The Blog

Get yer' No Bama gear hear. http://www.cafepress.com/politicalzone/5801905

If only he had won.

Boys! Boys! Why get we live together ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikrz4RFDhjA&feature=related

Coconut is not a playa. He should be banned from this site. He would be reduced to nuttin. Hiz site is nuttin and iz done. This guy has no creditability becuz he is a phony. He is only a schill from the Mexican Taco. He does the dirty work for Avila and is rewarded with free tuition for his kidz and legal aid. Throw him off and he is less then nuttin

Frank Coconate is the #1 playa and it don't come easy!!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZubW0xqsbRw&feature=related

Blogger catches fraud in the Moore organization. http://morsehellhole.blogspot.com/2008/07/neighbors-for-healthy-rogers-park-fraud.html

Drunk Ald. Joe Moore assistant batters blogger with beer. http://rp1000.blogspot.com/2008/07/wanted.html

Good Evening , My name is Dale Jackson; I am the Park District Division Director of the Service Employees International Union Local 73. As you know, SEIU Local 73 represents the over 2,200 employees that provide the programs and also landscape our beautiful Parks. I stand today to address a concern we share with organizations in the Rogers Park community. There are discussions currently going on about allowing the Boys and Girls Club to lease out Gale Park and its brand new field house to run its programs. SEIU Local 73 disagrees with this Boys and Girls club proposal or any other effort to have outside agencies begin to take over the running of programs in the Parks. Personnel hired by these agencies will be doing the very same jobs that Park District employees are currently performing or are capable of doing. We are also appalled to hear that after the community requested, demanded, fought for and even desperately asked for the District to build a Park in the North of Howard community, you are now contemplating a proposal that would lease the new $6 million Park Field House (that was built with taxpayer money) to a private, not-for-profit organization like the Boys and Girls Club. Please don’t get me wrong. The Union is not attacking the Boys and Girls Club. We recognize the good work they do with and for youth. Indeed, they actually do a fine job living up to the mission they have set for themselves. However, we just don’t support the idea of handing Gale Park over to them. 1. Because SEIU members have been working for more than 60 years to provide vital recreation services to this City. We are more than capable and willing to continue to work with communities to provide the programs they are looking for. 2) Most importantly, the community has repeatedly demanded that the Park remain a PUBLIC Park with regular full-time Park District staff. This request has somehow fallen on deaf ears. 3) There is an advantage to having open and public Parks, although the District seems to think differently. Leasing to an outside agency would actually limit community members’ access to programs and to the Park itself. Lastly, is the District now going into the business of building $2 million soccer fields to give to the rich; $6 million dollar Parks to give to the Boys and Girls Clubs – and what next? The community doesn’t like the idea and SEIU doesn’t either! In fact, this is a very slippery slope to what can be described as the Capitalist ideas about eating off the public trough. We are here today to urge you to reverse this decision, reject this proposal and any like proposal in the future. We see this issue a violation of the community trust and a severe departure from the mission of the Chicago Park District, which is to take the lead in providing recreational service to all of Chicago’s communities. This proposal makes it looks as if you are trying to get out of the business. Please take this message back to President Chico and Superintendent Mitchell: the Union and the Community are in unity.

Boys and Girls Club should look elsewhere in Rogers Park Ald. Moore has announced a plan to house a Boys and Girls Club in the new Gale Park Community Center. Sure, it sounds like a great idea, but only at first glance, for about ten seconds. The longer one thinks about it, the more the "wait a minute" response kicks in, and turns into a resounding "Woah-stop! This just isn't right!" The center was built with public funds, and intended to offer park district programming. Of course a Boys and Girls Club in our community would be a good thing-but in some place other than the new Gale Community Center-that is, in addition to the center, not instead of it. There are a number of other places the club could go, including unused space at Gale School, as some have suggested. Goodness knows that unused spaces abound on Howard and in the surrounding area. This is a matter that simply must be put to the community to decide. The Gale Park Advisory Council has put many years, countless hours of effort, to be a responsible voice of the community about this new center. Turning it over to the Boys and Girls Club without grass-roots community input is simply wrong. We need the community center, and we need it to serve the whole community, all ages, with a wide range of activities. Over the years, I have followed the painfully slow progress of this much needed project. The advisory council has not limited itself to sitting in meetings and talking. They have mustered all the resources they could, not just to get the facility built, but to involve hundreds of neighbors in the process. Mr. Moore points out that adults have other options-outside of the immediate community. Notice that little word "outside." Seniors, older teens, young adults, and many others need a place-inside the neighborhood. It could be a wonderful thing to have the community center for all of the neighborhood, along with the Boys and Girls Club in another facility. We probably need both, not just one. The center was dreamed of and planned for a specific set of needs and purposes, and it is not for sale, barter, or giving away to another organization! The Boys and Girls Club should look elsewhere. There's room, but not in a center that was paid for by others. We have already waited over a dozen years for our center to be opened. Let's make sure that it becomes a resource that meets all of the needs it was designed for. The Center belongs to the community, and has great potential. Let's get it right. We need an open meeting to give the entire community a voice about the use of the building. Many people are concerned about this newly announced idea, since it's our neighborhood and our tax dollars. http://www.chicagojournal.com/main.asp?SectionID=49&SubSectionID=184&ArticleID=5267&TM=28568.25

Community meeting needed to debate Boys and Girls Club Being one of the organizers to initiate the idea of a Community Recreational Center to North of Howard and to work for 12 years with hundreds of community members to make it a reality, I think you know my perspective of keeping the Field House for all the Community. However, a new idea has surfaced and almost is to a decision point without the input of the total community. I propose that we place this question of a Boys and Girls Club in perspective, and listen to all of the community so that the will of the community will be honored. First of all, I want to thank all the community members and organizations who put their blood, sweat and tears into making the present Gale Community Center a physical reality. Secondly, I want to thank the youth programs run by Howard Area Community Center, Family Matters, Starfish, and Good News Partners Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts, and Northpoint Advancement Center at one point of their history, and Triangle Park Corporation which ran summer events for youth, including co-sponsoring with the Howard Area's seniors club a softball program every Saturday afternoon with snacks for 2 years. Your efforts have been persistent and long standing, going back 20 years. You need to be applauded, recognized and included, and not squeezed out in this effort to bring additional youth outreach to the area.. I would like to break down the debate about the Boys and Girls Club into four questions: 1. Should we have a Boys and Girls Club in the Howard Area in addition to the existing youth programs? 2. Should it take over the space in the field house whose original intent was to be used by the entire community and not just 6 - 18 year old youth? 3. Should it be located in other location, e.g. Gale Elementary School, which has available space, including gyms, assembly space, classrooms, already dedicated to educating youth, and utilize space in the field house when necessary? 4. Should this be debated in a full community meeting or behind closed doors with only a few community players sitting around the table? Thank you. Sr. Cecilia Fandel Gale Park Advisory Council Rogers Park

Gale Community Center should be for all of Rogers Park Concerning the editorial comment on page 9 of News-Star June 26 headlined "Gale Community Center should be for all North of Howard residents," what about everybody south of Howard? Or west of Clark Street? Is North of Howard all that special that the community center should serve their needs only? All of Rogers Park's residents deserve better programming and park facilities. Better programming at Gale-Gale being open morning to night seven days a week-could make up for the short-comings at Touhy Park, supplement programs at Pottowattomee, and complement programs at Loyola Park. It seems short sighted to view the Gale Community Center in isolation. It seems excusionary to consider the Gale Community Center as serving the needs of "North of Howard" only. It would be more productive to consider how programming at the Gale Community Center could improve the delivery of recreational opportunities to all of Rogers Park. Keeping the community center open and providing programs seven days a week from morning to night will depend on finding money for staffing and methods of addressing security issues. Perhaps the Boys and Girls Club will bring some new money to the table as well as some fresh ideas. Let's see. We have a very nice new building. What ever will we do with it?

The Gale Park Advisory Council is recognized as the authority working and speaking on behalf of community residents. For over a decade they have been accountable, accessible, and responsive to the community. Most notably, they are widely respected for their advocacy to keep the community center idea alive. Well, finally the cake is baked, eco-green decorated, and ready to serve. But wait! A politician and his allies want to claim credit and take over? Rogers Park residents got a slap in the face when we learned that political insiders have been meeting for months to make decisions for us. The behind-closed-doors dealing violates our right to participate, and yes, even take the lead, in decision making that affects our lives and our community. It seems that the long established and globally recognized values of community control and self-determination are not the values of our politicians and their friends. What's also appalling are the blunt force machinations underway to kill honest volunteerism and initiative by the residents who comprise the parks council. The similarities between the machinations of the Chicago Children's Museum to assume control of a piece of Grant Park and this Rogers Park episode are striking. How can our North Side "progressive" alderman oppose one non-profit organization's campaign in Grant Park and at the same time meet secretly to encourage another non-profit to assume control of park space in Rogers Park? I welcome the Boys and Girls Club, with its focus on youth services, to bring their resources as an addition to what the park district and our community can provide. I do not support installing the club as a replacement for local community resident activism (the parks council) which already exists and has a good track record of advocacy on our behalf. The vision we've been working toward for so long is a community center that helps create a much needed sense of community, involvement, and connectedness among local residents. The goals to serve both young and older residents, of all races, and of all classes are all important. I urge our alderman to work with our community, residents, and local organizations. Support and assist the parks council and credit them for the real and successful work they have been doing for over a decade. The advisory council has the numbers, the people, the skills, the creativity, and the energy to create what can be a unique model for park district service in Chicago. Their leadership has inspired us so far. To destroy it would be folly. I look forward to their work to recruit unprecedented financial and volunteer support from more Rogers Park residents, businesses, and institutions. I will work to help make that happen. Michael Harrington Rogers Park

SAVE OUR COMMUNITY CENTER Rogers Park Residents Say No to the Privatization of the New Chicago Park District Community Center at 1610 W. Howard Street! A public protest rally is scheduled for Saturday, July 26th at 2 P.M. starting at Gale Park, 1600 W. Howard Street (Marshfield & Howard). The rally will feature speakers from S.O.C.C., (Save Our Community Center), Save Our Parks, SEIU Local 73, Gale Park Advisory Council as well as Rogers Park residents representing seniors and other community organizations. The rally will conclude with a 4 block march to 49th Ward Alderman Joe Moore’s Ward office at 7356 N. Greenview, where protesters will demand the Alderman cease and desist in his plan to privatize the Gale Park Community Center by sponsoring a ‘turn over’ of the new, unopened building to the Chicago Boys and Girls Clubs, which would limit, if not completely prohibit community access and use of this new, public taxpayer funded, Chicago Park District Community Center. At several recent community meetings, including this past Tuesday’s Chicago Park District’s North Region Budget Hearing, individuals and organizations, including SEIU Local 73, the Gale Park Advisory Council, S.O.C.C. and Friends Of The Parks, have spoken out strongly against this privatization of Chicago Park District property. Please join us for this important event to “Save Our Community Center”

I'm waiting to hear Mr. GInderske cry about shutting out 9300 poor kids who are begging to shell out 20 bucks to my cause.

did ginderske break the law? http://rogersparkbench.blogspot.com/2008/07/did-nhrp-break-law.html

in Gale programming I am writing on behalf of Partners for Rogers Park, a public and private collaborative involved in a comprehensive community planning process. Informed by successful models such as LISC's New Communities Program in Chicago, PRP is working to strengthen the Rogers Park community through a strategic and progressive planning process; creative and engaging community organizing initiatives; and comprehensive community development work. The planning process is funded by LISC, The Field Foundation and The Seabury Family Foundation. It has come to our attention that the Chicago Park District is in negotiations with the Chicago Boys and Girls Club about the use and disposition of the new Gale community center located at Howard and Marshfield Avenue. Over the past five years, PRP and its members have been instrumental in the process of bringing the community center to fruition. Several of its members have been very involved in developing expectations for the use and programming of the facility. A critical role in fund raising for the facility was played by several PRP Steering Committee members who engaged in capital fundraising to ensure broad community access to programming and services for all community residents. Further, there are many non-profit organizations within the Rogers Park community that currently provide innovative, low cost youth programming whose funding, enrollment and programming will be impacted by such a partnership. While additional programming from the Boys and Girls Club would be a welcome addition to the community, it should not be at the expense of existing programming with funding that has already been secured. We are hopeful that the contemplated partnership of the Chicago Park District and the Boys and Girls Club will not prevent other community residents and organizations from using the facility for programming as was originally designed and committed to during the planning and fundraising phases of the community center's development. We are certain that there are mutual goals among both initiatives, and we welcome the opportunity to dialogue about those goals. Both groups are interested in achieving high quality services for all community residents that are cost effective and affordable. We would also like to discuss how both planning groups goals can be integrated into a unified process that is inclusive, collaborative, transparent, and honors the commitments that have been made to residents and funders alike. What is most promising is that all of us are working towards the same goal of wanting to improve the quality of life for the residents of Rogers Park and to that end we should all be willing to work with one another. Jaela Neal Coordinator, Partners for Rogers Park

undermine citizens' confidence I'm sure the Chicago Boys & Girls Clubs do a lot of good, and I'm sure such a club north of Howard would serve that neighborhood well. It is unfortunate, however, that the manner in which negotiations were held to locate a club in the newly completed Gale School Community Center has created an atmosphere of back room dealing and failure to respect the wishes of those folks who have labored for more than a decade to see the center built. Secrecy and disrespect undermine the confidence citizens have in their elected officials and in their government. Jim Kepler North of Howard, Rogers Park

Joe Moore is Why the Field House is Not Open Did You Know.... On Wednesday, July 9, 2008 Tim Mitchell, General Superintendent and CEO of the Chicago Park District, told the officers of the North of Howard Park Advisory Council that the alleged "buckling of floor boards" in one corner of the gym near the door in the new field house in Gale Park on Howard St has been resolved, that there are no outstanding issues with the contractor, and that the Park District has signed off on project completion. Did You Know... On Friday, July 11, 2008, Mitchell told us that the privatization of the operation of the new Park District field house is Joe Moore's idea, that the Park District is not for or against the privatization, and that the Park District will do whatever the community wants. (Unfortunately so far Mr. Mitchell is mistaking Joe Moore and Jim Ginderske for our community. Meanwhile, the unions are learning what we have long known which is Joe Moore has no principles, there is nothing he believes in). Did You Know... It's not about operational funding. The Park District's 2008 budget includes headcount increases for the neighborhoods and fee increases to pay for them. The Park District has already conducted and completed a selection process for staff for the new field house, and has already offered jobs to a park supervisor and several assistants. Moore is proposing to spend an undisclosed "substantial sum" of Park District dollars to PAY a private contractor to operate the taxpayer-built Park District field house in Gale Park. Did You Know... The ONLY reason that the new field house in Gale Park on Howard Street is not open RIGHT NOW - is: Joseph A. Moore. It's criminal. http://howardwatchers.blogspot.com/

say no to joe http://rogersparkbench.blogspot.com/2008/07/neighbors-say-no-to-joe-and-junkie-jim.html

This exchange makes me laugh.... The problem is the Daley administration and everyone of you helped him get elected by standing with your thumbs in your ass's last time Daley ran.I told SEIU local 73, me today you tomorrow. Tim Michell is a Daley coordinator and was Robert Sorichs mentor. The Daleys will do what ever they want, give them a inch they will take a mile. Unions under Mayor Daley, are drowning fast! I said it in 2003,2004, and 2005 we must go after the Daley Administration. I was fired for standing up for the Unions( not to mention supporting a African American for for Mayor). What did it get me ......The same thing SEIU local 73 and all Unions are getting now.....Nothing!

Joe needs to step down now. He is at best inept and at worst a crook. Step down now, Joe!

I agree and demand that Joe Moore step down. Step down, Joe!

Move aside Joe Moore. You and Ginderske are ruining Rogers Park.

Only a skunk could love Joe Moore. He and his ward smell like corruption.

Going to a workout gym on city time, personal errands on city time, politics on city time, doing nothing all day like the safety department still continues today. Tell that dumb dumb you need to be at work to keep your job. Evolve!Stop your stupid posts on this site, get yours working. SEIU fired you for good cause, you are a loafer. Bensenville will fire you next. Get a real job, shovel and dig laborer Frank. Mop floors, you have no skills. Thanks Amigo!

What is your opinion on Gay Rights? Do you support a courtesy Reach-around?

Joe Moore supporters need a heavy dose of medication to maintain a grip on reality.

Save the 49th ward. Repeal Joe Moore.

CoCoRAT is the source of the fox reports. He has contacts with the gay media mafia from his gay bro. I am told CoCoRAT got his info from Avilas office. Avila misused his office and public trust. This info to CoCoRAT was probably relayed thru his hateful son.

don was for daley before he was against daley. that's because he is nothing but against moore, even when it means being against kids.

Hey Guys the problem is bigger than your vacillating Alderman. The Daley Machine is the problem. The city will soon have massive layoffs ,but to corruption more than a bad Ecomony. Bad Management waste and corruption,will have us all living in a tent cities, or living behind our locked doors with loaded weapons. When some of us are living under viaducts and watch the clout drive by in Free Government vehicles, then we will know what clout is.

To be clear: S.O.C.C.(Save Our Community Center) is not against the Chicago Boys and Girls Clubs operating a club in our neighborhood. We recognize the good work they do with and for youth and would welcome them in our neighborhood, serving our young people. Our strong objection to the Alderman's plan is that it would turn over a taxpayer funded, long awaited, Park District Community Center to a private organization, which will drastically limit, if not completely deprive, open access and programing for all, from mothers with toddlers to our many senior citizens. As many others have pointed out, the Principal of Gale Math & Science Academy, has made it clear that he would very much like to negotiate a deal with BGCC whereby they would have full use of the separate, free standing, underused school Annex building on Marshfield. This building is larger than the new Community Center building and much better designed and equipped for a B & G Club and it's less than 10yrs old. This 'compromise' would be a big win, win for our neighborhood: a Park District Community Center for ALL, as originally planned, and a separate, free standing, well equipped facility for the Boys & Girls Club. I would like to add that despite what the Alderman says, his plan was and has been 'hatched' behind closed doors, with a small group of his 'inner circle'. This is not something that 'they' started discussing within the last few weeks either....it had to begin months, if not a year or more ago, and has been carried on without any community input or discussion, until the past several weeks. In an open and transparent process 'we' (the community) would and should have been involved from the very beginning. Mike Luckenbach Founding Member S.O.C.C. 7712 N. Paulina Rogers Park, U.S.A.

An open letter to Alderman Joe Moore Saturday July 26th, 2008 RE: YOUR PLAN TO TRANSFER CONTROL OF GALE COMMUNITY CENTER TO THE BOYS AND GIRLS CLUBS Alderman Moore, In your effort to secure a Boys and Girls Club for the Rogers Park Community, you have proposed to the Chicago Park District that they allow the Boys and Girls Club to occupy, operate and manage the yet unopened Gale Community Center at 1610 W. Howard. Many residents of this community and your constituents in the 49th Ward, whom we have polled, find this use of a public park facility unacceptable at the very least and illegal at worst. We strongly urge you to stop this process immediately, withdraw your requests to use the Gale Community Center for such activities and allow the Center to open without delay under its original intent as a public Park District facility for the neighborhood. Additionally, we strongly urge you to pursue the opportunity to bring a Boys and Girls Club into the Rogers Park community at the free-standing Gale School Annex. Principal Richard Glass has gone on record welcoming the Boys’ and Girls Clubs to utilize the school and Arnie Duncan, CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, fully supports and encourages the Boys and Girls Clubs continued use of CPS facilities. Currently the Boys and Girls Clubs are located in 24 CPS schools in Chicago and over 600 nation-wide. It has been and continues to be a very successful partnership. We highly advise you to focus your time and energy in securing such a facility for the Rogers Park community. We also insist that you create a community panel, representative of all the stakeholders in this process, to work with you in securing such a facility for the Boys and Girls Clubs in the Gale School. Together, in an open and transparent process, we can have both our new public park field house and a Boys and Girls Club in Rogers Park. Sincerely, Committee To Save Our Community Center S.O.C.C. Steering Committee Mike Luckenbach Maryon Banks Toni Duncan Sister Cecilia Fandel Don Gordon Eva McCann Carla Tomino cc: Honorable Richard M. Daley, Mayor Mr. Tim Mitchell, Superintendent Chicago Park District Mr. Arnie Duncan, CEO Chicago Public Schools Mr.Gery Chico, President Chicago Park District Board of Commissioners Mr. Richard Glass, Principal Gale School Ms. Erma Tranter, President Friends of the Parks