Beat 2523 Meeting Last Night

Good afternoon, everyone. Last night, I attended my Beat meeting, which is 2523. I would like to tell all of you what happened at this meeting. Needless to say, due to the weather conditions last night, the room was not too crowded. Alot of the new faces I saw last time were not in attendance. There were even a couple of the residents who are long-time attenders of this meeting that didn't show.

What was the first talked about issue, you ask? Well, it was the usual one. Milwaukee Avenue from Belmont to Central Park, of course. This time, we were told that they continue to loiter all over the street, still drinking and harassing people. Also, now we're told that they loiter in the bus shelter at Milwaukee and Hamlin, making actual CTA customers stand outside of the shelter to wait. However, there seems to be a few solutions to this.

One solution is that several residents are going to Alderman Reboyras' office on Monday evening (if you'd like to know the time, email me). They're going to ask him to remove the seat at the bus shelter, as they think it may decrease the problem a bit. I personally think it will too. Another solution was to still send the letter out to the liquor stores, telling them not to serve the drunks. But the letters are now not only addressed to the liquor stores. The letters are being extended to all businesses along Milwaukee on Beat 2523.

A third solution, and I like this one the most, is to form a neighborhood association. The residents may join up with the Logan Square Association since a resident told us it includes Avondale, but the Beat Faciliator wants to form one for particulary Beat 2523, since it's a social problem in this area. And personally, this Beat is the worst one in the entire Avondale neighborhood.

Sergeant Weiglein, from the CAPS office, tells us that the officers continue to round up the drunks and take them to the garden mission places on Madison and State in Downtown. But the problem, he says, is that they come right back (and they do. I've seen it personally), and they don't want help from any residents about their problems. We've tried to help them, but they don't want it.

I'm finished talking about the old problems. Now, here are the new problems:

• 2911 N. Springfield - For the third meeting I've been to, this address is come up yet again. Sergeant Weiglein told us that the property is boared up over there and has locks on it, but a resident says that while this is true, there are now trespassers going in and out.
• 2919 N. Springfield - Suspected drug sales. A neighbor of the complaining resident says that teens who are White, Hispanic and Black, are bringing laundry bags in and out of the building. One day, the bags were huge (bigger than usual), so they think that there are drugs in the bags. They also put these bags into a car that pulls up and leaves, then comes back to get the other bags.
• 2925 N. Springfield - Problem with the intoxicated males who keep going in and out of the boarded up property.
• 2941-3 N. Avers and 3043 N. Monticello - Same problem as 2925 N Springfield.

Other observations:
The most incidents took place in the 4100 block of W. Barry Ave. The most popular crimes were Battery (28 reported incidents), motor vehicle theft (23 reported incidents) and Theft (22 reported incidents). The most incidents took place on the weekends (33 reported incidents on Sunday and 25 reported incidents on Saturdays). Most incidents took place on the street (49 reported incidents), and in residences (25 reported incidents). The most incidents took place in the 12am, 2pm hour and the 11pm hour.

Also, I met a fan of mine at the meeting and the Beat Faciliator now reads this blog. This is a shout out to both!

Thank you,
Timmy