About 100 Glenview residents were at Park Center September 23 to share their thoughts on downtown redevelopment.  Consultants S.B. Friedman, The Lakota Group and KLOA began the evening with a presentation of past downtown studies and a summary of regional trends in downtown development.

Participants then viewed a slide show that highlighted six categories: town homes, condominiums, retail, mixed-use, parking and streetscape.  During the rapid-fire show, residents were asked to assign a number from one to five for each development, depending on how much they liked it.

They then broke into small groups to brainstorm and come up with a list of five areas in the downtown that are ripe for change.  The small groups’ suggestions were posted in the hall, and residents were given three sticky dots – told to put them by their three top areas of concern.

Some participants were upset, however, when they found key suggestions missing.  Several groups had called for “slow growth” downtown – limited change and minimal public subsidies for redevelopment, and many thought buildings higher than two stories on Glenview Road would be too tall.

Village Hall is now inviting feedback from anyone who missed the meeting by e-mail (joanneh@glenview.il.us), fax (847-724-1752) or phone  (847-904-4340) or mail (Development Department, 1225 Waukegan Road, Glenview, IL  60025.)

Editor’s note:  A spokesman for Village Hall said the evening “was really a chance to define a wish list not influenced by economic or financial considerations.  As the process moves forward, both will be brought to bear on the original vision, and together the community will work through the various trade-offs in order to come up with a desirable and workable  Downtown Plan,” wrote Communications Director Janet Spector Bishop.

Translation:  People can say whatever they like about downtown, but the market will ultimately decide what happens there, guided – no doubt – by whatever taxpayer-funded freebies the trustees care to hand out for their pet projects.  Glenview has put the public through this process several times before, but nothing has come of these feel-good exercises.  We’d be very surprised if this year’s public input makes any difference. 

Maybe that’s why no effort was made to vet participants.  People who attended the Park Center forum may not have been residents at all.  Some could have been developers.  Others might own property they hope to sell to the highest bidder.  For those interests, the bigger the project, the bigger the bucks, yet their opinions would presumably count as much as residents who care more about good planning and a better quality of life for Glenview.

A story in Crain’s Chicago Business suggests The Glen has been divisive and costly to the community, and diversion of tax dollars from our schools and park district will continue for more than a decade.

Apparently referring to its central location, Redevelopment Director Don Owen referred tp The Glen as “the hole in the donut."  He told reporter John Slania, "We wanted to be the master developer, because if things went wrong, it could have destroyed Glenview."

But Slania quotes local merchants who think The Glen has destroyed Glenview.   The owner of one Glenview Road gift shop, A Little Something, told him, “Glenview used to be like Mayberry.  Now it’s old town Glenview versus The Glen.  The town has been split in two.”

The owner of a neighboring boutique, The Cat’s Meow, told Crain’s, “You’ve got an entire separate city in there.  No one ever needs to drive out.”  Richard Gernady said he’s had only one customer from The Glen since families began moving in there, and overall his business is down 20%.

Meanwhile, the village provided $76.5 million in economic incentives to OliverMcMillan, developer of The Glen Town Center and $5 million to its anchor tenant, Von Maur.  

OliverMcMillan told Crain’s that the vacancy rate for that new shopping center is 6 percent, and most of the customers live no more than three miles from The Glen.  The developer’s goal is to draw from a five-mile radius, but Dene Oliver said that would not be easy given North Shore competition.  His game plan includes erecting large signs on Willow Road and Lake Avenue and doing mass mailings to neighboring communities.

Crain’s also notes that one-fourth of the land at the Prairie Glen Corporate Campus remains vacant.  Glenview offered more than $2.6 million to attract tenants there, bring the total community expenditure at The Glen to $480 million.

Village President Larry Carlson isn’t worried.  “I had a hard time digesting the idea of giving incentives,” he told Crain’s, “but that’s the reality of today’s marketplace, and over time it’s going to pay dividends.”

Over how much time?  The story now suggests Glenview is looking at retiring the tax increment financing plan that has given us The Glen in 2015.

Editor’s note:  By now, Glenview should be getting the picture.  The Glen isn’t the donut hole.  For current residents, it’s the black hole – sucking in community resources that will not be seen again until all of the students in Glenview’s school districts 34 and 225 have graduated and many of the park district’s patrons have moved to Florida.

Jim Von Maur says traffic is down at most department stores around the country, and the new stores opened by his family-owned firm “usually start slow because we don’t have big promotions or clearance sales,” but Von Maur says he’s optimistic about prospects at The Glen and has no plans to close.

“Our business in Glenview is getting better each month,” he told The Watch. “With all the restaurants opening, it’s even more of a destination, so more people are discovering us.”

Selling points at all 22 Von Maur stores include personal service and interest-free charge cards.  In Glenview, customers are also drawn by a vintage airplane suspended from the store’s ceiling and an animatronic man patterned after World War II’s General Montgomery.  Put a quarter in the slot, and Captain Smitty tells customers about the history of the former Glenview Naval Air Station. 

We asked Von Maur where the quarters go.  “Into Smitty’s retirement fund,” he replied.

-- Earlier this year, the Watch reported Glenview’s largest elementary school district had missed out on up to $200,000 in federal money available for technology-related expenses.  Under a program called E-rate, District 34 was eligible for $100,000 in 2003-2004 and another $100,000 this year, but administrators missed the deadline for application. 

Now, the district is under investigation for software piracy.  An industry group that represents Microsoft, Adobe, Macromedia and other software makers was apparently tipped off through its hotline and wrote to Glenview asking to see proof that all uses of software were licensed.  Superintendent Gerald Hill says the district submitted the documentation it had and is now waiting for a response from the Business Software Alliance.  The organization recently won a settlement of $100,000 from the Metabolife company, but a spokesman told the Pioneer Press that the alliance would look favorably on an organization “working their situation out.”  District 34 was revamping its record-keeping and software installation policies in July when it received a letter from the watchdog group.

-- School District 63 is feeling the pain of budget cuts after voters refused to raise taxes.  Some classes in Maine Township have close to 40 students, and the band program has been eliminated.  The school board is now looking at offering band through a private vendor at a cost of $30 per month per student.

While 49 Chicago-area communities have been ordered to come up with a plan for increasing the amount of affordable housing they offer, Glenview has won a pass from the state after its analysis found 12.5 percent of local housing units are affordable.  For single-family homes or condos, the market value could not exceed $125,244 and rental units could run no more than $750 a month.

In submitting data, Village Hall included 80 apartments at Patten House, 62 units at Depot Square, 24 apartments at Valley Lo, 450 mobile homes, 400 units built by the Navy at the former air station and 75 percent of the 144 apartments it plans to offer at Thomas House, a senior citizens’ residence to be built on Patriot Boulevard.

 Many other North Shore communities are scrambling to figure out how they can add low-priced housing, and a few are already saying they will not comply with the state requirement because they don’t have to.  Like Glenview, Northbrook and Deerfield operate under powers of home rule, and their lawyers believe home rule municipalities are exempt from Illinois’ affordable housing requirements.

-- After a vigorous protest, the park district won exemption from oversight by Glenview’s historic preservation commission.  The park board argued they had their own ordinance providing for historic designation of property.  Last week, the board voted unanimously to declare Wagner Farm a historic landmark.  Any proposed changes to the property will now be submitted to the park district’s own historic building and grounds commission for comments before the board votes on whether and how to proceed.  The district says it will also seek a listing on the National Register of Historic Places – a change that would trigger state oversight for any modifications to the property.

-- Wagner Farm is about to be famous.  Officials say it provided the background for a TV commercial produced by the Jimmy Johns restaurant chain.  More than 40 people, a catering company, mobile homes and three turkeys showed up for the shoot.  Members of the park board were pleased by the attention but lamented the fee collected – just $600.  Parks President John Winand recalled his father used to rent his RV to local film crews in search of dressing rooms for celebrities.  The daily fee was $2,000.

-- The park district’s Director of Leisure Services Bob Quill and Farm Director Todd Price are back from a trip to Vermont where they toured a couple of historic farms and took extensive notes.  Quill said some of the ideas they got can be applied to the new visitors’ center being built at Wagner Farm. Of particular interest, a cheese-making operation and gift shops.

-- Director Price is still chuckling over an educational program already in place here. It’s designed to teach families about dairy farming.  The class runs 90 minutes, and Price spends a lot of time talking about cows and what they do for us.  After a recent lecture, he recalls: “With a totally serious face that only the innocent have, one of the little girls asked a question that I will be passing on for years to come: ‘If a cow laughs really hard, will milk come out of her nose?’”

-- Anxious Glenview parents may put their children on multiple waiting lists and write deposit checks for several park district programs to be sure their kids have something to do with their spare time, and the practice is making mounds of work for park district staff.  This year, the district issued 4,198 refunds.  More than half were due to a change of mind or schedule conflict.  Mary Van Arsdale, director of recreation services, says the long waiting lists are misleading, and some families decide to enroll in other programs because they don’t think space will open in Glenview.  In fact, most youngsters do get in, but Van Arsdale says there’s lots of last-minute scheduling.  Parks Commissioner M.J. Coulson also noted that “writing all those checks drives our labor costs up.” She and the other board members voted to raise the current processing fee on refunds from $4 to a maximum of $15. 

-- Staffers charged with renting the Schram Memorial Museum at The Glen for weddings and other social events say they’re having trouble in part because of the name.  “The first reaction we often get is, ‘A museum?  I don’t want to get married in a museum,” says Marketing Director Diane Vragel.  The current name was chosen and a cross on the steeple removed to avoid any appearance that Glenview was mixing church and state functions, but the district’s attorney says it would be fine to call it “the former Navy chapel,” on signs and in ads. 

-- The district voted to spend $80,000 on a sprinkler system for the new concession stand at Roosevelt Pool.  Parks President John Winand objected, noting there are multiple exits from the building, and it will only be used for three months of the year.  Glenview’s building code does not require sprinklers, but the other board members voted to spend the money.  Commissioner Doug Kaiser considered the idle months and concluded, “With no one around, vandalism or a lightning strike could wipe out the building.”

The Democrat running for Congress from the North Shore’s 10^th District says the incumbent doesn’t want constituents to know about his conservative Republican voting record.  Challenger Lee Goodman calls for a dozen debates in different parts of the district, but Congressman Mark Kirk says his busy schedule in Washington won’t permit more than a couple of appearances – one in Arlington Heights and another in Waukegan.  

“Since I’m a congressman, my primary duty is voting on legislation, and when we’re in session, I have to be in Washington,” Kirk told the Pioneer Press.  In fact, Kirk has missed several controversial votes, including one which occurred while he was campaigning with President George Bush at a private rally in Glenview.

Noting that Kirk agreed to 30 debates in his first bid for a congressional seat, Goodman concluded, “He knows his views are out of step with what the people of this district want.”

Kirk pointed out that he had been endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters and Planned Parenthood. 

A non-partisan information-gathering group called Project Vote Smart tried to learn more about Kirk’s views.  Its website reports: “Representative Mark Steven Kirk repeatedly refused to provide any responses to citizens on issues through the 2004 National Political Awareness Test. [Kirk] refused to provide this information when asked to do so by major news organizations and key national leaders of both parties including Republican Senator John McCain.”

This year’s election is proving so hot that campaign lawn signs are disappearing at record rates.  A woman from Winnetka told the Pioneer Press her Kerry sign had been stolen three times, even though she planted it in a bed of thorny roses.

In Wilmette, a man said his Bush-Cheney sign had been kicked through twice in a week, and a Winnetka resident received an anonymous letter in his mailbox warning that the Bush-Cheney sign in his front yard would cause “hundreds of people who are driving by every day to think of you as an idiot who doesn’t know what is going on.”

Joan Berman of the New Trier Democrats told reporter John Kelly that she had fielded dozens of calls for replacements from residents whose Kerry-Edwards signs were swiped.

Judd Thompson appreciates the generosity of Glenview readers who are helping him supply one of this nation’s poorest communities with clothing and blankets for the winter.  He heads to the Indian reservation at Wounded Knee later this month and writes: “Many of your readers sent us fine clothing to take with us the weekend of October 15th.  The families on the Rez thank you.”

Our efforts to secure used computers and get them to a school on the north coast of Honduras continue with terrific input from readers.  Kimberly Kretekos, a flight attendant for American Airlines, wrote to tell us, “There is an organization called Airline Ambassadors that provides humanitarian aid to such places.  I don't know if they can help you but it's worth a try:  http://www.airlineamb.org/ “

And Ginny Guerrant had another idea: “My sister used to live on Roatan, an island off the coast of Honduras. The islanders always used Jackson Shipping, a local company run by an island family. Jackson Shipping is also based in Tampa. Maybe they could help you out. Their phone number is 1-888-626-9531 and their address is 5353 W. Tyson Ave., Building C, Tampa, FL 33611.”

Our complaint against Dole – which regularly ships from Honduras but does not offer any charitable assistance outside the U.S. – sparked this response from CF:  “In regards to your suggestion to buy Chiquita and go FedEx, perhaps Dole isn't wrong to not donate overseas. While it may be very true that Latin America could use the computers, but what about the poor communities in this country that need them too? I haven't done any research on it, but I'm sure there are schools in the United States that may be in need. I'm not against supporting other nations, but I think it's important to take care of our own before we can take care of other countries.”

The Watch feels that’s a valid point, but in Dole's case there's a special obligation to Honduras.  The company has been growing their bananas there for more than a century, yet they do little for the locals who live in abject poverty.  A third of the population is said to be suffering from malaria at any given time.  Many of the children are undernourished, and the schools are terrible. 

It’s also worth noting that Dole isn’t doing much for poor North Americans either.  Their only charitable giving consists of an in-school nutrition education program designed to promote consumption of vegetables, fruit and juice sold by you know who. 

Anyone else like to have some community assistance in solving a problem?  Write us:  glenviewwatch@aol.com.

Sign up for the following free programs by calling 729-7500, extension 112:

-- Like some free advice from a financial planner?  Sign-up for a consultation on October 6 at the Glenview Public Library.  The Financial Planning Association of Illinois will have a certified planner on duty from 9 a.m. to noon. 

-- Also on October 6, Bill Hinchliff will speak about Chicago’s many ethnic neighborhoods at 7 p.m. in the Maynard Room. 

-- “Inside the Two Koreas” is the title of a talk Jim Kenney of Common Ground will give on October 7 at 7 p.m. in the Maynard Room.  Kenney will explore the history, religion, demographics, economics and politics that shape North and South Korea.

-- At 7 p.m. on Tuesday, October 12 a string quartet from the Paderewski Symphony Orchestra will perform .

JH laments Glenview’s decision to settle for Staples’ across from Carillon Square:  “Your ‘good enough for Glenview’ headline hit the mark.  One of the toughest planning issues we face is marginal improvements around town.  We want anything better than what's there but then are stuck with it for years.”

And BD agrees with another reader who wanted a development more like Carillon at the current Osco site on Waukegan Road north of Lake Avenue:  “The person who wrote in complaining about the new Staples. . .they are so right on.  The new builiding needs to evoke Carillon to upstage the Glen Oak Plaza mess.”

Noting that Bart the Bull and his buddies at the Animal Rescue and Farm Sanctuary must move again, B added: “Poor Bart and the other animals! To think we all have to go through this torture just because the park district doesn't like the looks of old animals standing around their model farm.”

BL writes about the controversial Canaan Church parking lot – available to Westbrook School but placed off limits by village trustees:  “I’m wondering which neighborhood residents supposedly got a notice for a meeting about the parking at the Canaan Church. I am treasurer for Belwood Lane Homeowners, east of the parking lot, and I did not get a notice. Did this only go out to Lakewood Place? This issue impacts us, too! We can’t drive down Greenwood safely during these events because people park illegally northbound along Greenwood.  Canaan has used Westbrook’s parking lot and playground for years and now when they can finally offer 10 days a year of convenience for Westbrook parents and the neighbors  the trustees turn it down?” 

JW wants details on the possible location of a new post office: “Do you know where in The Glen they are considering building the new post office? My hope is its not by the new train stop.  Seems if they built here, it would just create another problem 10-20 years from now that the post office is on land near the train that other businesses want like it is now.”

The Watch replies:  The only site offered by the village so far is a parcel far from the new Metra station.  It sits on Patriot Boulevard, just north of the shopping strip anchored by Dominick’s.

Don Simon has these thoughts on the location of a new post office at The Glen:  “I hope the post office in Morton Grove on Waukegan is preparing for a significant increase in patronage when Glenview's post office relocates. Some of us are already heading that way, since we live in south Glenview.  When we’ve gone to the Glenview office, parking on Prairie Street has been tight, and the lines inside long. Morton Grove has much more parking , all off street, and plenty of handicapped spaces. I definitely will not be traveling to The Glen for my posting needs.”

GS is fired up over the neighbor’s smoke: “My bedroom (upper floor) was filled with smoke from a neighbor burning wood in an outdoor container.  What happened to the ordinance or law preventing people from burning wood, leaves or garbage outside?  Ever try to sleep with smoke lingering in your room?  How can we get back to banning pollution of this type?  Is there a law?  Also, with all of the people and kids having asthma (which I have) what do you think the smoke does to the lungs?”

The Watch replies:  Glenview ordinance does prohibit the use of those outdoor fireplaces, so the next time the neighbors light up, you’re within your rights to phone Glenview’s finest at 847-729-5000.  Hit zero and ask to have a squad car sent over.

Catherine Dean-Barrett writes in support of Beth Coulson’s re-election bid: “Quality health care is an issue central to many voters this year and perhaps the most important issue facing seniors.  With so many different health care problems facing seniors, we need people in Springfield who understand their needs, and that is why I am supporting State Representative Beth Coulson.”

The Watch replies:  That’s just one good reason to back Beth.  She should also be credited with excellent constituent service and a terrific track record on the environment.

 YOUR TURN:  Write to glenviewwatch@aol.com or 3537 Maple Leaf Drive, Glenview, IL 60026. If you haven’t already done so, please consider making a contribution to support The Watch. Non-deductible checks should be payable to Glenview Watch. Thanks for your support and for reading. Dean Schott and Sandy Hausman, Co-Editors.

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