Inner Town Pub Feeling the Pressure

you know, i could really like that ukranian villiage neighborhood, if only it were more like the suburbs.

And who's to say said shenanigans are not being pulling by patrons of Happy Village or Rainbo? Hmmmm?

Don't paint ITP with your hate colored brush, or was your condo their before the bar?.

These types of complaints will only increase once the smoking ban goes into effect. Now not only will the homeowners be bothered by loud drunks at closing, but every time they go outside for a cigarette.

1935 W. Thomas? Where on earth is that?!? It sounds like a scary area. PASS!

It makes me laugh people buy new condo or rent apartments by bars then and then they complain about noise. Move to the burbs if you don't like the noise.

And that is correct when the smoking ban happens a lot of people will be complaining.

Shut that crappy place down. I would much rather see a bank open up there.

I believe the urban pioneers who buy condos in these gritty areas should be applauded. And didn't the hipsters drive out the original residents from Ukrania?

Don't worry, with a lot of cleansing and imagination Inner Town Pub can be transformed into a swank cocktail lounge. I'm thinking Bordo's Deux.

You bet not mess with the Vice Beer!

Just so all you outraged young hip people know, this kind of stuff happens all the time throughout the years, all over Chicago. Believe it or not, Lincoln Park and River North used to be horrible, dangerous neighborhoods, then flourished with hip people in cool bars, mixing with the old school people still there, eventually to become the habitat of yuppies and wealthy people. Wicker Park the same, now it's pretty much completely gentrified.

Sorry to say it, but it will happen the same way in Ukrainian Village.

It sucks, but so does getting old and sick. That'll happen to you also.

Go check out Pilsen.

Wait, so this guy is pissed off that people are puking on his lawn and screwing on his porch, and whiny hipsters--who must be keeping it so real in the Village--are pulling the gentrifying yuppie card?

I mean, if the people are just pissed that there's noise, that's bullshit, and their own stupid fault for moving next door to a bar. Face it, some people are entitled dumbasses.

But if this guy is truly having his property trespassed and puked upon, then come on ... move to the gutter, and you can get all the authentic grit you want.

How about this, inner town asks it's entitled clientèle to knock it off with the shitting in the alley and the fornicating on the neghbor's porch.
Instead they try to get their entitled clientèle to sign a petition which excuses poor public behavior because you know that's what city living is all about (well at least according to MTV's real world)

How would you like it if I came to your walkup in Logan Square and took a shit on your doormat? My guess is that you wouldn't be too pleased. How you can be upset with someone for having their door step defecated / fornicated upon is ridiculous. Granted they live above a bar, but isn't there a sense of decorum that tells you not to dump on a doorstep or in an alley??

For shame. Everyone that reads this site comes across as a bunch of holier than thou hipster wannabes. Bring on the gentrification, I hope we push every last one of you out to Naperville.

It's probably the same clowns who had 1035 (on Damen) and that other place -- right across the street -- shut down. It's bullshit. Fuck these asshole fucking yuppies and their goddamn bullshit. They knew going in what the neighborhood was like, THAT THERE WAS A BAR HERE, A BAR THERE, that is what drove their asses to the neighborhood in the first place..."Oh, it's like, TRRRRRRENDY arrrrrround here...So many ARRRRRRRTISTS...That means it's...like...A good investment."

I love the Innertown and I will be there with bells on if that final hour comes shouting down yups. They're destroying the fabric of our neighborhoods.

I will say that I spend many nights at the inner town, and I've never seen any of the major things the neighbor is complaining about happen. I have seen the next door neighbor complain about bikes being locked to the fence, but people there are more than happy to move bikes. (There is now a sign on the door that tells people not to park their bikes on the fence.)

I think Stephen has it right when he says, "I'm a homeowner near the ITP and firmly believe it is places like the ITP and Happy Village which make our neighborhood such a wonderful place to live." I will say that this is one place that I am sure to bring visitors to when they come from out of town.

Anyway, everyone be sure to go sign the petition, the second mediation meeting is next week.

Also, Lee, you make it sound as if Inner Town is a 4 a.m., and it isn't.

I remember when Mike first opened the Inner Town in the early 80's. He waged an almost one man war against the dope peddling gang bangers who tried to dominate his bar and the corner. There was many a Saturday night where he had fewer than 6 patrons but Mike stuck it out. He offered the working class drinkers a wide assoprtment of brew not seen in most bars at the time and at good prices. Mike was an "urban pioneer" who helped make the neighbor safe for whining yuppies to move in and price us working stiffs out. This fool should be thanking Mike for the neighborhood. If one wants peace and quiet, dont move to the neighborhood of Nelson Algren. Move to Hemingway's birth place-Oak Park, or Hillary's Park Ridge. The big city is not the place to sooth your frazzled nerves! And Mike if you read this, I think my Mona Lisa needs a cleaning-no one can see the images underneath.

it's so funny. yuppies, hipsters, artists; the original residents can't tell you apart and they think you're all assholes.

but innertown is a fine place to get drunk and maybe this resident is an asshole while at the same time maybe innertown is having a little trouble with a few of their patrons. the place isn't that big, i'm sure they have a pretty good idea of who might be ready to cause some problems. should be easy to solve.

I'm a regular at Inner Town, have been for a while now, and will be for a long time to come, assuming the bar keeps it's place. You can come find me at the pool table any night of the week. Literally. This is a wonderful bar, and I hate the thought of it getting shut down. I met people there when I first moved to Chicago who are now my best friends, and I think you could easily find many people with the same story. Of all the nights I've been there, of all the games of pool I've played and PBR I've had, it's a rare thing to see someone as drunk as these complaints are stating. A very rare thing.

Just for the record, and I'd like this to be loud and clear, this whole...shitting in people's yard thing? Not true. I was talking with Sarah last night (one of the bartenders) and we were talking about the letter this neighbor wrote and the complaints she listed. In going through all of this woman's points in her letter and proving each "fact" untrue, she talked to the man who said he had found feces in his yard. He was an undercover cop who, in passing, had mentioned that he had found shit in his yard a few days ago, and realized shortly after he had a homeless man sleeping, and shitting, in his yard at night.

Not a drunk hipster, not an over-served patron...a homeless man.

I love Inner Town and encourage anyone and everyone to come meet in the back of the bar for some pool. I'll be there tonight. And tomorrow. And tomorrow. And tomorrow. And...

Dear Hipsters,

Check this shit out, it'll blow yr mind: Not everyone knows which storefronts produce shitting, vomiting, humpin' peoples AT THREE IN THE MORNING when they rent/purchase a place. See, most people aren't looking for places to live at 2-4 AM.

Case in point: I lived across from Raven's (yep, Lincoln Park; commence hatin) for seven years. When I chose my appt, I had no idea Raven's was a pukin', shoutin' idiot factory. At about 4 AM it gets crazy loud. I was on the 18th floor and I couldn't sleep w/my windows open in the summer because of the noise.

Was it my fault for renting a place near a bar? (This is Chicago -- do we even have housing that isn't near some sort of bar?) Should the hundreds of people living w/in puking distance of bars like this move to the suburbs? Wuh?

Bars are PART OF a neighborhood. They need to respect the rest of the neighborhood. A liquor license doesn't give you the right to over-serve people that subsequently cause havoc every night.

The VAST majority of bars in the city manage to churn out neighborhood-friendly patrons. However, if the bar consistently produces asshole patrons early in the morning, it IS their problem. Stop serving people that get rowdy. These idiots eventually get the message and start going somewhere else.

Someday y'all will turn 30 and realize that we're a heterogeneous community consisting of mostly non-hipsters. Majority typically rules. If 95% of the neighbors near a watering hole want peace and quiet at night, how are they in the wrong?

(Note that I'm not referencing this particular incident, but rather the typical NIMBY argument that appears on here all too frequently.)

Cheerio -- off to the bar! (I respect my neighbors by getting shitfaced in the afternoon.)

Jeff

I work at the Inner Town, and would like to clear some things up.

first, i'd like to say that the neighborhood, like everything, changes. Now is a great opportunity for the bar to make some needed changes of its own, to both the building, and policy. We are taking advantage of that.

We are happy to work with our neighbors if they have concerns. We're very friendly (if you have your I.D. on you- i don't care if you're 50!). We cannot fix a problem if we don't know it is a problem. Someone has to say something. I just prefer it be said to us, before being taken to the liquor commissioner. I also prefer honesty.

The bar was not opened 20 years ago, that's just when this owner took possession. It was a neighborhood pub before it was a speak-easy during prohibition, and then a bar again.

I resent the way some people are depicting my patrons. People play chess in my bar. people talk about life in my bar. people meet their lovers in my bar, then bring them back years later, to the place they met, to propose marriage. This is not a rowdy crowd. It's a community. Thats why we don't want to lose it.

The weekends, being different, require crowd management. this is where some of the commplaints gain legitemacy, because behavior that was perfectly acceptable a few years ago is no longer tolerable. We are aggressively responding to that, both inside and out. I believe the complaints to be grossly exaggerated, and sometimes outdated, but still deserving of the great amount of attention we're giving them. As the neighborhood changes, we are adapting, and seeing results. There is always room for improvement, so this will be a continual process, helped by input from our OTHER neighbors who are friendly, helpful, and able to see the bar from an angle i cannot (yet).

POOP. It was in an alley, not a doorway. IF it even was human, it would most likely be from someone without a home. This is cause for sadness, not anger or humor. The bar has bathrooms for this, the single most private act in a human's life.

There are at least 15 bars within 3 blocks of us. People hop. There are alot of individuals stumbeling around the area that we did not serve. We do what we can, and will do more, but we are not the police, and should not be a scapegoat.

Lastly, if someone working on commission tells you that all the bars you're moving next to won't be a problem because they'll all be closed within 6 months, and 9 years later you have the buyer's remorse: take your greatly increased property value and run to a place that you WANT to live in. A place with more land, more house, more parking and more quiet.

thank you.