Not to mention the daily fight for parking that breaks out between sports fans and residents, egged on by garage owners who park on the street during game days to sell their garage spots for $30 bucks a pop.

It's a regular St. Patty's Day Parade 154 times a year. Yet on Chicago's Southside earlier this year, a neighborhood association ended its 31 year parade tradition because of the drunken debauchery it promoted.

Too bad that the residents in Wrigley don’t have that kind of power. Because business around the field is a high stakes game with talk now of building a Hyatt Hotel/condo complex nearby, a move that is opposed by many in the neighborhood.

Despite protests by neighborhood associations, the situation grows worse. Now the baseball franchise is talking about
extending its night games from 30 to 50 per season, a 60 percent increase in stress on the neighborhood. And there's little news coverage of the stress because -- shhhhh! -- up until recently the team was owned by the biggest media outlet in town, now purportedly in the middle of
finalizing the sale of the team for $900 million.

Added to this steamy mix is the three summer concerts that the field will host when the team is away, prompting more handwringing from residents. The solution to simplistic thinkers like this one
here is for residents to simply move away. Sorry, but you're wrong, bud.

The Cubs might have been here first, but the development of pubs and restaurants along Clark Street, Broadway, Addison and Southport has exploded during the last decade, bringing with it sometimes an inconsiderate crowd of imbibers. And every bit of petty vandalism hurts the neighborhood's family appeal.

Here's the truth: the concerts are a blip on the neigborhood’s street scene, with officials dotting port-o-pots up and down thoroughfares for concertgoers to use, and with police patrolling on three-wheelers. The concerts are not the problem: the games are. Or, to be more precise, the city's lack of service to the community during them.

Here's an idea: if the city continues to stress the surrounding area, I say residents ought to start clamoring for a 20 percent tax cut in property values due to the burden the community must bear. The savings will help residents replace and upkeep the lawns that are constantly trampled on, pay the endless and often unjustified parking tickets they're subjected to, and hire maintenance to clean up the trash that fans leave behind and that the city conveniently ignores.

We ask that Alderman Tom Tunney take care of residents like he takes care of himself: We note that his little cafe on Southport just extended its outdoor space onto the sidewalk adjacent to the gleaming new Southport stop along the Brown line. Now, Ald. Tunney, can you take care of your put-upon citizenry?