Safe Passage Program

Below is a message from our CAPS youth coordinator, Meg Gillman, about a program for neighbors called Safe Passage.  Safe Passage is part of a comprehensive new effort to get children to and from school safely.  Learn more about it here and give Meg a call at 312-742-0991 to request your sign.

Safe Passage is a city-wide program that involves neighbors in ensuring that children go to and from school safely.  Residents place a Safe Passage Neighborhood Watch sign in a front window and, when they are home, look out the window in the morning and in the afternoon to monitor children walking to and from school.  If there is a problem, neighbors should call 911.  To register for a Safe Passage sign, residents provide name, address and phone number to a CAPS Youth Coordinator or Organizer.  We do not check the background of people who display the sign; we just want to know where they are being displayed.  The signs do NOT indicate that a location is a safe place to seek help.

This is in contrast to the Safe Haven program for businesses. Businesses that display the Safe Haven sign have been checked by the Police for criminal background and proper licensing and have signed a contract with CAPS agreeing that people in distress can come in for their safety until Police respond to the owner’s 911 call.

Safe Passage monitors MOVEMENT. Safe Haven provides a LOCATION of refuge.

Please direct any questions and requests for Safe Passage signs to me at (312) 742-0991.  Thank you!

Meg Gillman

CAPS Youth Services Coordinator

Safe Neighborhoods in the Sun-Times

Uptown residents enjoying a Neighborhood Nights event at Winthrop and Winona

The hard work of neighbors in Uptown is receiving citywide attention.  A recent article in the Chicago Sun-Times highlights the impact positive loitering, neighborhood watches, and efforts like Neighborhood Nights can have on a community.  As the article states: “[I]n many places, a vigilant neighborhood attitude can work… Those neighborhoods become — or remain — safe because the residents work at it.” Click the link to view the entire article, and leave a message in the comments section if you want to get involved in one of the ongoing efforts in Uptown or to start your own.

Margate Park Block Club Sidewalk Sale

In a New Light: What Makes a Neighborhood Well?

(click on picture to enlarge)

Problem Building Process: Finding Owner Information

This is the second post in an ongoing series dealing with problem buildings.  Please also read our initial post.  Here we deal with finding information useful to contacting property owners and, when necessary, pressuring them to correct problems.

1.  Enter the address of your problem building into the CityNews search or County Assessor’s search to find its Property Index Number (PIN).  (Note: Large buildings may have a different address number than what is posted on the building itself. Corner buildings might even use a different street.  It may be necessary to search multiple addresses to find the correct PIN)

2.  Enter the property’s PIN into the Treasurer’s search to find the owner’s tax information.  Here you can find where the tax bill is mailed, how much the owner pays in property taxes, and if the property taxes have been paid to-date.

3.  Enter the property’s PIN into the Recorder of Deed’s search to confirm the owner’s information.  Here you can find other useful information, such as the mortgaging bank, as well as liens against the property, housing court cases against the property, and foreclosure proceedings brought by the mortgaging bank.

4.  Enter the owner’s information into the White Pages name or reverse address search to find a phone number for the owner.

5.  Use this information to contact the owner,  by phone or mail, and seek remedies.  Do the same with the mortgaging bank as well, if necessary.  Ask your neighbor to do so too, and their neighbor, and their neighbor, and so on, until you come to the desired resolution.

CWBC Garage and Sidewalk Sale, Take 2

Problem Building Process

Below is the process we use to deal with troubled buildings in the area.  It is not foolproof and should be adjusted on a case-by-case basis, but if there is a problem building on your street, this is the starting point.

Processes for Problem Buildings

I. Drug/Gang Houses

Community

1.     Call 911 for any crime in action, mentioning address of building involved

2.     Download and fill out a Gang and Drug House survey, send to CAPS office

3.     Inform Alderman’s office

4.     Inform CAPS office, attend beat meetings to follow-up

5.     After any arrests, participate as court advocates

Neighborhood Nights

Buttercup Charette meeting notice

B*PAC

Presents

Buttercup Playlot Redesign Charette

Saturday, June 5, 2010

10 am – Noon

Margate Park Fieldhouse

You are invited to join the *Buttercup Park Advisory Council as we put our creative minds together to create:

• A new design for the Buttercup Park

• A new design to improve the sightlines and safety at the Buttercup Park

• A new design to incorporate more community involvement at the Buttercup Park

• A new design to bring pride and positive attention to the Buttercup Park

• A new design to become greener at the Buttercup Park

• A new design to have our children play on updated equipment @ the Buttercup Park

If you would like to be part of this creative and innovative process…please reply by email to

PC @…. gudsmile2@yahoo.com…. by June 1^st

Light refreshments will be served….

CWBC Garage and Sidewalk Sale