Raising Awareness

Friends and Colleagues:

 

Sharing the facts is changing the perception about West Rogers Park. Our community is growing. Synagogues have an increasing membership of young families, millions of dollars are being invested in new and existing neighborhood institutions and government resources are now being directed to improve our streets. On a recent visit at a community function, I only recognized a handful of familiar faces which indicates positive growth and development!

 

One of our priorities has been raising awareness about the hidden gems of West Rogers Park. Our Alderman, Debra Silverstein, has referred to Devon Avenue as “a diamond in the rough” and we agree. The way to influence perception is to engage in a public relations campaign and we are very fortunate to have the volunteer services of Beverly Siegel who has gotten us considerable visibility.  Our work (and more importantly, our neighborhood) has been featured in news articles in:

1.       Chicago Tribune

2.       JUF News

3.       Chicago Jewish News

4.       DNAInfo

5.       News-Star

 

Most recently, we were included in a story about Devon Avenue in the AmericanWay magazine which is distributed on every American Airlines flight domestically and internationally. This exposure is a great way to showcase local businesses and raise awareness about advocacy. A number of friends traveling to Chicago have commented positively after reading the article. That article is posted here: http://www.gowrp.org/blog/2068/jccwrp-in-the-american-way/

 

I encourage you to visit our website, www.GoWRP.org, and share that link with your colleagues and neighbors. Recent news articles and blog updates on our progress are regularly posted. We also have links to our active social media pages.  There is no substitute for positive word of mouth!

Shalom Klein

 

Can you (or someone you know) use a free flu shot voucher?

Dear Friends,

I’ve arranged a limited number of free flu shot vaccine vouchers that can be redeemed at any Walgreens in West Rogers Park or Skokie. These are intended for those in the community that may have missed past flu shot offerings or cannot afford the cost at retail price.
Several people have mentioned that they or their children of family members still need the shots. The vouchers can be redeemed at any time, and I can set a time to meet the recipient.
These vouchers are being made available as a partnership between Walgreens and the Jewish Community Council of West Rogers Park. Please have any interested recipients contact me by email (sklein@GoWRP.org), so I can set the voucher aside.
Thank you.
Best,
Shalom

JCCWRP Updates and Shabbos Message from Shalom Klein – January 19, 2015

Friends and Colleagues:

 

On Monday, I was a guest of Governor Bruce Rauner at the inauguration in Springfield. Many of you may recall that he visited West Rogers Park a month before the election for several hours for meetings with communal leadership and tours of our non-profit organizations. He also visited the abandoned movie theater/car wash at Devon and McCormick and agreed that this eyesore needed to be removed from the heart of our community.  Now that he is Governor, I have been in close communication with his senior staff and they have expressed support for our work and commitment to help us build bridges in local units of government.  Hopefully this will open additional doors that will enable us to address this problem, and will serve as a boost for many of our other initiatives.

 

Tuesday was filled with meetings at JUF with Emily Sweet of the Jewish Community Relations Council who we have been collaborating closely with on creating programming across the Jewish and east-Asian communities that call West Rogers Park home. I also met with John Lowenstein to start a dialogue with the Hillel at Loyola University about working on resources for students and faculty in East Rogers Park.

 

To wrap up the day on Tuesday, I presented to the semester’s first session of the UIC urban planning department’s commercial revitalization graduate seminar . Several of our lay leaders joined me in presenting the background of our neighborhood to the group of students who will be spending tens of hours this semester developing a plan to help us attract new businesses to the Devon and Touhy avenue corridors. Our former consultant, Michael Schubert, opened the door for an introduction at the college of urban planning and I am pleased to report that we have leveraged that relationship to bring more resources to the community.

 

On Thursday upon our initiative, a meeting was convened at Alderman Silverstein’s office, along with representatives of Agudath Israel, Chicago Rabbinical Council, Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Community Relations Council, to discuss the recent acts of vandalism that took place in West Rogers Park. Subsequent to the threatening graffiti that was smeared on many structures in the community, we collaborated with ADL and JCRC to request the above meeting.  With the recent tragedy in Paris, we also discussed the concern of possible local threats relating to the terror attacks in France.

 

Today we will be meeting at Alderman Silverstein’s office with a developer who has a plan to purchase the abandoned/blighted movie theatre and car wash at Devon and McCormick, and convert that site into a public storage facility.  The developer has other facilities which are attractive and well-designed.  The facility would require only five parking places, and that would open the possibility of the unused parking lot just behind the existing structures being redeveloped as a park to enhance the bike trail adjacent to it.  We hope that our participation will demonstrate community support for the immediate improvement of the site.

 

To further encourage cleanup of the Devon/McCormick site, this week we sent a letter to the top leadership of the metropolitan water reclamation district signed by 26 rabbis and co-signed by 350 members of the community, inviting them to a meeting on March 10th at 6pm at Congregation B’nei Reuven to explain why the property they control at this site has been allowed to become a symbol of decline at the gateway to our community.  We tried over the last six months to arrange a meeting with MWRD officials, to no avail.  Now we will schedule a public meeting of our own to which we will invite media, and offer MWRD leaders a platform.  If they come we will ask the tough questions and gain media coverage.  If they don’t come, that will become a story in itself.  It is MWRD policies that have led to the blight that gets worse day after day.  We await their response and will continue to mobilize the community in support of our advocacy on this issue which will not stop until something positive is done to resolve this problem.

 

On Friday I will be continuing our development plan by asking local organizations on our list for financial support for our work. We have made progress in mobilizing our community and with your help we are building a sustainable base to continue our critical work in the community.

 

 

Wishing you and your family a wonderful Shabbos.

 

Best,

 

Shalom Klein

Executive Director, Jewish Community Council of West Rogers Park

JCC Chicago dinner with Norm Smagley