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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