Right now the abandoned elevated rail line along Bloomingdale Ave. in northwest Chicago is frequented by restless teenagers and the occasional transient. But there's a plan to transform the deteriorating tracks into a three-mile paved bike trail with benches, lighting, and fencing.

Though it would not be built for several years, there are groups actively campaigning for the creation of the Bloomingdale Trail as a way of bringing more park space to a community starved for green.

Bucktown is once again a battlefield in the struggle between gentrification and prostitution. A stylish, family-oriented community by day and deserted, commercial-sex destination by night, its residential streets continue to lead double lives.

Despite an aggressive and controversial initiative against the sex trade in 2002, the prostitutes are back and community frustration is mounting.

“They [the prostitutes] should not be over here making this community their bedroom,” resident Sandy Johnson said.

As Chicago's annual hibernation continues with no thaw in sight, automobiles look positively sensible and bicycles seem more seasonal than ever.

So how could a small neighborhood bike shop survive the city's deep freeze 14  times, building a million-dollar business?

The answers, according to Chris Stodder and his wife Justyna Frank, co-founders and owners of Rapid Transit Cycle Shop, are simple: Don't plan on immediate success, and work for the loyalty of Chicago's small but growing number of year-round bikers.

"If you write a business plan then you probably won't start a business," Stodder said in the back of his 1900 W. North Ave. shop, which straddles Bucktown and Wicker Park. "Any business plan is going to show you how difficult it's going to be and how little financial sense it makes."

Stodder and Frank, without either a plan or management experience, nevertheless opened the shop in 1994, well aware of how risky the venture was. Winter tends to mock those with enough moxie to run a year-round bike shop. Days can pass without a single sale.

Rapid Transit's sales during winter months have usually dropped to one-fifth of those during peak summer months, Frank said. Since wages can't be adjusted, that translates into seasonal lay-offs or requests for voluntary leave. The current off-season has whittled last summer's full-time staff of 18 down to six, each guaranteed at least 30 hours of work per week through the winter, supplemented by part-timers.

"This time of year is pretty bleak," said Frank, 42. "Whatever resources we've accumulated by this time we've usually spent. The padding is gone."

So Rapid Transit survives by asking vendors to defer bills and by attracting cyclists to the shop with pre-season sales and service specials, said Stodder, a Hyde Park native. This winter the shop offers a "deluxe winter tuneup special" for $150.

An earlier effort to economize by shortening hours was reversed a few years ago, when Stodder realized consistent hours were crucial for maintaining the loyalty of year-round cyclists. That's the customer base the couple had in mind when they founded the business.

"I wanted to start a shop that would treat (commuter cyclists) like bread and butter," said Stodder, 42. "That's why the bike shop is in this neighborhood."

The couple's continuing focus on the shop's original mission seems to have finally paid off: Sales so far this winter are running two to three times above last winter's, he said.

Rob Sadowsky, who pedals through Rapid Transit's neighborhood everyday during his commute from Logan Square to the Loop, says he returns to the shop because of its unusual focus on recumbent and folding bikes.

"They treat bicycling as not just a sport. It's not about the gear to make you fast, it's about commuting," said Sadowsky, who's the executive director of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation.

But the season's surge in sales may have less to do with Stodder's efforts to attract winter customers and more to do with the increasing number of year-round bikers in Chicago, according to Sadowsky. His organization does not have statistics detailing how many cyclists brave the city's cold, but he believes year-round bike commuting is growing rapidly as the trend becomes more visible.

Frank believes that although winter will always be tough for bike shops, Rapid Transit is well positioned to take advantage of the year-round riding trend.

"The fact that we've always been a commuter shop means that we get those customers in the winter," she said. "We get the loyalty of commuter bikers."

The shop's annual revenues have multiplied more than six times, from slightly above $200,000 in 1994 to about $1.25 million last year, the best ever. Annual revenue growth during the last two years has been 15 percent.

Changes in Wicker Park and Bucktown have helped.

The neighborhoods have gentrified heavily since Rapid Transit opened -- Stodder and his wife were priced out of the area and moved to Sauganash -- but, contrary to what Stodder expected, the area's increasing affluence has been good for business.

"There's plenty of middle- and upper-income people who choose for philosophical or practical or spiritual reasons to bike to work," he said. "It's not just lower-income people."

The mix of customer incomes has helped to stabilize the year-round business. In 2002 the shop doubled in size by knocking through its western wall to incorporate the ground floor of a neighboring building.

The expanded shop contains approximately 100 bicycles. Walls and ceiling are coated with touring, hybrid and mountain bikes, along with recumbent bikes priced from $950 to $3500 and compact folding models, $425 to $1200, which can be easily taken onto buses and trains. Attachable trailers and strollers are available for parents biking with small children, and the store also offers cyclists a full menu of spare parts and riding gear as well as repair services covering everything from flat tires to complete bike builds.

Despite this array of offerings, Stodder says the core mission of Rapid  Transit -- to serve the needs of commuting bikers -- has remained the same since it opened.

Chris Brunn, a year-round bike commuter who has patronized Rapid Transit since he moved to Wicker Park in 2004, said that although its prices are occasionally higher than other bike shops, Rapid Transit's customer orientation draws him back.

"It's important to support the local shop, because they're there for you," Brunn said, recalling how the store said he could return a new bike when it was unable to find special parts for it. "Their service really does it for me."

In fact, the business has become so stable that the owners now leave its day-to-day operations to the employees, while they mix management matters with home-schooling their two young children. Stodder manages cash flow and negotiates with vendors and bankers, while Frank deals with accounting and publicity, manages the shop's Web site and maintains an affiliated blog at www.chicagobikeblog.com.

Sam Van Dellen, a bike mechanic at Rapid Transit since 2004, said the Stodders cede an unusual degree of control over the shop to its staff.

"We have a lot of input into who gets hired," he said. "So it ends up that everyone's friends. It's like being in a family."

When Stodder does check on the business, he usually makes the eight-mile commute from Sauganash by bike. Even in winter.

by Liz Ecker, Sara Eisen and Alex Sherman

Tanya Govert, 31, recently moved to Bucktown with her partner, Heidi, and five-year-old son, Seth. Govert sends her son to kindergarten at Pulaski Elementary School, 2230 W. McLean Ave., just a few blocks from her Wilmot Avenue home. She was planning to register Seth in Pulaski's gifted program, but there was a problem: Seth is not Hispanic. As a result, he cannot enroll.

"I find it strange that a public school that is supposed to be offered to everybody doesn't have a gifted program for students that are not Hispanic," Govert says. "It seems unfair."

Pulaski is one of three Chicago schools that offer a gifted program specifically for students with a Hispanic background. According to Pulaski Principal Leonor Karl, the purpose of the program is to give bright Hispanic students a chance to learn at an accelerated level. For younger students, especially in first grade, much of the curriculum is taught in Spanish. Analicia Ramos, who teaches the gifted first-graders, says most parents are pleased with the program.

"Parents are looking for Latin roots," Ramos says. "Many would like more diversity, but the program, overall, needs to be geared to children with Hispanic backgrounds because parents have to help their kids with homework, and that involves knowing how to speak Spanish."

The Pulaski program is an example of a Bucktown paradox. Rising property taxes, an abundance of cafes and boutiques, a new library and other marks of gentrification have changed the face of the once predominantly Hispanic neighborhood. While it is difficult to obtain exact statistics for Bucktown, according to 2000 statistics from city-data.com, roughly 62 percent of Bucktown residents are white and approximately 24 percent are Hispanic. According to U.S. Census data, in 1990 the statistics were nearly reversed: 60 percent of residents in the same zip code were Hispanic and only 27 percent were white.

In contrast to the changing racial demographics of the Bucktown community, the three Chicago Public Schools in Bucktown have remained overwhelmingly Hispanic. Ninety-two percent of Pulaski's student population is Hispanic, and just less than 75 percent of students have Latino backgrounds at both Thomas Drummond School, 1845 W. Cortland St., and Burr Elementary School, 1621 W. Wabansia Ave. Pulaski and Burr are less than 5 percent white-a stark contrast to the residents in the neighborhood.

While Principal Karl praises Pulaski's gifted program, she says the lack of diversity at Pulaski is "extremely frustrating." However, despite her wishes to improve diversity, Karl says Bucktown residents have been less than eager to consider Pulaski for their children.

"We are doing our best to try to bring the neighborhood in," she says. "Last May, we had a special event to invite the neighborhood to come to Pulaski " but not many came, if any."

Govert's desires to send Seth to public school may represent a minority opinion in Bucktown. Bucktown Community Organization President Scott Trotter admits public education is almost never brought up as an issue during the organization's monthly meetings. Of the 10 BCO board members, only one has a child in a Bucktown public school.

Many local, white elementary school parents, such as Clifford Norris, opt for private schools for their children.

"Over the past five years Bucktown has become a very expensive place to live" you will find a larger percentage sending their children to private school," Norris says. "Our kids" school has one teacher for 10 kids. Chicago public schools have twice that ratio."

Because there is no opportunity for Seth to enter Pulaski's gifted program, Govert plans to home-school him next year and join waiting lists for private schools.
"A good education is not free. I don't mind paying the extra money [for private school], but it's the availability and having a school that's so close [that makes Pulaski appealing]," Govert says.

Ald. Ted Matlak (32nd) says he understands that many Bucktown residents will not send their kids to underperforming schools. According to the Illinois State Board of Education for the 2004-2005 school year, the three schools" ISAT test scores were well below state averages. As defined by No Child Left Behind, 25 percent of classes at Pulaski and Drummond are not taught by highly qualified teachers, compared to the state average of 2 percent.

"The public schools in Bucktown are good, but they're not where they need to be," Matlak says.

Liz Parrott, a Columbia College graduate student and an after-school volunteer at Pulaski, has done extensive research on Bucktown public elementary schools for her thesis project. Her goal is to create and provide a plan that will enable public schools to market themselves, and she researches by sending surveys to community parents that ask about their priorities regarding elementary education.

Pulaski, like a lot of public schools, does a lousy job of marketing itself," Parrott says. "I've looked at schools that have been able to shift with the neighborhood, with gentrification. The key is parental involvement."

Ramos, who in addition to teaching is also a Pulaski parent, agrees with Parrot that a move toward increased diversity must come from outside the school. "I think we're totally open to having other people," she says. "But I think the other people have to want us too."

Alma, a seventh-grade girl at Pulaski, says she would like to have more classmates with different backgrounds.

I would like to meet other people from other cultures and see what they do for fun and talk to them about what they do for parties, what their holidays are," she says.

One school in Bucktown has recently found an edge to attract local students. Last year, Drummond implemented a Montessori program that maintains diversity mirroring that of Chicago. The program mandates 35 percent of its students must be white, the same percentage of Chicago's overall Caucasian population. While Drummond currently offers the program for preschool through second grade, Drummond's ultimate plan is for Montessori to phase into the entire school and extend through sixth grade.
"I have great faith in this Montessori program," says Matlak, "I'd like to see it in every school I have."

Mary Shaughnessy, another BCO board member, says the convenience of Drummond to her home is one of its major appeals. Having lived in the neighborhood for four years before the Montessori program came to Drummond, Shaughnessy recalls her feelings on the school when she first moved to Bucktown. "It was more like Pulaski at the time," she says. "We thought, "wouldn't it be nice if Drummond was a good school?"" She applied her three-year-old son, Finnian, to a number of schools in the area with hopes that Drummond might someday be a viable option. When Finnian was accepted to Drummond Montessori last fall, they enrolled him.

Shaughnessy says she is happy with her son's Montessori education at Drummond and admires the program's commitment to representing Chicago's demographics. "We didn't want our son to grow up without diversity," she says.

Laura Kuzniar, a mother of three Drummond students and an educational advisor to Matlak, expresses similar feelings. She has two children currently attending the Montessori program.

"Montessori has the coolest kind of curriculum for children I've ever seen," Kuzniar says. The waiting list for Drummond Montessori has more than 700 names, she says.
Trotter, who is considering Drummond for his three-year-old son, says the application process for both public and private school can be extensive. He says waiting until the year before a child is due to enter school is too late. "Kidding aside, we spent more time and effort getting our 5-year-old into school than we did collectively getting ourselves into college."

At Drummond, the lottery acceptance process poses another potential problem for local parents. "Your child's education shouldn't be a roll of the dice," says Matlak.
The landscape of Bucktown public education will not change overnight; Matlak stresses that high property taxes and consistent neighborhood gentrification is a necessary aspect of public school improvement and growth.

"You can't continually have people leaving," he says. "If you don't have the house with the second bedroom, that couple is gone because they need that second bedroom for the child."

While some parents have found schooling options by applying early, many Bucktown newcomers, such as Govert, remain stuck. Govert says she regrets moving to Bucktown.

" I want to say [I don't regret moving] because I live in the neighborhood, but yeah, I do," she says. "Now we're locked in."

Four days before Feb. 27's 32nd Ward alderman election, incumbent Ted Matlak and top challenger Scott Waguespack are approaching the home stretch to pick up last minute undecided votes. Have they persuaded Bucktown voters of Generations X and Y to check their names on the ballot? Apparently not.

"I don't know anything about aldermen."

"I don't really care."

"If I knew some of the issues, I'd definitely vote, but I don't know what I'm voting on."

"I don't know what ward I'm in."

"I was not aware of the alderman elections until yesterday."

"I have no clue."

Confusion and apathy dominated the political mindsets of 20- and 30-something Bucktown residents in two popular coffee shops next to the Damen Avenue Blue Line El stop Friday afternoon. Any "buzz" surrounding the alderman elections was decidedly absent among Bucktown residents enjoying lunch at Filter, 1585 N. Milwaukee Ave., and Half & Half, 1560 N. Damen Ave.

Numerous potential voters said they felt removed from local politics because they did not have family living in the neighborhood. Several said they believed rising property taxes and improving public schools were important issues"just not to them.

"At this point, I'm an abstraction away from the impact of city politics because I don't have kids, and I'm a student in a school not in this area," said Eon McLeary, 32, a law student at the University of Chicago.

"It would probably be of greater interest if I felt like a more permanent part of the neighborhood or if I was directly impacted by any of the alderman's decisions," said Lisa Obradovich, 26. "But maybe that's a stupid statement because I don't know what the issues are anyway."

With the election only days away, Waguespack, a 36-year-old Bucktown resident, has been knocking on doors and passing out literature at subway stations on a daily basis. During the past two weeks, Waguespack's campaign has picked up steam after receiving endorsements from the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Journal. However, he admits it is difficult to get younger voters interested in the political process.

"It's really hard to get a hold of younger people because they tend to be at school during the day," Waguespack said. "But young people use the CTA, so we try to get them there."

Waguespack has centered his campaign around zoning issues, which he says should be important to younger voters because rising rents are directly tied to property values. If elected, Waguespack plans to build a 32nd Ward Web site that will cater to a younger audience.

"We just met a woman who told me, "I don't know where my ward is." And if you look on the current alderman's Web site, there's a little blob of a map," Waguespack said. "There needs to be information on the Web site that says, "Here's where we are, and here's what we stand for.""

Confusion over where wards begin and end was rampant among coffee shop customers"and perhaps aldermanic candidates, themselves. Kristen Backstreet, 23, works as a nanny in the 1st Ward, which borders the 32nd. She remembered overhearing a phone call a few weeks ago from an aldermanic candidate at the house where she works.

"The family told him he had made a mistake'they weren't in his district," Backstreet said. "He wasn't a candidate in their ward." Manny Flores, the 1st Ward alderman, is running unopposed.

Most respondents claimed not to know, or care, about the job of an alderman.

"They create scandals?" guessed Kelly Hrajnoha, 23, on an alderman's role in local government. "Maybe if there was more publicity about how they get elected, when we vote, and what their goals are . . . maybe then I'd vote."

Matlak, who did not return several phone calls, and Waguespack may be hindered in reaching youthful voters because of the character of Bucktown's neighborhood. Drugs, crime and prostitution are no longer major concerns to residents in the area.

"Unless they're going to shut down the bars, I'm not going to vote," McLeary said.

One resident, however, was at least concerned with neighborhood politics. Mason Dixon, 31, does not want to see Bucktown go the way of Lincoln Park.

"If Filter, the toy store and the Occult Book Store [at 1579 N. Milwaukee Ave.] go out of business, this area will turn into a wasteland," Dixon said. "The character of the neighborhood is very important to me."

But will he vote on Feb. 27?

"Probably not," Dixon said.

On a brisk Saturday morning in November, Scott Waguespack rang the bell of a two-story brown brick home on West Barry Avenue and waited, hands folded neatly, with one gripping a clipboard. After a moment, he tucked a glossy, colored postcard in the door and continued to the next house. Underneath the slick finish, the picture on the postcard shows a smiling young man with close-cropped black hair.

At the second house, there was no answer. At the fifth, still no luck.

Across the street, campaign volunteers canvassed the Hamlin Park street, sticking flyers in doors and fence posts and soliciting signatures for Waguespack’s petition.

“A few weeks ago, I spoke to this young guy, about 32, over in Roscoe Village,” Waguespack said. “He had bought a condo for about $190,000. The taxes on it are $14,000. He thought he had an investment, but the taxes have skyrocketed. If things don’t change, he said he’ll have to sell out and leave.”

The gripes about property taxes are ones Waguespack frequently hears. Residents also often talk about problems with new construction projects, the decline of area schools or delinquent trash pick-ups when he comes knocking.

On Saturday, though, the Ohio State versus Michigan game kept many people from the door.

Finally, about halfway down the block, a woman answered the bell. Waguespack smiled.

“Hi,” he said, extending his hand, “my name is Scott Waguespack and I’m running for alderman of the 32nd ward.”

Waguespack, a longtime Bucktown resident and city administrator in Berwyn, hopes to unseat current Ald. Ted Matlak in the upcoming elections on Feb. 27.

More...The 32nd ward, located in the Near North section of Chicago, is composed of several affluent neighborhoods including Lincoln Park, Bucktown and Wicker Park. Though the ward was originally settled by Polish immigrants, in recent years the area’s immigrant population has been replaced with high income white families. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, only 11 percent of the ward’s 60,000 residents were born outside the United States. The majority of residents, renters and homeowners, stay in the ward only temporarily; according to the survey, nearly two-thirds of residents have lived in ward less than 10 years.

The higher turnover, however, has led to a drastic increase in the wealth of the area. In 1999, the median household income reached more than $64,000, almost double the median income for the city as a whole.

But Waguespack’s supporters say though the demographics of the ward have changed, the machine politics have not. Matlak, who served as chief of staff to former 32nd Ald. Terry Gabinski, has represented the ward since 1999, when he was appointed by Mayor Richard M. Daley to replace his boss. Before that, Gabinski held the council seat for nearly 30 years.

Over the years, Matlak has lost touch with his constituency, especially regarding decisions about zoning, according to Roger Romanelli, a Wicker Park resident and economic development professional.

“One of the primary problems with Matlak is the lack of involvement of citizens in decision-making. He’s on record as someone who believes zoning changes should be given freely to developers,” said Romanelli, 39, who has lived in the ward for 14 years. “In both Roscoe Village and Bucktown, he told the community groups he would work with them and has bypassed them. We have a system in 32nd ward right now where the future is being decided by one person and his political machine.”

Craig Norris, another volunteer for the Waguespack campaign, was also galvanized by concerns over zoning, particularly the concept of “aldermanic privilege,” a tradition that allows aldermen to approve zoning changes without going through the regular channels in city council.

“The aldermanic privilege concept lets [the alderman] do whatever he wants,” said Norris, 45. “Developers buy a property and then go to the alderman and get it rezoned to something higher and denser. The zoning code says that rezoning should respect the scale and density of the area. But they don’t.

As a founder of the 32nd Ward New Leadership Alliance, Romanelli had previously considered running against Matlak. Romanelli, who got his start in the urban planning department at Northwestern University and spent the past 15 years working in Chicago neighborhoods, has since thrown his support behind Waguespack, who advocates for more “balanced development” in the Ward.

“Scott understands the power is in listening to people and in forging consensus,” Romanelli said. “He might not always agree, but he understands the role of a public official is to convene, communicate and attempt to reach a consensus with other people.”

Waguespack said his ideas about leadership and consensus-building come from years of working on political campaigns and extensive travel abroad. Born in Chicago, at age eight, Waguespack moved to Hotchkiss, Colorado, a rural town of 1,000 located about 200 miles from Denver. The middle of five children, Waguespack spent his childhood on the family’s apple farm. His mother, Scarlett, stayed at home to care for the children, and his father, Sylvestre, farmed and worked as a coal miner during the winters. Though Waguespack left Hotchkiss in 1988 for Colorado State University, the town’s commitment to the community left a lasting impression.

“It was pretty rough for [my family] for awhile, but a lot of people in our small community really reached out and helped us,” Waguespack said. “From day one, that’s always been the way I look at things. I don’t have a problem giving myself to help others.”

At Colorado State, Waguespack majored in political science, occasionally dabbling in student politics. He spent his junior year abroad as an exchange student in Germany, an experience that encouraged him to join the Peace Corps and work in Kenya for two years after graduation.

“I think [the Kenyans] probably taught me more than I taught them.” Waguespack said, laughing. “When it boils down to it, you learn way more about yourself and about other cultures and the way other people live. You’re not just there teaching people. You’re there learning from them.”

In 1995, Waguespack returned to Chicago, moving into the house on North Hoyne Avenue in Bucktown where his mother grew up. After working at a law firm, he enrolled at the Chicago-Kent School of Law at the Illinois Institute of Technology. As a law student, Waguespack traveled abroad again, this time working in the war-torn Balkan region on a number of war crimes and nation-building projects. At the end of the war in Kosovo, he also served as an advisor to the interim president of Kosovo.

“We were basically building a country,” said Waguespack, recalling how the area looked similar to destroyed areas of East Berlin he had visited in the late 1980s.

Since then, Waguespack has worked on a number of political campaigns. In 2002, he volunteered for Hank Perritt, the dean of Chicago-Kent, in his run for the 10th congressional district in Illinois. He also served as the issues and policy director on Carol Mosley Braun’s presidential campaign.

Last year, Waguespack managed a successful campaign for Michael O’Connor, an independent running for the mayor of the city of Berwyn. After O’Connor’s win, Waguespack returned to his passion for rebuilding, helping Berwyn reestablish departments and financial solvency as the city’s administrative coordinator.

After Feb. 27, Waguespack hopes to turn his rebuilding skills to the 32nd ward. While rezoning is a top priority among his supporters, Waguespack also stresses a number of other issues: curbing increases in property taxes, advocating more funding for schools and improving basic services for residents.

According to Waguespack, residents have been receptive to his message. He expected an uphill battle, where only one person out of 30 would be interested, he said. But when he goes door to door each weekend, he finds about 29 out of every 30 residents eager to here about his proposals.

“I respect [Matlak] as a person and his office, but I think people are sick and tired of the way things are,” Waguespack said. “There’s an old Chinese saying: ‘If you kick a sleeping tiger in the butt, you better be ready to deal with its teeth. I think that’s indicative of what’s happened to people in our ward. They kept kicking people and kicking people and kicking people, not realizing it was a tiger. It finally came back.”

ALDERMANIC ELECTION STORIES: Catherine Zaryczny (32nd) Scott Waguespack (32nd) Mell Monroe (3rd) Pat Dowell (3rd) 48th Ward Challenger Sues Incumbent.

Ray Edenhofer arrived at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday morning with a stack of blue sample ballots for the Democratic Party. Wrapped up in a black ankle-length coat to guard against the cold, Ray Edenhofer, 72, staked out a spot the requisite 100 feet from the door of the Chicago International Charter School, which had been transformed into a polling place for the day. As voters came and went, Edenhofer passed out his literature, along with his two brothers, Bill, 70, and Paul, 65.

"A lot of people came out because of the war and Bush," said Ray Edenhofer, who is the precinct captain at the CICS for the 32nd Ward Regular Democratic Organization. "They've been talking good about [the candidates]. But sometimes people talk and you never know who they're voting for."

By 6:30 p.m., a half hour before the polls closed, the rush had passed, but the Edenhofer brothers still waited at their posts, on the off chance a last minute voter might stop by.

On Tuesday, voters were not the only ones inspired to visit the polls. Dozens of volunteers, like the Edenhofer brothers, campaigned outside polling places in Bucktown to sway undecided voters and kick start candidacies for the Chicago aldermanic elections in February 2007.

Further down the sidewalk from the Edenhofer brothers, Aqeel Shhaib, 38, spent part of his evening distributing business cards for Scott Waguespack, a Democratic candidate for alderman of the 32nd Ward.

"Our neighborhood is over-developed," said Shhaib, an architect originally from Iraq. "We don't see the alderman. We see him when he's running a campaign. It's very hard to reach him. We're trying to change that attitude."

Shhaib said he thinks Waguespack, a long-time resident of Bucktown, can effectively reach out to voters who are unhappy with current ward Alderman Ted Matlak and can change the negative perception of the alderman's office.

At the Holstein Park polling place on North Oakley Avenue, Catherine Zaryczny was similarly focused on the upcoming aldermanic election. Zaryczny, 34, a trial attorney and lifelong resident of Ukrainian Village, said she is dissatisfied with Matkak and will also challenge him as an independent in February's election. She spent part of the night talking to members of the community about her qualifications and garnering signatures for her petition.

"I've never been involved in politics before," Zaryczny said. "This has been quite an experience."

A few blocks away at the fire station on Damen Avenue, Norm Schroeder approached voters exiting the polls with Matlak's petition for candidacy. Schroeder, 53, a Bucktown resident, said his wife initially got him involved in the ward's Democratic organization. For the past decade, Schroeder has campaigned outside polls and said he enjoys volunteering because of the opportunity to meet and talk with other people in the community.

"This is grassroots politics at its best," Schroeder said. "I worked the presidential election [in 2004]. This election affects people's lives more than the presidential election. The smaller the office, the greater chance it will have an affect on people's lives."

Back at the CICS precinct, Bill Edenhofer said he volunteers for a similar reason.

"You get to meet people," he said. "We can talk about elections. A lot of countries can't do that."

The three Edenhofer brothers have volunteered to work outside the polls in every election for the past 25 years. Much has changed in that time for the three, who grew up in a house at Fullerton and Central Avenues; the two older brothers have retired, and Bill, 70, moved to DuPage County and became a grandfather. But every election, rain or shine, the brothers have waited outside the Bucktown school with flyers in hand.

Bill Edenhofer said he was most amazed by the commitment of some voters. One older man who had come to the polls earlier said he had just left a session of cancer treatment, but traveled back to Bucktown to vote in the election. The older man's dedication to the democratic process left an impression.

"Freedom " that's what voting is really all about," he said.

What do 9-inch-long industrial tweezers, a plastic socket guard and a bottle of generic Rogaine have in common?

All three cost $1, and all three have been the focus of recent sketches at the Dollar Store Show, a monthly hour-long event where artists from the Chicago area focus their creative energies on items from the dollar store.

A typical Dollar Store show, at the Hideout bar in Bucktown, presents acts by three Chicago-area performers plus co-hosts Jonathan Messinger and Jeremy Sosenko.

Before each show, Messinger selects an item from the dollar store and then artists have one month to create a performance based on the article. Previous acts have concentrated on a baby kangaroo figurine encased in a bar of soap, a collection of small, plastic airplanes in its own suitcase and a gyral umbrella made to place above a child's crib that emits strange noises.

"I pick them out without any [performer] in mind," said Messinger, 28, a writer from Wicker Park. "Some people come to the show the month before to get an idea, but I try to keep it as random as possible."

The show features both popular and less-known performers and has become notorious in the area. For about the past year, almost all the shows have been sold out, according to Messinger.

To celebrate their success and the second anniversary of the Dollar Store, Messinger and Sosenko have organized a special show featuring four of the best acts from the past year. Two musical artists, Pearly Sweets and Lord of the Yum Yum, will also perform at the event.

Artist Jill Summers, 32, first appeared at the Dollar Store in April and will offer a repeat performance Friday. Summers, a writer and musician from Bucktown who records her fictional works with music accompaniment, said she hates to perform live.

When she was invited to present a piece for the Dollar Store, Summers wrote a story around her item " the socket guard " and recorded it at home. To add a live element to her piece, Summers enlisted her husband and her sister to help her arrange a puppet show to accompany the piece.

"It was totally a blast," she said of her performance in April.

Messinger first came up with the concept for the Dollar Store show in late 2004. Though Messinger now works as the Book editor for TimeOut Chicago, at the time, he was unemployed and was mostly looking for something to do, he said.

"I had a lot of friends in a similar situation in comedy and theatre, so I was trying to think of something that could combine them and be fun," he said. "We put on a show in November 2004 and it went well."

Both Messinger and Sosenko, who began as the co-host in January, also perform pieces each week. Though he sometimes finds it difficult to write new material every month, Sosenko said he is glad he takes the time.

"I like it because otherwise, if I didn't have a monthly deadline, I wouldn't be writing this stuff," said Sosenko, 28. "It's worth the week of anxiety before the show."

Both Messinger and Sosenko said they hoped to expand the scope of the Dollar Store, perhaps taking the show on the road to cities across America or creating a compilation CD of the best performance. On Nov. 21, the Dollar Store will offer an all-ages show at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

The Dollar Store show begins at 9 p.m. at the Hideout on West Wabansia Avenue. Admission costs $7 and is restricted to ages 21 and over.

Video by Leah Nylen and Jackie Wang

http://www.youtube.com/v/eZf-rx6PNkU[/video]

Paintings and jewelry, posters and antiques, dogs dressed as pumpkins and costumed children trick-or-treating in cafes and stores -- instead of the usual Halloween festivities, Bucktown residents participated in some unconventional events last weekend to mark the occassion.

Every Monday night for a year, Julia Chosy, 31, has left her Bucktown apartment and spent her evening scooping litter boxes, sweeping floors, changing water bowls and cleaning up hairballs. The three hours she spends caring for cats at the Furry Friends Foundation in Bucktown are a highlight of her week, Chosy said.

“I love it,” said Chosy as she stroked one of her favorite red-and-white tabby cats. “It’s more than just cleaning. Some of the cats have come a really long way in terms of socialization. The volunteers do a lot to build that trust.”

After eight years, the Furry Friends Foundation, a no-kill animal shelter that specialized in housing bully breed dogs, closed Nov. 1.

Later this year, the Tree House Foundation, a no-kill cageless shelter for cats, will take over the building on North Ashland Avenue. Officials at Tree House, who have served the Chicago area from its Uptown location since 1971, hopes to use the new facility to expand adoption and veterinary services, said Jenny Schlueter, director of development for Tree House.

The changeover came as a surprise to many of the Furry Friends all-volunteer staff. In August, trustees for the Furry Friends Foundation informed volunteers they planned to close the shelter in November. All animals with the foundation needed to be placed in homes before then, Chosy said. At the time, the shelter had about 20 dogs, 85 cats and several guinea pigs and rabbits.

After the initial announcement, volunteers sponsored a number of open house events to encourage adoption of the remaining pets. By late September, the shelter still had eight dogs, mostly pit bulls, and more than 30 cats.

“I was pretty scared,” Chosy said. “We thought we had two months to place 85 cats and at least 20 are feral or not easily placeable. …We didn’t have a lot of options.”

Eventually, the last of the dogs found homes. But the cats, who occupy the entire second floor, never dropped below 30. Volunteers contacted a ranch outside Pittsburgh that housed feral cats, but found the Pennsylvania facility could take up to 25.

The big break came at the beginning of October, when trustees for the Furry Friends Foundation notified volunteers that Tree House had agreed to buy the facility and accept the remaining.

“There was a huge sense of relief when we found out that Tree House was going to take over,” Chosy said. “They have a really good reputation.”

Though Tree House will continue Furry Friends operation as a no-kill, cageless shelter, its approach is slightly different. Tree House specializes in strays and cats with special needs, the type of animals that are more difficult to place in homes, Schlueter said.

Located inside a renovated house in a residential area of Uptown, Tree House maintain a home-like atmosphere in the building’s interior. Cats with special needs have the full run of the first floor and often lounge in the offices or on the desks of administrative workers.

“We try as best to make it like a home [for the cats] until they can get their own a home,” Schlueter said. “The idea is [to make it] as comfortable as possible. Once someone is cleared for adoption, they can come back for as many times as they like. They can hang out in a room and see who gets on their lap. It really allows people to get to know the cats and personalities.”

Tree House hopes to maintain that atmosphere at the North Ashland Avenue facility. On Thursday, workers had already begun construction to add more nooks and crannies on the second floor to give the cats more places to nest.

Tree House also has large community outreach effort. The cat shelter offers free and low-cost spay and neutering options and generally performs about 400 to 500 operations in a year, Schlueter said. The foundation hopes to expand that effort in the new building.

In spite of the differences, Chosy said she plans to continue working at the shelter once Tree House takes custody of the building. About 20 other Furry Friends volunteers have also said they want to stay on after the change, Schlueter said.

“We’re asking for [the Furry Friends volunteers] to stay involved with us and volunteer for us,” Schlueter said. “We really hope we can keep working together.”