Annie Greenfield Wisner [sp?]: ...I'm a resident of Wrigley. I am a community leader and I am a graduate of the neighborhood leadership program and am becoming more and more disillusioned in the city's attitude toward the central area.

I am absolutely flabbergasted that the city and local law enforcement would tell us that fireworks are illegal, give us signs to put on our lawn, and that there will be zero tolerance and a thousand dollar fine to anyone who was setting them off.

Did that statement only apply to those setting off fireworks on Ocean Blvd., at the Pike, Belmont Shore and the Peninsula? I used to live on the Peninsula.

My street, Chestnut Ave., looks like a war zone...The fireworks started on the 4th at approximately 9 a.m. I finally called 911 at 9 p.m., remained on hold for four minutes and waited about twenty minutes for what I was told by 911 as having officers cruise by...

We felt we had to protect our all-wood home from fire after hearing rockets hitting our house...

There were more fireworks in a three block radius of my home than there were at the Queen Mary, and no one did anything about it. No one received a citation on my street. No one was searched on my street...

A loudspeaker announcement by the police officers that fireworks are illegal was the best effort that was made in my area...

That night, on the 1900 block of Chestnut, there could have been more than $10,000 in fines. Aren't we in the central area entitled to a quality of life as much as those in Belmont Shore?...These conditions are no longer acceptable...

Councilwoman Reyes Uranga: I agree. ....The Pacific [Ave] area was a war zone. It was terrible...

Councilwoman Richardson: ...I spoke with Mr. Miller very briefly this morning...I do want to say though for the record, in my neighborhood it was unbelievable the amount of fireworks, not only for the 4th, but had really been going on since June, and there were not any patrol vehicles in my area that I saw...

So I would also like an update in terms of where was the support and what was happening...As you'll see in emails and comments that you'll hear, there was not the visibility or the presence that we were hoping to see given this holiday.

Councilwoman Lowenthal: ...I gather that most Councilmembers did have a conversation with the City Manager and other public safety officials before this evening.

And I was actually very scared at my own home, and called the police from my own home, and probably for the first time was really afraid of going out and around in my neighborhood, which isn't too far away from City Hall...

...I know the public safety people have worked harder than ever on the prevention. They are putting together their figures. We're going to look at how many citations there were, what happened. I know they'll give us a full report. We're going to try to understand what the resources are and were and why there were not in particular neighborhoods...

And I know my own staff is working on a format for questions for our neighborhood groups which I'm going to share with the other Councilmembers so that they can get that input also...

City Manager Miller: ...I might recommend that if Council offices have any constituent complaints or concerns, you roll those together and transmit them basically to the City Manager's office. We'll...set up a database basically of your complaints and use that in working with police and fire and public works to create basically a planning process so that we can improve upon the extraordinary effort that was made this year. We're hearing that we still fell somewhat short but we're committed to continuing to make improvements in the upcoming year...

Warren Wisner [sp]: ...This past week I've learned a couple of lessons. The first one is contrary to all the rhetoric I've heard, fireworks are legal in south Wrigley. This must be so because there were no citations issued for fireworks even though my area was rocked with blasts and booms from early on the 4th until about 1 a.m. on the 5th.

The only break came when the police finally responded to my wife's third call to 911 around 9 p.m. The officer then announced on the loudspeaker that fireworks were illegal, and then without exiting his car he drove away.

That was the signal to start the show all over again. The morning light illuminated the aftermath as the street looked like a war zone with all the spent casings and debris.

The second message that has come through...is that my area of the city is considered second rate by the leadership of this city. All of the police are sent to Ocean Blvd. and only four were left in the west division to handle the fireworks problem.

Downtown the newspaper said the 100 police issued 59 citations. Heck, they could have issued twice that many in south Wrigley if the manpower had remained in this area, but before they were assigned they were so overwhelmed that they were unable to accomplish anything...