University Village has a new neighborhood group, but locals might recognize the face at the top.

Former University Village Association Executive Director Dennis O’Neill was fired last fall after a two-year run as the organization’s head of day-to-day operations. But this week he’s announced a new group to advocate for causes in the neighborhood: Connecting4Communities.

The new group will advocate for, yes, four neighborhoods: Tri-Taylor, Little Italy, Roosevelt Square and University Village and Commons.

“I didn’t feel that the organization at all had an interest in representing the residents and businesses in the area,” O’Neill said. “I was glad to go. I was really glad to be away from what I thought was a really toxic environment with a lot of ethical lapses that I was trying to contain and work through.”

Chief among those concerns was a recent effort by the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Newman Center to establish Catholic student housing at 14th Street and Union Avenue. The Newman Center had proposed building student housing in the past on Morgan Street, an issue that had been met with significant opposition in the past.

So when O’Neill was asked by the University Village Association to steer clear of the issue, he was leery.

“It was within the service boundaries, it was an issue that was hotly contested by the neighborhood when it was proposed for Morgan Street, and I didn’t feel that trying to build it over there on Union and Emerald was any different than trying to build it on Morgan Street,” O’Neill said. “The residents over there paid a lot of money for their houses, and already deal with issues from UIC students, and I thought their concerns were legitimate.”

The University Village Association’s Oscar D’Angelo did not return calls in time for Chicago Journal’s deadline Wednesday, but in a November interview with the Near West Gazette, D’Angelo said O’Neill was fired because “he did not follow the directives of the UVA,” particularly on the Newman Center issue.

Moving forward, O’Neill said he’s looking forward to running a smoother community organization. He’s got three main goals for Connecting4Communities:

O’Neill said he hopes his new group will change the way the public weighs in on projects in and around University Village.

“There’s never been an open and transparent and participatory community organization in this area. It’s also been an area that has undergone tremendous change in the last 10 to 15 years. You had all of the public housing torn down with very little planning to how it was done, you had an entire UIC south campus built with little community input,” O’Neill said. “We’re always a neighborhood that seems to be a work in progress. We’re never a cohesive, stable, organized community. We’re always being exploited because there’s land and there’s close to downtown.”

O’Neill thinks he’s the right person to change the direction of the community. He’s lived in the community for 32 years, and he’s been an activist for much of the time. He says that since he sent out an announcement about Connecting4Communities on Saturday night, he’s gotten dozens of letters of support.

“What I found was that while many people in this community loved what I was doing on the education issues and keeping them informed, they were really suspicious and leery about getting involved because I was at the UVA,” O’Neill said. “The organization that I started with residents is going to be very different. It’s going to be very transparent and collaborative, and participatory.”

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By WeLo from West Loop
Posted: 02/13/2012 6:47 PM

I suspect "Near West resident" is Dennis. In any case, please don't presume to know how much public service I do, or don't do - I am very involved with my community. I have issues with how Dennis has handled some situations (Cliff Notes version: he's a bully). Bullies are great if they are protecting your turf and making things happen for you. If you want to work with a bully or build consensus, however…that's quite something else.

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By Near West resident resident from UIC
Posted: 02/11/2012 9:12 PM

A few comments - "Pilsen guy" the way magnet lotteries worked in the past (which is representated in Galileo) is that a % of each ethnic group had to be represented. Clearly Galileo did not have this as it is predominantly hispanic. This is scandalous and wouldn't have been tolerated if it were white. As for "WeLo" what did O'Neill do to you?! Maybe put that negative energy into community service. You'd have a little respect for those of us who do it to make your surroundings more enjoyable

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By WeLo from West Loop
Posted: 02/07/2012 11:31 AM

How VERY interesting that Dennis' account at EveryBlock has been deactivated. And NearWest resident - Dennis' comments went far beyond magnet schools and the demographics of said schools. He said very derogatory things about the behavior of black people. The only possible consensus this man could build is between himself and a mirror.

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By WeLo from West Loop
Posted: 02/07/2012 11:27 AM

Kurt - calling Roosevelt Square a neighborhood is all part of the campaign to show how shiny and perfect it is. Dennis likes to do this while he calls the West Loop, which is a perfectly nice, clean neighborhood, a graffiti and litter filled dump. (This isn't conjecture or opinion - just a direct observation of his comments on other sites.)

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By WeLo from West Loop
Posted: 02/07/2012 11:24 AM

A "really toxic environment," huh? Let's just say that if you say "toxic environment" and "Dennis O'Neill" in the same sentence…well, I'm not at all surprised.

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By pilsen guy from Pilsen
Posted: 02/03/2012 8:16 AM

How is it suspicious when you have a lottery to be chosen for the school. You apply and you take your chances. If one group is more represented than another, it's probably because there were more applications from that group than from another. Just look at the ratio of one group that apply's from another. Simple !!

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By pilsen guy from Pilsen
Posted: 02/03/2012 8:06 AM

My comments about O'Neill were about what he said about the demographics of Galileo and that he did not like the bussing of Mexican kids to the school. If the demographics of Galileo were of white kids and he made those same comments of not wanting them there, then yes my comments would be the same.

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By Near West resident from UIC
Posted: 02/02/2012 10:23 PM

Let's not get bogged down in names and name calling. Instead let's be thankful that someone is willing to address important issues for us! This area has long been run in the interest of a certain few and we've all paid a steep price. And as to address the comments by "Pilsen guy," isn't it a little suspicious that a public magnet school is "somehow" predominantly one ethinic group when it's a lottery? Would your comments be the same if somehow a magnet school by random lottery were 60% white?

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By Dennis O'Neill from Little Italy
Posted: 02/02/2012 2:02 PM

I don't find it necessary to obsess about the name of the organization or people's negativity. I had enough of that at UVA. I will, however, be very focused on being inclusive, open and transparent and committed to working productively on issues of education, crime and safety, positive community development and making sure that Roosevelt Square becomes the most successful CHA Plan for Transformation in Chicago. All of the CHA Plans are quite stalled, have many issues and need help.

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By WestLooper from West Loop
Posted: 02/02/2012 1:05 PM

I bet the real estate agents like the idea of calling it the Roosevelt Square neighborhood, just like they made up "West Loop Gate".

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By Matt from Little Italy
Posted: 02/02/2012 12:01 PM

Well said, Kurt. Denoting Roosevelt Square as a separate community or neighborhood only serves to divide our community and prolong the attitude that Roosevelt Square is still the projects. This is a holdover attitude from the UVA.

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By Dennis ONeill from Little Italy
Posted: 02/02/2012 10:42 AM

While I was executive director of UVA, the board nevermet to discuss or vote on the Newman Center dorm issue and I ccould not find any record that they had ever met on it when it had been proposed to be located on Morgan Street years earlier, which the community there vehemently opposed. I was simply told to "stay out of the Newman Center issue, it's not a UVA issue." This was just one of many ethical issues I found disconcerting.

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By pilsen guy from pilsen
Posted: 02/02/2012 10:05 AM

During the last LSC election at the Galileo school, Mr. O'Neill stated that he did not like the "demographics" of the school and did not like the bussing of Mexican children from Pilsen to Galileo. Here is someone who is an out and out racist. Has he all of a sudden changed his ideology, otherwise it should read "same face, same ideas". There is no way that any neighborhood can benefit from O'Neill's input. People beware !!

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By Kurt Lawler from Little Italy
Posted: 02/02/2012 9:13 AM

Roosevelt Square is NOT a NEIGHBORHOOD!!!!!!, it's a developement within Little Italy!!!! Please stop calling it a "Neighborhood"!!!!