President of Wicker Park community
organization resigns as group continues internal battle over historic playground
VICE PRESIDENT, SECRETARY RESIGN AS WELL
By Peter von Buol
Special to Inside
A neighborhood battle over the preservation of a historic playground on North Avenue as well as the public release of a controversial written document in support of a developer who wishes to build on the site have caused the resignation of an embattled president of a Wicker Park community organization.
Described by some historians as "the oldest playground in Chicago" and located at 2150 W. North Ave., the playground once served children who attended programs at the former headquarters of the Association House social-services organization. Since the organization first announced plans to vacate gentrified Wicker Park for Humboldt Park, developers have been attracted to the nearly half-acre lot on North Ave.
At a community meeting at the Wicker Park Fieldhouse on Dec. 7, the president of the Wicker Park Committee (WPC), Gordon Ziegenhagen, offered his resignation but did not apologize for having sent a confidential faxed letter on Nov. 16 to the Chicago Landmarks Commission that contradicted his organization's official position.
At the WPC's November general meeting, the group had voted 34-11 against a proposal that would have supported a developer's plans for replacing the playground with residences.
The former headquarters of the Association House and its adjacent playground are both part of Wicker Park's federally-designated National Historic District. The social-services organization was initially founded in 1899 as a settlement house for immigrant women who lived in the Wicker Park neighborhood.
According to the organization's Web site, its early leaders were inspired by the work of social reformer Jane Addams and "helped young Scandinavian and German women and girls working in the nearby factories to find a place to spend their evenings away from neighborhood saloons."
Addams delivered the keynote address in 1905 when the cornerstone was laid for the organization's former headquarters. The historic Prairie-style headquarters building is not in jeopardy of being torn down and is now slated to be redeveloped as residential units.
Ziegenhagen had ostensibly sent the letter to the commission as a private citizen but he had also signed it as president of the community group. The document also had been signed by four other members of the group's preservation and development subcommittee; interior designer Joseph DuciBella, architect Aracely Nevarez, architect Claudia Skylar and real estate developer Mark Sutherland. All had signed in support of the developer's plan and listed their positions within the Wicker Park community organization.
While Ziegenhagen has said he sent the letter as a private citizen to a preservation architect at city's landmarks division, the first sentences of the faxed letter seem to dispute his claim:
"As long-standing members of the Wicker Park Committee Preservation Development subcommittee, we are writing in support of the current proposal—All of us are either current or former members of the WPC Board of Directors. Additionally, Joseph DuciBella was one of the neighborhood leaders who helped designate the Wicker Park Landmark District more than 15 years ago."
In his letter to the city, Ziegenhagen explained his reasons for first signing the community organization's official letter [which had opposed development of the park] and later writing a "personal letter" in which he and other group members actually contradicted the group's official position.
"Several newly-elected board members have conspired to exaggerate the true intentions of the residents of the Wicker Park neighborhood, primarily for purposes of rejecting this proposal," wrote Ziegenhagen in the letter dated Nov. 16, 2005.
In the letter, Ziegenhagen blasted what he called "a small but vocal group of neighbors most of whom either live directly adjacent to or within sight of the parcel, that have waged a legal and political battle to preserve the vacant land as open space."
Interestingly, none of the five subcommittee members submitted a copy of the letter to the rest of the Wicker Park community organization. The general membership obtained access to the letter when a member received a response to a Freedom Of Information request at City Hall.
During his resignation speech, Ziegenhagen described his efforts on behalf of the organization and cited a list of his own accomplishments for the neighborhood organization.
Ziegenhagen said he had joined the community organization in 1998 because of his special interests in architecture and design and added he had been attracted to Wicker Park due to "its historic charm and beauty."
When Ziegenhagen assumed the group's presidency last month, he said he believed his service as president would be beneficial the entire community.
"The WPC Presidency, I felt, was a role where I could really make a difference for the neighborhood, particularly to jump-start some of the long-discussed, but inactive projects such as improving neighborhood signage and expanding the landmark district. I also felt that I could help mitigate some of the rancor related to the proposed Association House project."
Ziegenhagen, however, said as soon as he assumed the role of president, some within the organization began to undermine his ability to serve.
"From the opening minutes I was elected president, I feel I have been treated with contempt, disrespect, and hostility. This has left me deeply saddened. And I question why I would want to volunteer my time to be around such hatred. Particularly after all I have given to this community to be treated in this manner is reprehensible," added Ziegenhagen.
In the last sentence of his page-long speech, Ziegenhagen announced his resignation.
"I feel I can no longer work in this environment of negativity and wish to step down from this post effective immediately," said Ziegenhagen.
Immediately after Ziegenhagen's speech, the group's vice president, Susan Hill, also resigned, as did the group's secretary, Laura Hunt. Hill's husband, Ron Barrett, a director of the group, also resigned. All agreed disharmony had proven counterproductive to the Wicker Park community group. While Ziegenhagen remained seated throughout the meeting, Hunt, Barrett and Hill immediately left the fieldhouse building.
Close to the end of the meeting, the organization's current director and former president, Alvin Joyner, praised the accomplishments of Ziegenhagen and evoked the "House Divided" speech of President Abraham Lincoln. Joyner called for divisions within the organization to be healed and said that all members of the Wicker Park organization should work together for common goals and concerns.
After the meeting, Joyner said that while he had appreciated all Ziegenhagen had done for the organization, it had been wrong for him to try to undermine the official position of the WPC when his personal letter to the city Landmarks Commission included his position within the community organization.
Despite sending the letter, Joyner says Ziegenhagen could have remained president had he just apologized to the board for making a mistake. "We all make mistakes. He just should have apologized," said Joyner. |
