In 2005 the Columbus Maryville emergency resource center closed down, or as some have said, "moved."
Inside Online report from 2005
The buildings it had occupied were used to serve, at times, over 2,000 children a year. They are STILL empty and boarded up, in 2010. Electricity is still turned on in them, and you can see the same lights glowing every evening at 750 and 810 W. Montrose Avenue (the northern corners of Montrose and Clarendon).
Why is this building empty? What is happening to the thousands of children who are court-ordered to receive care, who used to get services there? The resources that were available at Columbus Maryville have not been replicated in the City of Chicago.
The plans for this property have stalled several times but are now being fast-tracked Will the city allow developers to tear down these buildings, which were made for social services? Will one more safe potential safe place be destroyed in this neighborhood, which is desperate for more social services?
That's what it looks like. With a specially designated TIF zone to help fund it, as if developers need more help from the city than Veterans.
At this time, when more veterans and other under-served aggregates are seeking resources in Uptown, it is infuriating to walk by these unused buildings.
NOW, the most appalling news, is that this will become another real estate development in an already glutted market.
June 11, 2010 report on developers' run through City Hall
I guess initially they thought we'd just object because of the parking. (January 14, 2010 report)
My objection has more to do with the ethical responsibility we have to children and people who have served our country. When will more resources be built for them?
If TIF zones are being made exclusively for this huge for-profit development, what is being done in those zones to provide for the welfare of the needy in Chicago?
Please sign the petition.
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