Unkept promises
To the Editor:
In Inside's July 2-8, 2003 edition, I wrote an article about a scholarship awards program which I coordinated while serving as president of a not-for-profit organization called The Myria Reed Foundation for Children with Special Needs. We awarded two monetary awards to Special Education students from Senn High School, with sponsorship from North Community Banks. Our first place winner, Justin Cooper, was forced to be educated with home schooling because he and his mother, a single parent, lived in a garden apt. with seven steps. Due to a physical disability, he was wheelchair bound.
Justin is a very determined young man who was cheated of his high school experience and socialization because Senn High school had no elevators for disabled students, so he could only manage classes on the first floor. Deprived of cultivating friendships, he met his fellow classmates for the first time on the day of his graduation held at a ceremony at North Park College several years later.
At the June awards ceremony, many notable community leaders from the Edgewater and Uptown communities attended the scholarship ceremony, pledging to get a lift installed in Justin's home and elevator installation at Senn H.S.; also they made promises that if the [winning] students maintained a certain grade point average, they would be entitled to an internship at City Hall. To my knowledge, there has been no follow-up. A representative from Ald. Mary Ann Smith's (48th) office pledged to have a lift installed in Justin's apartment, then he learned they ran out of funding. This kind of showcasing with no accountability of pledges is disgraceful, not to mention disheartening for the thousands of special needs students who lack proper support services.
We need a strong voice and proponent for this population in our community. We need to expose certain individuals who represent our communities to serve no one but themselves and their political careers. Insincere community leaders use the challenges of the disabled as leverage to ensure their popularity and reelection. Let's put further misrepresentations to a halt.
Kathryn Forestal
Smithfield/Coyne/DePaul
To the Editor:
I do not support the proposed plans for the Coyne property as presented and modified by Smithfield Properties.
I have lived just west of the site since 1978 and am past President and a board member for 17 years of the local community group, The Sheffield Neighborhood Association.
Additionally, both my father and wife have taught at DePaul University.
The current proposal is unacceptable due to the excessive increase in the density/F.A.R., lack of adequate on-site parking, and exceptional height that will create a canyon effect along Fullerton Avenue. The exposed steel beam and glass construction is not aesthetically appealing and does not conform to the prevalent architectural character of the community. DePaul's recent construction projects included brick and stone exteriors that enhance the community rather than detract from the overall streetscape.
The community has a long-standing relation with DePaul and through their Community Relations Committee have discussed and negotiated past University construction and expansion projects with community input and feedback. Unfortunately, we are now presented with a proposal from a private developer that limits the amount of community and University input towards achieving a balance of the respective interests of the parties.
I am aware that DePaul has long attempted to purchase the Coyne site and assume that Smithfield outbid them due in part to their participation in the Coyne relocation site project, and more importantly, due to their purchasing the property based upon their expectation of receiving approval for the re-zoning of the property from manufacturing to the proposed P.U.D.
While their business model of purchasing a property based upon their assumption that they can have the Zoning Code amended to accommodate them, along with not-for profit bond financing and guaranteed leasing by DePaul for the life of the bonds is highly creative, the result is to artificially inflate the value of the property based on otherwise normal re-zoning and density expectations.
In short, there is no compelling reason to approve of Smithfield's proposal. The neighborhood should not be burdened by a developer's self created economic necessity of building such a massive structure to justify their inflated purchase price.
DePaul has other options for an increase in student housing, including building on their much larger site at the corner of Fullerton and Sheffield, or at one of their other properties. The Baby Factory site just east of Coyne is currently available also.
It is time to stop negotiating minor cosmetic issues and for the community and Alderman to just say no to the proposal.
John J. Lag
Lincoln Park
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