Hi All,
First off, the official version of the Loyola..opps.. I mean Edgewater Harbor Proposal/Plan is now available online at the Park District website.
The meeting remains scheduled for October 20th at Loyola Park at 7:00 p.m. Hope to see you there!
Stealth Condo's
For months now, I’ve heard rumors that the building I reside in was to be sold and changed to condominiums. I lost patience with unreturned phone calls and the suspicious denials of clerks and went in and demanded answers. The person that emerged from the back of the office in Evanston was very helpful and explained that the building was sold, hadn’t yet closed, and that most likely would become a condo- conversion.
Fair enough. It is their building. I hold a one year lease (though I’ve been in this apartment for five), and I support their right to manage their property as they see fit. I can’t stand whiners, but I’m troubled when I consider the big picture.
This will be the third such conversion in a roughly one-square block area in the last month. That is three complete buildings, roughly 140 units that are removed from the rental stock of the neighborhood. Although other rentals are certainly available, this is a significant number.
According to the RPCC website, in 2000 there were 22,670 rental units in Rogers Park, with 1821 vacancies. That’s 8.03% unoccupied. So out of 140 apartments, that means about 128 are occupied. This is anecdotal, and doesn’t include the rest of Rogers Park, nor does it mean that all these people suddenly become homeless.
At these rates, however we are losing approximately 1680 units per year, and displacing about 1536 families annually.
Before I get sniped for shoddy science, let me say that I’m not trying to precisely quantify the loss of rental stock in Rogers Park. However, it’s apparent that over time this trend will fundamentally change the composition of the neighborhood.
If we eliminate rental housing at the rate of 1680 units annually, the vacancies listed in 2000 will be gone in thirteen months. Eliminating half that number would consume them in just over two years. I’d guess that has already happened in the last five years. So now we’re talking about a supply shortage that can ratchet up prices on the remaining demand, which most renters have already noticed at renewal time. Some are leaving Rogers Park completely.
Moving involves major upheaval for the families concerned. Relocating for a single person is often hard, but influences like unstable environments and changing schools can be brutal for children. I don’t think it’s alright to dismiss these issues by saying: “Well that’s what happens” or “market forces”.
These are working families, many of whom have no health insurance. Many of whom work at jobs to make other’s lives easier, and many that policies like the draconian parking fines in Chicago victimize the most.
Don’t get me wrong, I vigorously support property rights. But if we ignore this crisis, we deserve to become a racially homogenous, upper middle- class community whose only diversity is “the help”.
James Ginderske
Blogmaster notes; This week the comments section drew a dozen Hell Hole readers to the Farwell Pier for a pow wow. The group of "Broken Heart" readers met and chatted on helping change the ward for the better.
My question... did this pow-wow work? Where is the report on this meeting?
14 comments:
James -- I appreciate your concern about the loss of rental housing but before we declare it an emergency situation we do need statistics and real statistics. The vacancy rates you cite are from 2000 which is practically a lifetime ago (or going on over half a decade). Rental occupany rates since then have, across Chicago and nationally, declined drastically as more people have converted themselves into property owners. Home ownership is at an all-time high (nationally).
Your quasi-statistics (quasi because it's not hard data) also assume that all renters are being forced out. That may very well be the case but we need the numbers to determine whether that's the case or not. How many renters are becoming owners? How many renters are moving to other properties? How many of those "kicked out" are moving within the neighborhood vs. those who relocate? Of those who relocate outside the community, did they do so by choice or not?
Further, what is the rental v. owner ratio in other wards of Chicago? Is the RP rental # high, low, average?
It is entirely appropriate to make a hypothesis based on observation. But then you have to test it by gathering the numbers and counting. It may be there is a crisis, the crisis may be greater than you assume, or it could be that we have nothing more than the summer of the shark (remember that innocent time in the summer of '01?) where it just seemed like there were more shark attacks because more of them got reported on tv.
I'm not saying your impressions/gut are incorrect. I am saying that until we see real numbers, it's nothing more than anecdotal. By doing the hard work of gathering the data and crunching the numbers you'll better bolster the case if it is a crisis. And if you find in crunching the numbers that your gut was wrong you can breath a sigh of relief and move on to some other concern.
Not to press the point too much but we also need to know if new rental housing has come on the market (in terms of rental buildings, single-family homes, and condos being rented). Across Chicago in general new apartment building permits are up significantly (thus, new rental units are being built somewhere in the area). A quick google search provides some evidence that approx. 25% of condo units become rental units. Of course, then we need to ask questions about price. . .
OK. I know I am setting myself up but I looked at the proposal for Edgewater Harbor and it looks GOOD. It adds more beach and park area and adds restrooms, showers, and concessions that we do not currently have. Provided there are not major ecological ramifications (and please don't start telling me how it will destroy the ecosystem unless you have some solid numbers) I can see no reason to oppose it.
While Michael K and I may disagree on business, I have to say I agree with him on the Edgewater Harbor. It does look good. I'd like to see more detail on the parking, and it might be appropriate to examine what it might do to traffice flows on Sheridan (particularly south of the proposed site) but it looks nice on paper.
> ... new apartment building permits are up
Not in the neighborhoods. The City wide numbers include large projects downtown. No new rental units have been constructed in Rogers Park in years. And the only recent examples are the Howard Theater and Gateway Senior Center, public works projects heavily subsidized in their construction and in their ongoing operation. The only new residential construction in Rogers Park is for condos. Meanwhile conversions continue to pick up steam.
>... approx. 25% of condo units become rental units.
This is twisted, condo mania as the solution to the loss of rental housing.
I am sympathetic to people being displaced. A building on my street went condo and a woman I knew with her son that lived there had to go back to Arkansas to be with family because she couldn't come up with a security deposit etc...for a new place. There were other reasons too- she had a stroke and wasn't really well, but still- it can be devastating to people who are on the edge.
On the other hand, I think it's common knowledge that RP has traditionally had more renters than owners and that this contributes to some of the problems in our community (bad landlords etc...). I feel that we need more of a balance of owners to renters but recognize that some people will most likely suffer for this.
I don't know what the answer is except thoughtful development and I think that it's a good idea to get the numbers and keep an eye on this.
Would someone care to post a link to the plan? I looked on the Chicago Park District web site and don't see it. Thanks
Her you go-
http://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/custom.harbors
Also, I agree with RPneighbor. People are being displaced. Whenever a neighborhood starts to improve rents go up. What can we do to make sure we are not displacing poor families instead of just driving out junkies and dirtbags? I know a lot of people here think that Lakeview is an attrocity but I think we could learn how they kept affordable housing for students, artists, recent imigrants and people who work in the area.
Thanks Michael K. Wow- that is quite a plan. I am glad they are not disturbing the lovely block of Albion and the plan actually looks pretty good to me on first glance.
If done properly it could be nice- conjestion, traffic, and environmental and noise pollution would be MY primary concerns. Might make Sheridan Road traffic bad enough they could demand a LSD pass thru someday. Now, THAT would be disgusting.
I spoke with an engineer friend of mine (He works on bridge projects for the city) about the idea of extending LSD. He thinks it would be a project that would cost the city an incredible amount of money that they currently do not have.
I agree with you all - the plan looks nice. I think the site they chose makes sense - a lot more sense that the Evanston site.
I still have some residual anxiety about the Lakeshore drive extension, but I agree with you Michael, that this isn't going to happen anytime soon.
I hope the 10/20 meeting will provide more details.
James -- I definitely didn't mean to attack your concerns. Perhaps because I have spent my life surrounded by scientists and business people who demand "the numbers," I've been indoctrinated into the school of counting. And counting is a good thing -- it either reinforces what we think may be the case or it shows us to be wrong in which case we can spend our time on something else (of course, it's always possible to torture the stats into lying but that's no excuse for not looking at hard data).
I do get frustrated when people don't count or they use squishy stats. I don't want my pharmaceuticals being based on squishy stats, for instance, so it makes sense to me that we use the same kind of hard data in analyzing social concerns and developing policy. Hard data is not easy to gather but it's important.
Maybe there is a decline in RP rental units but if RP had more rental units than most other wards, would it still be fair to say we have a crisis? Maybe RP is simply realigning itself to look more like other wards. I don't know that is the case and I certainly don't mean to postulate it to be. But it's something that should be considered.
I posted this before and I'll post it again -- I know at least one mixed race, lower-income couple buying a condo here. Perhaps they are an exception. I really don't know. What I do know is that there are a lot of assumptions being made in our discussions on condos and rental units and development that has me uncomfortable because it seems to be taking place in the realm of the emotional with little hard data. I have to live my life with hard data when presenting business plans to my management and to clients. I have to give the IRS hard data when paying my taxes. My bank gives me hard data every month in my bank statements. I don't think it unreasonable to ask that those who are looking to change social policy present hard data as well.
I am not proposing large scale studies that demand a lot of cash. Some of the questions I posed can be answered by some digging and research and time. Just as you are suspicious of those who ask for data, I question those reluctant to provide it or do the work necessary to obtain it. Honestly, no disrepect intended. I just don't want social policy being developed on the basis of anecdotal observations anymore than I want drugs developed on that basis. Conversely, if there is a problem, we need to quantify it to rectify it. How do you even begin to determine how much rental housing is needed if you don't have hard data?
I would be interested to learn how much rental housing is actually disappearing and how much is just becoming more expensive. It occurred to me that many buildings are being purchased and are being remodeled by better landlords who plan to maintain there buildings. There is one such landlord around the corner from me who bought the building but isn't chasing anyone out during the remodeling but rather shuffling people from on apartment to another as the work progresses. I understand this is an inconvenience for everyone but it could be much worse. I have heard most of the tenants are excited about the building being remodeled even if they have to move a couple of times.
Also, I winder if those receiving assistance receive additional funding if there rent goes up. When I was young we were on assistance for a time and when our rent went up we received a bit more funding. I am sure there are caps to what the state will provide but I wonder what that cap is. I tried to read a few documents posted by state agancies on there websites but they are very complicated and hard to follow.
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