6 Comments Add your own

• 1. Leatherneck  |  June 3rd, 2008 at 10:33 pm

  How sad to admit that Rockford is becoming another East St. Louis.
  1. Influx of riff-raff from Chicago Public Housing over the last 10 years, including many criminals.
  2. Rise of crack drug traffic.
  3. Unskilled workforce in Rockford, despite designating resources and best efforts to “promote” education. You have to have families and people who value education in the first place.

  No easy solutions. Embrace the idea of concealed carry. It is a good idea and the evidence supports it. But I am not optimistic that the state of Illinois will pass it anytime soon.

  Tear down places like Fairgrounds, Concord and Auburn Manor, which are breeding grounds for crime. Codemn Section 8 public housing. Make the residents move someplace else, preferably back to Chicago or far away.

• 2. Shawn Vader  |  June 4th, 2008 at 10:41 am

  I have a comment about the rise in drug use and the prostitution and the crime that has risen in Rockford. I don’t live in Rockford anymore i have been gone a long time but my family still does. And what i see of Rockford is disgust anymore. i grew up on 8th and 6th ave. Went to Wight School. Our family knew Ekstrom’s like it was family. I remember the firehouse in front of the old scandia. You could walk those streets all hours and not worry about anything or anyone. Now you have to worry about drive by shootings, prostitutes and the streets riddled with drugs and strip joints. Unfortunately i have a little sister who ended up on heroin and walking those same streets we grew up on. I have another sister who is doing crack, and a brother who plays with the drugs and is an alcoholic. I have several friends we grew up with that are into it too. It literally breaks my heart to see a once nice little city turn into what you would see in a movie filmed in the bronx of new york or something. I am literally ashamed to say that i am from Rockford, Illinois. Someone or someone’s higher up are pocketing a lot of money instead of putting it into the community. But 7th street starting at Estate all the way past Broadway have turned into nothing but one BIG SEWER!!!!!!!Shawn Vader (Hurd) of Dandridge TN. A place i can say with pride that i live.

• 3. Michael Molander  |  June 4th, 2008 at 3:39 pm

  Judging by Mr. Vader’s comments regarding conditions on 7th Street he obviously has not been in Rockford for a long time and should come back for a visit. I go down this street often and the prostitutes are virtually gone. The open drug dealing has also virtually moved on as the bars have been closed down. There are no strip clubs anywhere on this street. The Ekstrom building is under new ownership and has undergone an award winning restoration. The Lantow Drug Store is now upscale, market rate condominiums soon to be occupied. The former MidTown Association worked with many stakeholders to transfor this area and the positive results show. There is a new Mid Town group organizing the next generation of stakeholders and I would envision even greater things. Zion Development Corp has completed many prjects adding to the creation of quality housing and improved quality of life for those people living along 7th Street. There is the Patriot’s Gateway Center for children and family involvement on 5th Street and 5th Avenue. There is a new initiative called the Kishwaukee Corridor Weed & Seed Program. This initiative is cracking down on crime in an area bounded by East State St, 11th street, 18th Ave and the Rock River. Drugs, prostitution, crime and general bad living conditions are being improved. I’m tired of uninformed, expatriated Rockfordians blogging back about things they don’t have a clue about. On second thought, Mr. Vader can stay south of the Mason Dixon line. He’s not part of the answer and chose to leave rather than stay and help his community.

• 4. Shawn Vader  |  June 5th, 2008 at 10:58 am

  response to mr molander:

  for one sir i am not a Mr. i am a Ms. And i have recently been to rockford and i have seen those streets. I don’t see any improvement whatsoever.. and my sister is still on those streets. apparently someone is trying to do a good job in covering it up. I know people who know the people who own those so called lingerie shops on broadway that do nothing but solicit prostitution and drugs. My mother lives in the old Foust LandMark and she tells me about this stuff all the time.. And your right i did choose to go to the south and i am glad i did because my children grew up well and drug free and not like some of the friends of mine who chose to stay in rockford and have either lost their children to drugs, prison or death.. So don’t tell me things have changed for the better because i have seen my old neighborhood and it is slum now…

• 5. Joy  |  June 5th, 2008 at 12:30 pm

  In response to the article about Tina Millers son dying of heroin. My son was addicted to Heroin and kicked the habit while in Jail. He later became readdicted while in prison. He told me there are more drugs there and they’re cheaper! He died 4 days after being released from a overdose of Methadone prescribed by the prison Doctor. My heart goes out to her. I tried everything to help him. He went to Rehab twice. But last and least you gotta wanna! When he was arrested he told the cops who his dealer was and no one cared. I wonder why?

• 6. Shawn Vader  |  June 5th, 2008 at 1:15 pm

  I am so sorry for the 2 ladies who lost their sons. I worry everyday that is the news me and my family will get about my 2 sisters and my brother. The heroin, methadone, crack all those drugs are running rampant in Rockford and no one does nothing. I know that is what i keep hearing to that the drug addicted person has to want help well i believe that is partly true but how can they really know what they need or want when they are high out of their minds or they are craving so badly that, that is all they think about. I have had to take counseling myself because i am a big sister and this problem with my little sisters and little brother worry me and keep me sick day in and day out.

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