Shit II & III

(Well, it's certainly not the second and third time I've had to clean human excrement from my Lincoln Park alley -- it's the second and third time I've publicized it online. The first time, I got shit for it from Chuck Eastwood... The first image here is from March. The second is from this weekend. At least the second time they wiped themselves with napkins.)

I went to the 1812 CAPS meeting last week (Armitage to Fullerton, Clark to Sheffield). Residents on the 900 block of West Webster were complaining about the nearby State nightclub. The owner is a cousin of State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, whose bank's business ethics have been questioned. Costa somehow magically got a liquor license over the unanimous objections of neighbors, who are now living in a hell that begins to bear some similarity to what we have experienced on nearby streets like Lincoln, Halsted, and Armitage. One woman has already complained about scraping unconscious drunks off of her front stairs. Naturally, there is shit in their future.

At the meeting, I showed video footage of the drunkfest that happens on the 2200 block of Lincoln Avenue three to four nights a week. Thousands of screaming, puking, urinating, defecating, vomiting, window-breaking drunks, from around midnight until 4 a.m. during non-blizzard conditions.

Can this be managed? Not by 18th District police, who say they are understaffed. I know that they can do a better job, but I've been told that their priorities are skewed, to put it mildly. The responsibility rests on the commander and his lieutenants, and yet they also need more resources. I'm recommending a new way to look at Special Service Area taxes, where bars pay the majority as a percentage of liquor revenue, and a large number of area residents pay a tiny amount (let's say about $20 a year per household) over and above their property taxes. This revenue would go toward managing this nightmare in Lincoln Park. But this implies amending the current SSA's in the area, of which I've already written plenty, not only here (see below) but also in the papers.

Related shit:
Boulevard of broken windows
The beginning of the end?
Hypocrisies of new Lincoln Avenue tax increase
While Vi slumbers (Part II)
Shit.
While the alderman slumbers on her cozy Old Town sidestreet...
Lincoln Avenue SSA commissioners
Reader SSA Article