On Saturday, July 20, residents of the Irving Park neighborhood will gather in the vast vacant lot at Kimball and Addison to protest the Home Depot that’s supposed to be built there in the next few months. They also plan to protest what they call the “sorry state of planning in the age of Mayor Daley.”
Over the last few years countless neighborhood meetings have been held to discuss the issue. “The area needed a school or open space, not a giant retail complex,” says Graff. “For a lot of us, housing was not the first choice. But if it was constructed right–and we were ready to work with developers–that would be OK.”
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In November 2000 a ballot referendum asked voters whether the zoning for the lot should be changed “to allow for nonindustrial and noncommercial use [such as] a public library, a public school, senior citizen center, nature center or residential housing.” Over 90 percent of voters said yes.
A few months later Graff and the other residents found out. “One of our neighbors was out walking when he saw a surveyor working in the lot,” says White. “I think this was in about January. He asked, ‘What are you doing?’ and the guy said, ‘Oh, Home Depot’s coming in.’ How’s that for keeping the community informed?”
In June the association had a public meeting with Colom at the Abbey Pub. According to reporter Patrick Butler’s June 26 account in the Booster, Colom essentially told the residents that there was nothing they could do to stop Home Depot from building on the site. “It’s a reality,” she was quoted as saying. “You can either live in the past or be part of the future.”
Neighborhood residents contend that the city has minimized the detrimental impact Home Depot would have on the surrounding industries and businesses. “The city says it wants to protect local industries,” says White, “but how are these industries going to get their trucks in and out through all that traffic generated by Home Depot? And what about the consequences for other businesses? I don’t believe the hype about the net increase in jobs. The city keeps talking about the 200 jobs Home Depot will add. What about the stores it might displace? And what about ancillary businesses? Do you think Home Depot’s going to give accounting or advertising business to local companies in the neighborhood? Of course not. There’s all kinds of multiplying effects on jobs. The city has never made any kind of attempt to quantify the impact of a big development like this on a community. There’s no planning. No studies. No one’s asking these questions. Everyone just falls into line.”
