About Us

Southport Neighbors Association (SNA) is a not-for-profit organization serving the Southport Neighborhood from Addison Street north to Irving Park Road and Clark Street west to Ashland Avenue.

Our Purpose:

The Association is a neighborhood organization comprised of residents and businesses in the community area bounded by the streets Addison, Ashland, Clark and Irving Park, in the City of Chicago. The Association’s purpose is to encourage compatible residential and business development; initiate and support beautification projects; and provide the residents with neighborhood forums on timely issues and neighborhood concerns including but not limited to quality of life issues and historic preservation.

What Have We Done Lately?

2008 Annual Report

Hard to believe another year has passed. The SNA Board has been working very hard this year and in case you are wondering what we have been up to, here’s what we have accomplished.

1. 1. SNA has taken a very firm position against allowing Sam Zell or any new owner of the Cubs to renegotiate the night game ordinance, the 2007 concert ordinance, or the landmarking of Wrigley Field and we oppose reopening discussions to increase the size of the planned development on the Cubs triangle property previously approved by the community as a parking lot. SNA
   encourages our neighbors to contact Alderman Tunney and Mayor Daley and tell them not to allow years of community input, discussion, negotiation and consensus on each of these neighborhood protections and quality of life issues to be reopened and renegotiated.
   
   
2. 2. We hosted a very successful Summer on Southport festival in 2007. Our festival has again been one of the best children’s festivals in the City. We had exceptional children’s musicians and activities, and a great turn out all day and night with terrific local bands, artisans, vendors, and fabulous sponsors. We are excited to announce that this year’s festival will be held on July 19th and 20th. Mark you calendars and watch for details. Visit our website for artisan or vendor applications or other details, www.southportneighbors.com.
   
   
3. 3. Because of the success of our festival, we were able to donate $5,000.00 to Blaine School in 2007 which totals $21,000 over the past three years. Our donation will support Blaine’s planned renovation of the west side playlot at Janssen and Grace which will benefit both the school and the community.
   
   
4. 4. We continue to serve on the Alderman’s Community Directed Development Council which meets monthly to review area development issues and large scale projects in the 44th Ward. SNA is also a representative on the Wrigley area development subcommittee which was formed to review the current zoning and large scale projects in the Wrigley area. Our community also participated in the open meeting on the Addison/Clark development and has weighed in on that development which was not approved as proposed. A majority of those who took the LVCC Survey and who wrote letters to the Alderman felt the project was much too big. For minutes of CDDC meetings go to www.44thward.com.
   
   
5. 5. SNA has two wonderful representatives on the Lakeview Citizens Council (“LVCC”) who advocate for our community on a variety of issues affecting all of Lakeview.
   
   
6. 6. Our Southport Green Market was such a hit last summer we are bringing it to the community on a weekly basis from June through October 2008 on Saturday mornings from 8am-noon at the Blaine School parking lot. We will have many more farmers and other vendors and a unique opportunity to order your produce in advance. Please review the Southport Green Market article for
   more details or go to www.southportneighbors.com/greenmarket.html.
   
   
7. 7. In 2008, a Southport Retail Committee was formed by the Lakeview Chamber of Commerce, we are grateful for the opportunity to participate with a representative on this committee to lend our support and input on issues affecting our business community.
   
   
8. 8. As always, our Planning and Development Committee and Board continue to monitor new development in the neighborhood. Aside from the Addison/Clark development mentioned above, we have been working to save the historic orange rated building at 1418 W. Addison St. Current zoning on this property is RT3.5 which allows residential use. The lot size is 125 x 65 is big enough to allow for the construction of a 6 unit building by right. But a developer has purchased the property and has filed a request to tear down the property and increase the zoning to B2-2 to build six larger residential condominiums than current zoning allows. He will present his plans at the Community Meeting on April 22, 2008 at 7pm at the Mercury Theater.
   
   
9. 9. The Cubs have expressed an interest in hosting a concert again this year. We are waiting to hear the details, but SNA will be involved in all stages of the negotiations to ensure that any concert held in 2008 has a least the same neighborhood protections we negotiated in 2007. Last year, we worked with Mike Lufrano from the Cubs and Alderman Tunney who supported our input into the concert management and neighborhood protections. As a result of our cooperative efforts, the 2007 concerts were well-managed and had minimal adverse impact on our neighborhood. To ensure that we have the same support in future years SNA has not approved a 5 year plan for concerts at Wrigley.
   
   
10. 10. We continue to address bar and restaurant expansion requests. In 2007 Bernie’s Tavern was granted a license to expand to the second floor. In an effort to give back to the community, they bricked the north side of their building which makes for a significant improvement. We welcome Buleria (pronounced Bull-eh-dia), a Tapas Bar and Spanish Restaurant coming soon to the former Neybors space. Our community voted to support this liquor license expansion request with a plan of operation.
    
    
11. 11. Sadly last summer we were once again hit with a rash of violent crimes in our area. As a result of our lobbying efforts over the past few years, Alderman Tunney approved new street lighting on 8 of our blocks. We have worked hard to inform our residents about crime and safety through our emails, and flyers in our kiosk. If you are not yet a member of SNA, if for no other reason, join today to get our Neighborhood Watch email alerts. For a member form go to www.southportneighbors.com/join.html.
    
    
12. 12. We continue to provide New Resident Welcome Packets. These are being distributed to new neighbors and are filled with business cards, menus and information about our neighborhood. If you know of a new neighbor, email us so we can provide them with this valuable packet.
    
    
13. 13. We have held quarterly community meetings on topics of importance to our community and produced newsletters for area wide distribution to members and non-members alike.
    
    
14. 14. Lastly but not least, we have a new and improved website that is full of important and helpful information and links, check us out at www.southportneighbors.com. We also continue to expand our use of email communications to regularly inform our members about issues and events that are of immediate concern and interest.
    
    

As you can see, we’ve been really busy! If you have any concerns we are missing or have some positive suggestions for our neighborhood, please send them to info@southportneighbors.com. Thanks to all of our GREAT volunteers for their time and for making this a terrific year for our neighborhood!