Homan Square

Hi all, this is my first post here. I am hoping for some advice on how to deal with a situation. There is a terrible smell of human feces coming from the yard of an apartment building on my block. With the warm windy weather you can smell it all around the block. It is revolting. I can barely go outside now, and I don't see how any one else is still hanging out. There are people living in the building, but I don't know if they are legal residents. The property looks like it hasn't been maintained in years. I can only imagine what the inside looks like. I'd hate to see someone removed from their home, but this doesn't seem like a safe place for anyone to be living.

I looked up the address on the city of Chicago site. There were a few building code violations and recent service requests. One sanitation one, and a building violation, but they dont really give you more info than that.

So my questions are
1. How do you start to address this issue? It looks like others have tried to put in service requests, but nothing seems to have changed.
2. How do you find out who owns a building, and who should be maintaining it? The place is becoming a slum. There are problems in the neighborhood, but still a lot of good families that care. I hate to see the block getting worse.

ANy advice would be great. Thanks

ECONL wants Indecent Exposure Ordinance amended. Judge Ruben Franco of New York in his decision said, “The trend of wearing pants well below the waistline is believed to have its roots in this country's prison system where inmates are issued uniforms which are often too big and the wearing of belts is prohibited due to safety concerns."

Did the prison inmate trend become acceptable in our community because we wanted to be sympathetic toward our ex-offenders?

In September 2010, Mayor Phil Best of Dublin, Georgia, signed an amendment to the municipality's indecent exposure ordinance prohibiting the wearing of pants or skirts more than three inches below the top of the hips exposing the skin or undergarments. Exposure due to baggy clothing is now in the same category as masturbation, fornication and urination in public places.
Those caught with their "pants on the ground" won't just have to pull them up... they'll have to pay up, too. Violators could face fines up to $200.

In Chicago, young men walk around with their “butts out” and saggy pants hanging down offend most people. Empowered Citizens of North Lawndale want the forty-nine city council members and the alderman of the 24th ward to amend the Indecent Exposure Ordinance.

Yes, people have the right to dress and wear whatever he or she chooses, but it should not be offensive to the public at large.

“We the people” are not going to be lulled into the belief that “butts out” and saggy pants are acceptable dress.

Parents must be held accountable for the way their children dress. In his address to the “saggy pants” and uneducated boys on the corner Bill Cosby said, “We, as black folks, have to do a better job,” he stated. “We have to start holding each other to a higher standard.”

As Empowered Citizens of North Lawndale, we want our local politicians to pass an amended ordinance outlawing these butts out “indecent exposure” dress because the current ordinance does not address the issue.

I thank Lucille Morris Tomlinson and her 2nd grade class at LEARN Charter School for a warm welcome on May 10, 2012. Lucille invited me to share information with the children regarding the North Lawndale African American Heritage Quilting Project. In turn, they shared their Black History Month presentations, which included reports and poster boards. After the children shared their presentations they brainstormed ways their presentations could be translated into a quilt for the quilting project. We will meet next week to begin to prepare quilt blocks for the quilt. If you are interested in helping out, please, let me know. We are also pulling together quilts for the Bethune Service Day. We have commitments for 5 quilts to date, and we need commitments to complete 5 more by June 1st.

Learn Charter School Romano Butler’s “Real Men Read” committee is seeking dedicated male mentors readers to help make a difference in the lives and education of our students on :
Friday
May 11, 2012
9 am until 1 pm
Our goals are to:
• Demonstrate that real men do read and value education.
• Encourage and improve the literacy skills of students.
• Encourage the importance of success in life and making the right choices.
• Develop community/parent partnerships.

Teachers will offer mentor readers a selection of grade appropriate culturally relevant reading material or material related to character education. Volunteers will receive assistance with leading a discussion about the reading. Please fill out the visitor's information.

Download a Registration Form http://www.scribd.com/doc/92703618/Romano-Butler-Real-Men-Read-Form-2012

Download a Flyer http://www.scribd.com/doc/92703638/RMR-Save-the-Date-Reminder

I thank City Year/Bethune School of Excellence for having the North Lawndale African American Heritage Project and me out for a recent service day. We developed 5 quilting exercises for children to reflect on their local heroes, traditions and African symbols. City Year participants worked with 9 teams of 7th and 8th grade students who were paired with 3rd and 4th grade students to lead them through the excercises. I also participated on a panel of local leaders to share with students our experiences with service and leadership. We collected enough quilt blocks to do 9 quilts. Let me know if you are available to help pull them together over the next 3 weeks

You can read about the event and see photos on the City Year blog at http://cityyearchicago.wordpress.com/2012/04/30/quilting-their-heritage-monday-montage/

I got the following e-mail from Noah Stein.

We're in need of a summer Knitting instructor. I'm not sure if Billy has reached out to you about this. If you know anyone, please have them send their resume to Tommy (cc'd here) and I as soon as possible.

We need to hire someone this month.

The program will pay $25/hr for 140 hours. The class runs 6 weeks (6/25-8/3), with 10 hours of prep and debrief time on either side, so actual working is from 6/17-8/10. The classes meet 4 days/wk, 4hrs/day, with 4 hours of prep time per week. We need someone who can connect with teenagers and can work with beginners as well as intermediate knitters. The instructor can schedule class when they want, between 9a-7p.

Let me know if you have any questions.

--
Thank you,

Noah Stein
AgLAB@1512 Instructor
Apprenticeships Co-coordinator
Better Boys Foundation
office: 773-542-7336
cell: 312-208-4888

The North Lawndale African American Heritage Quilting Project and City Year recently had a day of service, in which 7th and 8th Grade students helped 3rd and 4th Grade students make quilt blocks depicting traditions, local heroes, and African symbols. We are now in the process of patching the pieces together and quilting them. We need your help so that we can get 10 quilts done in time for the students' graduation on June 8th. Ideally, we need to get the quilts done by June 1st so that we have time to work a presentation into the busy graduates' schedule. If you, or anyone you know, is interested in helping out, or donating scrap fabrics, please contact me ASAP, at 773-521-3137 or consulting@valeriefleonard.com.

I thank Alderman Fioretti, for posting a link to the CPS Capital Plan on Facebook.

Once you're on the site, use the interactive map to find information about projects taking place at specific CPS schools. Click a blue marker on the map to access details about a project’s scope, including the type of development, plan year, its status, estimated completion date, and budget. North Lawndale schools are well represented, in terms of the number of projects. However, I am concerned that the CPS capital budget has been cut by 80% over last year. It is not clear how this will impact CPS in general, or our local schools in particular.
http://www.cps.edu/Pages/Capital_Plan_Locations.aspx

Here is a link to the Chicago Public Schools' press release. http://www.cps.edu/News/Press_releases/Pages/05_02_2012_PR1.aspx

Here is a link to the Capital Plan website http://www.cps.edu/Pages/CapitalPlan.aspx

Decision Will Ensure Fuller, Dedicated Councils in Place for New Two-Year Term

CHICAGO

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) today announced that it will hold supplemental Local SchoolCouncil (LSC) elections to fill LSC seats that remain vacant following this week’s District wide elections.The decision is a first for the District and is designed to ensure each Local School Council has fuller councilparticipation when the new two-year term begins on July 1, 2012.Each Local School Council is made up of 12 members with an additional student member at the high schoollevel. As of Friday afternoon, 31 LSCs still needed additional seats filled in order to make a quorum.

Interested candidates need to submit nominating forms at the school of the LSC they are running for duringthe filing period, which runs April 25th to May 9th. Schools will hold candidate forums on May 14th and16th and hold elections on May 18th. The nominating forms, along with additional information,can be foundon the Local School Councils election page,

http://cps.edu/Pages/LSCElections.aspx,and at schoolsholding supplemental elections.

LSCs play a significant role in decision-making at the local school level and empower parents andschool communities to work collaboratively with their principals in creating a positive school environmentthat best serves the needs of all children. LSC representatives serve a two-year term beginning July 1, 2012,and ending June 30, 2014.Parents are eligible for seats on the LSC of the school their children attend, as are members of each school’s community, and the teachers and non-teaching staff from the school. Visit http://www.scribd.com/doc/92111275/LSC-Supplemental-Election-Announcement-4-20-12doc to finish reading the press release and to see a list of the schools that still need LSC members. A number of the schools are from the West Side of Chicago, including, but not limited to, Collins and Clark.