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Special Report

North of Howard. A Year in Review
Note: This series posts in chronological order.
Please scroll down for This Was Then


Environmental Adaptation

A good friend of mine always chides me on the street pics I post because as he says
" There are never any people in your pictures."

Well, he's probably right about that but living in the North of Howard neighborhood the past 3 1/2 years has taught me a few things about adaptating to the environment; snapping candid pics of people up here will get you nothing but trouble.

Sure, I could have. I've had so many opportunities to catch illegal activity through my lens last year, I would have filled more than a few fat photo albums just from my street alone. Fights, drug dealing, gambling, prostitution and gang thugs populated the 7600 block of Bosworth and the Howard and Rogers intersection every day, 24 hours a day.

North of Howard has never been an easy neighborhood to live in. There is always a level of instability and crime that you just come to expect; it's just part of the landscape. As long as I've lived here, the Bosworth, Howard, Rogers corridor has been a trouble spot and a magnet for troublemakers. But early last spring it got worse, dramatically worse.

Criminals of every persuauion were 10 and 12 deep at the entrance to the Northpoint, The Broadmoor, Tony's and Eddy's Food Mart. The environment in this 1 1/2 block area of my neighborhood was so bad, it made even this street saavy urbanite more than a little reluctant to walk anywhere near these locations because these people meant business. and they would do anything to protect their business.

Word on the street was that the Daley's dismantling of certain CHA projects, had some of the the worst of the displaced residents being sent to the outlying wards all across the city. North of Howard seemed to get more than it's fair share of the hardened criminal types and the impact on our streets was immediate and demoralizing.

What's Wrong With These Pictures?

The Broadmoor entrance on the 7600 block of Bosworth.












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Sandy's Food Store located in The Broadmoore on Howard Street.











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Eddy's Food Mart at the intersection of Rogers and Howard .











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Entrance to The Northpoint
Building on the 7600 block of Bosworth.












Well of course my friend would repeat his usual "no people" remark. These photos were taken about a week before Memorial Day at about 11am on a weekday and I could take the same pic of each of these locations any day of the week now; I couldn't do that last year.

So, if I can answer my own question, "Nothing is wrong with these pictures." This looks like an everyday scene that could have been taken in any normal neighborhood in Chicago. But this isn't a typical "normal" neighborhood, this is North of Howard. Typically, there would be what used to pass for normal up here, cars pulling up, cash and merchandise being exchanged, enforcers at the doorways and lookouts on all corners. But the criminals don't own these 4 locations as they did in the past, they are gone. They've been missing since the weather started getting warm, which is usually when their appearance officially marked the beginning of the summer season in our part of town.

I've held off on writing this article because old habits die hard and I fully expected to see walk out my door one day and see the usual suspects at their posts doing their best to ruin our neighborhood. But we've now gotten through 2 holiday weekends now and maybe it's time to beleive that some significant progress really is being made here because the troublemakers are NOT at thier posts. In the meantime, I've taken notes, interviewed lots of people, witnessed enough events and feel comfortable enough on this 4th of July to begin this "North of Howard: Year in Review" series.

Gary Fuschi

Seeds of Change: 7625 North Bosworth.

I remember the day the shiny black, tinted windowed Mercedes SUV nonchalantly parked in front of the hydrant at 7625 North Bosworth last summer on a hot Saturday morning. Of course, the immediate assumption after months of such vehicles stopping anywhere near The Northpoint drug bazaar across the street, was that another customer had arrived. I happened to be out on the sidewalk looking at the 7625 North Bosworth building for a management sign with a phone number on it. My neighbors and I had just spent another sleepless night after spending months of sleepless nights because of the noise coming from the tenants of 7625. I was not in a good mood.

The door of the SUV opened and just as casually as she had blocked the hydrant without a second thought, a woman with short blond hair stepped over the piles of garbage on the parkway which she didn't notice since she was busy fumbling with a large bunch of keys she seemed unfamiliar with. Head down, she headed straight for the front gate of 7625 Bosworth. I didn't recognize her and I knew she didn't live there, so I asked if she was the owner. The question bothered her but she reluctantly said she was after I asked again.

Well, for the next hour she got an earful. She was told about the drug dealing in front and alley side of her building, about the 23 hour a day drinking, drugging, cursing and partying that occured all day and practically all night in the rear porch. She barely registered a raised eyebrow when she found out that a young girl who lived with a group we assumed was her family on the first floor, would enter cars all night that would drive up and honk their horns to announce their arrival. Her eyebrows raised in mock disbelief when she was told that one of her tenants was supplying drugs to the street mechants across the street at The Northpoint.

"Are you sure?.They seemed like such an awfully nice family."

In a word, she could care less and she was in a hurry to leave. But after finally finding the person responsible for turning a once stable, quiet and well maintained building into another neighborhood crime magnet in a matter of a few months, I was not about to let her go without getting some contact information. By this time, other neighbors had joined the conversation and in no time flat she realized she had no choice but to give us her office and cell number.

We were then all treated to her tale of woe as she recited the difficulties of making her monthly mortgage with tenants who wouldn't pay rent. And trying as she was to turn the building into a condominium on a retired teachers' pension, she rented whatever empty apartments there were to whoever showed up to apply. This statement was met with immediate condemnation from our group because the three apartments she rented were, of course, the three new problem tenants.

Realizing that she had put herself in a corner, she announced she was selling the building and the closing was taking place the following month. I guess she figured that would take the heat off her and it did for a minute, until we asked who the new owner was.

Not convincingly she said, "Oh, it's some neighborhood group, Good News something or other. They help poor people."

Our little impromptu group thought that no one could be worse than this uncaring , absentee owner and for a moment, we were somewhat optimistic and thought that maybe this was some much needed good news. Our optimism did not last very long.

A longtime neighbor who had been quiet up to this point asked, "Good News Church? Please tell me that's NOT who you sold the building to! "

When she sheepishly nodded in the affirmative, this neighbor let out a moan that could be heard for blocks.

The woman suddenly realized that her announcement did not have the desired effect. She all but forgot what she originally came for and before the moan even subsided, headed straight for the Mercedes. The tires screeched as she drove away. We never saw her again.

The phone numbers we were given were never answered and subsequently changed.

Gary Fuschi

Seeds of Change: This Was Then

Between the drug dealing across the street at The Northpoint, The Broadmoor and the 24 hour noise that came with it, the last thing we needed was disruptive, inconsiderate and dangerous neighbors right next door added to this volatile mix. But that’s just what we got and then some.

It was during this time that I became acquainted with some of the beat officers of the 24th District. This wasn’t hard since I had 911on speed dial; we probably all did. Personally, I must have made about 30 calls during those summer months at every hour of the day and night. Every single call brought a squad car within a few minutes and all the officers responded with patience and were genuinely concerned about our plight. Reports were written and warnings were given and a paper trail was beginning to accumulate. 7625 North Bosworth was now on their radar and the squads made frequent drive-by’s which we all appreciated. There was even an increase in undercover cars cruising our alley.

We finally got confirmation that the building was sold and the new owner was in fact, The Good News Church. This was both good and bad news since the previous landlord had never answered our calls, we at least had an owner in the neighborhood that we could voice our complaints to and we did plenty of that in the weeks following the transfer. The bad news, according to many long time NOH neighbors was The Good News Church and Bud Ogle the founder, now owned another property in our neighborhood.

At the time, I was not familiar with Mr. Ogle and his operation here and to be honest, I don’t fully understand the full scope and affect his 11 property holdings and programs have in our neighborhood. Maybe that can be a story for another day but for the purposes of this article; I will concentrate on what I know and what I’ve experienced.

The Rumours, The Memo.......

Rumors started immediately that Bud Ogle had plans to turn this rental property not into condominiums but a transient, single room occupancy hotel. This information was never confirmed but since Good News Church already owned two six flats on our block, it served to galvanize our group into further action and we requested a meeting with Bud Ogle to discuss the current situation, what he planned to do about it and his plans for the future of the building. Although we attempted twice to meet personally with Bud Ogle, for some reason or another, the meetings never happened. It was then that our group contacted Alderman Moore and he offered to facilitate a meeting with everyone concerned and a date was set.

In the meantime, things worsened on our block, next door and in the neighborhood in general. We all felt as though we were in the middle of a war zone with no end in site. A memo had also been obtained that described Bud Ogle’s plans to offer subsidized mortgages to the tenants at 7625 North Bosworth. And although the memo was a request to supporters of his organization for donations to the mortgage program, it made no mention of properly screening anyone or conducting background checks. Considering that Mr. Ogle did not seem very responsive to our repeated calls and complaints in the first few weeks, we were anything but optimistic about the future.

My partner and I seriously discussed the possibility of moving for the first time after reading that memo and its possible implications. After months of criminal activity, repeatedly calling police, fearing for our safety and being awakened every single night because of all the noise, we hit bottom. We were depressed, exhausted, our nerves were frayed and just when we thought we had hit rock bottom, it got worse. Way worse.

All three of the “rent to anyone” tenants that Bud Ogle inherited from the previous owners all happened to live in the back of the building adjacent to the alley. The drug supplier, who set up shop with some young kids in the front of 7625 and also supplied drugs to the dealers across the street, lived with a woman and several small children. He didn’t socialize too much with the group that routinely partied all day and night on the stairwell, but she was out, with her kids almost every night until 2 or 3 am. She was the loudest and most vulgar, even among the men, with every third word out of her mouth preceded by a mother f….n’. All this happened with her three kids absorbing every word, the youngest being about 3. She was a sweet little thing, with big brown eyes and cheeks to match. Her name was Poverty.

“Poverty, you betta’ get your mother f….n’ ass back in the house before I beat you”

All the partiers would laugh. It was about 3 am. This abuse occurred every day to all three kids. They heard stories about shooting cops, getting shot at, being in jail and witnessed all of the adults doing drugs and drinking on that stairwell. That was their life because that’s how the adults lived. It was normal to them all.

This became our everyday normal too.

and The Incidents

Originally Posted October 16, 2005, here's the link

But something has changed. A group of tenants moved into the building next door to us a few months ago and our life has not been the same since. Gathering in the back stairway, just under our bedroom window and the porch we used to spend time on, drinking by these tenants starts in the morning and continues all through the night. It doesn’t matter what day of the week it is and there is no concern for the volume level or the content of the conversations. There is talk about guns, obtaining guns, shooting people, getting shot, escaping from the police and from others who are shooting at them.

Two kids from a different tenant were asked not to climb over our iron fence at the alley. The police were called, yet despite their presence, the father and his 6 or 7 children proceeded to scream and yell and hurl horrible racial epithets and vile curse words at both myself and my fiancé. We were shocked and speechless.

I don’t usually shy away from normal confrontation with reasonable people. But my perception is that their values and their view of life are very different from mine. Their volatile unpredictability holds me hostage. Responding, as you could in a normal neighborly spat, is not an option. It’s not worth the risk.

Then This.....

The six officers who responded to my 1am 911 call on Friday, finally got this group that I referred to in the paragraph above, to turn down the music and return to their apartments. With the tenants now in their apartments, the officers and I talked for a few minutes in the alley. A woman calmly walked right through the entire group of us. She looked familiar to me and I didn’t realize, until a few moments later, where I had seen her before. She recognized me too, because as she walked between us, she smiled at me. I nodded.

We all finished talking and the officers recommended I return to my house via the front door, so that I would not be identified by the tenants next door. So I started walking south down the alley, towards Howard, when I realized this woman was now right behind me. “You’re working with the police aren’t you?”

“What did you say?”, I responded as I turned around. “You’re working with the f***ing police, aren’t you? We know you. We’ll get your f***ing ass”.

It was then I realized who she was. I had seen her occasionally with the group next door. I ran back to the officers and told them what had just been said. “If you are willing to sign a complaint, we will arrest her for verbal assault.” The lead officer said. I responded that I was willing to do that. They left and about an hour later, another squad car pulled up, told me they had arrested her and asked me to sign papers.

“The neighborhood isn’t as dangerous as some residents contend” says Bud Ogle in this weeks’ excellent article in the Reader. This building is a recent purchase by Mr. Ogle. To be fair, he inherited these tenants. But we have been complaining about this behavior for 4 months now. My neighbors and I have spent endless nights being woken up, calling 911, being afraid, being eyeballed and sending dozens of, respectful but detailed emails to Mr. Ogle describing this behavior.

We finally had a meeting brokered by Ald. Moore, Wednesday, October 12, and promises were made and guidelines were followed that were suggested by Mr Ogle.

To be perfectly honest, I didn't believe a word.

Gary Fuschi
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