Overflowing Dumpster On Fargo

1610-1620 w Fargo Avenue

               Reader submitted photo of a persistently overflowing dumpster on Fargo Avenue yesterday. Neighbors have to pick up the slack when the trash overflows from this particular dumpster. Due to curious geography this dumpster can't be in the alley and even if it were it would be unacceptable for it to be so consistently overfull. 

            The trash blows into the viaduct and across the street creating a mess for local residents. It has been learned that to deal with the situation pictures of the overflowing dumpsters have to be sent to the alderman's office. Upon followup Lake Shore trash was seen emptying the dumpster this morning. The management company has been called many times concerning this issue.

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Last update 2:15 pm 4/15/13 

Spring Fever

         














             Reader submitted photo of local kids aged 8 and 9 gardening right here in Rogers Park. This family has been tending this particular garden @ Ashland and Rogers for the past four years (Joyce Kilmer Triangle a World War I era veteran). Those pink flowers complement the light grey stone and aged copper plaque. The neighborhood really shines when neighbors take time out to take care of public and private land.

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Wine Bar & Cafe @ Jarvis & Greenview Grand Opening?

          The target date for the new bar/cafe at the old Charmers space is May 1st. But there are many stars that must align in the process of getting a new place up and running. Delays due to licensing through the city and passing inspections are common for new restaurants and bars. Unforeseen problems with renovations could also push back the grand opening date.

          The liquor license will come later sometime in the summer, until then patrons will still be able to drink there, BYOB (of course buying your liquor at Taste is encouraged but not obligatory).One of the proprietors of Taste wine shop who will be running the still unnamed bar stressed that this will also be a cafe where neighbors can get their morning coffee. They are also applying for rights to have outdoor beer garden seating. Having a beer al fresco at the new Taste run bar/cafe in the summer is a nice thought when you see snow in April. Right now the place looks like some super exclusive no name club with the stark signage lit up. Click here to read up on the history of the place.

Street Fight Call 911 & Dog Bite Call 311?

Fight and bite don't rhyme in Spanish

               How would calling 311 regarding a dog bite be helpful? Antibiotics and an ER visit would be more appropriate. By the time you would get assistance from 311 you may be gangrenous with blood poisoning. What if the dog bite was in a critical area and someone was exsanguinating to death? Assault from an animal sometimes is an emergency especially if it were a pitbull, multiple dogs involved or if the dog won't let go. If the owner is negligent or dog fights involved then someone may need to be arrested immediately. And what if  the person bitten was trying to break in? People shouldn't call 911 on all dog bites, but dogs and dog bites aren't created equal. According to the CDC fatal dog bites are rare, but they don't list how many are life threatening.

 "Each year, 4.7 million Americans are bitten by dogs. These bites result in approximately 16 fatalities; about 0.0002 percent of the total number of people bitten."

           

Gidget Gets Housing

One of the Buddha heads near Gidget's
old stomping grounds, the Morse "L" stop

           An update on a story that began last year on now dead Everyblock, then continued on the reborn Broken Heart Of Rogers Park, was then covered by the then newborn DNAinfo.com and a cause celebre taken up by the Rogers Park outpost of the Occupy movement. Where did Gidget (Jennifer the homeless alcoholic woman who openly drank alcohol in public who haunted Morse and Glenwood) find housing? In the Occupy Rogers Park posting it alludes to the fact that she is residing close by in native Rogers Park.

           Occupy RP in their posting states that this sends a strong message to Alderman Joe Moore and James Cappleman that people can't be pushed out of the neighborhood which "many would like to further gentrify". Which isn't completely untrue, but the gentrification (aka revitalization of cities) process is larger than what any certain persons or groups wish or want, it really is decided by the free market. The United States for better or worse is the most capitalistic nation on Earth which includes the housing market.

          We'd (Occupy Rogers Park) also like to thank everyone who followed up on Jennifer's court case by working to ensure that she got the housing she needed. It was a much longer battle than it ever should have been, and a powerful reminder that few people enjoy such advocacy, and far too many are left behind. 

Jersey & Glenlake Avenues Chicago, Illinois

Glazed & Infused Donuts @ Sol Cafe Saturday (Tomorrow)

                    The critically acclaimed donuts from Glazed and Infused will be sold at Sol Cafe tomorrow, a so called pop up shop or guest appearance in Rogers Park. Walking back from Sol Cafe it was also noted that the street lights to be installed onto Howard Ave were on the move. A lot going on in the neighborhood this fine Friday morning. Sol Cafe, Rogers Park's finest coffee shop (yes Chevanston is biased and judgmental) is located on Howard just west of Ashland and steps from the red line stop at Howard.

Update 4/12/13 5:20 pm - Joe Moore just posted on Facebook picture of  the new streetlights installed on Howard today.

Update 4/12/13 9:03 pm - Thanks for the further info Ben Woodard! Crazy donuts courtesy of Glazed and Infused at Sol Cafe tomorrow.

Update 4/13/13 10:20 am - Stopped by at 9:30 am and got a half dozen donuts, nice turnout. According the Glazed and Infused saleslady there was a line out the door and it looks like they had sold over half their donuts already. Lots of people hanging out at the coffee shop as well. They had another pop-up today in Anderson(ville).

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Evanston's Vet Center

              A different view of the 415 Howard building, photographs like this show how urban South Evanston is.  The Vet Center at the corner of Howard and Clyde provides outreach and counseling services for all war zone veterans including Vietnam era vets. Hours are 8 am to 4:30 pm, evenings by appointment. Retail space is available on the Howard and the Clyde sides, the Howard red/yellow/purple line is short, walking distance away. Two Doonesbury cartoons grace the front of the building where the Vet Center is located.

First cartoon

"Who was that on the phone?" asks the wife. The husband replies, "My doctor from Walter Reed. He wants me to go the the Vet Center." "What'd you say?" asks the wife. "I told him I didn't need it." The wife's surprised, "You didn't need it? Excuse me? Its 10:00 am and your holding a beer?" The husband's answer, "Hey, it's empty. Okay? Back off!" The wife's retort, "Sorry. Tidying up were you?"

Second cartoon

"He really shot up the garage?" asks the long haired man friend of the husband. The wife replies "Yup, fortunately Sam was at a friend's. It was over nothing -- he was having trouble starting the mower, and he just exploded. He gets frustrated so easily. He's anxious all the time now. But he keeps skipping his meds and he won't go the Vet Center for help." "And you've tried beer?" asks the long haired man. "Could you go online and get yourself up to speed, please?" replies the wife.

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First Successful Buddha Head Transplant In History

565 w Howard Evanston, Illinois

                The previous caption "A Buddha Grows On Howard" was retired in favor of the more relevant current title after discovering that this Buddha head was moved from its previous location; future site of the Peckish One microbrewery. The last location at Callan and Howard didn't have good karma and on April Fools Day the Buddha head was hit with graffiti.

            Update 4/13/13 - Here is an article from Evanston Patch with a picture of the Buddha in downtown Evanston. Seems that some Evanstonians don't venture down to the city or Rogers Park much.
         
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Public Drinking On Howard

            The gentleman on the left was brown bagging it this past rainy Tuesday morning at 7:45 am outside the vacant storefront Camelot Realty next door to Sol Cafe. Typical Howard street activity which according to the City Council is a quality of life issue which shouldn't be ignored. Jail time of six months would be added onto fines already in place for public urination, gambling and public drinking, because right now offenders only get tickets or citations which they can blow off. Uptown Update wrote a little blip on the Sun Times article. Its a problem on the north side by the lake in certain spots, Howard is definitely one of those spots. If you click on the picture you can see the man is holding an big open liquor bottle.

Historical Society Benefit @ Joe Moore's Speakeasy

Sign on Ridge with prior address of RPWR Historical Museum

Joe Moore said......

Join my wife Barbara and me at our home as we host a "Roaring 20s" party to benefit the Rogers Park West Ridge Historical Society. This year's festivities will take place in "Joe's Speakeasy" (my basement bar) as the Historical Society recreates the environment of Chicago's prohibition era where innumerable speakeasies were home to jazz music, dancing, and outrageous nightlife.  

The fun takes place Sunday, April 14, 11 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., in our home at 1431 W. Fargo. Tickets cost $50 if you order in advance ($60 at the door). Members of the Rogers Park West Ridge Historical Society enjoy a reduced rate of $40 ($30 for students and seniors who are Historical Society members).

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 or visit Joe Moore's Facebook page.

Street Cleaning Season Is Here!

       
            Be on the lookout for the nifty orange no parking signs. Its been a long dirty winter and its time for some spring cleaning. Even the littlest street of Rogers Park, Marshfield Ave south of Rogers Ave is scheduled for a cleaning. The woman putting up the notices came up with an ingenious method to cart around all those signs. Click here for the street sweeping schedule for Ward 49.

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Pigeon Net @ Jarvis "L"

         Back in January when Everyblock was up and running neighbors were shocked to find that pigeon poop was still a scourge on the north side of the Jarvis "L" stop after the recent refurbishment. Sometime in the past few months the city put up a net barring the pigeons from being able to roost on the underside of the Jarvis stop. The net runs from the west side and covers the entire underside where the birds could loiter, namely where the PVC pipes run. Now the Jarvis "L" passageway is free of pigeon poop. 

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Astor House Residents March On Park Ridge Home

Is The Seville the next building to be fixed up?

Mark Caplan was quoted by Benjamin Woodard as saying 

"This particular time in history is the worst gentrification I have seen" since the '80s, he said. "This is something we have to stop because it affects the survival of the community."

           On the flip side one could say this the future hasn't looked this bright for Rogers Park and Uptown since the eighties. These neighborhoods were not designed to be down and out. And the Astor House was not originally built with affordable or low income housing in mind. It is a beautiful terra cotta 1920's masterpiece. If the new owners want to restore it to its original splendor what is wrong with that?

            Rogers Park has amazing housing stock and lakefront location, is it a surprise that developers are finally fixing up the largest of the apartment buildings now? Looking at Astor House it looks like a typical fancy building in New York City off of Central Park on the upper west or east sides. The marketplace for apartments and homes in Rogers Park fell in the past due to white flight and the rise of the suburbs. The neighborhood's fortunes are changing as the city of Chicago is now booming. Marching onto the new owner's home will not change that fact. But this march was precipitated by the clumsy forceful manner that the new landlords tried to force out the tenants, as opposed to how the Farcroft building and its changeover was handled.

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Last update 4/15/13 7:00 am

7500 N Hoyne Or 7300 N Damen? Site Of Latest Shooting

 

       A shooting took place last night 4/8/13 but the media is having trouble reaching a consensus as to where it took place. The blip below is from the Sun Times.

Two men were shot Monday evening in the Rogers Park neighborhood.The shooting happened about 5:50 p.m. in the 7500 block of North Hoyne, Chicago Police spokesman Daniel O’Brien said.

The next quote is from the Chicago Tribune

Two men were wounded this evening in a shooting on the Far North Side in the city's Rogers Park neighborhood. The shooting happened shortly before 6 p.m. on the 7300 block of North Damen Avenue, said Police News Affairs Officer Dan O'Brien.

              The two reports do agree on the time of the shooting, right around 6pm and that a nineteen year old was shot and taken to St. Francis and that a twenty year was shot and taken to Illinois Masonic.


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Trader Joe's South Evanston Under Construction

          The steel shell is complete, the concrete mixers are all ready to go and the commercial building next door is touting its space as Trader Joe's adjacent. Residents in Rogers Park and Evanston are both excited at the opening of this grocery store giant which has finally decided to build a store in the region. This new store is located on Chicago Ave just north of Whole Foods @ 1211 Chicago Avenue. Edgeville Buzz  ran  an April fools joke story concerning a new mini Trader Joes coming to Berwyn and Broadway at the old Blockbuster. Guess there is a use for old Blockbuster stores. Evanston's old Blockbuster was demolished in preparation of the building of the new outlet, uncovering an old Sakrete advertisement from the previous hardware store.


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Last Updated 4/9/13 3:30 pm

Duplex On Chase Avenue

         Rare side by side brick duplex on Chase Avenue in Rogers Park, Illinois. Milwaukee, Wisconsin has many more duplexes, but they are of the upper and lower variety, referring to the first and second floors. In Chicago the addresses for duplexes refer to side by side townhouses. After applying neon to the photo it certainly has the feel of a very spooky fall day.

           

            Trulia declares that the duplex was built in 1896, older than most other brick buildings in Rogers Park. Which makes sense as this has the appearance of a Victorian era duplex. According to public records  it sold for $456,000 in August 2008 after being on the market just ninety days (two months before the real estate crash). The old Coldwell Banker listing describes it as a single family house (4 BR, 1.5 Bath, 2.5 car garage) built in 1892. Apparently it was converted from a duplex to SFH, but it still retains the separate addresses.

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DO NOT FEED PIGEONS

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The Classic & El Legendario Roger Ebert

         In English and Spanish the passing of Roger Ebert was commemorated by Hoy and Red Eye at this corner of Rogers Park this past Friday, the day after his passing. Roger Ebert made being a film critic a cool and interesting profession to aspire to. Sneak Previews and At The Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert (shortened to Siskel and Ebert) set the bar for reviewing movies on television. Chicago was blessed to have the two greatest film critics of all time. Watching their old reviews of movies today is just as entertaining as the day they aired. These television shows formed the foundation of many people's knowledge of film and also gave them insight into how to watch, analyze and discuss movies. This writer remembers many nights watching the show with family and our own discussions of the movies and their reviews. 

4/9/13 Bloggers note, here is Roger's new site - http://www.rogerebert.com/

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Rogers Park Peace Angels & Day Of Action

             
           The Rogers Park Peace Angels were out walking today handing out flyers. The orange flyer that the nice young man is holding is inviting neighbors to go to a rally to bring awareness to gun violence. The rally will be held at Pottawatomie Park 7340 N Rogers Ave Chicago Il 60626 Sunday April 7th (tomorrow) at 11:00 am and will run until 1:00 pm.

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Shrine @ Fatal Auto Accident On Howard

            The balloons have deflated and the candles lay askew on the ground, but the wound on the tree from the recent tragic car crash in West Ridge, Illinois is still fresh. The above picture is looking east on the Chicago side of Howard. It looks like the tree will heal from the damage from the car which wrapped itself around it last week. This is not a large tree, it is a smaller medium sized specimen which speaks to the amazing inertia of these stationary living beings.

     
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Former Lerner Site Unsecured & Full Of Litter

            No signs of dumping yet on the former Lerner newspaper site. But it is insecure (discussion of unsecure versus insecure) and tire tracks are present. The gate that is supposed to close to keep the site closed to the public lies on the ground. Here is a link showing the site shortly after demolition. At least the rest of the fence is still standing and not that ugly green color as it was before. There is evidence (beer cans, liquor bottles and beer bottles) of public drinking by groups and individuals in the brush and open land. It is hard to keep vacant land closed to the public. In Evanston at Chicago and Main the vacant land there has been leveled, mowed regularly and has no fencing. The main danger with an unsecured lot like this (size, location) is that someone could get raped or mugged at night in or near this lot from someone hiding in the brush.

Update - Link to NHNA's pictures from 2011

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Ciao Bella Coffee Bar

     
           Ciao Bella Cafe (Ciao Bella on Twitter) opened about a month ago and it feels like Pillars Social Cafe version 2.0, which is not a bad thing. Liquor license has been applied for, natural cane sodas still on tap. The menu is american food with an Italian flair and includes breakfast, lunch and dinner. Since the patio is on private property alcohol can be served there. Instead of Intelligensia coffee it is Metropolis. The interior has been tweaked so as to maximize seating and increase space.

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Last edited 4/5/13 2:30 pm

Movember Flyer Beats The Odds & Survives Winter

"rogersparknews Drama unfolds at Colm Treacy's Glenwood Bar following the closure of T's in Uptown. bit.ly/YVCcxc @DNAinfoCHI @BoystownTweets 41 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite"

               The event on the flyer took place this past November at the Glenwood. Coincidentally DNAinfo.com decided to do a story on the internal shakeup inside this local tavern. T's the bar run by the same group in Uptown recently closed; Morsel and Sidecar in Rogers Park are run by the same owner as well. This is a strange article for a major news source to run especially with such vague generic details. No one famous involved or anything, would this story run in New York City? Not a chance.

              What drama? The story amounts to one faction being muscled out by another, then a group of people loyal to that faction has a beef and forms a Facebook page about it. Why would a bar close just because of a staff shake up? A contrived title to the article. The internet is a bizarre place. People can form societies and movements some of which are important and some of which aren't. This story should have stayed in the Twitter Feed.

Miami Metro's Missing Evidence?

                   Back in 2006 Dexter Morgan's (the forensic blood spatter expert for Miami Metro) brother turned out to be the Ice Truck Killer. Five years later a sexy female intern (Ryan) is caught by fellow forensic expert Masuka selling police evidence on E-bay, including the Ice Truck Killer's mannequin hand. The next intern (Louis Greene) a year later learns of this missing mannequin hand that has each fingernail a different shade. Louis buys the hand for his own private collection. Dexter became suspicious of this new intern and snoops around his apartment and lo and behold there it is  What has become of this mannequin hand since?

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Squiggly Yarn Shop & Studio On Morse

               DNAinfo.com wrote up the new yarn shop that recently debuted on Morse Ave. Important to know what the shop looks like from the outside as well however. A friendly pig juggles yarn balls on their front door. Regular business hours are covered with the announcement that today they will be opening at 3 pm. The storefront signage also informs the public that they deliver yarn and have knit and crochet classes. This store is located on the first floor of the courtyard building on Morse just west of Ashland.

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Shroom WMD

     
         WMD is one tagger with decent art. Could do without the other mundane tagging but the stickers he comes up with are too nice to take down. This sticker is on Ashland south of Pratt. Another reason this sticker was left alone was that it was put on the back of a stop sign so as to not interfere the sign's function. Here is another example of his artwork.

Mailbox Restoration In Progress

was halted due to quick thinking and action taken by police officer Mc Kenna and his partner this past Sunday afternoon at Greenview and Pratt avenues. A ticket was issued for this infraction for the defacement of federal property. The old adage no good deed goes unpunished surely applies here. This is why this mailbox is half black and half blue. The above photo was taken while waiting for the police to finish writing the ticket. The painters tape was put into place so as to protect the US Postal insignia and to double as a wet paint sign. Sadly the tape never served its intended purpose.

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That Didn't Take Long

Buddha defaced on April Fools Day (Evanston side of Howard)

More pictures after jumpbreak

Need Use Inc

           This is no April Fools Day prank, this is a real store front on California just north of Devon in the West Ridge neighborhood. Wholesale Distribution Center it reads in large red letters in the front. It beckons your gaze with the hazy exhalation of smoke from big red lips. (You NEED to USE this product.) This is a fly by night hookah slash head shop. We used to have one on Sheridan right by the Royal Coffee place which didn't last long.

          There is a phone number and an email on the front door. The email is needuseinc@yahoo.com and the phone number is 773-850-8502. Can't tell if this place is going to open or has already closed. Searching the internet gets zip. There is an advertisement for hookahs on the alley side of the building. Shiazo Chicago, hookah innovation, no nicotine or tobacco, wholesale distribution center, with another telephone number and email.

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