posted by Elizabeth Fama
The four parking spaces Ald. Hairston is restoring are neatly pictured at the bottom of this February, 1982 photo of the west side of the Quadrangle Club. (Archival Photofiles [apf2-06083], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.)
Yesterday, Wednesday April 9th*, Alderman Leslie Hairston held a public meeting to talk about her removal of bus stop #171 from the corner of 57th and University. The meeting will be in Hutch Commons at 6:30 PM (5706 S. University Ave.).
*I'm so sorry I got the day wrong when I posted yesterday. Don't go to Hutch Commons tonight!
18 comments:
What a perfect illustration!
It is interesting to see those two sensible compact cars parked in the first two spaces, and in 1982 to boot.
Via Facebook (not the most reliable source I admit) I thought this meeting with Alderman Hairston took place yesterday and that the wise decision was made to keep the stop in its current location. I would love to hear if someone else can verify this or has heard something different.
How can four parking spaces be more important than hundreds of students who use that bus stop daily? I don't get that, but then again, I live on Blackstone and don't get how little attention our alderman pays to the St. Stephen's issue. I do not believe that she cannot do more, even if some of the neighbors are problematic. Graffiti increases all the time, it's littered with filth, and still no fence that keeps the kids/teens from partying inside the church. Policemen there in mass last weekend.
Hairston sees every existing parking spot as a vote for her, and every gained parking spot as another vote for her. She complains that Hyde Park NIMBYs always call her office complaining about lack of parking. This is how she views her constituency. Nothing terribly progressive about it. Plus, for the most part students have no voice in her ward because they either don't live there, don't vote, or both.
What her her fifth ward look like without the university? Included in that is the students, don't ya think?
April 9 is not Thursday. The meeting was last night, and she did approve the bus stop. See Hyde Park Urbanist.
Well, how about that. Sanity does occasionally prevail.
Now go y'all and check out Withrow's website and make ayeff happy.
Have to say, am a little surprised that neither the Maroon nor the Editor's Blog has posted anything about this on their respective websites, since they did such a good job (especially the former) covering it when it first blew up (and the latter let us filch that awesome cartoon of Hairston).
Clearly I should not be authorized to blog, given my state of mental acuity!
Regarding Hairston's claim that the phone calls to her office demand more parking spaces: this brings up a discussion we've had here often, about HOW the aldermen gather their community input. Phone calls and attendance at community meetings (like letters to the Herald, which all seem to be written by Maryal Stone Dale), may not represent the opinion of the neighborhood.
Hey Chicago Pop,
I'm surprised they didn't talk about it either. Although the Editor's Blog, which I normally love, has been strangely quiet of late. One of the writers on that one (Tim) is a friend of mine. I'll have to ask him what's going on...
I believe the best meetings are often the ones that took place yesterday.
Perhaps we should nominate Maryal Dale Stone for the HPP NIMBY of the Year Award. She has gone on record opposing multi-level residential buildings that have been proposed, taken issue with the Solstice building because it is "not in keeping with urban renewal values," doesn't want Stony Island to be turned into a "commercial strip without adequate parking," and advocated to keep the new Children's Museum out of Grant Park, and resists any concept of a new hotel on the Doctors Hospital site.
Here's the thing, I'm estimating her age to be around mid-70s (assuming she graduated college at age 22 in 1952, she should be turning 78 in 2008). So, on the one hand, she's probably retired and has plenty of time to pepper the Herald, the U of C Alumni Magazine, the Swarthmore Alumni Magazine, the Sun-Times, and various other publications with an on-going never-ending stream of letters. On the other, she's likely one out-sized voice that does not represent a large segment of the Hyde Park neighborhood. Going back to the Harper Court Survey, it looks like the "over 70" crowd only made up 5% of the total 1697 neighbors who participated in the survey.
Maryal Dale Stone is a classic case of the extremely LOUD minority that manages to obstruct any sort of progress in the neighborhood. Just the fact that she's still clinging to Urban Renewal tenets that have been thoroughly discredited for years now is clear demonstration that she's completely out of touch.
I officially nominate Maryal Dale Stone for NIMBY of the Year.
I believe the best meetings are often the ones that took place yesterday.
I'm glad to see that someone is keeping the spirit of the Marx Brothers alive in Hyde Park.
I officially nominate Maryal Dale Stone for NIMBY of the Year.
LPB has clearly done some research on Maryal Stone Dale. Though sounds like the latter has made it easy for anyone who cares to research her opinions. And to think how hard it is for some of us others to get anything published...
I was thinking of doing a NIMBY's Corner on a recent letter exchange in the Herald, with this title:
"Maryal Stone Dale & Joseph Kelly Debate Non-Existent Harper Court Project Using Outdated Information"
"Maryal Stone Dale & Joseph Kelly Debate Non-Existent Harper Court Project Using Outdated Information"
This tickles me. When they debate they should wear those masks that Lucha libre wrestlers wear. Perhaps caged badgers could also be near the podiums where they debate.
Sorry, it has been a odd day.
Wow, I'm glad to see people actually noticed we were gone. It's that whole "tree falls in a forest" thing...
I was able to make most of Hairston's meeting. It was pretty low-key (not that I was expecting anything like an Olympic torch rally) and as the end result suggests, she seemed pretty amenable to student concerns.
(http://the-editors.blogspot.com/2008/04/and-were-back.html)
Are there buses from 53rd and Harper area to Univ. of Chicago? Thanks for the help!
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