posted by chicago pop
5490 South Shore Drive Backyard:
Room for 30 Cars
Room for 30 Cars
The image above comes to you courtesy of HPP's NIMBY surveillance drone. It is the "backyard" of the ten story, vintage lakefront cooperative building at 5490 South Shore Drive.
We're posting this now -- two days before the community meeting on redevelopment plans for the next door Shoreland Hotel -- because the only real objections to MAC Property's plans for the Shoreland have come from residents of this building, which we estimate to be occupied by about 20 households.
Those objections have been unusually self-interested, even for Hyde Park. In essence, they amount to this: you can't redevelop the Shoreland unless you promise us more and better parking, something which we've never had, and something which no one owes us.
Even though we have this nice big lawn out back with nothing on it but a swing set for the two times a year our grandchildren come to visit.
Sounds like a fair deal, no? An additional perk for 20 households vs. an obvious benefit for all of Hyde Park.
Support MAC's plans for Shoreland redevelopment, and support a great deal for ALL of Hyde Park.
We're posting this now -- two days before the community meeting on redevelopment plans for the next door Shoreland Hotel -- because the only real objections to MAC Property's plans for the Shoreland have come from residents of this building, which we estimate to be occupied by about 20 households.
Those objections have been unusually self-interested, even for Hyde Park. In essence, they amount to this: you can't redevelop the Shoreland unless you promise us more and better parking, something which we've never had, and something which no one owes us.
Even though we have this nice big lawn out back with nothing on it but a swing set for the two times a year our grandchildren come to visit.
Sounds like a fair deal, no? An additional perk for 20 households vs. an obvious benefit for all of Hyde Park.
Support MAC's plans for Shoreland redevelopment, and support a great deal for ALL of Hyde Park.
14 comments:
That empty space behind 5490 was noted by me at a public meeting some nine months ago, and I asked the question - why doesn't 5490 use that space for the parking they say they so desperately need?
The question fell on deaf ears, it seems. I guess the answer is that they don't want to use their own property. It's a whole lot better to use someone else's property, especially if you can get it for free. Alderman Hairston was quoted in the Herald as saying that nothing would happen until 5490 is completely satisfied. The heck with everyone else, I suppose. Is that what is meant by "listening to the constituency?"
I thought I heard somebody from 5490 at the same meeting reply that they either didn't own or didn't control that space. It seemed like an odd claim to make unless there was something behind it.
Ahhhh...the rich fabric of Hyde Park.
5490 owns the lot question; whoever stated otherwise must have been mistaken, or thinking of a
different piece of property.
I was hoping you could take an aerial photo of MY backyard, and that there might be a similar parcel of land that I'd been heretofore unaware of.
I promise to pretend not to know much about it.
A surface lot in that space could probably fit 10-12 cars. To accommodate all the 5490 residents to the degree that they feel entitled would require a small parking structure, probably 2-3 levels.
But that would block their "viewshed" of The Cove's brick wall.
Twenty cars, maybe more, could be stabled there at ground level. But even if it's 10 or 12, they refuse to use it to alleviate their parking problem to any extent.
Perhaps MAC could buy everybody in 5490 a Smart Car and then they'd all fit in that back lot.
But even if it's 10 or 12, they refuse to use it to alleviate their parking problem to any extent.
Of course, but then they'd have to pay higher assessments. Why do that when they and the idiot alderman can hold a neighbor's project hostage until they agree to provide it for free?
Good neighbors!
It may be that because it's a condo association, everyone would have to vote to turn the backyard into a parking lot, and there are some vocal opponents among the residents?
Is Joni Mitchell involved in this somehow?
Did anybody notice in the Herald that the 5490 dropped opposition because they were given parking spaces in the future Shoreland.I bet you that was their goal all along, i guess extortion is the way way things work in chicago. I am only hoping that the shoreland developers didn't give the spaces to 5490, but are instead giving them priority in renting the spots. If they gave them the spots that might make the building harder to sell in the future. I also hope the developers told 5490 that it was the last concession they were making. Their might be a gym included in the shoreland project, and i can imagine 5490 demanding free access. The problem with accepting extortion is that it never ends.
Lightningrod posted the following comment just now (7.2.2010)and I accidently deleted it. Here it is:
Did anybody notice in the Herald that the 5490 dropped opposition because they were given parking spaces in the future Shoreland.I bet you that was their goal all along, i guess extortion is the way way things work in chicago. I am only hoping that the shoreland developers didn't give the spaces to 5490, but are instead giving them priority in renting the spots. If they gave them the spots that might make the building harder to sell in the future. I also hope the developers told 5490 that it was the last concession they were making. Their might be a gym included in the shoreland project, and i can imagine 5490 demanding free access. The problem with accepting extortion is that it never ends.
Lightningrod: yes, we saw that, but both parties (MAC and 5490) have been tight-lipped about whatever deal they struck, and so we don't know what the arrangement is. I suspect it was more along the lines you describe, given the support the 5490 residents had from Alderman Hairston.
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