The TOWN Story

Twelve years ago, a small group of Waukegan residents met in the basement of a local church to discuss the depressed state of their city and what they could do about it. The result was the formation of a citizens group called the Taskforce On Waukegan Neighborhoods (TOWN). Its initial mission was to protect neighborhoods and connect neighbors through a coordinated effort to stop the spread of urban decay.

Using a law that permitted citizens to enforce building and zoning codes, and with the help of a local attorney and founding member, TOWN began to provide legal counsel to Waukegan residents who were willing to file suit to clean up blighted or nuisance properties. And the citizens of Waukegan responded. During the next several years, dozens of actions were successfully litigated, causing the rehabilitation or demolition of abandoned buildings, vacant structures, and slum housing.

TOWN members drove the streets and alleys of Waukegan, targeting blighted or nuisance properties and knocking on doors to find neighbors who wanted to be plaintiffs. As these efforts received publicity, TOWN began to grow, eventually achieving a membership of more than five hundred. In a series of packed public meetings held in the same local church in which the group was born-the walls covered with before-and-after pictures of the targeted properties-TOWN preached the gospel of citizen involvement and began to rekindle belief in a better Waukegan.

Expanding its mission, TOWN brought suit and compelled the cleanup of a large open junkyard at the Waukegan lakefront and partnered with the Waukegan Police Department to bring a legal action that closed down one of the most notorious crack houses in the city. Continuing to work with the police department, TOWN sent letters to landlords whose tenants were dealing drugs on the premises, demanding that swift action be taken to address the problem. Meanwhile, the litigation campaign against blighted and nuisance properties continued, with the successful closure of nearly a hundred cases during the first eight years of the group's existence.

Re-organizing in 1997 as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, TOWN began to monitor city government, attending city council and committee meetings and obtaining records through the Freedom of Information Act for research and analysis. The upshot was a series of TOWN investigative reports explaining how city purchases made without public bids were wasting taxpayers' dollars, how Waukegan's police department was flooded by thousands of calls often from the same trouble-spots, how lakefront redevelopment was contingent upon the cleanup of severe and dangerous pollution, and how a multimillion dollar public theatre restoration project had become hampered by years of delay and cost overruns. TOWN also began to host candidate forums where those running for public office could present their views to the voters.

Strengthening its community outreach, TOWN created a state-of-the-art web site (www.waukegan.org), providing information about its litigation campaign, making its investigative reports accessible on the internet and hosting a forum where citizens could voice their ideas and concerns. Next came web casting and pod casting, offering internet radio shows of local interest on a variety of subjects ranging from sports and music to education and politics. Recognizing homeowners and business owners who had enhanced their properties, TOWN began an annual Jewel Awards program, while also adopting a local highway for cleanup and assisting the park district to maintain and beautify a park and ravine.

TOWN Jewel Award Recipient

In 1999, TOWN was proud to be among a select group of volunteer organizations to receive a President's Service Award in the nationwide Point of Light competition, a citation signed by President Clinton recognizing TOWN's "exemplary volunteer achievements" in protecting neighborhoods and connecting neighbors. In 2002, a new round of blight cleanup litigation began-fifty new cases that reached for the first time into the sister communities of North Chicago, Gurnee and Beach Park.

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