NIMBYs Prove People Can Make A Difference.  PublicWatchdog wants to give a big bark-out to those St. Mary’s Episcopal neighbors who showed us that NIMBYs can make a positive difference when they organize and actually fight for their neighborhood. 

Led by Phil Donohue, Dan Knight and Gary Beckner, among others, those St. Mary’s NIMBYs defeated the Park Ridge Ministerial Association’s semi-secret, heavy-handed attempt to jam a PADS homeless shelter down the neighbors’ throats and into St. Mary’s basement.  We score it: NIMBYs – 1, Shameless PRMA – 0.

But the PRMA didn’t miss a beat, bringing in prominent local attorney (and big-time Frimark friend and contributor) Jack “Mr. Insider” Owens from the bullpen as its “closer” and announcing that it’s moving the PADS shelter to St. Paul of the Cross.  And because PRMA’s members seem to believe they’re acting by Divine Right, they continue to insist that our zoning laws are only for the suckers who actually pay taxes – a position the City is inexplicably encouraging by sending City Atty. Buzz Hill, hat in hand and head bowed, to beg PRMA to follow the City’s zoning laws.

Looks like yet another example of the spineless rolling over for the shameless…and selling out their constituents in the process.  Score this one: Shameless PRMA – 1, Spineless City – 0.

The Puppetry Of Ald. Wsol.  This past Monday night’s City Council meeting featured the familiar sight of our City Council retreating into closed session to discuss the purchase of yet another possible site for the big new cop shop Mayor Howard “Let’s Make A Deal” Frimark and his Alderpuppets seem hell-bent on building.  Which means we also got to see and hear the equally familiar protests of Ald. Dave Schmidt (1st Ward), the only City official who’s not a card-carrying member of the Culture of Secrecy.

As usual, Schmidt was right on target with his objections that unless and until the Council makes some concrete decisions on whether to build a new cop shop, how big it should be, where is the best place to put it, and how we’re going to pay for it, buying land for it – any land, not just what’s owned by a Frimark buddy like Bill Napleton – is an exercise in stupidity.  And if you don’t believe him, look no further than the City’s purchase of 229 S. Courtland in 2006 for approximately $660,000. 

But it was more than a little disappointing to see 7th Ward Ald. Frank Wsol, a self-proclaimed fiscal conservative, act like an alderpuppet in full by leading the charge to closed session while claiming (with a straight face!) that those secret discussions could end up saving the taxpayers money.  Yeah, right. 

Somebody needs to remind Wsol that the City can exercise its eminent domain power to buy virtually any piece of property it needs by condemning it and paying its fair market value, so there’s no need for secrecy.  Unless, of course, Mayor Frimark insists on paying more – like he wanted to do a few months ago with 720 Garden, another one of his many cop shop sites.  

More, Bigger Condos On The Way? The City Council’s Procedures and Regulations Committee took another big step toward adding more taller buildings – and greater population density – to an increasingly crowded Uptown when it voted 2-1 to recommend a larger R-5 zoning district last Tuesday (June 3) night.

Committee chair and Mayor Frimark Alderpuppet Jim Allegretti, along with fellow Alderpuppet Tom Carey (6th Ward), thwarted attempts by Ald. Dave Schmidt (1st Ward) to send the matter back to the Planning & Zoning Commission to study Schmidt’s plan to limit the R-5 status only to what is now the Uptown B-4 district rather than letting it expand by approximately 75% beyond that area, primarily on the west end of Uptown where (it is rumored) some “lucky” investors are waiting for their ships to come in.

We hear that Allegretti provided some perversely humorous moments with his seeming lack of knowledge about both the zoning code and how R-5 districts operate, which led to him and Acting Director of Community Development Carrie Davis doing their own version of Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on First?” routine – at least when Davis wasn’t bemoaning all the work that supposedly would be needed to accommodate Schmidt’s proposal.

So unless citizens show up and speak up for retaining the current character and feel of the physical “heart” of Park Ridge, it looks like the developers and “lucky” land owners will be stacking more condos and townhouses in and around Uptown.