Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Rehab Center Groundbreaking Coming Soon

A reader writes in:
"I was speaking to a group of official looking men in hardhats at the empty 4720 N. Clarendon building that is being turned into rehab center (part of Chicago Lakeshore Hospital) with the new building at Clarendon and Leland. They said construction should begin within 60 days with completion early next summer!"

Further background on the project from an earlier post:
Chicago Lakeshore Hospital, a psychiatric and rehab hospital which has been operating at 4840 N Marine for about ten years, wants to purchase the empty lot and the empty building and relocate some of their patient beds there from their current facility.
The interior of the empty building would be completed to fit the requirements of Chicago Lakeshore Hospital, and the empty lot would become a fenced-in garden for the use of its patients. There would also be a parking structure on the site.

13 comments:

  1. What kind of rehab. Physical or chemical, or furniture?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great! More addicts, and so close to my place! I can't wait!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yea. Do we really want this in our neighborhood?

    ReplyDelete
  4. The eternal cynic in me (thanks Helen) says, must we have another rehab/social service outlet here?
    Seriously. (that said, I don't know the exact 'rehab' nature of this place)

    The eternal 'Christian' in me says, OK, at least this is something doing something good for the downtrodden.

    But for God's sake, here's hoping for a Trader Joes (or something "mainstream") soon.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Not sure I like the idea of a rehab center in Uptown. Don't we already have some mental health clinics with people loitering around? Rehab will bring more drug traffic (what is the success rate?) and not provide stable residents. Couldn't we get something like Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, maybe a BOOKSTORE?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Chicago Lakeshore already does chemical rehab, they have for a number of years. So this is not something new, just a new location for the beds.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Straight from Wikipedia in case you believe that source:

    December 2009, a Chicago Tribune story reported on the problem facing eastern sections of Uptown where several nursing homes clustered in the area house the mentally ill, including felons. Many of these residents have committed a variety of serious crimes including murder, and 11 nursing homes in the area house 318 convicted felons and 1350 mentally ill people..

    ReplyDelete
  8. Can someone please help me figure out why I should stay in Uptown? I felt a tinge of optimism with the new alderman, but I'm not sure that's enough anymore. I knew when I moved here 10 years ago what I was getting myself into (somewhat), but this might be the last straw. On Leland we're now bordered by an abandoned Fresh Market, El Pollo Loco, the always fun intersection of Lawrence & Sheridan, the occasional gang fight at the Leland & Sheridan intersection, the constant sound of sirens, gun fire, screaming vagrants, the uptown ministry, the social services building down Sheridan, Lawrence house, open air drug markets and public drinking BY THE SAME PEOPLE EVERY DAY (regardless of the number of 911 calls placed), an abandoned Borders, the Wilson & Lawrence L stops which have seemingly somehow managed to go downhill in recent years AND NOW THIS???? REALLY???? Oh well, at least we have the Target right?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Put down the pitchforks and torches, folks.

    Chicago Lakeshore Hospital went to UCC and to the block clubs for feedback before buying the property, and is revising their planned structure to make it more friendly to the residents on Lakeside. They've already operated a well-run, for the most part, hospital a few blocks down the street, which nearby residents have very few complaints about. It is moving some of its beds to the building on Clarendon, which was built as a non-profit Alzheimer's hospital, but was never used, and has been sitting empty ever since.

    How many people who live on Castlewood, Gunnison or Marine even know this place exists? It's not Somerset, it's not Lawrence House, its residents are not buying drugs on the streets or loitering in front of the facility.

    I have no objections at all to this. It's not coming to our neighborhood, it's been here for years. Also, Chicago Lakeshore is a for-profit, and as such will be paying into the tax rolls, which hasn't happened on that corner for decades. I don't see if as a problem at all.

    Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. We sure don't need any more badly run facilities, but we can deal with ones that already exist that don't cause the community any problems. We also can deal with properties that pay taxes, rather than non-profits, which was exactly what the vacant building was built to be.

    ReplyDelete
  10. And for everyone who's freaking out, this development has been covered extensively by UU, including a chance for you to testify about it in front of the city council. It's nothing new.

    ReplyDelete
  11. "How many people who live on Castlewood, Gunnison or Marine even know this place exists? It's not Somerset, it's not Lawrence House, its residents are not buying drugs on the streets or loitering in front of the facility."


    This is pretty much spot on, another rehab center isn't ideal, but they haven't been poor neighbors the way many others in the area were/are.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Like most, I'd prefer that Uptown not have additional rehab facilities, but if we must have them, CLH is preferable to most. It cares for all types of patients, everyone from drug-addicted felons to mentally-ill suburban teens. Their diverse patient mix doesn't concentrate the super-unsavory types like some other facilities around. Plus, we need to remember that most of this was pushed through on Shiller's watch.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I hope it is more "well-run" than this article suggests:

    http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-05-17/health/ct-met-lakeshore-hospital-report-20110517_1_uic-report-dcfs-psychiatric-hospitals.

    ReplyDelete