^ Take a look how much better Arena will be for the 45th ward than Jabba the Hut Levar, or that other guy who ran against him:
Development debate sparks race in Chicago’s 45th Ward
By Abdon M. Pallasch Political Reporter
apallasch@suntimes.com Apr 4, 2011 02:06AM
Voters in the Northwest Side 45th Ward have a clear choice in Tuesday’s aldermanic runoff.
John Arena, 44, who owns a graphic design company, has been active in the Portage Park Neighborhood Association for more than a decade,
trying to steer what he thinks is the right kind of pedestrian-friendly development to the Six Corners business district. Arena is a Democrat running with strong support from unions.
John Garrido, 43, a police lieutenant and lawyer, says he would be far less picky about development in the ward, green-lighting just about any business that wants to come in. A Republican, Garrido is endorsed by the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.
“For the past 10 years, we have been recruiting businesses to the ward — Six Corners is a model for where we need to go. It is in a process of transition. A new restaurant is opening just behind the Klee Building,” Arena said at a forum Thursday at the Copernicus Center.
“Well, I don’t know if I would use Six Corners as a model for the ward — we’ve got a 40 percent vacancy rate, Garrido said.
“They wanted to put a curb cut in there so you could actually get to parking from Milwaukee Avenue. That was blocked by my opponent. That caused businesses like Chipotle, FedEx and Caribou Coffee to pull out of there and now those storefronts still sit vacant.”
Nothing the neighborhood group did scared any business away, Arena said. And he has been involved in recruiting businesses to Six Corners for 10 years, while Garrido has not been involved. While Garrido talks about bringing a Starbucks to the ward, Arena said he has actually been talking to Starbucks for 10 years. Arena said city transportation officials rejected the curb cut because it would have created a traffic jam.
“Six corners is a pedestrian-friendly model, people first and cars second,” Arena said. “Putting parking lots in the middle of that intersection [would not work as well as] perimeter parking. What the community was advocating for was to maintain the plan.”
When CVS proposed to tear down a historic abandoned building at Milwaukee and Montrose to open a store, Arena’s group collected 600 signatures to oppose that plan and instead steer CVS to Milwaukee and Lawrence. When CVS proposed a “generic” storefront there, Arena said his group succeeded in pressuring them to use a more aesthetically pleasing design.
“You never start a negotiation by saying, ‘What’s your first offer?’ and then say ‘Yes’ to it,” Arena said. “John has consistently shown himself to not have any understanding of these issues.”
http://www.suntimes.com/news/4644859...45th-ward.html