Then he continued by tossing out one more hint. Boys and Girls Club. He mentioned a fellow RPBA board member who does NOT live North of Howard but sits on the Cotter Boys and Girls Club and how serving the underprivileged children in the area is necessary....and how the Cotter BGC didn't get to move into the Willye B White public, taxpayer funded park facility in a secretive takeover attempt after 12-13 long years of broken promises. My god how this gang is still burning from real community input over that attempted theft!
Mr. Aronson can make his donation to the underprivileged children in this area, check payable to the Willye White Park Advisory Council. He can join our council and see that we are providing 80% discounts so the underprivileged children can attend after school winter sessions with plans for spring and summer camp too! He can join us in fundraising for these underprivileged children any time he wants to. The alderman has all of my contact information, email, work, home and cell phone numbers if Joe cares to share and build that bridge with us he wrote me about last June.
But to try and persuade people that the proposed building with living units upstairs, a theatre and fine restaurant on the ground level that will pull people from the suburbs to desolate Howard Street to enjoy an evening out is too much – when disclosing the concept of also housing the Cotter Boys and Girls Club in the same building. Sounds too busy to me. He hasn’t any strong theatre leads yet – and I sincerely doubt that there will be in the setting he described. What this sounded like was a new building for certain area NFP's and a B&GC and with affordable living units – nothing more. Otherwise, we would have heard about all the theatre/restaurant contacts and leads and less about the area NFP’s and the fellow board member who obviously will not stop until he and the forces get a new building for the west side’s Cotter Club. That’s not developing a dead street at all. As for mentioning the high number of at risk or low income population here, well, who put them here? Who went along with the plan that this 2x6 block area should be a haven for low income and social service agencies anyway? The community or 30+ years of ‘progressive liberal’ non-visionary planning?
Naturally, a new building with lights and a theatre and restaurant would fit the concept of creating life on Howard Street. Mr. Aronson stated there had been issues with squatters; he mentioned the safety/crime concerns on Howard. In spite of his statement that he lives in Rogers Park – he does not live North of Howard and the crime issues are in several buildings here! Beat 2422 has the highest crime rate in the 24th District. It’s old news. Even the Pivens exited the theatre plan years ago. There are several Wisdom Bridge alumni – William Petersen of CSI fame for one and how many other Chicago born actors have been contacted to start up a theatre? Why? Because of the demographics and the crime for starters – as well as a building that was ignored for 26 years.
Possible contamination abatement was mentioned too. Of course, just across the alley from the Wisdom Bridge Theatre is the empty hole that was the long vacant Lerner property. For years we heard the land was contaminated from the printing chemicals and also from a dry cleaners that had been on the land. Oddly, once upon a time there was a dry cleaners on the corner of Ashland and Rogers too. When Runge Auto Shop was dislocated thanks to the manipulations that created the half empty Gateway Mall, the Runge’s wanted to relocate to that corner. They heard the contamination saga and were allocated a space around the corner from the property they wanted. Somehow that contamination was abated because Howard Area now has a day care center on that very corner.
Of course, I’m just a citizen journalist who’s been a quick study in the machinations of getting things done, who gets what, when and how. There was a former electrician attending who claims to be a journalist who will have his own spin on tonight – but he’s in with the crowd and also does NOT live North of Howard. But as I always say, Anything Goes North of Howard. I certainly hope I’m wrong on this one!
