Newsletter | June 2019
Help Us Build, Help Us Grow!
La Guayabita Autónoma held its first build day of the season on April 28, bringing together ATU, Latino Union, and Albany Park neighbors to construct six new plots for the garden. Founded in 2016 as a community garden for low-income tenants, La Guayabita has grown from an empty lot to a critical source of fresh produce and community space.
One of the new plots will benefit members of Latino Union, who host ESL classes in the garden when weather permits. The remaining five plots will allow up to eight new ATU members to grow their own food this summer. In addition, the gardeners plan to build raised beds around the perimeter of La Guayabita to increase donations to the pantry at Christ Lutheran Church, who generously provide meeting space to community organizations like ATU and Albany Park Defense Network.
The next community build day is scheduled for Sunday, June 30th at 1pm, where the 5000 block of N Monticello meets the North Branch of the Chicago River. Join us, and donate to support our garden expansion!
Donate here: bit.ly/gardenexpansion
Developer Spotlight: The Gregorarz Group
Introducing Michael Gregorarz, of the Gregorarz Group. Gregorarz recently purchased a 25-unit building at Whipple and Ainslie in Albany Park for $3.2 million. His website makes his intentions for the building clear - to profit by “adding value” by “updating apartments.” Of course, because these updates can’t be done while the units are occupied, this business model requires first displacing the working class, immigrant, and refugee residents who were there before he bought the building. Gregorarz also maintains an active social media presence, on which he shares content from far-right and white nationalist voices like Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern. ATU is keeping an eye on the Gregorarz Group, and we’ll be ready when the time comes to let him know what Albany Park thinks of his predatory business and racist postings.
Kimball Tenants Union Celebrates!
Members of the Kimball Tenants Union and ATU are celebrating the culmination of 9 months of struggle for dignified and stable housing! After their Albany Park building was purchased by an investor who moved to evict them from their longtime homes, tenants put in countless hours of cooperative work and negotiation to reach a resolution with their new landlord that allowed them the time and assistance that they needed. Ultimately, the goal of our struggle is to stay in our homes and communities free from those who see our homes as commodities, but KTU members have shown how organized tenants -- with community in solidarity -- can work together to get their needs met and force important conversations into the public sphere.
SOMOS Logan Square’s & MHTU’s Community Action Gets Developers’ Illegal Construction Halted By City
The Milwaukee-Haussen Tenants Union (MHTU) formed the way most tenant unions do - as a means of solidarity and self-defense against a developer or landlord who has exploited their basic need for shelter in the pursuit of profit.. In this case, the new owner of the Milwaukee-Haussen building (3108-16 N Milwaukee) is Peak Properties, with landlords Herb Linn and Mike Zucker neglecting deteriorating conditions and overseeing unjust evictions.
As reported in the Chicago Sun-Times, “Linn and Zucker bought the building … in February for $3.2 million. They plan to let all leases expire, evict the month-to-month tenants, rehab the property and start renting it out next spring.” We’ve seen this strategy of renoviction pursued by developers we’ve fought in Albany Park - developers like Ron Abrams of Silver Properties. And just like in Albany Park, tenants around the city are fighting back.
When Peak Properties began construction on some of the newly vacant units, they did so in a way that interfered with the livelihood of the tenants - interrupting their sleep and spreading dangerous dust and debris throughout the building. This too is a common tactic in the Gentrifying Mega-Developer playbook. By attacking tenants’ quality of life, these developers seek to make tenants feel powerless to the circumstances, to give up, and to cut their losses by moving as soon as possible.
Instead, the tenants of MTHU with the help of SOMOS Logan Square organized demonstrations, a call-in campaign, and a meeting with their alderman - and were able to get a stop-work order shutting down Peak’s disruptive renovation efforts. Although the gentrification war with Peak Properties and other mega developers is ongoing, SOMOS and MTHU won this battle against Peak’s illegal construction. When we fight, we win! Cuando luchamos, ganamos!
