going than it does to make the drive! Plus, the parking lots are not going to be smack-dab in front of your intended destination anyway, so in the end you have likely just driven to a parking lot 1 block from your home. Whats the point?

    Again, where's the data that non-residents and new businesses are just clamoring to be here but more parking lots need to exist for that to happen? Doesn't the EL go straight through our central business district? Aren't we on multiple bus lines? Wasn't this neighborhood originally developed around strong mass transit and the presence of lots of local customers? Why are we looking to Naperville for inspiration when we have terrific infrastructure already in existence?

    ReplyDelete
  31. The whole "parking" thing just makes me giggle.

    I mean, seriously - what a bunch of maroons.

    ReplyDelete
  32. I don't know why all the need for parking. Didn't Peter and Helen say there wasn't going to be a significant change in traffic? I'm supposing it's all the new residents of the subsidized housing who'll spur the economic development, since there won't be a significant increase in vehicular traffic and no need to upgrade the Wilson CTA station.

    ReplyDelete
  33. When we were discussing parking issues as part of the Andersonville Development Corporation's Retail Attraction study, our consultant told us that, while everyone complains about it in urban shopping areas, it's almost never actually a real, quantifiable problem.

    Counter-intuitive, I know, but in comparisons between areas with no, restricted or plentiful accessible parking, there is no discernable difference in sales revenues between them. Other factors such as retail density, mix, etc. are always the core issues. In fact, you're usually better off putting a business on the property to keep the overall density up rather than letting an empty lot break up the flow of businesses.

    People love to complain about it, but when push comes to shove, it has almost no impact on purchasing decisions.

    There are exceptions, of course, like larger groceries, but for the most part...

    ReplyDelete
  34. Forget about Uptown Business Partners for a second. I am not attending because Uptown is simply too dangerous. Two rush hour shootings within 1 week during broad daylight?! C'mon...

    Our efforts as a community should be focused on positive loitering, taking back our streets through civil and respectful behavior, and making sure EVERY voter in Uptown knows who is and is not responsible for the success of our efforts...then we can run the Uptown bars later to celebrate peace and tranquility.

    I would LOVE to support local businesses, but sustained peace and safetly come first. Are you listening local business owners and Target? In fact, if you are I would love to hear from you too.

    As an aside, I am totally and utterly confused. I took a look at the Uptown Business Partners website. Its members do in fact include local business owners of establishments I frequent. If Uptown Business Partners doesn't support my views (i.e. the TIF), should I boycott Uptown businesses where the owners support Uptown Business Partners?

    HONESTLY, WHAT A MESS!

    ReplyDelete
  35. "I took a look at the Uptown Business Partners website. Its members do in fact include local business owners of establishments I frequent. If Uptown Business Partners doesn't support my views (i.e. the TIF), should I boycott Uptown businesses where the owners support Uptown Business Partners?"

    The website is carefully constructed to give the impression of an confederation of local businesses, but in fact the "chamber" is most accurately understood as a local field office of the City's Dept. of Community Development.

    Here are some recent revenue and dues figures as reported by the "chamber" to the IRS on their 990's:

    Year Revenue Dues %
    2008 $119,252 $31,340 26%
    2007 $152,286 $30,749 20%
    2006 $113,733 $32,871 29%
    2005 $102,116 $25,725 25%
    2004 $170,016 $24,503 14%

    Guidestar

    Support from the member businesses accounts for only about one quarter of the "chamber's" operating revenue.

    Most of the "chamber's" revenue is from two annual contracts with the City's Dept. of Community Development:

    1. Technical support for businesses

    2. Special service area sole service provider

    These contracts are paid from the City to the "chamber" in public tax dollars. The "chamber" is responsible to YOU as a taxpayer, not just its member businesses.

    Local businesses are of course free to organize and petition their govt. on their own dime. Uptown's "chamber" is a primarily publicly funded organization that misrepresent itself as a business league while lobbying.

    ReplyDelete
  36. What a sweet example you are setting as President of the Chamber. I am certain there is nothing we could dig up on you and your family out in the burbs, right?

    ReplyDelete
  37. Okay -- this is getting really personal, and it's turning into a pissing contest.

    Take it offline, please, or to the UU forum. Unless this has to do with Uptown, it won't be posted.

    As far as bringing relatives who don't even post into this forum -- poor form.

    Stay classy.

    ReplyDelete