thenewbie,
The Objective Observer
& gf
When we read the JB Alberto's Pizza post that appeared on the Hellhole, we all became quite concerned. It seemed that people were quite upset at Tony, the proprietoer of this 27 year old business on Morse because of what was perceived as a willingness to allow the delivery drivers to double park, drink on the job and gather in front of the store and catcall our female neighbors walking by. Oh, there were other complaints, but those three seemed the most credible to us and most often repeated.
There also seemed to be an awful lot of frustration being expressed, no doubt because of how long this type of behavior had occurred. The frustration unfortunately turned a little nasty and some not so reasonable suggestions were made. We were all alarmed and concerned by this time.
So the newbie decided to write a letter. He had seen gf do this quite often with varying degrees of success, although the timely notificaion exchange doesn't seem to be making much headway. The concern and intent the newbie had were genuine but possibly ill advised, in hindsight. You see, timing is everything and gf had just completed a couple of pointed essays aimed right at the alderman, the same alderman that the newbie was inviting on a mutual mission. To his credit, the newbie did follow up the letter with a phone call and message which was not returned. Ok, OK, Sandy G, you can mark one in your newbie column.
When the alderman's letter arrived, the newbie realized all was not well. Undaunted by this apparent setback, we decided to send the objective observer on this mission alone to JB's. None of us had been there before but we thought the objective observer could best dispassionately balance the concerns of our neighbors and the community and the address the reality of being a retail business in Rogers Park, since we all had a little experience in that department. Tony had not been to the Caps meeting when these issues came up but he was aware of the posting on the Hellhole.
The objective observer arrived and met Don. They exchanged pleasantries and the conversation got real after answering in the affirmative, that our last name did indeed end in a vowel. Sometimes, you just have to use what you got. Don called Tony and discussions then began in earnest. Over the course of the next 5 days, there were many long talks on the phone. Two of these conversations were interrupted by gang activity outside the store.
After a few days, the objective observer called Tony only to be told that he had taken it upon himself to bring all of the drivers into his cramped office to be read the riot act. Zero tolerance on double parking, Zero tolerance on gathering and catcalling and Zero tolerance for drinking. The drinking accusation was the only charge Tony vehemently could not acknowledge as he did all the others on his own.
In the weeks leading up to the recent CAPS meeting, we all took turns monitoring the progress of this new Zero tolerance policy. And there was much progress to report from us all and we decided to go to the CAPS meeting to see how this process really worked in practice.
Kevin O'Neil chaired the well attended and cordial meeting and addressed the JB Alberto's Pizza issue first. Tony spoke from his chair about the Zero tolerance policy he put in place. gf then asked if anyone had seen any progress over the last few weeks and Sgt. Kaup said he thought there must have been since he had not written any tickets there lately. Everyone seemed somewhat convinced that this might work going forward, although there was talk about Tony pursuing parking from the nearby laundromat.
It was agreed that the situation would be monitored over the next month and that a report would be made at the next CAPS meeting about the results. This also seemed to be a reasonable course of action to us too.
So as far as we can tell from our experience, the blog posting, the issues being raised by neighbors as a result, the CAPS intervention, the business owners' response and the report to the CAPS meeting last Tuesday worked to solve a problem as well as anyone could expect, in our view.
We think there is lots of credit to go around.
In the spirit of full disclosure, we had a slice on the house after the meeting. Darn good pizza, too.
The Objective Observer
& gf
When we read the JB Alberto's Pizza post that appeared on the Hellhole, we all became quite concerned. It seemed that people were quite upset at Tony, the proprietoer of this 27 year old business on Morse because of what was perceived as a willingness to allow the delivery drivers to double park, drink on the job and gather in front of the store and catcall our female neighbors walking by. Oh, there were other complaints, but those three seemed the most credible to us and most often repeated.
There also seemed to be an awful lot of frustration being expressed, no doubt because of how long this type of behavior had occurred. The frustration unfortunately turned a little nasty and some not so reasonable suggestions were made. We were all alarmed and concerned by this time.
So the newbie decided to write a letter. He had seen gf do this quite often with varying degrees of success, although the timely notificaion exchange doesn't seem to be making much headway. The concern and intent the newbie had were genuine but possibly ill advised, in hindsight. You see, timing is everything and gf had just completed a couple of pointed essays aimed right at the alderman, the same alderman that the newbie was inviting on a mutual mission. To his credit, the newbie did follow up the letter with a phone call and message which was not returned. Ok, OK, Sandy G, you can mark one in your newbie column.
When the alderman's letter arrived, the newbie realized all was not well. Undaunted by this apparent setback, we decided to send the objective observer on this mission alone to JB's. None of us had been there before but we thought the objective observer could best dispassionately balance the concerns of our neighbors and the community and the address the reality of being a retail business in Rogers Park, since we all had a little experience in that department. Tony had not been to the Caps meeting when these issues came up but he was aware of the posting on the Hellhole.
The objective observer arrived and met Don. They exchanged pleasantries and the conversation got real after answering in the affirmative, that our last name did indeed end in a vowel. Sometimes, you just have to use what you got. Don called Tony and discussions then began in earnest. Over the course of the next 5 days, there were many long talks on the phone. Two of these conversations were interrupted by gang activity outside the store.
After a few days, the objective observer called Tony only to be told that he had taken it upon himself to bring all of the drivers into his cramped office to be read the riot act. Zero tolerance on double parking, Zero tolerance on gathering and catcalling and Zero tolerance for drinking. The drinking accusation was the only charge Tony vehemently could not acknowledge as he did all the others on his own.
In the weeks leading up to the recent CAPS meeting, we all took turns monitoring the progress of this new Zero tolerance policy. And there was much progress to report from us all and we decided to go to the CAPS meeting to see how this process really worked in practice.
Kevin O'Neil chaired the well attended and cordial meeting and addressed the JB Alberto's Pizza issue first. Tony spoke from his chair about the Zero tolerance policy he put in place. gf then asked if anyone had seen any progress over the last few weeks and Sgt. Kaup said he thought there must have been since he had not written any tickets there lately. Everyone seemed somewhat convinced that this might work going forward, although there was talk about Tony pursuing parking from the nearby laundromat.
It was agreed that the situation would be monitored over the next month and that a report would be made at the next CAPS meeting about the results. This also seemed to be a reasonable course of action to us too.
So as far as we can tell from our experience, the blog posting, the issues being raised by neighbors as a result, the CAPS intervention, the business owners' response and the report to the CAPS meeting last Tuesday worked to solve a problem as well as anyone could expect, in our view.
We think there is lots of credit to go around.
In the spirit of full disclosure, we had a slice on the house after the meeting. Darn good pizza, too.
1 Comments:
anne-
well, on balance, that was my impression too. they have alot to deal with on a day to day basis on morse.
the night of the wayne jones incident, tony said a group of about 25 young men came into his store and according to him, they were not there to buy a slice. he had to ask them to leave and they did.
he is considering installing a new awning with overhanging lights that will illuminate the street in front of his store. he said he is doing this to make the street safer for everyone and i believe him.
i'm glad to hear you went and talked with him.
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