Today the Department of Neighborhood Services has been sending out foreclosure inspection orders periodically via eNotify. I assume this is part of the effort to manage a massive number of properties likely to be foreclosed and which may go vacant. My count is about 85 now for northern Brewers Hill, southern Harambee and all of Riverwest. Add to that the people who are fighting to stave off foreclosure, the vacant buildings that already exist: things are not good.
These foreclosures include the "Holton House," which is the name give to a home the Riverwest Investment Cooperative rehabbed from slumlord's ruined tri-plex to an attractive single-family home. When the new owners moved in with their kids, the bar next door became a source of nuisance and mayhem. There were two homicides in two years, and some of us in RIC helped Holton St. residents use the City and MPD's resources to address this problem. Eventually the bar was closed as a result of these efforts, with help from your predecessor's aide. Today we saw the "Holton House's" address among the DNS foreclosure "statistics."
In the past, we also pressed on the City to make the street improvements on Holton they had received funding for and sat on for several years, doing nothing. Some of us worked to raise the alarm on Mike McGee, who was contributing to the community's demoralization and disorder. Some of our contributions actually made it into the evidence pile. I wrote extensively about a lot of these subjects and pushed them onto the plates of people whose official job is to do something about it.
But that's all of our jobs, to do what we can about the problems and needs around us. Many can tell these stories about our little battles for peace and order. They make us feel like we are winning or losing as we live through each others' shared stories. I think most of us want to win more than lose, but it's hard to find anyone saying that out loud these days.
And unfortunately, it's far from a consensus that improving and securing our neighborhoods is a good thing to do.
During the decade I've been here, I've never noticed there are always people who say and write a lot of things about their communities but don't have a word to say about the abuses, injustices and victims next door to them. Others say more than nothing: they insist that crime and blight are good. You have lived in Riverwest long enough yourself to know exactly who and what I am talking about.
As you must know, on May 1, some 30 Riverwest "anarchists" who come out of this pro-crime culture went beyond their usual and rather frequent low-level vandalism to do significant damage to windows on a bank and several other businesses in plain view of many onlookers on a major commercial thoroughfare in the heart of your district. It appears the vandals also made yet another repeat visit to damage a small, local "green" construction company's housing development site in Riverwest.
As news of these events became known, the usual suspects immediately defended this action on the Riverwest neighborhood association email list. As you may still be a member of that group and were recently a board member of the RNA itself, perhaps you have seen your former aldermanic "co-candidate," Sura Faraj, writing dismissively of the damage because it happened to national chains and banks, implying they deserved what they got. Others were more explicit in their support and downplaying/mocking of the vandalism.
Where do you stand in all of this?
Strangely, in the various media reports on this East Side mob event, I don't find any mention of Nik Kovac taking a stand on behalf of the citizens and businesses in the neighborhoods. I don't find any press releases on his city web page condemning the actions. Instead, I have read about his presence at a Downer Ave. meeting where, based on first-hand reports, his father appeared to be attempting to negotiate the details of his lawsuit against the City and New Land Enterprises -- if he were granted the status of being a planning commission of one on Downer projects. I've also read that Nik Kovac is targetting the lower east side Conservation Overlay District for removal, after residents there fought to get it passed.
Where are your priorities Nik? We need credible, forward-looking leaders to visibly get in front of the real problems in our neighborhoods.
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