To all our neighbors -- thank you!
All:
I was gratified to see the high turnout for last night's meeting. We had over 280 people sign in for the meeting, and added well over 75 people to our VOCAL list. And the donations - thank-you!
I will be posting in greater detail on a few things in a moment, but wanted to go through the highlights of what was discussed at the meeting for those who could not be there.
1) The only way to stop landmarking is to ensure that the Aldermen do not submit your block for landmarking in the first instance.
Alderman Matlack has said that he will not have a voting process; he will merely attend block meetings, with block captains selected via SNA so that people can (theoretically) be "heard." These block captains are responsible for setting up the meetings, scheduling them, and providing neighbors with notice of the meetings.
Alderman Daley informed me that she made a "promise" to commit to block-by-block meetings. It has not been made clear who will be selecting block captains, whether it will be through her office or by the RANCH Triangle neighborhood association. Several people have expressed frustration that they have not been able to find out whether they have a block captain; who their block captain is; and whether and when their meeting is scheduled. I know that the 2200 block of Dayton held a meeting last night; if anyone has any info as to what occurred, please email in to vocalneighbors@hotmail.com.
A major concern of some people present was that this whole process seems to violate what should be our Due Process protections. Whether this process ripens into a lawsuit or not, we will be hard-pressed to complain of disenfranchisement if we do not make every effort, both individually and as a group, to find out how to participate in the process. That being said, document everything! Document when you called the Alderman, when you contacted the RANCH association members, put requests to identify block captains and attend meetings and voice opposition to landmark districting in writing. Copies of any communications you make can be faxed to VOCAL at 312-222-6325, or sent by mail to 6 West Hubbard Street, Suite 500, Chicago, IL 60610, or sent via .pdf or other attachment method to vocalneighbors@hotmail.com. If you are not getting any feedback, let me (Dee) know and I can also try to follow up with the Alderman's office.
In particular, we think it is important for each homeowner/voter to write to their Alderman and state that (1) they oppose district-wide or block-wide landmarking, including for your own block; (2) your personal reasons why you disfavor it; and (3) that if this is not stopped by the Alderman, you will become a single issue voter and vote against the Alderman in the next election. If you have previously donated money to any political campaign (i.e., Obama for Senate (his wife is on the Landmarks Commission), Mayor Daley, state representative, etc.), you may also want to mention that no further campaign funds will be forthcoming from you if this issue is not resolved in favor of the homeowners wanting to respect property rights.
Either way, it is apparent that this is a fight that needs to be fought now. Once it gets to Landmarks, it will be rubber-stamped for approval.
2) Please use the VOCAL group to organize additional efforts that you think will prove beneficial. If you want to organize a rally, know when a block meeting is supposed to occur, or who a block captain is, have a flood of people descend on the Alderman's offices, contact the press, meet up with like-minded neighbors on your block, etc., simply send an email to vocalneighbors@hotmail.com with "please post" in the title; I will review it and post it here on the blog spot so that people can organize and participate. If it is a block meeting notice, I will send a notice out by email as well to all of you who have submitted your email addresses.
3) There are issues regarding district or block-based landmarking on the merits that have not been discussed by the pro-landmarking forces. Several of these I have written about in previous posts with the word "myth" in the title, such as alleged property tax benefits, the landmarking process itself, how property tax values will be harmed, the supposed 1 day turnaround in permits, etc. (On the latter point -- if those of you living in Landmarked homes want to send me your stories of dealing with the bureaucracy, please do so, and I will post them.)
4) Why landmark? Having spoken to Alderman Daley personally, and in view of a few comments spouted off at the meeting last night, the best that I can figure is that there are a vocal and noisy few who think that old buildings are per se good, and big new buildings are per se bad, and Old Town is really nice and sweet, so shouldn't we want to be like that too? There is also the vague "neighborhood character" standardless standard. We can debate the merits of our aesthetic views, obviously. I'll separately post on that in a moment. But let's look at the actual Landmark criteria. They simply are not met here for our neighborhood as a whole. Individual buildings or small sets of row houses may qualify, and if that is the case, we applaud your preservation efforts. But that can still be accomplished by individual homeowners, just as zoning can address most of the bulk issues; district-wide landmarking is not the solution.
5) For all you lawyers out there, or others who have had experience with landmarking issues, it would be great to bulk up our background files on how the historical criteria have been interpreted by the courts, identifying Illinois and federal/Supreme Court cases discussing what constitutes a compensable taking, and whether the clause in the municipal code that allows 51% or more of homeowners to reject districting, if a majority of Commissioners vote in favor, has ever been subjected to legal challenge, whether on due process or other constitutional grounds. Also, since it seems as though there are also specific non-governmental individuals and organizations who seem to be spearheading this effort, one question that I have is whether their efforts could be classified as tortious interference with an economic expectation, particularly if their preservation efforts are based on material misrepresentations regarding the impact of landmarking itself. If you have a few hours of your time, or associate/paralegal time to devote to this issue, please send me an email with LEGAL in the header, and we can separately organize.
6) If you know of individuals in Lakeview, Ukranian Village, etc. who are also experiencing the landmarking onslaught, please direct them to our site. I see no reason why we cannot use our experience to try to help others facing the same scenario; if this truly becomes an out-of-control phenomenon, more direct action with Mayor Daley's office will be required.
7) Finally, for those of you who donated money, again, we thank you! We will also see if we can set up a PayPal account to accept donations via credit card.
Cheers,
Dee
posted by The Grants @ 7:50 AM
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