Welcome to the new Skokie where landlords are renting to gang members, drug dealers and thugs who are armed and dangerous. Who are these landlords that continue to rent to undesirables? Shame on them. Most likely the landlord is living somewhere other than Skokie. Will the mom and her son be evicted? How do we find out that information? Does this family hold a "housing voucher"? These are questions we should ask at the upcoming Village Board Meeting, 2/19, to approve the new "landlord ordinance" in Skokie. THE GANGS ARE IN SKOKIE - HOW DO WE GET THEM OUT?

Maybe perspective tenants have to be better screened. Is Skokie going to become the new Rogers Park, or better still, South Shore. Residents have to stop fleeing and help keep Skokie as desirable as it once was.

The Village of Skokie had a proposed ordinance to hold landlords responsible when tenants commit ongoing criminal activity. Everyone at the meeting opposed the ordinance. The proposed ordinance is now tabled. If you are interested, contact the Village to express your support.

Phyllis,
Skokie is drowning in this crap.
Helicopters seeking out these terd elements at night? Seriously?
Muggings at the Taco Bell?
The list goes on and on.
We can start by voting out those in local government who have been in power during this transition - from Sleepy Skokie to Ghetto Skompton.
Frankly, the policies that have brought is to this point, liberal or otherwise, have failed.
Skokie will fail. There is far too much multi-family housing and too few that are willing to state the obvious - demographics have changed.

There is a terrible crime problem in Skokie that did not exist in the past. It is relatively 'new' and appears to becoming worse and of a more serious nature. Let us focus on that issue, rather than who is a 'racist' and what is a racist and so on about that...the situation is what it is, a many different people and cultures living together trying to achieve harmony, peace, happiness... let us not forget the foundation upon which we all exist, and to strive towards constructive, important and human goals and and issue such as HEALTH and SAFETY and providing resources for all people to improve themselves and their quality of life

How about we wait and hear what this police action was about? Because so far the gun shots this week were over kids playing poker and the similar shooting last summer was over a lovers triangle with a 19 year old girl. Not really your high crime urban decay.

Skokie is becoming the new Evanston - gang gun and drug crime!!

Skokie is new west side of Evanston

If you are a concerned Skokie resident, then please, please show up on Tuesday, February 19th at 8 pm at the Village Board meeting. There is a landlord ordinance which will be discussed to hold landlords accountable for tenant problems (for example, tenants for which the police are called on multiple occasions). At a previous meeting when the issue was discussed, landlord after landlord appeared and vocalized their objection to any kind of ordinance to hold them accountable. It is now time for concerned residents to appear to show their support and demand action on the part of landlords.

Dear Maria Vargas and Skokie Mom.

There are far more great landlords in Skokie than maggots. But there are definitely maggots as well. SILA is a group of landlords who are also fed up with this crap.

FINING ALL LANDLORDS and "licensing" us will not end this. A one size fits all "solution" is just more red tape from the village and more revenue to the village.

Our city father and Village Manager are truly unconcerned about Skokie's slide. They repeatedly deny it AND REPEATEDLY SAY WE ALL MISPERCEIVE THE SITUATION. What an insult !!!

We need to propose our own solutions and apply FIERCE pressure to the people of the village who truly can make necessary changes.

Skokie's new problems will require hands on work by many concerned citizens. I can tell you we have a core group willing to do this. I would be thrilled if you would contact me and perhaps discuss this very incident and share any ideas you might have. I would be happy to share ideas that we have. I own three properties only three blocks away from the subject property.

I COULD ALSO TALK PRIVATELY WITH YOU ABOUT A GROUP WHICH IS DEDICATED 365 DAYS A YEAR TO IMPORTING THIS PROBLEM INTO OUR COMMUNITY. Of course I cannot do that in this forum. But I am happy to help educate and enlighten you and tell you about the problems I personally have faced as a resident landlord.

Please email me at Betterlandlord@aol.com Thank you.

Any one else who wants to see Skokie saved is also welcome to contact me

Brian,
I agree with your points.
Perhaps George at Skokie patch can give your group, SILA, a forums to present their ideas.
Also, the ideas that some group is actively trying to import these problems is INFURIATING. They need to be exposed.

Thanks

SHP, I can also tell you how to locate where landlords live or can be contacted. Please feel free to email me.

And Troy is right. Most landlords do not want troublesome tenants. Or more plainly, bad people. But Skokie has far too many absentee landlords who are unaware of what goes on on their blocks or in their properties.

That may not mean they do not give a damn or are bad people themselves. They just might be poor screeners or ignorant of what they have allowed in. This can be addressed and resolved.

And Adam, you, Chief Scarpelli and Mayor Vabn Dusen are the only people I know who actually believe crime is diminishing in Skokie. I know that a town where people are frightened to take a walk on a summer evening in certain areas HAS VERY SERIOUS PROBLEMS .

That was not the Skokie of old. I have been a resident here for more than 20 years and am discouraged by what I see happening. But I haven't fled. I will stand and defend. Even if that makes me a target.

Betterlandlord@aol.com

Adam, you have a point about the past. Yet, the last 20 years had an increase in renter quality (save the last 5), so that is what people remember. We also have to recognize that the appearance of many of the 50's buildings in Skokie is pretty poor, and this is an obstacle that we cannot easily overcome. Nevertheless, the village needs to continue to improve and update the village. While Skokie was standing still, other villages were improving and gentrifying their downtowns, and other areas. The politicians in Skokie were sitting on their hands, and I'm not sure they still fully understand this. They also seem to be ignorant of what a proper development should look like. The signage of the couple new stores on Dempster south of the train station are a joke. How about the property to the West of the tracks as you are leaving Dempster street station. (Visible from the parking lot). It looks like a junkyard! Can we get a fence to obscure this mess. How about all the old rusting steel structures along the tracks throughout the village...can that be removed? There is improvement that can be done, and it all ties together with the crime as well.....nicer village=better tenants.

Adam, Just where in Skokie do you live? Like poster mariavargas stated, I too live near the 4842 Greenleaf building and have also called the Skokie PD as many times as needed to put a stop to the criminal activity there. I have witnessed multiple drug deals occur there, the increased amount of gangbangers that congregated there. Enough is enough. Skokie PD needs to step up and be MORE agressive and visible. Skokie leadership has failed miserably and needs to be replaced. Skokie needs to be a place that gangbangers and criminals avoid. In short Adam, come live in the affected neighborhoods even for a week, then you can talk.

Turetzky: The national economy does impact Skokie, as you say, but VoS can and should do more. It is defeatist to think otherwise.

The proposed licensing ordinance for multifamily housing is a start and should be extended to all rental property in the village. It does not punish landlords, who cannot be expected to know that tenants may make trouble. But when and if they do, landlords have to respond or be shut down. They are running businesses that affect public health and safety, just like restaurant owners. All restaurant owners need to be licensed, whether they run higher end establishments or greasy spoons. And if they buy a bad lot of produce, they have to pull it in the interest of public safety. Same goes for landlords and their tenants.

And the $25 per unit fee the landlords are being asked to pay is peanuts. It represents a fraction of a fraction of 1 percent of their monthly take, if we use $650 a month as a low baseline for a rental apartment.

Skokie is not the same that Turetzky remembers from his youth. There may have been rougher areas of town back then, but the number of people wielding guns -- whether from Skokie or attracted here by people who live in Skokie -- was not what it is today.

Our elected leaders need to wake up and face facts or be replaced. And those asleep in cushy jobs on Oakton too.

Hey Adam,
I happen to think you are a bright guy. In fact, you probably don't recollect it but I left you a voice mail about a year ago over at the Northwestern computer lab. My neighbor of many years, Mark Poolos says he knows you as well and that you are a good and bright guy. I have visited and read your blog. I respect your viewpoints, seriously.

But it seems like you just "drop in" sometimes and are situationally unaware of how bad things have gotten, Would you have us unlock all our doors and leave car keys on the kitchen counter for the bad guys? Leave our garage doors open wide with a sign saying "help yourself, everything's free today! ".

People are annoyed, pissed and scared. The kettle is boiling. They are fed up. Idiotic new "landlord ordinances" will only drive fed up landlords out of Skokie. They will sell their buildings and take their losses and be done with the nonsense. Life's just too short. Particularly resident landlords like myself. We want and deserve a better quality of life. We are not going to live 200 years. Only so much sand in the hourglass. We did not sign up for this crap.

And when we sell, "Katie bar the door". Apartment buildings values will plummet that much faster. So who cares, really. Van Dusen and Rigoni ought care, but they will be retired and enjoying their pensions...relocated out of Skokie the town they helped destroy.

And what's next? Bottom feeding buyers who will be absentee landlords will snap up the "bargains" .

The guys in white hats will ride away into the sunset. The percentage of absentee landlords who manage their properties as cheaply as possible and are not as fastidious as resident landlords, because their buildings are not their HOMES will increase. Property appearances and quality will suffer.

Terry Oline and his building oversight department will be busier than ever. They will like their jobs even less. and as property values fall, so will property taxes. Skokie, which loves to brag so much on that continuous loop on the public access channel about how the village's portion of our taxes hasn't increased since the Bronze Age will have to re-evaluate. OOOPS...We're sorry, well you were due for a hike anyway right, because we have done such a slammin' job for so long. No one can bat a 1000 forever.

Whiny single family homeowners who want to "get" evil landlords will find them selves falling on their own swords, even as their homes diminish in value. But hey, ain't Niles North got a splendid little $15 Million dollar pool. And they "pulled it off" in a horrid economy no less. HOW SHREWD. Skokie homeowners ought to be kicking the 219 school board in the ass. Hard. Their behavior is down right criminal. Skokie with the highest home foreclosure rate in all of suburban Chicago. Shame on our spendthrift schools. They will never consider homeowners plight, because, well...we just don't have to.

Yes I ramble, but our problems are numerous. The ship has a lot of leaks.

So the good ,unappreciated, landlords decide "see ya, it isn't worth my time anymore" . They sell. Their GOOD RESIDENTS leave, as fast as possible. Great !! That means there is more room for.....ummmm the gangbangers and their buddies. The neighborhoods continue to slide, nice people drive by and a nervous Becky says to Bob "I don't want to rent here Bob, keep going." Soon the only people that will live in certain areas are the creeps...the scary folk. Now try and turn that neighborhood around. Your problems just got way worse...and permanent.

Think crime is bad now? Who puts money into buildings in bad neighborhoods? Absentee landlords? Ha !! And that's all that Skokie will have. Think the Police are understaffed and overworked now?

Small apartment buildings will foreclose over and over as mal-intentioned and unscrupulous "BUYERS" snap up the falling values at ultra low mortgage rates, and forget to pay mortgages. About 2.5 years to foreclose a property in Illinois folks. Yup, that's the true number. Now figure how much rent you can collect in 2.5 years. While you skip paying a mortgage (default deliberately), skip paying property insurance, PMI insurance, maybe even water...perhaps electric....but your Government issued "Housing Choice Voucher checks keep right on a comin'. On time too!! Right to your P.O. Box of your LLC management company. Property tanks, your personal credit rating remains intact and damn, you made a 300% return in 3 years. Not bad.

And so this is where the "Landlord Ordinance" road leads. Evanston with far greater apartment units and far larger problems finally saw the light and decided that this wasn't such a great idea after all.

They dumped the concept. It's a really stupid way for a village to generate added revenue, and hire ONE MORE COP. One, really? Yeah. Well one's better than nuthin' right?

WELL, MAYBE NOT. And though well-intentioned, it will do more harm than good. Think landlords will really sell and leave?

Oh, why would we? Streets in horrid shape...come see my 4800 block of Elm. Hasn't been resurfaced in more than 25 YEARS. Getting out of a street parked car is a trip and fall hazard. I know. I have tripped. Maybe the village will resurface when they get sued eh? Really, shame, shame, shame on Skokie.

Inadequate street parking, that the village won't address. Lakes in our flooded streets which further reduces available parking on a rainy day.(Leaf clogged sewers).

Good stuff when you want to rent an apartment you own. (Note to self...don't do showings on rainy days). Poor street lighting. Untrimmed trees. Un-removed dying trees. Cracked and broken curbs, pot-holed alley aprons, cracked and sunken concrete in our alleys...gravel alleys. Yeah, you can see all of that right here on a single block of Skokie. Well, I misspoke. The alleys are concrete. It's the street that's been reduced to gravel. And RATS. LOTS OF RATS.

The interesting thing about rats. The village very considerately will place a bright fluorescent orange "YOU HAVE RATS" notice in your building lobby. Like you brought them here with you. Drive down a multi-family street sometime in the warmer weather and you can often see them plastered on or near a front door. How considerate of the village.

Funny thing. Two things will often accompany those 'day-glo' notices. A street sewer opening in front of the property and a Maple tree. Those little whirly gig seed pods that helicopter down from Maples. They are rodents #1 food of choice. So next time you see a sticker, look for a sewer and a Maple.

But hey, Maples have such pretty leaves in the fall and are pretty disease resistant. AND CHEAP TOO. And thank God those huge leaves don't flow into the sewers and clog them up. Otherwise, golldarnit, your sewer may clog and your street flood and your residents might need waders. We wouldn't want to replace them with some other type of tree which doesn't nourish so many mice, rats and squirrels. After all, we are a TREE CITY. And a Ginkgo Biloba...well it would cost too much. Good thing that the heavy shade canopy of Maples doesn't kill off all the underlying lawn, and that it's far running shallow root structure doesn't break up sidewalks either. ME LIKE MAPLES. Our idiot "Forester's tree of choice. And let's not talk about street trash blowing around. Particularly on garbage days. Well, MOST of it goes in the truck.

If anything significant to reduce the serious violent crime problem enveloping Skokie is undertaken, it needs to be done between now and April when the local municipal Skokie elections are held.

Cutting to the chase about this problem, the most significant thing that can be done is to get the elected officials of Skokie to publicly acknowledge the increasing seriousness of the problem of open violent crime, which collectively is tarring the image of Skokie from outside, dispiriting more and more residents within, and threatens the quality of life in its future.

Acknowledgement needs to be made by publicly admitting the seriousness of the situation and committing to a change in their priority and plans to fight it. Also, our political leaders need to realize that they will be held accountable for lack of real progress. It must be at the top of their agenda for the next several years.

Getting elected and re-elected cannot be their top priority with its concomitant de-emphasizing acknowledgment of the seriousness of the problem before an election. Stop playing with the fact that crime has been continually declining for many years, a trend around the country, not just in Skokie, as pointing to the disingenuousness of asserting that this statistic shows that crime is not a serious problem.

Part 1 to be continued--

-Part 2- Continuation

Political leaders now need to acknowledge that the problem lies largely in certain areas where lower rent multi-dwelling units exist. Increased saturation of police presence allowed by many new additions to the force needs to take place.

Reshuffling of budgetary items, and yes, new sources of revenue, need to be acknowledged by leaders and citizens alike. Progress does not come without sometimes painful sacrifices and change.

Take the kid gloves off and allow the police to be more aggressive in policing these problem areas. The line between aggressiveness and not treading on citizen rights is fine yet much latitude legally exists. Don't be overly cautious about law suits at the expense of effectively fighting this insidious spreading cancer in the Village.

Above all, our elected leaders and their staff need to be courageous, politically courageous, and the good citizens of Skokie must become more involved and support their officials' change in direction and commitment. They cannot accomplish much with citizen support.

All the other things posted by bloggers on this topic is largely commentary rather than direct prescriptions for change. Without the necessary commitment by all parties, Skokie will continue to have the increasing reputation as the new Skompton of Los Angelus. Don't know what Skompton means? Google it.

--Part 3-

I apologize. In the second to the last paragraph of part 2, I obviously meant to write WITHOUT citizen support, not WITH citizen support.

Adam Turetsky: It is comments like your last one that is emblematic of too many posters who write things based more on their feelings than on a reasoned and factual
basis.

When I make statements, you can bet they are usually based on a factual basis that can be checked; I don't shoot from the hip. When I draw a conclusion or state my judgment or opinion, I usually include a descriptive as such.

Yes, the Urban Dictionary is based on the submission by high school kids from across the country. It reflects a reality of the perceptions of a cohort that will be in leadership positions in every sphere within a few short years. They are not to be dismissed so lightly.

Reference to Skokie as Skompton is well-known to many high school kids in both of the Skokie high schools. I was part of a few activist Skokians who first pointed that out to the top leaders of Skokie government. I have little doubt that this was a factor in a greater commitment begun by them to at least think about advancing their response to the crime situation in Skokie & resulted in one new major initiative & speeding up consideration of others. I do not feel at liberty to reveal much further than this, but uninformed comments by your last one & others can muddy the understanding of the issue by readers.

Blogs & other devices like this allow anyone to post no matter their level of understanding. This can be good, but readers must be very careful in judging the quality of those responses.

Adam Turetzky, you have your head in the sand, As some other posters have aluded and I tend to agree, you may be associated with the current administration due to the tone of your responses and remarks. I would love to see you and the rest of the "Polyannas" spend some real time in any of the affected neighborhoods and call the SPD night after night after night. In fact, my wife and I have dealt with these street thugs during the day. I have chased these thugs off my property because SPD did not respond fast enough and when they did, I had to deal with an attitude from SPD like I was disturbing them from a coffee break. So again Adam, put up or shut up. Walk (live) a while in our shoes before you pontificate.

Quoting adam turetzky:

"I'm guessing you're happy then that Thursday law enforcement executed an arrest warrant on one person in 4842 with a full SWAT team and helicopter support."

Darn right I was happy and I applaud their efforts. At least SOMETHING was being done. If that's what's needed, then by all means do it.

Go rest in your Ivory Tower adam, knowing that you will never have to deal with such plebian troubles.

Adam Turetzky, I, like you I presume, have been in an ivory tower most of my whole professional career. But obviously, I doubt you are a social scientist or a public policy specialist.

I perused some of your posts I missed in searching for your idiotic comment on the SWAT team arrest. While you seem knowledgeable, you often get details quite wrong. As for your judgments and conclusions, fair minded people can intelligently disagree. Unlike most who respond to your posts, I try not to judge your perspective but rather take issue with your reasonings.

A few comments on some of your wrong-headed statements:

You derided the use of a full SWAT team with helio at 4842 to arrest one person. First, as an academic, you didn't need to embellish your point by using the descriptive "full" in describing the SWAT team. Did you ever hear of "half" a SWAT team being deployed? Such nonsense!

Second, a SWAT team and a helicopter would not be used unless A: it was the best method to successfully arrest or subdue a subject and/or B: these heavily armored & specially trained & equipped officers lessened the chance regular police officers would be at great risk of life or limb. You decry all this force used to arrest 1 individual. But, intelligence re: what police may be facing often is incomplete. They may have had reason to believe the person was heavily armed, or several others would be laying in wait. Don't assume things so hastily.

--Part 1 to be continued-

--part 2 continued--

Adam Turetzky, The following are some other things you got wrong.

You decried asking the Village to control things they can't control. Sounds right but in reality, it is usually false. Control is not equated with solving, which would be the word you should have used. No amount of police will solve or eliminate crime or violent crime. True. But the level of police man/women power can control the scope or severity of the problem. Put another way, they can affect the number of acts committed and/or the number of arrests.

You alluded to the notion that violent crime is tied to the economy and local govt. cannot affect that. Wrong! Street crime is largely a function of the number of males between 17-27 who commit the lions share of them. Police & politicians will take the credit for lowering the crime rate in the last decade because of their efforts and policies. But, the rate is more affected by the baby boomers average of 2 1/2 children who have become of the age 17-27, a low number, hence the dropping of the overall crime rate. Skokie has experienced an increase in that cohort because of the migration caused by re gentrification of Chicago & poorer immigrants. The poor economy results in more property crime, not street crime.

You were largely correct about the flood control program but excessive pooling of water in the street is an ongoing problem because of leaves & debris clogging the too shallow catch basins.

Careful, Adam Turetzky. My time is too valuable to "live" on Skokie Patch as you seem to do. But when you misstate what I write, you will be called on it. You are no match for me, believe me, so you will not come out of such an exchange looking good.

You replied to one of my comments as thus: "So the fact that 14 year olds from Morton Grove and Niles put down their Skokie classmates as being poor and call their town "SKOMPTON" is reason for us to change city government? Ok sounds reasonable."

I NEVER wrote throw ALL the bums out as you suggest. Another poster did that.

I did not recently read the Skompton piece in the Urban Dictionary as the responders change with time. But, I do know that Skokie has that appelation with youth in places around the country. THAT is a problem, no matter its accuracy.

Understandably, no elected political leader in Skokie is going to publicy acknowledge this because of the ominous implications for its image and future that advertising this would surely bring.

But many alert high school students & their parents IN SKOKIE are aware of this & it is something they don't brag about either. Guess where these kids, when they become adults are going to locate? Not in Skokie where drug dealing is rampant & more & more poor kids of all races inhabit bringing with them violent prone mores of their previous residence. These kids are aware of this. The Village needs to acknowledge & deal with it.

--End of Part 1--

--Part 2--
Skokie is not a hotbed of nefarious activities, YET. The purpose of my posting is to shake up the powers in this Village to begin to acknowledge a growing problem and face it head on, first by gaining the support of Skokians willing to support these officials by approving the concomitant use of resources necessary; even if these means we all pay the price, double entendre intended.

Skokie is no longer a sleepy inner bedroom community immune from the problems of Chicago and the larger society. Recognize & deal with it. You, Adam, of all people need to wake up.

To demonstrate how confused you are, you wrote: "The areas in question are the same today as they were in my childhood, lower middleclass (sic) working people. The only thing changed & worse are the personal economics."

Middle class is a socio-economic term. The lower middle class which you wrote about cannot remain the same while their personal economics changed for the worse.

In fact, the bold violent street crime wave Skokie is experiencing is affected most seriously by an influx of poorer, mostly non-working class population and a relatively few poorer immigrants.

They are attracted to Skokie for a number of reasons, but one of those is that too many of the middle class & others residing in Skokie & in the nearby suburbs provide a demand for the acquisition of drugs. New Trier township has an even greater drug problem but I believe without a similar magnitude of violence.

I think everyone should stop responding to Adam. I think we should continue to discuss the problems that the village is having and concentrate on that. Everyone should attend the village meeting tuesday at 730 and voice all the concerns they have. Its a waste of time to respond to Adam and not productive.!!!!

Last comment from me on this subject. adam turetzky: "Parenting is how you fix this. Not police and trustees" Wrong. Wrong wrong wrong.That approach has failed. Axe handles and motorcycle drive chains. That's how it's done. That's how you train animals. Thus endeth the sermon.

"The areas in question are the same today as they were in my childhood. Lower middleclass working people"... Wow, what a statement. My parents and grandparents bought a 2 flat in one of these areas in 1979 not due to lower middle class status, but for 3 simple reasons... One, because my grandmother didn't drive and worked downtown. So easy walkable access to the skokie swift. Two, my parents wanted me in this school district. Three, almost everyone that lived in this area owned and lived in the 2 flats... Most were 50/50 ownership between parents and their child with a young family. I as a youth played at one of the parks that is being called a "hot spot". When I was younger the problems that are happening now where NOT happening. My friends and I could play in our front yards, in our alley ways at our parks all hours of the day and past sunset without fear of being beat up by a group of 18-20year olds. In the 34 years my family has owned and lived in this neighborhood I've never seen Chicago swat enter a building with flash bombs. I've never had an unsettling feeling about my grandparents carrying groceries in, I never thought twice about having to park my car at the end of the block and walk home. That has all changed in the last few years .

No one lives in a bubble and thinks criminal activity will never happen , but what's been going on in areas over the past few years is well beyond just high school trouble makers, teenage love triangle crap or teens stealing another teens skateboard. Some people commenting on here see first hand how bad things are getting. People I've talked to are just sick of it and want something to start being done about it. It's not ok that someone who was shot at in an alley one month later goes and opens fire into a car by the oakton train station. It's not ok that a lady is car jacked in broad daylight at knife point. It's not ok that someone's house gets shot at, its not ok that someone walks into an apartment and opens fire at someone and then 3 days later Chicago swat is there. It's not ok that a teenager gets jumped by a group of 18-20 yr olds. It's not ok that someone at gun point gets robbed in the tacobell parking lot. It's not ok that the old orchard carnival gets shut down because of a large group who decides they want to start trouble. Does skokies crime rate have to reach that of Chicagos before its ok for residents, owners, renters, landlords, and business owners to try and put a stop to it??? What really is your problem with citizens of skokie not wanting these kinds of crimes happening? Is it that offensive to you that skokians don't want crime to happen in their neighborhoods?

Skokie Homeowner

Very forceful and eloquent. Great writing. Thanks. sis

I don't remember much of the late 70's here as we moved here in 79 and I was 4... As far as I can tell criminal activities happen, always have, always will but if residents in certain areas are seeing first hand a downhill slide and more frequent "questionable" acts and just sit on their hands and repeat to themselves over and over again "it will all be ok" won't solve the problem... Yes a majority of the acts of theft, fights and beating are being done by ignorant thug wanna be punks who are disrespectful, rude and obnoxious. It has gotten to the point where law abiding residents of skokie don't want to put up with it any more. And there is no problem with people wanting to be safe in the own homes, safe going to the local 7 11, having safe parks for children to play at. It's not to much to ask that at least steps forward to curb criminal activities take place. If things like this were happening back when I was between the ages of 4-20 I was unaware, but I'm aware now and refuse to sit back, say nothing and let it just get worse. I left skokie years ago but came back 4 years ago for personal family reasons and I'm leaving again in a year, so honestly I have no vested intrest in this other then I remember a skokie of yester year, I remember the neighborhood I grew up in, I remember the praise of the schools in the area that no longer exist and it saddens me.

I don't care if the crimes are being commited by those in assisted housing, home owners, high school kids, grown ass adults or by those that don't even live in this town, nor do I solely lay the blame on one group. I just want to see something being done to try and curb it. In my personal opinion the only reason no one has been murdered these last few years is luck, luck that the shootings that have happened didn't kill anyone. Luck that the stabbings didn't kill anyone. Luck that the beatings and muggings haven't lead to a death. How much longer can the residents lay their faith solely on luck? I personally think this is much worse then kids just being kids... When I was growing up fights happened but no one pulled out a gun. When I grew up kids took their parents cars out for joy rides, didn't car jack at knife point. We hung out at parks being loud and playing basketball, didn't mug and beat other teenagers. Maybe others did but we didn't.... And we never saw it happen. I personally don't think skokie is quit yet "going to hell" but I also don't want to be apart of letting it go to hell. I just think a lot of people have just had enough and are frustrated.

Concerned Skokie citizens should go to the library and borrow the book "Gang Leader for a Day", Penguin Press copyright 2008, written By a University of Chicago sociologist/ grad student, Sudhir Venkatesh. The author lived in the Robert Taylor homes (on the fly) for several years and got an inside view of Chicago gang life.

He has also published, The Underground economy of the Urban Poor, and The Rise and Fall of a Modern Ghetto.

In 1997 HUD determined the CHA to be a corrupt and miserable failure and dissolved the CHA and took it over directly from Washington D.C. , determined to solve "the problem of the Chicago Housing Projects".

HUD's solution to the problem was to raze the vast majority of all Chicago projects. This RESULTED IN THE DISPLACEMENT OF 200,000 SOULS.

Are you naive enough to believe that a good quantity of the gangsters who lived in the projects did not infiltrate Skokie? The book's front jacket mentions "ambiguous morality".

I prefer to think of it as "rationalized morality". A good deal of citizens who live by this moral code have now relocated to Skokie. This is our real problem. Read the book. Learn something. Call it research. Think of how the main character's code of conduct is now visible in our community. And about how the gangs grow and operate within a community. This is SKOKIE'S REAL PROBLEM !! Don't dicsount it.

Then think what you can do to help. But at least wake up and learn. Everybody who has read the book loves it. You will too.

Brian, while I agree with you, reading a book is not going to get these thugs off our streets. Skokie PD needs to step up, be pro-active not reactive and grow a pair. Do whatever it takes to send a message to the gang bangers that Skokie is NOT a place they want to get arrested in.