By Ben Joravsky and Melody Rodgers
The decision to build a new courthouse was one of those ideas that must have sounded great to the planners who hatched it in their cubicles in the County Building. That was about two and a half years ago, when county judges had begun to complain to Cook County Board president John Stroger that they were running out of courtrooms. In particular, they said, they needed new rooms for domestic-violence court, traffic court, and misdemeanor court. Stroger brought their concerns to his political ally Mayor Daley, well aware that no plan of any magnitude would fly without the mayor’s blessing. According to county officials, Daley suggested that the ideal location would be a poor section of the west side, where a big project might spark economic renewal. In July 1998 he offered his thoughts in a general way at a press briefing, mentioning the Homan-Jackson site as one of six or seven possibilities.
“Yes, the task force preferred a downtown location,” says Jack Beary, Stroger’s press secretary. “But the cost of land downtown was prohibitive, so we looked to the west and south sides, where there were available sites that included some vacant city-owned land.” He adds, “This was the end product of much study and careful thought. It involved judges and lawyers and planners for the city and the county and the Public Building Commission.”
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To Daley and Stroger, the Homan site made perfect sense. As Beary points out, the land was cheap compared to land near the Loop. And the site was just north of the Eisenhower Expressway, which would allow people to drive there or walk a short distance from the Kedzie-Homan stop on the Blue Line.
Still, it’s one of the few communities that offers housing its residents can afford. Luster Jackson moved there in 1962, looking for a new house where he could raise his family. “Back then I couldn’t find what I was looking for on the south side, so I came here,” says Jackson, who’s president of the Concerned Citizens for East Garfield Park. “I loved it up here. This is where my children were raised. I consider it home. I organized the 3200 W. Jackson block club. We’re working together to make this a better community. Why would we want to move?”
After reading the article, Jackson contacted Stroger and arranged to have him come to East Garfield Park and meet with residents. According to Jackson, Stroger didn’t offer many specifics at the meeting, telling residents they shouldn’t be alarmed, because the project was still very much in the planning stages and a final location had by no means been selected. “Stroger assured us that we would be notified beforehand of what would happen,” says Jackson. “He assured us that we would be part of the process.”
The county is of course obligated to pay owners for their property, but Gipson is worried that she’d be paid only enough money to move to a much smaller house or to a town house or a condo, which wouldn’t allow her family to stay together. “If I have to move, I want to be given the life that I had,” she says. “But where am I going to find an eight-bedroom house with an acceptable mortgage?”
