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Editor,
Regarding your editorial of 12/4/14, we must heartily concur. Only recently has our family become aware of the fine group of officers and board members who have guided the operations of the Garfield Ridge Neighborhood Watch in its efforts to maintain the highest standards of a peaceful, strong and vital community. Having had a career of 30-plus years with the CPD, we can personally testify of how important the eyes and ears of a neighborhood are to providing good police service.
As to the official police component, a district such as Chicago Lawn (008th District) is in many ways put to a definite disadvantage because its residents are overwhelmingly working folks of a law abiding nature. Let us explain.
Because the assignment of manpower is determined by the reported crime rate, a district with a higher rate of serious crime will get more officers assigned, be constituted in a smaller geographical area and have much smaller Beats. In bold contrast, a more peaceful, "quiet" and family friendly place has a much smaller roster of personnel; which is charged with patrolling a much greater area in size.
We do understand that this practice is a necessary to the needs of a community as it relates to the severity of its crime problem, we also believe that this application of the old adage of "It's the wheel that squeaks that gets the oil" is grossly unfair to residents of communities such as ours. It is, after all, people such as our neighbors who pay the lion's share of the taxe$; only to get the leftovers from City Hall.
So, you say, what is our suggestion for a remedy to this situation of obvious inequity? Well, it is very simple and maybe even so obvious that no one has thought of it until now.
With s simple redrawing of the beat structure, the City and the police department could establish a maximum size for beats. This would not be detrimental to high crime areas, yet it would bring some additional service to those in the districts which are greater in square miles.
As to the official police component, a district such as Chicago Lawn (008th District) is in many ways put to a definite disadvantage because its residents are overwhelmingly working folks of a law abiding nature. Let us explain.
Because the assignment of manpower is determined by the reported crime rate, a district with a higher rate of serious crime will get more officers assigned, be constituted in a smaller geographical area and have much smaller Beats. In bold contrast, a more peaceful, "quiet" and family friendly place has a much smaller roster of personnel; which is charged with patrolling a much greater area in size.
We do understand that this practice is a necessary to the needs of a community as it relates to the severity of its crime problem, we also believe that this application of the old adage of "It's the wheel that squeaks that gets the oil" is grossly unfair to residents of communities such as ours. It is, after all, people such as our neighbors who pay the lion's share of the taxe$; only to get the leftovers from City Hall.
So, you say, what is our suggestion for a remedy to this situation of obvious inequity? Well, it is very simple and maybe even so obvious that no one has thought of it until now.
With s simple redrawing of the beat structure, the City and the police department could establish a maximum size for beats. This would not be detrimental to high crime areas, yet it would bring some additional service to those in the districts which are greater in square miles.
(The attempt to compare one police district to another is one that would be similar to that of the relationship in size of the planets of our solar system. Some are small, like Mercury and ex-planet, Pluto. Some are great and huge; such as Jupiter. For sure, no two are alike.)
This would, of course, mean that the city administration would have to do some additional hiring of cops; but we are in a definite need of that already. We believe that the CPD is down many more bodies than those in power will admit to.
But that is a subject for another day.
This would, of course, mean that the city administration would have to do some additional hiring of cops; but we are in a definite need of that already. We believe that the CPD is down many more bodies than those in power will admit to.
But that is a subject for another day.
John T. "Red" Ryan
Garfield Ridge
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Editor,
"Build it and they will come!"
As familiar as this phrase is to us, it has been given a new, relevant meaning here, in Garfield Ridge. Whereas the mysterious voice in the cornfield was giving Kevin Costner cryptic messages in the now classic film, Field of Dreams (Universal, 1981) about turning his cornfield into a baseball park; today's message is clear, straightforward and even profound.
We are, of course, referring to the highly successful Christmas tree lighting ceremony held on the Saturday following Thanksgiving Day (on 11/29/14). This was the first such ceremony which is planned to be an annual Garfield Ridge event.
A veritable standing room only (SRO) crowd were treated to music, food & refreshments and the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus (whose sleigh was delivered by way of a siren blasting fire engine!) The only disappointments that of not having the artificially frozen Wentworth Park ice rink ready; although this was a very minor point.
While the event was sanctioned by 23rd Ward Alderman Mike Zalewski (who also acted as a co-master of ceremonies), it is the culmination of months of hard work by a small group of extraordinary ordinary local residents.
Sponsored by a neighborhood redevelopment oriented group known as the Garfield Ridge Retail Entertainment & Amusement Team, or GRREAT for short. The founding members of the community oriented group are: Elisa Mondia, Rich & Gale Voytas, John Kapusciarz (of European Chalet) and Tim Gorzkowski.
It is this small core of hard-working residents that got the ball rolling. Now let's get behind their efforts and keep it rolling!
(Oh yeah, by the way, you can check out the organization on the Internet at http://www.wearegrreat.com).
John T. "Red" Ryan
Garfield Ridge
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Editor,
Is there any update on Checkers? Did they get back to you with the information they promised, on how many people from Garfield Ridge and Clearing applied for jobs there?
Dave Hubalik
Garfield Ridge
Editor's reply: They have not, and all of us should draw our own conclusions from that.
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Dear Editor,
Thank you for once again for publishing the crime news of our neighborhood. The Tribune and Sun-Times will write about the big crimes, like murders, but yours is the only local news source I know of that consistently gives us information about garage burglaries, home and business burglaries, thefts, purse snatchings, graffiti and the so-called smaller crimes. That kind of news is important to us. We don't even get that information at CAPS meetings. It's valuable and helps us organize ourselves to fight back.
I read every word of your crime reports. Please keep up the good work in 2015.
Mary Ann McLaughlin
Scottsdale
I read every word of your crime reports. Please keep up the good work in 2015.
Mary Ann McLaughlin
Scottsdale
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Editor:
Your "coverage" of crime is racism at its finest, or should I say worst. Picture after picture of African Americans who are arrested. Where are the photos of whites?
Anonymous
Editor's reply: We apply the same rules to everyone charged with a crime, regardless of race, ethnicity, etc. If we can get our hands on a mugshot, we post it, regardless of who the person arrested is.
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You've criticized Checkers for not hiring local kids, but what about the Southwest Chicago Post? I look at who your advertisers are, and some of them are not from Garfield Ridge. So what kind of hypocrisy is that?
Anonymous
Editor's reply: First, our criticism of Checkers is not so much that they haven't hired locally (for the most part), it's the fact that they went out of their way to say they'd hire locally but then didn't.
Second, the Southwest Chicago Post is not a "Garfield Ridge" news service. It is a Southwest Side news service. We serve the five city neighborhoods that border Midway Airport (Garfield Ridge, Clearing, Archer Heights, West Elsdon, West Lawn), plus Scottsdale to the south. So yes, the advertisements are more than Garfield Ridge, as would be expected.
Third, we do accept advertisements from beyond the Southwest Side, in cases where:
a. there is no comparable business located on the Southwest Side. Example: Galloping Ghost Arcade in Brookfield or Berwyn's Toys & Trains.
or
b. there are comparable businesses on the Southwest Side, but they have chosen not to advertise with us yet. Example: The handful of Southwest Side law practices do not advertise with us right now, and that's certainly OK by us, but it won't stop us from engaging law firms outside the area, especially highly respected ones like the Loop-based Disparti Law Group.
So yeah, in our perfect world, all Southwest Chicago Post advertisers would be locally owned, locally operated and employers of local men, women and teens. That's what we strive for, and our advertising rate structure reflects that. Businesses that meet those three criteria qualify for our lowest rate, while others do not. If you know of a Southwest Side business that you think should advertise here, please let them know and send them our way. :-)
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Editor:
I notice you made a big deal out of Santa Claus coming to Martin Arteaga's campaign headquarters and then to Paulino Villarreal's office on Archer, but no mention at all of our Alderman Mike Zalewski and crew making the rounds on an old-fashioned fire truck. Why do you ignore our alderman?
Anonymous
Editor's reply: First, we did not make a big deal out of the visits to the Arteaga and Villarreal offices. We simply reported them as news, so that local parents and grandparents would have another option that is local, something other than a Santa in a suburban shopping mall. Second, why did we not report what Alderman Zalewski did for Christmas? Because neither he nor his staff let us know. Had they done that, we would have shared it with everyone. Instead, we saw more than a few disappointed residents of the 23rd Ward posting in local Facebook groups things like "What? I didn't know about that. How do I get them to come to my house?" So, we are not ignoring the alderman. He's ignoring us. And that's his prerogative, of course.
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