Why is UpTown considered bad? (Sheridan, Union: insurance, college, to live in)

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by ChiNaan

And I get that you don't want human tragedy in your neighborhood. You've made that clear. My question is where do you want it to go? Pushing it out isn't fixing it.

I'm not advocating that it be forced to go anywhere. I'm taking issue with the statements that Uptown is "fine as-is", and doesn't need any fixes.

I've met Ald. James Cappleman multiple times and supported his campaign twice. And I believe he is getting attacked unfairly for trying to hold social service agencies accountable when they behave poorly.

[ChiNaan]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

It would be a good investment based on sound economics and would alleviate a lot of the problems we're discussing. You'd be amazed how many people these days are thrust into poverty due to medical cost issues.

I wouldn't be amazed, because I'm well aware of it, and I agree completely.

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

Also, what's good for Chicago ought to be good for Highland Park, Springfield, East St. Louis and everywhere in between.

If we are required to have affordable housing, provide mental health services, etc. that should be a state policy/program. Again, this would alleviate many problems - people move to Chicago in many cases as they can't afford to live where the increasing numbers of McJobs are located in the burbs.

I agree with all of this, too. The problem is that the NIMBY crowd doesn't want to address any of this. They just want it all out of sight. Those are the types of people who want to make Uptown more like Lakeview, which is what I was originally responding to. If some hipster kid wants to defend the right of the poor and the mentally ill to exist, I don't really care if his reason for doing so is that he thinks it makes his neighborhood cool. That's way better than ignoring the problem entirely.

[ChiNaan]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

I'm not advocating that it be forced to go anywhere. I'm taking issue with the statements that Uptown is "fine as-is", and doesn't need any fixes.

Forgive me for assuming that the fixes you think Uptown needs would involve pushing certain demographics out of the neighborhood. If that's not what you're saying, I'm curious to know what fixes you would propose that would not have that effect.

[Aleking]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

I'm not advocating that it be forced to go anywhere. I'm taking issue with the statements that Uptown is "fine as-is", and doesn't need any fixes.

I've met Ald. James Cappleman multiple times and supported his campaign twice. And I believe he is getting attacked unfairly for trying to hold social service agencies accountable when they behave poorly.

If the housing market can maintiain this mini-rebound, Cappleman will get the results his voters are looking for, and 2013 has been a banner year for violent crime in Uptown for which I'm sure he'll take credit. But his motives aren't nearly as pleasant as he likes to paint them...these places are unsafe, they deserve better, and other hollow platitudes. It's about a large scale removal of undesirables (including the law abiding elderly poor / mentally ill) with the goal of increasing the property values of his core supporters at Uptown Update. I'm in the 48th but I would have been his supporter a couple years ago as well but he has tipped his hand lately and the true colors are ugly.

[Chi-town Native]

Originally Posted by ChiNaan

If some hipster kid wants to defend the right of the poor and the mentally ill to exist, I don't really care if his reason for doing so is that he thinks it makes his neighborhood cool. That's way better than ignoring the problem entirely.

Yeah, but I can also see the POV of the folks who want that hipster kid to bring that attitude wherever he/she goes when they decide to the suburban Brady Bunch thing, and also to hold the suburb/small town they came from to the same standard. And on:

Forgive me for assuming that the fixes you think Uptown needs would involve pushing certain demographics out of the neighborhood. If that's not what you're saying, I'm curious to know what fixes you would propose that would not have that effect.

If you figure this out, patent it! I am just one in a long line of people who would love to find the answer...

[Aleking]

The idea that there are hipsters in Uptown (lol) much less ones that find the gritty environment cool is pretty silly...talk about fabricating a demo to make a point.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by ChiNaan

If some hipster kid wants to defend the right of the poor and the mentally ill to exist, I don't really care if his reason for doing so is that he thinks it makes his neighborhood cool. That's way better than ignoring the problem entirely.

"Fighting for their right to exist"... That is an imaginary fight and overly simplistic. Here's a more realistic battle in Uptown:

Crappenstein Nursing Home is on the site of a former luxury hotel from the 1920s Uptown boom years, but the building has seen better days. It has not been updated in many years, and the living conditions are deplorable. In addition to being a fire trap, there are pests and security problems. Pain peels off the walls, old cloth wires sizzle and pop.

The building is filled with elderly residents, and is funded almost entirely with social security checks. The standard of care is terrible, with many residents neglected and over medicated. Assaults are common because of lax security, and the staff are afraid to report problems to management for fear of retribution. Residents wander the streets without supervision and routinely get in to compromising situations. Police calls are a routine occurrence.

The position taken by the Organization for the Northeast and our former Alderman was to just leave things "as is". This is affordable housing after all, and it should be preserved at all costs. And the operators will go out of business if they are forced to get the building up to code or spend money on an appropriate standard of care. The result is the "there is nothing to see here, everything is fine" solution.

The position taken by Alderman Cappleman and the block clubs is that this standard of care shouldn't exist ANYWHERE, and that the place should either clean up its act or be closed down so that residents can get better treatment elsewhere.

Of course there are people on both sides working for their own self interest. But the issues are never as black and white as the "yuppie condo owner verses the poor" narrative in the Sun Times makes them out to be.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by Aleking

It's about a large scale removal of undesirables (including the law abiding elderly poor / mentally ill) with the goal of increasing the property values of his core supporters at Uptown Update. I'm in the 48th but I would have been his supporter a couple years ago as well but he has tipped his hand lately and the true colors are ugly.

Yeah, the former Franciscan Friar and Social Worker is out to destroy the poor. Have you ever met the Alderman? He is one of the nicest guys around. He just doesn't think that Uptown is "fine as is", and would actually like to see some of the neighborhood's problems solved.

[Chi-town Native]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

The position taken by Alderman Cappleman and the block clubs is that this standard of care shouldn't exist ANYWHERE, and that the place should either clean up its act or be closed down so that residents can get better treatment elsewhere.

But when there is no "elsewhere" readily available, we end up having discussions like these.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by Aleking

The idea that there are hipsters in Uptown (lol) much less ones that find the gritty environment cool is pretty silly...talk about fabricating a demo to make a point.

Well okay, some of the Uptowners with this attitude are all out hippies, some are taggers, and some are in a weird communal Christian cult-like organization, and others are just urban blight fetishists who defy categorization. But read any argument about neighborhood gentrification on any forum anywhere, and you'll get the people who just love urban edge and grit as an antidote to the supposed blandness of safer middle class neighborhoods. It's not just an Uptown thing.