I am not going to let you have all the fun!! I am going to start taking pictures of cars speeding through the stop sign by my house. 9 out of 10 cars that drive down my street don't even tap on their brakes. They pick up speed!! I have also had problems in the past with cars ignoring a stopped bus in front of my house. Now my neighbor parks his car on the other side of the street so no one can get by.
I know this happens all over our neighborhood. One afternoon I picked my son up from school. I stopped at the stop sign to find a parent patrol using her phone to take a picture of a SUV that did not bother stopping while a little boy was attempting to cross the street.

you must be one of those pinheads that live across from mt. greenwood school....according to your "1 hour" later the police arrived which was at 2:42. that means the school gets out at 1:45. sorry to tell you sir...mt. greenwood is a neighborhood school...that means NEIGHBORHOOD kids go there!

Good morning.
This is a forum for neighbors to write about their concerns; good and not so good. What it comes down to is the lack of courtesy of drivers. I would enjoy reading about positive events happening in Mt. Greenwood and Beverly. I, personally can't think of anything positive to write about at this time. I am happy to see new members replying to the posts!! GETOVERIT do you have any good news about the Beverly area?

Peggyr is right: The Southwest Observer is a forum for neighbors to write about whatever concerns they have - both good and bad. Thank you for the post. I enjoy and encourage dissenting opinions; it's the empathy that results from discussing opposing views that makes us all better people.

And I agree with you, getoverit, that it is a seemingly minor issue in the big picture. But, as both peggyr and smalltowninabigcity have pointed out, it comes down to courtesy ... even though I maintain that it's more serious than that if there's ever an emergency and I need to get somewhere fast.

Still, one of the basic lessons our children should be learning in school is courtesy, and as any teacher will tell you (my wife included ... she's a Chicago Public Schools teacher), courtesy is taught by example. When parents blatantly block the driveways of neighbors just to get a closer spot to school, what does that teach their children? That characteristics like selfishness and arrogance really aren't all that bad.

So what happens when those children become teens and begin driving? I've done a lot of driving in a lot of places in my life, and Chicago drivers are among the worst. So why not begin now by teaching our students that doing something illegal is bad - and believe me, getoverit, you simply can't argue that parking your car, turning off the ignition, locking the doors and walking inside the school for 10-15 minutes isn't illegal.

See, that sort of behavior isn't tolerated in places where parking laws are enforced, places like tow zones and school bus lanes. So why should it be tolerated by a private property owner who is denied his only access to the public right of way by an ignorant parent too lazy to park around the corner and walk?

On another similar note, peggyr mentioned that there isn't anything positive to write about. But I disagree. Just last week I posted that Morgan Park High School was named one of the top public high schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.

This Web site was in no way designed to serve as a constant stream of criticism of our public officials and our neighborhood. We have tried to maintain a balance between the positive news and not-so-positive news, and I think we've done a good job at it.

But I can only do so much. Let me know about something you're proud of in our neighborhoods, something or someone you'd like to see profiled. Or better yet, go ahead and post it yourself. Someone once described the Southwest Observer as a virtual town hall. Makes sense. So go ahead: Stand up and yell something. We're listening.

I like your spunk, getoverit. But I have to correct you (and reiterate what I already wrote): After more than a year of repeated phone calls to the school itself, I was in the same situation. No results. As a matter of fact, I know a couple people whose children attend the school. They told me that all parents received a letter from the principal asking parents to respect their neighbors.

Still, those people continued to use the end of my driveway as their personal parking spot even after a plea from the principal. So I finally decided to stop calling the school and express my frustration directly to a parent one afternoon after I returned home to find that I was unable to enter my driveway. I had to sit in the street - blocking traffic myself - until she decided to come out of the school and move so I could pull into my driveway. I rolled the window down and expressed my feelings.

She spit at my car and called the police.

(You still think I'm the pinhead, getoverit?)

Only after the police arrived was I told to call 911 - by the officers themselves. The reason? To ensure that there's a record of this pattern. To document it. Same reason I'm photographing all vehicles and license plates that prevent my family from coming or going as we please.

You and I know that I'll never get CPD to respond immediately. That's not my intention. All I'm doing is ensuring that there's a visual and paper record of this pattern whenever possible, which is often because I leave for work and return home around the same time the street turns into a zoo.

And by the way, I don't have a prescription of Paxil. Never got into all that self-medicating. I find that a well-mixed Manhattan or three does the trick just nicely.