Monday, January 20, 2014

First The Trees And Fencing....



Quite a few readers are telling us that heavy-equipment work has been going on at the 1896 Victorian home at 4642 N Magnolia.  Since around 8am, four mature trees and the back fence have been removed.  "It looks like the property is getting prepped from demolition. I don’t think there’s a glimmer of hope for anything but an empty lot for the foreseeable future."

24 comments:

  1. While I'm sympathetic to the position that this house is better off "kaput" I will say the way the Finan's have handled this entire situation is stupid. It would have been better to have been honest from the beginning than playing these "if someone buys it game".

    They've unnecessarily pissed people off and made it less likely that in the future it will be "upzoned". If I were the Czar of Citywide Zoning that property would be zoned for a center entrance 8 unit building. I'm not and many of you are happy about that.

    Just what Malden needs.....another "hole'. That's the word some folks utilize in neighborhoods with a large number of vacant lots. In my day we called em' "prairie". I'm old and decrepit though.

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  2. Chicago Magazine has a story on the controversy and the seemingly soon to be kaput house.

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  3. This was badly handled by the developers AND the local authorities from the beginning.

    Does anyone think it was a coincidence that this was scheduled on a national holiday when the Alderman's office is closed?

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    1. Please expand on your conspiracy theory UR. How has Cappleman benefited from this process? Inquiring pirates wanna know. He will now have a vacant lot and two groups of people pissed off at him.

      The Finans tearing down this house benefits him in no reasonable way.

      Now the Rutherfords have benefited. The Finans may ultimately benefit. A certain neighbor of this soon to be vacant lot seems quite ok with an empty lot next door to him according to the ChicagoMag story I linked to. He may even prefer it. More light for his breakfast area!

      Who loses? The taxpayers of Chicago, Cappleman and the city as a whole and the neighborhood in general. Less people living here and less tax revenue.

      These are the times that try my buccaneerish mind. I'm looking into the abyss of despair and realizing that in the end the Sun will die and Earth will cease to exist. Not that any of us are likely to see that.

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    2. I agree with you. I don't think that Cappleman has benefited at all. This whole thing was very poorly handled by the local authorities from the beginning and now both sides are unhappy.

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  4. Per the Chicago Magazine story, the Finans also own O'Shaughnessy's Public House on Wilson and Ravenswood which serves below average food at best. Surprise, surprise. I'm boycotting their restaurant and definitely spreading the word among the neighborhood. The Finans are repulsive people.

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  5. You won't be the only one Linda. Did you see the Facebook page dedicated to boycotting O'Shaughnessy's?

    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Boycott-OShaughnessys-Public-House/1389237917997136

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    1. Well, seeing as I have very much enjoyed O'Shaughnessys in the past, I can only hope that this boycott is just as successful as the fight the community waged to preserve 4642 Magnolia!

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    2. Mr Scan**n,

      The Finans thumbed their noses at the neighborhood first by buying a property that they fully expected to get an up-zoning, secondly by basically saying that our neighborhood was a ghetto during one of the meetings, and now finally by saying "Eff them! We are going to teach them a lesson by razing this house as quickly as possible." Boycotting O'Shaughnessy is an easy option. As a lawyer you should understand how easy it is to cherry pick negative information and promote it to paint a portrait in your favor. Combine that with the digital age and a little know how you can get rankings on Google which surpass the positives. Boycotting can be done and can be effective.

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    3. As a lawyer, I should understand the law. As a person named Eidolon, you should understand the meaning of hubris.

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  6. There was never going to be any other outcome once Uptown Revivalist initiated the naive and destructive campaign against the owners and developers. No matter how much you want to live in a neighborhood of single family homes, you can wish or force other people to bear the cost and headache of your aesthetic pipe dream. If you're not going to buy it and rehab it, face the facts: the house is going to be gone, one way or another. Enjoy your empty lot full of gang banger detritus. God forbid a boring but serviceable building full of new neighbors and friends be brought to our barely surviving neighborhood.

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    1. "Barely surviving neighborhood"? Did you wake up in Englewood this morning? Walk two blocks and get a $200 meal at 42 grams. Go to Foster and Sheridan and look at the future Mariano's -- about 60 former Dominicks are sitting empty, but not this one. Walk south a block and check out Baker & Nosh, or buy some flowers at Forget Me Knodt or get some chef-prepared takeout at Real Kitchen. Go look at the progress on the first Sonic in the city of Chicago, or buy some clothes at one of the highest grossing Target stores in the nation.

      There are plenty of barely surviving neighborhoods in Chicago, but Uptown isn't one of them.

      I give you points for consistency, though. It's right up there with the description of Sheridan Park as a ghetto that no one would want to buy a home in.

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    2. Nice try, Unknown. Those "owners and developers" stumbled through the entire process like drunk pirates insulting the community's intelligence with their pedantic presentations and inexorable will to prevail at whatever the cost.

      It’s a pyrrhic victory the consequences of which could have been avoided but for the execrable decisions made by the only ones legally authorized to execute them.

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    3. Seriously, UR, not a hint of self-awareness there? Pedantic? Inexorable will to prevail at all costs? You know what they say -- "We hate most in others what we dislike in ourselves."

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    4. I think we can agree that there wasn't much to like (the cliche anecdote and psychobabble notwithstanding).

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    5. Let's all agree that 'Unknown' is Judith Rutherford and she was only responding last night because Magnolia Cafe was closed.

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    6. Right on Linda! Call a spade a spade.

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  7. Those places are all great. And except for Target, none are destinations. If they are going to survive, they need foot traffic. With money to spend. There are adorable flower shops, tasty coffee shops and fantastic restaurants all over Chicago. We had a chance to grow the neighborhood and instead we'll have an empty lot. Keep up the anti-business and anti-development hostility and you'll get more and more of the other Uptown: the shanty town under LSD at Wilson, the open air drug market at Wilson/Broadway and environs, the long stretches of empty storefronts on Broadway, on Sheridan, and on Clark, the loiterific intersection of Lawrence and Sheridan, and sketchy corner strip malls.

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    1. Once Sonic opens, and Mariano's, we can see what are destinations and what aren't. People came from out of state to eat at Sous Rising, the predecessor to 42 grams. Time will tell which of the new businesses are destinations, if any.

      There are about 1000 new market rate rental units that have opened or will be opening in Uptown in the next couple years, so I'm not worried too much about foot traffic (particularly since the CTA eliminated the Wilson bus lines). I don't see people lining up to boycott Flats. I don't see people forming Facebook pages to oppose Mike Krueger, the developer of market-rate rental units in the "Spoil Me Salon" building. The Sheridan Plaza. The Sheridan Regency. The Somerset. All developer-created new market-rate rental units that have caused barely a peep of controversy.

      I don't see "development hostility" from anyone except the ragtag band of Shilleristas who still think they can stop "gentrification" (hint, get a time machine). Opposing the destruction of one vintage building hardly means there's a raging culture of opposition. Hell, the Finans are free to build a three-flat on the property, as they know full well they can under the current zoning.

      If anyone is anti-development, you might want to look in their direction. They could have left an existing building. They could build a three-flat there in the spring. They're the ones who are saying, "We'd rather create an empty lot that will sit here for years." So who's really anti-development and anti-business in this particular scenario?

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    2. I suppose the Riviera, the Green Mill, and the Aragon Ballroom don't generate foot traffic and aren't destinations?

      The Norman on Wilson is being gutted and renovated as we speak. It will have a greater impact on Sheridan Park than five of the double-wides proposed by the Finans. Flats' multiple projects in Uptown alone rebut your assertions about any anti-business and anti-development hostility.

      If any lesson was learned, it's that the community needs to act to legally protect properties which the majority of the community believe deserve preservation and protection as this poor house did.

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    3. I would hardly say the block club is the majority of the community. It was only 19 people who basically held a secret meeting at the alderman's office. (Not blaming James). From reading everything on this blog, it seems like there was a lot of animosity for the owners and buyers.

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    4. "Irish-like" - keep in mind, Cappleman has the block club's vote on zoning matters. There is no official block club "membership" so as long as you lived within the confines of the Magnolia Malden block club map, you could vote. 19 people showed, more would have certainly been welcomed. Those who didn't live in the block club certainly were able to come and voice their opinion. Also, the meeting was called by James and was not secret, although unfortunately there wasn't a lot of notice. The meeting was posted on UU as well. Did you attend?

      As far as animosity, I don't think that was the overall deciding factor, but if you had chosen to attend any one of the meetings, you'd probably see how the buyers and sellers were less than sympathetic figures.

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  8. So the only thing that can be built there now is a single family home?

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