Let's Clean Up West Rogers Park! An exciting beautification contest…
The Jewish Community Council of West Rogers Park “Curb Enthusiasm” beautification contest has arrived! This program is in partnership with JCC Chicago.
The contest is open to all single family residences, businesses, multiple family residences, condo balconies, synagogues or schools. This is a friendly competition where participants can put their gardening and decorating skills to good use!
The period for judging will be May 18-19 and will focus solely on front and side yards, UNLESS you only have a backyard.
Judging will be based on the following:
- General appearance of buildings, fencing and edging
- Overall landscaping
- Lawns
- Shrubs, evergreens and trees
- Color accents
- Creativity
Participants must be present at the Bernard Horwich JCC, 3003 W. Touhy on Sunday May 21st at 3pm to win.
First Place: $500 Value
Second Place: $300 Value
Third Place: $100 Value
In addition to beautifying your own backyard—help us spruce up Bernard Horwich’s yard! On Sunday, May 21st please join us at 3:00 p.m. for a community investment project! We will “dig in” and get dirty as we clean up and make Horwich beautiful. We will also have take-home projects to add to your family’s on-going efforts to beautify West Roger’s Park! Everyone is welcome to participate, even if you don’t enter the contest. This is a free event, but advanced registration is encouraged.
Help us spread the word and encourage your family and neighbors to join in by registering at https://www.jccchicago.org/
A flyer is attached and we look forward to your participation!
There was a packed crowd at Alderman Debra Silverstein's meeting to discuss the new West Rogers Park library
Thanks to Alderman Debra Silverstein, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Chicago Park District for breaking ground on Park 526 in West Rogers Park
Please complete this brief survey to share your thoughts / suggestions on the new library being built in West Rogers Park
LEARN WRP– Library Survey
A new library is coming to Pratt and Western and this survey is aimed at assuring that it meets community needs.LEARN-WRP (Library Enhancement and Renovation Network – West Rogers Park) is circulating this survey throughout the West Ridge/West Rogers Park community. The goal is to gather as much information as possible about the elements that are of greatest importance to those who will be using the library.Please rank your opinion of the library’s needs using a 1 – 5 scale, with 1 representing the lowest level of importance and 5 representing the highest level of importance. You may add up to three additional items that you wish to see in the new library.
If you have any questions please contact Tony Martinez at learnwestrogerspark@gmail.com.
Let's Do Some Good In WRP!
JCCWRP will be partnering with the Jewish Federation / JUF on an opportunity to bring the community together around volunteering in West Rogers Park.
Good Deeds Day was started in Israel in 2007 as a way for people to give back and has since become an international day of service taking place in over 75 countries around the world. Last year JUF launched Good Deeds Day locally and nearly 1,500 community members of all ages participated in the inaugural event. Good Deeds Day is scheduled for Sunday, April 2, 2017. Follow this link to learn more and see pictures from last year: https://www.juf.org/tov/
There are now several local projects lined up, including the Chicago Chessed Fund, Maot Chitim, and others are being added to the calendar. More details will be sent out as projects are confirmed.
Please help us spread the word and let me know if we can count on your family or colleagues for a volunteering opportunity in West Rogers Park. We look forward to participation from the members of our community in this city-wide effort.
Chanukah is right around the corner and fun is in store in West Rogers Park!
As everyone gets ready for the upcoming fun week of Chanukah, I wanted to send a quick update on an upcoming program. For the second year in a row, JCCWRP is partnering with the JCC Chicago, EZRA and the ATT on a CHANUKAH BASH at the Bernard Horwich JCC.
There will be a magician, crafts, games, music and a sufanyot bar! Register at jccchicago.org/
Partnering with the JCC has led to more community opportunities and hundreds of families have participated in the shabbat dinners, Sukkot childrens events, safety fair and other initiatives.
Winning Through Teamwork – Shabbat Message from JCCWRP President, Howard M. Rieger
As the Cubs brilliantly demonstrated — in addition to mazal — winning takes teamwork.
Cubs President Theo Epstein said yesterday: “If you have people trying to grab credit, people trying to deflect blame, it’s usually not going to work too well over the long haul.”
Teamwork is what leads to victory. And we at JCCWRP want to be part of a winning team that has a single-minded focus of making West Rogers Park the best neighborhood it can be.
While there can be no final victory to our mission, we should feel gratified that our ability to coalesce a significant part of the community has backed up Alderman Debra Silverstein’s efforts to bring a beautiful park, with a bridge linking the recreation trails on the west and east side of the North Shore Channel, to Devon & McCormick in 2017, and a new Chicago Public Library to Pratt and Western.
Shalom Klein and I met with the Alderman last week and reiterated our commitment to work with her on park improvements and library planning and to assist in any other way we can to be a force for ongoing neighborhood improvement.
Teamwork will ensure that the longest-standing Jewish community in Chicago will be here for decades to come.
Shabbat Shalom,
Howard
Was honored to host Senator Mark Kirk in West Rogers Park
“Our Great Rivers Plan” and West Rogers Park – Shabbat Message from Howard Rieger, President, JCCWRP
Shabbat Message from Howard Rieger, President, JCCWRP
The City of Chicago and the Metropolitan Planning Council recently unveiled Chicago’s first unified vision for the Calumet, Chicago and Des Plaines Rivers. It’s known as Our Great Rivers Plan. With the support of the Chicago Community Trust and other funders and the involvement of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD), the Plan’s 26 goals include expanding river-edge open spaces, improving riverfront parks, enhancing continuous trails and river access, and promoting neighborhood tourism.
As a teenager, my friends and I called what is now known as the North Branch Channel the “sewer river.” Who could have envisioned that the channel would become the site of a treasured recreational amenity? Who could have imagined that the McCormick Trail, beautifying Evanston, Skokie, Lincolnwood and Chicago, would ever become a reality? But it did. and our community is incalculably enriched by it.
Today West Rogers Park is poised to be transformed by similar river-related amenities. Starting with the new park that will be created in 2017 at Devon and McCormick, thanks to the support of Ald. Silverstein, and the new biking/running/walking bridge that will finally connect the trail on the west side of the channel with the trail on the east side at Kedzie and Lincoln, that is exactly what is beginning to happen.
With the promulgation of Our Great Rivers Plan, another dream takes a step closer to becoming reality: transforming the park on the east side of the channel that runs along Kedzie from just north of the former Thillins ballpark to Touhy — Park 538, the park no one knows about — into the extraordinary neighborhood and regional asset it has the potential to become.
With 3 ½ miles of volunteer-maintained trails adjacent to the channel, Park 538 could provide a perfect venue for collaboration between the City of Chicago, the Chicago Park District, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and some of the funders and planners who are helping to implement the Plan. What it would take initially would be fairly simple. Name the park. Erect signage to let the community know of its existence, and clear a few access points so people can actually see it and use it.
For next steps, MWRD could add interpretive signage similar to the displays they created at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Lincoln Park, underscoring the crucial role of water treatment in assuring the public health of our region.
Being in the right place at the right time is one key to success. Recognizing opportunities and creating synergies to take advantage of these openings is equally important.
Hopefully our advocacy together with other individuals and organizations in West Rogers Park and beyond will achieve that fulfillment for the continued betterment of our community.
Shabbat Shalom,
Howard