Wow.... had I read my next email, I could have forwarded this to you with my initial reply.  Hope

this is worth posting.

 

Please forward this editorial to all your friends, thank you. 

"The Wrong Question in the 46th Ward" 

"A decision to create a concentrated pocket of poverty on Broadway would haunt Uptown for decades."

Editorials - News-Star / Booster Feb. 5, 2003

E-mail: [email protected]

    A 1996 fire at the CTA's Wilson Yard property left a 5-acre site on the 4500 block on N. Broadway largely 

vacant yet also filled with different dreams from various parts of the community.

    For a group called the Community of Uptown Residents for Affordability and Justice (COURAJ) [lead by 

Marc Kaplan, a long time campaign worker for Shiller], the site is a prime location to restock the dwindling 

supply of affordable housing in Uptown.  For others, the Wilson Yard is a key property to inject new economic

vitality into the neighborhood.  COURAJ has worked to get a nonbinding referendum question for the Feb. 25

election in two 46th Ward precincts, asking whether the CTA should sell Wilson Yard to the city for $1 (or 

alternately, for the city to buy the Wilson Yard and give it to a developer) to build at least 200 units of low-cost 

housing.  We're thankful that the question is nonbinding, for if this scenario ever came to pass, it would be a 

giant step backward for Uptown.

    To begin with, a development of 200 or more public housing units sounds exactly like the type of building 

that the CHA has been tearing down in favor of scattered-site housing or buildings with tenants from a variety

of income levels.  A decision to create a concentrated pocket of poverty on Broadway would haunt Uptown for

decades.

    Ald. Helen Shiller (46th) has presided over a four year community planning process in which residents

have put forward all manner of ideas for the site that range, according to Shiller newsletter, from "transit-

oriented development to parking needs for retail and Truman college and from low-cost housing to movie 

theaters, and everything in between."  Given the political polarity of Uptown, it's not surprising that there is 

such a wide range of opinion or that Shiller hasn't identified what she would like to see there.   As it stands

now, representatives of community groups are meeting with Holsten Real Estate Development Corp., the

lead developer chosen by the city, to come up with a concrete plan.

    (46th Ward) Democratic Committeeman Sandra Reed, the current alderman's opponent in the Feb. 25

Aldermanic Election, has come out squarely in favor of retail development.  Wilson Yard could accommodate

a major anchor, such as a Target, and "represents a potential economic engine" that could revive Broadway.

    As Sandra Reed notes, " Jobs are in short supply in the 46th Ward, and the Wilson Yard is a major 

opportunity to create more than a few."

    But unlike Sandra Reed, we're not sold on the notion of possibly using the spot for a 'big box" retailer and

we prefer to see a mixed used development with commercial spaces and residential units that include a 

portion set aside as affordable housing.

    But we stand with Reed in questioning the wisdom of having the referendum in only two precincts, the 

32nd (in which Wilson Yard lies) and the 38th, just east of the property.  If the idea was to have the people

most impacted by the development vote on it, then why exclude three other precincts bordering the site – the

9th, 12th, and 35th?

    Whatever happens at Wilson Yard, it will have a significant impact on the rest of the 46th Ward.  It would 

make more sense to let the entire 46th Ward vote on it.  For that matter, portion of Ald Mary Ann Smith's 48th

Ward comes as far south as Broadway and Leland.  Residents in that 48th Ward Precinct ought to have a 

say in it also.

    But it's too late for that, and the referendum will appear in just the two precincts.  The main point now is 

that it shouldn't pass at all.  

From: Lerner Community Newspapers, February 5, 2003 News-Star/Booster

To reply - Letters to the Editor/ Jack Bess

News Star Booster, Lerner Newspapers

7331 N. Lincoln Ave., Lincolnwood IL

E-mail: [email protected]