Sunday, April 17, 2011

Assault On Peppers?

It's been quite the week for JJ Peppers at Sheridan and Lawrence.  Thursday, a car jumped the curb and turned it into a drive-in; Saturday, a reader reported it was full of police officers; and today, it got the dreaded orange sticker:  Closed by the Department of Buildings. 

Mercury in retrograde; bad biorhythms; karma's a bitch?  Whatever the reason, it can only get better.

14 comments:

  1. The owner of the S&L Pantry is celebrating with champagne tonight.

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  2. Well if you live by the sword you many often times die by the sword.

    Or be careful of the company you keep.

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  3. I think, as mentioned, 'Karma's a bitch'

    In some ways, Wilson and Sheridan is ground zero for a ton of mini-nightmares....even more so than Wilson and Broadway. (hmm...Wilson being the common denominator)

    I am SO looking forward to the new Alderman, addressing these pockets of Hell.

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  4. I think you mean lawrence and sheridan.

    Lawrence and Sheridan is a super bad intersection, very seedy and depressing and dangerous.

    Basically Lawrence goes downhill when you go east from Broadway,
    especially when you pass winthrop, the only bright spot being the thai place across from lawrence house, which shouldnt be the case because you are headed to the Lake. The only other street that does this is WILSON, and it does it much earlier, say from clark going east, though it is much better than it used to be, its just that the entrenched gangs havent left.

    More positive foot traffic would be nice, it would be nice also if most people werent afraid to walk to the beach from the EL stops or just the environs of the neigborhood down these two streets.

    Foster is now the nicest way to walk to the beach in Uptown, Montrose is okay.

    What do you guys think?

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  5. Leland to Clarendon to Wilson is a decent pedestrian walk.

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  6. Maybe it will help because I noticed a lot of the local homeless folks buying beer & half-pints of booze there. Hopefully, there will be less Natural-Ice cans & Dimitri Vodka/Gin laying around. I think they started buying the booze at 7AM there!

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  7. It would be better if that place and S & L just shut down. They're just havens for drug dealers and addicts–not to mention gangbangers and drunken homeless.

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  8. Just drove by and the windows are being replaced. I know it's a really rough corner, but the guys behind the counter were always very nice to me and I never felt threatened when I was in the store. Crossing Lawrence, however, that's another story.

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  9. Sorry, yes Jeffo, I meant Lawrence & Sheridan....thanks!

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  10. When I lived on Lawrence I needed assistance and would eat Kosher meals at Ezra (not specifically a soup kitchen per se) and the walk to there was a nightmare because of the gauntlet starting with JJ Peppers, rounding out with S L Pantry and the worst was the SRO/grocery store/McDonald's combo leading to Wilson. I often would only take my keys with me, fearing the worst on my walk.
    Like I said in a previous post, 9 times out of ten somebody from my building or the "Lorelai" would aggressively pounce on somebody walking past Peppers, saying "I need money puhleeeeeeeeeeze!" and I'd turn my pockets inside out and tell them my social workers kept all my money, which is essentially half true. It got old fast. It seemed that nobody who lived where I did was willing to work one lick to earn some money, just wanting to beg, borrow or steal.

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  11. C.P, I've never had that experience but as soon as I thought that while reading your comment, I realized I normally have a huge black dog with me.

    Yeah, that probably changes things for me.

    Walking from my place on Wilson to Truman, I always get asked for change or a cigarette. I just say "sorry, man" and respond in kind if they say "God bless" or "Have a nice day." I'd say most tend to say that.

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  12. I live on Winthrop and go to the Lake all the time. I never have an issue. But then again, I look mean. I am a woman, and I never have issues in the area. Yes, its scary, yes, its not the best - but I have been fine so far.

    I am looking forward to our new alderman to see what he can do. Not who I voted for, but we will see democracy in action I guess.

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  13. The citizens should petition for this to be a dry corner, period. I'm usually not an advocate for that sort of regulation, but Uptown needs it.

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  14. This was among my top ten issues with Uptown, among the others were the U-Haul loiterers. I used to want to walk to Irving Park from the library to get some healthy exercise, but those fine young men pretty much scared me off from walking anywhere around there.

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