New Jackson Hotel (Chicago, Maywood, Madison: salons, apartment, condos)

[It'sAutomatic]

I finally realized where all of the homeless people at Halsted and Jackson in Greektown are coming from. Here's one review that I found online:

"The person who wrote the first comment was dead on. "We went there and the desk clerk walked us to a room. We turned on the lights and roaches went everywhere. There was a huge fur ball on the bed. The bathtub had been ripped out and was gone.. . . "

http://chicago-hotels.tripadvisor.co...ECK_RATES_CONT


So what the hell is keeping this fun little establishment in the heart of Greektown around? I can think of many better, more lucrative functions for that building than a flophouse.

[Venom]

Reminds me of our old apartment.

[Venom]

It's actually better.

And only two murders so far this year.

[Venom]

Damn, I looked up Maywood's stats on this site and in 03 there was 20 murders

[WhaThe]

I look at that hotel every day on the way to work. Sometimes see the odd police car or ambulance in front.

It's quiet in the morning mostly but I've run into mean and nasty panhandlers on weekend afternoons before.

[NearWestSider]

Originally Posted by It'sAutomatic

I finally realized where all of the homeless people at Halsted and Jackson in Greektown are coming from. Here's one review that I found online:

"The person who wrote the first comment was dead on. We went there and the desk clerk walked us to a room. We turned on the lights and roaches went everywhere. There was a huge fur ball on the bed. The bathtub had been ripped out and was gone. There was crack or something all over the floor. The desk clerk told us not to come out of our room alone, to call him and he would come get us. Needless to say, we did not stay, and got out of there as soon as we could. DO NOT stay here. This place should be condemned. It is nothing but a big crack house. There were people laying in the stairways." Stay away. Far far Away. - Review of New Jackson Hotel, Chicago, IL - TripAdvisor

So what the hell is keeping this fun little establishment in the heart of Greektown around? I can think of many better, more lucrative functions for that building than a flophouse.

I'm guessing some mafioso owns it, which is why it is "allowed" to stay, seeing as how the UVA hounds every other ghetto-patronizing establishment out of its jurisdiction. I'd LOVE to see it leave, as wold virtually every oter property owner on the Near West Side.

[summer22]

I went to high school (an excellent Chicago Public Magnet high school) about four blocks from this place... that was in the early 1990's.

Me and my friends would drive around the Near West Side regularly, including Jackson Boulevard where this hotel is located, and we'd eat once in a while at the KFC on Madison & Ashland too. We'd see the bums and we'd see the decay. We saw people who were down-and-out. But somehow it never sunk in just how bad the reality was of the people who "lived" there. Madison St. was Skid Row. Other than the missions, there was nobody helping those people.

I found this article about the area -- Bummed Out: How Skid Row went from

Even though I was in that neighborhood seven hours a day for 4 years, it was like me and my friends were tourists. It's pretty amazing how you can be blind to something that's right under your nose.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by summer22

I went to high school (an excellent Chicago Public Magnet high school) about four blocks from this place... that was in the early 1990's.

Me and my friends would drive around the Near West Side regularly, including Jackson Boulevard where this hotel is located, and we'd eat once in a while at the KFC on Madison & Ashland too. We'd see the bums and we'd see the decay. We saw people who were down-and-out. But somehow it never sunk in just how bad the reality was of the people who "lived" there. Madison St. was Skid Row. Other than the missions, there was nobody helping those people.

I found this article about the area -- Bummed Out: How Skid Row went from

Even though I was in that neighborhood seven hours a day for 4 years, it was like me and my friends were tourists. It's pretty amazing how you can be blind to something that's right under your nose.

I spent a semester living/working in the Olive Branch Mission at about 1100 W Madison back in the mid-1990s. The area was starting to turn then (there were a few conversions, Harpo of course, a couple high-end salons, and Wishbone - and not much else other than Greektown stuff on Halsted), but still had a lot of homeless guys, vacant buildings and a general feeling of despair. I got offered the oral services of a roughly 40-something black guy obviously strung out and looking for money to get a fix. Haven't had that happen in the West Loop lately.