Sunday, February 27, 2005

Senn H.S. hearing next Monday : Updated

Though I wish it weren't so, it's been decided... The Department of Defense and the Chicago Public Schools plan to convert a portion of Nicholas Senn High School (5900 N. Glenwood) into a military academy.

So I'm not entirely clear as to the purpose of the meeting this coming Monday. It's been described to me as the "Alderman's Committee meeting." At the very least, it gives people in the community an opportunity to learn more about the project. If you care about this issue, be there at Senn at 6:30pm, Monday, February 28. Room is TBD -- maybe signs will be posted.

update 2/25/05: I corrected the school's address from 5800 to 5900. I'm still waiting to get confirmation on the time and location of the meeting.

update 2/27/05: Time and location confirmed! And I bumped the entry back up to the top of the page.

Saturday, February 26, 2005

Finally ditching the modem

I finally upgraded from dialup to broadband. Huzzah! Well, maybe it's too early for huzzahs... I'm not so crazy about Comcast, especially after that time they parked their van in front of my garage, preventing me from getting to work. But it's either them or RCN. And now I've got fast internet that doesn't tie up the phone lines.

Speed doesn't come cheap. The service itself is $45 per month. Cable modem rental, $3. Then, since my apartment isn't wired for cable TV, I needed a wireless router. Apple's AirPort Extreme BaseStation sells for $200, but Linksys sells essentially the same thing for $70 ($50 after rebates). But we're not done yet! Although Apple says that the Mac G5's all come with built-in wireless capability, that claim is a bit deceiving; except for the antenna and the daugtherboard connector, the wireless hardware does not come installed on the motherboard. So I still needed to buy the Apple AirPort Extreme daughterboard for $80.

Murray's Auto Supply: Zoning

This could be nothing. But there's a request for a zoning change for the shopping center at 5200-5250 N. Broadway. This also includes Dr. Wax, GNC, and Pizzeria Aroma on Berwyn.

NO. A-5543 (48TH WARD) ORDINANCE REFERRED (5-5-04)

To classify as B3-2 General Retail District, instead of B4-3 Restricted Service District, the area bounded by
West Berwyn Avenue; North Broadway Avenue; West Foster Avenue; the public alley next west and parallel to North Broadway Avenue

(Map 13-G) 5200-50 North Broadway Avenue

I'm not sure what to make of this. Does the owner of the property have plans to develop something on the site? Or is the zoning change only intended to match the zoning with the existing use? What is B4-3, anyway? I can't find it in the Chicago zoning code.

I suspect this is just to correct an error in the zoning map to match what is already built. Looking at the code, it appears that the "dash" number means the same thing regardless of the "B" number. So just as B1-2 is medium sized retail, no taller than 4 stories, B3-2 would be a medium sized shopping mall, no taller than 4 stories. And that's what's there now.

Thursday, February 24, 2005

EBNA Edge website inactive until further notice

Sure, it's still there at ebnaedge.blogspot.com, and you can post comments if you want. But the front page hasn't been updated since November, and at this past Tuesday's EBNA meeting, I got confirmation that it is no longer being maintained.

If EBNA decides that it is desirable to revive the blog... I might be persuaded to take that on.

Friday, February 18, 2005

On the Guaranteed Benefit of Social Security

One day this week, I got home early and caught the end of The News Hour on PBS. They had two policy experts on, one on each side of the Social Security issue. The guy who was pushing the Bush plan was Dinesh D'Souza.

While watching, I had no idea who this guy was; I just knew I disagreed with most everything he said. So who is he? Despite the Portuguese family name, he is, as his given name suggests, Indian. He studied at Dartmouth College, where he was founder and editor of a controversial conservative rag called the Dartmouth Review. Later, he was picked up by the right wing think tank American Enterprise Institute (AEI). He has authored numerous controversial books, most notably The End of Racism; in it, he defends black/white segregation in the US on the grounds it allowed blacks "to perform to the capacity of their arrested development." Between 1988 and 2001, he has received grants totaling $1.6 million from two right wing foundations: the John M. Olin Foundation and the Bradley Foundation, both of which fund the AEI. D'Souza, disparagingly called "Distort D'Newsa" by some, is currently a fellow at the Hoover Institution. Judging from what I've read, I'd judge him to be a crackpot, but I guess certain moneyed interests like what he has to say. Anyway, the purpose of this entry is not to bash D'Souza. I was talking about Social Security... Now, where was I?

In his appearance on The News Hour, D'Souza made a howler of a claim in support of Social Security reform. He said that the whole idea of providing a guaranteed benefit was unfair because the older generation that receives the benefit possesses more aggregate wealth than the younger generation that pays the payroll tax. D'Souza's frame: Social Security is the poor subsidizing the rich.

Now, it is true that the average 65-year-old retiree possesses more wealth than the average 25-year-old worker. After all, that 25-year-old worker has not had much time to accumulate wealth.

But the word average is the key to uncovering D'Souza's deception (ooh, I like how that rolls off the tongue). Since there are many 65-year-olds who never earned enough income during their working years to accumulate wealth, it follows that disparities in wealth will be greatest among seniors. The poor elderly are no less poor because they are elderly; in fact, they are worse off than the young because they are generally less able to work for a living. So removing Social Security's guaranteed benefit would condemn them to destitution.

Thursday, February 17, 2005

How much will the Bush Social Security plan cost you?

Try this calculator.

It says that my benefits will be reduced by 24% under the Bush privatization plan. Interestingly, that's about the same amount benefits would need to be reduced if NOTHING were done, and the Social Security trust fund were allowed to be depleted. (Which won't happen for another 50 years, according to the most recent estimate.) If you're younger than me, you'll see a bigger reduction in benefits; older, and you'll see a smaller reduction.

This issue deserves a deeper analysis -- for another day, if I get around to it. (Blogging is hard work!) Right now, I gotta get to band practice.

EBNA Edge seems to be inactive

The EBNA Edge, blog of the Edgewater Beach Neighbors Association, no longer seems to be in active use. I haven't asked the owner of the blog, but I plan to see her at the EBNA meeting next Tuesday and can verify then. The one and only posting on the blog dates back to November 28, 2004.

Friday, February 04, 2005

Fear of the terrible condominium

At last week's EBNA meeting, in addition to the Broadway development presentation, we had a vote on a zoning variance that a developer was requesting. By a small margin, the motion in favor of the variance passed. I was on the fence but decided to cast my vote with the ayes. Was it a mistake?

The property in question is 5217 N. Winthrop Ave., near the southern boundary of Edgewater. I'll try to touch on the main points of the project without going into too much detail.

It's a 6-flat, currently an SRO, and sits on land zoned as RM-4, which allows for smallish multiple household buildings such as 2-flats, 3-flats, and 6-flats. The developer would like do a gut rehab in which he plans to put in garden-level units plus an extra floor on top, making 10 units altogether. To get the extra floor, the developer needs a spot upzone to RM-4.5.

To the developer's credit, he has made a good effort to address the concerns of the community. So I think there is good reason to support the zoning variance. Then again, he could probably make a profit, albeit a smaller one, without the extra floor.

What worries me is that some of the community's support might have been from fear of the worse alternative. And recent history has taught us to fear. What if this plan were to be scrapped, and we ended up with another Kilkee building?

Ah, the Kilkee building we love to hate. This is a new building just across the street from 5217 at 5218 N. Winthrop. When I moved into the neighborhood, a run-down frame house stood on the site and was torn down two weeks later. What has replaced it is an object of much derision, though I'm sure the units will have little trouble selling.

In the planning phase, the community expressed concerns about the design. The proposed building was too tall, it was set too close to the street, the facade was too plain, etc. I wasn't involved then, so I don't know all the details, but eventually people were satisfied that at least some of the concerns would be addressed. But we were wrong. So now we have a building in the middle of the block that looks like an encyclopedia volume stuck in the middle of a shelf of paperback novels. In the back, eight garages were shoehorned in so that the rear windows on the first floor are right up against the side of the garage. Nice.