I was in the lots behind the stores on Fort last week. what a mess on the West side of Fort. I parked behind Alberts. Are the posts the old ones from the parking meters. the meters that have been gone for years Some of it looked liked a bomb went off with the broken and raised ashphalt. behind some of the buildings.

The Park restaurant owner was complaining about his parking . He should take a look around . If he was across the street he would really have a problem. He will have it better than a lot of other shops on Fort. I think someone has totally ignored some of the stores in the area. No wonder there are empty buildings . If your not friends with city government you get ignored.

This city needs to stop playing games and get things done . There were alot of DPS workers when the meters were taken out. My daughters went to a dentist over ther in the 80's .It didn't look like a war zone then. it looks like 20 years of neglect. Your lucky to not sprain an ankle trying to get to the stores.

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If pro is the opposite of con? would CONgress be the oppositeof PROgress?

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TheGirlNextDoor (08-15-05)

Now, if that was a taxpayer's private property, they owner would be ticketed for not taking care of it. Beings it's the city's property, they get away with the reasoning of no money in the budjet.

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Arctic Cat Thundercat Test Pilot

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TheGirlNextDoor (08-15-05)

They were so concerned about dumpsters behind CVS . Why are they totaly ignoring something 2 blocks away. Why can't the city or the DDA maintain the lots properly. They have put all kinds of money flowers and lights out front,and safety hazards in the back are still there. What a bunch of phonies.

The owners of those properties should hold back their taxes until things are corrected. It's terrible how favoritism is still unfecting the M/C.

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not saying that this is the case but some people go by "out of sight, (fort st) out of mind"

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I'm sure our well-staffed crack DPS department will get right on it!

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City Council:
• Thomas A. Murphy
• Valerie Brady
• Michael Lemuel
• Thomas McPartlin
• John R. Nelligan
• James E. Rutherford

City Treasurer: Craig Sochocki

Proposal R: NO

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The stores have been on the famous or infamous lists since CVS moved in. They need to get to know how the system works.

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Since the city seems to be in financial straights, well at least when our leaders don't seem to need something for themselves, it might be an option to allow business property owners to correct this problem on their own and then credit the repairs against the property taxes over a fixed time period. The repairs will get done and the cost will be defrayed over time. That way those with the worst problems will take care of them and those who feel that they don't have a serious issue can wait for the city to get around to it, unlike the sidewalk repairs that are forced on property owners regardless of how serious the issue actual is.

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All of the downtown business owners were offered loans to improve there store fronts, most just don't care.

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We do have the Adopt-A-Lot program where interested individuals take on the chores cleaning up lots and parking lots owned by the city. Don Van Cleave does his lot. He has striped the lot himself and adding a flower bed along Garfield Street.

Another guy, a customer of Don's, named Mike adopted the lot between B.C's Pizza and T.J's Market. Mike has a landscape business.

There will be other lots available for adopting. However, the DDA had discovered that the city didn't own some of the lots that they thought they did. Thus, the accessors office is working on determining which lots the city owns.

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Then other incentives need to be thrown out to entice them. Possibly a real-estate assessment abatement program where they can increase the value of the property without increasing the tax value. Just letting the city rot is not a good option and the only one that seems to be available. These are tough times and money is hard to find, both in the private sector and in the public sector. Creative thinking needs to take place to get things moving. Once started it should have its own momentum.

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Robbie (08-16-05)

I think that is such a great idea that don is pushing i was at the store (tj's) the other day and i noticed how nice the lot looked, way to go don!!!

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Did you notice the nice sign too? That was Don's idea too. ASAP Signs, a Lincoln Park business, does the signs!

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I think that the adopt-a-lot sign that ASAP Signs makes is a good looking and classy sign.

We had talked about adopting a lot... I think that BicycleDon was looking into something...gosh...the first thing that goes is one's memory I can't remember what he said he had to do

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"Sometimes we must serve in order to lead"
by Unknown

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Yes that was the first thing i noticed was the signs, who ever picked them out mad a awesome choice.

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It seems the City had the money at the time for some of the businesses to remove parking meter posts for some of the stores . if they're so concerned about safety and law suits from injuries why were some areas ignored . If you have friends at City Hall you get special treatment?

What are shop owners supposed to tell customers ? Come to my store but don't park in the city lot , don't want to see you break an ankle . There was no DDA when this should have been fixed.

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