Monday, August 22, 2011

Reminder: 46th Ward Town Meeting On Tuesday



On the 100th day of his being in office, Ald. Cappleman will hold a 46th Ward Town Meeting on Tuesday night at 7pm, in Weiss Hospital's auditorium (4646 N Marine).

It should be a good opportunity to find out what the alderman feels he's accomplished in his first hundred days, what's next for the 46th Ward, and what he -- and residents -- feel needs attention.  Hope to see you there.


7 comments:

  1. Two observations about tonight's meeting.

    1) Old Folks Hate Kids.

    Hate em, hate em, HATE EM!!!!
    Some rotten awful mom brought her baby with (well a toddler) to the meeting. He was talking while the Alderman was, so the oldsters shushed him.

    That of course did not work, so Plan B was to talk amongst themselves, or perhaps to nobody in particular, about how they could not hear with all the talking going on.

    When the mother took her awful little monster to the lobby, their necks were on swivels, and I have never seen such fire emanate from behind cataracts.

    Not content with mere victory, they continued to crane their necks, and occasionally talk more, because you could hear the youngster behind a closed door, and the only way to not hear background noise is when your mouth is moving.

    These oldsters could not wait to hit the lobby, and snark (do seniors snark?) well, harass that lady for bringing her kid. One loudly told her she was inconsiderate.

    I hightailed it out of there, because old people scare me. They travel in groups, speak loudly, and ignore social conventions. Plus, they take drugs. Lots and lots of drugs.

    I hope that all future housing in Uptown is low-income, affordable housing for families, so we can finally fix this imbalance in our demographic. We are warehousing the old, stacking them sky high, and tonight it almost spilled over.

    I hope that mom and her kid made it out OK.

    2) People Will Read Any Damn Thing That Is Handed Out To Them At A Meeting.

    Seriously, handouts on the street? Homeless. Crazy. No, thanks.

    Handouts at a meeting you've hijacked? Homeowner, crazy, yes, please?

    A VERY IMPORTANT MAN also attended the meeting tonight. We know he is important because his hand shot up in the first few minutes, and stayed up even after he was reminded that Q&A would be at the end. If that did not clue us in, he abruptly remembered all the important THINGS TO DO and PLACES TO BE and left the meeting. Before doing so, he distributed handouts.

    Which people accepted. And read, while the Alderman was talking. And per Very Important Man's specific instructions, continued to distribute them throughout the crowd. I declined four of these, well, one, twice.

    I was relieved that so many of these readers were the Old Folks, since if they were unable to hear the Alderman, it was important that they have something to occupy them, so they wouldn't disrupt the rest of us. Like keeping a toy or a pacifier handy.

    Plus, V.I.M. had printouts from a website, and seniors don't really get the internet, so that's good.

    Well, they might still have dial-up to AOL, but that hardly counts, or I would be scared to type this.

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  2. It was a good meeting, and yes those cranky seniors. Keep in mind many of them wake up at 5am...7pm meeting is late night...

    I was surprised to hear Sedgewick is still going to give it a go....

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  3. Anything of substance about this meeting besides what we already knew about Sedgewick?

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  4. Who was that Very Important Man? He looked familiar. Why is he so worried about Sedgewick...they are toast.

    Honestly it is a good idea for the alderman to treat developers fairly, why scare off the good ones.

    Sedgewick just had a bad plan that sunk on its own lack of merit.

    @ Alek, Don't know if its substance enough but....

    - pressure Truman to open up their facilities to neighborhood supervised basketball.

    - Intends hold Wal-Mart to a high standard on its street level planning. No covered windows/ entry facing stret/ etc.

    - dispelled rumor Lawrence House has been sold, reaffirmed commitment to seen it safe, clean and affordable.

    - Alderman James clarified for all his legislative role as a member of the City Council in legalizing marijuana.

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  5. I am guilty as charged. I have a young child 2.5 years old for the record). He is normally quite well behaved for his young age as long as he is supplied with cars. Yesterday, he felt the need to talk while playing with his cars and would not stop doing so when I shushed him. I decided that although he was screaming and wasn't running around the auditorium I would remove him to the lobby so he wouldn't be as disruptive. I was under the impression that this was what a considerate parent does in this situation.

    Apparently the acoustics of the place were such that you could still hear my young child talking in the lobby. He was not screaming, he was simply talking at a normal indoor volume. I really didn't expect it to cause drama. In fact the alderman's staff members in the lobby told me they thought he was very well behaved for his age. I'll admit that I didn't think it was his best night, normally he does a better job of listening when I ask him not to do something than he did last night.

    After the meeting the ladies in question did verbally accost me. They very angrily informed me that I was rude because I brought a child, I was unfair to my child by bringing him out in public, and I am a horrible mother. I thanked for their opinion and understanding since they obviously do not have any experience with raising a child.

    If any of the following are mortal sins or crimes against my neighbors I apologize and profess my complete guilt.
    - Trying to remain informed about my community and hopefully be part of the solution to some of the problems in my community.
    - Taking my child out in public even though he is not 18 years old.
    - Attempting to minimize my child's potential impact on a meeting by removing him from the meeting when he is talking during the meeting.
    - Allowing my child to help with neighborhood cleaning events.
    - Allowing my child to participate in the concerts at given at Buena Park Playlot by Buena Park Neighbors.
    - Allowing my child to attend National Night out against Violence events.
    - Allowing my child to go to Positive Loitering and/or Positive Loitering Playgroup.
    - Attempting to be an active member of my community even though I have a child, even though my husband works out of town during the week, and even though I have a full-time job.
    - Caring about the neighborhood where I have lived for the past 10 years and where I am raising my son.

    To be honest I WAS a bit shaken up. While one expects a little crazy while walking past the Wilson El Stop, I don't think most people would expect to be verbally assaulted and told they are a horrible person when they have made a good faith effort to do the right thing. I have never seen a group of people be so hostile towards someone they don't even know. Apparently they didn't like the part of the discussion about making the neighborhood more family friendly and decided to take it out on the woman that dared bring a child to a public meeting.

    For what it's worth, I did speak with Alderman Cappleman afterwards and apologize for the disruption. He indicated that it wasn't really a disruption and was surprised at the behavior of these women. He encouraged me to continue coming to town hall meetings with or without my son.

    Finally, anonymous, thank you very much for posting this as it really did make me feel better. The fact that these women elected to talk through the duration of the meeting served to confirm my thoughts that this had really nothing to do with me or my son and everything to do with the bitterness existing in these women. I feel bad for anyone that takes such joy in an attempt to push someone down. It proves that the phenomenon of "Mean Girls" is not a new one.

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  6. @ BuenaParkMom

    It really wasn't a big deal or that loud. I was on the other side of the auditorium so kind of surprised to hear about all drama.

    This was a community meeting and kids are part of the community......

    "Mean Girls"?

    More like "Mean Golden Girls".....hehehehehehe.....

    This first town hall mtg was at Weiss after all, right below the Senior Center so maybe it was their "turf" kinda thing.

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  7. @Littleton

    thanks for the rundown

    "Who was that Very Important Man? He looked familiar. Why is he so worried about Sedgewick...they are toast.

    Honestly it is a good idea for the alderman to treat developers fairly, why scare off the good ones.

    Sedgewick just had a bad plan that sunk on its own lack of merit."

    Totally agree

    "- pressure Truman to open up their facilities to neighborhood supervised basketball."

    Sounds like a good idea

    - Intends hold Wal-Mart to a high standard on its street level planning. No covered windows/ entry facing stret/ etc.

    can't complain

    - dispelled rumor Lawrence House has been sold, reaffirmed commitment to seen it safe, clean and affordable.

    bummer, i'd love if it were sold, don't see how the later is possible with current ownership.

    - Alderman James clarified for all his legislative role as a member of the City Council in legalizing marijuana.

    thanks again

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