Summer 2022 Edition
Rogers Park Builder
On Wednesday, July 20, 2022, the Chicago City Council passed what is popularly referred to as the Connected Communities Ordinance, but what is perhaps better described as a wide-ranging set of alterations to the city’s Zoning Regulations, known as the Municipal Code.
This Ordinance was sponsored by Mayor Lightfoot as well as four Alderpersons, including Maria Hadden (49th Ward) who represents much of the Rogers Park neighborhood.
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Within weeks of each other, 46th Ward Alderman James Cappelman, 48th Ward Alderman Harry Osterman and 43rd Ward Alderwoman Michele Smith all announced that they would not run for reelection to the Chicago City Council in 2023. For Cappelman and Osterman, there is little doubt that serious challenges from left-leaning opponents played heavily into their decisions.
Both of these men stated that they had mixed emotions about their decisions. Although neither specifically cited competition from the political far left of the Democratic party, there is little doubt that the shifting political landscape within their Wards and in Chicago more generally weighed heavily in their decisions not to run.
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I figured I’d do something a little different for this Summer 2022 Newsletter. I’m constantly reading stuff in other magazines and newspapers that I think are really interesting, but that can easily be overlooked in our busy lives. So, I figured, why not put some of these random “fun facts” together in one place and see if anyone else finds them interesting? Maybe not – that’s the trouble when you are a geek. You think stuff is cool and everyone else just rolls there eyes. But here goes. Read, enjoy, or send me rotten tomatoes! I’m hoping I’m not the only one who finds this stuff interesting!
#1 – The Week magazine, which compiles a summary of news and public interest stories in other publications, reports that the Wall Street Journal looked at economic data from all 50 states and found that, on average, red states have recovered more quickly from the pandemic than blue states.
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Steve Rachman had a lot of words of wisdom for me during our hour-long conversation about his career, his many volunteer activities and his involvement with Rogers Park Builders Group. But my favorite came near the end of our call when he quoted Winston Churchill:
“Make a living by what you get. Make a life by what you give.”

More than anything else, I think this sums up Steve and his philosophy of life. Even though he said it at the end of the conversation, I thought it deserved repeating right up front!
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As I See It

Rogers Park Needs a Balanced Approach to Homeless Issues

We all can agree. Homelessness is a national crisis.


Most people who live or work in any large American city bear witness to it, including many residents of Rogers Park who often feel besieged by panhandlers at their local grocery stores and transit stops and are witnessing their beautiful local parks slowly transition into campgrounds for the homeless.


We need to remember, however, that behind every panhandler and tent dweller is a human being who has a story to tell.

That person may be suffering from a mental illness or struggling with a drug or alcohol addiction. Or he or she may be simply down on their luck, having lost a job or experienced a health crisis without insurance coverage or suffered some other profound personal crisis. Obviously, the challenges a person faces increase exponentially when they become homeless and supportive services are almost always needed to stabilize his or her life.

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It’s no secret that, after years of low to no inflation, pricing are now rising at a breath-taking pace. In fact, you would have to go back to the early 1980s to find a time when inflation was as high as it is right now. Needless to say, this has a lot of people feeling nervous about where the US economy is headed and has caused the Federal Reserve to aggressively boost short-term rates to try to get inflation back under control.


Ideally, the Fed wants to increase rates just enough to cool the economy and bring inflation back to earth without doing too much to damage the current economic good times we have been experiencing coming out of the pandemic. But it is equally possible that the Fed will throw the economy into recession even while inflation continues to rise.

The biggest problem for the Fed is that a lot of what has been driving prices higher are factors over which they have little, if any, control. Looming large in this category is the war in Ukraine which is impacting both the price of oil and the price of food.
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Around Rogers Park

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Rogers Park Builders Group encourages and supports responsible residential and commercial property investment, development, and ownership in the Rogers Park community.