Quote:
Originally Posted by VivaLFuego
Interesting how all 3 of Evanston, Oak Park, and Hyde Park are gradually coming around to favoring density and development after seeing the near decimation of stagnation that NIMBYism hath wrought. Evanston is fathest along of course, but until the old vanguard dies, all 3 will still face significant impediments to quality development. Does Oak Park also have several monuments to NIMBYism like Hyde Park's St. Stephen's church, Doctor's Hospital, McMobil, or did they never get that bad?
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Well, first, I disagree with you at least about the Doctor's Hospital; I think Hyde Park could stand to focus on areas that aren't as necessarily dismal as 58th and Stony, like along 55th and 53rd. The neighborhood could sure use some more hotels, but it doesn't make sense to me to locate them in the boonies of the neighborhood. Harper Court seems more logical. I would love to see that depressing block on the south side of 55th between Kimbark and Woodlawn replaced.
Anyway, the albatross in Oak Park is the Colt Building downtown, a confusing mishmash with an ugly face on Lake Street and an elegant old one on Westgate. The Village hemmed and hawed and finally hired consultants, who told them the Colt was unsalvageable. Everybody agrees it has to be replaced, but the development is contentious because it will include not only the footprint of the Colt Building, but also another building across Westgate and a large parking lot by the Harlem Green Line, so it will change the face of downtown Oak Park. They whittled it down to two developers, Centrum and Avalon Bay, both of whom immediately asked for $40 million in TIF funds to build something that looks like it belongs in Schaumburg. A downtown pedestrian mall on Marion St. was recently re-streeted, which may or may not have increased business but did eliminate the main downtown public space.
Other than that, there have actually been pretty good compromises between preservation and development, like a plan to demolish a nice 1920s building on Oak Park and South Blvd. that has morphed into a plan for an L-shaped building to surround it instead. A bunch of projects have either been put on hold or crashed due to the economy. As candidate parcels downtown dwindle, the focus is shifting to Madison, which has an obscene amount of vacant land. The Village would like to capitalize on the revitalization of Madison in Forest Park on the other side of Harlem.
I don't think this is about the "old guard" being replaced with new people but rather the old guard coming around to the need for change (with the assistance of a property tax onslaught). Oak Park's old timers, after all, are the people who came up with some innovative ways to save the place in the 60s and 70s without resorting to Hyde Park-style clear-cutting. The local paper has been staunchly pro-development for some time despite being mostly run by people who have lived in Oak Park for 30+ years. Also, the older boomers are eager to find places in Oak Park to downsize to. They don't want to be priced out.
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