Pilot ADU Ordinance Approved
- Category: Latest News
After a lot of talk followed by a period of relative inaction, the City Council approved a limited, three-year pilot program providing a framework for the legalization of coach house and “conversion units” in small residential structures in restricted areas of the city. This Ordinance was approved last December and will take effect May 1.
Veto Session Drama
- Category: Latest News
Nothing much has been happening in Springfield.
A hell of a lot has been happening in Springfield.
These two statements say opposing things. These two statements are both true. To understand how this can be, you have to look beneath the surface.
Green Rehab Comes to Rogers Park
- Category: Latest News
- By:
- Tom Heineman, RPBG Treasurer
Janelle Walker, a Rogers Park resident and mother of three, teaches two courses at DePaul University to incoming freshmen. One of the courses is part of DePaul’s “Explore Chicago” curriculum. That course is focused on the Maxwell Street and Pilsen neighborhoods of the city. She explores gentrification in these two neighborhoods and the impacts, both positive and negative, that gentrification has on the residents of these areas.
The Pandemic and the City
- Category: Latest News
After nearly twelve months of pandemic, we have all had to adjust to the many changes in our lives that it has caused. One of those changes that might have the longest-lasting impact is remote working. This got Derek Thompson, who wrote “Superstar Cities are in Trouble” in The Atlantic magazine, to thinking. The central premise of the article is that the booming coastal metropolises that had been driving the national economy are suddenly not doing very well.
Steve Shah, RPBG Vice President
- Category: Latest News
It’s only been a few months since Steve agreed to be the new RPBG Vice President, but he has already made his mark on the organization. Working with Giselle Hennings, the Housing Director at Northside Community Resources, Steve has assembled a comprehensive Landlord Tenant Resource Guide that provides information on a wide range of resources for property owners and their tenants. And if it isn’t already there when you read this article, the Resource Guide will soon be included as a link on the Rogers Park website.
Sarah Lisy Steps Down as RPBG Vice President
- Category: Latest News
When one door closes, so the saying goes, another opens. This is the yin and yang we feel as we happily welcome Steve Shah as new RPBG Vice President, but say a wistful good-bye to Sarah Lisy who has stepped down after a four-year stint.
As I See It: Never a More Important Time to Join Your Neighborhood Building Owners Association
- Category: Latest News
- By:
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Mike Glasser, RPBG President
Winter, 2021
In 1992, a group of apartment building owners and real estate developers in Rogers Park established the Rogers Park Builders Group (RPBG).
Ups and Downs - Winter 2021
- Category: Latest News
- By:
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Steve Cain
Winter, 2021
Buckets of ink have been spilled describing the awful year we just lived through. And yes, it was awful. Who would deny it?
Around Rogers Park: $50K Donation from Chicago Wolves to A Just Harvest
- Category: Latest News
As the famously difficult year 2020 was about to close out, the Chicago Wolves hockey team chose the Rogers Park-based food insecurity and social justice organization, A Just Harvest, for a grant of $50,000 – one of five organizations around the city to receive gifts from the team. As reported by Block Club Chicago, the funds will be used to expand the organization’s food pantry, help with coronavirus relief efforts, and possibly open a drop-in community wellness center that will include mental health services.
Around Rogers Park: Pothole Art Project
- Category: Latest News
There’s a terrific article in Block Club Chicago by journalist Joe Ward, called Rogers Park Artists Fill Neighborhood Potholes With Used Bike Parts, Tile: ‘Functional Art Is Cool.’ If you missed it, take a look. True to Rogers Park’s reputation as a haven for artists and eccentrics of all stripes, several local artists banded together to do something about the pothole problem that plagues all of Chicago in the winter months, but in a very original and unorthodox way. With a $7,500 grant by the AARP, whose motivation was making the city more accessible to people with accessibility difficulties, these local artists took old bike parts, tiles and other found objects and imbedded them in pothole repairs, turning a routine maintenance function into a work of art.
Around Rogers Park: Proposed Expansion of 1415 West Morse Avenue
- Category: Latest News
Mark Falanga, CEO and founder of VentureMark, Inc., is the owner of a four-story, vintage building at 1415 West Morse. The property occupies a large site on Morse, including a large surface parking area to the rear of the existing building. Mr. Falanga is asking for a zoning change from B3-2 to B3-3 that would allow him to build a new, 5-story addition on part of what is now the parking lot. The zoning change would trigger the Affordable Requirements Ordinance which currently requires a 10% set-aside of units affordable to households earning no more than 60% of area median income.
