City Council recently passed a law that regulates the distribution of commercial handbills - specifically, the menus, coupons, newspapers, and directories that seem to appear with ever-increasing regularity on our porches, doors, and fences. Ald. Manny Flores introduced the ordinance after an East Village resident showed him how much of the area’s trash consisted of these materials. The ordinance prohibits hanging items on door knobs or gates, stuffing papers in or under doors and gates, dropping off on property premises, attaching materials to unoccupied vehicles, and posting materials on public property (such as an ad on a lamppost). For handbills to be legally distributed, they need to have a business license number visible on the material, and placed “in an alternative receiving bin as provided by the property owner”. This law does not apply to hand-to-hand distributed items. The ordinance also requires newspapers to be bagged or bound. In addition, newspapers, magazines and dire...
Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st Ward) speaks to East Village Association members June 13, 2022. Weekend gunfire turned a scheduled meeting with Ald. Daniel LaSpata into an hourlong discussion of public safety. Residents pressed the alderman on police response to calls and his own response to violent crime. The June 13 meeting was streamed on EVA's Facebook page . La Spata stated that the number of aggravated batteries and carjackings had fallen in East Village's two beats but a rise of robberies had been "frustrating." In weekly calls with 12th District Cmdr. Beth Giltmier, La Spata said he pushed for Chicago Avenue foot patrols. Residents asked if more street cameras would be installed in the ward, noting that early morning shots fired on their block two days before had no police response for more than an hour. La Spata said cameras were funded from the ward's discretionary "menu money" but he would not commit to funding cameras without consulting Giltmi...