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| Photo courtesy reader EK |
Right around the time former Alderman James Cappleman was elected in 2012, however, homeless encampments under the viaducts became a thing. Nearly overnight, people who slept outside were provided tents by homeless 'advocates' and encouraged to relocate under the viaduct.
For Cappleman's opponents, the tent cities were a perfect political tool.
You could make the Alderman look bad to local residents and visitors by having a large organized collection of homeless residents under a major viaduct, with trash, open drug and alcohol use and public sex.
If anyone dared to say that the camps were a public safety issue, you could criticize those people as being anti-homeless. (Eds: read the comments on that story)
If the Alderman questioned social service agencies and good samaritans who facilitated the tent encampments and de-prioritized housing efforts, you could criticize the Alderman as being opposed to homeless people.
It was win-win-win.
In 2017 things came to a head when the City and State tried to rehabilitate the viaducts. Groups closely aligned with the current Alderwoman filed a lawsuit to prevent the rehabilitation.
During the lawsuit, the City offered the ninety-seven (97) tent encampment residents two years worth of free housing. Local 'activists' encouraged them to refuse the offer, and most did. The residents ultimately lost the battle in Federal Court, with a judge ruling moving the encampment was a legitimate governmental purpose and having a tent encampment was not protected "free speech," as the activists had argued.
Construction started in fall 2017 and led to reopening of the viaducts in 2018.
That's where we pick up our story.
Groups aligned with Alderwoman Clay opposed the inclusion of bike lanes in the renovated viaducts, with op-eds arguing that the bike lanes were "defensive architecture" intended to prevent homeless from moving back into the viaduct, and surprise (!) criticizing Alderman Cappleman for allowing the bike lanes to be installed.
And so it went, with homeless advocates and people in the greater Helen Shiller-Angela Clay universe criticizing the bike lanes installed by the City and State as anti-homeless architecture.
Despite the new bike lanes, the homeless returned. Fire after fire after fire after fire followed. We knew Alderman Cappleman was trying to address the situation, and we asked why the City would allow a public safety hazard to continue in April 2022. CDOT and the Chicago Fire Department both determined that it was unsafe for people to continue to live under the viaducts, but once again 'advocates' encouraged the homeless to remain.
When Angela Clay took office in 2023, nothing changed. Tents remained under the viaduct, and new tent cities popped up both east and west of DuSable Lake Shore Drive. Tents under the viaduct caught fire and exploded in 2023, 2024 and 2025. These were met with effective silence and a shrug from Alderwoman Clay's office. New layers of white paint were used to cover up the burn marks.
But then some strange things happened.
Tents magically disappeared from the Lawrence Viaduct in early 2025. Some of the Lawrence tents moved to Wilson. In one of our trips to the beach in the summer of 2025 we counted 18 tents.
Then, all of a sudden, in the fall of 2025, at a time when homeless would normally move back under the viaduct, there were ZERO tents in the viaducts. Wilson was completely free of tents for the first time since Alderman Cappleman was elected 13 years earlier.
This of course got our Spidey-senses tingling! Was there a breakthrough in rehousing people? Nothing made sense, until....
WE REALIZED IT WAS RE-ELECTION SEASON!
Of course!!! The tents curiously disappeared and Angela Clay and Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth all of a sudden started doing news hits and social media thingies and tried to look real busy.
And the coup-de-grace?
In a sign of the reelection times, the 46th Ward got very nice signs (like the one above), memorializing that there are bike lanes AND pedestrian lanes under the viaducts. Wow! Who knew!?
From backing federal lawsuits to supporting homeless encampments across from Target to trying to preserve parking lots to this new neighborhood beautification, it's been a long strange trip for the greater Shiller team, which includes Alderwoman Clay and her allies.
But who cares about principle when you can pretend to be doing something to get reelected?
Unclear on your point?
ReplyDeleteIt's highlighted in bold capitals: "WE REALIZED IT WAS RE-ELECTION SEASON!"
DeleteYour anti-homeless screeds are always sad and creepy.
ReplyDeleteSo the Wilson bridge should have just collapsed in another fire?
DeleteExactly. The fires can take 5 years off the life of the bridge, which probably cost $50M.
DeleteIs this news or are you just eager to showcase your disdain for the poor and unhoused?
ReplyDeleteShe's a goon for Brandon Johnson paid for by CTU. To the tune of $60K . The same amount she took out in shady PPP loans. What a coincidence .
ReplyDeleteThey moved to the tracks by Graceland cemetery, detective
ReplyDeleteThere has to be a solution to the tent camps. The sidewalk on the underpass is for pedestrian access to the lakefront. There should be no obstruction of the sidewalk.
ReplyDelete"My political opponents planted homeless people in public places!" 🙄
ReplyDeletethe conspiracy theory is that alderwoman clay met with alderwoman schiller at the golden house to craft a plot about installing homeless people around uptown?
DeleteOf all the root and contributing causes to our least fortunate neighbors taking to tents, I tend to think our aldermen are not central. This ain't nothing but pin the tail on the donkey. Maybe next as an exercise try writing a thousands words on a brief history of homelessness on the north side lakefront without aldermen at the center.
ReplyDeleteOn March 21, 2023 I made a comment on this very site that basically suggested Angela Clay would be better off losing the election because of her interesting PPP loans.
ReplyDeleteNow for 39 months or so I've been waiting for the slow ass federal prosecutors to move on government employees and low level Covid fraud. Low level being under 100k. Last month they charged a CPD Sgt and a high level congressional employee with fraud.
My theory is that the prosecutors were using those two cases to get the grand jury used to such cases before they charged at least two elected officials with fraud. Maybe more elected officials and probably a good number of people associated with them.
Then late last month the Northern District of Illinois US Attorneys office imploded. At best three attorneys there were breaking the rules involving grand juries. At worst....well let's say some Judges are gonna be busy figuring out how "systemic" the issues were.
Now that office needs some high profile wins. I fully expect charges soon and that the top untainted prosecutors in the office will be handling any high profile cases.
Someone needs to announce they're running against Angela Clay because she's vulnerable. I won't be running. Sorry.
I have more skeletons in my closet than a Halloween pop up store.
Not only that but she definitely made a good earning of our tax money by "volunteering" in migrant shelters. Not even a year into office she went from living in Section 8 to living in her current lakefront condo.
Deletethe tents are a mess by puptown on lawrence and the dog park between wilson and montrose, and in north margate park. there are people walking into the park in the middle of the night meeting people coming from the tents. idk what that means buts its strange activity.
ReplyDeleteDrug use and prostitution right next to Puptown
DeleteThe issue of homelessness can stir up intense emotions, and I understand why. In 2017, when two encampments beneath the viaducts had to be relocated pursuant to a federal court order, a police commander informed me of a plot to murder me because I would not direct the police to refuse enforcement of the judge’s order.
ReplyDeleteAt the time, some activists urged me to introduce an ordinance allowing the encampments to remain under the viaducts. However, no elected official has the authority to pass an ordinance that conflicts with the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires that sidewalks remain accessible. The ADA took precedence. Activists argued that people experiencing homelessness had to sleep under the viaducts in order to survive. Today, those same voices are largely silent on the issue, which leaves me wondering what changed.
My commitment to people experiencing homelessness has never wavered. I helped establish a shelter for people living with HIV/AIDS, worked as a case manager serving individuals experiencing homelessness, and, while in my 20s and 30s, opened my own home to several people who otherwise would have been living on the streets. I will always advocate for those without housing. What distinguished my approach from that of some activists and service providers was my insistence that we focus on one clear outcome measure: how quickly does the intervention lead someone into permanent housing, rather than relying on approaches that leave people trapped in chronic homelessness. As St. Vincent dePaul once said, "It's not enough to do good; it must be done well."
I remain deeply frustrated by the City’s inconsistent use of the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), which allows communities to track who is receiving services and measure whether those services are producing results. I am equally frustrated by the failure to fully implement best practices that assign each unhoused person to a dedicated case management team through which all services and interventions are coordinated. Communities across the country have demonstrated that these approaches significantly increase the likelihood of achieving permanent housing. We know what works. The challenge is finding the will to do it consistently in Chicago.
I will continue speaking out until that happens, because people experiencing homelessness deserve a system focused not on managing homelessness, but on ending it.
So easy to spot Angela’s posts on here. What a tool.
ReplyDelete