Greg Jones, New RPBG Director
- Category: Latest News
For anyone who has been a regular participant in the Rogers Park Builders Group monthly meetings (you might have to strain your brain to recall those much-missed, actual gatherings of our members), then you may very well have chatted with Greg Jones who recently became a Director. In a group with a lot of extroverts, Greg stands out as being especially outgoing, friendly and always up for a good conversation with other members.
As I See It: A Rent Strike Would Make a Bad Situation Worse
- Category: Latest News
- By:
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Mike Glasser, RPBG President
Spring, 2020
(reprinted from Crain’s Chicago Business, April 25, 2020)
Some housing advocates are urging all renters, regardless of their financial circumstances, to forego paying rent during this crisis.
Ups and Downs - Spring 2020
- Category: Latest News
- By:
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Steve Cain
Spring, 2020
It’s still kind of hard to believe how quickly and completely the world has changed, harder still that this change has all occurred in the space of less than two months. We’d been hearing about the mysterious coronavirus that first appeared in Wuhan since the beginning of the year. But, like a lot of news these days, it sounded like something far away and abstract – somebody else’s problem – or so we thought.
Paying it Forward and Helping Others in a Time of Need
- Category: Latest News
- By:
- Shari Haefner, RPBG Director
Responding to the intense need brought on by the COVID-19 emergency, Rogers Park Builders Group recently donated $5,000 to Northside Community Resources (NCR) to help some of the most vulnerable people in our community. This donation was made under the direction of Carla Price and the Finance Committee. These funds were delivered on March 29th. (RPBG subsequently contributed an additional $3,000 to NCR with individual members contributing an additional $4,000... and counting!)
Verella’s Round-Up: JHO Follow-up; Status of Evictions
- Category: Latest News
- Verella Osborne, President, Legal Document Management, Inc.
- Spring, 2020
Well, the Just Housing Ordinance has been in effect for four months – so how has it affected your application process? Have you decided not to consider an applicant’s criminal history at all? If you have, please note that there is a difference of opinion among attorneys: some believe the JHO only applies if a landlord considers criminal history in renting; other attorneys believe the JHO is not limited in this respect and applies across the board to all residential and commercial rentals and sales. If you don’t want to be the “test case,” I suggest you comply even if you don’t consider criminal records.
Around Rogers Park: The New Normal
- Category: Latest News
Life in Rogers Park is very different today than it was just a short time ago. In many ways, what Rogers Park is currently experiencing is similar to what the rest of Chicago and, for that matter, the world are all experiencing – a radical shift away from whatever previously constituted our “normal lives” as the economy falls to ruins all around us while we shelter in place to slow the virus’ spread.
Around Rogers Park: In Memoriam
- Category: Latest News
We mourn the loss of Auxiliary Corporal Mario Araujo of the Chicago Fire Department. Mr. Araujo died Tuesday, April 7 of complications from COVID-19. Mr. Araujo began working for the Fire Department in 2003. For most of that time, and continuing until his death, Mr. Araujo worked out of Engine Company #102 on the 7300 block of North Clark Street on Truck #25. Mr. Araujo was 49 years old.
Inclusionary Housing Task Force Underway
- Category: Latest News
The first meeting of the Inclusionary Housing Task Force (IHTF) was held on December 12, 2019. The twenty members of this committee represent a cross-section of neighborhood activists, affordable housing providers, and for-profit developers. The IHTF is co-chaired by three Adlermen: Harry Osterman (48th Ward), Walter Burnett (27th Ward) and Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th Ward).
New Mayor, Fresh Start for Chicago
- Category: Latest News
On February 26, 2019, Lori Lightfoot was elected Mayor of Chicago. Her victory was both historic and surprising. When she announced her run, Lightfoot was relatively unknown and a political outsider. She is also female, African-America and an out-lesbian – in marked contrast with almost every past occupant of that coveted fifth floor office on Clark Street. Consider that, in its less than 200-year history, Chicago has had exactly one other female mayor (Jane Byrne), two African-American mayors (Harold Washington and Eugene Sawyer), and no publicly-declared LGBT mayors. There has certainly never been a mayor that checked all three boxes. Suffice it to say that few people took Lightfoot’s candidacy seriously when she first announced her run.
606 Development Ban
- Category: Latest News
Although this is not a Rogers Park story, we should all be paying attention to the ban on demolitions that was recently approved by the Chicago City Council, effectively halting development near the western half of the 606 Trail.
Around Rogers Park: Progress Report on Heartland Redevelopment
- Category: Latest News
- Winter 2020
The redevelopment of the Heartland site is on schedule to break ground this spring. After being denied a zoning variance that would have allowed a denser building with six, on-site affordable units, developer and new RPBG Director Sam Goldman is proceeding with a five-story, 30-unit apartment building with 2,554 square feet of ground floor retail space. Residential units will be located on floors two through five and will include nine (9) 1BR/1BA units, nineteen (19) 2BR/2BA units, and two (2) 3BR units – one with two bathrooms and one with three.
