Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Chateau Gets Scaffolding, Neighborhood Changes Apparent

A reader writes in:
"A happy day in Lakeview -- the renovations at The Chateau are gaining momentum. Scaffolding being set up in front of the building.  I will do a happy dance in the street when they put in new windows.  Already the neighborhood is dramatically different---I cannot remember the last time I called 911.."

32 comments:

  1. YES!!!!
    Hope to see this for the Wilson Mens Hotel!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow-look at all the empty shops below.Use to live right at Broadway and Sheridan there -was always booming back in 80's.

    ReplyDelete
  3. And the white washing of the area continues on. Congrats to all you yuppies for getting your wish and displacing the people who can't afford to call this neighborhood home anymore.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. who cares??? These people aren't contributing to the neighborhood in a positive way. I don't know why I need to sacrifice safety in MY neighborhood because these free-loaders what to do drugs which attracts gangs and violence.

      If drugs and violence wasn't an issue at this place, I guarantee it would still be there.

      Next up Lawrence House and Wilson Men's Hotel!

      Delete
    2. Agreed -spend some time out front of the Wilson Men's Hotel and you tell me that there are no drugs being passed or alcohol being consumed. There are changes taking place-It has nothing to do with being a "yuppie" and let's be real.. Uptown will never be Lincoln Park- so relax...

      Delete
    3. But KEN...how many innocents should be sacrificed to get the drugs? Do you have stats which say it's 100% druggie? 90%..50% or 5%?

      Delete
    4. @ Bradley- We need better ways to assist with these issues- The Men's Hotel is not helping our community-I don't care if its 10%-

      Delete
    5. Need I remind you a woman was covered in bed bugs and had to be removed from that hell hole. It's pretty simple, even for a simpleton like you - take care of your property, have a little pride, and maybe, just maybe the evil condo dwellers won't be so quick to want to tear down your "home." You're a dumba**

      Delete
  4. @Uptowngirl- what a stupid, racist thing to say!

    ReplyDelete
  5. They haven't been able to afford to call this neighborhood home for years. I know a lot of people who aren't drug addicts or dependent on welfare who can't afford to call this neighborhood home. I can't afford the Gold Coast or Hinsdale. Nobody is whining about that on my behalf. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm not sure how to feel about all your comments... I'm glad for my neighborhood and let's face it, the building has been an eye soar for a long time!! Lots of roaches and bed bug. This building didn't do anyone any good. Not the people who lived in it and not the neighborhood. "White washing" has nothing to do with it. This building housed people of all colors! Don't take it so personal. Some things we can all live without; and this building is one of them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Eye sore? Absolutely. Why are we punishing the residents of that building, however, instead of holding the landlord accountable? And now that those residents of been displaced, the building is going to be rehabbed and turned into market rate housing that I could barely afford, let alone the individuals who once called that home. These are not solutions--it's taking a larger, societal problem, using a few individuals as scapegoats, so that, ultimately, a few people at the top can line their pockets. What's really sad is that I constantly see people on the Uptown Update message boards going on and on about those unsightly homeless people. Why exactly do you think they are homeless? Because services continue to be cut, and affordable housing is becoming a relic of the past. It's a sad, vicious cycle that is sweeping every developing neighborhood.

      Delete
    2. The landlord (the slumlord Jack Gore) WAS held accountable. He paid massive fines to the city for housing conditions that were so substandard that I wouldn't subject farm animals to them. He made the decision to sell the building rather than to upgrade it to livable conditions.

      The renters were not "punished." They signed leases, the leases ran out, and the new owner chose not to renew the leases. Just like renters have the right to choose not to renew their leases. That's how things work in a society that believes in capitalism and property rights.

      "Affordable housing" is not a relic of the past in Uptown. Uptown has 17 times the amount of subsidized housing as the average Chicago neighborhood.

      Want more subsidized housing for people with lower incomes? Talk to communities that have little to none and take up your case for providing clean, safe subsidized housing where there is little or none. That is most of Chicago, BTW.

      Delete
  7. I'm sorry, I'm a bit confused Girl, so tell me where I got this wrong. Nowhere in my mortgage does it say that the neighborohood can never change. That I'm not allowed to sell this place for more than I paid for it. That my rent included "diversity payments" a penalty for going to school, having a job, not getting drunk and passing out on the sidewalk. I'm giving you plenty of warning here, so get your gasoline and matches ready: I don't like poor people, this I why I don't live on a numbered street. As for playing the race card, 1968 called, they want their love beads back. I think racial and cultural "diversity" are grand. I think every ward should have the same amout oh halfway houses, section 8 housing, crack heads, nethadone clinics, gang shootings and human warehouses like Lawrence House as we do. Oh, but wait, amazingly, nobody is lining up to share. So yeah, lets give them a bus pass pack them a lunch and ship them off to Sauganash? Or Bridgeport? Lincoln Park? River North? South Loop? So my little friend, this is the way the real world works. Things change. Have been for at least 2000 years when Jesus said "the poor are always with us, and you have to let them break into your garage and pee in your alley, or you are going to hell." Get off the cross, people need the wood.

    ReplyDelete
  8. "I don't like poor people, this is why I don't live on a numbered street." I don't get it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He's claiming that EVERYONE who lives south of Roosevelt is too poor for him to associate himself with, because he's ignorant.

      Delete
    2. Doesn't the President of the United States live south of Roosevelt?

      Delete
  9. You didn't answer me KEN. So KEN if 10% are druggies you're happy to throw 90% simple honest poor people on the street?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Here's your answer Bradley. ONE bad apple spoils the bunch.

      Delete
    2. @Bradley- Here is the simple answer- YES

      Delete
  10. Marshall, why exactly did you buy in Uptown to begin with? Because, from the sounds of it, you hate all of your neighbors who aren't as fortunate to be in the same socioeconomic bracket as you. Those were PEOPLE in that building. You are lucky that you haven't had to face the many matrices of oppression (poverty, addiction, institutionalized racism, mental illness) that so many others have had to face. That LUCK does not give you the right to take away someone elses personhood or their home, even if it's no place you would ever want to live. In any urban area, poverty is a sad reality--especially in Chicago. How about trying to contribute to a reasonable solution instead of just getting rid of people that make you uncomfortable.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, good lord. You sound like someone who is either a current or former University of Chicago student--recent, at that--who absorbs all the reading assignments in sociology classes and becomes quite proficient at spouting all the lovely terminology that you had to regurgitate for your exams. Unfortunately, the real world doesn't always conform to those tidy case studies that the sociology professors like to expound upon. AND...most of us were once 20-somethings like you appear to be and believed that we could put our shiny university idealism to use and change the world (or at least one corner of it). A good number of us have tried over the years to be helpful and constructive about solving problems that other people bring upon themselves, and many of us have had it thrown back in our faces, despite our social idealism. And we have been taken advantage of, we've been forced to pay our own ways AND for the ways of people who take advantage of goodwill simply because they can. You get to a certain age and point where you understand why grumpy "old people" are grumpy about crap like this...and you, Miss Li'l Uptowngirl, will likely get to that point yourself someday. So I suggest that you get off your pontificating high horse--we know about PEOPLE a lot more than your experience belies that you do, and stop with the browbeating. Welcome to the real world--you can try contributing to "reasonable solutions" until you're blue in the face, because us older, more experienced people pass the baton to YOU. Give it a whirl, but make sure that you're walking a mile in the shoes of those you feel you have to berate, too.

      Delete
  11. Marshall field, you seem like a angry person. If you don't like poor people you should of moved to the Gold Coast. Perhaps, while not poor, cannot afford those upscale neighborhoods? Welcome to Uptown. At least we don't have those awful "numbered streets".

    ReplyDelete
  12. I was born and raised in Uptown and right no one wants to see drug dealings going on .There are so many homeless that are good honest people in Uptown .Always has been ,always will be.Never look down on them because they don't dress or act or have what you have.Try ta;king to a couple of these homeless people sometime and listen to their story,it might really surprise you.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Don't you folks realize that you've been trolled?

    Americanlt should realize that since his own "schtick" here is a form of ongoing performance art and his real persona only comes out when he's been offended by someone who takes things further to the "right" than his nom de guerre does.

    It's likely that "Marshall Field"s true beliefs are closer to the "matrices of oppression" ideas of "UptownGirl" than the Ayn Randite feces he's trying to peddle. Perhaps if you mixed the two ideas together it would result in a matter/anti matter explosion of sewage that only DC Comics could explain.

    Now I offer you the opportunity to groove to the sweet sounds of the "Best of the Grass Roots".

    ReplyDelete
  14. Don't feed the trolls. Leave them on dnainfo.

    ReplyDelete
  15. The other day the 19/23 District was in a "RAP". That means radio assignment pending. I have a scanner 460.0500. Which means most calls for 911 are put on hold. "In progress" calls and gun shots are priority. We need more police. I'm having a hard time walking my dog, Mr. Poochy when things are this hectic. Good to seeya pirate. :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Has anyone read what they are planning to do with the properties across the street from Chateau-timing is interesting on this planning.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have not, but I am familiar with the food pantry there. I would hate to see that leave the area because it's services are in desperate need.

      Delete
  17. The owner of all of those buildings across the street from Chateau wants to ad 6 more stories to those buildings and put condos upper levels and office on lower level.He pwns all the properties across the street from Chateau except for 2.

    ReplyDelete
  18. The owner wants to raise them up to six stories, not add six more stories. Most of his properties are already two or three stories tall.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Right-sorry I explained it wrong

    ReplyDelete