HYDE PARK — Police and park volunteers are struggling to clean up the Iowa Building pavilion in Jackson Park that was the site of a June 22 murder.
“I’m cleaning up from here to Stony Island Avenue every day and I’m picking up 40 bottles a day, so that means people are here even though the police are here,” said Louise McCurry, president of the Jackson Park Advisory Council.
The council held its monthly meeting on Monday in the World’s Columbian Exposition-era pavilion at 56th Street and South Shore Drive to talk about how to stop people partying in the building.
On June 22, a gunman walked into the pavilion and shot three men who were there rapping. Ovadiyah Chandler, 34, died after being shot in his head and another man was shot in his arm before the gunman drove off.
On Monday night, McCurry paced over one of the small plastic bags often used for drugs and told Chicago Park District security and Grand Crossing District officers about continued problems at the pavilion.
The pavilion lights, which worked as recently as 4 p.m., again stopped working by 5 p.m., McCurry said. She said electricians have been out the last five days trying to fix the lights, which consistently burn out after working for a day.
She said she picked up 32 alcohol bottles on Monday at the pavilion overlooking the lake.
“I found my first condom here last night,” McCurry said.
She said she suspects prostitution happening elsewhere around the park has been pushed to the north end of Jackson Park.
“It is scenic,” joked Capt. Sean Loughran, adding that he would call in an officer who works specifically on prostitution.
He said he would let the bicycle officers who patrol the lakefront, the patrol car for parks and the officers on the beat know that there are still issues at the pavilion.
“We try to push them out and shut it down and then circle around to make sure it worked,” Loughran said.
McCurry said the police and the park district have done a good job cleaning up the pavilion, but there needs to be more community events in the building to discourage partying and other problems.
She said she’s invited yoga and karate classes to practice at the pavilion and is trying to think of a long-term use for the dilapidated building.
Ald. Leslie Hairston (5th) said she too would like to see the building revived.
“We need to find a way to repair it in phases and get the Park District to pay for it,” Hairston said.
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