Birder Sigrid Schmidt on the trail. Credit: Jason Kreke

Sigrid Schmidt’s philosophy is to be outside as much as she can. It was something that was instilled in her as a young child. “My mom always used to make me be outside,” she said. Her three favorite hobbies—golfing, gardening and birding—are outdoor activities, and she walks her dog, Quincy, along the river nearly every day. It’s primarily here where Schmidt looks out for the thrushes and warblers and any other birds that come through the area.

Schmidt wouldn’t call herself a serious birder, even though she’s been to birding festivals in North Dakota and San Diego and has traveled to Texas, Florida, Ecuador and Africa to go birding. “Like any hobby, there are serious and casual birders,” she said. “I’m casual.” She marks the birds she sees in the U.S., but that’s about it, she says.

Schmidt grew up near Wolf Lake in Indiana, just across the Illinois boarder. At a young age she says her mom always made her go outside whenever possible. It was here when she first saw migrating birds. Then a teacher in grade school got her interested by taking Schmidt to the local parks to spot birds. That’s when her love for birding took off. “I was interested in birds before it became trendy.”

The bird watching trend is not just a Chicago phenomenon, bird watching has exploded into the No. 1 sport in North America, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. There are 51.3 million birders that generate more than $120 billion in economic activity.

The city, especially under the Daley administration, was much more responsive to naturists. “The city has learned that it’s less expensive to put up a natural habitat,” Schmidt said. “It’s still a challenge because the city is always mowing.” Many activists work with the park district to create natural areas for birds. Schmidt said it would be great if the city could capitalize on this support and have its own birding fest.

Birding has even gained popularity in recent years, especially among young people, Schmidt says. The Illinois Young Birders was started in 2010 and brings kids from 12 to 18 out on field trips to go birding. “Birding is getting more press,” she said. “Especially when special things happen.” Schmidt says the spotting of a Snowy Owl in Chicago about two years ago helped to boost interest in birding. Now when she goes out during migration season, Schmidt counts up to 100 people watching for birds.

Just over two years ago, the city was told by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to clean up the Chicago River. In April 2012, Governor Quinn announced that the state will contribute $10 million to the effort. A new study commissioned by the Friends of the Chicago River stated that a cleaned-up Chicago River could generate more than $80 million and $6 million in new taxes. Lately, City Hall has even gotten into the act, spending more than $100 million over the years on public access, new boat launches and revamped river walks downtown.

Beyond the Chicago River, Schmidt likes to go to Montrose harbor, where the magic hedge is at. Migratory birds for years were stopping at a particular hedge near the harbor. Several years ago, the city let the area surrounding the hedge grow naturally and now it is a small habitat for birds. Schmidt also heads to the larger parks in the city to see the birds migrating through the area. Two weeks ago, Schmidt said 135 species were spotted in the area.

It might not seem like it, but Chicago is in the center of a great migration pattern that allows Schmidt and fellow birders to spot dozens of species flying through the city twice a year. Chicago sits at a unique spot where birds coming from South America will head up to Michigan or even the Arctic.

In her years birding, Schmidt has seen a change in the bird population in Chicago. “What we find is that species are actually changing. Southern birds are moving north. We saw a Northern Mockingbird, which usually only goes as far up as Indianapolis, in Chicago. We’ve seen a Turkey Vulture. Things are changing.” This puts greater pressure on existing species and creating a competition for reasons.

With so many different birds to keep track of, it might seem like a daunting task to start spotting birds. Schmidt dismisses that notion. Like anything, Schmidt says it takes a lot of practice to identify birds. A birder uses shapes, colors, and geography to help identify a bird. “It’s really easy to get into. All you need are cheap binoculars and an iPhone app.” The best way to identify a bird is to hear it, she says. The most dedicated birds can identify which birds are migrating through the area just by their song.

Since retiring two years ago from a job as a commercial real estate appraiser, Schmidt has found more time to devote to birding, something that she finds relaxing. Even though she says her favorite bird is the one she is currently looking at, she says that her favorite is probably a warbler.

“Birds are beautiful,” she said. “I think a lot of people like birding because people want to fly.”

The new Lathrop Homes development plans call for nearly doubling the amount of units. Credit: flickr/davidwilson1949

For seven years, people living in the Julia C. Lathrop Homes and their neighbors in West Lakeview and North Center have been waiting for word on the fate of the 35-acre public housing project at 2000 W. Diversey Avenue. In that time, many of the project’s 1930s-era brick low-rise buildings have been boarded up and fenced off, and people living in the city’s oldest housing project have been shuffled from one side of Diversey to the other.

Now, after a process widely criticized in the community for a lack of clarity and transparency, there are new indications that key stakeholders may soon know the plans for the parcel of land at Clybourn, Damen and Diversey Avenues. Members of a “working group” comprised of aldermanic representatives, neighborhood groups and resident advocates have been invited to a meeting at the federal Housing and Urban Development offices downtown on June 19th. An email obtained by Center Square Journal tells recipients that “CHA believes they (sic) will be ready to present the (Lathrop) plan” at that time. However, the email includes a caveat that stakeholders should look for a confirmation next week to make sure the plan is truly ready, an acknowledgement that numerous community and “working group” meetings on the fate of Lathrop Homes have been postponed and canceled over the last several months.

Going on the main website for the Lathrop Community Partners — the consortium of developers and agencies involved in the project — provides very little guidance on a timetable: it still promises “a master plan by March of 2013.” When asked for comment on the process and status of the development, a CHA spokeswoman provided an emailed statement which said the agency is “continuing to work” with stakeholders, and that the CHA and Lathrop Community Partners intend to present a plan “in the near future.” As this article was being posted, CHA had not responded to multiple requests for comment about the status of the June 19th meeting.

Asking other stakeholders in the process provides little other information as well. “We don’t have any more access than anyone else does,” said Paul Sajovec, chief of staff for Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd), whose ward borders Lathrop Homes. “We have not seen anything by way of a plan or a concept since November, and that gets to the question of ‘what kind of a process is this?’”

Lathrop Homes today. Credit: Geoff Dankert

Kevin Bruursema is more direct: “If lots of activity with very little clarity was the goal, that has been achieved.” The campus pastor at New Life Community Church, 2958 N. Damen Avenue, has hosted discussions about the future of the Lathrop project, and became an advocate for neighbors and residents seeking assistance working through what both he and Sajovec describe as a confusing process of community outreach. “It’s like getting into the worst customer service loop ever,” Bruursema said. “Nobody ever has the answer. I think it was built to avoid ever having anyone responsible for engaging the community.”

However, the chief spokesman for the alderman that represents Lathrop Homes on Chicago’s City Council is more sanguine about the governmental fits and starts that have typified the Lathrop project. “Generally, that can happen with large bureaucracies,” said Matt Bailey, communications director for Ald. Proco Joe Moreno (1st). “We like to think we’re a consistent bridge between the residents and the CHA.”

The last open engagement of Lathrop residents and neighbors happened back in November of 2012. That’s when Lathrop Community Partners released three proposals for redeveloping the site, and New Life Community Church hosted two open houses to collect feedback from the community. Based on the group’s own notes from those open houses, the biggest concern was over the number of housing units in the development. Each of the three finalists included 1,600 units of housing, at least 50% of which were to be “market-rate.” However, the CHA’s own guidelines set a ceiling of 1,200 housing units for any new development at Lathrop.

Sajovec said like the neighbors and existing Lathrop residents, he and Ald. Waguespack were “pretty concerned” about the increase in density, citing the lack of nearby “L” service. “If you were looking around for an area to put high-density residential, you wouldn’t pick this one,” he said. Bruursema agreed: “They weren’t recognizing the impact on streets. I don’t think this community could handle it.” Bailey also indicated that Ald. Moreno’s office had “specific concerns about density and preservation,” given Lathrop’s status on the National Register of Historic Places and the parcel’s access to the North Branch of the Chicago River. Sajovec said project leaders have recently been “hinting” that they may bring the density level down, but it’s not clear whether the new plan tentatively set to be presented on June 19th will reflect that.

Of course, as with any development in the City of Chicago, there’s one specific constituent whose feedback is heeded above all others, and his office is on the fifth floor of City Hall. Back in April, Mayor Emanuel joined CHA chief executive Charles Woodyard to announce a new strategic plan for public housing that includes mixed-income developments and vouchers to help low-income people afford units in privately owned buildings. Emanuel’s “Plan Forward” replaces the Daley-era “Plan for Transformation” adopted in 2000 that led to the demolition of numerous high-rise housing projects, including the Cabrini-Green towers.

It’s not clear how the rollout of the “Plan Forward” has affected the timetable for the Lathrop project, and there’s little information to suggest that Emanuel or his office has expressed a specific point of view about the future of Lathrop. Bailey would only say that “obviously” the mayor’s office has input, though he had seen no specific indication of engagement from Emanuel.

But if the scheduled June 19th meeting is postponed or canceled, no one who’s been watching this process since the Lathrop Homes were targeted for redevelopment back in 2006 will be surprised. Bruursema said most of the 160 remaining families living on the south side of Diversey are older, have health problems and just want to know where they’re going to be able to live: “If the plan was to wear them down, that has worked.”

Rep. Greg Harris (D-13) fights to hold back tears on the Illinois House floor as he announces that he will not call the Illinois Marriage Equality bill for a vote. Image from Livestream.com

Illinois State Representative Greg Harris (D-13) shot to the center of national attention last Friday evening with his impassioned speech announcing he would not be calling legislation making gay marriage possible for a vote in the Illinois House. Combined with the General Assembly’s failure to pass state employee pension reform this legislative session, Harris has since been buffeted by a renewed wave of frustration in the gay community and across Illinois with state government’s inability to act.

On Monday, Harris, who represents Uptown, Ravenswood, part of Andersonville, and since last year’s redistricting, most of Lincoln Square, sat down with Center Square Journal to talk about the last legislative session, the budget, our state’s social safety net, and what’s next for the marriage equality bill.

Full Disclosure: From 2008 to 2010, I was a paid political fundraiser for Harris, but I have not done any work for him since.

Center Square Journal: Public response to the Spring Session has been pretty negative. What’s your take on it?

Harris: There were some huge things that we didn’t get done. The House passed one pension bill the Senate passed another, neither passed both and sent them to the Governor. The House passed the cost shift which was defeated in the Senate which deals with the other half of the pension crisis. Marriage equality did not pass. Concealed carry did and there are some people who think that’s a good thing in response to the Supreme Court’s decision. It was something I voted against. But there was a lot of unfinished work to do.

CSJ: Besides marriage equality, what has been your top priority this session?

Harris: Budget. I’m chairman of the Appropriations Committee that is responsible for the Departments of Aging, Health Care and Family Services, DCFS, Public Health, Human Services, which accounts for about 50% of the state budget and we were able to pass a budget there that lived within our means, for the first time in many years. It meant some cuts to the operations of all departments and 1% across the board cuts to many grant programs but we were able to sustain the funding at an equal level for things like homeless youth, child care, mental health, substance abuse. We were able to add money in to cushion the impact of the transition to the Affordable Care Act ["Obamacare"] for people with AIDS and women with breast cancer who the Governor’s budget had cut substantially. We were able to create and fund a new adult protective services unit to protect all adults with disabilities in the state from abuse neglect and exploitation in response to a series of horrific deaths that occurred this year.

So, there some good things that we got done. In the other appropriations committees we kept education funding level. The Governor’s education budget had requested a substantial increase in education funding. It was the House and Senate’s view that keeping core human services in our neighborhoods and education unharmed was key.

CSJ: Obviously social services has been one your big focuses in this session and in previous years. What with the current budget situation would you say with social services are most threatened?

Harris: Very, very few. And actually we took a lot out of danger. The Community Cares program that provides in-home services to seniors the home services program for adults with disabilities–we had not paid our bills since FY12 for some of those programs. So the individual care providers and agencies were, if some had not already gone out of business, many were at risk of going out of business and forcing seniors out of their homes–we were able to fully fund those things. We were able to eliminate our–we paid down $411 million of back bills to other human service providers.

State Rep. Greg Harris at the Montrose and Damen intersection near his district office. Credit: Mike Fourcher

CSJ: But a lot of that is sort of luck of the draw this year because there was an unexpected increase in tax receipts.

Harris: Absolutely. A lot of this was due to the fact that the House and Senate very,very conservatively budgeted our income projections for FY13, having been burned before by making to many optimistic projections, which in this economy were not met. In FY13 we made very conservative ones, and as the economy slowly recovered, revenues came in above our projections. But the one thing nobody had counted on was at the end of last year, in anticipation of changes of the federal tax code due to the sequester, a lot of people were going to sell assets to protect capital gains. That put a huge spike into the April revenues–that’s a one-time thing–but we were able to pay down several hundred million dollars of old bills that we had already incurred to nursing homes, doctors, pharmacies, child care, and we were also able to return dollar for dollar federal match and bring more revenue into the system. So it was a very good thing.

CSJ: Now that you’re the chair of the Appropriations for Human Services Committee in the House, what perspective do you have that you didn’t have a year or two ago?

Harris: Just how fragile our systems are. I mean because we were lucky this year with revenues, we were able to avoid devastating cuts to human services to education to seniors to public safety. Should the economy turn down slightly or substantially in the future, those gains could be erased or taken back. Should we not solve the pension crisis, in the future, these problems are going to continue to haunt us. Pensions now are the one thing we have to focus on getting done.

CSJ: That’s an interesting question, because there are a lot of critics who say neither of the two pension bills moving through the legislature, Senate President John Cullerton’s in the Senate and Speaker Mike Madigan in the House, will make a big enough impact on spending to reverse the problems. If pension reform can’t fix state spending, where do you go next, what do you do?

Harris: These are highly complex calculations based on how many employees, what their ending salaries are, what their retirement rate is, what the COLAs are, how long they will live, what future funding of the pension systems will be, what the rate of interest being paid on investments or investment gains or losses, twenty, thirty and forty years from now. It’s a hugely complex transaction.

I think that a lot of people would say that the House proposal is by far the most conservative and would cut the year-to-year expenses the most and reduce the on-going liabilities the most, I think President Cullerton would say that their solution, while probably not returning as much immediate gain as the House, also would have a better chance of passing court muster if there were a constitution challenge against it.

Either way, whichever plan that moves, we’re pretty sure that somebody, of all the thousands of employees and retirees in this state, the university, public employees, teachers retirement system, somebody is likely to file a lawsuit and then we’ll find out what the court decides.

CSJ: Four years ago school funding reform, moving funding from local property tax to state income tax, was the big issue. And it never really got anywhere. It just died. Is pension reform potentially going to face the same fate?

Harris: This is a problem that just because of the power of compound interest, every year this does not get fixed, just becomes worse, and the solutions more horrific. There are no easy answers now, but the answers aren’t going to get better with time. And eventually, if you couple that with a cyclical or some other downturn in the economy, it could be calamitous. You may see in the next week or so the credit rating of Illinois reduced to junk bond status inhibiting our ability to borrow money to operate or pay for capital plans, and that’s a consequence.

CSJ: You were Ald. Mary Ann Smith’s Chief of Staff for 14 years in the 48th Ward. Aldermen get a lot of attention in Chicago media, whereas state legislators don’t. That’s not the case downstate. Are Chicago legislators at a disadvantage to their downstate colleagues because of this?

Harris: I think that sometimes you could say we don’t get a lot of attention. So, yeah. But, people are paying a lot of attention to the pension crisis. I get more messages about that. People are really aware of just how precarious this situation is. People are really concerned about education funding. People are concerned about the most vulnerable. I think people are paying way more attention than we used to, because people are just sensitive to what the success or failure of Springfield means to them and their families.

CSJ: Your district boundaries changed this year. What new territory do you represent?

Harris: I picked up a good deal of the 40th Ward, some of the 47th Ward, some of my 46th Ward boundaries and 49th Ward boundaries. I’ve got a precinct in the 39th Ward and some in the 33rd Ward.

CSJ: So you go pretty far west. To the river?

Harris: And beyond!

CSJ: Last weekend, Tracy Bain from the Windy City Times said you should resign if marriage equality didn’t pass this year. And then today, the two of you put out a joint statement saying that everyone needs to work together. Do you feel personally responsible for the bill not going for a vote?

Harris: The decision, when to call the bill and not call the bill, ultimately rests with the chief sponsor, and that is me. So it was my decision to do it. But I think that since some of my colleagues who had been committed to voting yes had said at the eleventh hour that they wish to hold back their votes until they had time to get back to people in their community and respond to some of the negative messaging and some of the untruths our opponents had been saying about religious freedom, they were going to withhold their vote, that it would have caused the bill to fail.

I think that holding this for a successful vote, even though painful, was the right strategy, versus going up on the board and show a failure.

CSJ: The amount of vitriol and intense emotion in the gay community is really more than I think you’ve seen for a lot of different things, and a lot of it has been focused on you. Do you think of your seat as a “gay seat”?

Harris: No. I think of my seat as a 13th District seat. There are a lot of things I work on. Immigrant and refugee issues and homeless youth issues, and breast cancer and protecting adults with disabilities. And marriage equality is one of the top among those. It’s something I think, that whoever occupies this seat, straight or gay, marriage equality is certainly going to be a big priority to them. But we also have to remember that education, seniors, immigrants and refugees, those who are most frail and vulnerable who don’t have lobbyists in Springfield, I also think I need to go down and stand up for them.

CSJ: Can you give us a little bit of an insight into what happened? How come the bill wasn’t called for a vote?.

Harris: Sure. At the eleventh hour, some members who had said they were inclined to vote yes became very nervous. We’d been in Springfield for a very long time, and back in their district forces who oppose equality had been out organizing robocalls and such things saying the bill was going to attack religious freedom and take the rights away from churches–those kinds of things are not true. If you read the bill, you can read it, it’s two paragraphs, it pretty much says it straightforward, what the bill does and doesn’t do, providing broad protections for religious freedom.

They felt that politically for themselves they needed to go back to their district and do work educating their constituents before they they cast their vote.

Then, you look at two, there are so many other things going on. You have the tension between the House and the Senate on the pension issue. You had the Republican Caucus, who had members who came out early on also the Chairman of the Republican Party, who came out early on saying a vote for fairness and equality keeping big government out of people’s bedrooms was the conservative thing to do.

You had immense blowback from the right wing of the Republican Party, you had people starting to come to a conclusion they wanted to potentially be a vote, then you had an announcement maybe two, three weeks ago that the House Republican Leader [Tom Cross] that he might run for Attorney General, which started a scramble in that caucus that people who thought, “Oh, I can be the next House Leader,” saying, “Well how do I cobble together my majority? I need to tack way to the right to appease the Tea Partyists and the right wing people in order to get this new job.” So all kinds of things happened behind the scenes.

CSJ: Do you think that the internal dynamics created a cannibalism within the Republican Party has affected members of the Republican Party ability to vote their conscious on bills like this?

Harris: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Everyone has to go home and run within their own districts and run within their own parties. I think that at the end of the day there are different political realities within the City of Chicago and on the North Side and on the West Side and the South Side. There are different political realities and changing political dynamics in the suburbs big time. Central Illinois, downstate have their own, whether it’s a rural area or manufacturing town whether it’s a college town. All politics is local. I guess as chief sponsor my job is to keep a pulse on 118 different people, of whom I need 60 to vote with me. Realizing the positions continually change every hour. It’s a lot of pulse-taking. I want to be sure where people are when I put that up on the board. I don’t want a surprise.

CSJ: Pastors Larry Trotter and former State Senator Rev. James Meeks, from the African-American Clergy Association said that it was a victory last week that the bill was not called for a vote for the “the God-fearing Black Caucus members” and that’s great that the Black Caucus stood strong against the measure. Is this creating a wedge in the progressive community between progressive whites and progressive Blacks?

Harris: I hope it doesn’t. Because if you look at all the caucuses, the Downstate Caucus, the Republican Caucus, the Black Caucus, the Latinos, there were no caucus positions on this issue. People were really doing what they thought was politically and morally right. You clearly had some members of the Black Caucus who for their reasons, very legitimate, would probably never have voted for this bill regardless. You had many who regardless of what happened believe it is absolutely the right thing to do, who would have voted for it. Then there is a group in the middle who are struggling to find their way how to vote for it.

So, to try to drive a wedge between the gay community and and other progressives is… Back in 2009 some confidential documents and strategy plans were released from the National Organization for Marriage, which is the anti-marriage equality organization nationally. And it is their strategy to try to drive wedges nationally between Black communities, Latino communities and the gay communities. All of us who struggle cannot let that happen. We cannot be divided.

CSJ: Your speech on the House floor, that the bill won’t be called, has become nationally famous. [video here] Do you think the national attention on a bill nobody voted on will make a difference for passing marriage equality in Illinois?

Harris: You know talking to some folks over the weekend, some of my colleagues, I think it certainly raises the stakes in how important this really is and how all eyes are going to be on Illinois when that bill comes to a vote.

CSJ: Does Illinois matter more than states like Iowa and Minnesota?

Harris: Every state matters. I mean equality in one place, equality in the next place, it is something that we have to work for in every state. And remember, in just a couple weeks the Supreme Court is going to opine on the Proposition 8 case from California and the Defense of Marriage Act case that is before them too, so that could also dramatically change the landscape. This is an issue of just tremendous national scrutiny.

Governor Pat Quinn threatened to call a special session to get pension reform and marriage equality passed. Can he bring anything new to the table that hasn’t already been done?

We’ll see as things progress, how votes progress, how people progress, how coalitions progress, but bottom line those of us who wish to fight for equality, we have to double down, get back into the communities, get back with our allies, and continue to do the right thing.

CSJ: When you have some free time, anything you’re hoping to do to relax this summer?

Harris: I don’t have any free time in the foreseeable future. [Laughs.]

CSJ: So, nothing.

Harris: Apparently not!

The Cardinal Lounge. Credit: Myles Dannhausen.

The first time I left the Cardinal Lounge I knew two things: Moving to Chicago was going to work out all right, and I had found my favorite bar.

The Cardinal, snuck into the corner where Lincoln and Western Avenue collide rather ungracefully at 4905 N. Lincoln Ave., doesn’t look like much from the outside, but don’t let the exterior fool you–it looks like less on the inside. It won’t show up on any “Best Bars” list anytime soon, but when I moved into the neighborhood from a small Wisconsin town 17 months ago, it begged me to say hello.

It’s a “slashie,” not in the “you might get stabbed here” sense, but because it’s a liquor store/ bar. It sits Kitty corner from the re-vamped Lincoln Square Lanes, perfect sentries for an overlooked stretch of the city that hosts as incongruous a collection of watering holes and eateries as you’ll find, a mélange of Irish, Korean, Krzgh, Bosnian, Serbian and plain old American dives in a three-block saunter.

The 2007 real estate crash likely saved a couple of these places, stunting the condoization that seeped in through the previous decade and buying some time for the last vestiges of an older Chicago.

The front windows of the Cardinal display the neon signs required of any self-respecting dive bar, and the parking lot wall is covered in beer special posters for the liquor store. It’s ringed by a generic maroon “Sports Bar” awning a few steps from the much more recognizable backlit, bright yellow “Cardinal Lounge” signpost.

The bar itself is as simple as it gets. The room is long and narrow, the bar and its 15 stools taking up one side, leaving room for a handful of hightop tables and a popcorn machine along the other wall, nothing more.

Nothing fancy here at all. No heavy wooden back bar. No vintage accouterments or tin ceiling, just a drop ceiling with a big Miller Light logo splashed in the middle. It’s bright in here, in part because of the lighting in the bar itself, but also because the bright lights of the liquor store shine through a bank of large windows at the end of the room.  That light highlights walls painted the yellow side of beige, the color that, on a slow night with nobody to talk to, you stare at and think, “wow, that’s a hideous color.”

But most of the time you don’t notice.

You’ll find a half dozen beers on tap and behind them, against the back wall, a simple backbar with a decent booze selection, nothing extraordinarily fancy or hip. It’s a place where people do shots of Jameson, Makers, and what looks tonight like the occasional Yukon Jack. (The guy I’ve spied drinking the Yukon Jack, looks like a guy who drinks Yukon Jack.)

Then there’s the ode to the Chicago Blackhawks. There are Blackhawks bobbleheads, Blackhawks banners, signed photos of the old stars, and a picture of the 2010 Stanley Cup championship team.

These are the mark of Bob Schmidt, the regular bartender (there’s never a need for more than one at a time). He’s not the owner, but he is the Cardinal. He loves the Blackhawks, always has, even when he was growing up in Canada, near Calgary.

Look the place up on Yelp and most of the reviews will mention Bob. In a city full of “mixologists” and crafters of cocktails (whose work I enjoy, don’t get me wrong), Bob is a bartender. He gives his customers shit (and gets away with it) in a way that knocks you back at first.

He’s in his late 40s, with a voice scratched enough to be older. His left arm is covered in tattoos, a scruff of beard speckled with gray beneath his glasses.

Bob didn’t plan on becoming a part of this place. It started as a summer job, a way to make a little extra cash. “Well let me tell ya, it’s been a loooong summer,” Bob says.

That was nine years ago.

He worked at the Berghoff for a year, but says it was a little too snooty. It’s hard to picture him there, if only because he seems such a perfect fit here, where the drinks are cheap and the bull shitting is the best kind of cliché.

Order a Miller Lite and he’ll ask impatiently, “glass or bottle.” Pause and he’ll lean in, “come on, come on, I ain’t got all day.”

You’ll look around at the two other old men in the place chuckling at the end of the bar and think, um, all day is precisely what you seem to have.

You say glass, and he’ll shake his head incredulously. “Really? Sure, I gotta clean a glass now. Thanks.”

He’s joking, I think, but he doesn’t like doing dishes, that’s clear.

Some nights I’ll stop in, and at 34 I’ll be the young buck in here by a few decades. Bob will hold court the way a bartender does at a place like this, talking to some of the regular customers without actually talking to them. It’s not a slight, but a survival mechanism. At a point, a bartender can’t see the same people, doing the same thing, every single day and honestly engage with them. Sometimes you lean back, nod your head, and rely on clichés to get you through the stretch when it’s just you, a couple of warm stools, some bad TV, and too much time before close.

Other nights some random young revelers will roll in for the first time, trying to impress. They’ll order a specialty drink or bomb and earn a bemused look square in the eye.

“You haven’t been here before have ya?” he’ll say.

A minute later these young ones are parked on a stool, laughing, perfectly content with the glass of beer or simple cocktail they’re sipping on. Bob likes to say that “once your feet are up, you’re mine,” and it’s true. I’ve seen it again and again, a skeptical newbie turned Bob superfan in a matter of a few beers and maybe a shot of Jameson. There’s a Jagermeister tap behind the bar, but I’ve never seen it pour.

He jokes that if you want service, you can go someplace else, but it’s not exactly true. Bob’s a bartender’s bartender. Your drink doesn’t sit empty for long, and if it’s time for him to step out front for a smoke break, he makes sure everyone’s taken care of before he does.

I swung by in late May to catch game seven of the Stanley Cup quarterfinals between the Blackhawks and the Detroit Red Wings, and the stools of the Cardinal were occupied by what looks like the normal crowd. Older folks (mostly men, but a couple women), sat with their backs curled around the lip of the bar like they were designed for this place, feet up with a beer glass in front of them (mostly Old Styles, Becks, and Miller Lites).

Standing behind them, occupying all the hightops, were the younger guys and girls. The pretty young Red Wings fan that made her virgin visit here just last week is back, melding in like a regular. Bob welcomed her in spite of her misguided fandom, and as she got up to leave Bob hammered her with his patented close, the work of a great bar salesman.

“You come back and visit,” he says. He does this to newcomers. It’s more command than request. “I’ll be seein’ you. I’ll be seein’ you.”

A lot of places will thank you for coming in, a nod from a bouncer on the way out, or a bored shout from the barkeep or a server. Bob is all in. Have more than a couple in your first visit and you’re almost guaranteed to leave with a hug.

“See, we ain’t so bad here,” he’ll say. “I wanna see you back in here now.”

Invariably they return. Not for the beer list. Not for the cocktails. Not even because it’s cheap (though it is). It’s Bob, it’s comfortable, it’s without pretense. It is, what it is, and that’s perfect.

Later, after about half the crowd has cleared from the ‘Hawks game, Bob looks around the bar and puts his hands out, “where else could you get this?” He’s motioning to a crowd that’s now the kind of mix one usually finds in a small town, which might be what I love about the place more than anything else. “We’ve got such a diverse crowd that comes in here, and everybody talks to each other. Green, white, purple, black, I don’t care. Everybody’s welcome.”

In a small town, a bar can’t be too much of one thing – too young, too cool, too old, too loud. There’s not enough crowd to go around to exclude anyone, so you have to be a little safer, a little more generic, so everyone feels comfortable coming in and giving you their dollars.

Here, in the nation’s third largest city, people can live their entire lives within their own bubble. Spend your 20s in Wrigleyville with the bros and nights full of shots, graduate to Bucktown or Wicker Park, mingling amongst the hipsters finding style through your mid-to-late 20s. Then maybe bounce up to Roscoe Village or Lincoln Square, what my friend calls Strollerville, to live amongst the young parents and do the things young parents do. Each move keeps you with people in the same stage as you, each has bars and restaurants full of homogenous crowds in the same stage of life.

But here at the Cardinal, there is no niche.

Bob will joke about his customers, and you can get a fair amount of entertainment just listening to him jab at them for a night, but he looks out for them. He’ll bring extra food in for his shift, just in case a guest needs a little something in their belly. He says he’s probably spent a couple grand on cab fares over the years.

“I don’t care who you are, or if you’re in here calling me a jerkoff, so long as you’re still here to say it,” he says.

I call it a dive, which I mean as a term of endearment, but when I say this to George, my quite drinking companion during the ‘Hawks game, he corrects me.

“Oh, this isn’t a dive,” he corrects me, chuckling slightly. He’s 70-ish, leaning over his glass of beer. “I’ve been in a lot of dives that I don’t want to tell you about. This is a nice neighborhood bar.”

And that’s what it is, the best praise a bar could want.

Myles Dannhausen is a freelance writer and content strategist at Lightspan Digital, a Chicago digital marketing company in Ravenswood. He has written for Running Times, Gapersblock, Chicago Athlete, LoganSquarist, and the Peninsula Pulse, where he was the news editor for eight years. Find him on Google+ and follow him on Twitter @mylespulse. 

Festgoers check out one of the music offerings at the 2012 Ribfest Chicago. Credit: Sarah Tilotta

Welcome to a new Chicago summer! That means lots of festivals and plenty of reasons to be outside. Contrary to what many may think, Lakeview is not where the most festivals are held. Nope, it’s Center Square where the action’s at. Here we provide, for your planning convenience, our annual guide to the festivals and what to expect.

Maifest Chicago, May 30-June 2, Lincoln & Leland

While it’s not the first festival of the season, it’s considered by many to be the “Kick off” fest of the summer. Beer, brats, tents and a relatively laid back crowd make this drink fest more family friendly (in the afternoon) than you’d think. Be sure to try the pickled herring.

Ribfest Chicago, June 7-9, Lincoln & Irving Park

The fastest growing area festival, Ribfest expanded an extra block last year and attracts tens of thousands of people who want to smell like barbecue for the weekend. Unique among festivals in that it strives to annually book upcoming bands – and have interesting food.

Epiphany Summerfest, June 15, Damen & Bradley

A day-long block party with the usual kid-oriented stuff to do, food and drink, and then some actual good music with Open Suggestion and the Katie Todd Band at the end of the afternoon.

GriffinFest, June 22, Foster & Winchester

Less of a traditional street festival than a theater company throwing a big party to celebrate their new location and new season (and there’s nothing wrong with that!), GriffinFest so far seems to have the marks of most summer festivals but we have great expectations since it’s organized by a bunch of artists.

The Freak Out at the NBGC Carnival. Credit: Jordan Graham.

Neighborhood Boys & Girls Club Carnival, June 26-30, Irving Park & Rockwell

This is exactly what you’d imagine a carnival to be like. Lots of neon at night and more fried dough than you can imagine. The Boys & Girls Club strives to make the daytime kid-centric, and offers a reasonably priced all-day pass for parents to unleash their kids on the rides.

Summer Pride on Southport, June 29-30, Southport & Waveland

Rebranded with a rainbow “pride” element this year, since this year it falls on the same weekend as the Pride Parade. Operated by Star Events (which operates many summer fests), expect your usual Chicago festival line up of music and food vendors. One notable difference: the Sunday Gospel Brunch. We’re curious to see how authentic a gospel performance can get in Lakeview.

Taste of Lakeview, July 6-7, Lincoln & Belmont 

Another Star Event rebranding effort, Taste of Lakeview is replacing last year’s Rock Around the Block, which angered local merchants because it was so poorly planned and organized. While last year’s festival lacked any significant theme, this year’s fest is meant to feature local restaurants – although none have been showcased yet.

SquareRoots, July 12-14, Lincoln & Montrose

This is the second year of SquareRoots, the ambitious replacement to the once beloved RootsFest. Last year’s festival, a combination of RootsFest’s music lineup and beer from the area’s many craft brewers, was widely considered a success. Organized by the same company as  Ribfest Chicago, Big Buzz Idea Group, SquareRoots is so far proving to be a unique and interesting summer festival experience.

Chowing down at the 2010 Burgerfest. File Photo.

Roscoe Village BurgerFest, July 13-14, Belmont & Damen

Now in its sixth year, BurgerFest actually draws a fairly large group of interesting burger makers, but pulling a big crowd has always been a challenge since it generally falls on the same weekend as the Taste of Chicago and now SquareRoots. In past years the festival has drawn some interesting music acts (Foghat and The Smithereens!), but this year it seems to be falling back on the usual line up of cover bands best experienced with a beer in hand.

BenFest, July 19-21, Irving Park & Leavitt

Probably the most famous of the various North Side church festivals, BenFest is expanding to three days this year. Yes, the music is pretty much the same as most festivals, but BenFest is much more kid-oriented with a ton of rides and things to do. You won’t find many swerving recent Big Ten grads here. Also: The fest is held in the church/school courtyard, rather than the street, creating a different experience.

Retro On Roscoe, August 10-11, Damen & Roscoe

One of the first big summer festivals, RoR stretches six blocks down Roscoe Ave. and includes a classic car show, three stages, a tots carnival ride section and lots of non-food vendors. While most summer fests are about getting a beer and planting yourself in front of a stage, the sheer size of RoR invites strolling on a nice afternoon.

St. Demetrios Greek Fest, August 16-18, Winona & Washtenaw

Their website isn’t up to date yet, but we called to make sure it’s happening this year. Yes, it’s a church festival. But really, the food is awesome. And the music. And the dancing, if you can catch it. Every year Greek-Americans pour in from the suburbs to come to their old family church festival in what used to be “New Greektown”. This is one of the few truly authentic ethnic festivals in the area.

In between the rain, throngs came out for the 2011 Ravenswood Remix. Credit: Sarah Tilotta.

Ravenswood Remix, August 31-September 1, Ravenswood & Belle Plaine

A festival that focuses on indie and folk art? New, up and coming bands that don’t play covers? Yes, please! To boot, the festival supports arts programs at Hamilton Elementary and other local public schools. Now in it’s third year, The Remix bursts with creative energy so many other fests lack. If you’re looking for something to do on Labor Day weekend, this is a pretty good way to spend it.

German Day Festival, September 6-7, Lincoln & Leland

Yes, this is festival is essentially a replay of Mayfest but in the late summer. Same tents, beer and food. That’s not such a bad line up. However, the real stand out of the festival is the Baron Friedrich von Steuben Parade. Once big enough to roll down State Street every year (Remember the end of Ferris Bueller? Yeah, that parade.) the parade attracts a unique blend of neighborhood groups, politicians, dirndls, lederhosen and old fashioned cars. Oh, and a whole bunch of people drink beer while they watch from the sidewalk.

Guinness Oyster Fest, September 7, Damen & Roscoe

A smaller festival than most, Oysterfest is less about a long afternoon in front of a bandstand than a stop along the way to slurp some oysters and beer.

North Side Irish Fest, September 13-15, Lincoln & Irving Park

Although it’s “hosted” by the Northcenter Chamber of Commerce, this is another Star Events reboot, formerly the North Side Summerfest with a focus on hot dogs. That theme didn’t seem to work out so well, so now it’s going Irish. Details are still being worked out.

Queen of Angels Harvest Jam, September 20-21, Western & Sunnyside

Set up in the church parking lot, Harvest Jam is like many church fests, cover bands, beer, face painting. But at this time of year, you have to go for the roast corn.

Oktoberfest Chicago, September 27-29, Lincoln & Southport

Once the quaint St. Alphonsus Parish Oktoberfest, this became a roaring event a couple years ago that spills far out of the (admittedly big) church basement and onto the streets. Genuine “oom-pah” bands have played at past festivals, and yes there’s a pretty good “Kinderfest” section, as any decent church festival would require.

Ravenswood ArtWalk Tour of Arts & Industry, October 5-6, Ravenswood Corridor

Once a sprawling two-mile event area with venues along Ravenswood between Lawrence and Roscoe Avenues, RAW has been working to consolidate the event space this year. Past RAW Tours have opened up studios and lofts so you can not only see great art, but also how it gets made. Details are still being worked out.

A rendering released yesterday of the new “Triangle Plaza” on Clark, just north of Addison Ave. Left, the proposed boutique 175-room Sheraton Hotel. Center is a proposed mixed-building with 75 parking spaces, a 40,000-square-foot Chicago Athletic Club, a McDonald’s and other retail.

Denizens of Wrigley Field call it the “knothole:” the fenced open section along Sheffield Avenue where passersby can peek in from the sidewalk to watch a Cubs game. And if you listen to representatives from some of the neighborhood groups ringing the ballpark, that’s the only perspective they have of the ongoing talks aimed at renovating what the Cubs call “the friendly confines.”

“We don’t have a seat at the table,” said attorney Jill Peters, who as head of the Southport Neighbors Association represents the most vocal opposition to many of owner Tom Ricketts’ plans for the area around Clark and Addison. “I don’t really know what’s going on behind closed doors.”

Indeed, none of the neighborhood groups with a stake in the future of the ballpark are directly represented at conversations between the Cubs and the city of Chicago. Instead, their interests are being represented by 44th Ward Ald. Tom Tunney. Tunney attended a meeting of SNA members back on April 22nd to brief them on the latest plans for the area around the ballpark, and Lake View Citizens Council president (and West Lakeview Neighbors’ president) Will DeMille said his organization is in touch with Tunney or his office “a few times a week” on the issue. “These are very similar conversations that are held monthly throughout the city about business and entertainment issues,” he said.

The lack of a direct voice in the negotiations over night games, the seven-story hotel and retail complex planned for the current McDonald’s location across Clark Street from the ballpark, and other neighborhood issues also does not seem to concern Wrigleyville Neighbors president Bridget O’Rourke. That’s likely because her group is most supportive of the Cubs’ wish list. “We want to be a voice to let them know that there are residents who support what they want to do,” she said, adding that WN has had no direct discussions with Tunney or his office. “We would be happy to sit down with him,” she said.

But how much direct input is realistic for neighborhood groups to expect in a massive, multi-million dollar project like this? “It’s kind of hard to quantify, but I would say a decent amount,” says Tunney’s chief of staff Bennett Lawson. “We’ve run anything that requires an ordinance change or a (planned development) through the community.”

What’s being presented is causing some concern for both Peters’ and DeMille’s groups. Peters says the plan for that 91-foot-tall hotel and retail complex is “out of scale” for the one- and two-story buildings already on Clark Street, and raises concerns that other developers will build even taller buildings in response to the new arrival. DeMille points out that while the hotel proposal puts it at roughly the height of the ballpark, it will come up against residential areas west of Clark. “On Cubs game days, how are the cabs and traffic going to impact the people on Patterson and Racine?” he asked. “[Those are] some of the details the Cubs will get into as part of the proposed [planned development ordinance].”

O’Rourke said her group is unconcerned about the scale of the hotel and its impact on traffic in the area. “I don’t think it’s going to be out of place in the neighborhood,” she said. “In the off-season, it’ll be nice to have a place where [neighbors' families] can stay and not have to go downtown. It’s economic growth for the whole community.”

Up until now, the size of the development has been largely unknown, despite Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s insistence that the team and the city have worked out “a framework of an understanding.” Now that specifics and renditions are being made public, Lawson says Tunney and the Cubs are beginning to share those details with the park’s neighbors.

“There is a lot of detail that has to run through the community,” Lawson told Center Square Journal. “The Cubs are now doing presentations to all the community groups.” Work is also progressing on a comprehensive traffic study of the area that may inspire more changes when it is completed in the next month. Already, Peters called the Cubs’ offer for 500 additional remote parking spaces for fans a “positive step forward.”

But when Cubs executives get around to briefing the Southport Neighbors, they may want to prepare a charm offensive. SNA’s Jill Peters says the rapport and framework the team established with the group over years of Tribune Co. ownership “appears to be off the table.” She then went on to use phrases like “bad start” and “ill will” to describe the association’s initial contacts with the Cubs under Ricketts. “Can it be turned around? I hope so,” Peters continued. “They’re trying to backtrack.” DeMille said LVCC has a “healthy” relationship with the Cubs. “We’ve worked through issues. To me this is just another milestone with the relationship between the neighborhood and the Cubs.”

“I’m putting my good faith in the process,” Peters continued. “[Tunney] is doing a great job trying to represent our interests. I’m very hopeful that this community process will be more than symbolic. I hope that the mayor is listening.”

Of course, this is the same mayor who told City Hall reporters in March that the time had passed for negotiating on controversial plans to close dozens of Chicago public schools, even though hearings were still on the calendar and a Board of Education vote was five weeks away.

Does the city’s apparent process for school closings give Peters reason for concern about how Wrigley Field changes will be done? “Absolutely,” she said. “The mayor is putting pressure on us to compromise. He’s taking big risks by making so many demands on our community.”

And as Ricketts suggests the Cubs would consider moving out of its longtime home if it does not get additional electronic signs inside Wrigley Field, Peters has a veiled threat of her own when asked what might happen if the community’s concerns were dismissed: “Well, there was an Illinois Supreme Court case that held a community has rights with respect to night games.” She quickly added that it would be “premature” to discuss specific actions. DeMille said from LVCC’s standpoint, talks with the Cubs are “nowhere near” any kind of breaking point.

However, the neighbors are committed to making their voices heard, even if they are reduced to yelling through the “knothole” on Sheffield.

Members of the Turkish Cultural Center. Photo courtesy of the Turkish Cultural Center

By the time I went through the front door of the Turkish Cultural Center on Lawrence, all my fears about going to a members-only Turkish club subsided. On the street, the club is nothing more than a glass door next to a Mediterranean-style bar and grill. Faced with the prospect of being an outsider and with limited language skills, I was apprehensive as I climbed the blank stairway to the second-story club. Except for a single orange sign in the window above the door on Lawrence, there was no way to tell what I would find once I went inside.

When I reached the top floor, the door opened to reveal a broad space singularly devoted to Turkish culture. It revealed a space where people could gather after work to enjoy a tea and conversation before heading home.

The Turkish Cultural Center at 2619 W. Lawrence Ave. sits on an interesting stretch of road between California and Western Avenues. There’s Greek, Vietnamese, Pilipino, Indian, Bosnian, Bulgarian and English restaurants and clubs carving out their own unique spaces dedicated to cuisine and culture. Each one is a touchstone to a specific culture.

Turkish Cultural Center proprietor Ilhan Kahraman stands behind the bar. Credit: Jason Kreke

When I stopped by the Turkish Cultural Center, members lounged, eating sandwiches of grilled meat and onions while playing Okey, a Rummy-type of game that looks like a mash of dominos and Scrabble. Two televisions are broadcast Turkish television: one a basketball game, the other music and news. Soft Turkish music played in the background and every corner of the wall was decorated with paintings or photographs of Turkey.

Ilhan Kahraman has been in the U.S. for 30 years and he runs the Center with his wife, Palve Jokubauskiene. It opens during the week around 3 p.m. staying open until 10 p.m. On Saturdays and Sundays, they open a bit earlier so members can catch European soccer games. Mostly the Center serves as a place for people to come to after work and unwind, or as a gentleman playing Okey put it subtly, “This is a place where men can get away from their wives.”

Indeed, the place is mostly men. Much like the Greek establishments that sit below the Center on Lawrence, the Turkish Cultural Center caters mostly to older men who immigrated to the U.S. years ago and keep in touch with each other and their culture through the Center. Kahraman says there are about 75 members of the Center with about 15 stopping in every evening. Like many groups in Chicago, the Turkish community has followed the trend of moving to the suburbs, leaving behind a mostly older population in traditional clubs.

Still, the Center serves as an important meeting point for Turkish people in Chicago. “People come from different places, but they call each other up and come here.” His wife Jokubauskiene says that it is a place where people can relax, speak Turkish and unwind after a day’s work. There’s no real membership requirements. “You only need to speak Turkish,” Jokubauskiene said. When I try to talk to some of the other members, most smile politely. There is some translation between Turkish and English, but Kahraman is one of the few that can speak English, if not fluently, at least passably.

If I was apprehensive when I first walked in, everything changed as Kahraman took me on an educational journey through Turkish cuisine. There’s kofta, which is a small grilled patty of minced meat and onions, similar to a kebab. He brought a small dish of yogurt, which he makes on site. He also makes cacik, a yogurt diluted with water with garlic, dill and cucumber added in.

Kahraman explained that in Turkey’s hot weather people drink cacik instead of water. “It coats you. It sticks to you.” There was a small dish of bulgar pilav, a type of pilaf that uses bulgar, tomato and green pepper. He finished off the culinary display with rice pudding.

The Turkish Cultural Center is one of a handful of private members-only clubs in the area. The most high profile is the DANK Haus, but the American Legion Post 973 and Niedersachsen Club are part of the mix. However, most of the places are small gathering places like the members-only Greek establishment a few doors down. As Kahraman says, they all fill the same need. It’s a way to stay connected to a culture through food, music, and company. “After work, people want to come here and relax and just talk.”

Greater Rockwell Organization Charter Member Bea Tersch at home in her back yard garden. Credit: Meryl Williams

On a chilly late-April morning with temperatures hovering around freezing, it is hard to get out of bed, let alone to pick up litter in your neighborhood playground. An then particularly if your idea Saturday morning fun doesn’t involve picking up cigarette butts.

But this is a normal day for Bea Tersch, 68 year-old who has lived the past 39 years in a Virginia Avenue brick home overlooking the Chicago River. In 1976 she paid $35,000 for the home. In 2013, she could probably sell it for quite a bit more

What makes Tersch different from most of us property price-watchers, is that she can claim some responsibility for her area’s real estate price boost. It took more than 30 years of diligently bettering the area through beautification, fighting big condo developers, resisting gang influence, and organizing the community, including an annual yard sale that now draws as many as 50 participants each year.

Tersch is the last surviving charter member of the Greater Rockwell Organization, a community group committed to bettering a small 14-block area, bordered by Wilson (south), Lawrence (north), Western (east), and the Chicago River (west). Tersch and her neighbors founded GRO in 1979 to combat gang influence, then over-development and now to the beautification and improvement of the neighborhood.

“It’s awesome that she’s been devoted for so long,” said Patti Huetteman, current GRO president. “This neighborhood wasn’t always this nice. I’m really indebted to the people like her who started GRO and worked on the community when it had serious problems.”

On this particular Saturday morning, Tersch led a neighborhood clean-up to recognize Earth Day. Her long, white-blonde hair tucked under a white visor, Tersch stooped to the ground to remove bits of trash and debris from the Jacob Playlot at Leland and Virginia, with the enthusiasm and energy of a much younger person.

One recruit for the morning, Jan Cohn, had lived in the area since 2007 but had only met Tersch a week or so earlier, while Cohn was working on a corner garden on Washtenaw. Tersch stopped by to give some advice.

“She stopped and commented about where I was locating a few things and how certain things would do well there, and where something was clearly dead and I should just take it out,” said Cohn.

Tersch suggested growing a trellis of morning glories along a piece of mesh around a utility pole.

“She gave me advice on what kind of mesh and said she had a lot of extra at her house,” Cohn said. “She told me, ‘Give me 15 minutes and I’ll find it and pull it out for you.’”

Cohn stopped by Tersch’s home shortly after. Tersch wouldn’t accept any money for the materials, but said if Cohn wanted, she could pay her back by helping with GRO’s clean-up day the following Saturday. Cohn agreed.

“Unsolicited, frank advice which can be very hard to come by,” said Cohn of Tersch’s methods. “Others would walk by and say they were glad someone was finally doing something with this corner, but she actively wanted to help.”

At a spring GRO clean-up event April 20, 2013. Credit: Meryl Williams

Tersch is the secretary of GRO and has held held the position since the group’s formation.

“She’s been the secretary forever,” said Huetteman. “It’s never even a question when we re-nominate officers. Bea will continue.”

She’s gotten some practice over the years when it comes to documenting meeting proceedings in her own distinctive voice.

“She’s famous for her lengthy detailed minutes, not necessarily without editorial comment,” joked Tom Kosinski, a GRO activist.

Tersch’s mother taught her how to garden, and later she took some training and even became a certified Tree Keeper. She often takes her tree-trimming kit along with her on her day job where she maintains plants and landscaping for hotels and offices in the Gold Coast.

In the 14 blocks within GRO’s boundaries, she is a champion of the unique corner gardens. She applied for the Green Corps grant that established them more than a decade ago, and each spring, Tersch picks up the perennials the city provides to community organizations, finds volunteers to maintain the gardens, and acts as a resource for those in need of a green thumb.

“Her greatest love has been plants and flowers,” said Annalisa Lunn, a former GRO president and activist who is now retired. “I can remember seeing her gardening not just our neighborhood, in others. I’d see her planting flowers at the Montrose ‘L’ stop. She has a real passion for how to beautify a community.”

Huetteman also feels Tersch’s attention to detail adds to the group’s efforts.

“Recently at a GRO meeting she was talking about how the south side of the tracks at [the] Rockwell [‘L’ stop] have plants growing, but if you look at the north side there’s nothing growing there,” said Huetteman. “It was clear that it was bothering her. I looked a few days later, and she’s exactly right. If you look at it, it’s just much nicer on one side.”

Huetteman notes that not everyone sees the litter around them, or the out-of-date yard sale ads taped to light poles, but Tersch sees these things. Whether or not this is a blessing or a curse is debatable, but Tersch is willing to do something about it.

“She kind of [set] the palette [for] the neighborhood,” said Lunn. “When people walk around there are pretty things to look at besides trees. People say, ‘what a beautiful community,’ and they don’t necessary know why one area is more attractive, or why when you walk through there it’s got color. That’s all her doing.”

Tersch with Aly Bodkin, decorating the Rockwell brown line stop during the 2005 holiday season. Photo courtesy Greater Rockwell Organization.

Tersch grew up in rural north central Missouri but moved to Chicago for work in 1970. While she had only been to Chicago once before, it was coincidentally during Chicago’s annual Sheffield Garden Walk, which warmed the avid gardener considerably to the idea of making the move.

“I was just blown away by how beautiful Armitage was and that whole area,” said Tersch of her visit.

She met her late-husband Joe soon after, and in 1976, the Tersches got married and bought the home on Virginia, where she remains today.

Tersch decided to help found GRO after experiencing dissatisfaction within a different neighborhood organization she and her friends were involved in. The area was also experiencing gang violence and activity, an area GRO focused on early.

“There were frequently men who would walk up and down the street being loud,” Tersch said. “There was a liquor store on Lawrence where the Laundromat is now and there were people causing trouble there.”

Tersch said she never felt personally unsafe in the area, but she remembered vividly an incident during which a friend’s husband was mugged and beaten on Washtenaw after getting off the Lawrence bus.

To discourage gangs, groups of GRO members would gather on a member’s porch together near where gangs were standing around and members would call the police if they witnessed any activity to call in. A volunteer patrol would drive around the area looking for gang activity to report. In lieu of EveryBlock at the time, they also had a phone tree in place to alert neighbors of any concerns.

“The important thing, was these people all decided this community was worth saving was during the Rockwell/Leland Latin Kings,” said Lunn. “We decided we were going to take a stand.”

Their efforts paid off. Chicago Police Department records show that, in the area GRO covers, there were 874 crimes in 2001, many of them violent, including arson. In 2011, there were only 521 crimes, most of them property-related. GRO’s intervention efforts helped paved the way for this trend.

“It’s better now,” said Tersch. “I always knew it would be. I was never worried because of our location between beautiful Lincoln Square, the beautiful Chicago River, and right along the brown line.”

By the mid-1990′s crime had begun to drop and condominium developers had their sights set on the GRO area, which also began to change neighborhood demographics.

Tersch says the area really started to improve once the condos started going up, but neighbors demanded downzoning to keep developers from tearing down all the area’s houses for taller, bigger condos.

“Just a couple on Leland Ave. succumbed to that,” she said.

Lunn agreed, saying Tersch and the group had to act fast to keep developers out.

“This community has a nice variety of housing stock,” Lunn said. “It was one of the reasons we moved here, but it also has long-term owners. The problem was developers would come and offer someone who owned a house more money than they thought it was worth, then tear it down and put up a red brick building. We got two in our neighborhood before we got it downzoned.”

Tersch was active in letting her community know about developers’ plans. She held informational meetings at her home, and encouraged her neighbors to make their views clear to the alderman. Ultimately there was a vote to downzone in 2005, and this helped the area maintain the character it boasts today, where homes in the area are valued at an average of $248,000 and up, among the highest in the city. Without Tersch’s intervention and that of those she helped lead, they would not exist now.

Tersch said her mother also impressed upon her the importance of recycling and not being wasteful. While it may be en vogue today to reduce, reuse, and recycle, Tersch has been putting these concepts into practice her whole life.

Tersch’s advice to those who may be new to the area is the same that she offers regularly at GRO meetings to its membership: If you see litter, pick it up.

This oft-repeated line has stuck with Huetteman over the years.

“The thing that stands out most in my mind is Bea saying at GRO meetings, ‘If you see litter, pick it up,’” said Huetteman. “’If you see trash, pick it up.’ And that’s exactly what’s she’s been doing. She’s just been quietly cleaning the neighborhood the whole time.”

Another former GRO president confirms this view of Tersch.

“She’s a one-person war on graffiti, whether it’s painting over mailboxes or removing paint,” said Kosinski.

Tersch concedes that, even in her Gold Coast day job, she grabs litter when she sees it and tries to strip utility poles of outdated signs and tape.

When it comes to reusing, Tersch demonstrates this principle to its fullest by organizing GRO’s annual yard sale each summer. This June marks the 33rd year of the event. The sale is an opportunity for Rockwell-area families to hold individual yard sales under one Ward permit, and on a weekend when several other families are doing the same. Individuals are spared the hassle of getting their own permit and advertising their sale, and they are included in a map of participating sales that Bea creates and distributes.

Tersch secures the required permit through the 47th Ward office, recruits those interested in having their own sale, creates the map given to shoppers, and promotes the event. This year’s sale will take place June 8 and 9.

Reducing the group’s carbon footprint is important to Tersch as well.

Huetteman said that, at GRO events like the group’s regular picnics, potlucks, and block parties, Tersch is always firm about the group avoiding disposable plates and utensils.

“If we have an event and we want to use paper plates, she’ll remind us why we shouldn’t,” said Huetteman. “When she’s hosted teas at her home, she always used real dishes.”

At GRO clean-ups, Tersch will separate the refuse found by volunteers into different buckets: one for recyclables like discarded drink cans; one for trash; and one for sticks and stones, which, rather than tossing, she will take home in her car to lay on the bed of the Chicago river, accessible from her backyard.

This has made an impression. Huetteman admitted she’s been hanging on to some miscellaneous stones she has dug out of her yard to give to Tersch, rather than just throw them away.

“She makes what is old new again,” said Huetteman.

Tersch has two sons: Walter, 31, who lives in Washington, D.C., and Dave, 28. She and her husband Joe were married for 36 years. For 34 of those, he was an English teacher at Glenbrook North. During his tenure there, he took three sabbatical leaves, during which the couple traveled internationally, including trips to Bangkok to see family of Joe’s, and Australia and New Zealand to see friends living in Sydney.

While Joe didn’t participate in GRO events aside from attending potlucks and helping with the yard sales coordinated by Tersch and friends, she said he was there when she needed him to do the heavy lifting.

Joe passed away last summer, just after Fathers’ Day and not long after retiring.

Tersch said her husband had suffered from a myriad of health problems, including diabetes. In the end, he passed away from congestive heart failure.

Tersch admitted she didn’t inform her neighbors at GRO at the time of Joe’s passing, but clearly word got out – many of her local friends attended Joe’s service. She was surprised and touched by the show of local support.

She said she has become even more active in her volunteerism since Joe’s passing. Tersch compared herself to friends in other cities, and said she feels fortunate to have her GRO network.

“Some, compared to me, are a little alone, with no organization affiliation or job, or family close by,” she said.

In all her years here, and even now without Joe, Tersch said she has never thought of leaving the area.

“It’s ideal here,” she said.

Her love for the area is infectious.

Cohn spent that cold April Saturday with Tersch cleaning, not just the playlot, but also Rockwell Crossing, with a larger group that afternoon. Tired and wearing gloves caked in dirt, Cohn was admiring of Tersch’s devotion to her surroundings.

“She is a neighborhood gem,” said Cohn of Tersch. “It’s a thankless job. She cares so much about this community.”

The majority of you live in the north part of our coverage area, with 53% of our readers hailing from Northcenter and Lincoln Square. While you’re pretty well split 50/50 by gender, 41% of you are in your 30′s and 24% of you are in your 40′s. Despite that, only 25% of you have children under 12, and 65% are kidless. But then 65% of you own your own home.

71% of you have been reading CSJ for a year or more–13% of you claim to be reading since Day One in 2010. Wow! Thanks for sticking with us!

As for coverage, predominately you asked for more profiles of neighborhood residents and more schools and education coverage. A strong contingent made ward politics a big priority, but they were a minority overall.

68% of you asked for a better calendar and events page. And 69% of you asked for place to find local deals.

We have responded to some of those requests. Last week we relaunched our calendar, and every Wednesday we’re sending out an updated list of events. You can add your own events here.

This week’s stories focus a bit more on community personalities. We hope you enjoy learning more about the people that make our neighborhood tick.

In the open comment section, most of the respondents were complementary (thank you!) but a few asked that we return to the “old” CSJ model, or that we be more like Uptown Update, “Just a running list of events, happenings, and what-not going on in Uptown.”

One person said something I’ve heard from a number of people, “Provide more content and you’ll get more eyeballs. Repurposing content into newsletters and emails will only alienate those who are already reading. Keep it as free as possible.”

Finally, one respondent captured it all with, “I know it is hard to keep something like this going, but honestly, I read it much more when there were frequent updates to the site (even just 1 story helps) when the updates tapered off, it fell out of my reading routine and then off my radar altogether. I think, as hard as it is, the more prolific, the higher the interest will be.”

Thus, our chicken-and-egg problem. CSJ has always aspired to high quality work: It’s why so many of our writers have been poached by bigger publications. But great work costs money, and to make money people have to pay. But, as I’ve talked about in other places, local businesses these days have lots of ways other than advertising to reach customers, so community news advertising in Chicago does not provide the same value it did fifteen years ago.

That brings us back to the community meeting we held in February: We’re neighborhood and volunteer-based, so for CSJ to be healthy, we need you to be an active participant. Here’s how:

• Volunteer – Help us enlist local business support on Saturday. Join our calendar management team. Become a writer.
• Spread the Word – Tell your friends about CSJ so our email list grows.
• Contribute – Your funding goes right to paying great writers.
• Advertise – Tell our 12,000+ monthly neighborhood readers about your business.

When you get down to it, everyone that’s part of CSJ loves being in this community and to make a difference. Thank you again for reading and for being a part of what we do.

A preview of the Rebooted Center Square Journal events calendar.

Last week we conducted a reader survey, and two big items stood out: First, 68% of the respondents wanted us to relaunch our events calendar. Second, 69% of respondents wanted to receive notice of deals and offers from local businesses. Those were staggering numbers, so we had to satisfy that demand–as soon as possible.

So today we’re relaunching the Center Square Journal events calendar. We’ve been testing it out, adding events and adding a couple of new features. Here’s what you can look for:

• As before, we have a great monthly calendar view, that easily switches to a list view, and allows you to import individual or a whole month’s worth of events to iCal with the click of a button.
• We’ve added a better system for people to post their own events. It is much more reliable and bug-free than our old system.
• Starting next Wednesday, CSJ email subscribers will receive a weekly list of the next seven days’ events right to their email box. Make sure you’ve subscribed for our email!
• We’re giving local businesses a spot at the beginning of each email to advertise their upcoming deals. $10 gets a spot for two weeks that goes out to our entire email list. Only local businesses will be accepted.

Are you interested in playing a part in our calendar maintenance and design team? We’re holding an online meetup next Tuesday, April 23 at 8:00 p.m. Sign up here to learn more.

Thank you for reading, and as always, please drop me a line if you have questions, comments or ideas!