By LORRAINE SWANSON
Editor
Thank-you, Ald. Shiller, for your statement yesterday about crime and safety in Uptown. It’s almost as reassuring as the “We Call Police” signs that I see hanging in my neighbors’ windows. I’m glad to know that it’s the political opportunists who are the problem, and not the moron I watched shoot a volley of bullets at another resident in front of my house on a Saturday night last year.
No one was hurt in that incident either. My neighbor who was outside walking her dog when it happened wasn’t hurt. She was a little shaken up, but nothing that would scar her for life. No cops suffered minor leg injuries and there was no property damage. I got to meet my new neighbors when we all went outside with flashlights to help the police look for shell casings. We were a diverse and sustainable group of black and white neighbors, renters and condo owners.
I was at Truman College on Aug. 17 after the Chicago 2016 meeting, sandwiched between two TV cameramen, as I watched you address reporters about the video that a neighbor shot of the gang fight at Leland and Sheridan. You greeted us with a smile, expressed your thanks for our interest in Uptown and cast the gang fight as something that your political opponents have blown out proportion.
Then you got angry. You took one journalist to task when she asked you about your staff’s response to residents’ phone calls after the video had gone viral on the Internet. You explained how you were on vacation, although you didn’t mention that you were in China. You also did not say that you were back in Chicago three days before you told the press that you were out of town. You didn’t allow reporters to ask questions, cutting them off if the question didn’t fit your agenda. Then a resident called you a liar, which was regrettable, but even if she hadn’t, and even if you had not childishly walked off, the media and general public would most likely still have been left only with obfuscations about other neighborhoods being worse than Uptown.
You, the police and long-time residents are correct when you say that Uptown has improved. Crime has gone down, if you call two or three less people getting shot or robbed in a year an improvement. We now have more streetlights than we did in 1987 when you were elected to office.
I remember how Uptown was when I lived here back in the wild 1990s. I remember a police helicopter flying over Lakeside Place on an October evening in 1994 (seven years after you were elected), looking for gang members who were shooting at police from a rooftop on Wilson and Sheridan. I watched people get shot behind my building, drink, smoke pot, urinate, defecate and have sex on the Arai playground during school hours while children had their outdoor gym class. As I recall, Alderman Shiller, Uptown was very diverse at that time, too.
In spite of Uptown’s problems then, Uptowners fifteen years ago still said “hello” to each other on the streets. No one spit near anyone’s shoes when they passed each other on the sidewalk. We didn’t stare at each other in sullen silence when someone dared to exchange pleasantries the way some do today. No matter what we were or where we came from, we all seemed to find common ground as human beings
You’re also right when you say that the neighborhood is polarized. Why, Alderman Shiller, do you think your neigborhood is so much more polarized today, 22 years into your ward “leadership?” During the 2007 aldermanic campaign, your supporters went to Uptown’s affordable high rise buildings and passed out a letter that implied your opponent was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. The name of your own chief of staff, Denice Davis, appeared as a co-signer of that shameful letter. The same letter took random comments from web sites, scandalous comments made by ordinary people about your opponent. Those comments were presented in that letter as though they were made by your opponent or by people connected with his campaign.
When I saw on August 27 that you had posted a “response” about crime and safety in Uptown on your web site, I was disappointed. I guess I expected more even from you, maybe some words to parents who let their children run amok on our streets hurling bottles and swinging golf clubs at each other, or an acknowledgment of residents’ perceptions that their neighborhood was a dangerous place to live.
This past year we have heard about residents’ efforts to find creative proactive solutions to making our neighborhood parks safer, holding affordable building managers and owners accountable for problem tenants that make other law-abiding, peaceful tenants’ lives a living hell, and supporting youth in making positive choices in their lives. Most of these efforts have been led by our local state legislators, whose time, as a result, has been consumed doing basic ward service work when their focus should be spent on state policy issues. It’s hard to fault them for caring more about your ward than you seem to, but why are you so intent on jobbing out your responsibilities to others?
If you are engaging all of your constituency, we have yet to see it. Your constituents include both the “political opportunists,” as you call them, and those on the lower rungs of the socio-economic 
ladder who don’t like seeing their children exposed to prostitutes and drug transactions on the streets. Nobody likes to see gangs trying to recruit their children while they walk to the 25 youth advocacy organizations to become “stars.”
Uptown residents waited all last summer for actions from your office about the murder of a Truman College student across the street from your office, broad daylight shootings where residents had no choice but to drive through bullets and shield their children with their bodies when they were caught in gang crossfire, and the body of a 19-year-old man whose body lay covered in plastic on a Sheridan Road sidewalk for three hours while police and detectives processed the crime scene.
We waited for your statement at the emergency town hall meeting at Truman College that was attended by over 400 Uptown residents in July 2008. Instead of taking the stage with top police officials from Superintendent Weis’ office, the Area 3 Deputy Chief of Patrol, the 23rd District Police Commander, the 7th District State Senator, the 13th District State Representative, and representatives from the 47th and 48th Ward Aldermanic offices, you sat in the front row and told reporters that you were “taking notes.”
To imply that it is “political opportunists” who are manufacturing a frenzy for the benefit of the media on a slow news night instead of sucking it up and answering hard questions is not only the height of arrogance, it’s polarizing and irresponsible. Step up to the plate, Alderman Shiller, or go sit on the bench.
Print this article
Well Lorraine, you just gave us another reason to keep fresh flashlight batteries!
Beautiful writing. You are so talented!
Lorraine, thank you for finding the words to explain how so many of us in the neighborhood feel about the Alderman’s response to our serious concerns.
Your article is so dead on! You are an amazing writer! I am commenting because I have very close friends who live in Uptown and I am consistantly concerned about their safety. I worry that I will get a call in the middle of the night that they have been killed or injured while out walking their dogs. I am concerned for my own safety when I go to visit them which is often. I am always apalled at the sight of the prostitutes showing their “wares” to awaiting cars during broad daylight. Some of them urinating or worse in between parked cars.Schiller needs to take responsibility for an area she has allowed to remain a cess pool of humanity. The good citizens of the area deserve someone who really gives a sh**!
I’ve lived in this ward for 13 years, I’ve seen it when it was just plain sad, to when it got better, and now… we’re back to sad again. I blame our leadership for their blind eye, their misplaced alliances, an blantant reverse prejudice.
When we bought into this place, our condo was an affordable $139K for 3br & 2ba. People were taking 5% down, and interest rates were reasonable. But since then, we’ve been protested against…right outside our front door… as “rich people trying to push out the poor”… I’ve had my son nearly shot at the corner of Leland & Malden… I’ve removed tall beer cans from the top of the slide at Gooseberry park, and found condom wrappers in the sandbox.
I’ve stayed. I’ve paid my taxes. I’ve tried to make it work.
My son goes to private school, not because I’m a racist, but because I examined the scores at our schools, visited them and found that private would have provided my son a better education. It is extremely costly to my family to pay for it, but it’s what we have to do.
Now, I feel like we’ve become more like the west or south sides, and I’m waiting to hear more about a child caught in crossfire… maybe even at the daycare on leland near sheridan. Or just playing out at the school park at Magnolia & Montrose (yes, there has been gun fire near there as well).
What’s it going to take to get her OUT OF OFFICE!
Perfect letter – you took the words right out of my mouth but said them so much more eloquently then I. I also loved the humor in the beginning. Good writers have for centuries been able to be the voice of the people on many levels. Today you were our voice.
Bravo. Wonderfully stated.
“What’s it going to take to get her OUT OF OFFICE!”
Talk to as many people as you possibly can.
Share these stories.
Be truthful and honest, and the rest will work itself out.
Wow … just wow. I think this article pretty much expressed all of the frustrations in Uptown.
Uptown cannot be viewed in a vacuum. Someone mentioned in the comments that Uptown is feeling like the “South or West” side–an interesting comment, considering that one of the issues has always been the perception of the North side as the good or safe part of the city. That said, not to downplay the need for Shiller to engage in better communication with all residents in the ward, but there are a few underlying issues raised by this editorial that should be addressed by whoever seeks to lead in Uptown.
First, the flyers–not admirable tactics, but they express I think an underlying fear and tension that comes with gentrification. People being pushed out of their communities is a real fear and one that has to be addressed by anyone who may step into Shiller’s shoes.
Second, Uptown has always been gritty–and I seem to recall that 90s gunfight–but it is undeniable that something different is happening in Uptown in the last few years–these recent shootings, bold and brazen, were not the norm in my experience of Uptown, even during the early-to-mid part of Shiller’s time. In my mind, I truly wonder how much of that is in Shiller’s control, and how much of that is a function of something bigger happening throughout the city. It’s well and good for her to come out and “say something,” but is there something tangible that she can do to impact this violence that isn’t already being done here and throughout the city? That would be a great question to have answered.
Third, you point out efforts to hold “affordable housing” managers accountable for problem tenants–I don’t disagree with this sentiment on its surface. However, there is something vaguely off-putting and problematic about this conversation seemingly rearing back to pointing the finger at affordable housing (even in such a subtle manner). Let’s not deny that there are many people who point to the presence of poor people in the community as the issue–yes, the word “concentrated poverty” is used–but Uptown is ironic in the sense that it’s one of the few places in the city where they have the upper hand, the power position. It’s an odd position to occupy, and leadership must recognize people of all incomes in Uptown must be made a part of the conversation and not talked about in terms suggesting that they are a part of Uptown to be “managed.”
AS to the people engaging in this horrible acts of street violence–I think it’s a little presumptuous to assume that parents approve of these actions or that parents are letting them run amok. Some of these parents may feel helpless, not really knowing how to control them–as sometimes you can instill all you can in a child, and they will still act on their own will. I don’t doubt there is some poor parenting in there–as poor parenting exists in many kinds of households–but let’s not always assume that parents of a trouble-making youth doesn’t care or is somehow allowing the behavior. Finally, in Uptown, I still see people acknowledge others–it was never Mayberry, but I don’t really see the sullenness. I see a great sense of community still here. I have personally felt a little alienated by reading some comments by people who believe they have a greater entitlement or investment in Uptown because they have a mortgage and by those who do blatantly express fear, loathing and contempt for low-income people, who constantly imply that Uptown was nothing and had nothing until they arrived, etc. Uptown is changing and will continue to do so. I hope whoever is at the helm will truly take into consideration all people here and treat us all as valued stakeholders in the growth of the community.
OldTimer –
Well said.
A few points, though:
– “People being pushed out of their communities is a real fear and one that has to be addressed by anyone who may step into Shiller’s shoes.”
True – however, when those fears are stoked by the alderman’s staff, that’s polarizing and unproductive.
When an alderman states the need to foster diversity, yet fosters hate, the hypocrisy is undeniable.
- What can Shiller do which is productive? She could go to a CAPS meeting and demonstrate some leadership.
She could address the issues instead of running from them – again, to demonstrate leadership.
She could also let go of some of her TIF projects and work to route funding into the city’s general revenue fund so that police are properly funded (as well as schools, etc).
She could work in Council to get the cops a contract. 2 years without a contract is horrible and does not rest on the mayor’s shoulders, alone.
She could also stop fostering distrust of the police in the community with her support, either directly or otherwise, with various organizations who promote such distrust, and who also sit on her advisory boards.
- I think the reason why affordable housing is having fingers pointed at it is due to the fact that there are bad elements within.
Undeniable that bed elements exist within, and the alderman, once again, needs to assist in weeding out the bad elements which adversely effect the community instead of turning a blind eye toward them.
The issue is not “poor people” – the issue is poverty.
The problem that a lot of people have is: are we addressing the issue of poverty correctly? And some do have a valid concern to “concentrated poverty” when the area, using any number of statistics, is saturated with poverty.
IE – Again with Wilson Yard, if all major social services agencies back out of the plan stating that saturation as being an issue, why does Helen feel the need to buck those warnings and go renegade?
Or – how can those struggling against poverty hope to gain any traction if we continue to saturate the area with it?
I don’t think anyone in the area has any problems with helping the less fortunate, but there is a limit to how much support a community can give, and many fear that we’ve already exceeding what those resources will allow.
And, you are dead on regarding that a leader needs to listen to all voices. Helen obviously does not, and by doing so, she again fosters the polarization and the tension between classes that she says need be addressed.
The issue of parenting can extend well beyond the scope and facilities of a comments section, obviously; and I doubt that many actually believe that parents don’t care; but answers start at home, and with education.
What can the surrounding community do to assist? An alderman can be the one best suited to address this issue.
There is a rich mixture of people in this community, no doubt. And I think you may find that the sense of entitlement runs in both directions.
Those who have been here for a while don’t like the “invasion”; however, most, if not all, of those “invaders” understood the area before coming in, and don’t seem to mind in getting involved.
The leadership we’re lacking from the elected side of the fence seems more intent on fostering that divide than bridging it.
And, no offense, folks who come into the area and invest via a mortgage don’t deserve more than anyone else, what they deserve is the same as everyone else.
Helen Shiller has historically painted these people as “evil condo owners”. That’s not helpful. And it’s certainly not fair.
For one group of people to cry for equality while denying the same to others … well, it’s shameful.
Then, the capper, she’s more than happy to suck more of the property tax dollars these people bring in to work on projects that they have no say in controlling.
There are jerks on both sides of this ideological divide – granted; but the good out number the bad, and Helen Shiller needs to discontinue her strategy of divide and conquer, and work to bring the community together instead of working so diligently to tear it apart to fit a world view which isn’t necessarily shared by everyone.
If she were to do that, any subsequent solutions would be considerably easier to communicate and enact.
Until she does, we’re at a stand still and everyone will continue to suffer the ramifications of the friction which exists.
And the only entity who has benefited from that friction in this ward has been Helen Shiller.
well put Oldtimer.
Lorraine, as far as your paragraph regarding the community being polarized, it’s not clear if you are putting all the blame or just a significant part of the blame on Helen for the polarization. it seems like that paragraph fits in a little too neatly with the “all problems in Uptown emanate from Helen Shiller” argument. sure, some of the things she has done or said have contributed to polarization. but if you really wanna talk about polarization in Uptown (or even just mention it) i think it’s irresponsible to not mention the tactics used by the cappleman crowd and the tactics and blatantly hateful language used by the uptown update crowd on an almost daily basis. i know that this letter is specifically about Helen Shiller but to simplify the issue of polarization the way i think you did detracts from your argument.
Ron,
do you mean that hateful and polarizing language at UU such as:
“Older people, younger people, white people, black people, Asian people, JPUSA people, folks on bikes, folks with dogs, folks on foot… all concerned about violence in Uptown.
Not a racial issue. Not a polarization issue. Just neighbors who love Uptown and want it to be safe.”
-or-
“Heather Steans was there with her husband. Also the commander, and the owner of McDonalds. Maybe some other folks of note, but lots and lots of neighbors. Great fun, social time, lots of thumbs up from the folks driving and walking by.
Hats off to those who organized it and who cared to come out at midnight.”
I guess those posts which support local businesses and activities in the ward are loosely veiled racial attacks, huh?
And .. I did research and failed to find anything from Cappleman which represents the any type of tactic used by him which even remotely represents the same type of vitriol demonstrated in the documents Lorraine has posted.
I’m not saying that they don’t exist. I’m just saying that I can’t locate anything to back up your claims.
Speaking of detracting from your argument, why not supply specific examples to support yours?
Thank’s Lorraine for this passionate, hard hitting editorial. You rock!
Great article, great message.
Dear Ron-
If this editorial hadn’t been written in direct response to Helen’s claim about polarization, you’d have a point. It was, you don’t.
How To Defend Hatred 101:
Say (as loudly and often as possible) “The other side does it too! The other side does it too!”
Then don’t give any examples. See, it’s okay to tell lies and be hateful if BOTH sides do it. Two wrongs DO make a right in this instance, because how can you defend the practice of spreading and justifying hatred otherwise?
Nicely done, Ron.