Friday, February 4, 2011

Sign, Sign, Everywhere's A Sign


A reader sent in this picture and says:  "Have you noticed how many businesses are supporting multiple candidates?  Talk about covering your bases!"

8 comments:

  1. Signs everywhere, do any candidates have the substance to be our alderman. I think the answer is becoming more clear. The debates (I've been to 3 of them so far) have helped me make up my mind about who should be our next 46th Ward Alderman. First, those I'm not voting for and why:

    Shapiro - is tactless and blatantly says the answer to crime is for more of us to carry guns. She is more scary than the "Weakest Link" lady. Her campaign literature is dishonest in referring to her support of more efforts to enforce "McDonald v. Chicago" but doesn't want to say that this is the overturning of Chicago's gun restriction laws. She also wants to have only 25 instead of 50 aldermen, giving her, coincidentally twice the power and cutting the time she would have for 46th Ward needs in half. She is a walking nightmare, and seems to have a perpetual sour face and need to be angry at whoever is close by at the time.

    Emily Stewart - She is perhaps the biggest disappointment to me, as I had hoped to like her. She may have some good academic credentials, but ZERO experience of activity in solving ward problems and her fancy degree doesn't make her qualified to solve the city's fiscal problems. She spends too much time telling us how grateful we should be for all that Helen Shiller has done for us, and no time telling us about her own experience/activity in the ward (if any) and vision her for our future.

    Don Nowotny - no way he could have survived 16 yrs working under Shiller without too many underhanded deals and debts owed to cronies. I don't trust him to be politically independent and put 46th Ward residents first.

    Molly Phelan - no doubt she is smart, but has little 46th Ward activity to show other than fighting Wilson Yards - rarely came to CAPS meetings. Again, the problems of crime, vacant businesses, quality of life did not just appear when Helen Shiller announced that she was not running for reelection.

    Scott Baskin is a very nice, smart businessman, but has had almost no involvement in 46th Ward issues - I don't think he is likely to bring a Mark Shale store to N. Broadway.

    Only one candidate has been active in fighting crime and addressing problems in our ward over the long haul - I will vote for James Cappleman. Whatever the issue over the past 10 years, it seems that Cappleman has been involved on the right side of it as a private citizen (helping rid the Chateau of its child-sex-offenders and most-wanted felon types), leading positive loitering efforts to fight gangs. He is smart and practical and has a track record of caring about our ward and acting on his concerns long before a convenient opening for a city council seat encouraged the other 10 candidates suddenly to realize that our ward has unadressed big problems.

    As for the others, Lam, Retta, Carroll, McIntyre are all nice people, but with ZERO background to prepare them to lead our ward (Carroll's police experience and peace corp past, etc. are admirable, but not directly relevant to the 46th Ward problems today - his police work has been outside of our ward). Kaplan, another Helen Shiller sucker-upper, is just a notch above Shapiro in his lack of tact and bizarre off-the-subject answers to real 46th Ward problems.

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  2. It seem slike there's a dearth of signs all over the city.

    Maybe people are doing it electronically, but seems weird that you don't see as many signs as years past.

    Speaking of businesses, i notced Retta & Stewart at City Sports , Wilson Optical and a coule of other sthat cater to minorities. Just curious if the other candidates gave their signs to those stores.

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  3. To Daniel R:

    I have never posted on Uptown Update before, but could not sit by while you praise a candidate for things he has never done and never could do.

    "Only one candidate has been active in fighting crime and addressing problems in our ward over the long haul"

    Cappleman fighting crime? Probably is the reason that the fraternal order of police backed Cappleman, right? Oh, wait.... they didn't. Social work does not equal crime fighting.

    "helping rid the Chateau of its child-sex-offenders and most-wanted felon types?" Really? Have you seen the Chateau recently? Same place it has been for years. His "help" did nothing.

    "Leading positive loitering efforts to fight gangs?" Come on now... If that was true, wouldn't the shooting and gang activity be gone? Cappleman is a politician that has been running for alderman for over four years. You're just unhappy because a better crime fighter is running and your guy's "crime fighting" has become the political show it always was. All talk, no substance.

    Carroll has "ZERO background to prepare them to lead our ward?" Really? Are you looking at another Carroll, because he has WAY more experience than Cappleman.

    "Carroll's police experience and peace corp past, etc. are admirable, but not directly relevant to the 46th Ward problems today?"

    Have you looked at the population of the 46th ward? This is the most diverse ward in the city and his experience with different languages, volunteering in Africa and Asia, and volunteering here in Chicago makes me think he knows more than any other candidate, save Retta and Lam.

    "his police work has been outside of our ward" And now your true colors show. His police work out of the ward means that he works for a living fighting crime and he will bring that experience to Uptown. 1000+ arrests? Guns off the street? Fighting crime in Englewood? This is REAL experience! Not made up experience. Answer me this: if positive loitering has worked so well, then why have the number of murders and shootings gone up? Carroll is a far superior candidate over Cappleman and I hope people look beyond the talk and misleading mail campaign from his camp and pick the more qualified candidate.

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  4. Your comments speak for themselves. I said mostly positive things about your apparent favorite candidate, Mike Carroll. I have met Carroll and talked with him at length numerous times and I admire him and find him a capable guy. You win no votes for him by saying insulting things and making offensive presumptions about my or anyone else's "true colors", etc.

    I stand by everything I said in my original post. Anyone can look up the number of sex offenders at various addresses in our Ward - it is regularly posted by the Chicago Police Department on its ClearMap of Registered Sex Offenders, and the number at the Chateau (2 on the latest Police Department report) is less than the dozen that resided there just over 2 years ago. Why not ask Mike Carroll about this. I am sure he can direct you to these statistics.

    Carroll has admirable work and volunteer experience, but I stand by what I said that his experience has mostly been focused outside of our ward - Carroll has not claimed otherwise in his literature, or in person when I have spoken with him. I do not diminish his experience or capability by stating this fact.

    Again, you might re-check your statistics. Crime rates are too high in our ward, and any crime is unacceptable, but your statements about the rates of crime are false. Instead of making stuff up and being snide, just check violent crime and other statistics reported by the Chicago Police Department that are easily available to you.

    Once again, where were any of candidates - except Cappleman - 4 years ago? All of our problems began long before Helen Shiller announced her retirement. Long before so many candidates suddenly decided they were the chosen one to solve our ward's long-standing problems, which they were NOT working on before Shiller decided to exit.

    Why not work together and not attack each other just because we have different opinions. Winning an election does not happen by alienating other voting ward citizens with insults.

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  5. I have not decided who I am voting for...I do plan to still attend one of the many forums. I just have to say...I find it amazing that Mike Carroll was volunteering to help people stuck in the snow on Wednesday (when no one could move anyway because our wonderful streets and san hadn't cleared the streets) but could not even help clear the sidewalks in front of the vacate store fronts right next to his office. That may have been a better use of your volunteers' time.

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  6. Full disclosure...I am Michael Carroll's older brother.
    I've met both James and his partner. James is truly a nice man, and if elected over my brother, I know he will do a better job in the ward than Ms. Schiller ever did.
    I too, live in the ward and have been a resident for over 7 years. As a career prosecutor currently assigned to the sex crimes unit, I take issue with the statement that James, [was] "helping rid the Chateau of its child-sex-offenders and most-wanted felon types."

    Really? How did he do that exactly? I've been at this 11 years and the rest of my unit would love to know how he accomplised that tremandous feat.

    The Hotel Chateau and others of its ilk are notorious for the amount of sex offenders that choose to temporairly reside there. (There are several others within walking distance.)
    My first issue is, sex offenders are saavy, they as a whole often do not register....and when they do, they often lie and fib about their address; a fact both shocking and accurate. That said, the number of sex offenders registered at the hotel is absolutely incorrect. It always is.
    In point of fact, no sex offenders are legally permitted to reside at the hotel due to it's close proximity to a city playground. Unfortunately for me and my fellow neighbors, my case load is littered with "Failure to register as a Sex Offender" cases. The logic that thses felons are changing their behavior due to James' activities is specious at best.
    My second issue, is that in 2009, I prosecuted a particularly brutal rape of a 7 year-old girl which occurred on the 900 block of W. Lawrence. I took the case because it was in our neighborhood, because that little girl played at our Clarendon Park, because the offender lived in our neighborhood.
    I was assured that James and his partner would come to the trial and offer their support. (I can't recall if it was through a court watcher type program or CAPS type program). The sad fact is that the trial was conducted, like 95% of all criminal trials, in anonymity.
    No one came.
    I called many of our neighborhood organizations asking them to fill the benches.
    No one came.
    ...except Michael.

    Admittedly, it's not easy to sit through one of my trials; it's seedy, sickening, heart breaking...

    My rambling point is this; all of the candidates are stumping on a "get tough on crime" theme. But only one continuously wallows through the horrible crap that occurs in our city... Michael.

    Only one came out to watch that little girl give her devestating testimony.

    Only one has lost fellow cadets from the Police Academy (yes, that is plural) to Chicago's violence.

    Only one, if we are honest with ourselves, can really, truly, see the crime as it is, and it's not James.

    Only one has made hundreds of narcotics arrests and been the first through a door when everything is on the line...and it's not Molly. (I find her campaign literature claiming some sort of narcotics related "prosecution" experience misleading at best and deceptive at worst. She was NEVER a prosecutor.)

    The bottom line is Michael can successfully tackle the crime issue. There are many other ward issues to be sure, but Michael would have this one properly addressed. Period.

    Michael cannot claim he knows what it feels like to be descriminated because of the color of his skin.

    Michael is getting married soon. He cannot claim to know firsthand the searing injustice that prohibits James and his partner from doing the same.

    He cannot tell you how it feels to be an penniless emigre from afar.

    He cannot tell you what it feels like to have your home repossessed.

    But he can talk on the issue of crime, it's victims, and how it has affected him....and what it has forcefully taken from him.

    -John P. Carroll

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  7. JP Carroll,

    I'm almost willing to bet that u ain't who you clame to bee.

    The mispeling and gramer eerrors our to2 much to bare.

    Your comment almost comes off as a passionate, yet misguided Carroll supporter. I'll chalk it up to your love for your brother and passion for his campaign.

    In any case I'm sure Michael has more experience crime wise than the other candidates. That doesn't necessarily mean he's the best candidate to deal with crime.

    If there was a strictly law enforcement solution to crime I might say Michael is the best person.

    I really think the biggest solution to reducing crime in this ward is forcing better property management on the various subsidized buildings. Generally, the people who suffer the most from crime in this ward are the decent folks living in subsidized housing. I don't have any gangbangers in my building. They do.

    Now your brother is a decent guy. I'll leave it at that as I already early voted for someone not named Carroll.

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  8. J, I heard Cappleman talk about a problem where a registered child sex offender was living at the Hotel Chateau, a place next door to the Gill Park and the law that forbids this from happening was not being enforced. He went up the chain of command and now the law is enforced. Are there unregistered child sex offenders in Uptown? Sure, but at the very least, shouldn't we at least enforce a law that forbids the ones who are registered from breaking the law?

    I wonder why you, a career prosecutor who has been assigned to the sex crimes unit for the past 7 years, did nothing to address enforcing a law that was affecting children in your own neighborhood? Of all people, you should have known this was happening. Instead, it took someone who didn’t live your neighborhood and who is not in anyway connected to law enforcement to finally take action, and you have the audacity to criticize him. Amazing.

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