By Matt Simonette

Staff writer

The changing face of the Lakeview community was the topic of an impassioned meeting at the Center on Halsted Aug. 30 as business owners, community leaders, police and activists came together to discuss the needs of youth in the area.

The meeting was convened after some local business owners expressed concern over large groups of youths congregating on Halsted Street late at night.

Jim Ludwig of Roscoe’s said he and others are concerned about “bands of gang members that are partly drug-dealing, partly establishing territory, partly marking the neighborhood with tagging and that kind of thing.”

Stu Zirin of Minibar said he didn’t think community leaders were aware of how dramatically the Lakeview streets changed late at night.

“People…cannot go home at night, because people are hanging out on the stoops,” Zirin said. “They feel uncomfortable and intimidated.”

Police representatives said the number of youths was increasing on the street but could not provide confirmation that the number of actual crimes on the street has gone up.

Jose Rios, LGBT liaison for the Chicago Police Department’s 23rd District, said that, for example, one night he met up with a group of 55 people at Aldine and Halsted.

“99 percent of them were probably not doing anything wrong,” Rios said. “They were there, they said, because they couldn’t be who they wanted to be on the South Side and the West Side.”

Nevertheless, he estimated that the number of kids gathered on the street has probably doubled this year and that the number of calls to police have increased.

Sgt. Alex Silva of the 23rd District CAPS office said that large numbers of people do not necessarily spell out gang activity.

Some attendees stressed that since a handful of businesses that catered to youths closed in recent years, people ages 17-20 have no place to congregate on North Halsted Street.

Rev. Stuart Smith, who founded Café Pride in 1995, said that most of the trouble he’s seen in the neighborhood comes from adults at bar closing time.

Smith also said, and others agreed, that there are more youths coming to Halsted now than in the past because youths tend to be aware of their sexual orientations at earlier ages these days.

“Kids come out much earlier today than they did when I was your age. …There aren’t a lot of places for them to go and socialize with other kids. It’s not safe in some neighborhoods to be openly gay. It is here. And so the kids are going to come here,” Smith said.

Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) said the city’s licensing requirements for 24-hour venues make it more difficult to provide late-night venues for youth.

He added, however, that the Center on Halsted should assess what services it can provide.

“We have 22 million dollars invested in this facility,” Tunney said. “Maybe we need to invest more in the services and operation here. …I truly believe that these kinds of spaces are needed.”

Nearly all agreed race discussions are going to have to play an important part in informing discussions about where to turn next. Vernita Gray, GLBT liaison with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office, said that many in the neighborhood “need to check their racist attitudes.”

“The night I came to the Center dinner, I could not get a cab because of the color of my skin. Renee (Ogletree) and I stood on Halsted Street and cab after cab went by us, despite the fact that we were dressed up and had plenty of money in our pockets to pay a cab,” Gray said.

She added, “So it’s not just our youth. It’s also plenty of the people in this community and their perception of who we are, because they perceive me to be a gangbanger.”

Jose Rivera, an official with the Chicago Department of Human Services, said the City stands ready to aid the Center in providing more late-night services for youths. The Center already operates a youth services program that provides services during the afternoon and early evening hours.

But many questioned whether just expanding services at the Center would be enough to alleviate the situation.

Barbara Bolsen of the Night Ministry said, “A lot of people are talking about what the youth need, but we don’t seem to be talking about what the youth want. …Maybe what the youth want is to hang out on Halsted Street where the excitement is.”

Youths who were present at the meeting voiced agreement when a participant said, “All they need is somewhere to go. Somewhere they can be with their friends in a safe space …Somewhere to hang out. They need somewhere to be. Period. End of story.”

Simone Koehlinger, director of the Office of GLBT Health at the Chicago Department of Public Health, facilitated the meeting, and suggested that people come together to discuss progress on the issue soon, perhaps next month. There was also some agreement voiced for a task force to come together to work on providing more services for youths on Halsted.