Straightened Sign

It's been a long time since it was straight

06/16/2011 4:48 PM

By Bonnie McGrath

No Comments - Add Your Comment


(photo by Bonnie McGrath)

I sure was proud 10 years ago when I applied for my homeowners association at Roosevelt and State and Plymouth to adopt our streets. It was a program that the city had going to make homeowners and business owners soar with pride. Other than that, I can't see what it was for. Other than to put people to work reading the applications and making the signs.


This is how the police CAPS program described it back then:

Adopt-A-Street

A program that creates a public-private partnership to make our communities cleaner and more attractive. "Adopt-A-Street asks businesses, block clubs, schools, community groups et al to adopt a site and take responsibility for keeping it clean. This means picking up trash, covering graffiti on private property and performing other minor tasks too localized for city government to afford. Call 311 or your aldermanic office.


Residents didn't get anything free. And as you can see, we had to do all the work. We did get some publicity, though, as I recall. A city employee came out with two signs and we had a little ceremony and I wrote a column for the Chicago Journal about it. And a CJ photog came and took a picture.

For some reason, the residents on Plymouth didn't want their sign--a member of our homeowners association board who lived on Plymouth at the time said they had enough signs on the poles on Plymouth-and to just put them both on State. Which made me--as a State Street resident--quite happy. If passersby missed one, they'd have an opportunity to see the other--and to figure that the residents in the homes on State were certainly good citizens by adopting our street.

Then lo and behold, something terrible happened. A car careened around the corner off of Roosevelt one day a couple of years ago--and knocked one of the poles down that had one of the signs. And wouldn't you know it? It was the one closest to my house. And before I even realized what happened, someone came and took the pole away. Along with my prideful sign. And it was gone forever.

I told the alderman's office what had happened. And asked if there was any way we could get the sign replaced. While I was at it, I happened to notice that the other sign at the far end of the block was so crooked on the pole, it was practically horizontal. I asked if that one could be straightened. But if not, maybe it could be removed and given to me and I could put it in my side yard for posterity--and for passersby to still see that we were good neighbors.

Pasquale, who worked in Alderman Fioretti's office at the time, looked at me like I was nuts. But he did go out and check the crooked one to see if it was on its last legs. He happily reported to me that although it was quite crooked, it was sturdily ensconced on the pole. So what's the difference, he asked? It won't fall off, he surmised. So leave well enough alone, he recommended.

So I did. But I have been nervous ever since. Both from the loss of one and the trajectory of the other.

But today I happened to pass by the sign that's still on the pole. And voila! It's straight again. I have no idea who did it. The alderman--on his own? Streets and San on a little fixit mission done by someone hired specifically for his/her OCD? Rahm?

All I know is, Chicago really is the city that works. Or at least it's the city that's scared straight.


No Comments - Add Your Comment