Police Roll Call at Tobacco for Less

posted by richard gill

Just before 5pm on Thursday, April 22, a dozen or so Chicago police patrol cars and vans swooped in at the corner of Hyde Park Boulevard & 55th Street. This wasn’t a raid or a response to a crime in progress. It was for a totally routine activity—roll call for police officers of Beat 32, 21st Police District, prior to the start of their shift. What wasn’t routine was the location, outdoors on a busy street corner.

Why that particular corner? It was to show a strong police presence in front of a retail store called Tobacco for Less. The store has been there about a year, selling tobacco products and snack food. Suspicions have arisen that the store may be selling cigarettes to minors and selling illegal wares. The roll call was conducted there in order to send a message to the store and its customers that the police are paying attention. It was also to reassure local residents that the police are on the case.



Police roll calls in public places are occasionally conducted where gangs hang out or criminal activity is known or suspected.

The showing on April 22 was indeed impressive. The cars arrived with swirling blue lights. The officers, about 20 in number, gathered across the street and then strode, rather like a platoon, to where the roll call was to be held, in front of the tobacco store. They lined up along the sidewalk, and a sergeant took the roll. It was semi-formal, and there was some good-natured bantering among the officers and people (most of them curious) who gathered to watch, and there was applause at the end. Representatives from the 4th and 5th Ward Aldermanic offices voiced appreciation for the officers’ efforts. The whole thing took less than ten minutes. The police departed and went to work.

This was strategy at work and great community outreach. I haven’t been that close to that many guns since the Army.

Keystone Co-Op #5 : The Moment of Truth

posted by deep throat

Is Time Almost Up for the Co-Op?

It looks like the Co-Op board has finally run out of time -- denial of the crushing financial problems and strategic mistakes has ceased to be an acceptable public relations strategy. Now, the current board (and the membership) face some very tough decisions.

Unfortunately, none of the alternatives is particularly attractive for the Co-Op. On November 18, a community meeting will be held and the board will present its recommendation on a course of action, and the membership will vote Yay or Nay on the board's suggestion.

From our perspective, it's about time. The status quo and on-going cash burn situation have turned the Co-Op into a sinking ship.

While some folks might have hoped for the luxury of time to let the 55th Street store continue to generate profits that would be siphoned off to pay for the on-going lease obligations at the 47th Street location and various vendors, the Co-Op has been digging itself into a deeper financial hole as each month passes because what it owes still far outstrips the cash it is able to generate.

Now the board is finally entertaining the drastic solutions that this type of situation calls for.

The board must choose from four options, two of which will allow the Co-Op's 55th Street store to remain in operation, and two that will shut that store down.

Before we assess the four approaches, we have one large caveat that must be voiced. If the board endorses an alternative that allows the 55th Street store to continue operations, the members are being asked to take a leap of faith that this board will govern responsibly, and avoid making the types of bone-headed decisions made by multiple previous boards.

That long history of bad decisions by previous Co-Op boards is what landed the Co-Op in its current situation in the first place. In our view, it is incumbent on this board to demonstrate that it can do differently, before asking for a vote.

Option A - "The Good Samaritan" - Debt Consolidation
This is similar to the low production-value, late-night television ads that offer to help those who are drowning in late payments to the utility companies, credit card companies, and other consumer lenders. It involves consolidating all the Co-Op's various debts to landlords and vendors, and then working out a plan to chip away at that mountain of debt over a long period of time.

This approach would require an entity, like a bank, to step up and take over all the Co-Op's debts and then receive payment little by little. It would also allow the Co-Op to avoid going to bankruptcy court and to continue operating the 55th Street store.

We're skeptical that any bank would actually be stupid enough to take on the consolidated debt of the Co-Op, unless management and the current board truly show that they, unlike previous boards, are ready to make difficult decisions and smart choices going forward.

Option B - "Sorry Charlie" - Creditors Left Holding the Bag
The Co-Op would negotiate with creditors to buy out the Co-Op's current leases, and shut down operations at the 55th Street store. This would not involve the bankruptcy courts.

Option C - "The Lindsay Lohan" - Going into Rehab
Like LiLo going to rehab, the Co-Op would file for Chapter 11, gain the bankruptcy court's protection, get time to reorganize its financial affairs, get its hydra-heads as straight as possible, and eventually emerge from bankruptcy in a (hopefully) healthier state.

This alternative isn't wholly unlike the 12-step program and having to apologize to those you have hurt in the past. It involves working out a new plan for paying off creditors, negotiating with every vested party (e.g., vendors, landlords, creditors, unions), and getting their agreement to the new plan.

As a result, this approach tends to involve a lot of lawyers and take a fair amount of time. But, it would allow the 55th Street store to continue operations. When the Co-Op leaves bankruptcy, the pre-petition shareholders (i.e., current members) will likely have no claim on the Co-Op, and it will instead be owned by the post-petition creditors.

In other words, whatever current members paid to buy their shares will almost certainly never come back to them.

Option D - Just Plain Vulture Food
The Co-Op would file for bankruptcy, shut down the 55th Street store, and liquidate all remaining assets. This is usually the best choice when a business is worth more dead than alive.

The Upshot
We believe Options B and D are unlikely to really happen. As with mortgage lenders when they are faced with foreclosing on a home, creditors are generally very reluctant to take ownership of the actual assets, and then put the time and resources into selling them at fire-sale prices, or worse, actually operating them. Banks want to be in the lending business, not the residential real estate business.

Banks only foreclose when it becomes clear that they'll never get their money back. We suspect that Certified and the University don't want to be on the hook for a bunch of leases with empty store space. It would be in their best interest to work out a new payment plan, which may involve smaller payments stretched over a longer period of time.

One rule of thumb: when shareholders equity is negative (as it is in the Co-Op's case), bankruptcy and reorganization is often favored. Another consideration is whether the Co-Op's assets would be put to better use elsewhere.

If so, then liquidation is the best bet for paying off creditors. In this case, it's not clear that many other parties would have use for the Co-Op's assets, which include refrigerator cases, inventory, shelving, and equity in other co-ops.

After weighing these factors, we're laying odds on the board recommending rehab. Britney, Lindsay, move over: here comes the Co-Op.

Hans Morsbach: "I am an old fart"

posted by chicago pop

In an interview with Dan Lambert of the Chicago Maroon (October 23, 2007), Hans Morsbach declares, "I am an old fart."

We're glad he's the one who said it.

Turns out, it's revealed in the interview that the Medici, fabled local business and graffiti backdrop, is about to become -- *GASP* -- a chain! (Actually, it was a chain for a while already, before it closed its location on Surf between Sheridan and Broadway a few years ago). Hyde Park's most prominent local businessman is replicating his success and perpetuating the global spread of corporate monoculture.

The Medici's new space will be a veritable beer hall for the more festive student body of Illinois State University in downstate Normal, where Morsbach hopes to propagate the elevated values that make Hyde Park distinct: "The main reason is economics. We can have liquor, and it is in a good location close to Illinois State University."

Helping undergrads get sloshed close to their dorms so they don't have to drive is truly admirable, but even better is being able to cash in on coed inebriation. "It's in a community where they appreciate me."

Everyone likes to be appreciated, especially when "the main reason is economics." Too bad that reason rarely applies in Hyde Park, at least outside of the Medici.

The interview ranges widely, and explains how the Medici became a retail outlet for various politically-branded forestry products from somewhere up north. But for the true Hyde Park political junkie, the blurb on Morsbach's involvement in the Save the Point Campaign is not to be missed. We'll quote it in full.

I am a troublemaker. I think some issues are just important to me, like Save the Point. I was very emotional about it. I was shocked that the University would side with destroying the limestone ambiance of the point; I still don't understand why they did it. I was also shocked that the city, the University, and a lot of the conservative Hyde Parkers were fighting the issue, which has tremendous popularity with many people. And I think we won the battle.

This statement is truly worthy of a Medici garbage pizza. It's a little bit of everything all messed up.

Take, for example, the idea that the "Hyde Parkers ... fighting the issue" were conservative. Now, being conservative by definition means not wanting change. So, wanting to keep the original (dangerous and decrepit) limestone, as Morsbach did, is the true conservative position. In contrast, wanting to change the revetments is not conservative. Wanting to change the revetments in accordance with modern standards of accessibility, safety, and durability, is a progressive position, and that was not Morsbach's position.

But businessmen can't be expected to be semantically fastidious, nor particularly astute analysts of local politics. Nor should we expect them to be historians, it turns out. Looking back on the outcome of the Point battle, Morsbach states "I think we won the battle." However, this comment seems to resemble a number of other rather satisfied remarks made in the interview -- "I'm proud to say my book is the bestselling one on forestry on Amazon"*(see below for fact-check) -- leading one to wonder if it's not a bit exaggerated.

And just what does it mean in Morsbach-speak to "win a battle?" It's clear that, on this Point, Hans is emotional about the issue; and that may in fact have been the problem. It's also clear that if any victories were had, they were Pyrhhic, on the order of the "strategic hamlet" strategy of pacifying the Viet Cong. To "save" the Point, we had to let it fall apart and watch funding disappear, which is how it remains. Some victory.

One garbage pizza, please!

*[On Morsbach's allegedly top-selling lumberjack tome, we'll quote one attentive reader: "As of noon today [Thurs. Oct. 25, 2007], it looks like Morsbach's "Commonsense Forestry" is actually #26 in the Forests & Forestry category for Amazon sales. Hmmm, that puts 25 other forestry books ahead of Mr. Morsbach's." (See comment section.) Feel free to check for yourself.]

Hyde Park Hero

In the continuing series of HYDE PARK HEROES we present to you...

Neo Gullstrom, Peapod Driver Extraordinaire.

For customer service beyond the call of duty, and for his obvious love of his work, Neo Gullstrom is our Hyde Park Hero this week. Many Hyde Park businesses could learn a lot from Neo and from Peapod about how to keep customers and employees happy.

Hooray for Neo!