joekulys.com

   www.marquettevillagehomes.com

www.seniorlifestyle.com

As a decades-long resident of and advocate for the Marquette Park neighborhood, I want to make a few observations about our efforts to prevent crime and improve the quality of life.

But at the outset and in the interest of fair disclosure, I think it’s appropriate for me to mention that recently I accepted a one time, very modest stipend from the not-for-profit Lithuanian Human Services Council to publicize their not-for-profit Seklycia Manor Inn Restaurant to the Lithuanian press.

SSA 14 (commonly known as the Marquette Park Security District) was established many years ago to prevent crime and improve the quality of life in the greater Marquette Park area. It is an efficient system in which local residents contribute a modest amount of tax dollars to fund prevention-oriented security patrols that work in partnership with both the Chicago Police Department and with local residents.

The City of Chicago has for many years contracted with the Lithuanian Human Services Council to manage the District’s affairs on a daily basis; which I am told runs things frugally. The LHSC typically uses about eight percent of revenues to administer the District, which is below the 11 percent figure you typically find in other SSAs across the city.

The Marquette Park Security District’s history is replete with evidence (both statistical and anecdotal) that its patrols prevent crime in the area and therefore improve our quality of life.

Yet despite all the good it does for our community, its existence is not open ended. Every few years, it requires re-authorization by the City Council–as it does now. Trouble is, at least one local alderman–an otherwise good public servant who typically supports crime prevention efforts–has expressed skepticism about SSA 14.

Further, the consultant hired by the City of Chicago’s Planning Department has actually looked us in the eyes, and with a straight face told us that what we need in Marquette Park is less private security patrols and more flowers, planter boxes, motivational banners and benches.

In a time when street violence is almost spiraling out of control and Mayor Daley is calling for military-style firepower for the police, a consultant from downtown is going to tell us to forget security patrols and plant petunias and pansies instead? This is their plan to fight crime in Marquette Park?

Sounds like the consultants and the Planning Department that hired them are out of step with the mayor.

Signs abound that Marquette Park is a community on the rebound; that after years of fighting crime and decline, we are starting to rejuvenate. The most notable sign is the beautiful new Marquette Village upscale residential development near 74th and Rockwell. This new development is attracting a healthy range of homebuyers—everything from young families on the upswing to senior citizens looking for a quiet and secure home for their golden years. And the developers are counting on the security provided by SSA 14.

But now just when we’re getting on our feet and starting to walk forward with confidence, elected and appointed city officials are threatening to pull the rug out from under us and knock our neighborhood on its backside again. What kind of leadership is that?

While other neighborhoods look for handouts from City Hall, Marquette Park asks nothing more than to be allowed to keep taxing ourselves so we can fund effective private security patrols. The time is now for city officials, both elected and appointed, to re-commit themselves to public safety and neighborhood security, and to re-authorize SSA 14 to continue fulfilling its mission to provide security services for Marquette Park.

Joe Kulys

joekulys@wowway.com

Published in the SOUTHWEST NEWS HERALD on Friday, May 9, 2008

 Holy Cross Outpatient and Physician Center, Garfield Ridge

6084 South Archer Avenue

www.holycrosshospital.org 

  Polish American Association, Garfield Ridge

6276 South Archer Avenue

www.polish.org

Like many health care consumers, I am intrigued by the recent release of a federal patient-satisfaction survey for hospitals across the nation.

Yet I hasten to add that I am highly disappointed in some of the low scores earned by Holy Cross Hospital. It seems to me that only Loretto Hospital on the West Side scored more poorly.

Compounding Holy Cross’ poor performance was the flippant attitude displayed by hospital administrators, in response to the survey results. One key official was quoted in a daily newspaper in such a way that she seemed to insult the intelligence of the patients, by observing how the hospital has to put everything in childlike terms for patients.

I think Holy Cross can do better than that. I think Holy Cross must do better than that.

As a longtime neighborhood advocate and friend of the Sisters of Saint Casimir, I want to comment upon the current state of affairs at Holy Cross Hospital and suggest constructive steps that can be taken to ensure that it no only survives, but thrives well into the new millennium.

My interest in and loyalty to Holy Cross and to the larger Marquette Park community is deep and abiding, and it is something I learned from my father before me, as well as my mother — both people of faith whose lives of quiet and humble sacrifice reflected their beliefs and devotion.

It has been my privilege many times over the years to advocate for the hospital — often times behind the scenes but other times quite publicly.

I fully understand the challenges the hospital faces: operate an independent hospital in the face of inadequate government commitment to health care funding, a changing patient base and payor mix, declining numbers in the SCC order, and much more. The temptation is great to fold the tent, I am certain.

But just as Mother Maria Kaupas herself faced daunting challenges that doubtless tempted her at times to question the direction of her work — yet remained steadfast and triumphed in the end — so too must all of us who support Holy Cross avoid the temptation of despair; and so too must we keep the faith and work together to devise and deploy 21st century solutions to our 21st century challenges.

I think there are clear examples in the Chicago area of healthcare institutions that faced similar challenges and met them successfully.

The Alexian Brothers, for example, with significantly less core resources than the Sisters of Saint Casimir, run a successful multi-hospital health care system — as well as a thriving Filipino mission and a new mission in Hungary.

The Sisters of the Little Company of Mary faced similar challenges well over a decade ago with their hospital located three miles south of Holy Cross. Many had predicted that their decline was inevitable and that they would fold their tent. Instead, they re-committed themselves to their mission, brought in new management, expanded to specialty care, and today are a thriving health care provider.

The Religious Sisters of Mercy faced similar challenges; and today their hospital and health care system is on the mend and still strong.

The common factor in all these success stories is a combination of a re-commitment to mission by the religious order in charge and a change in leadership at the health care institutions.

And so should it be with the Sisters of Saint and Holy Cross Hospital.

In my opinion, as a community advocate and as a longtime friend of the Sisters, the Sisters of Saint Casimir need to re-commit themselves to Holy Cross and become actively involved in its administration.

And as a longtime public-sector health care official, I will say that the current and ineffective lay leadership at Holy Cross needs to be replaced as soon as is reasonably possible. Over the decades I have seen several lay leaders at Holy Cross that have damaged the institution, both programmatically and from a community relations perspective; but I must say that the current lay leadership is perhaps the worst that  I have seen.

The current lay leadership appears to have alienated physicians and allied health professionals; failed to establish and maintain connections with funding sources and local government leaders; failed to adequately market Holy Cross or even maintain a current website (which, literally for years, has been "under construction" in an age when even children design and maintain websites); and possibly violated state regulations with erratic and potentially unsafe care.

The current leadership also has failed to market Holy Cross and its satellite sites in Garfield Ridge and elsewhere. It has made modest and admirable efforts to connect with the Hispanic immigrant community; yet it has failed to connect with the Polish and Lithuanian immigrant communities, which are large and growing.

Clearly, there needs to be a new executive team put in place that includes — at the very least — a new CEO and CFO at the hospital and new vice presidents for patient affairs and community and government affairs.

Conditions are favorable for Holy Cross to turn itself around. The surrounding community, after years of decline, is showing encouraging signs of rejuvenation — as evidenced by the Marquette Village new residential development just south of the hospital. The City of Chicago is using tax increment financing to bring back to life an area around the Nabisco plant at 73rd and Kedzie.

(Holy Cross should pursue TIF opportunities. Rush University Medical Center, to cite just one example, received some $75 million in city TIF funds shortly after they, in mid-2007, added Terry Peterson as Vice President for Government Affairs to serve as "liaison with elected officials, government agencies and advocacy organizations, guiding Rush leadership on policy issues affecting the Medical Center, and serving as the primary contact for both hospital and university staff regarding governmental issues," as Rush states on its website.)

Holy Cross Hospital has a clear opportunity to be a part of that rejuvenation, if only we would install capable leadership that understands all this and knows how to plug itself into the process.

But will they?

- Joe Kulys

www.joekulys@wowway.com

Published in the Southwest News Herald on Friday, April 18, 2008

Congratulations to Congressman Daniel W. Lipinski for his convincing victory in the Democratic primary on February 5th. The congressman, like about thirty centrist Democratic congressmen across the nation, faced a heavily-financed, out of state, far left wing campaign to  defeat him at the polls and thus kick regular folks like us out of our own party.

The burden was clearly on the men and women of the Southwest Side to turn back this left-wing extremist challenge — and they shouldered the burden and put the congressman over the top. Now for the next two years, the burden is on Congressman Lipinski to serve the district and prove that our trust in him is well placed. I believe that he will.

Regarding his three primary opponents, the burden is on them to be loyal Democrats and endorse Congressman Lipinski for re-election. We Dems have a rich and admirable tradition of bruising each other in primaries, yet banding together to win general elections. There is a Republican nominee who will square off with the congressman in the fall, and none of us should take the election for granted. So I call upon Mark Pera, Gerald Bennett and Jim Capparelli to publicly endorse Congressman Lipinski now.

Regarding the letter to the editor I wrote, the one that was published in the Southwest News Herald the Thursday before the primary, it provoked a strong and hate-filled reaction from a lot of punks. Their reaction gave me a chuckle.

Imagine a spoiled five-year-old boy who has never been disciplined or even heard the word "No" from his overindulgent and "enlightened" young parents. Then one weekend when mommy and daddy are out of town, junior goes to his grandparents’ Southwest Side bungalow. Thinking he’s still the little prince in his castle, he acts up and ignores Grandma’s order to behave himself. So Grandpa responds by giving him a swat on his pants.

Now imagine the look of shock and anger on the boy’s face, and you’ll get a sense of the shocked and angry responses I got from the spoiled young punks who were livid that I had the nerve to speak the unvarnished truth and call a spade a spade.

Both on my website joekulys.com, and on a handful of far left wing blogs, these punks spewed their venom and called  of me names ranging from Archie Bunker to scum to madman to puto to ass clown. A couple even called me at home to harass me.

Funny thing was, in their rantings on the blogs, most of them confirmed everything that I wrote about them being arrogant, intolerant punks.

One blogger who wrote that he grew up on the Southwest Side but moved to New York City, admitted that he snickered and sneered at "the uneducated fools of the Southwest Side." Another self-described punk from Northern California admitted that he moved away from the Southwest Side because he hated living in a neighborhood "with so many police officers." One blogger writing all the way from the United Kingdom ("English Lefty") scolded me for "demonising the young." One blogger who called himself "Pastor Dan" initially disagreed with my assertion that far left-wing extremists mock people who go to church; but in a subsequent post admitted that he knows a young seminarian who does make fun of people who attend church.

Perhaps not surprisingly, these punks — much like a spoiled five year old, have refused to accept the reality and meaning of Congressman’s Lipinski’s convincing victory in the primary. They are now chalking up his vote totals to thousands of "low information" Democrats — which is their doublespeak way of calling Southwest Siders ignorant and stupid.

See what I mean about them?

So thank you, angry political punks of the extreme left wing, from San Francisco to New York to London, for illustrating the points I made.

If you’d like another swat on the pants from the men and women of the Southwest Side of Chicago, come visit us again in 2010. We’ll be here!

-Joe Kulys

joekulys@wowway.com

Published in the SOUTHWEST NEWS HERALD on Friday, February 22, 2008

As a longtime Southwest Side Democrat and neighborhood advocate, I want to congratulate the News-Herald for its wisdom in endorsing the re-election bid of Congressman Daniel W. Lipinski (D-3rd).

I think it’s important to add a few observations to the ones made in the editorial.

The few cranks and chronic complainers among us can say what they want about how Congressman Lipinski first came to be the Democratic nominee way back in 2004; but the fact is that he stood before the voters for election in the fall of 2004, and the voters said “yes” to his candidacy. He responded to the vote of confidence by serving the district well — so much so that when he stood before everyone for re-election in 2006, he won a majority of votes handily.

So now it’s 2008, and Congressman Lipinski finds himself faced with several primary opponents — one of whom, Mark Pera, is heavily supported by left-wing extremist political groups.

These groups and their millions of dollars are not from the Southwest Side or anywhere around here, but from places like San Francisco, Hollywood, New York City and Massachusetts. (But don’t believe me. Look it up and find out who is behind the Open Left radical organization and some of the other political hate groups that are funneling resources to defeat Congressman Lipinski.)

These aren’t your garden variety liberals. The people backing Mark Pera are radical left-wingers — people who, for example, have publicly criticized Ted Kennedy for not being liberal enough.

I’m not sure about you, but I have a hard time imagining how Ted Kennedy could possibly be more liberal.

The left-wing extremist groups trying to defeat Congressman Lipinski are political punks who snicker and sneer at Southwest Siders like us. They laugh at traditional values. They mock people who go to church. They dismiss senior citizens as irrelevant relics of a bygone era. They look down their educated noses at blue-collar men and women who work for a living. They bad-mouth police and other public safety employees — except when they need a cop, of course. And they give the finger (figuratively and literally) to the men and women of the American military.

They think that regular folks like us, the residents of the Southwest Side, should no longer have a place in the Democratic Party — despite the fact that we were working, sweating, building and strengthening the Democratic Party while they were still crying in their cribs because their diapers were full.

But these extremists have a lot of money, and they are going all out to eliminate all Democrats who are not hardline left-wingers. They say they want to purge the Democratic Party of centrists and moderates like Congressman Lipinski and a handful of other congressmen across the nation.

So clearly, this is more than a re-election battle for Congressman Lipinski. This is a war for the heart and soul of the Democratic Party. A war that was started by left-wing extremists to kick folks like us out of our own party.

Unfortunately for me, the Marquette Park neighborhood I love and fight for is just outside the boundaries of the Third Congressional District. So I can’t cast a vote in the Democratic Primary for Congressman Lipinski.

But one thing I can do is expose the shameful tactics and goals of the left-wing extremist punks trying to defeat Congressman Lipinski; and I can strongly urge all my fellow Southwest Siders to go out and vote on Tuesday, February 5th for Congressman Daniel W. Lipinski.

Let’s get it done, and let’s show the punks how real Democrats can mobilize and make our voices heard.

Just three final points to make: first, a tip of my cap to Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke for returning some $1.5 million in campaign contributions. She is under no legal obligation to do so, but decided to do it after she learned she’d be running unopposed. I’m not surprised that Anne Burke did something that exemplifies the highest ethical standards, but I wanted to say a good word about her actions nonetheless.

Second, I encourage all Democrats to vote for Thomas Allen for Cook County State’s Attorney. Far more than others in the race, he embodies all the law and order values we need in a chief prosecutor; and through his service as an alderman he has earned a reputation as a man from the neighborhood, for the neighborhood — a man who listens to and respects the people. He has my vote for sure.

Finally, I want to urge everyone to vote for Brian Terrence Sexton, a tough anti-gang prosecutor, for Circuit Court Judge (Nowicki Vacancy). We need more judges who are tough on gangs; and Sexton’s opponent, Michael B. Hyman, has been exposed for hiring the notorious Wallace “Gator” Bradley as a consultant. Gator, of course, is a convicted burglar and armed robber, and a former warlord for the Gangster Disciples. Gator claims that he’s changed his ways, and perhaps he has. But really, what does all this say about Michael B. Hyman? Is that who we want as a judge? Please!

-Joe Kulys

joekulys@wowway.com

Published in the SOUTHWEST NEWS HERALD on Friday, February 1, 2008

With Mayor Daley proposing property tax increases that threaten to drive even more middle class taxpayers away from the city, I’d like to share a few thoughts.

As a taxpayer who counts on city services and as a former longtime government employee, I am fully aware that public services aren’t free. They cost money, and if we want services, we have to be willing to pay for them. I am.

However, I see so much waste in the city budget every year, so many resources that go unused, it’s maddening.

Let’s start with my biggest ongoing concern, which is the disgraceful lack of police protection in neighborhoods like my Marquette Park neighborhood - - and for that matter everywhere in the Eight District.

If you look at the Police Department’s personnel budget, you’ll see about 13,500 budgeted positions. If you know people on the inside at City Hall and at Police Headquarters at 35th and Michigan - - as I do - - you’ll learn that only about 9,100 of those positions are actually  filled with warm bodies, and that about 4,400 positions are typically vacant.

And please don’t conclude that means we have 9,100 cops on the street. That figure includes cops on disability and other types of leave, officers detailed to other units of government, officers who work behind desks all day, and so forth. The actual number of cops on the beat might be at least a thousand less than 9,100 - - all while senior citizens in my neighborhood and elsewhere in the district get beaten bloody in robberies and young people are gunned down at local drive-throughs. But that’s another discussion for another day.

Consider that a police officer at entry level makes about $42,000 a year. Factor in his/her various allowances for uniform, shift pay, etc., and we’re up to at least $45,000 a year. Multiply that by 4,000-plus vacancies that go unfilled every year - - and you see the millions of dollars that the mayor and his administration have at their disposal every year.

My question is this: where does that money go? Does it cover cost overruns at Millennium Park? Does it help fill in budget gaps created when the mayor and his administration grant corporate welfare (TIF district status) to mega millionaire developers?

While I recognize that in any government operation employees come and go, and therefore there will always be a modest amount of job vacancies at any given moment. But what we clearly have here is a shall game in which we the taxpayers are assured that we have the adequate police protection we want and are paying for - - but then a crippling portion of that police protection is diverted to non-police uses.

Over the years, I have publicly said many good things about Mayor Daley and his administration; and by many measures Chicago is a far better city today than when we first elected him in 1989. And I will continue to praise him publicly, when warranted.

But I think one thing we absolutely must insist upon from the mayor (and all elected officials) is a certain and basic level of trust with the hard-earned dollars we send to City Hall. So I call upon the mayor to play it straight with us and end the budget shell game, either by hiring a full complement of police officers once and for all, or by dumping the 4,000-plus police vacancies and finding a more honest way to pay for non-police projects.

-Joe Kulys

Published in the SOUTHWEST NEWS HERALD on Friday, October 26, 2007.

I applaud Mayor Daley’s concern for our city’s children, especially children who are poor and black (terms he used)– as recently evidenced by his angry, red-faced denunciation of Loop residents opposed to the planned relocation of the Chicago Children’s Museum from Navy Pier to Grant Park. Now I fully understand that the Chicago Children’s Museum  already has a sweet deal at the publicly-subsidized Navy Pier, where the museum pays exactly one dollar a year to rent a whopping 57,000 square feet of space on the Pier’s west end — the most lucrative part of the most heavily-visited tourist attraction in all of Illinois. (Over 8.5 million visitors a year, an average of 24,000 people each and every day, by the Pier’s own estimate.)

I also understand that by the planned move to Grant Park will be even sweeter for the Chicago Children’s Museum, because now they’ll get an additional annual taxpayer subsidy of $1 million or so through the Chicago Park District, on top of the $8.8 million they receive in revenue each year. And surely, that sweet deal must please the wealth and beautiful luminaries who control the museum, like heiress and museum board chair Gigi Pritzker Pucker.

But really, Mr. Mayor, is Grant Park the place to put a children’s museum if you want to ensure access for poor children? What about the poor kids in Woodlawn, Englewood, Roseland and Atgeld Gardens on the South Side? What about poor kids in Uptown on the North Side? What about poor kids in North Lawndale, West Garfield and Austin on the West Side? What about poor kids in Marquette Park on the Southwest Side?

If it’s open land you’re looking for, I have several suggestions for the new site of the Chicago Children’s Museum, the best of which is the land on either side of Kedzie at 77th Street — you know, the old Rheem factory site, which city planners and our so-called development officials on the Southwest Side have for year’s now (decades actually) failed to re-develop despite strings of promises and rosy predictions made to those of us who actually live here and pay the bills.

You could put a huge museum there, with lots of parking and even land left over for an interactive nature center.

The site is well served by public transportation, particularly the bus lines on 79th Street and on Kedzie, as well as the Metra trains that run just a few blocks south.

And unlike the Grant Park site, there are literally thousands of children who are poor and/or black (again, the mayor’s terms) living within minutes of the Rheem site.

The kids would like it, too, especially if the museum established a partnership with it’s new neighbor, Nabisco — so not only could the kids enjoy the heavenly aromas emanating from a building which at one time was officially the world’s largest cookie bakery, but they could actually eat freshly baked goodies when they visited the museum.

So there you have it. A perfect solution that addresses the mayor’s abiding concern that Chicago children who are poor and/or black have access to the Chicago Children’s Museum.

Now granted, someone would have to tell Gigi Pritzker where the Southwest Side actually is, but I’m sure we could provide a reliable map to her chauffeur.

-Joe Kulys 

 Published in the SOUTHWEST NEWS HERALD on Friday, September 28, 2007.

As a Southwest Side community advocate who has over the years locked horns with aldermen, police commanders, church pastors, school principals, newspaper publishers, business owners and even gang bangers, I think I know a thing or two about what’s good for a neighborhood.

And while I certainly understand and agree with the vigilance of the Garfield Ridge Civic League over the issue of Section 8 housing, I have to respectfully disagree with their opposition to the new homes proposed for the old railroad right of way property just west of 55th and Central.

Using my own Marquette Park neighborhood as an example, I fully understand that the abuse of Section 8 can damage the quality of life in a community. But in my neighborhood (as in other neighborhoods), the abuse of Section 8 typically occurs in older apartment buildings and other rental properties. It most definitely does not occur in new construction, which typically is out of the price range of people in the lower economic brackets.

The obvious example in Marquette Park is the absolutely beautiful Marquette Village residential development at 74th and Rockwell, on the 18 acres that for years was the site of a Kool-Aid plant. These new homes were marketed to local senior citizens and have attracted a healthy mix of seniors and young professional couples — providing a big spark that is helping Marquette Park in its 21st century rejuvenation.

And so it can be for Garfield Ridge, which has quite a few empty nesters who may be looking to simplify their lives in a maintenance-free condo, yet stay in the neighborhood they have good reason to love.

I see the new residential development just west of the airport as a tremendous opportunity for Garfield Ridge to keep its senior citizens who have lived locally for decades and are the bedrock of the community; and also to free up single family homes for sale to and renovation by younger families. To a certain and highly encouraging degree this rejuvenation has already been occurring in Garfield Ridge for over a decade, what with all the home additions, tear-downs and new construction. This new development would merely help that existing upward trend.

This new development also would add households to Saint Symphorosa Parish; which while a wonderful parish, could certainly use an influx of young Catholic families to bolster their school roster. I’m sure St. Sym’s incoming pastor, Father Ted Bojczuk, would be interested in ministering to the needs of new neighbors.

I am glad to see that a reputable and well-known developer like Glenn Azuma is heading this effort. Mr. Azuma has been a key player at Trkla Pettigrew Allen & Payne, Inc., a longtime and respected developer in Chicago. Some of our local college students may recall Mr. Azuma as a lecturer at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business. He is very community focused, and my guess is that he’ll work closely with the community to ensure that this new development fits well with Garfield Ridge.

Finally, I tip my cap to 23rd Ward Alderman and Democratic Committeeman Mike Zalewski, a man from the neighborhood, for the neighborhood, and part of an excellent and effective local leadership team that includes Democratic State Rep. Robert Molaro. Zalewski’s foresight and his courage with this development are exemplary, and I congratulate him for understanding that with change comes opportunity — opportunity to make our Southwest Side neighborhoods better and stronger.

-Joe Kulys

Published in the Southwest News Herald on Thursday, June 14, 2007