The Crew has spent a considerable amount of time staring back into our screens and watching the talking heads on our City Council --and other representative bodies -- go about the business of government, such as it is.
We again urge PRU readers to do the same. We would like to draw our readers particular interests to the following video segments from the Melidosian Motionbox collection.
Park Ridge City Council 9/21/09 video #00006
@00:30 mark -- Discussion of AT&T U-verse begins.
Park Ridge City Council 9/21/09 video #00007
Begins with continuation of discussion of AT&T U-verse option.
@30:38 mark -- Council begins vote on AT&T U-verse agreement.
@31:25 mark -- New Business agenda; Ald. Ryan raises issue of boarded up properties.
@35:55 mark -- A local trouble-maker wrests control of the Council meeting from Mayor Schmidtzkrieg.
@37:00 mark -- Ald. Wsol motions to defer closed session.
@37:45 mark -- Council moves to adjourn.
The PRU Crew also found the first meeting of the Park Ridge O'Hare Airport Commission very entertaining!
PROAC video #00000
PROAC video #00001
September 24, 2009
Fighting Fire With Fire!
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22 comments:
I can't believe that Christine Kutt said she wants to displace Mayor Schmidt off the ONCC board with Jennifer Perry!
The proac membership needs some proZac. None of these people cared about the quality of the air before the noise hit them. Now they are all riled up. Deal with it.
Anon 2:40,
Being on the proac commission is their prozac. They'll all get to feel like they're doing something so they'll all feel better.
The fight over o'hare expansion was lost when the aldermen voted us out of soc. I think all this is teeth gnashing now is a waste of time and energy. I hope our aldermen won't be wasting any money on this in the future either.
I am of the opinion that it doesn't hurt to try. If the Commission can find ways to make a very bad situation better and right now it's costing us nothing, then why bitch about the volunteer effort they are making?
The fight over stopping the Belle Plaine runway from going in is over - it's already in. However, the Granville runway is not in yet and the 2 runways that are suppposed to be decommissioned are still operational at this point. A correction to the direction the expansion is taking can still be achieved. Establishing flight caps, implementation of a mandatory Fly Quiet program for O'Hare, new sound assessment standards, and reevaluation of runway and flight path configurations are some of the achievable goals that can alleviate some of the problems this expansion is causing. Of course, if you believe it to be a waste of time and energy, it is obviously not that important to you. The entire community needs to get behind those who are working to change what has happened and will continue to happen. This is an issue that effects the City of Park Ridge as a whole.
That's funny 5:27, because before the plane noise was over your homes none of you volunteers thought the airport affected Park Ridge as a whole.
I listened to that guy all the way on the left in the video. He sure doesn't sound like a guy who thinks Park Ridge as a whole is affected.
Get your doc to give you all a good perscription for some proZac.
Excellent point, Anon 5:50 PM.
During all those years when those of us in the 1st and 2nd wards were getting our regular bombardments of plane noise, fuel smells, etc., Kutt and Perry were nowhere to be seen or heard because O'Hare was not their problem. What goes around comes around, ladies.
That being said, however, we shouldn't let ourselves get drawn into petty ward v. ward bickering. What's happening to our community is not good, so we should all support a unified approach toward solutions to the problem that operate on a city-wide basis.
But that means working the Feds, folks, not local stuff like patting Rita Mullins on the head.
Hoover:
I love your post!!
Paragraph 1: Demonstrate exactly what petty ward vs. ward looks like.
Paragraph 2: Tell us we should not get involved in petty ward vs. ward bickering.
believe me its not prozac they need its xanax! And I believe Gary Ziols, was well spoken.
To those of you in the first or second ward that seem to have the "no one cared about our plane noise so why should we care about yours" - if the noise and pollution bothered you, why didn't you get together and try to work for improvements? Did anyone in those wards form a citizens group or work with City Hall to form a commission? What was done to educate the rest of the city on the problems they were having? I have lived in Park Ridge for over 15 years and was not aware of any group other than the SOC and the ONCC. If there was another group, I was not aware of it. You cannot blame people for not helping out with a problem that they did not know existed? The last runway, prior to the Belle Plaine runway, was commissioned in 1971. So, anyone who bought a home in Park Ridge after 1971 and before November 2008, knew where the runways were and where the air traffic was. Those people were able to better determine what air traffic was acceptable to them. To keep saying "one one cared about our noise so why should we care about yours" is petty. To put people down who are devoting their own time to work for the betterment of their community is petty. These people have devoted a lot of their time and their own money to try to get the word out about how this new runway is impacting a large portion of our community. They are working to inform neighbors in other areas who will also be experiencing the same thing if changes aren't made. They are trying to educate the public. Yes, personal experience has motivated them to act. There is nothing wrong with that.
Anon 2:01 pm - I believe that the ONCC only wants one representative from each community to sit on the board. Maybe Christine felt that it would be better to have someone who has been heavily involved with the issue, representing Park Ridge. I would guess that sitting on the board gives the reprentative more of a voice. I don't see what's wrong with that as long as the Mayor still attends the meetings and is available for additional input.
We are all doomed, albeit, some more than others. Those more: million-dollar property now is worth 1/5 million. No one is gonna pay a mil for china cabinet thunder.
If you automatically identify with china cabinet thunder and do not have to ask what it is, then your house is now worth 1/5 what it was when you built/bought it.
There are going to be winners: Those that could not otherwise afford to live in PR will now be able to move in at the new prices. Although the quality of the education system will begin to suffer. Then will come flight. Bad pun intended.
There is only one real solution: Get out now while the gettin is mediocre.
anon 10:22:
I have no plans on moving from Park Ridge so can I ask you a favor? Can you tell me where exactly are these "million dollar homes now worth 1/5?" That would be $200,000. If you can show me one I would buy it, in fact I would buy several. Yutz!!
Anon 10:22 am - The problem with your suggestion is that sooner or later, you may just find there's no worthwhile place left that you can "get out" to.
10:47...You have a weak sense of hyperbole. If you think homes are not losing serious amounts of value due to the new air traffic, then you also have a weak sense of economy.
Anonymous September 24, 2009 11:05 PM:
Facts aren't "petty," they're neutral. And the one I used was intended to illustrate the zero-sum problem we have in Park Ridge when what harms one area (e.g., use of 9L27R brings air traffic over the 5th and 6th Wards) benefits another (use of 9L27R means less use of 22L, reducing traffic over the 2nd Ward).
Unfortunately, none/few of the new activists, or the rest of us for that matter, were paying much attention while the O'Hare Modernization Program was being planned and designed, or even during the past few years when 9L27R was being built. Which is why all the recent good intentions and flurry of activity - with committees, commissions, petitions, etc. - looks more like a Chinese fire drill than a rational, well-designed strategy with some realistic, well-defined and reasonably achievable goals.
What we're up against is OMP's promise (according to Chicago's OMP propaganda web site) of, annually, 195,000 more jobs and another $18 billion in economic activity, with savings of approx. $370 million to the airlines and approx. $380 to the passengers.
Even if those figures are inflated by 100%, can somebody tell us what bargaining chips we have to counter that?
anon 11:29:
Pardon me if I missed the hyperbole. I see enough really stupic things on various blogs that somethies it is hard to tell. I guess I have not had enough coffee this morning. Of course home values have gone down. The general economic conditions, the well publicized flooding and, yes, the new runway (right over my house) have all lowered my home value. If I were to sell today it would be at a significant loss. The 1/5 number jumped out at me and I responded. Again, I am sorry that I missed the humor.
To avoid any confusion, the "anonymous" 11:45 a.m. post today was mine - I forget to sign it.
11:45...I understand your emotional response. There are a lot of people who do not fit in the "why did you live by an airport and expect no noise" crowd.
I find living in PR inspires little sympathy from others. On the contrary, there seems to be plenty of shadenfraud. After all, you live in Park Ridge, therefore you are rich. Quit complaining.
I suspect class envy was a tool in getting the modernization plan through. Rich enough to be vilified but not rich enough to stop it.
Anon 12:33 There is probably truth in what you said. What is disheartening is that some of the schadenfreude also seems to be coming from members of our own Park Ridge community.
Anonymous 1:04 and prior,
It might be convenient to characterize the unsympathetic sentiments of some others as Schadenfreude...but I assure you there's more pleasure being derived from the relief of what is now a shared burden, than there is any pleasure-taking from your newly experienced discomfort...and you still aren't bearing the burden alone or exclusively.
I spent hours, days, weeks pouring over the maps. I failed to find political allies in this fight. I spent many hours discussing the limited mandates and parameters of the ONCC with my colleagues and we failed to see how to crack that nut.
I wish you the best of luck and ask that you not re-invent the wheel, and expressly caution you against repeating the same old tactics but expecting a different outcome...that is, as you probably know, the very definition of insanity.
Anon at 10:01,
Anything said or done by the Mayor of Park Ridge will hold more weight than the name Christine Perry of the Park Ridge O'Hare Airport Commission. See the recording of the last ONCC meeting.
I hope Mayor Dave stays put and keeps attending the ONCC meetings on our behalf.
Christine K. just can't stand not being in charge. Keep Dave on!!!!!!!!!!
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