* Nightmare For The Neighbors

The infomercial last night lasted entirely too long. 2 hours to be exact. Here are a few quotes from some of those 80 or so residents in attendance.

Dave Starr said, "Currently you {Marty Cerny} have garbage, lot's and lot's of garbage..., rodents, your building has rodents, you don't take care of the property, now, how can we trust you in the future?"

Michael Harrington said, "No one {the presenters} is taking notes!"

As one neighbor said, "This is a nightmare for the neighbors, rethink this Joe. I'm dead set against this".

Another neighbor said, "I'm all for affordable housing, this isn't affordable housing."

Another neighbor said, " With what we've heard, I'm stunned you {Marty Cerny} come here asking for favors."

And another neighbor, "Basement units flood easy, why would you want to put handicapped persons in a possible dangerous situation?"

One last quote from a neighbor, "Parking. Where's the parking? This neighborhood needs more parking!"

Get the picture? The neighbors thought this plan wasn't good enough for approval. Minus the 15 or so who were brought in to stack the deck. It didn't work. This plan wasn't worth bringing to the publics attention.

One last quote from the presenter.

Quote from Marty Cerny. " We will rent to section 8 tenants. We will take referrals from Sarah Jane Knoy at O.N.E."

Blognotes:
By Jim McKee

I attended this meeting and I'll summarize the comments I made there.

I'm inclined to favor an idea to add housing that is accessible and affordable, but I have a lot of questions and concerns about this plan.

No. 1, what about the precedent that is established? Do we really want allow the basements of rental buildings all over Rogers Park to be converted to accessible units, above what current zoning allows?

It would seem that if this plan is approved, fairness would require others to be allowed to do the same.

And without parking? I think we have real issues with density and lack of parking here, and adding more units without parking couldn't possibly help. Especially with all the single family homes that have been torn down and replaced with condos by developers such as this Marty guy.

I hope the zoning committee and Joe go back to the drawing board and negotiate a better deal for the community. The one I suggested (off the top of my head) would be that perhaps in return for getting the right to add accessible units in his basement, he could renovate some of the existing non-accessible units to accessible. Like by adding an elevator and widening doorways.

Thinking about this more, I just think this zoning change is too much of a give away. As I understand it, nothing prevents condo converting these buildings after the units are added, although for 10 years they must be priced affordably.

Despite all of Marty's talk about what a swell idea this is, these are (mostly) small 1 bedroom basement apartments. And he came up with this idea to make a buck, not to provide charity. Not that there is anything wrong with that -- just as there is nothing wrong with getting him to offer up some more, instead of settling for his plan.

Also, I'm thinking, don't all those 4+1's on Sheridan have elevators and aren't they affordable? Do handicapped people really have to be relegated to live in the converted laundry and storage locker rooms of these old courtyard buildings?