In Rogers Park, one man tried to make a difference. But before this guy had a chance to feel good about his philanthropy, his seemingly simple act of charity got very complicated.
Sam had two conditions. He wanted the signs posted at Gale Academy, 1631 W. Jonquil Terrace, and at Kiwanis Playground, 7631 N. Ashland–both north of Howard Street and both among Juneway Jungle’s most popular open-air drug markets. He also wanted to remain anonymous, in part because he didn’t want to become a target. “I can look out my window any day and watch drug deals happening. The police are impotent. They don’t respond quickly–by the time they get there, it’s all over. A drug deal is a very fleeting thing.”
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The Rogers Park Tenants Committee has a drug committee, and when its members heard about the 20 signs, they acted swiftly. They voted to put up Sam’s signs at schools south of Howard Street, because another community group had posted a few signs in Sam’s neighborhood last November.
Sam couldn’t believe it. “I thought I was helping the neighborhood cope with a very serious problem. This guy is a Park District employee. Instead of his loyalty to the children he’s supposed to be there to look after, it’s with a community organization a mile away. The school principal has her priorities straight. She said thank you very much and got the signs up.”
While the signs gathered dust and Sam stewed, Armstrong vowed to carry on the fight over the ordinance, which he admits is a mess. Beavers won’t budge, and Figueroa appears to have lost interest. Armstrong says Project CLEAN hasn’t helped either. He says the group has been “opportunistically” selling its signs, which have the group’s name printed at the bottom. “The fight has always been to get the city to pay for the signs,” he says. “We were all fighting Beavers. But now we’ve got different community groups with different approaches. They have their approach. We have ours.”
Sam continued to pursue what by now had become a bit of an obsession. And finally, after six weeks, there is a hint of reconciliation in the air. The Rogers Park Tenants Committee appears to have decided that as long as Sam has bought the signs, official or not, they might as well be put to good use. The committee planned to have city workers put up four of Sam’s signs at Kiwanis Playground this week–and they even invited the press. They also offered to give their anonymous benefactor a community award. (Still trying to remain anonymous, Sam declined.) And they had the audacity to ask Sam what he planned to do with the remaining five signs.
