Do you ever wonder exactly what kind of thought processes cause our U.S. Senators and Congressmembers to throw themselves into spending trillions of dollars and burying us in trillions more of debt?  If so, we encourage you to watch the latest City of Park Ridge Flood Control Task Force meeting for a smaller-scale version of the same process.

At the Task Force’s July 15, 2009, meeting, Chairman Joe Saccomanno fell all over himself, verbally, recommending Ald. Frank Wsol’s (7th Ward) $420,000 flood control incentive/rebate program – repeating again and again (in classic “big lie” style) how it has to be done, and it has to be done right away.

That program, at least as presently constituted, would reimburse residents up to $2,500 each for a variety of flood control-related devices installed in their homes since January 1, 2008.  If each claimant got the full $2,500, the program would serve a total of 168 households.   

Readers of this blog know what a bad idea we think it is, so we won’t waste additional space here recounting all the reasons.  But after watching the video and listening to the Saccomanno’s “reasoning” for endorsing that program to the City Council, we were amazed at just how easy it seems to be for ordinary (or so they seem) citizens, once they are given any governmental authority whatsoever, to toss around big chunks of taxpayer money, almost on a whim.

But don’t take our word for it: check it out yourself at http://www.motionbox.com/videos/7a9dd0b51413ebc2f5.  All you need to do is watch the first 8 minutes, which is when all the fun takes place – starting with Public Works Director Wayne Zingsheim’s reading of the Wsol proposal.

Saccomanno’s “reasoning” is a series of comments that don’t appear to reflect a whole lot of – actually, make that any – careful analysis.  After claiming that “there’s an emergency sense, a sense to act quickly” – in other words, to do something, no matter what it is – he makes clear that there’s no need to actually think through the matter when they can get away with simply reacting:

“I don’t want to take numbers and worry about 2 years back or 3 years back” (referring to the period of time for which rebates will be available);

“I don’t want to say we’re going to wait 2 weeks and look at data and analyze it” (because, of course, there’s no need to let any of that pesky data interfere with what they want);

“I don’t think this body is one to talk about details” (because that might actually take some effort to analyze that pesky data?); and

“I think we should just go with it” (because, what the hey, it’s only $420,000).

With that kind of disregard for the public purse, Saccomanno could be an alderman!

One of his accomplices in this welfare-for-the-well-off frenzy was Task Force member Bob Mack, who trotted out that time-dishonored cliche: “There are a lot of other communities around here who are doing this…[so] we don’t have to re-invent the wheel.”

Didn’t his mother ever tell him that just because the kid next door picks his nose doesn’t mean that he has to do the same?

One member of that Task Force, however, at least tried to act responsibly.  Gale Fabisch, a consulting engineer with 36 years of experience, including employment with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, pointed out how this program might not actually contribute any additional flood control because all of the $420,000 could end up being spent on systems that already have been installed!  As Fabisch put it: “There would be no money for anyone to do something tomorrow.”   

Unfortunately, Chairman Saccomanno and the rest of the Task Force members didn’t want to hear that kind of thinking, which may explain why – when Fabisch had the temerity to question whether it might be worthwhile for any flood control reimbursement “to target areas that are most severely impacted” by flooding – he was actually laughed at by Task Force member (and former alderman) John Humm, among others.

Maybe that explains why Fabisch ended up going along with the pro-reimbursement proposal moved by Saccomanno at the urging of Humm – even though no such motion or vote was even on the Task Force’s published agenda, but appears to have been the product of Saccomanno and Humm just winging it.

With such an inauspicious beginning, we can’t wait to find out what other arrows the Flood Control Task Force has in its quiver.

What’s the best way to combat flooding throughout Park Ridge?  How much will it cost?  How will we pay for it…and how will it affect the City’s ability to continue to provide the customary services we rely on?

These are all good questions.  Too bad Seventh Ward Ald. Frank Wsol and at least a few of his City Council colleagues don’t seem to know and don’t seem to care.

Instead, they’re busy pushing a $420,000 rebate plan that would use already-scarce tax dollars to provide up to $2,500 to residents who have installed private flood control devices (such as overhead sewers, backflow valves and the like) since January 1, 2008.  And from what we’ve seen and heard so far, there may be more than a few residents with the chutzpah to think and act like they’re entitled to such a reimbursement.

We understand how some residents, tired of what has become a fairly regular event of sewer back-up into their basements, would invest $5-10-15,000 to combat the problem.  But we also understand that when one resident prevents his basement from flooding, that means a bit more water remains in the system that has to go somewhere else – like into a neighbor’s basement, or into the street.

While that kind of “collateral damage” may be acceptable under our scheme of individual property rights, the idea that the City would commit public money to reimburse and encourage such efforts that ultimately pit neighbor against neighbor is foolish beyond words.  But let’s try the following words, just for starters:

1.  The City doesn’t have the money for such a program.  This year’s budget was passed with an approximately $2.5 million deficit that has already grown because of spending decisions by a Council that seems unwilling or unable to manage our money responsibly.  And given the economic indicators so far this year, it’s looking like more of the same next year.

2.  It’s welfare, pure and simple.  But it’s not even “good” welfare, because Wsol’s plan (such as it is) does not appear to be based on financial need.  So the well-off can get a quick $2,500 just as easily as the not-so-well-off.

3.  It’s unfair, because the time period fixed for the rebate – currently for work done since Jan. 1, 2008 – is totally arbitrary.  Why should someone who happened to put in his/her flood control system following the August 2007 flooding get shut out of this giveaway?

4.  It’s a willy-nilly, piece-meal response that ignores the root causes of the problem – which makes it look, sound and smell like nothing more than political grandstanding of the worst kind.

5.  It detracts and distracts from efforts to come up with a meaningful, comprehensive, community-wide solution to the problem.

From what we’re hearing, anything approaching a real solution to the problem will require a bond issue of $30-60 million, which would be (as best as we can tell) the largest bond issue in Park Ridge history.  That means we’re going to be looking at a significant tax increase to service that debt unless the same officials who already have shown that they can’t balance a budget suddenly develop the ability and the will to cut expenses enough to compensate for the additional debt service costs of those bonds.

Fortunately, in April the voters rejected Wsol’s previous hare-brained scheme for a big new police station.  So at least we aren’t already saddled with multi-millions in bond debt for a project that is nowhere near as important to our property values and quality of life as an improved sewer system.

Compared to $30-60 million, $420,000 might seem like chump change.  And it is – for the chumps who would sit back and let it get spent for what is either a plain mistake or an inherently bad idea.  That’s why it’s time for all non-chumps to let your aldermen know you don’t want to see them waste any more time and effort on something as ridiculous and wasteful as the Wsol plan.

For the good of the entire community, let’s hope Wsol’s “private rebate” train doesn’t leave the station.

School  Dist. 64 Test Results Unclear.  This week’s Park Ridge Journal reports that Park Ridge-Niles School District 64’s most recent MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) results in math, reading and language arts leave something to be desired, with 40% of the D-64 students failing to meet their “growth goals” in the past 3 years (“Test Scores Reveal Good, Bad News For Schools,” July 15).  One of the suggested explanations/excuses: a “summer slump” with kids not retaining knowledge and skills over the summer, causing notably lower scores in the Fall tests than in the Spring.

We don’t know about a “summer slump,” but can Dist. 64 and the local newspapers stop reporting that our students “scored higher than the national average”?  A community with the affluence and advantages of ours should be embarrassed to consider comparisons against the “national average” in anything academic! 

Are The “Yutes” On The Loose?  Both local newspapers are reporting that 5 residents of the Park Ridge Youth Campus required police attention last week: 4 girls (ages 12, 13, 13 and 16) were charged with disorderly conduct; one (age 14) was charged with battery; and another (age 14) was arrested on an outstanding warrant from Markham.

We understand and applaud the Youth Campus’ mission, and many people in this community have supported that mission for many years.  But these kinds of incidents suggest that the Youth Campus’ staff isn’t taking “security” seriously enough.

City Government a la Allegretti. We’ve never been fans of Ald. Jim Allegretti (4th Ward), an unabashed cheerlead for closed sessions and governmental secrecy, irresponsible spending and giveaways of taxpayer money, and an overall lack of governmental accountability.  So he didn’t disappoint us when, just this past Monday, he led the effort (supported by Alds. Don Bach, Tom Carey and Robert Ryan, naturally) to let the City Council overturn zoning text amendment decisions of the City’s Planning & Zoning Commission (“P&Z”) by simple majority instead of super-majority.

We’ve seen the P&Z process function reasonably well over the years, perhaps even better than the rest of City government.  So why is Allegretti – or Bach, Carey and Ryan – choosing to meddle with something that’s not broken when they so blissfully ignore so much of what is? 

City Government a la Allegretti, Part II. After making it easier to bypass P&Z, Allegretti then tried to but the kibosh on a plan by AT&T to bring its “U-Verse” cable television services to Park Ridge.  Not only would that bring potentially beneficial competition (v. Comcast), but the AT&T proposal included payment to the City of 6% of AT&T’s gross revenues from its Park Ridge services, which could turn into some real money – one of the reasons Allegretti gave for touting a text amendment to liberalize the City’s billboard zoning.  Allegretti’s objection to the U-Verse boxes? They’re “unsightly.”

Hey, Jimbo, now you’re cutting into the Appearance Commission’s territory!

According to reports in today’s Park Ridge Journal (“Talkin’ Thousands,” July 15), the $420,000 flood control rebate program being hustled by Ald. Frank Wsol (7th Ward) might be gaining traction among the politicians on the City Council.  And we can understand that: after all, what’s not to like about it – if you’re a politician?

Wsol gets to puff out his chest and claim he’s “getting something done” on flooding, even though he admits his program might benefit no more than 168 people if they all get the maximum $2,500 rebate.  He also gets to claim that his program is cheaper than relief sewers, which cost approximately $120,000 each to service an average of 30 residences, or approx. $4,000 per residence v. $2,500 per rebate.  And let’s not forget how much popularity and gratitude he can purchase – with our tax dollars – from those lucky 168 who will receive this windfall.

Can you say “pork”?  (Ald. Wsol, just oink once for “yes”)

The only real voice of reason among our elected officials appears to have been provided by Mayor Schmidt, who questioned the fairness of such a rebate program to the people who put in flood control systems before Wsol’s artificial January 1, 2008, cut-off date, as well as its fairness to the residents who can’t afford to install a flood control system in their own homes but will see their tax dollars used to subsidize those residents who can afford flood control.

Schmidt also asked the Council not to jump the gun on any expenditures of already-scarce funds until the City’s Flood Control Task Force, with the assistance of the City-hired outside consultant, can make its report and recommendations on how best to address the flooding problems on a comprehensive, city-wide basis.

That’s wise advice, although we are less than confident that the politicians on the Council – led by Wsol the Pol – will pass up this grandstanding opportunity to spend public funds for purely private purposes, even though they still haven’t come within $2.4 million of balancing the City’s budget and will likely be dipping into the City’s rapidly-depleting “savings account” to pay the rebates if that program is enacted.

But thanks to the video camera Mayor Schmidt purchased with the mayoral salary he can’t legally forego (and the camera work of a couple of civilian volunteers), you can see and hear the debate on this issue (and what went on during the rest of the meeting) at www.parkridgemayor.com (click on “video library” and choose videos 6 and 7), which is where Schmidt is having these videos posted until the City finds a way to accommodate them on its own, outdated website. 

If you check it out, you’ll see and hear resident Joan Sandrick channel the late Clara “Where’s the beef?” Peller with her “Where’s the money?” question to the Council.  Just don’t strain your ears listening for any meaningful response from our elected and appointed spendthrifts sitting around The Horseshoe.  You’ll also see and hear a resident question whether these private flood control devices won’t cause more flooding problems for those who don’t have them, and for our streets and sidewalks, on the theory that the water not going into flood-controlled basements has to go somewhere (like into neighboring basements?).

And you’ll also see and hear from some residents who can’t seem to resist the chance for a government handout like Wsol’s rebate program, even when they know it’s coming from their own neighbors.

We empathize with everyone who has endured flooding and sewer backups.  It’s a terrible mess and creates constant fear every time it rains.  But giving $420,000 of what amounts to taxpayer-funded home improvement handouts to 168 residents is just plain bad public policy.  It’s unfair, it’s economically unsustainable, and it diverts public money from serving the public good to providing a purely private benefit.

But who cares about “public policy” when there’s public money to give away and political profit to be gained? 

This just-concluded weekend saw the annual return of Taste of Park Ridge.  The weather cooperated and the event appeared to have been well-attended, as usual.  Which means that it very likely was a financial success for its private owner/operator, Taste of Park Ridge NFP (“Taste, Inc.”). 

Although we are unabashed fans of the Taste of Park Ridge event, we have been critical of Taste, Inc. because of the somewhat odd way it came into existence and because of its insistence on keeping all of the details about its finances secret – especially in view of the fact that it effectively has been given a no-bid monopoly on Park Ridge’s largest annual civic event.

According to the Taste, Inc. website, its creation occurred as follows:

“In May of 2005, newly elected Mayor Howard Frimark, responding to citizens’ desire to see the Taste continue to develop as a signature event, secured seed funding for the 2005 Taste.”

Given Frimark’s role and his self-promoting tendencies, it’s not surprising that, at the July 18, 2005, City Council meeting [pdf], he crowed that the newly-minted version of the Taste event “was a great success” and announced that “a more detailed report would be forthcoming.”  But we never heard about such a report being issued, and we could find no evidence of one on the City’s website or, more importantly, on Taste, Inc.’s own website. 

Frimark made the same kind of announcement, and gave the same kind of assurance about a “report” being forthcoming, at the City Council meetings in July, 2006 [pdf] and July, 2007 [pdf].  But, again, we never heard about such a report being issued and could find no evidence of one either on the City’s or Taste, Inc.’s websites.  By July 2008, however, it looks like even Frimark could no longer maintain the charade, as no such announcement by him appears in that month’s City Council meeting minutes.

Why all the secrecy, Taste, Inc. President Dave Iglow (Pines Mens Wear of Park Ridge), Vice-President Albert Galus (Academic Tutoring Centers), and Treasurer Jim Bruno (Chase Bank)? 

If everything about Taste, Inc. is, and has been, on the up and up, why have you guys (and your predecessors, like Maine Twp’s Bob Dudyzc, Summit Square’s Marc Dennison, and Park District Commissioner Dick Barton) refused to share Taste, Inc.’s financial and operating information with the City and its residents whose volunteer services and money make this event such a success?

Don’t you guys understand that this kind of secrecy breeds suspicion? Or is it that you just don’t care?

Update (7/15/09)

Taste (the event) chairman and Taste, Inc. vice-president Albert Galus is quoted in yesterday’s on-line Herald-Advocate as labeling this year’s event “another successful weekend of feasting and entertainment,” and estimating attendance at between 40,000 and 45,000 people over three days. (“The ‘Taste’ of the town”) 

That’s great, Albert, really it is.  And we’re really happy for you.  Now why not do the right and honorable thing and provide 100% disclosure of Taste, Inc.’s finances, including its P&L on the just-concluded event, to all those resident volunteers who provided all that free labor, and all those resident customers who provided all that wonderful revenue?   

We’re guessing that Seventh Ward Ald. Frank Wsol probably hopes most Park Ridge residents are unfamiliar with the following passage from Nelson Algren’s “Chicago: City on the Make”:

For the masses that do the city’s labor also keep the city’s heart.  And they think there’s something fishy about someone giving them a museum for nothing and free admission on a Saturday afternoon.

That’s because anybody who has heard or read it is probably savvy enough to realize that “there’s something fishy” about Wsol’s “flood rebate” proposal [pdf], which is scheduled to be discussed at this coming Monday night’s City Council Committee of the Whole (“COW”) meeting (7:00 p.m.).
Wsol wants to use $420,000 of property tax reserves from the City’s rapidly depleting “General Fund” to subsidize – by as much as $2,500 per household – the cost of private flood control projects (such as overhead sewers, backwater valves, lift stations, sump pumps and generators) installed by Park Ridge residents between Jan. 1, 2008, and April 30, 2010.

For a City whose current budget deficit started at over $2 million and continues to grow, this is the kind of idea that any responsible person in government could be expected to keep to himself.  But it seems as if Ald. Wsol has some kind of undisclosed agenda that apparently involves depleting as much of the City treasury as he can, as quickly as he can.

Wsol, you may recall, led the charge against passing through to Park Ridge residents the actual increased cost of water from the City of Chicago, a bit of financial mismanagement that contributed over $400,000 to the current budget hole.  He also voted for increasing the already over-budget City funding of private community organizations, several of whom appear more financially sound (albeit on a smaller scale) than the City itself.

Even if one were to discount the fundamental public policy arguments against this kind of give-away program, there are more than enough logistical problems to make Wsol’s proposal a non-starter, including the possibility that the whole $420,000 could get eaten up by as few as 168 households grabbing the maximum $2,500 allotment.  That means that unfairness is literally built into the proposal.

And the fact that the proposal gives no indication that these reimbursements will be tied to economic need means that we could end up with what amounts to “welfare” for the already well-off.  Is that really the way most taxpayers want to see $420,000 of their money spent?

But those concerns don’t seem to have prevented Wsol from engaging in a little shameless pandering to the unenlightened self-interest of some residents when he suggests, near the end of his proposal, that those homes adding subsidized flood control systems “may see a property value increase and some corresponding increase in real estate transfer fees as well as property taxes collected.”  We wonder if he can actually say those words in public with a straight face.

Whether he can or he can’t, however, doesn’t change our belief that this proposal is about as wrongheaded as they come.  Every spare City tax dollar devoted to any form of flood relief should be directed toward the systemic analysis and systemic improvement of the City’s sewer system for the benefit of all Park Ridge residents.  And it should be done in a well-thought out, economically sound way that maximizes the value of every one of those dollars spent.

Maybe that’s why Wsol’s give-away proposal smells kind of…”fishy.”

This past Monday night four members of the Park Ridge City Council – Alds. Jim Allegretti, Don Bach, Robert Ryan and Frank Wsol – cast the votes that turned long-time commercially-zoned properties into multi-family residentially-zoned ones.  They did so not because the owners, or prospective purchasers, had any concrete plans for erecting residential structures on them, but simply because a few handfuls of neighbors and one pandering politician (Ryan) wanted it.

The attorney for the owner of one of the properties, the former Napleton Cadillac parking lot at 200 N. Meacham, argued against the unfairness of such ad hoc spot re-zoning and noted the chilling effect it could have on businesses that may be considering whether to re-locate to, or remain in, Park Ridge.  He also warned the Council of a possible lawsuit by his client.

Whether the Council’s action results in a lawsuit or chills business interest in Park Ridge remains to be seen.  But one thing seems certain: the market value of those re-zoned properties just decreased, as did their tax revenue potential.  Given the Council’s irresponsibility in passing a multi-million dollar deficit budget and the sheer boneheaded-ness of adding to that deficit with even more spending, however, “value” and “revenue” are two concepts that seem lost on these Alder-dunces.

As head panderer (or is it “pimp”) for this re-zoning foolishness, Ryan tried to foreclose any debate on the public policy considerations of such action by dusting off the 7-plus year old “Uptown Comprehensive Plan” (the “Plan”) and purportedly quoting its suggestion of “transitional residential areas” bordering the Uptown TIF district as if that concept were a moral imperative delivered by a solemn voice emanating from a burning bush.

We have reviewed that Plan and can find nothing in it that calls for, or even suggests, converting business/commercially-zoned properties into multi-family residential ones; and we hereby challenge Mr. Ryan to prove otherwise.

And although nobody mentioned it Monday night, we wonder why these spot zoning changes – if they truly are as essential to the Plan and as desirable to their neighborhoods as Ryan claims them to be – weren’t adopted by the City’s Ad Hoc Zoning Ordinance Re-Write Committee (with its well-paid consultants) when it rewrote the City’s Zoning Code only three years ago?  Were the members of that committee asleep at the wheel, or is this re-zoning a really bad idea?

But unless Mayor Schmidt were to veto these changes and force an over-ride vote, or Napleton makes good on its veiled lawsuit threat, it looks like this ship has sailed. Unfortunately, we may never know whether, and how many, desirable business opportunities sailed away with it.

Tonight (Mon., July 6) the Park Ridge City Council is set to give its final approval to changing the zoning of two long-standing “B” (business) parcels to multi-family residential (R-3) for no apparent reason other than a couple/few handfuls of those properties’ neighbors want it that way, and Fifth Ward Ald. Robert Ryan (along with a majority of his fellow aldermen) is trying to give it to them.

We don’t fault the neighbors of the former Napleton Cadillac parking lot (NW corner of Northwest Hwy and Meacham) or Audrey’s (SE corner of Northwest Hwy. and Elm) for wanting to keep potential commercial buildings – and whatever traffic they might generate – out of their neighborhoods.  We think that kind of NIMBY mentality is useful in bringing issues to the attention of the rest of the community.

And we don’t expect a huge outcry from the mass of ordinary Park Ridge residents, who probably haven’t given the matter a whole lot of thought; and, if they have, probably side with the neighbors for the same reasons.

But why is the Park Ridge business community so strangely and deafeningly silent on this issue? 

Our City went millions of dollars into hock helping finance “Uptown Redevelopment” because of pie-in-the-sky assurances that retail, retail and more retail would keep Park Ridge consumer dollars here, while at the same time drawing in consumers from outside the community, thereby raising our sales tax base and providing property tax relief.  And one of the loudest advocates of that plan was none other than Robert Ryan, who back then was a member of both the now (mercifully) defunct Economic Development Corporation and the Uptown Advisory Task Force.

This is the same Ald. Ryan who happily voted to give Bill Napleton as much as $2.4 million of our tax dollars before General Motors pulled the plug on his dealership.  But just 18 months later he wants to convert “B” property – including Napleton’s parking lot – into “R” property.  What’s up with that?

We have the oddest feeling that we’re missing something here – the same kind of feeling we have about the secretive Taste, Inc. situation – but we just can’t quite put our finger on it.  Any thoughts from you out there in the audience?

But the really strange thing to us is why we haven’t heard so much as a a “boo” or a whimper from that local bastion of capitalism, the Park Ridge Chamber of Commerce.  According to its website, “the Park Ridge Chamber of Commerce continually strives to help business develop and grow.”  Hey, Chamber president Karen Anderson and Exec. Director Gail Haller…how does converting “B”-zoned property to multi-family “help business develop and grow”? 

And what about the City’s Economic Development Director, Kim Uhlig?  She gets paid a pretty darn decent salary and benefits to get businesses to come to Park Ridge, and to retain the ones already here.  Hey, Kim…how “welcoming” can you make Park Ridge look to the regional business community when we strip business sites from one of our more traveled thoroughfares that has been home to a variety of retail establishments and business offices for decades?

Kim?  Anybody?  Bueller?

We realize this re-zoning and map amendment are probably a “done deal,” given that both of the required two readings have been pushed through in what appears to be the record time of a mere seven days.  But when the votes are counted this evening and the City Council has chosen to boost multi-family residential over business, again, we hope you will make a note of each and every one of the aldermen who support this action.

That way, the next time Ald. Ryan or his Council buddies brag about how “pro-business” they are, or tell us how we need to spend more of our tax dollars on “business-friendly” boondoggles like façade improvements and the like, we can remind ourselves of who voted to reduce the number of available business sites in Park Ridge.

That way, we’ll know which of them are lying through their teeth.  Again. 

Update (7/7/09)

“Each and every one of the aldermen” who voted to change the zoning on three “B-1” properties to “R-3” are: Allegretti (4th Ward), Bach (3rd Ward), Ryan (5th Ward) and Wsol (7th Ward).  

Not surprisingly, the Park Ridge Chamber of Commerce and its individual local merchant members were MIA.  What was surprising (and dismaying), however, is that not one of the four Alder-dunces who voted for the changes asked the City’s retail “czarina,” Kim Uhlig, about how those changes might impact her never-ending quest for more retailers.  But, then again, with “done deals,” anything beyond knowing what to do and when to do it is superfluous.    

Finally, we give a shout-out to Alds. Carey, DiPietro and Sweeney for voting against mindless multi-family residential re-zoning.  Too bad they’re outnumbered by the Alder-dunces.

We closed Wednesday’s post with the comment that converting B-1 space to “R” (residential) space is not something that the City of Park Ridge should rush into just because a handful of residents want it, or because some local politician thinks he can buy some goodwill from such a change. 

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened this past Monday night, as 5th Ward Ald. Robert Ryan led the charge for the zoning change to the former Napleton Cadillac triangle parking lot at Northwest Hwy and Meacham.  That change, and a similar one to the “Audrey’s” property at Northwest Hwy and Elm, passed on first reading and are scheduled for final second-reading approval at this coming Monday night’s Council meeting. 

Two readings in seven days sure sounds to us like a classic rush to judgment, especially when we have a holiday weekend intervening.  But that just shows how badly the Council wants to get this done.  And “badly” is how it likely will end. 

Why is this being done when there aren’t even any plans on the drawing boards for the affected properties, and with the City growing increasingly desperate for tax-generating businesses to locate here?  If Park Ridge truly does have an “anti-business” reputation, it sure isn’t being helped by B-1 properties being converted to R properties.

But according to Ryan, he’s being “responsive” to the wishes of his 5th Ward constituents…after repeatedly having given them the back of his hand on issues like the redevelopment of Executive Office Plaza and his support of the PADS homeless shelter.  And that’s when he wasn’t leading the Council in number of missed meetings. 

Ryan claims that changing the Napleton lot’s status from the B-1 designation it has had for at least the past 20 years to R-3 will “provide consistency with the Uptown plan” – even though that property (and Audrey’s, for that matter) isn’t even part of the Uptown plan, as best as we can tell; and even though Northwest Hwy is dotted with a variety of businesses and strip centers from Uptown all the way out past Oakton Street.

At least new First Ward Ald. Joe Sweeney and Second Ward Ald. Rich DiPietro voted “No” on the Napleton change, although DiPietro flipped over to the “Yes” side and supported a B to R zoning change for the Audrey’s property.

Ironically, these changes were passed after the Council heard approximately 30 residents complain about flooding problems.  And several of the speakers noted that “something has changed” to make flooding more common than it used to be – a comment heard from residents every time flooding is discussed.

If we’re looking for “what has changed,” how about: “We’re losing too much green space (i.e., grass) to oversized structures”?  Or: “We’re adding too many residential units for our antiquated sewer system to handle”? 

These same concerns were expressed prior to the addition of approximately 200 residential units to a few square blocks of Uptown where there formerly was none.  We wonder exactly how much additional sewer capacity – if any – was added to the system in order to account for the evacuation of the sewerage generated by those units which, notably, are located at the highest point of the City. 

Don’t get us wrong.  We are big fans of the “residential character” of Park Ridge, although our taste in “residential character” runs more toward single-family houses.  But residences don’t generate sales taxes, nor do they generate property taxes at the same higher rate of commercial property.  So gratuitously converting B parcels to R sure seems like shooting ourselves in both feet for no good reason. 

Residences, however, are the “low-hanging fruit” when it comes to sales and profit for developers. And the higher-density, multi-family residences are the lowest of that low-hanging fruit.

Park Ridge continues to have a budget that is $2 million in deficit, and growing…thanks to even more spending by City Staff, blessed by the City Council, without any increase in revenues.  Where’s the revenue going to come from to fill that hole, much less to help pay for things like flooding relief?  We don’t know.  And neither does City Staff or the Council, apparently. 

That’s why turning business property into residential without any kind of game plan is the kind of narrow, shortsighted thinking that not only won’t provide any solutions, but which actually raises more questions than it answers.

Yesterday’s Herald-Advocate story on Monday night’s special City Council meeting (“Flood control measures get deluge of support,” June 30) – which reportedly lasted 5-1/2 hours and was packed with people whose homes have flooding problems – presents an informative study in contrasts between the leadership styles of Mayor Dave Schmidt and our Public Works Director, Wayne Zingsheim.

Schmidt blamed the City’s staff and its elected officials, including himself, for having neglected the City’s sewer system over the past several years, noting that residents “are justified in being upset with the inaction by city government over the past few years.” 

Zingsheim, on the other hand, took the typical bureaucrat approach.  First he blamed too much rain falling too quickly, and then pointed to other suburbs (like Elk Grove Village) who also had problems.  Memo to Zinger: the incompetence or ineffectiveness of other towns in dealing with civic problems doesn’t excuse your own.

And just in case those alibis weren’t enough, Zingsheim also blamed the residents themselves for being ignorant of our sewer system and how it works…or doesn’t. 

“The public needs more education on certain issues,” he insisted.

We agree, Wayne, and that “education” effort should have been started by you last September, when we suffered millions of dollars of flood damage even as many residents wondered about the mysterious (but welcome) drainage of their basements between – as best we recall – 9:30 and 10:00 a.m. the morning of September 13, 2008.

Maybe that’s why so many of us believe in “mysterious valves” whose opening or closing is the difference between inches and feet of water in our basements.  And why many of us wonder whether our relief sewers are working…or whether we even have relief sewers on our block.

Of course, because of the non-existent Wayne Zingsheim educate-the-public initiative, we can’t see for ourselves (like, for example, on the City’s website) exactly what streets or alleys in Park Ridge actually have relief sewers.  Do you have such a map, Wayne?  If so, why isn’t it posted so all of us ignorant residents can check it out?

According to the H-A article, Zingsheim also thinks residents should do their own flood control by installing overhead sewers and other flood prevention devices.  That’s one way of avoiding accountability for years of bureaucratic inaction on the problem, but don’t those systems increase the sewer and flooding problems for the system as a whole, and for those residents who can’t currently afford such systems?

Unfortunately for all those residents of Park Ridge whose homes may be their single largest investment, City government has done little-to-nothing over the past several years to understand and effectively address the symptoms or the causes of a sewer system that seemingly everyone agrees is antiquated and inadequate, or to address an electrical power delivery system that is so undependable as to make private electrical generators the newest status symbol.

That’s because any reasonable solution to the flooding problem will require a big bond issue and higher taxes to pay for it, which is going to be a tough sell in a down economy and with a City staff and Council that think a $2 million deficit budget is “balanced.”  And they aren’t nearly as fun to talk about as redevelopment projects that involve paving over even more green space, and adding hundreds of additional residential units to an already overtaxed sewer system.

Which is why converting B-1 space to “R” space is something than shouldn’t be done on a whim, or because a handful of residents finally get a rise out of an otherwise-inert alderman.  But that’s a discussion for another day…this Friday, to be exact.