A summary of the week’s political story affecting Ravenswood with some editorial observations thrown in.
You can’t write a better lede than this: “A life-sized statue of Elvis Presley is among a trove of Rod Blagojevich’s belongings in an Arlington Heights storage facility that the warehouse owner says he will sell at auction if the former governor doesn’t settle his debt.”
The Chicago Tribune story says Paul Lombardo of Boyer-Rosene Moving & Storage will put the former governor’s belongings up for auction August 14. Lombardo has indicated he will donate the proceeds from the sale to the Children’s Memorial Hospital.
The donation may seem a political slap at Blagojevich. Blagojevich is accused by the Federal government of trying to shake down an executive of the hospital for a campaign donation. However the Lombardo family lost two children in infancy. Three of Lombardo’s four surviving children have been treated, the story says, by Children’s Memorial Hospital.
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Metra will be holding an Open House to review the $185 million bridge project on the UP North Line. The meeting, August 3, 7 PM, is at the Auditorium, Bethany Retirement Community, 4950 N Ashland Ave.
In the , Eric Rojas, in his Chicago Real Estate Local blog, said the new Ravenswood Station will be constructed SOUTH of Lawrence Ave. The Tribune said in a story that ran on Friday morning the station will be rebuilt south of Lawrence after community pressure took Metra and Ald. Eugene Schulter by surprise.
The initial plan had been for the station to be located north of Lawrence. Residents objected when the station was extended near residences along Ravenswood and the plans for the station threatened the street’s character.
The Metra project will replace 22 bridges and rebuild and relocate the Ravenswood Station. Starting August 21 both inbound and outbound traffic on the line will be reduced to a single track. Metra recently announced a change in its schedule on the UP North Line which it says will add up to two minutes to the morning commute.
“The schedule changes have been made because currently, trains travelling north and trains travelling south pass each other, or “meet” near the Ravenswood Station,” Metra said in a press release. “There will now be a single track in that area, the schedule has to be adjusted so that they pass each other outside the construction area. Those “meets” will now occur near Rogers Park and the Clybourn area,” the release said.
Phase one of the project, which will start in August, will replace the bridges in the area from Balmoral to Grace. A second phase, which starts in 2014, will replace bridges in the area from Fullerton to Cornelia.
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47th Ward Aldermanic Challenger Ameya Pawar (I-North Center) addressed the Metra Ravenswood Station issue on his Renew Chicago blog, promising to form a ward council to consider development in the city. “When Ameya is elected, he is going to create a Ward Council that lets residents discuss all issues related to the ward so that they don’t have to always file petitions and hire lawyers. The 47th Ward will be the first ward in Chicago to have real participatory democracy,” the blog states.
The Ravenswood Station issue was a matter of dispute between the neighborhood residents and Metra. Several neighborhood meetings were held over a 19 month-long period to discuss the development of the site. Local residents told the Bulldog Ald. Eugene Schulter may have been slow to act, but did work with residents to take their concerns to Metra. Contrast that process to the development of Wilson Yards in a neighboring ward.
In addition, although Schulter does not hold a Ward Council, he has open office hours each week at his office on Lincoln Avenue.
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While the newspapers discussed the pros and cons of the Blagojevich family taking their children to court last week, and Illinois State Representative Deb Mell (D-Avondale) supported her sister Patti Blagojevich, the Chicago Sun-Times noted that it was a family dispute that may have led to the federal investigation of former Governor Rod Blagojevich (D-Ravenswood Manor).
Chris Fusco and Steve Contorno write that a January 2005 order by then Governor Blagojevich to shut down a Will County landfill owned by Frank Schmidt increased tension between 33rd Ward Alderman Richard Mell (D-Irving Park) and Blagojevich. Schmidt is a relative of Patti Blagojevich.
The two writers say the dispute started when Mell felt snubbed following the 2002 Blagojevich gubernatorial victory. They say the feud continued even as Mell’s wife, Margaret, fell ill and died in 2006.
“You know, I should’ve f—–’ looked the other way on the landfill,” Blagojevich says in one tape played in court, “and then my father-in-law would take care of us. I should’ve f——- done that.”
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Alderman Richard Mell is reported by Chicago Sun-Times gossip columnist Michael Sneed to have offered to take his grandchildren by Rod and Patti Blagojevich out of town during the trial.
Mell reacted sharply in a report aired by Fox News to bloggers he says maligned his grandchildren for taking a Coach bag to court.
Lesson: don’t mess with the children.
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Alderman Richard Mell is proposing to remove a long-standing real estate transfer tax exemption from banks and mortgage companies, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Mell told the Sun-Times forcing the banks to pay the property transfer tax would act as an incentive to the banks to negotiate with home owners attempting to renegotiate the terms of their mortgage.
The measure is backed by Ald. Roberto Maldonado (D-26th Ward) and opposed by Aldermen Bernard Stone (D-50th Ward) and Tom Tunney (D-44th Ward) as well as the banks and the real estate lobby the article says.
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The New York Post writes “the sacred rule at Agudas Achim Temple near Washington, DC, is, don’t talk to Rahm Emanuel (D-Ravenswood).” The short story says talking politics to the White House Chief of Staff is frowned on.
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The Chicago Sun-Times’ Fran Spielman noted that the city plans to explore selling sponsorships to the city’s bridges to corporations. The sponsorships could bring about $1 million per bridge for the 14 crossings with the highest traffic counts, or perhaps $10.5 million net annually.
Spielman says the corporations would be able to decorate the bridge houses for the month period preceeding four major holidays, Halloween, Christmas, Easter and Independence Day.
47th Ward Alderman Eugene Schulter (D-North Center) expressed some hesitation telling the Sun-Times, “the idea is a good one. I’m just kind of concerned about the size” of the logos.
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47th Ward Alderman Eugene Schulter was among just four aldermen to vote against the third Wal-Mart in city council, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The third Wal-Mart will be built at 83rd Street and Stewart in Chatham. “During last month’s contentious discussion regarding allowing a second Wal-Mart in the Pullman neighborhood, I warned the company that I would be watching how they proceeded. During that discussion, I said that I did not want to see Chicago become the capital of Wal-Mart in the United States and I still stand by that statement,” Schulter writes in an e-mail blast.
Schulter goes on to note that Wal-Mart plans to build more than two dozen stores in Chicago. “One of my major concerns is with Wal-Mart’s history of undermining local entrepreneurship,” he writes.
The Ravenswood neighborhood represented by Schulter depends on small retail business to sustain its tax base and appeal. The Encyclopedia of Chicago notes there was a long struggleby the Lincoln Square retail district to achieve success in the face of earlier big department store centered retail districts such as the one located at Lincoln, Ashland and Belmont:
“The intersection at Lincoln, Lawrence, and Western Avenues had never been as popular as other regional shopping districts, and the growing number of empty storefronts after World War II made some merchants worry about their ability to attract customers… In 1978 they developed the Lincoln Square mall, a pedestrian plaza that required a controversial rerouting of local traffic. The chamber tried to evoke an Old World flavor with European-style shops and a lantern imported from Hamburg, Germany. Many of the empty storefronts did indeed fill in… “
Schulter was heavily invested in the Lincoln rerouting proposal early in his career.
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Target Corporation CEO Gregg Steinhafel is defending his $150K donation to Minnesota Forward, described by GoPride Chicago, as a right-wing Political Action Committee.
“Steinhafel is telling employees of the Minnesota-based retailer that the company’s support of the gay community remains “unwavering,”” GoPride says. The blog goes on to note Minnesota Forward supports Minnesota Republican candidate for governor Tom Emmer.
“I believe marriage is the union between one man and one woman,” the blog says Emmer says on his website.
The news surprised Illinois 13th State Representative Greg Harris (D-Uptown). Harris had participated in the grand opening of the Uptown Target. “Companies like Target need to understand that they can’t have it both ways when it comes to issues of our basic rights,” Harris told GoPride. “I hope they rethink this contribution and find a way to make it right,” he is quoted as saying.
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The Pontiac Community News is reporting Illinois Governor Pat Quinn (D-Chicago: Galewood) is considering combining the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice into the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. The move could increase resources for the efforts of the two departments and allow the IDJJ to seek Federal money through the DCFS, according to the article.
“State Representative Greg Harris, said he would reserve judgment on the merger until he better understood what route would help youths the most,” the article says.
“I think we’ve heard over and over again that there are gaps in mental health assessment, substance abuse assessment, educational assessment. No one has yet demonstrated how those gaps are going to be filled just by shuffling people around,” Harris said in the report.
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Governor Pat Quinn will be joined by Illinois 11th District Legislator John Fritchey (D-DePaul West), 13th District Legislator Greg Harris (D-Uptown), State Senator Terry Link (D-Waukegan) and 47th Ward Alderman Eugene Schulter for a bill signing Sunday afternoon in the 2200 block of West Winona at 1:30 PM, according to the State Journal Register web site. The site says he’ll be signing landmark property tax legislation.
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US Congressman Mike Quigley (D-Lakeview), in an opinion piece published by US News & World Report July 26, criticized the June decision of an advisory committee of the US Department of Health and Human Services to maintain a policy that bans gay and bisexual men from ever donating blood.
Quigley explains the current policy bans any man who has had sex with a man since 1977, even if the male-male sex only happened once, from donating blood for life. Quigley says advances in blood screening technology make the ban “medically and scientifically unwarranted.”
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Illinois Congressmen Mike Quigley and Bill Foster (D-14th District) have sponsored an act prohibiting the Federal government from fighting state pay-to-play laws. The Illinois congressmen noted that Illinois enacted a strong ethics law against pay-to-play, but the law was significantly weakened by the Federal Highway Administration. That created a loophole in the state statute, they claim.
“It’s sadly ironic that when the state of Illinois attempts to curb corruption the federal government stands in its way,” Quigley said in a press release.
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Congressman Mike Quigley and Illinois US Senator Dick Durbin (D-Springfield) wrote an opinion piece published by the Chicago Tribune this week taking on for-profit colleges. “Lawmakers should consider whether it’s appropriate for federal funding to pay for marketing campaigns, scrutinize a system where educators are more beholden to their shareholders than to their students, tackle the problem of schools buying accreditation, and take a hard look at private lending by for-profit colleges,” the lawmakers wrote.
The Senate will be holding hearings shortly on the student debt and other issues associated with for-profit colleges.
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An investigative report by ChicagoTalks.org found that 62 state legislators, including Illinois Senate President John Cullerton (D-Ravenswood Manor), had broken state law by awarding free tuition to the state’s public universities to 122 college students who didn’t live in the right legislative district.
Cullerton, who offered a scholarship to Jacqu Grossnickle in 2008, was contacted by ChicagoTalks, according to the article, but no response was noted.
Cullerton sponsored legislation earlier this year that would place some restrictions on the scholarships. But in May, Governor Pat Quinn vetoed his proposal, saying the program should be eliminated instead.
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The Illinois Radio Network quotes Senate President John Cullerton as blaming the $5 billion backlog of unpaid bills on Republican reluctance to vote for a tax hike. Cullerton is quoted as expecting lawmakers to take up the income tax hike after the November election.
Cullerton noted he sponsored an income tax bill that passed the Senate, but not the Illinois House.
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The privatization of the state lottery made a final call for contract proposals according to a report in the Associated Press. Legislators pushed for the private management company because lottery revenue had been stagnant for some time and “state bureaucracy is not … in the best position to actively try to remarket the lottery,” said Rikeesha Phelon, spokeswoman for Senate President John Cullerton.
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Senate President John Cullerton appeared with Julie Mann on WBBM-AM’s “At Issue” to discuss the state’s financial mess. You can listen to the audio from WBBM’s archives.
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GOP 7th Illinois Senate District challenger Adam Robinson (R-Edgewater) is pointing to an internal poll of likely voters that shows he is gaining ground on incumbent Heather Steans (D-Lakewood- Balmoral).
55 percent of independent voters surveyed indicated that they would choose Adam Robinson over the incumbent. “In a sign of voter dissatisfaction with the political status quo, 45 percent of Democrat primary voters surveyed indicated that they will support Robinson in November,” a press release from the Robinson campaign noted.
The campaign asked “in this November’s election for our local state senate seat, will you be voting for Adam Robinson or the incumbent Democrat?”
The results were based on 750 likely 7th district voters and had a sample error of 3.56 percent according to the campaign. The poll was conducted in the period July 18 to 24.
“Democrat” was defined as a voter who voted in one or more Democrat primaries in the ’06, ’08 or ’10 (primary) election. ”Independent” is defined as a voter who voted in the ’06 or ’08 general election but did not vote in either party’s primary according to an e-mail from Robinson.
The major criticism of the survey resides in not stating Steans name in the question, with an alternating order.
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The Adam Robinson campaign is among the most active GOP campaigns on the North Side. Robinson noted this week that he had set a record 37,426 calls in the seven day period ending July 24.
The calls, the campaign notes in a press release, were made by real people, not “robo calls.”
The number of personal contacts is used by political insiders as a measure of the success of a campaign. A challenger campaign typically needs three calls to a person to assume the voter will support them in the election.
“These numbers are confirmation of what we’ve known for months,” Robinson said, “voters in the 7th district are tired of politicians who waste their money, cut programs they care about, and punish taxpayers for their failure to govern effectively.”
“Our message is clearly resonating,” Robinson said.
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America’s Future Foundation held a Chicago roundtable for local candidates supporting limited government. Illinois Republican Senate Challenger Adam Robinson and Libertarian candidate for Lieutenant Governor Ed Rutledge (Ravenswood) attended the July 26th event in Downtown Chicago.
The America’s Future Blog says
“Libertarian Party candidate for Lt. Governor Ed Rutledge spoke about how different campaign messages resonate “downstate” versus in Chicagoland. While discussion about federal government overreach–particularly in regard to the new health insurance mandate–works outside of Chicago, he takes a different approach in and around the city, asking whether swing voters believe government policies are working to improve their lives or hinder them (and whether many policies should be government policies at all).”
“Adam Robinson–whose state Senate district is one of the bluest in Illinois–spoke about asking voters whether they believe they are getting a good product from their state government following eight years of one-party rule. Instead of talking about “conservative” principles, Robinson asks voters whether they approve of policies on which they had little input, like, for example, the plan to pave the lakefront area adjacent to many of their homes. He also chooses to focus on fiscal issues–the most urgently pressing issues in the state–and finds once he neutralizes the notion of Republicans as uniformly socially conservative, voters find a whole new world of political opportunities and candidates available among which they can choose.”
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Illinois Senator Heather Steans (D-Lakewood- Balmoral) is sponsoring a school supply drive for needy students in Uptown. Donors will sign up to sponsor a student and will receive the student’s grade, age, gender, and the school supply list for that particular student according to Steans. The drive ends August 19. Contact or call for more information.
Jennifer Walling, Sen. Steans Chief of Staff, suggests sponsoring a $75 supply for a student. But ANY contribution is welcome for the drive.
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Republican 5th Congressional Challenger David Ratowitz (R-Avondale) is asking for a $49 donation to his campaign in honor of the 49th birthday of President Barack Obama (D-Hyde Park). A video, apparently called “Money Bomb,” is on . According to Ratowitz’s Facebook page, his fundraising event was launched July 20th, a full week before First Lady Michelle Obama announced to USAToday that she would be using her husband’s birthday as a fundraiser. “I’m truly flattered” said Ratowitz. “I welcome a little friendly competition.”
Ratowitz’s web site says he’ll be canvassing the 47th Ward soon.
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Cambodians remain under-represented in American politics due to their community not seeking American citizenship, a weekend conference hosted by the Cambodian Association of Illinois found. The Conference was reported by VOA Khymer. The Lincoln Square-based Cambodian Association of Illinois heard Organizer Van Sar say, “we don’t have representatives within the US leadership. Secondly, we don’t have a strong, joint voice from our civil society organizations to influence US policy.”
Only ten percent of Cambodian-Americans graduate from high school, the conference learned. It also heard that of a US population of 270,000, just 60,000 have full citizenship rights.
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: Time will tell if time is served. Fritchey, the 11th Legislative District Representative, is running for the 12th Cook County Board of Commissioners seat.
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Illinois Minute Man Project spokesman and former Republican candidate for the fifth Congressional District Rosanna Pulido (R-Ravenswood) joined Fox TV’s Good Day Chicago to discuss the Arizona immigration act SB 1070.
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The Chicago News Cooperative wrote a report on the city’s parking meter privatization deal Thursday indicating that although Chicago Mayor Richard Daley had indicated that downtown drivers would bear the brunt of the increased parking fees, it is fees generated from neighborhoods that are driving the cash flow for Chicago Parking Meters LLC.
“Chicago Parking Meters is on track to take in more than $73 million in 2010, according to Standard & Poor’s… That is more than three times the roughly $20 million a year that the city had reaped from its meters before the privatization deal,” the article by Dan Mihalopoulos and Mick Dumke says.
The article created an opportunity for 47th Ward Challenger Ameya Pawar to say “the parking meter deal was and is still bad for Chicago. We need an alderman who will stand up and demand that a full analysis be done before any city services are privatized.”
On the page Pawar went further, pinning blame for the parking meter sale on Alderman Eugene Schulter, “It’s also worth noting that when Alderman Schulter was faced with finding solutions to fix the budget problem, he simply voted YES to sell of parking meters. He chose the easy way out. What do you think he is going to do this time?
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Related posts:
- 201 Miles to Springfield: July 25th
- Ravenswood candidate fund-raising filing
- The World of Rod Blagojevich; Updated
- Emanuel 90+ days late on property tax payment
