First Neighborhood Meeting Summary 6/14/14

Over 50 people came out for the first neighborhood meeting

The first neighborhood meeting for residents in the area bound by Chicago/Damen/Grand/

Western took place on Saturday, June 14th from 11am-12pm at Tuman’s Tap located Chicago Avenue and Leavitt.  The meeting began on time at 11am with approximately 40 people present. The meeting attendance grew to over 50 people. JW Glass of the 500 block of North Leavitt and Liz Kuhn of the 2200 block of West Race co-facilitated the meeting.

The meeting came about because the area bound by Chicago/Grand/Damen/Western does not have a neighborhood organization. It is adjacent to other active neighborhood organizations. Liz Kuhn put together a survey in early spring 2014 to ask whether a new community organization should be started, or whether residents would prefer to join one of the existing community organizations. Over 100 people completed the survey. The complete survey results were shared at the meeting and can be viewed here. 

After receiving a mixture of responses, Liz Kuhn initiated a meeting with the presidents of the Ukrainian Village Neighborhood Association (UVNA), the Chicago Grand Neighbors Association (CGNA), and the East Village Association (EVA) to share the results of the survey and discuss pros and cons of one of the existing organizations to expand boundaries or forming our own organization. They all recommended forming our own organization. The primary reasons for this were: 1) comparable neighborhood organizations serve a smaller geographic area, 2) the same issues that are pertinent to either the north end of UVNA at Division or the east end of CGNA at Ashland are not necessarily applicable at the southwestern edge of Grand and Western, 3) the UVNA boundaries currently exist as part of preserving the historic district which does not extend south of Chicago Avenue, 4) the area is divided into two wards (26 and 1) which is different from CGNA and UVNA, 5) the CAPS beat northern boundary is Chicago Avenue.

Steve Niketopoulos, the president of the UVNA and an administrator for the community-oriented facebook page for the Ukrainian Village,  provided further clarification about the technical boundaries of the UVNA and the historic district and cleared up a common misconception that the boundaries extended south of Chicago Avenue.

The meeting then focused on four key questions and solicited answers from attendees.

1) What do you like about the neighborhood?

• Safe
• Good street parking
• Family-oriented
• Positive property values
• Diverse (culture, race, age)
• Mitchell School
• Walkability
• “Nice” people
• Access
• Proximity to Smith Park
• Superior Playlot
• Small local businesses
• Churches

2) What don’t you like about the neighborhood?

• Crosswalk at Hoyne and Chicago Avenue
• Traffic
• Parking is getting more difficult
• Two aldermen
• Potholes
• Litter
• Graffiti/Tagging
• Rats
• Crime
• No dog park
• Vacant businesses
• Empty lots on Grand Avenue
• Need a divvy station near Western and Grand/Metra station
• Lost the Wood Street police station/Lack of police station presence

3) What are the biggest issues facing the neighborhood?

• Affordability
• Lack of a neighborhood organization
• Sense of community
• Two aldermen
• Continue positive growth
• Grand Avenue development
• Zoning
• Rodents
• No farmer’s market (one is in formation at Smith Park)

4) Why do you desire the formation of a neighborhood organization?

• Power in numbers for things like requests to alderman
• Advocacy
• Sense of community
• Address bordering areas
• Consider extending south of Grand to the railroad tracks
• Build upon a good existing model

Liz and JW proposed an initial structure of committees and a monthly steering meeting with the principle guidelines of transparency and action. Attendees sign up for committees that matched their interests and skill sets.

The three committees are:

1) Community Affairs--social activities and events, business liaison, local schools and organizations liaison, neighborhood safety, parks, recreation, and environment

2) Operations--budgeting, finance, communications, membership

3) Preservation and Planning--historic preservation, zoning, parking, development proposals

A monthly meeting will take place on a Tuesday or Wednesday night each month for the foreseeable future until a formalized organizational structure is in place.  The next meeting will take place in July. Exact date, time and location will be announced.

Communicate by email to neighborhoodoptions60612@gmail.com

Updates will be posted at neighborhoodoptions.blogspot.com