Results tagged “uptownupdate”

We've been sitting on our hands the past few days, trying to resist calling/emailing/texting/sending passenger pigeons to Ald. Helen Shiller's 46th Ward office (again) for an answer to the weeks-old question "what, exactly, is going on in Uptown?" She finally posted a press release yesterday, which we've been reading... and rereading... for substance all day. It's lacking. But it does finally address the Aug. 13 Uptown Riot.

Ald. Helen Shiller (46th) came back from her vacation to a ward angered by recent violence and shootings. Witnesses said the alderman left a community meeting intended to address the Olympic bid surrounded by a crush of residents shouting, "Run, Helen, run."

According to the blog Uptown Update, there's all kinds of craziness that's been going on this week at the corner of Leland and Sheridan. Here's some video:

Saying the Fix Wilson Yard community group waited too long to file, Judge Mary Rochford dismissed their lawsuit against the City of Chicago challenging the TIF that financed the Wilson Yard project. The ordinance for the TIF passed in 2001 but the group didn't file suit until December 2008, a period of time that was far too long, according to Judge Rochford. The controversial Wilson Yard project set aside $52 million for the development of commercial spaces, such as a Target store, and mixed-income housing. But the swelling cost as well as the shift in focus from commercial spaces to residential spaces is the impetus behind the Fix Wilson Yard group's ire.