CR Magazine – Autumn 2018

Under All Is The
Community
Congratulations to Chicago REALTOR ® Michael LaFargue, a tireless
neighborhood champion, whose efforts to keep residents connected
and safer led to being honored as a finalist for the National Association
of REALTORS ® Good Neighbor Awards.
Nearly two years after the shooting, REALTOR ®
Michael LaFargue can barely talk about Judge
Raymond Myles without breaking down.
Myles, a Cook County, Ill., jurist and respected
member of his tight-knit neighborhood, West
Chesterfield on Chicago’s South Side, was
murdered outside of his home in early 2017
during a robbery attempt. If any small comfort can come from this
tragedy, it’s that one of the 45 or so surveillance cameras the West
Chesterfield Community Association had installed just months
before helped police identify the two suspects. Those men are now
awaiting trial.
LaFargue, president of WCCA and an associate broker with
Coldwell Banker Residential, is dogged about protecting and
growing the neighborhood, which, its tagline proudly notes, is “a
great place to live and raise a family.”
Keeping a Watchful Eye
After an uptick in crime in the neighborhood, LaFargue
spearheaded the push for community surveillance cameras.
(Fatefully, Myles was a big supporter of the idea, too.) It’s a
testament to his reputation that LaFargue was able to secure
$
400 each from about 60 residents for the three-year, $ 25,000
investment. Community members who paid for the system have
24-hour access to camera footage from their computers or cell
phones. Most importantly, they work together to keep each
other safe.
“He’s good at pulling people together. It takes a lot to do that, and
to keep them going on the same mission,” Dr. William T. Briggs Jr.,
chairman of the Red Line Extension Coalition, another of LaFargue’s
endeavors, said. (More on that later.)
Take, for example, the morning a resident noticed a suspicious
person in an alley. He called LaFargue to check the camera feed,
which showed people breaking into a car. The resident followed the
perpetrators in his car and then turned over the chase to LaFargue,
who kept an eye on the suspects (they got a flat tire!) until another
neighbor—a cop—apprehended them.
Besides being the community’s eyes and ears, LaFargue, over
his 12-year WCCA presidency, has overseen block clubs, hosted
events such as dog walk socials and garden walks, and sponsored
the annual Curb Appeal awards, in which a WCCA committee picks
“As president, you’re
the driver of fundraising
and getting people to
knock on doors, and
making sure message
gets out there for dues.
If the president
doesn’t push, it
doesn’t get done.”
—MICHAEL LAFARGUE
18 Chicago REALTOR ® Magazine