CHICAGO (CBS) — Fed up and looking for a solution, South Loop residents told Chicago police Wednesday night.
CBS News Chicago was the first to report earlier this week how people living in the South Loop say hang around aggressively has gotten out of hand in the area of Wabash Avenue and Roosevelt RoadResidents are now demanding more action to make their community safer.
The problems that residents are concerned about are not limited to loitering and street harassment. Residents have told police that they have seen neighbors robbed and their homes broken into,
Meanwhile, vehicles were vandalized on Wednesday morning, neighbors said. far from the first timeTiffani Faison woke up to find her car windows shattered and glass strewn across the sidewalk again.
“It feels like we’re a target,” Faison said.
It turned out that more than a half dozen other vehicles on Calumet Avenue had also been hit. But the concerns go beyond just vandalism.
“A neighbor was recently robbed in her garage, just down south, a couple blocks,” Faison said. “We’ve all been warned to be careful when we go into our garage.”
South Loop residents want Chicago police to step up their efforts throughout the neighborhood, but especially in troubled areas like Roosevelt Road and Wabash Avenue, near the busy Chicago Transit Authority Red Line stop.
“We’re fed up,” said one man at a Chicago Police CAPS meeting. “We’ve had enough.”
The Central (1st) Chicago Police District held its community meeting Wednesday night at Capital One Café on State Street downtown. Residents filled the room, but Capital One Bank refused to let CBS News Chicago cameras in.
The group told officers and residents of the 34th Ward that loitering and open illegal drug dealing near the Roosevelt Red Line was getting out of hand.
“There’s been a gentleman sleeping on the cooler outside Dunkin Donuts for three months. Where’s everybody at?” one man said at the meeting. “There’s been gangs, or whatever you want to call them, teenagers, outside Jewels. Where’s everybody at?”
Marc Katz came forward hoping to find solutions.
“There are problems in the South Loop,” he said. “In the last few years I’ve seen more incidents of crime and loitering than when I first moved here.”
While Roosevelt Road is the most heavily used corridor, Katz points out that the problems have spread throughout the South Loop, with break-ins targeting parked vehicles on Calumet Avenue and a burglary Wednesday morning at yet another South Loop location, a boutique at 66 E. 21st St.
“In all the parks at night there are homeless people sleeping. The begging is sometimes even a bit rough,” he said, “and you know, we definitely have a migrant problem.”
Officers said they heard the screams and the matter was on the CPD’s radar.
“I hope they listened,” Katz said. “You know, I think they were surprised that so many people showed up.”
Police told residents that while they work on the problem, they want people to continue to call 911 for any incidents. But police also advised that neighbors can and should band together to build a stronger neighborhood watch program.
The CPD stressed that such programmes can make a difference.
Jermont Terry
