Block Party Drama?

Well, this morning signs went up all over the block (and the adjacent blocks east and west) warning that street resurfacing will start on Marshfield Avenue tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. Resurfacing has already started further north--the asphalt was off the street last Friday at 48th and Marshfield.

First, let me say I'm delighted that we're finally getting the street resurfaced all the way from 51st to 47th. It's just what we were hoping for, and it crosses two wards so probably wasn't so easy to arrange. But the timing is not the best, given that the block party is set for Saturday.

Jay-Z's aunt called the alderman's office this morning. Latrece Thompson got back to us saying that they will hold off on the street resurfacing until after the block party. I hope that comes true. I may be up early tomorrow morning just to make sure a construction crew doesn't start tearing up the street. Stay tuned.

'This is a GOOD block party'

So said one of the little kids to the lady who was giving out ice cream cones yesterday.

Yes, we all survived the block party, as proven by the few photos I managed to shoot near the end of the night, when I could stop running around.

We not only survived, but thrived. We had the fire truck (and the guys opened the hydrant for a little while), soccer, basketball, the jumping jack (Jay-Z's auntie rented one for an hour), water balloons and my hose in the street, a little art from the Chicago Children's Museum, plenty of hot dogs and burgers and drinks and ice cream. Holy Cross/IHM did send a group of marimba players. We had a short prayer service and three teens from the block read the readings in a mix of English and Spanish. Yup-yup made a point of himself praying.

The dinner was a little chaotic but eventually the common food got on tables and people ate. Mostly folks cooked their own (which was past practice) but some people traveled around and tried out different foods. One of the Brady Moms made the best pozole I have ever had.

The kids got plenty of back-to-school goodies, too, just in time for Monday's first day at Chavez. Thanks to 49th Neighbor, we got a last minute donation of 300 pens and a bunch of pencils on top of the notebooks, pens, pencils, rulers and crayons already assembled. Plus a small stack of Early Childhood promo t-shirts in preschool sizes. Hopefully that will be a little motivator for their parents to sign them up at St. Joseph's Early Childhood Center.

The only incident was a tiff early in the morning between Yup-yup and Bob the Builder, as I'll refer to this guy who knows a lot of building owners around here. Bob called the cops on him, but they didn't want to arrest him and I ended up talking him down and slipping him $5 to stop being a nuisance. (Some other day I'll write about the block party slush fund.)

My new tenant, whom we'll call Shutterbug because he's a photographer, is also a basketball player and spent much of the night out shooting hoops on the street and stopping problems among the kids before they started. Rock on, Shutterbug!

Ms. Ribs (who outdid herself on the grill) said it best: "The kids acted nice. The adults acted nice. The weather was good."

Thanks to the following people and organizations from beyond the block for their assistance:

State Representative Esther Golar
Commander Eugene Roy, 9th District
Ald. JoAnn Thompson/16th Ward Dept. of Street & Sanitation
Neighborhood Housing Services
Kevin Carroll, Chicago Dept. of Transportation
The Resurrection Project
In the Paint
Chicago Children's Museum
Holy Cross/IHM Parish
49th Neighbor & CPS Office of Early Childhood
Rick Cadena
Dion Miller Perez
Jeff Nichols

Puzzle of the Week: Block Party Organizing

OK, friends, I've gone and done it. Put my foot right smack in the middle of block politics. I had a nice thing going here for almost four years, but now here we go.

So Jay-Z's aunt has been in a tizzy about putting together a block party. (She really wants to do it so she can have a big blowout birthday party for her own daughter, but she put her self-interest aside enough to move it into August rather than July and make it a back-to-school event, since Chavez starts so early--August 4 this year). The lady at the end of the block who has organized this in previous years wanted to do it in August, which I had said "sounds great" about back in June. I tried to reach Block Lady before we went off to the alderman, but we didn't connect. So we went earlier this week and got petitions. If you don't have an organized block club you have to gather petitions to get a block party permit.

So Auntie has been out getting signatures. She went to visit Block Lady last night and they ended up in a shouting match. (Let's just say I saw that coming when we didn't talk to her before we went to the alderman.) I saw Block Lady this morning and tried to patch things up a little. Though she seemed mollified, her point to me was we are on our own for getting this thing done. She'll advise, but whatever stuff she used to get she's not getting. "You're gonna have to pay for this yourselves," she warned.

This annoyed Auntie no end. However, she is under the mistaken impression that the city will show up with lots of hot dogs and back-to-school goodies for the kids. (We will be lucky if we get a fire truck and a jumping jack, especially on three week's advance time. I need to find out if we can get hot dogs from our state rep for cleaning up the block. That may be possible.) Auntie does realize we will need to solicit donations, and she's got time to pound the pavement, which I don't.

I will hit the street tonight to try and recruit some help getting food and other goodies donated. I will also be asking around for recommendations for a good DJ: one who will play music that crosses ethnic and age preferences in musical taste.

If any of you all are veterans of block party organizing or have tips on where to get good free stuff, especially school supplies--or a good DJ--please comment!