Washington Park Neighborhood Preservation and Enhancement Dist.

" HELP FOR LANDLORDS IS AVAILABLE"

Dec 19, 2002

Help for landlords is available

November 26, 2002











As your Nov. 18 editorial stated, "Deplorable housing is not a new scourge." However, today there are more tools than ever to crack down on slumlords and also more tools for good owners trying to fix up their buildings and provide good housing for their tenants.

There are an abundance of loan funds from Community Investment Corporation and from many banks to rehab buildings. There are also training programs to help landlords to succeed.

Last year, CIC conducted 25, 12-hour, four-evening Basics of Property Management courses for 726 people, most of whom were building owners. These classes are funded by the Chicago Department of Housing, the banking community and CIC. Because they are meant for hands-on community owners, they are held in community locations.

The next series will be held at Loyola University Dec. 9-12, followed by another on the South Side at the Woodlawn YWCA Jan. 13-16. Information and a complete schedule are available from our office, (312) 258-0070, or online at www.cic chicago.com.

John Pritscher, president,

Community Investment Corporation

Policies pushing poor out of city

With all the flap from aldermen and the Sun-Times regarding slumlords of late, I wonder: Have they pondered the consequences? You're hard-pressed to find a $400-a-month apartment in this city anymore with all the gentrification going on, especially in North Side neighborhoods.

So the slumlord cleans up his building and what happens? He's going to raise the rent because it costs him money. And what happens to the tenants? They have to move--and usually to areas less accessible to public transportation and retail shopping.

If our city leaders are trying to push the poor out of our city, they're doing a good job. I've watched this in every neighborhood I've lived in: Lincoln Park, Lake View, Edgewater, Rogers Park, and now Lincoln Square.

Before you go jamming this legislation through, bear in mind you may actually be hurting the very people you say you're trying to help.

Steve Brick,

West Ridge



We're in trouble now








I am flabbergasted that Sen. Dick Durbin and so many of his colleagues rolled over to the president on this issue [homeland security]. Yes, security is a vital concern and must be addressed, but the flaws in that bill were substantial--indeed, dangerous--and they are now codified as law.

I'm not given to slippery slope paranoia, but I can't help but think that we may one day look back on this bill and wonder if it was the beginning of the end. From Total Information Awareness and the elimination of union protections, all the way down to the Texas A & M pork, this bill is a travesty. Everyone who voted for it--Democrat, Republican and Independent--ought to be ashamed.

Jeffrey Fisher, Lake View

Democracy or tyranny?

The president wins his election suspiciously; he excuses friends in high places regarding bankrupt companies while the investors sink; he tries to start a war that nobody except his Cabinet and contractors seem to want, and now he gives his ''new'' government the power to be Big Brother. At what cost to our freedom must we endure such things?

Shouldn't someone doing what he wants when he wants and how he wants--citizens and their welfare be damned--be called a king or dictator? How will it be for us average citizens if Bush gets re-elected?

Manuel Gonzales,

Lincoln Square

Nothing justifies this

The United States doesn't own this world. We are at war now, and we are trying to kill one man.

I am so tired of using 9/11 for this mess, and to add to insult, we are going into another country to remove their leader. Suppose another came to remove George W. Bush? We need jobs, not wars.

Johnetta Elkins,

Grand Boulevard

Wrong remedy, doc

Certainly the ''medical liability system needs fixing,'' as Donald J. Palmisano, M.D., president-elect of the American Medical Association, points out in his letter [Nov. 20], but H.R. 4600 is not the answer.

In a study released last month by Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, expensive and often unproven new medical technology, along with hospital mergers, are listed as among the leading factors driving the double-digit health care cost increases. Also, let us not forget the loss in investment income that insurance companies are experiencing, like the rest of America, in a crippled economy.

Instead, elected officials, beholden to special interest groups, are seizing the moment and singing again the malpractice litigation refrain as the reason for rising health care costs. Nothing in the proposed legislation would decrease premium costs, increase the availability of medical malpractice insurance or act as a check on bad medicine. Instead, it federalizes issues that typically have been left for the states, as these now self-styled health care reformers do an about-face on this issue. When [Republicans] were in the legislative minority on the Hill, they instead wanted many of the same issues to be determined state by state. More important, however, the legislation places severe limitations on injured patients' medical malpractice remedies and victimizes in court those with the most debilitating injuries.

The National Academy of Sciences released a report Nov. 19 that concluded that ''The American health care system is confronting a crisis.'' The Academy urges President Bush to consider alternatives to the existing market-based health-care system through pilot projects in a few states.

Clearly, this matter is in need of study, but it is overly simplistic and superficial to restrict the rights of people who have been victims of malpractice as a quick fix to the purported ''crisis.'' Aggressive efforts by partisan leaders is not the long-term solution.

Robert A. Clifford,

Clifford Law Offices, Loop

Patients deserve truth

[On Nov. 20] I opened my Sun-Times to find a letter from Donald Palmisano, M.D., of the American Medical Association, relating to the problems of medical malpractice. Only a few days ago I saw a news report describing the opposition of the AMA to permitting public access to a federally funded (in other words, taxpayer-funded) database of malpractice complaints against doctors. The report specifically mentioned, as an example, an orthopedic surgeon with two dozen complaints who just keeps moving around. Every report I have heard for years has indicated that most malpractice claims are made against a relatively small number of repeat offenders.

While there may be many things wrong with the system, certainly one of them is the preference of the medical profession to block public access to public information about these offenders, including efforts by the AMA to block access by patients to this database.

Dr. Palmisano perhaps should consider some housecleaning of his own. He's either part of the solution or he's part of the problem.

Jeffrey Roston, West Ridge

It's right there

In a Nov. 20 letter [about a column by the Rev. Jesse Jackson], Don Case of Palatine admonishes Jackson to ''study his Constitution,'' and claims that ''nowhere [in the U.S. Constitution] is voting mentioned as a 'right.' ''

Perhaps Case ought to take a look at the 15th, 18th, 24th and 26th Amendments. Each one of those amendments begins with the phrase: ''The right of citizens of the United States to vote . . .''

David E. Palmer, Hyde Park

One of the great ones

While President John F. Kennedy may have concealed his ailments from the American people [''Files shed new light on JFK's pain, illness,'' news story, Nov. 17], his performance in office was still more than adequate when compared with other residents in the White House who were much healthier.

His handling of the Cuban missile crisis is still considered a case study in crisis management, and his short 1,000 days in office are generally seen by historians as successful.

For example, a C-SPAN survey of presidential leadership in 2000 gave Kennedy an overall ranking of 8, which is ahead of every president that followed him, from Lyndon Johnson to Bill Clinton. Considering the pain Kennedy must have been in for those 1,000 days, it is incredible when one looks back and remembers the presidential leadership, the humor and the optimism that he displayed. Without a doubt, he represented a profile in courage.

Larry Vigon,

Jefferson Park

Bishops in glass house

I was infuriated with the Catholic bishops meeting in Washington, which issued a broad statement that a war with Iraq would be immoral [news story, Nov. 14]. Boy, that sure is the pot calling the kettle black!

We are expected to follow our faith almost blindly, but not our gut feelings that tell us that the terrorists like Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden are the next Hitler. It's sad for the church to take this view after its track record over the centuries.

Andrew Baldacci,

New Lenox

Cut the lights

For several years, auxiliary driving (fog) lamps have been available on new cars, and they are increasingly used full time after dark. They are usually projected into the eyes of drivers of oncoming vehicles. Their use is usually unnecessary and distressing to drivers with sensitive eyes. It is downright unlawful in the face of oncoming traffic. The Illinois Motor Vehicle Code (625 ILCS 5/12-210(a)) requires drivers operating auxiliary driving lamps to extinguish them before 500 feet of a vehicle approaching in the opposite direction.

I flash every oncoming car operating ''fog'' lamps. None has ever extinguished them, as they are required to do.

Jim McCracken,

Twin Lakes, Wis.