This article is interesting, but not in the limited sense in which it is intended, but in a much broader sense about human nature in America today.
The article is from RedState, and it’s about a mosque in Tennessee that’s demanding a new law be written to prevent buildings adjacent to the mosque from serving alcohol — even though the people who built the mosque knowingly moved into a city, and district, that allows liquor licenses. But, they built the mosque, and then decided to demand neighboring businesses be forbidden from serving alcohol.
The reason that’s interesting to us is because the same thing happens here in Chicago, without religion being involved. On Halsted here in Boystown, between Waveland and Addison, there’s a pricey condo tower called The Dakota that was built right in the middle of the strip of bars that makes Boystown famous. In fact, it’s right next to a club called Circuit, which hosts various circuit parties, theme-nights, etc. Circuit is more of a special events venue than it is a typical bar, and is only open when there is such a special event (it used to be a warehouse or autoshop in a previous life).
So, people who bought condos in The Dakota knew they were buying condos in Boystown, and knew there was a gay bar next door named Circuit. But, after they bought they condos, they started pressuring the local Alderman to close circuit down and pass an ordinance that would take away liquor licenses north of Addison, so no more bars could open near The Dakota.
Well, why the hell did you move to Boystown, on HALSTED where the bars are, if you didn’t want to live near bars?
It’s absolutely ridiculous.
The Alderman in question is Tom Tunney, and thankfully he doesn’t do anything for anyone, so The Dakota’s condo owners never got what they wanted (Tunney is heir to the Ann Sathor’s restaurant fortune, and can be more often found working in his family’s restaurants than working for his Aldermanic constituents).
This kind of thing seems to happen a lot wherever new condo towers are built in existing neighborhoods — it seems the condo owners buy the properties believing they will just run out the surrounding businesses, those buildings will be torn down, and new condo towers will rise in their place eventually.
So, this isn’t something that happens because religion is involved — it’s something that happens whenever anyone’s true plan is to take over a neighborhood and make it what they want it to be, whatever that may be.
April 6, 2009 at 10:32 am
This is happening here in Idaho with the influx of Californians. They move up here to get away from it all, then they try to make it more like Calif. Put up a fence I tell ya!
April 6, 2009 at 11:23 am
Anybody who wants to change one damn thing about Idaho deserves to be shot and have their head mounted in a tavern. I don’t want to move somewhere and change it to California, I’d settle changing California to what it was 40 years ago. You know, liveable.
April 6, 2009 at 2:13 pm
This is very similar to the Yankess who move from the Northeast to the South. They have already made VA and FL like the northeast, they are doing it NC (as evidenced by the narrow Obama win there) and Im sure SC is next where I am.
April 6, 2009 at 5:40 pm
In Florida I’ve heard the complaint all my life. And it’s getting harder and harder to find much of Florida that still resembles Florida.
The California folk have done the same thing to Northern New Mexico. Some of Obama’s highest numbers from the election were around Taos and Santa Fe, which is pretty much East California.
April 6, 2009 at 9:10 pm
Rush had a segment last week on this very thing. He was talking about vegetarians trying to change menus in Burger Kings, but the basic premise applies here
“But the people that think they have discovered this all pure, all healthy lifestyle, seem to want to force everybody to do what they do, and they use the trick of conformity to make this happen, and what ends up is loss of individual liberty.”
April 6, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Yep, NC is a goner. I must be honest as I am not a native but when I move somewhere I move there because I like it, not because I want to change it. Happened in Maine. Moved to a funky island populated by a bunch of misfits and it was the best place on earth. A great community. Next thing you know these “yuppies” (that’s what we called them) started moving in and they wanted to pave all of the roads (we liked mud roads) and put in planters and act all civilized. Next thing you know you’re not allowed to drink a beer on the ferry anymore and someone complains about your loud music (hey, just come on over and join the fun). What is wrong with these people? Are they bored?
April 6, 2009 at 10:57 pm
On the move from Las Vegas to Tucson, every time I saw an erratic driver, the car in question had Cali plates. I must’ve said “Effing Californicator” a hundred times. My little brother was amused.
Regarding the topic in question, I wonder if money and a sense of righteousness and elitism are what propel people to act in such a rude and obnoxious manner. It seems to me that the logical process would be to move to a neighborhood that suits one’s sensibilities, which is what I just did. I won’t be advocating for any changes to the lifestyle that’s already in place here.
April 6, 2009 at 10:57 pm
oops…”ones” not “one’s”
April 6, 2009 at 10:58 pm
oops again, I think I was right the first time. I’m so tired, I don’t even know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 7, 2009 at 7:10 am
Happening here in Utah too. Even the Mormons are getting out of town ,the Cali’s make them so sick.
April 6, 2009 at 10:35 am
This happens everywhere. In Portland, Maine they started building condos on the waterfront, which was a working waterfront with lots of fishing boats coming and going and other working waterfront businesses. Before moving in, the condo owners thought is was “quaint”. After they moved in they started complaining about the smell of fish, the noisy fisherman who leave real early in the morning, and the stench of diesel. Man, what a night mare. The people of Portland took matters into their own hands and initiated a referendum that banned anything except waterfront related businesses from locating on the water front. It was put on the ballot and passed with 70% pro-working waterfront vote. The condo builder took it to the Maine Supreme Court and lost.
Where I live now in NC, we have a drumming circle at a small park right in the downtown every Friday night during good weather. It ends at 10 pm. They built a condo a couple of blocks up from the park. The new residents had the nerve to complain about the noise from a once a week drumming circle that draws not just locals, but tourists by the dozens. Well, that didn’t work either, but why would you move into the center of a busy town and then think you had the right to complain about noise?
I have no sympathy for these louts.
April 6, 2009 at 5:50 pm
But where it really becomes ingrained, like in Florida where New Yorkers have gained a lot of clout, first they pass laws to put the fishermen out of business and then they build the condos.
April 6, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Wow…that is very advanced gentrification. I never thought of that. Well, in Maine they would never have gotten away with that back then. Now, I don’t know. It’s changed a lot…it voted Obama.
April 6, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Not entirely sure I understand how using our waterways as the sewer for high-density housing like high-rise condos is healthier for the environment.
No doubt they would tell me that back where they come from people poop as pure as the freshly falling snow.
April 6, 2009 at 11:23 am
And I thought that this phenomenon was confined to Snowbird’s and others moving South to take advantage of milder climates, and then trying to remake us in the image of wherever the hell they came from.
We have had them move into areas that are mostly individual farmers and poor communities, and then start clamoring for local representatives to pass zoning laws to make anything that they don’t like illegal. Most of the time they are told, quite loudly and clearly, that if they don’t like it here to pack up and go back where they came from.
April 6, 2009 at 1:59 pm
In laws are down south, I’m up north. Totally agree with you. Yankee snowbirds have ruined many a southern town’s charm with their nonsense.
And why do northerners have to be so loud and obnoxious in the south? I’m a Chicagoan and I wish they would keep the nonsense up here where it belongs.
April 6, 2009 at 11:35 am
My Grandpa use to tell me to tell people that you need a permit to live in North Dakota. He prayed that the extreme cold weather would keep the riff raff out of our state – it did for a long time but not any longer! Now our children can’t even have Christmas Programs. No pledge before class starts – no hot dogs for lunch, etc. Why can’t people move here but except how we were raised and our beliefs? We don’t go over seas and people change for us??? I just don’t think it is fair.
April 6, 2009 at 2:13 pm
press one for english…
April 6, 2009 at 7:55 pm
EXACTLY!!
April 6, 2009 at 11:04 pm
Grrrrrrrr! Doesn’t that just gaul the crap out of you!!! I picked up a local Tucson
“alternative” newspaper today, and I was shocked–SHOCKED!–to see that the cover story was about illegals from Nogales literally trashing the desert with tons (literally) of garbage, which includes the entrails of slaughtered cattle!
Haven’t read the article yet, but my first thought was, “How do you like your illegals now, you bleeding-heart, senseless, P.C. idiots?” I’d laugh if the situation weren’t so truly disgusting.
April 6, 2009 at 11:47 am
HB:
I thought Tunney bought out Ann Sather from the founder and basically rehabilitated it — and then expanded it. I don’t think it’s an heir-ed franchise or was family-founded. I could be wrong.
Anyhoot, this is all just a strange by-product of re-gentrification. I never knew Circuit was a problem now; I still remember the fracas Yuppie parents made over a nude art painting in the window of Tulip on Halsted. Oy.
April 6, 2009 at 12:47 pm
We thought Tunney inherited Sather’s — and that either his family bought it from the original Swedish woman, or he’s the grandson of Ann Sather. In either event, it sure seems like he’s always at Sather’s every time we’ve been in there.
April 6, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Tunney bought the business from the original Ann Sather; he had worked there as a waiter and when she retired he bought the restaurant from her.
I knew Tunney had been elected Alderman in my former neighborhood, Briar between Broadway and Halstead.
I did not know Tunney was still on the floor in Sather’s.
Some people really love the restaurant business.
April 6, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Press One for English.
Press Two for Spanish.
April 6, 2009 at 12:09 pm
That was awesome TXMom!
April 6, 2009 at 12:31 pm
:-)
April 6, 2009 at 12:48 pm
LOL
When I lived in Texas (1985-86) I was sure glad I had taken several years of Spanish in school.
April 6, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Who knew back then that you would need it to get a job, in New York or Chicago?
April 6, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Well obviously, great minds think alike as I was thinking along the same lines as some of the other respondents. People will move from New York, or New Jersey, or California, because of high taxes, local government issues, etc., and come to my lovely red state (Georgia) and start turning it blue!!
April 6, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Just remember Delta is ready when they are! To quote Lewis Grizzard on yankees coming south and complaining about the south.
April 6, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Funny story:
Alabama in law visited me in Chitown, wanted to make pasta for me…I talked her into making chicken fried steak, biscuits, and gravy. I love that woman.
April 6, 2009 at 2:07 pm
It’s basic selfishness. In light of the Mosque, it is funny since Obama is in Turkey telling them he really is pro-Islamic….and in America, not only do they feel they do not have to pick you up at an airport if you have wine, etc. in your luggage, but now they want to build a Mosque, but they want zoning changes that would restrict the rights of the neighbors. I heard a Senator from New Hampshire talk about people from an adjoining State who flock to NH but bring their ruined politics with them. They try to change the very nature of the thing they loved about NH for….ditto people from most major Cities, after they have ruined the Cities with their misguided politics, they move out, and bring that baggage with them….they never seem to get it. Hopefully there are Grandfather clauses to prevent the greedy newcomers from getting their way.
April 6, 2009 at 9:22 pm
We are about 5 hours NE of San Francisco, it’s rural and our county is moderate-conservative.
We’ve had an on slot of “bay families” move here the last 10 years to raise their family. No need to explain that!
They not only are bringing their Piglosi politics, they were driving up the real estate prices and our property taxes.
Now they want to pave our road. Is the gravel too rough on your BMW????
April 6, 2009 at 2:17 pm
its being done all over the U.S. and it is just plain WRONG
April 6, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Lunch break — Isn’t this pretty much the same thing as marrying someone who’s “just perfect” and then setting out to change him/her? LOL.
Back to work now. Have a great afternoon all!
April 6, 2009 at 11:07 pm
What a great–and true–observation!
April 6, 2009 at 2:55 pm
My complaint is not those folks moving from one state to another.
I have lived on Long Island, NY for 50 years now.
I moved here with my folks when I was a child; grew up and attended school here.
I am now married and own my own home only a town away from where I grew up.
Obviously, I love living on Long Island.
My major complaint concerns the new residents in my town, who come in and begin chopping down trees, putting up large fences etc.
They come here from the city looking for a more peaceful place to live – and then they try to make their homes resemble their city homes.
They should have just stayed where they were!
Delle
April 6, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Isn’t that typical? Happens around here all the time. My favorite right now are the people who build houses next to the airport and then try passing noise ordinances and restricted flight plans.
Our state is currently debating a state income tax. Kind of funny, instead of outrage, some people around here were seeing it as a silver lining. Perhaps when taxes become too oppressive, all the riff raff that moved here and tried to change things will just go home.
April 6, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Our lovely Midwestern Iowa town of 10,000 is way over half Hispanic.
The 1879 Victorian home in which we live is one of 20 or so in town. Lots of others built from 1900-1930s.
Hispanics take porches, remove doors & block in windows to make a bedroom. Looks like someone gouged out the house’s eyes! Front steps that go nowhere. Passed an ordinance that prohibits so many people in one house, but they utter two words—”extended family—and zoning board shuts up.
Biggest thing in summer is they take out screens & leave windows/doors wide open. Curtains are also knotted.
An ordinance requiring EVERYONE to pour cement driveways (instead of crushed rock) was needed because these 15 folks in one house have 10 cars between them. And they were parking on grass. Now it’s difficult to wend your way thru many streets because of all the cars that don’t fit on driveways.
I’m waiting for our sewer systems to have a major crisis. You know the workout your plumbing gets when you have lots of visitors for a short time. Imagine 15 peoples’ sewage/wash water/bath water going down drains 24/7 365 days a year!
Into this mix, add drug traffic complete with pitbull guard dogs. My letter carrier said she stepped on two dead puppies in a yard recently.
These folks are slowly recreating Tijuana here.
April 6, 2009 at 8:31 pm
Same thing happens here in Philly. It never ceases to amaze me.
There’s one house here which is bizarrely out of tune with the neighborhood — built especially because the owners hate cities and didn’t want to have to look at the city. Everything about it is turned inward and the facade looks like a retired battleship.
If they didn’t want to live in the city, why buid a house so out of place with its surroundings that it offends the senses? Why not just flee to the burbs?
April 6, 2009 at 9:01 pm
NeeNee,
I’ve said before, this sort thing happened in so cal. It started with Mexicans, and then the Vietnamese refugees showed up, with their govt. backed businesses. There areas down there where you have no idea what the signs say or where you are.
The gangs, black, asian, and mexican are deadly. Car insurance against theft alone is a nightmare. And it’s getting worse.
My husband, an elementary teacher, instead of fire and earthquake drills, was having “drop and cover” drills due to drive by shootings. That’s when we said bye-bye!
April 7, 2009 at 4:32 am
In Sydney, Australia, near where I live, dwellers in expensive apartment buildings complained about the noise next door from the city’s iconic Luna Park amusement park which has been there for about, oh, well over 50 years. It was all lit up right next door when they moved in, it’s not like they could have missed it on the real estate inspection or even if they bought off the plan, they should have checked the neighbourhood.
These people had enough clout though, retired judges and whatever, to get The Big Dipper ferris wheel stopped altogether.
What gives with these people? They behave like they own the world… and it turns out they do.
April 7, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Smilla: Are you an Aussie or an expatriate in Australia? Either way, luv ya! :)
April 7, 2009 at 7:50 am
When buying an existing house, most people don’t think about the neighborhood. They like the location, and maybe, the number of bathrooms. Then they move in, and the current trend is to customize everything without consideration for the look of the neighborhood. They make sure they “pee” on everything to show that they own it. They’re proud that their house is “updated” and they think everyone else is envious.
April 29, 2009 at 2:49 pm
“Well, why the hell did you move to Boystown, on HALSTED where the bars are, if you didn’t want to live near bars?”
To be fair, it’s not the club itself that’s the problem. The roof on Circuit is basically that of an old Quonset hut; it is totally inadequate for keeping that kind of sound in. A couple circuit-boy friends of mine moved into the Dakota knowing full well how close to Circuit they’d be. What they didn’t know was that all they’d hear, every night from 8pm to 4am, is thump-thump-thumping bass from the club. They say it’s totally intolerable and they can’t sleep. Earplugs don’t even keep the sound out.
It’s perfectly reasonable to expect that a club like Circuit would keep its noise to itself, or at least to a non-nuisance level. Look at Hydrate! They’ve got condos adjacent, even apartments right on top of that place, and those neighbors don’t complain because the club is soundproofed well enough. That’s what the Dakota folks expected when they bought there.
I do know that Mike Macharello is genuinely concerned and has spent some tall coin working to fix the problem. The Dakota folks have been complaining about this for years. Going to Tunney is probably a frustrated last resort.