The End of the West Side?
Aside from the fact that upwardly mobile persons of all stripes are buying housing stock in the areas of Juvenile Court, the State Crime Lab and the brand new FBI Building on Roosevelt Road, Sunday's Sun Times covers what may be the death knell for the wild West Side:
The bulk of the North Lawndale neighborhood's nearly 2,000 historic graystones will be getting a face-lift under a multiyear initiative formally launched Saturday by the Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago Inc.
Similar to efforts to save the city's bungalows, several public and private businesses have partnered with the nonprofit organization to help low- and middle-income graystone owners rehabilitate and preserve the century-old structures.
Yes, the rehabers are coming. Once the "artiste" community discovers these granite buildings, the boulevards of the West Side will gentrify exactly like the graystones up and down the 013 and 014 District have in the past two decades and Pilsen in 012 is doing now. Remember, 013 parts of 014 used to be the biggest shitholes in the City. And now? Try buying anything in Wicker Park or Logan Square along the Boulevards cheaply. If you have any cash lying around, think about investing in some West Side speculation - it'll pay off in 20 years or so.
posted by SCC at 12:05 AM
57 Comments:
1ST VOTE OUT FOP IN NEXT ELECTION!
woo hooo!!! I cant wait I own a bunch of real estate on the west side. 40 rental units all grey stones.
Screw you old fillmore guys should have listened to me when I brought you the deal on the first one
Once the ghetto, 9 times out of 10, always the ghetto.
Since Mary Mitchell is on vacation I will be posting editorials in her place.
I recently received a letter from a concerned citizen about police misconduct. I was shocked and appalled at what this 20 yr old mother of 5 had to endure. I was not there when all these dirty cops did what they did but I believe every word the church going mother describes in her letter. She stated that around 4:00am while she was on her front porch drinking water, 2 uniformed white police officers approached her about one of her kids hanging out the 3rd floor window. When she stated that all her children were in bed because they had school the next day, one officer punched her in the mouth and said "bitch are you calling me a liar" spilling her water all over her babies dinner from JJ-Fish. Then the officers arrested her for no reason. When she was placed into the police car her foot accidentally broke out the rear window. But she wasn't worried about herself, she was more concerned about the officers making her children change into dirty diapers and whipping them with a belt to frame her for neglect just because she is a black struggling mother who might or might not be on welfare. Being a part time replacement for Mary I decided to go beyond the normal investigation that Mary would conduct and I confirmed that she did infact purchase a # 4 at JJ fish at approximately 3:25am. With this evidence in hand I call on all leaders in the community to rally around this strong mother who withstanded yet another atrocity perpetrated by the Chicago police department.
Yours Truly,
Harry M. Robinson
Understudy for Mary Mitchell
Where the fuck are all these people coming from who are going to buy these lots/homes/units?
I live in Lincoln Park, why would I sell my place to buy a place at a trumped up value to live next door to a person who does not pay shit?
The city is just pushing these assholes to areas that city workers have lived for years (southwest/northwestr sides) which in turn destrpy their areas
They're all the kids who grew up in those boring ass suburbs like Schamburg. They're looking for a little adventure and if they move to Iowa and Drake they are gonna get it.
Lincoln Park was once a ghetto. I aint no ghetto no more.
Sorry. It aint no ghetto no more.
Sorry Chief, I grew up in LP and it was never a ghetto. The area around Wrigley Field may have been filled with Latin Kings and hillbillies 30 years ago, but that's not LP and it wasn't a ghetto. I'm sure you heard this from some genius at the bar who grew up in the parish next to you, but it doesn't make it true.
Figures, white man gets rich off the brother. (You KNOW the developers are white)!
SCC, could you PLEASE delete the above post? I'm mean, really...
Hey i work in cabrini and all the yuppies that bought just north of 1230 Burling are bitching about all the crime, and the damage caused by the animals there! I asked them why did they buy there? The reply the builder told us that cabrini would be torn down completely in 1 year that was over 6 years ago! Believe Bob the builder LOL! Another daley friend!
To the above poster. I,for one, do not care who SCC is!!! He/she/it gives us a unique opportunity to read about what's going on with subjects that pertain to the police, although the comments usually posted are off topic and only reinforce the "dumb" cop image. Your constant re-posting of this makes me more curious about who YOU are, you cuckoo bird. Hate to be trapped in a squad car with YOU!
Too late. I know SEVERAL bosses who invested havily in the West side corridor and will be bathing in profits. I only wish I had the cash at the time to invest right with them.
Let's see...cops invest big time money in shit neighborhood. Same cops order police to those neighborhoods to arrest everything that moves and one by one relocate the residents - buy the property and gentrification is upon us.
Same thing is going on in the Greens right now (but you are too late to get in on the $ aspect).
The west side is going nowhere! All this crap ass contruction that is being put up there is sec 8. Yes there are morons who buy there at a market rate price, but for everyone of them there are 6 more on the same city block that are sec 8. Therefor the area will not turn over completely.
Wrong SCC,
Census figures and trends clearly show Daley and the Democrats have succeeded in driving white families out of the city. While a few half-wits from the Moody Bible College will elect to live next to Wilphonse, and the Gold Coast will always be the Gold Coast, working white families are fleeing in droves. The bosses who have bought property on the westside are like jackals feeding off a decaying carcass of what was once a beautiful city, they haven't and couldn't turn an honest buck to save themselves. They utilized inside information from the City Planning Commission to their benefit. Gee, not like they ever cheated in the past, huh? Oh and that hard-on for people from Schaumburg? Go out to Woodfield, sit in Shaws or even in McDonalds and look at the kids out there. Then look at the hillbillys and Section Eight shit in Edison Park or Garfield Ridge. Go out to Glenview hwere they ask, "Daley who?".
9:38, the city is turning inside out and you are only seeing one side of it. Yes, the "white" working class naborhoods are getting pushed into a smaller and smaller space southwest and parts of northwest.
But EVERYTHING downtown is coming back. Literally, everything. There was an article on the front page of the Sunday Suntimes a few weeks ago profiling 5 neighborhoods. For the near South side, they noted that something like 5000 whites have moved in over the last 4 years, along with 90 african americans. Don't get me wrong, I live there and wish it was a bit more integrated for the sake of stability.
But the same thing is happening along a decent chunk of the west side, and all over the north side. Half of my professional friends from my old south side neighborhood now live west of lincoln park and lakeview in places like Roscoe Village etc.
And it seems that even Rogers Park is getting slowly gentrified.
I feel bad for people in Mt. Greenwood because its iffy, at best, whether the neighborhood will withstand the pressure. The neighborhood is practically surrounded on 3 sides now, and the pressure from the east is pretty steady.
But 5 years ago, was anyone looking at Bridgeport or the close-in areas on the Southside?
Noooo, everybody just kept rushing out towards 111th and Pulaski or 63rd and Harlem.
So while cityworkers are squeezing up against the borders, a lot of yuppies and retirees have been moving back all over the downtown and close-in naborhoods.
Follow the herd and you were bound to get slaughtered.
SCC, you're a little behind the times! The West side has been getting gentrified over the last 7-8 years! Urban Pioneers started picking up the large rental units 10 years ago and are now converting them to condos. There's even a chinese woman we nicknamed "Blinky" that completely condo converted her 18 unit building at Washington and Kedzie about 5 years ago. The graystones have been snapped up by investors and developers sometime ago so don't think you can get one on the cheap! If you really want to do real estate speculation go west of Pulaski from Ogden to Lake St.
Section 8 is a reality in EVERY neighborhood. Sorry but, get used to it! The only thing you can do to get rid of the nitwits is to get a couple of arrests ON THE PROPERTY. That way, the building can be put into Drug and Gang House Enforcement and the Section 8 tenant evicted. (They'll also lose their voucher if the arrests are serious enough!)
As for the comment "Figures, white man gets rich off the brother. (You KNOW the developers are white)!" uh sorry bone lick but there are several sharp brothers picking the buildings up first then selling them to the white devils. Who do you think is selling their properties to the developers at inflated prices? Aunt Bea and Opie?
Contrary to an anonymous posting on this web site, I have alibi witnesses available who will confirm that I was a thousand miles away from "the grassy knoll" in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963.
Mr. NorthSide:
As the Grand inquisitor, I have received anonymous allegations against you and your sacred honor. Please respond to the following questions.
(1) Have you ever had any problems with alcoholism or substance abuse?
(2) Are you mentally unstable, "crazy" or insane?
(3) Are you of below average intelligence or "stupid"?
(4) Are you a homosexual (not that there's anything wrong with that)?
(5) Do you suffer from erectile dysfunction?
(6) Do you have a small penis?
(7) Have you ever committed a felony as defined by state or federal law?
(8) Are you a pathological liar?
(9) Do you pose a danger to yourself or others?
(10) What is your net worth?
Torquemada:
While all of your questions are no one's fucking business, I will go on the record for the first nine questions.
NO!
As far as my "net worth", that also is none of your fuckin' business.
In the future, I will ignore such preposterous bullshit. The're are always going to be anonymous cowards who will prefer to "kill the messenger" that respond to the TRUTH.
There on the souff side thez got a ton of voucher housing on 63rd st. To all you people using the term "Section 8" that is long gone. Kinda like saying "Fillmore" that hasnt existed in a long time now i think its called Harrison.
Section 8 has been replaced by the voucher program. Use Google and find the .pdf that lists what the goverment pays for rents and you will wish you were in my income strata.
For all you coppers who were shown on paper what my plan was, and who's wifes said NO cause I dont want you to have to go unplug a toilet at 3 in the morning. All I can say to you is HA again HA.
But then I have about 1 million in mortgage debt, and 2 million in equity.
Not bad for a kid, who while on IOD, bought one of those late night real estate programs. "NO Money Down" means not using YOUR money but using OPM (other peoples money) yep I borrowed 30 thousand and gave back 40 thousand.
Thanks to all the true believers who hang out on the corner by my buildings. Some day im gonna set up a BBQ for all those TRU and $O$ guys.
You'd be suprised by all the bosses who own large amounts of property in this city. I know cause Ive sold them several of my buildings.
This site is silly....just sily silly silly....I mean it's really silly...very silly....silly silly silly....really fuckin silly....silliest fuckin silly site I've ever seen....just plain ole silly silly silly....totally silly.....WHEN HE's SIITING IN JAIL WE'LL SEE HOW SILLY EVERTHING IS !!!! Who's next ????
just ask old man tommy byrne when he started buying real estate.
Yo 2:31
That was a great Post. I guess you told it like it WAS. If you know any DIRT on this SHITBAG , let it out.
2:31
Your POST was correct and to the point. If you know anything else put it out here. We could use some good humor on the BLOG.
Signed
Phil Cline
QUESTION
* What kind of goof still goes on a police blog 10 years after he retired?
• What kind of goof gets arrested for impersonating the police when he was on psycho-leave?
• What whack job puts a picture of himself as a recruit from 40 years ago?
• Who was the drunken sergeant that used to fill up his Big Gulp with booze?
• Who resides at the address of 1960 in Lincoln Park?
. . . yeah that’s right we know WHERE YOU LIVE Psycho!!! Now get off this Blog or we will publish your entire address and phone number you whacko bitch!!
7:43:46 PM
Are you threatening me?
John Northen (aka "NorthSide")
1960 N. Lincoln Park West
Chicago, IL 60614
(773)935-4500 (listed)
eMail: cpdfop7@yahoo.com
OK, I have a question. I'm a civilian, retired and related to many of y'all.
Serious question that should be addressed at some point ANONYMOUSLY by POs.
If I as a not-huge civilian see ANYONE burning a flag in public in front of elderly people who are likely to be veterans, I will throw a punch. Simple as that, and it was decided long ago, even if it means I'm gonna get my ass kicked by a dozen skinheads or commies or whatever.
Burning stuff outside is illegal without exception in Chicago, right?
OK, so the question is, you see someone burning a flag outside, AND you see me throw a punch at that someone.
1.)Do you arrest him for violating an ordinance?
2.) Do you look the other way as I walk away (I will never run).
A. No to both.
B. Yes to 1, but not 2.
C. Yes to 2, but 1.
D. Yes to both.
The thing is, if I'm with the law enforcement people in my family, I'd put 99% odds that they are throwing a punch with me.
Why? Not because I like the anti-burning ordinance. Rather, I HATE the idea of a probable veteran seeing something that is likely to be so offensive and thinking nobody cares. The thing is, I don't have a problem with somebody doing it in their own home (I hope they burn their home down).
Its the exposing others, who *may* care a great deal, to it that bugs me so much.
So a, b, c or d?
Northside:
FBI-Chicago 312.421.6700
Title 18 USC (Felony)
This is getting ugly. Real ugly!
SHAME ON ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was ABOUT to say that this site was actually an 'on-topic' site and [almost] a pleasure to read, until I scrolled down and saw the guy that had to bust Nortsides's balls. C'mon, man get a life. Just because YOU disagree [thats what this site is all about----imput] doesn't make EVERYONE ELSE a jag!
You know : I think it's time to stop all this shit about Northside.
Everyone has poked fun at him long enough. He doesn't deserve all this shit that's being thrown at him. No matter what he did and when he did it, if he did it. The bullshit has got to stop. You can see by the new posts that tempers are becoming unglued so give the guy a break and let up. Go find someone else to mess with he's had more then enough. Lets just stick to the posts at hand. 10-4
In less words than above^^^^^^^^^^
AMEN!
To: 6/05/2006 10:10:30 AM
Don't Worry about Mt Greenwood. As someone who has lived both North and South I can Tell you it is as much if not more stable than most North Side Neighborhoods. This is not a knock on the North side but the fact is that Mt Greenwood is pretty much compressed as far as it will go with almost all sales going to city workers. The Northside on the other hand still has a lot of areas south of the Kennedy turning long before Mt Greenwood Goes. Take a good look up and down Cumberland Ave someday if you don't believe me. As I said before this is not a North side Vs. south side but an observation. The people in Mt Greenwood have been pushed out of many good neighborhoods and now will push back before being pushed out. There is still room on the Northside for the City workers to flee North.
9:27:50 PM
I am a big boy. Stay out of this!
7:43:46 PM (Threats)
Bring it on, you cowardly motherfucker!
Well Northside makes me glad I'm getting that monthly check. This blog helps remind me what I don't miss about the job. Some real great stand up stick together guys on this job. And everybody wonders why the city gets away with what they do? Northside remember when shit was settled between men in the parking lot? Man the job sure has changed. Well stay loose and don't ever let this shit get to you just enjoy that monthly check.
About 36 years ago I had many family members living in the Beverly and Mt. Greenwood area. My parents were moving back to Chicago and looked at a nice house on Talman Ave.
They came close to purchasing it, only to back out of the deal because the consensus of many people they spoke to was "The area is CHANGING"
All these years later the neighborhood is still nice, and the house is still beautiful.
So to all the skeptics..they said the same crap 36 years ago!
Go with what your gut tells you, if you like the building and you think the west-side is coming back, Buy It. You will at least break even if you hold on to it long enough!
what is all this bullshit? none of us have sinned, made mistakes? we are all perfect?
the man is posting his personal email address on here, so have the BALLS to email him directly!!
jeesh
Northside, SCC just got the tab for the cyber door you kicked down to this blog!!
Hell, I'm trying to post, but all these broken chairs and tables in my way. I missed the brawl apparently but the debris is still all over this place.
That PUSSY now REALLY knows where Sgt. Northen lives, but you KNOW he's too big a BITCH to move his soft pallid ass out from behind the keyboard and go ring JN's doorbell... YOU ARE SPINELESS and don't have the STONES, you keyboard CUNT! The FEEB's are going to FIND YOU via your cum-stained computer and it's I.P. address that is LOGGED when you visited here while threatening Northen you BONEHEAD! 30 pending separation, BITCH! Bye-bye, birdie- load gun , insert barrel in mouth, pull trigger- POW! Your worries will be over tough guy- DO IT NOW, please!
Alert has been sent to:
http://www.fbi.gov/cyberinvest/cyberhome.htm
The problem with Garfield Ridge and Clearing is the fucking Mexicans. Yea, yea, yea... they are hard working folks that just want to feed their family and have a nice life in American. Thats fine and dandy, but the realality is that they are breaders.. breaders of fucking asshole gnagbanging, loud radio, grafiti tagging, dope dealing, pieces of shit (I'm a bad speller). These jagoffs are totally destroying those neighborhoods. I left Garfield Ridge 2 years ago to go to Mt. Greenwood. I'd rather deal with a little white trash hear and there than that fucking bullshit, no English speaking hispanics.. A BUNCH OF ILLEGAL ALIENS BREEDING KIDS IN AMERICA, IN CHICAGO... SENDING THEIR KIDS TO CHICAGO SCHOOLS FOR FREE!!!. NEVER PAID NO TAXES BECAUSE THEY ARE ILLEGAL.. BUT WE PAY TONS OF PROPERTY TAXES FOR THESE FUCKS TO GO TO SCHOOL FOR FREE.......SEND THEM ALL BACK TO MEXICO... I'M FED UP!!!!!... Maybe then we could use our public schools for our own American children... Children of parents that have paid taxes their whole life!
the wimps picking on northern read like shittywide flophouse goons if you ask me. backstabbers mentality. drunken buffoons. bully boy high school torture sadists. death by a thousand cuts. never man to man face to face. probably just jumping on northern to cool the heat building on them finally. classic distraction tactic. divide and conquer. bait and switch. don't fall for it. stay safe. unite. look out for each other. throw the bums out of f.o.p. time's up for hogs gorging themselves at our trough.
I have seen a lot of stupid, crazy, drunken posts on this blog.
The threats at 7:43 get my vote as the biggest dumbfuck of all.
7:43 just unleashed a pack of pit bulls from the best dick I ever worked with. RELENTLESS!
Garfield Ridge - if it wasn't for the Chicago zip code let alone the surrounding streets: archer, cicero, harlem, etc., you would think it was a suburb.
nice homes, landscaping, and THE cleanest streets around. you would think streets and san people lived there.
very nice area.
from the Tribune:
"
By comparison, the median price for the overall Chicago metropolitan region is $263,600.
"
My response:
As a person looking to buy a house soon, I would like you to provide more accurate statistics. How about you provide a median price for houses in Chicago neighborhoods that have not had more than 5 homicides this year.
--
There are VAST streaches of this city that are, for all intents and purposes, UNINHABITABLE.
I would like to see the medain price for the NW and SW sides.
350,000.00 and that might be a little low.
who GIVES a damn about median prices, etc.
Garfield Ridge is the Land of the Blue, baby. The best on the job were home grown there.
Very nice indeed!!
Anonymous said...
To: 6/05/2006 10:10:30 AM
Don't Worry about Mt Greenwood. As someone who has lived both North and South I can Tell you it is as much if not more stable than most North Side Neighborhoods. This is not a knock on the North side but the fact is that Mt Greenwood is pretty much compressed as far as it will go with almost all sales going to city workers. The Northside on the other hand still has a lot of areas south of the Kennedy turning long before Mt Greenwood Goes. Take a good look up and down Cumberland Ave someday if you don't believe me. As I said before this is not a North side Vs. south side but an observation. The people in Mt Greenwood have been pushed out of many good neighborhoods and now will push back before being pushed out. There is still room on the Northside for the City workers to flee North.
6/05/2006 09:33:06 PM
except for all the little one bedroom frame shit nests that located there you are correct! Its up in the air who buys all the shit nests for under 200 k though...can you say white trash hillbilly crack head?
Anonymous said...
Garfield Ridge - if it wasn't for the Chicago zip code let alone the surrounding streets: archer, cicero, harlem, etc., you would think it was a suburb.
nice homes, landscaping, and THE cleanest streets around. you would think streets and san people lived there.
very nice area.
6/06/2006 07:21:28 AM
OPEN your eyes fool! Gar ridge is a Illegal Mexican and Illegal pollack hive.
Anonymous said...
The problem with Garfield Ridge and Clearing is the fucking Mexicans. Yea, yea, yea... they are hard working folks that just want to feed their family and have a nice life in American. Thats fine and dandy, but the realality is that they are breaders.. breaders of fucking asshole gnagbanging, loud radio, grafiti tagging, dope dealing, pieces of shit (I'm a bad speller). These jagoffs are totally destroying those neighborhoods. I left Garfield Ridge 2 years ago to go to Mt. Greenwood. I'd rather deal with a little white trash hear and there than that fucking bullshit, no English speaking hispanics.. A BUNCH OF ILLEGAL ALIENS BREEDING KIDS IN AMERICA, IN CHICAGO... SENDING THEIR KIDS TO CHICAGO SCHOOLS FOR FREE!!!. NEVER PAID NO TAXES BECAUSE THEY ARE ILLEGAL.. BUT WE PAY TONS OF PROPERTY TAXES FOR THESE FUCKS TO GO TO SCHOOL FOR FREE.......SEND THEM ALL BACK TO MEXICO... I'M FED UP!!!!!... Maybe then we could use our public schools for our own American children... Children of parents that have paid taxes their whole life!
Hit it right on the head! Just like Westlawn was so clean and beautiful not no more its 26th street
Go to Tribune.com home sales and look up the sale to and from on your zipcode. 60638 is all white name to Martinez. 60655 is all white name to o'connell etc.
10:46, 36 years ago it was safe to be in an apartment on Hale. It was safe to walk down 95th street. Morgan Park was safe even east of Longwood Drive. Heck, places like St. Thomas More and St. Denis existed then, and only in our minds now.
If you compare what was "safe" 36 years ago to what is "safe" out there today, the area is DEFINITELY smaller. And its been compacting my whole life. I hope Mt. Greenwood maintains its identity and Beverly does not get any worse (hell, I'd love to have one of those homes on Seeley more than most any other home in Chicago).
But there is a mass migration to the south that has to get past Beverly and Mt. Greenwood without destroying it. A good analogy might be that Mt. Greenwood and parts of Beverly, Evergreen Park and Oak Lawn are like little rocky outposts with survivors standign thereon as a herd of buffalos (er, mules?) stampedes past for decades.
End of the day, I'd rather see a fairly well integrated city where people aren't afraid of each other.
But the only way thats happening is if you tear down a valuable neighborhood (the near South Side) entirely, and rebuild it from scratch.
I live in GARCIA Ridge, and I just saw my first burka wearing woman. The Mexican living next door yelled "Hey Terrorist Momma go back to where you came from"
I stood speechless
Then started laughing my ass off. I looked at him and said that I said basically the same thing when you moved in.
where exactly did you live in garfield ridge?
and... there are numerous upon numerous NEW homes in garfield ridge, hence the sheer stupidity of looking up any homes for sale! duh
garfield ridge and clearing are predominately white ... Polish residents. However GF is much better then Clearing. Clearing is mixed but still white, some Hispanic. West Lawn IS Hispanic. Marquette Park has goen ghetto.
Garfield Ridge is awesome!!!! Wish I could afford a home there.
Garfield Ridge, Chicago
From Wikipedia, encyclopedia
White 68.9%
Black 12.2%
Hispanic 16.5%
Asian 0.91%
Other 1.46%
This page was last modified 12:43, 23 April 2006
Garfield Ridge is VERY clean, you can l;iterally eat off the streets, superb landscaping (they spend alot of dough on it, or so it appears), many brand new homes which remind me of the news ones located in Wrigleyville!
I reside in Clearing, which has ALWAYS been this way. Dirty, mom and pop businesses, blah. What has changed is West Lawn, which is primarily Hispanic. Gangs floating into our neighborhood.
White 76.3%
Black 0.61%
Hispanic 21.0%
Asian 0.68%
Other 1.37%
When I was looking for apartments, so many neighborhoods have changed. The majority of them, actually go by "street/address," not even by neighborhood anymore.
Clearing and Garfield Ridge are pretty much the last actual neighborhoods I know of, instead of "what street do you live on, or what is your address?
Garfield Ridge is beautiful!! Reminds me of many northern burbs, just more brand new city bungalows.
MT GREASEWOOD don't take kindly to you persons of color...STAY OUT!!! White is right...If you didn't hear me the first time...WHITE IS RIGHT!!!!
-022 copper
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