Reginald Griffin - Transcript

Transcript of Reginald Griffin
Interviewee: Reginald Griffin
Interviewers: Dorothy Nygren and Robert Remer
Date: November 22, 2019
Place: Chicago, IL.
Transcriber: Dorothy Nygren
Time: 57’43”

Copyright © 2020 Edgewater Historical Society

DN: Today is November 22, 2019, and we’re here to do this interview with one of our 2020 Living Treasures Reggie Griffin. I’m Dorothy Nygren and with me is Bob Remer. Reggie, congratulations on being chosen a 2020 Living Treasure. You are a long time Edgewater community activist. I know you have a lot to share with us. The first thing I would like to ask you is how long you have lived in Edgewater and when did you first come to Edgewater?

(1:00)

RG: I’ve been in Edgewater from the early ‘70s. That’s how long it’s been. The early ‘70s. What happened is I moved from Uptown to Edgewater. Coming to Edgewater I knew two people: Bob Remer and Kathy Osterman. They both encouraged me to become part of the Edgewater Community Council (E.C.C.). I became an activist out of the Uptown Community Council in Uptown so actually my activism started in Uptown. What really got me to become a community activist was I was living in Uptown. I had some problems with my housing. I didn’t know how to change that. I was introduced to the Uptown Chicago Commission. I was part of a block club in Uptown called the Court Block Club. So these kinds of things I did transfer once I moved to Edgewater.

(1:53)

The very person that knew that I moved to Edgewater, because I moved right around the corner from her was Kathy Osterman. She called me. “Reggie, come over to my house.” She lived on Rosemount at that time with her two young sons. “I want to talk to you.” I already knew her from Uptown Chicago Commission. She said “We need people of color to be on the Board of ECC.” There were many minorities living in the community but none on the Board. She knew of my work with Uptown Chicago. I said, “Well, okay, what does that entail?” She said, “We want to become a member first. Then we can ask to be part of the Board.” She was the vice president at the time. I said, “Well, okay.” She was also in charge of converting the (Broadway) Armory at that time to be what it is now. I became a part of that. But I was always active in wanting to make my life better as a resident of Edgewater. That’s why I moved to Edgewater. I thought I could make a better life for myself. I come from Englewood on the South Side) of Chicago). I did join at her behest. I always consider Kathy and Bob as my mentors. I always give that credit to them. Kathy asked, “What would you like to do?” What can I do as a Board member?” I said, “Well over there is a food pantry in Edgewater.” Kathy said, “It’s called Care for Real.” I said, “Well, I would like to check that out.”

(4:02)

She introduced me to the group that ran Care for Real because at that time Care for Real was under the auspices of E.C.C. They had what was called a Steering Committee that then managed the food pantry, but it was under the auspices of the [Edgewater Community] Council. So I said, “Okay.” She said, “I would like you to be on the Board and represent us if this is what you would like to do.” I said, “Yeah, let me try that out.” So I did become a part of the pantry. I met a lot of wonderful people. In fact, the Steering Committee at that point was made up mainly of ladies who lived in the Edgewater Beach Coop Apartments – the pink building, as we call it in Edgewater. They were great to work with. I was the first African American to be a part of the Steering Committee representing the [Edgewater Community] Council to that committee. Eventually I became the chairperson of that committee.

(5:30)

While I was chair of the committee we did a study of who were our client base, thinking that our client base were mainly minority people Come to find outcome to find out that study was done with Betty Struck, years ago, that the majority of the client base was Caucasian. When that became public, many people on the Edgewater Community Council didn’t want to believe it. But it was true. That was a startling revelation. I said, “Yes. Many people do come to us from all over the neighborhood. We try to take care of everyone who comes to us. This was a challenge to me. It was a challenge to know that neighbors of mine were never able to have the means, as far as housing, buying food… many of them had health challenges. They had to choose between medications, pay their rent or to eat. So we did provide the food for them. For quite a while we had a policy when I was Chair that we would pay their rent for a certain period of time so they wouldn’t be put out of where they were living at. Eventually that went away but we did that for quite a while.

(7:03)

We did have the support of the [Edgewater Community Council] Board. What we would do at the Board, we would take up a collection from the Board that was always donated to Care for Real. At each of our Board meetings, that collection was made. I have always said that Care for Real was always supported through the kindness of the neighbors in the Edgewater neighborhood. For a long while it was done that way. We did not get any public money. We did not get any foundation money. Everything was done by this committee.

(7:47)

The churches supported Care for Real. One of the main supporters in the church community was St. Ita’s. The other one was Church of the Atonement on Kenmore. I live across from that church right now. I do know that Church of the Atonement, even with its new pastor, is still a great supporter of Care for Real. They have had a change in leadership at St. Ita’s. I would imagine they still do contribute, but not at the level that they did in those days. They would have a certain Sunday set aside each month where all the collections went for Care for Real. That was an amazing thing too. That’s where I really got my start. I always tell people my biggest love is Care for Real.

(8:56)

DN: Reggie, could you talk about how many years you’ve been involved with the Edgewater Community Council? How long you were president?

RG: From the mid ‘70s when I was asked to join the Board. I represented the Board to Care for Real. I was approached by a couple of different gentlemen. I can’t recall his name. He represented Loyola University. He was the vice president.

RR: John Langdon.

RG: John Langdon. He approached me. Then there other gentleman was from your block club, lived just across the street from you. He pushed the elevator. I forgot his name.

RR: His wife was a dancer. I can’t recall.

RG: Anyway I was approached by these two gentlemen.

RR: Jim Davenport.

(10:15)

RG: Jim Davenport. “Why don’t you consider running for President? We need someone of this caliber. I had never given it a thought. Well I made an effort to be on the Board and worked in the areas I was working in, but never had given a thought to being President. What happened was they mounted a campaign with me as candidate. There was more than one person was running. I was running against Jane Moth, who was a strong supporter of the Council in those days. I was just up and coming. I lost the first election. That didn’t discourage me. She was elected for a three year term. She was elected each year, but she could serve three years. When that person’s term was up, I was approached again. This time they really turned up the dogs. That time I won my first presidency at the end of 1991. In fact, I learned that I became President the night that Kathy Osterman passed away, which was in December of ’91, but my term would start in January, 1992. But she passed away that evening because Harry Osterman, her son, who was running for the Board himself as her only son because he was following in her footsteps. He was the one who called me and told me. “Reggie, I just found out that you’ve just won as President of the Edgewater Community Council.” Then he said, “It was my mother’s wish that you become President. She just passed.”

(12:46)

So I became President for those three years: 1992, 1993, 1994. I was very anxious to see that the Board represented the neighborhood because going for funding in those day, the funding sources asked if you represented your constituency. When I joined the Board I was the first and only black on the Board at the time. So I made a real effort to reach out to minority people in the neighborhood. Well, as chance would have it, many minority people in the neighborhood didn’t want to be a part of any, what they considered to be a white organization. In fact they labeled me as an Uncle Tom because I was a part of the Edgewater Community Council. “In order to make things better in this neighborhood for ourselves,” I said, “you have to be on the inside working rather than being the outside complaining. That’s what it is. I would love for you all to join me.” Well as a result in my second year we did get three new Board members, who were of African American descent. That changed the flavor and the direction. I would say it was an organization that was about the personal income of white people. It was about their values and what not. Why would they have to consider the desires of anybody else other than themselves? I felt I had a change in that.

(16:00)

But as I know, it was a tough sell because personally I had the experience of a really bad situation. I lived at the time on Sheridan near Berwyn on the corner near the bus stop… Berwyn and Sheridan. There was a bank on Clark St… what’s the name of that bank?

RR: Community Bank of Edgewater…

RG: Yes, Community Bank of Edgewater and I was banking at that bank at the time. This particular Saturday in the afternoon on a summer afternoon I was walking through the neighborhood. Living on Sheridan Road, I just walk through the neighborhood to do my banking. In doing so walking down the street, this carload of young white guys passed by. They passed by the first time and must have circled back around. When they came by the second time, they kind of slowed down and said, “N****r, what are you doing in this neighborhood?” In those days the minority population of Edgewater was concentrated on Kenmore and Winthrop. Broadway was considered the dividing line going west and blacks were not allowed to go there. I didn’t know that at the time. I was walking… had crossed Broadway going towards Clark St and was accosted by this carload of white guys. “N****r, what you doing over here. You don’t belong here. Get your ass away.” Well I’m not going to be a fool to try to be the hero. I just stepped up my pace. I continued to where I was going. I did make it to the bank, I did what I had to do on Clark St. Of course, I did go home a different way. I caught a bus on Foster going back to where I lived on Sheridan Road.

(17:34)

I kind of mentioned that to a few people. “I just had a really bad experience of people saying that blacks should not be walking west of Broadway.” They said, “When did this happen?” I said, “This happened just a little while ago. I was walking minding my business through the neighborhood. This is what I was told.” “No. It should not have happened.” “No it should not have happened. But it did.” I said, “We’ve got to work on this. This has got to be a focus of the Council.”

(18:00)

We stepped up our community safety program because the Council was known for a lot of different things: housing, youth programs, community safety, and this type of thing. I said, “Well, we need to focus more on community safety for everyone.” We had a staff person working for the Council at the time. His name was Phil Hartz. He was out safety person.” I had talked to Phil about the situation. He said, “Reggie, I’m so sorry that happened to you. We’ve got to see what we can do.”

What he did was he searched out this citywide organization called Chicago Alliance for Neighborhood Safety better known as C.A.N.S. He said, “We probably need to become part of this organization. He had some connections with the organization. But we’ve got to be more involved with them.” I said, “Let’s do that.” He said, “Well they have meetings. We [ECC] can become a member. The membership in this organization is organizations, not individuals.”

(19:20)

The main reason I bring up Chicago Alliance for Neighborhood Safety is I represented the Council to that organization first of all. Anything I did outside of the Council’s purview, I was always representing the Council in one way or another. When we became part of their organization to be part of their Safety program, we received funds from that organization to the Council to do our local program. They provided us funds like they did to other organizations.

(19:59)

We banded together and I was elected the first President of that organization. What happened was we had this idea of how the police should be doing a better job citywide. What happened was we met at the time, under Mayor Harold Washington, and his police superintendent at the time was LeRoy Martin… We met with him one on one as an organization to talk about instituting we believed would be community policing and this would be an equal partnership working with his police department and the police working with the community.

(20:58)

It took while to bring the police around to this way of thinking. After all, they are the professionals. They know what to do. We don’t know what we’re talking about and we needed to follow their lead. Well, obviously what they were doing didn’t work. Mayor Washington, being ahead of his time, saw… He must have seen that this could work. He did assign from the fifteenth district on the west side… I can’t recall his name… as the point person to work all the details out. We came up with four districts as training grounds to see if this would work, One of those districts was the twenty-fourth district that was located in the Edgewater neighborhood up on Devon [Avenue]. So we were instrumental in bringing community policing to the city of Chicago through the Chicago Alliance for Neighborhood Safety. The Council was one of those premier organizations that was about the whole thing. Mind you I was still president of the Council during this period of time. I felt this was huge. Anything I did I did not do for my glory. It was for the good of the neighborhood. The Council was always an established organization because it has been formed back in the sixties.

(22:55)

In fact, my second term of President I was honored to serve along with Marion Volini in celebrating our Fiftieth Anniversary. I was still President then. This was my second go around. It was always the policy of the Council that once you served the three years, then let someone else be able to be the President. I had no problem with that.

But then I was approached because the Council was falling on hard times. We had just bought a building under another president’s administration. It was a beautiful building. We just couldn’t afford it. Under my second term as President, I had to deal with not being able to pay staff. I was always in the Alderman’s office, begging, “Can we get our funds moved up?” We had a lot of city dollars that supported the Council. That’s how me and Mary Ann Smith became working closely together because she was the Alderman at the time.

(24:24)

I needed to get money to pay our staff because what was happening – we were behind in our mortgage payments to the bank, which at the time was Uptown Bank. I was staying in there all the time trying to get them to go along with us. They were going into our bank account. The minute we would get money into our account… they were watching; they got their money to pay the mortgage. That left me high and dry with staff. But the staff stayed. They stuck around and did what they were able to do. We were able to re-assign them to other organizations in the neighborhood. So they would continue to work and their families would not be penalized because of the problems the Council was going through.

They asked me to come back during that really difficult time. I don’t know why. I probably saved them. Our doors stayed open. During my administration, the doors stayed open. We operated. I got people re-assigned. We were able to pay off our debt at some point. Then at that point I stepped down. I did serve three years. I handed it over to the new regime. After that happened, that’s when the doors closed. I can always say the doors of ECC never did close under my administration. I’m definitely proud of that.

(26:20)

Anyway, getting back to community policing. Before community policing was around, our safety program… we (the Council) were very involved in the neighborhood. I worked with Bob Remer many times going out on a Friday night. We had up on the roof of our building, 1112 Bryn Mawr. We had been in that building for so many years. What do you call that?

RR: The radio patrol.

RG: The radio patrol. All the signals and what not was up on that roof. We would go out with the police on Friday night, Saturday night, to see what was going on in the neighborhood and report back to the police department what we saw. But this was the neighborhood patrol.

(27:21)

Our organization was also responsible for the Whistlestop program under Mary Garity. We were real big and very active in safety initiatives.

DN: What years were these, Reggie?

RG: Let me see.

RR: The eighties.

RG: Yes. The late seventies to the middle eighties up to when Mayor Washington passed. He passed in 1987. All of this was going on during these particular years. He was elected in ‘82 or ‘83. He served his first four years, was re-elected and then in November 1987 he passed. Two days before Thanksgiving.

(28:02)

DN: We know you were involved with the Edgewater Historical Society for many years in Board Development.

RG: Yes.

DN: And now you have a new love trying to get better situations for seniors? Can you talk about that?

(28:28)

RG: I was approached by people in the neighborhood who we call Jane Addams Caucus. The caucus, which is better than forty years old and which I did not know at the time, strongest membership is based in Edgewater. But the people in Edgewater knew of my involvement – what I did locally. After they realized I had stepped down. I wanted to do other things personally. But then I was approached. I didn’t seek anything. Each one of these times I was approached.

RR: Cream rises.

RG: They said, “Have you heard of the Jane Addams Caucus?” I said, “No.” But also at the same time I am a caregiver to a very close friend of mine who lives at Kenmore Plaza at 5225 N Kenmore, who was on the Board of the Caucus at the time and who knew of my involvement, as well as other people. Part of the people involved in the Caucus knew of my involvement [in the neighborhood]. They said, “You need to become involved with the Caucus” I said, “Why should I?” He said, “You’ve been involved in (muffled)” “What does that mean?” “We think you could make some headway with us because of what you’ve done in this neighborhood.” I said, “I’m trying to step out of the limelight. I want to do something different. I always wanted to travel. You can’t do that if you’re on a nine to five job or you’ve involved with neighborhood activities. You can’t get away and I also always do that.” But I listened because they were friends that came to me. ”Let me know what I can do for you.” They invited me to a few of their events. I was introduced to their Executive Director. His name was Lori Clock. We sat and talked. “You’re just the kind of person we’re looking for.” I said “No.” They began letting me know of some of the things they had been working on. One of the biggest issues they were working on was nursing reform.

(31:12)

Well that was a love of mine only because we had to put my mother in a nursing home. She was the kind of person everyone came to her. She was the one in the family who would help friends. She had been a nurse during her career; in fact a psychiatric nurse. She had worked many years at the VA Hospital out in Oak Forest. But then she got where she couldn’t take care of herself and we had to end up putting her in a nursing home. Before that, she would always come home with these wild stories. She retired from the VA Hospital. She did private duty nurse, but she had private clients. She always did stints in nursing homes. She would tell us horror stories about what went on in nursing homes. Come to find out that the Caucus - one of their biggest challenges and successes of changing how nursing homes are run through the state [of Illinois].

(32:37)

The other thing was health care and housing. Now health care was a big thing of mine because I was working with Mr. Johnson. He had many many health challenges and happened to fall into some bad situations where he was losing a lot of what he had been having all these years. That’s why he had joined the Caucus. So he encouraged me to join the Caucus. I joined the Caucus and I’ve been with the Caucus for about five years now.

Every organization that I’ve been a part of, it seems that I have risen to the top – chairman of the Board or something like that. It has also put me in the position where I could be a chief spokesman and I have traveled across this country representing the Caucus. Just not here in Chicago. In fact, I’ve brought some things of late when I knew I was coming here today. [Reggie shows three letters from individuals praising his efforts.] Look at some of the comments that have been made as a result of my being active with the Caucus on a national scale. I represented our interests in health care, housing and also racial justice. We are a citywide organization, but we are trying to make it statewide. Then we’ve been connected to some national organizations.

RR: What is your title with them now?

(34:32)

RG: Well we also formed another organization called Jane Addams Seniors for Action. The Caucus is a C-3 organization, a non-profit organization. You can only do so many things. But now Seniors in Action, we can support candidates for office.

DN: That’s excellent.

RG: Now I’m the Chairman of the Board of Seniors for Action. That’s what it is.

RR: Great!

RG: We’re working hard. We were the ones that got people like Joe Moore out of office. We campaigned heavily against Joe Moore. One of his biggest detractors in the last round was David Orr. When David Orr became County Clerk, Joe Moore was his chief of staff for years. A lot of people don’t know that. After he became alderman, he bragged about the fact he had been involved for twenty-eight years. In his last years, he wasn’t going in the right direction, as David Orr wanted him to go. That’s why he supported Maria Hadden. We supported Jane Hadden. It was done through Jane Adams Seniors in Action. We were able to make a huge dent in all the aldermanic races as well. That has been a real accomplishment. That has really kept my adrenalin going I guess. I love doing this kind of work.

(36:34)

I really got this from my mother. She was the inspiration of my life because of who she was. I’m more or less following in her footsteps but never ever thinking all these years later… my mother’s been dead since ’67… but never assuming these many years later that impression that impact she had on my life. That’s what it is. I guess I will continue to do this kind of work even though I want to step back. It’s challenging. You can experience burn out. But you also have to pace yourself. I know when to step back. I need to take some “me” time. I’m going through some challenges. I had cataract surgery this week. I’m going to have the other one done in early December. I’ve got to take care of Reggie Griffin. But at that same time, I think me doing what I do, when I see the result, that makes me happy.

DN: And the community certainly sees your results. From your early activism all the way though the Seniors work that you’re doing right now… Could you talk a little bit about the impact of your work in racial justice and how you see that. You talked about being the first African American in ECC.

(38:19)

RG: It’s important for any neighborhood to be respectful of everyone that lives within its ranks. Because of what I had experienced early… I was a young man at the time and to know that was what I experienced then and to now know that we now have a person in the White House, number 45, that has brought this kind of stuff back to light.

We have to work hard to turn this around because the three years he’s been in office, he has done more harm, more danger than a person who has done two terms in office, like President Obama has done. It’s really important that people be mindful that we’re all human; that we all bleed red blood. I want the same things for myself and my people that you want for your family. That’s why I became active and why I try to get my people more involved to not sit on the sidelines.

(39:37)

It’s really important that we come together because we can do nothing by ourselves. We all come from different backgrounds. We all say this country is made of immigrants, have come from different parts of the world and what not. So we’re all different, but that does not mean that we don’t want the same things. And that’s why being part of an issue concerning racial justice, that’s one way that I feel that I can get the word out. Yes, I’m different from you. You’re different from me. But at the same time I’m fighting for the same thing for my family that you fight for your family.

(40:16)

DN: Excellent Reggie. I’d like to ship the focus a little bit and ask you about. You’ve lived and worked in Edgewater for years. You’ve also been all over the United States. Is there anything that you feel is special about Edgewater?

RG: Well I’ve always felt that Edgewater is special regardless of that one bad experience I had. I’ve always loved the diversity of its people, especially the one thing that brought me to Edgewater. I have a funny story to share really quickly. What brought me to the North Side, because I grew up on the South Side in the Englewood neighborhood. What brought me to the North Side originally, and I’m sure people are going to get a laugh out of this, I was chasing a skirt. My wife, who I met back when I was a teenager, stayed on the North Side. She stayed at North and Clybourn. The only thing I knew about the North Side was white folks lived there. I never ventured outside my own neighborhood until I met her. That’s what brought me to the North Side. When I separated from her, I just had a feeling about the North Side, and I moved north to this neighborhood because I had some friends living in Uptown. They said, “Why don’t you come where we live?” and that’s I got to Uptown. I lived first at Argyle and Winthrop in that area. For some reason, I thought I needed to be further north and I didn’t realize I had moved out of Uptown into Edgewater. When I passed Foster where the dividing line was, I was in Edgewater. Kathy Osterman, who had her ear to the ground all the time, heard I had moved. That’s when she called me over to her house.

(42:25)

DN: I see. I’d like to ask you more question. What advice would you give to young people who have very busy lives about the importance of becoming involved in their community?

RG: You must be involved with your community because after you’ve gone to work, you want to raise your family. You want them to go to good schools, be it public or private. We have both of those here. You have to have some connection to where you live. If you don’t have any connection to where you live, you don’t care about those things. You don’t provide for your family the way I think you should provide for them. Or you set some standards for them.

(42:34)

This is where we put don’t our roots. This is where we are going to make our lives better if we are connected to where we live. We got to know who our neighbors are. When I’m out of town, my neighbors look after. If they know Reggie Griffin is not here, they’re going to look after where Reggie Griffin lives at. I do the same for others. But if you don’t have that connection, then you can’t expect anyone to look after you, to know who you are, to look after your kids when you’re not around. Your kids are not around you all day long. They’re at school while you’re at work – this kind of thing. Like they say in black neighborhoods, it takes a village to raise a child. That’s so important, so important. You only get that kind of feeling and flavor if you are connected to where you live.

(44:18)

DN: I think you’ve said that beautifully. Bob, do you have any questions you’ like to ask?

RR: There’s just one other question. You’ve talked about affordable housing. The thing you’re involved with… can you talk about briefly because I think it’s important… Edgewater Community Council supported the Q11 Rehabilitation Project for twenty buildings for really affordable housing, subsidized housing in Edgewater, while renovating twenty really bad buildings. As President of ECC I asked you to chair and develop an Oversight Committee so there would be oversight of this development, involving block clubs and so on. You did a really great job as chair of that for several years. In the context of having more affordable housing now, what are your reflections of your experience working at the Q 11?

(45:20)

RG: I’m glad you asked that. There are so many things that this neighborhood has been involved in, that we kind of forget. But you’re absolutely correct. That was early on when I joined the Board {of ECC] and you were President of the Board at the time. There were thirty buildings that spanned from Foster all the way to Granville, up and down what they called The Corridor, which was Winthop and Kenmore. During those days, we had a lot of absentee landlords. It was known as Arson Alley. Buildings were torched for the insurance money. As a result, people were made homeless. People were injured. Many people lost their lives.

(46:15)

What happened was, the Council [of ECC], with the help of Loyola University, John Langdon, who came up with the initial dollar, came up with this program to want to rehab a lot of the bad buildings that we had up and down Winthrop and Kenmore. Take them out of the hand of these absentee landlords and what not, put them in hands of good hands. What happened was, in order to do this, we had to move people around. We couldn’t go into a building where people lived in the buildings, working around them.

So many buildings were vacated at one time. They were transferred to other buildings. I worked with the management of the Q11. That’s where my role came in at. I worked with the management of the Q11 to see that people were properly relocated, would have a good opportunity to come back into the rehabbed apartments. Some of them were didn’t want to come back because a lot of them were problems. So we had to look at their backgrounds.

(47:48)

We had to set policy on how this was done. This was done through our Steering Committee to develop the kinds of policies that set the standards as to who could come back in versus who could not come back in. We wanted to treat everyone fairly as much as we possibly could. I think that Q11, working with them, appreciated them [the steering committee].

First of all, it took the heat off of them, is really what it did. But working with the community to make certain that our neighbors, because we were going to see that our neighbors could come back into the building or not. We weren’t going to let anyone mistreat them.

(48:27)

So I was very adamant working with Q11 to set the standards and the policies that I reported back to the Board and to the staff of ECC. If you get any calls, this is our policy. I was the point person. I think that program lasted… it took us how many years to renovate all the buildings up and down Winthrop and Kenmore.

(49:10)

But in doing so, putting a lot of those buildings in good hands, and turning them around, and giving people good units to live in, it also invited the developers to come in and build condos.

RR: Hmm.

RG: From one thing to another. Now these buildings were in good shape. During what I would call the condo craze of the ‘80s, that’s were all this came from. But it was really a partnership between ECC and Loyola University that this all happened.

(49:42)

DN: I think one of the issues that Bob was enjoying talking to you was that diversity being important in a community. Certainly you can’t have diversity unless you have affordable housing. Right now what do you see the need is in Edgewater? Do we have affordable housing or do you see people being priced out?

RG: I think now. I put this down to Rahm Emmanuel for the years he’s been Mayor [of Chicago]. We basically handed the entire city over to these huge developers. Because now what is happening… I see this happening around me… In fact I have a major concern about Jane Adams Caucus and Jane Adams Seniors for Action being able to stay in the location were in at this point because we’re located down at Wells and Division. A lot of high development has gone in. I was really concerned that we were going to get priced out of with high rent so that we could stay in that location. It is accessible to a lot of people. It is accessible to disabled folk, handicapped people, seniors who can get around by bus and train, this kind of thing. I was really afraid of that.

(51:22)

Now I see, right around Edgewater, right around where I live, where Bob lives, a lot of those buildings have been rehabbed now, high-end appliances and what not. Those people want to recoup their investment. So yes, the rents are going up sky high. And yes, it’s pricing a lot of people out. Yes I’m going to ask the Care for Real group to do an analysis of their client base to see if we’re losing our current client base to what’s happening now because that’s one of the areas we can track through them really good. It’s through them.

(52:00)

DN: The other developer – the silent developer I say, but it’s still there plugging away is Loyola University. They’re razing buildings rather than rehabbing them to make accommodations for the students. That housing is not very affordable. So do you want to speak a little about that.

RG: Yes. They have flipped on this over the years. When were around and on the Board back in the seventies and the eighties, Loyola University was one of our biggest supporters. They supported us annually. We could depend on a check for $25-$35,000 adding to our budget every year. Until they started changing leadership. They brought in people who now are in charge of the University to obviously have gone after high end students coming from out of the Chicago area.

(53:12)

As you can see they [Loyola University] have built, built, built more buildings. They’ve taken half of Kenmore from Sheridan Road to Rosemount, cut that off. That’s their property now. That’s one of things that Joe Moore handed over to them. That’s why he’s no longer our Alderman, one of the reasons why he’s no longer our Alderman. Because of what happened there. But, yes, they [Loyola] are definitely not a friend of affordable housing in this neighborhood. They’re definitely not. I wish an organization like Edgewater Community Council could still be around, as well as Rogers Park Community Council, which was our sister organization in Rogers Park. It would keep these kinds of things at bay. But here we are. I lay that at the feet of Rahm Emmanuel.

DN: I think we’ve covered the questions about which we’re interested. But this is your interview. So is there something that we didn’t cover that you’d like to say. This is your opportunity Reggie, because this is your story. And it’s a beautiful one. But is there something that you want to share?

(54:22)

RG: I want to say that I think that the [Edgewater] Historical Society, as an organization… One of the reasons that I got involved was Betty Mayian. God bless her. Again, someone approached me. She said, “Reggie, I’d love for you to be on the Board of the Edgewater Historical Society.” I said, “Well, I was involved early on with the idea of this historical society. I’m glad to see this organization has lasted as long as it has lasted.

(My feeling is I would like to see this organization be more active in really telling the story [of Edgewater]. I would also like to see this organization have a bigger space because we have a lot of information that is stored right now in the historical society building. And we don’t have places to put it out.

(55:14)

I would like to see a capital campaign to happen in some way or another that would increase our capacity as an organization because nothing is more important than preserving the history of the neighborhood. This has been charged to the Edgewater Historical Society. I know it takes money. I know that. But at the same time, I would suggest that we look at – and I don’t know how I can help in that respect– but I would like to see us develop a capital campaign for a larger space to really tell the story on an ongoing basis, rather than just have special events and special things happening in the building that because of space limitations, this is the best that we can do. How that could happen? I know that’s a grand plan, but I would like to see that happen.

DN: Thank you, Reggie.

(57:04)

RR: You know, I’ve always said that all these great exhibits could stand alone in a place ten times this size when you think about it. The Immigration exhibit. It should be there forever. The Crime exhibit, so interesting, to add. All the exhibits should be there permanently.

DN: And Reggie’s given us a torch to bear here to make that happen. I think we’ll end the interview on that note. Thank you so much Reggie.

THE END

(57’43”)