It has recently come to my attention that one of the biggest points of contention among those folks who attend neighborhood planning meetings is that many of the long term residents of the neighborhood who own single family homes or those who were some of the first to buy condos up here is that they are concerned that the neighborhood will become overdeveloped - driving up taxes, creating a lack of affordable housing, or conversely creating a glut of affordable housing that will sit empty, etc...

Many of these arguments to slow the progress of development may be valid, but my worry is this: In a neighborhood that has been "The Next Big Thing" year after year, only to see development fall far short of projections, maybe these people are impeding the process for the wrong reasons. Maybe they don't want the population to increase because they don't want to share the parks, beaches, and parking. Maybe they they are worried their property taxes will go up. Maybe, they don't want to look at a new building filled with condo units that middle class families can actually afford to buy. I am not saying that these aren't legitimate beefs. I just want people to be honest about it.

People can be greedy and selfish sometimes, myself included. I'm not proud of it but I am not going to compound my flaws by lying and hiding behind a facade of being the social conscience of the neighborhood. If I drove, (and I know many perople up here that do) I'd probably complain about parking too. If I had a single family home with a yard, I'd probably be upset if someone built a huge development right next door. My property value might go up and I might have to pay more in taxes. It sucks. But let's face it, it's happening everywhere.

I lived in Lincoln Square for several years and when I went to buy of course I wanted to buy in the neighborhood I already called home. Problem was, once I got married and started looking, I was priced out! So we searched and searched and searched and finally found a nice place on a nice street up here that we could afford. When I see other buildings being converted and hear people complaining about gentrification and development, I am torn. I was priced out of my neighborhood and here I am doing the same thing to folks even less fortunate than myself. It makes me feel guilty sometimes but hopefully with sound planning we can preserve a diverse community here in Rogers Park.

We need development here. Before any development had taken place back in the early and mid 90s I lived on Eastlake Terrace between Howard and Rogers. I was harassed by gang bangers and drug dealers were everywhere. I had to drive everywhere I went. I would never have considered buying back then. Thanks to some folks more adventurous than myself who did choose to buy here and renovate and develop, things have changed for the better. Now some of those same folks want it to stop. They probably feel entitled a bit since they weathered the rougher days. I can understand that, I felt that way when I left Lincoln Square.

What I am trying to say is this: Change is sometimes painful. Noone will argue that, but change is also the only thing that is going to make this neighborhood a better place to live. If you want less crime, increase the number of home OWNERS who have a vested interest in the property and will call the police on drug dealers and taggers. If you want more police, increase population density a bit and we will get more officers to patrol the streets. If you want more shops in the vacant eye sore that is the Gateway center, attract more middle class families to the neighborhood. People don't open shops until they have done market research to see if it is lucrative to do so. Let's face it folks, it may not be the best system but it's the way the world works.

I think we need increased development that is well planned to best benefit the majority of the citizens who live here. I don't think we have to run everybody out of the nighborhood and start from scratch to do that but there are going to be challenges. We can't isolate ourselves from the rest of the city and expect city hall to take care of all our problems. They know how the system works and when the majority of the city is on board with that program they aren't going to change it for us.