It appears Kohl's is having some sort of support your local school contest. Someone sent us links to both Mt. Greenwood Elementary and Cassell Elementary schools. Take the time to click the link on the right and vote. It appears to be some sort of Facebook Application.
We just hope that the city of Chicago, if one of these schools win, doesn't just remove $500,000 from that schools budget and call it a wash. Kind of like the Illinois lottery money. Either way, it is worth the effort to get our local schools a little extra money from a private entity.
Showing posts with label other. Show all posts
Showing posts with label other. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
Baptist Church Clothing Store
Sounds a little odd to us. Supposedly, per the comments, a black baptist church is planning on opening a clothing resale shop on 111th St. The first question that we have is why? The only answers that we can come up with is that we have the money and they want it. We have the guilt and they can play off of it. They cannot open a shop in their neighborhood because they will not get the income they need to feed their ambitions.
What we do not know is the name of this church, the exact location of the church or what their ambitions are. If the ambitions are innocent ambitions truly in the hopes of helping people, nothing more, then that is fine. There is nothing wrong with a church helping people. We would rather the church or a charity be the ultimate provider of assistance for those in need than our tax dollars and our government. (psst...it used to be that way a LONG time ago) However, if their ambitions are to use that money to promote agendas and political backings of people whose values we do not share, then do not go to this store. Plain and simple. Eventually, if the church realizes that they are not getting the customer base to support the store, they will have to close.
However, before we advocate not going to a resale clothing shop, we would like to know more about this church and what they are planning to do. That and we would like to know if this store is even going to open. We could use some apple bottom jeans and boots with the fur.
What we do not know is the name of this church, the exact location of the church or what their ambitions are. If the ambitions are innocent ambitions truly in the hopes of helping people, nothing more, then that is fine. There is nothing wrong with a church helping people. We would rather the church or a charity be the ultimate provider of assistance for those in need than our tax dollars and our government. (psst...it used to be that way a LONG time ago) However, if their ambitions are to use that money to promote agendas and political backings of people whose values we do not share, then do not go to this store. Plain and simple. Eventually, if the church realizes that they are not getting the customer base to support the store, they will have to close.
However, before we advocate not going to a resale clothing shop, we would like to know more about this church and what they are planning to do. That and we would like to know if this store is even going to open. We could use some apple bottom jeans and boots with the fur.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Rumors
Public Aid Office - A vicious rumor that started up regarding 111th and Kedzie. Along with the Moo and Oink. We have not seen anything that comes close to either of them going into any space next to the Walgreens on 111th and Kedzie. If a public aid office ever went into a space at 111th and Kedzie, this neighborhood would be done for. Our politicians may be dumb, but we do not believe they are that dumb. (Maybe we are underestimating them) One commentor mentioned writing the ward office and got a response that no public aid office is being placed there. Another mentioned a Dunkin Donuts being put there. Those are better rumors.
Green Building - This rumor we cannot confirm or deny. What the hell is the green building for? Is it residential? If so, is it going to be required to have low income housing in it? Who is building that building? It is obvious that it isn't being built by anyone in Mt. Greenwood. The address for the builders is somewhere way easy of here. That alone concerns us that the owner is from way east of here. We hope we are way wrong on this, but we want to know the intentions of that building. Not to mention we want it done. It kind of looks like an eyesore in its current state.
Are there other buildings in the neighborhoods that have people a little concerned? Any other rumors out there?
Green Building - This rumor we cannot confirm or deny. What the hell is the green building for? Is it residential? If so, is it going to be required to have low income housing in it? Who is building that building? It is obvious that it isn't being built by anyone in Mt. Greenwood. The address for the builders is somewhere way easy of here. That alone concerns us that the owner is from way east of here. We hope we are way wrong on this, but we want to know the intentions of that building. Not to mention we want it done. It kind of looks like an eyesore in its current state.
Are there other buildings in the neighborhoods that have people a little concerned? Any other rumors out there?
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Feel free to share
Blogger recently puked up a bunch of comments that were submitted, but couldn't be posted for one reason or another. We approved those comments. Sorry if you thought we didn't post your comment, we didn't see anything to post.
Blogger did add something new to our blog that might be easier for you to post information that you see on the blog. At the bottom of each post, there are push button options that allow you to share our blog entries on various social networks. Feel free to post these blogs on your facebook or whatever you have. The most important thing is to get the information out, especially on those alerts.
Blogger did add something new to our blog that might be easier for you to post information that you see on the blog. At the bottom of each post, there are push button options that allow you to share our blog entries on various social networks. Feel free to post these blogs on your facebook or whatever you have. The most important thing is to get the information out, especially on those alerts.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Our lack of posts
We are sorry. We are still committed and are still writing. We haven't had many ideas recently for local stories. Our thoughts have been lingering towards a citywide scale and we are not posting citywide stuff here. That is reserved for SCC. We are going to try and turn the ship back towards Mt. Greenwood as there are plenty of things to write about here, we just need to clear up our minds a bit. The evil is flexing its muscle and if you read SCC's post Bad News All Morning, you can see it for yourself.
Luckily, we have not had one of those incidents happen here in Mt. Greenwood....yet.
For now, consider this our first open post. Give us a kick in our ass and force us to redirect our attention to Mt. Greenwood. Post ideas, information on crime in our area, etc.
Luckily, we have not had one of those incidents happen here in Mt. Greenwood....yet.
For now, consider this our first open post. Give us a kick in our ass and force us to redirect our attention to Mt. Greenwood. Post ideas, information on crime in our area, etc.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Businesses (update: minor edit)
Someone posted a comment about the empty storefronts and lots along 111th st and the search for investors to rehab and open some businesses. We have always stated, if you want a safe neighborhood, you need to have a prosperous one. Investors need to see the desire for Mt. Greenwood residents to shop in their neighborhood before they really decide if they are going to invest. Our first responsibility is to shop in our neighborhood. We know the taxes suck and destroy business, but these business owners are willing to take a risk in our neighborhood, we should take the time to shop a little bit.
What do people believe should be put in those empty storefronts and lots? We see neighborhoods throughout the city that have been rehabbed and strengthened. Usually there are a number of bars/restaurants, art museums, banks, mom and pop shops, etc. Just some basic ideas.
Mt. Greenwood has some very strong draw in the neighborhood that we could embrace that would help draw people to our neighborhood. St. Xavier University and Burbon St(Merrionette Park). Those two places draw numerous people day in and day out. We don't see many universities, especially those private catholic ones, surrounded by a shitty neighborhood. Usually, the students that go to these universities are looking for things to do and Mt. Greenwood is ripe for the developing.
As for that Public Aid office that is floating in the comments going up at the new Walgreens location, we do not have any proof of that happening. We do hope this TIF district financing project that has been in development for over 12 years doesn't go beyond scheduled time or cost us more money. Ha ha ha. We had a lot of trouble writing that last statement. Mainly because we knew the answer already.
What do people believe should be put in those empty storefronts and lots? We see neighborhoods throughout the city that have been rehabbed and strengthened. Usually there are a number of bars/restaurants, art museums, banks, mom and pop shops, etc. Just some basic ideas.
Mt. Greenwood has some very strong draw in the neighborhood that we could embrace that would help draw people to our neighborhood. St. Xavier University and Burbon St(Merrionette Park). Those two places draw numerous people day in and day out. We don't see many universities, especially those private catholic ones, surrounded by a shitty neighborhood. Usually, the students that go to these universities are looking for things to do and Mt. Greenwood is ripe for the developing.
As for that Public Aid office that is floating in the comments going up at the new Walgreens location, we do not have any proof of that happening. We do hope this TIF district financing project that has been in development for over 12 years doesn't go beyond scheduled time or cost us more money. Ha ha ha. We had a lot of trouble writing that last statement. Mainly because we knew the answer already.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Chirp chirp
Sorry for the lack of posting. It was a punishing yet fulfilling weekend. We hope that you had a great weekend celebrating as well.
Now, onto news. We received in the comments word of some incident east of Western Ave. Honestly, if shit happens east of Western, we usually won't comment on it but we are wondering if there is any credence to this?
2 M/2's saw 2 M/1's parked in a car on 111th east of Western. the 2 M/2's went and got their guns and started messing with the 2 M/1's.
Sgt. on scene recovered 3 guns from the M/2's.
It is not a typo...M/2's.
What the heck happened? For those interested, M/1 is code for male/black and M/2 is code for male/white.
That being said, something sounds a little fishy. This comment left out a lot of information, like what happened prior to this confrontation and was it justified. And what crime occured during this 'messing' period.
Either way, this is just an information gathering post. We do not know what happened, if anything did, and we are wondering if anyone else has information regarding this incident.
We enjoyed our days off from posting. Regular scheduled programming to continue.
Now, onto news. We received in the comments word of some incident east of Western Ave. Honestly, if shit happens east of Western, we usually won't comment on it but we are wondering if there is any credence to this?
2 M/2's saw 2 M/1's parked in a car on 111th east of Western. the 2 M/2's went and got their guns and started messing with the 2 M/1's.
Sgt. on scene recovered 3 guns from the M/2's.
It is not a typo...M/2's.
What the heck happened? For those interested, M/1 is code for male/black and M/2 is code for male/white.
That being said, something sounds a little fishy. This comment left out a lot of information, like what happened prior to this confrontation and was it justified. And what crime occured during this 'messing' period.
Either way, this is just an information gathering post. We do not know what happened, if anything did, and we are wondering if anyone else has information regarding this incident.
We enjoyed our days off from posting. Regular scheduled programming to continue.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Supreme Court ruling
Our right to at least own a handgun in our home is coming true. But not quite yet. The Supreme Court remanded the case back to the lower federal court for a new decision. So, until that happens, the law is technically still on the books.
You can still get prosecuted for the city ordinance but please weigh the punishment vs the 'crime.'
City ordinance
8-20-250 Violation – Penalty.
Any person who violates any provision of this chapter, where no other penalty is specifically provided, shall upon conviction for the first time, be fined not less than $300.00, nor more than $500.00; or be incarcerated for not less than ten days nor more than 90 days or both. Any subsequent conviction for a violation of this chapter shall be punishable by a fine of $500.00 and by incarceration for a term of not less than 90 days, nor more than six months.
We know incarceration scares a lot of people and we understand that. We would not want to be incarcerated either. However, if you are a law abiding citizen of the city of Chicago and you use your weapon to protect yourself and your family, wouldn't a small fine and a little jail time be worth the life of you and your family? Just a thought.
Continuing with those thoughts, we have never seen anyone get punished along the lines of this 'failure to register' law. The worst punishment we ever saw anyone get for violating this provision is the confiscation of the firearm. That is it. If that is the worst thing to happen to you in order to protect your family, is it really that bad?
Lastly, this law is truly dead, just not officially. Will the mayor keep wanting the law enforced? You betcha. Will the average police officer arrest you for it? Probably not, especially if you are not a gang banger or of ill criminal background. Will a judge find you guilty? Probably not because most of the judges are aware of the Supreme Court ruling and know that the prosecution of you would be a futile effort. You still may lose the gun until the law is officially destroyed.
Our disclaimer is that you may still get arrested and prosecuted for possessing a handgun in your home. Reality is that you are that much closer to protecting your family at least at home. True reality is that if you possessed that handgun at home today, you can start protecting your family today with, in our opinion, minimal risk.
You can still get prosecuted for the city ordinance but please weigh the punishment vs the 'crime.'
City ordinance
8-20-250 Violation – Penalty.
Any person who violates any provision of this chapter, where no other penalty is specifically provided, shall upon conviction for the first time, be fined not less than $300.00, nor more than $500.00; or be incarcerated for not less than ten days nor more than 90 days or both. Any subsequent conviction for a violation of this chapter shall be punishable by a fine of $500.00 and by incarceration for a term of not less than 90 days, nor more than six months.
We know incarceration scares a lot of people and we understand that. We would not want to be incarcerated either. However, if you are a law abiding citizen of the city of Chicago and you use your weapon to protect yourself and your family, wouldn't a small fine and a little jail time be worth the life of you and your family? Just a thought.
Continuing with those thoughts, we have never seen anyone get punished along the lines of this 'failure to register' law. The worst punishment we ever saw anyone get for violating this provision is the confiscation of the firearm. That is it. If that is the worst thing to happen to you in order to protect your family, is it really that bad?
Lastly, this law is truly dead, just not officially. Will the mayor keep wanting the law enforced? You betcha. Will the average police officer arrest you for it? Probably not, especially if you are not a gang banger or of ill criminal background. Will a judge find you guilty? Probably not because most of the judges are aware of the Supreme Court ruling and know that the prosecution of you would be a futile effort. You still may lose the gun until the law is officially destroyed.
Our disclaimer is that you may still get arrested and prosecuted for possessing a handgun in your home. Reality is that you are that much closer to protecting your family at least at home. True reality is that if you possessed that handgun at home today, you can start protecting your family today with, in our opinion, minimal risk.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
The attacks in the comments
We have read the attacks. There are attempts being made to scare our staff out of the blog writing business. The biggest fear to those who are running the show (politicians, bosses, reverends, media, etc) are people waking up to the man/woman behind the curtain and seeing the lies that we are being told by them. Those in power do not want you to see the truth. Those in power do not want you to talk to one another. Those in power do not want you to exchange stories, personal observations or ideas because then you may get the idea that those in power really are not doing a good job and have been lying to you. They fear they will lose that power over you and it scares the shit out of them. Those in power need to realize that they have power because we give it to them, not because they were blessed with it.
We believe that the people in Mt. Greenwood know the score of the game. We believe that we as a community have sat on the bench for far too long and watched our neighborhood slowly get invaded by individuals that just want to prey on the good that exists here. Our community has seen other neighborhoods in the city fall by the wayside and get destroyed. We are done watching the game. We are done being pushed around from one neighborhood to another because the ghettos are jealous of our success. It is time to stop feeling guilty for having success, having family, having homes, having money, having jobs.
This blog helps us to fight back. We are not scared. We will not run. We have not done anything wrong. We believe that what we are doing is right. We are giving a voice to our community the best way we know how. If someone sees something bad going on at a car wash, a grocery store, a neighbor's front yard, then we want to hear about it. If you don't say anything, then no one else will know what is going on. Keep you in the dark. The 'nothing to see here' attitude will not stop the criminal element. It will only embolden them to continue their attack.
No, we are not going away. We are not stopping. We are not afraid of a lawsuit because we can just as easily countersue anyone who wants to shut us up. We really are not into litigation, we just want to exist to help our community, but if someone attacks, we fight back. If you the reader do not agree with what you read on this site, you can do 2 things, either offer an opposing viewpoint in the comments which we generally post or stop reading the site. No one forces anyone to read this blog. Start your own blog or go read the Beverly Review. Continue believing what you want to believe, we do not care. We will not silence you and we would not threaten you either.
We believe that the people in Mt. Greenwood know the score of the game. We believe that we as a community have sat on the bench for far too long and watched our neighborhood slowly get invaded by individuals that just want to prey on the good that exists here. Our community has seen other neighborhoods in the city fall by the wayside and get destroyed. We are done watching the game. We are done being pushed around from one neighborhood to another because the ghettos are jealous of our success. It is time to stop feeling guilty for having success, having family, having homes, having money, having jobs.
This blog helps us to fight back. We are not scared. We will not run. We have not done anything wrong. We believe that what we are doing is right. We are giving a voice to our community the best way we know how. If someone sees something bad going on at a car wash, a grocery store, a neighbor's front yard, then we want to hear about it. If you don't say anything, then no one else will know what is going on. Keep you in the dark. The 'nothing to see here' attitude will not stop the criminal element. It will only embolden them to continue their attack.
No, we are not going away. We are not stopping. We are not afraid of a lawsuit because we can just as easily countersue anyone who wants to shut us up. We really are not into litigation, we just want to exist to help our community, but if someone attacks, we fight back. If you the reader do not agree with what you read on this site, you can do 2 things, either offer an opposing viewpoint in the comments which we generally post or stop reading the site. No one forces anyone to read this blog. Start your own blog or go read the Beverly Review. Continue believing what you want to believe, we do not care. We will not silence you and we would not threaten you either.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Small Milestone
Sometime last night, our blog of 2 months has hit the 10,000 mark. Yay. Sorry, nothing for the 10,000th customer. Our goal of this blog was to post the trouble that exists in the neighborhood and to give our fellow residents a place that they can also post their crime observations. We appear to have reached some residents of Mt. Greenwood and those residents have used the comments section just how we had hoped.
People are posting suspicious people, plates, crimes, and their personal observations of the neighborhood. People are getting the information and they are talking to one another via the comments or in emails. This is a really good thing. If you keep all of your observations to yourself, then the only person that would know about them is you. We need to talk and we need to constantly be on guard for whatever lurks in our neighborhood.
This neighborhood is truly a great neighborhood. We sometimes talk about bad things that happen in the neighborhood, but in general, this is a great neighborhood. We want to keep it a great neighbohood. That is our motivation and that is what has driven myself (the writer) and my fellow staff to constantly keep up with the blog.
This blog will only work if as many residents of Mt. Greenwood as possible read and interact with the blog. We have a small percentage reading now, we are always looking for more. Continue to spread the word about the blog to your neighbors, your friends and your colleagues in the neigborhood. And keep posting what you are seeing out there, no matter how trivial you believe it may be, we would love to hear it.
Don't forget, if those hairs on the back of your neck rise up at what you see, please call 911. You might be saving yourself or your neighbor from a lot of heartache.
People are posting suspicious people, plates, crimes, and their personal observations of the neighborhood. People are getting the information and they are talking to one another via the comments or in emails. This is a really good thing. If you keep all of your observations to yourself, then the only person that would know about them is you. We need to talk and we need to constantly be on guard for whatever lurks in our neighborhood.
This neighborhood is truly a great neighborhood. We sometimes talk about bad things that happen in the neighborhood, but in general, this is a great neighborhood. We want to keep it a great neighbohood. That is our motivation and that is what has driven myself (the writer) and my fellow staff to constantly keep up with the blog.
This blog will only work if as many residents of Mt. Greenwood as possible read and interact with the blog. We have a small percentage reading now, we are always looking for more. Continue to spread the word about the blog to your neighbors, your friends and your colleagues in the neigborhood. And keep posting what you are seeing out there, no matter how trivial you believe it may be, we would love to hear it.
Don't forget, if those hairs on the back of your neck rise up at what you see, please call 911. You might be saving yourself or your neighbor from a lot of heartache.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Beverly Review encourages you not to talk to one another
This is getting stupid. Our blog posted some information provided by an anonymous source and next thing you know, our blog and another were being labeled as business killers.
Now, the Beverly Review is encouraging you to not email. Do not talk to one another about what might or might not be occurring in your neighborhood. Do not trust your friend to make a decision for themselves on whether or not the information that you are emailing to them is true or false. We guess the Beverly Review feels that people are sheep and they believe everything they read and cannot make decisions for themselves.
Look, if you get an email that you determine is true, or at least could be true and you want your friend to see it, email it to them. YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO DO SO. You also have a right to email a lie to your friend if you want. You might be labeled by your friend as a liar, but YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO DO SO. The Beverly Review believes that the only place you can get the correct information on the subject is from them.
From Beverly Review
If you have an e-mail address and neighbors with dirt to throw, there’s a good chance that fishy e-mails come your way. We see them all the time, and it’s our job to check them out. But when it’s information about local homeowners and businesses, it is important to not spread false information.
Or else the Beverly Review police will come and get you.
Love the fact that the Beverly Review does not put a byline on this article. They are very poor at sourcing their information.
Now, the Beverly Review is encouraging you to not email. Do not talk to one another about what might or might not be occurring in your neighborhood. Do not trust your friend to make a decision for themselves on whether or not the information that you are emailing to them is true or false. We guess the Beverly Review feels that people are sheep and they believe everything they read and cannot make decisions for themselves.
Look, if you get an email that you determine is true, or at least could be true and you want your friend to see it, email it to them. YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO DO SO. You also have a right to email a lie to your friend if you want. You might be labeled by your friend as a liar, but YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO DO SO. The Beverly Review believes that the only place you can get the correct information on the subject is from them.
From Beverly Review
If you have an e-mail address and neighbors with dirt to throw, there’s a good chance that fishy e-mails come your way. We see them all the time, and it’s our job to check them out. But when it’s information about local homeowners and businesses, it is important to not spread false information.
Or else the Beverly Review police will come and get you.
Love the fact that the Beverly Review does not put a byline on this article. They are very poor at sourcing their information.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Village Voice said...
Well I for one am not sad that we do not have the parade ... I have no problem with a festival similar to Irish fest at Gaelic Park but the parade was turning into a joke .. If the tradition which was turning into a drunkfest, well sayonara. That is the example it was setting ... PR fest is changing, I worked it back in the day when it was a battle royal, but now from what I hear, it is not that bad ... One thing to remember, the city did not stop the parade ... The Parade committee ended the parade ...
Let's analyze this.
We for one would love to have an Irish fest too. We basically had that. However, some committee cancelled it. Funny thing, can't find the members of the committee anywhere listed. Wonder who was on that committee.
About the drunkfest. Maybe it was turning into a drunkfest. Maybe it always was. Is it a shock that you put a large quantity of Irish people together that they may drink? Our festival was once a year, usually on a cold day and in the morning. It was a major financial draw to the community. It was attended by people from around the country and the world. How can something that was so well attended by so many good people be so bad?
Puerto Rican fest changing? Okay, inside of the park where it is held, maybe. One of our staff have recently worked the fest as well and they tell me there are still roving street gangs moving about through the fest threatening and attempting to start fights. If it was not for the 'overwhelming' police presence, the Puerto Rican fest would be the same as when you worked it.
Immediately step outside the park and you definitely have problems. When the day comes and they invent transporters that beam us directly to the event, we may go.
Lastly, the city did not stop the parade? Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. Let me ask you this, if the city didn't stop the parade, why did a city alderwoman for the 19th ward make this comment that was found in an ABC 7 news report.
"People are sad but they know it had to happen. It's grown to a point where it can't be held in a residential community like this," said Ald. Ginger Rugai, 19th Ward.
Why would an alderwoman be so quick to be on the side of the committee if she had nothing to do with it? We all know that you need the alderwoman on your side for permits and the like.
Ultimately, the point of the previous article still holds true. We already inundate other neighborhoods in Chicago with police and these festivals just draw more manpower away from the good, tax-paying neighborhoods like ours.
Let's analyze this.
We for one would love to have an Irish fest too. We basically had that. However, some committee cancelled it. Funny thing, can't find the members of the committee anywhere listed. Wonder who was on that committee.
About the drunkfest. Maybe it was turning into a drunkfest. Maybe it always was. Is it a shock that you put a large quantity of Irish people together that they may drink? Our festival was once a year, usually on a cold day and in the morning. It was a major financial draw to the community. It was attended by people from around the country and the world. How can something that was so well attended by so many good people be so bad?
Puerto Rican fest changing? Okay, inside of the park where it is held, maybe. One of our staff have recently worked the fest as well and they tell me there are still roving street gangs moving about through the fest threatening and attempting to start fights. If it was not for the 'overwhelming' police presence, the Puerto Rican fest would be the same as when you worked it.
Immediately step outside the park and you definitely have problems. When the day comes and they invent transporters that beam us directly to the event, we may go.
Lastly, the city did not stop the parade? Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. Let me ask you this, if the city didn't stop the parade, why did a city alderwoman for the 19th ward make this comment that was found in an ABC 7 news report.
"People are sad but they know it had to happen. It's grown to a point where it can't be held in a residential community like this," said Ald. Ginger Rugai, 19th Ward.
Why would an alderwoman be so quick to be on the side of the committee if she had nothing to do with it? We all know that you need the alderwoman on your side for permits and the like.
Ultimately, the point of the previous article still holds true. We already inundate other neighborhoods in Chicago with police and these festivals just draw more manpower away from the good, tax-paying neighborhoods like ours.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Our letter to Patrick Thomas, writer for Beverly Review
We are providing the entire email we wrote to Patrick Thomas after he asked us for information regarding us and our blog(s) regarding the Car Wash and 115th and Kedzie.
We are more than happy to chat via email about anything that we have received regarding crime in the Mount Greenwood area. Most of the information that we receive is via emails and postings on our blogsite, http://mtgreenwoodprotection.blogspot.com/. If you are interested in finding the specifics regarding what was posted, please review our postings on our site.
Beyond that, we do not have any more specific information regarding 115th and Kedzie. It seems that some people have been reporting sightings of gang bangers and just the general ignorance that appears to be invading the neighborhood from points outside. We have our own concerns regarding that corner as posted in our blog. We are just getting ready to post something new that we received from our email. If you were looking for more specific information, we do not have any as of yet. But we are still getting hints from people regarding that area.
As far as who we are, we cannot say. The city has a funny way of attacking those that seem to point out the city's and politician's shortcomings. Our staff is hesitant about revealing themselves because they fear retribution from their politicians, bosses and whoever else might not be happy with what we discover or have to say. We have seemed to have tapped into the pulse of the neighborhood. Residents appear fed up with the lack of police protection they are receiving for the amount of money they are paying. Our main goal is to alert our neighborhood of crime and potential suspects. We have heard through the grapevine that our efforts might have help in the apprehension of a burglary suspect which is great for the neighborhood. Secondary goals are to call out those in power for not giving the residents of Mt. Greenwood the protection they pay for. Our readers may also be in the process of starting some sort of neighborhood watch in order to assist with the security of our community. We would be more than happy to assist them in anyway we can.
Any other questions, feel free to ask.
MTGP
We are more than happy to chat via email about anything that we have received regarding crime in the Mount Greenwood area. Most of the information that we receive is via emails and postings on our blogsite, http://mtgreenwoodprotection.blogspot.com/. If you are interested in finding the specifics regarding what was posted, please review our postings on our site.
Beyond that, we do not have any more specific information regarding 115th and Kedzie. It seems that some people have been reporting sightings of gang bangers and just the general ignorance that appears to be invading the neighborhood from points outside. We have our own concerns regarding that corner as posted in our blog. We are just getting ready to post something new that we received from our email. If you were looking for more specific information, we do not have any as of yet. But we are still getting hints from people regarding that area.
As far as who we are, we cannot say. The city has a funny way of attacking those that seem to point out the city's and politician's shortcomings. Our staff is hesitant about revealing themselves because they fear retribution from their politicians, bosses and whoever else might not be happy with what we discover or have to say. We have seemed to have tapped into the pulse of the neighborhood. Residents appear fed up with the lack of police protection they are receiving for the amount of money they are paying. Our main goal is to alert our neighborhood of crime and potential suspects. We have heard through the grapevine that our efforts might have help in the apprehension of a burglary suspect which is great for the neighborhood. Secondary goals are to call out those in power for not giving the residents of Mt. Greenwood the protection they pay for. Our readers may also be in the process of starting some sort of neighborhood watch in order to assist with the security of our community. We would be more than happy to assist them in anyway we can.
Any other questions, feel free to ask.
MTGP
The Beverly Review Article
We just read an article posted on the Beverly Review website and we feel the need to respond to the hit job. Excerpts are in italics from this Beverly Review article.
The owners of a local car wash said last week that information posted on a neighborhood blog is false and that an email message that spread through chain e-mails has damaged their business.
We have no control what people decide to send via email chains. We highly doubt that the car wash business has been damaged, as it is one of the better local car washes that we even said we go to.
The family that operates Quick Suds Car Wash, on the northwest corner of 115th Street and Kedzie Avenue, said the neighborhood blog falsely accused their business of being a street gang hangout and a hotbed for drug activity and other crimes.
Easy there Mr. Mayer. We never accused your business of being a street gang hangout. We just posted what others wrote in the comments and email. We added our two cents, but never claimed it was a gang hangout. Where did you get that?
“Black P Stone gangbangers have taken a foothold at 115/ Kedzie at the carwash,” the anonymous writer stated in an e-mail and blog. “They are targeting whites! Threatening passerbys and customers. Things are getting ridiculous now. Gosh, we can’t even wash our cars without being hassled by thugs.”
Which anonymous writer are you talking about Patrick Thomas? Because if you are saying MTGP, you are surely mistaken. That was from our comments section posted by someone else, don't attribute quotes to something we did not say. Could be slanderous.
The blog posting also criticized nearby Section 8 housing and voiced concerns about recent crime in the area and about an apartment building near 115th Street and Pulaski Road. The e-mail caused several local residents to contact this newspaper because they thought the information was true.
What, do you have infomation that it is not true? Do some research, section 8 individuals do live in that apartment building. Parolees do live there. We never claimed that crime occuring in the neighborhood was attributed to those that live there. Only that our residents of our community need to be made aware of those that live among us. Do not make statements in the middle of an article that have nothing to do with the article to make us at MTGP out to be unreliable. Horrible idea Mr. Thomas. Readers are smarter than that.
Matt O’Shea, administrative assistant to Rugai, who received several calls on the rumors and contacted police officials, said the blog postings and e-mails were “completely fabricated.” O’Shea said the Mayers operate a safe and courteous business.
“One thing I know is that whenever you go to Quick Suds, one of the Mayers is working,” he said. “It’s one of the respectable businesses. They do it right.”
Hey Matt O'Shea, our blog posting is not fabricated. We wrote it. The comment left might have been, but it is a comment. We wrote a blog story about it. We wrote our observations in the blog story. Mr. O'Shea, are we not allowed to write about our observations anymore? Was the first amendment reversed recently and we were not aware? We also wrote a blog story with Mr. Mayer's letter regarding the car wash. We championed Mr. Mayer for the letter. We encouraged our readers to patronize the car wash, and will continue to do so. Any business that brings money, and is a positive influence on the community, needs to be patronized. We do have concerns about that corner and we have expressed those time and again. Sorry if you do not like what we have to say, we have the right to say it anyway.
What we love about the Beverly Review article was that for 3/4 of the article it was a slam against the blog and what we posted. The last 1/4 of the article seems to support all of the reasons that we exist.
While police said there has been no gang activity on the corner, there was an alarming report down the street on May 16. On that evening, a man cutting the lawn at a home on the 3200 block of West 115th Street discovered a .357 revolver. About an hour later, police received a call that another man cutting his grass on the same block had discovered a .22-caliber revolver and a speed loader, a device used to load bullets. The loader did not match the revolver. Police cannot recover fingerprints from an item that has been exposed to the elements for that long, 22nd District Sgt. Dennis Kettering said, and thus, they have not been able to determine the owner of the guns.
“We’ve got nothing to tie these to anything,” Kettering said. “We can only speculate how they got there.”
On Jan. 15, Thomas Banks, of the 11800 block of South Kedzie, in Merrionette Park, was arrested for shooting two people and battering two others in his apartment, but the situation was an unrelated domestic disturbance. Police said the shooting and the recently recovered guns had no connection to the car wash and should not be a concern for customers.
When contacted by e-mail to explain where the information came from about the car wash, the anonymous blogger said only that the information received comes from e-mails and postings. The administrator of the blog would only communicate to this reporter through e-mail and declined to provide an identity out of fear of retribution for comments posted on the blog.
“Residents appear fed up with the lack of police protection they are receiving for the amount of money they are paying. Our main goal is to alert our neighborhood of crime and potential suspects,” the blogger wrote.
It appears that we are libelous, slanderous individuals who are only out to do harm to the businesses in our community. At the same time, we are out to protect are local community from crime that is occuring and encourage our community to patronize our businesses. Hmmm...We don't get it, are we evil or good?
Here are links to our articles regarding 115th and Kedzie, the Car Wash and our comments regarding Mt. Greenwood businesses in the order that they appeared on our blogsite. You be the judge on how libelous or slanderous we were.
115th and Kedzie (5/15/2010)
We are not here for your benefit (5/17/2010)
Car Wash (5/21/2010)
From email (6/6/2010)
A side note for the Beverly Review author of the article, Patrick Thomas. Learn to structure your articles better. We really hope this was an opinion article, because if it was supposed to be a factual article, your true intentions of attempting to hurt our crediblity were obviously made known instead of just presenting the facts and allowing the reader to make their own decision. Lastly, do you or the Beverly Review feel threatened by our presence as a blog? We do this for free for no monetary gain. We do this to make our community safer and better. You guys write for monetary gain. Hmmmm......
The owners of a local car wash said last week that information posted on a neighborhood blog is false and that an email message that spread through chain e-mails has damaged their business.
We have no control what people decide to send via email chains. We highly doubt that the car wash business has been damaged, as it is one of the better local car washes that we even said we go to.
The family that operates Quick Suds Car Wash, on the northwest corner of 115th Street and Kedzie Avenue, said the neighborhood blog falsely accused their business of being a street gang hangout and a hotbed for drug activity and other crimes.
Easy there Mr. Mayer. We never accused your business of being a street gang hangout. We just posted what others wrote in the comments and email. We added our two cents, but never claimed it was a gang hangout. Where did you get that?
“Black P Stone gangbangers have taken a foothold at 115/ Kedzie at the carwash,” the anonymous writer stated in an e-mail and blog. “They are targeting whites! Threatening passerbys and customers. Things are getting ridiculous now. Gosh, we can’t even wash our cars without being hassled by thugs.”
Which anonymous writer are you talking about Patrick Thomas? Because if you are saying MTGP, you are surely mistaken. That was from our comments section posted by someone else, don't attribute quotes to something we did not say. Could be slanderous.
The blog posting also criticized nearby Section 8 housing and voiced concerns about recent crime in the area and about an apartment building near 115th Street and Pulaski Road. The e-mail caused several local residents to contact this newspaper because they thought the information was true.
What, do you have infomation that it is not true? Do some research, section 8 individuals do live in that apartment building. Parolees do live there. We never claimed that crime occuring in the neighborhood was attributed to those that live there. Only that our residents of our community need to be made aware of those that live among us. Do not make statements in the middle of an article that have nothing to do with the article to make us at MTGP out to be unreliable. Horrible idea Mr. Thomas. Readers are smarter than that.
Matt O’Shea, administrative assistant to Rugai, who received several calls on the rumors and contacted police officials, said the blog postings and e-mails were “completely fabricated.” O’Shea said the Mayers operate a safe and courteous business.
“One thing I know is that whenever you go to Quick Suds, one of the Mayers is working,” he said. “It’s one of the respectable businesses. They do it right.”
Hey Matt O'Shea, our blog posting is not fabricated. We wrote it. The comment left might have been, but it is a comment. We wrote a blog story about it. We wrote our observations in the blog story. Mr. O'Shea, are we not allowed to write about our observations anymore? Was the first amendment reversed recently and we were not aware? We also wrote a blog story with Mr. Mayer's letter regarding the car wash. We championed Mr. Mayer for the letter. We encouraged our readers to patronize the car wash, and will continue to do so. Any business that brings money, and is a positive influence on the community, needs to be patronized. We do have concerns about that corner and we have expressed those time and again. Sorry if you do not like what we have to say, we have the right to say it anyway.
What we love about the Beverly Review article was that for 3/4 of the article it was a slam against the blog and what we posted. The last 1/4 of the article seems to support all of the reasons that we exist.
While police said there has been no gang activity on the corner, there was an alarming report down the street on May 16. On that evening, a man cutting the lawn at a home on the 3200 block of West 115th Street discovered a .357 revolver. About an hour later, police received a call that another man cutting his grass on the same block had discovered a .22-caliber revolver and a speed loader, a device used to load bullets. The loader did not match the revolver. Police cannot recover fingerprints from an item that has been exposed to the elements for that long, 22nd District Sgt. Dennis Kettering said, and thus, they have not been able to determine the owner of the guns.
“We’ve got nothing to tie these to anything,” Kettering said. “We can only speculate how they got there.”
On Jan. 15, Thomas Banks, of the 11800 block of South Kedzie, in Merrionette Park, was arrested for shooting two people and battering two others in his apartment, but the situation was an unrelated domestic disturbance. Police said the shooting and the recently recovered guns had no connection to the car wash and should not be a concern for customers.
When contacted by e-mail to explain where the information came from about the car wash, the anonymous blogger said only that the information received comes from e-mails and postings. The administrator of the blog would only communicate to this reporter through e-mail and declined to provide an identity out of fear of retribution for comments posted on the blog.
“Residents appear fed up with the lack of police protection they are receiving for the amount of money they are paying. Our main goal is to alert our neighborhood of crime and potential suspects,” the blogger wrote.
It appears that we are libelous, slanderous individuals who are only out to do harm to the businesses in our community. At the same time, we are out to protect are local community from crime that is occuring and encourage our community to patronize our businesses. Hmmm...We don't get it, are we evil or good?
Here are links to our articles regarding 115th and Kedzie, the Car Wash and our comments regarding Mt. Greenwood businesses in the order that they appeared on our blogsite. You be the judge on how libelous or slanderous we were.
115th and Kedzie (5/15/2010)
We are not here for your benefit (5/17/2010)
Car Wash (5/21/2010)
From email (6/6/2010)
A side note for the Beverly Review author of the article, Patrick Thomas. Learn to structure your articles better. We really hope this was an opinion article, because if it was supposed to be a factual article, your true intentions of attempting to hurt our crediblity were obviously made known instead of just presenting the facts and allowing the reader to make their own decision. Lastly, do you or the Beverly Review feel threatened by our presence as a blog? We do this for free for no monetary gain. We do this to make our community safer and better. You guys write for monetary gain. Hmmmm......
Your taxes vs other southside locations
We got an idea from a comment regarding your property taxes and those in areas that receive more city services than us. We decided to pick at random various addresses in various police districts and the total taxes billed for that address in 2009.
Info provided in the following order
Address; 2009 Taxes; Police District; House/Apartment
219 w. 109th st; $372.15; 5th District; house
12015 s. wallace; $1710.08; 5th District; house
7506 s. emerald; $2743.10; 6th District; apartment
8006 s. damen; $1595.88; 6th District; house
8219 s. muskegon; $1737.52; 4th District; house
10812 s. calhoun; $686.55; 4th District; house
7211 s. winchester; $840.44; 7th Distict; house
5543 s. shields; $2065.68; 7th District; house
11223 s. church; $1852.94; 22nd District; house
2211's beat
10414 s. troy; $3022.67; 22nd District; house
10819 s. hamlin; $2706.00; 22nd District; house
10734 s. maplewood; $3506.86; 22nd District; house
11245 s. drake; $3347.87; 22nd District; house
All of this information is readily available online if you know where to look. Our thoughts on some of these numbers. 11223 S. Church St is located on the east end of the 22nd District. That street gets excess police service from the 22nd District and they pay roughly half of the property tax that we do.
An APARTMENT building in the 6th district at 7506 S. Emerald pays less money than 3 of the 4 properties we looked at for Beat 2211. Apartment buildings should be paying a premium as they are investment properties, but because they are in areas that suck everything good away, they get to pay less than a single family house in our neighborhood.
A house in the 5th district at 219 w. 109th st. pays less than $500.00 A YEAR for taxes. The 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th districts have smaller beats and get extra help in the form of an outside unit called Tactical Response Unit regularly.
Let's throw more onto the tax fire. A progressive federal income tax. Earn more, pay more. A state income tax that some politicians want to raise. Penalties for working hard and being successful. Wheel tax (city sticker) for owning a car in the city. State Registration. Electric and natural gas consumption taxes. High sales tax. Entertainment tax. Phone taxes. Parking fees. What are we missing? These are all some of the ways the city, county and state rape us regularly for being successful/responsible members of our community. We also know of the roundabout ways of raising our 'taxes' that are not direct ways. Raise taxes on companies and force the companies to charge us more.
Now, say you earn nothing and are a dredge on society, get a Link card, get Section 8 housing vouchers, get free health care at any public health center or hospital, get taxes done for free by city, get job training for free, get a public defender when you are a fuck up, get to keep the cash earned from the drug trade and still get all of the free public welfare because you show no income, get SSI, get government subsidized cell phones, government subsidized daycare when you want other people to raise your children. Extra police protection. Extra fire protection. Where does it stop? Did we miss some? Please fill us in on some of the other stuff the dredge of society receive that we forgot or were unaware of.
After all of that money has burned a hole in our pocket, at the end of the day we are left out here to defend ourselves and have the assistance of 2211 when they can make it out this way and 2211a when they decide to man the car and not detail it to some other beat.
Info provided in the following order
Address; 2009 Taxes; Police District; House/Apartment
219 w. 109th st; $372.15; 5th District; house
12015 s. wallace; $1710.08; 5th District; house
7506 s. emerald; $2743.10; 6th District; apartment
8006 s. damen; $1595.88; 6th District; house
8219 s. muskegon; $1737.52; 4th District; house
10812 s. calhoun; $686.55; 4th District; house
7211 s. winchester; $840.44; 7th Distict; house
5543 s. shields; $2065.68; 7th District; house
11223 s. church; $1852.94; 22nd District; house
2211's beat
10414 s. troy; $3022.67; 22nd District; house
10819 s. hamlin; $2706.00; 22nd District; house
10734 s. maplewood; $3506.86; 22nd District; house
11245 s. drake; $3347.87; 22nd District; house
All of this information is readily available online if you know where to look. Our thoughts on some of these numbers. 11223 S. Church St is located on the east end of the 22nd District. That street gets excess police service from the 22nd District and they pay roughly half of the property tax that we do.
An APARTMENT building in the 6th district at 7506 S. Emerald pays less money than 3 of the 4 properties we looked at for Beat 2211. Apartment buildings should be paying a premium as they are investment properties, but because they are in areas that suck everything good away, they get to pay less than a single family house in our neighborhood.
A house in the 5th district at 219 w. 109th st. pays less than $500.00 A YEAR for taxes. The 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th districts have smaller beats and get extra help in the form of an outside unit called Tactical Response Unit regularly.
Let's throw more onto the tax fire. A progressive federal income tax. Earn more, pay more. A state income tax that some politicians want to raise. Penalties for working hard and being successful. Wheel tax (city sticker) for owning a car in the city. State Registration. Electric and natural gas consumption taxes. High sales tax. Entertainment tax. Phone taxes. Parking fees. What are we missing? These are all some of the ways the city, county and state rape us regularly for being successful/responsible members of our community. We also know of the roundabout ways of raising our 'taxes' that are not direct ways. Raise taxes on companies and force the companies to charge us more.
Now, say you earn nothing and are a dredge on society, get a Link card, get Section 8 housing vouchers, get free health care at any public health center or hospital, get taxes done for free by city, get job training for free, get a public defender when you are a fuck up, get to keep the cash earned from the drug trade and still get all of the free public welfare because you show no income, get SSI, get government subsidized cell phones, government subsidized daycare when you want other people to raise your children. Extra police protection. Extra fire protection. Where does it stop? Did we miss some? Please fill us in on some of the other stuff the dredge of society receive that we forgot or were unaware of.
After all of that money has burned a hole in our pocket, at the end of the day we are left out here to defend ourselves and have the assistance of 2211 when they can make it out this way and 2211a when they decide to man the car and not detail it to some other beat.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Back to Regular Scheduled Programming
MTGP hopes that you had a good Memorial Weekend. Hopefully it was safe and during that weekend you honored those that have lost their lives serving and protecting our country. We did.
A special thank you to all those that have chosen to serve our country and a somber thank you for those families that have lost a loved one in the service of our country. We can never repay you for what you have lost, but we owe you so much.
For those of you that are serving currently and live in Mt. Greenwood, we promise that we will continue to fight for our neighborhood while you are gone. We promise to try our best to look out for your family while you are gone so that you can have peace of mind while you are protecting us as well as a wonderful neighborhood to come home to.
A special thank you to all those that have chosen to serve our country and a somber thank you for those families that have lost a loved one in the service of our country. We can never repay you for what you have lost, but we owe you so much.
For those of you that are serving currently and live in Mt. Greenwood, we promise that we will continue to fight for our neighborhood while you are gone. We promise to try our best to look out for your family while you are gone so that you can have peace of mind while you are protecting us as well as a wonderful neighborhood to come home to.
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