October 31, 1998
...And That's
My Opinionã
The Tortoise and the
Hare...
Let's Play "What
If...?"
By the Rogers Park
Curmudgeon (see July 1, 1998 Column)
What if... the Hare hadn't
stopped?
(Hint: The Tortoise would
not have won.)
What if...Homer Johnson had
beaten David Orr in the aldermanic election of 1979?
What if...Bob Clark had
beaten Joe Moore ---years later?
What if...St. Jerome Church
had not funded the Howard Area Community Center?
What if...Paulina Street
had never been voted dry?
What if...the original Rogers
Park Community Council had not sent bags of beach sand to the original Mayor
Daley, thus preventing development on the Lakefront?
What if...Rev. Bob
Tschannen-Moran had not established his church on Paulina?
What if...KFC had never
opened?
What if...the community had
acted on the recommendations of the Melaniphy and Associates for Howard Street
or accepted the Rubloff Company's development plan for the same area in 1986?
What if...the concept of
Multiplex Theaters had been raised before the Granada Theatre was razed?
What if...condominiums had
been around before the nursing homes came around? What would Sheridan Road look
like?
What if...Dutch Elm disease
had not decimated the trees of Rogers Park in the 1960's?
What if ...Ashkenaz Deli,
Seena's Dress Shop and Morry's Men's Wear had stayed open on Morse Avenue?
What if...Loyola University
had never begun expansion?
What if ...St. Jerome and
St. Ignatius had not closed their schools?
What if...Temple Mitzpah,
the Jewish Community Center and the Council for Jewish Elderly had kept their
facilities open in Rogers Park?
What if...Peoples Housing
had managed their buildings in a professional manner?
What if...Alderman Stone's
wall in West Roger Park had been permanent?
What if...Allied North Side
Community Organizations (ANSCO), led by the original Rogers Park
Community Council, had not succeeded in preventing builders from developing the
site that today is Warren Park.
What if...St. Margaret Mary
had joined the coalition of Catholic Schools?
What if...the road
configuration at Sheridan, Broadway and Devon had never been changed?
What if...the CHA Senior
Center at the same location had never been built?
What if...none of the
Kennedys had been assassinated, or what if Johnson took us out of Viet Nam, the
'68 convention was different and there were no hippies; what would Rogers Park
be like?
What if...decades ago,
despite expert testimony to the contrary and the intervention of the original
Rogers Park Community Council, a federal judge had not declared Census Tract
101 (North) as a revitalizing area, opening the area for continued poverty
funding and subsidized housing; thus insuring that it became what it is today.
What if... "The
political whiz kids" people from the 1980's Network 49 (the political arm
of IVI/IPO) had not moved away from Rogers Park.
What if... I had never been
forced to resign from the new RPCC's Board of Directors, and as columnist and
Editor of Rogers Park 2000?
What if.... Amoco had
stayed put at the controversial bend at Sheridan Road near Loyola University.
or better yet sold to a private developer instead of becoming involved with the
politicians of the 49th Ward - past and present?
What if... the 24th
District Advisory Committee re-examined their mission and was more concerned
about crime prevention than about their organizational preservation.
What if...the new (current)
Rogers Park Community Council studied the position of the original Rogers
Park Community Council vis a vis the ownership and concentration of
institutional use and development in Rogers park
And finally,
What if... among the 260
people the police apprehended North of Howard in a recent "zero tolerance-
immediate action" sweep they had caught the imbecile who rips out pickets
from my fence on a daily basis, or the person who stole my rubber plant from my
back yard and destroyed a sprinkler system...(statistics are great but it's
quality of life that counts!!!)
What if... the Hare had not
stopped!!
What would have been
different?
...And that's my opinion.
And I'm Sandy Goldman
Send
me your e-mail address or those of others who would be interested and I'll add
them to my rapidly growing distribution list.
To Email Me: smgoldman@ameritech.net