Voice of the People - Chicago Tribune Opinions

UPDATED: September 2, 2025 at 5:00 AM CDT

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Inexperience is evident - Norm Cratty, Chicago

As a 48th Ward resident, I want to thank the Tribune for its recent coverage of the city of Chicago’s foolhardy effort to massively increase housing density in Edgewater — already one of the densest communities in the metro area.

This “plan” is woefully inadequate on any number of levels and clearly reflects the total inexperience of both a rookie mayor and alderman.

Zoning alone is not a “plan” but actually a tool that should follow a planning process. The city has abandoned planning altogether when it comes to Broadway. This rushed, simplistic and extreme upzoning will result in more problems than it solves.

In his op-ed last Sunday (“Cutting parking requirements while upzoning Broadway will create a crisis”), Steve Weinshel details just the parking nightmare that will be exacerbated by the city’s blind rush to upzone an already-very dense neighborhood.

That nightmare will become a true horror show in neighborhoods like Edgewater as a result of the City Council’s recent dropping of parking requirements for developments near mass transit. It is completely irresponsible to communities across the city, especially those along Chicago’s lakefront.

Before this drastic step, there should have been research on what the realities are on car ownership rates throughout the city and surveys — an inventory — of available street parking in each community, followed by thoughtful planning, followed by thorough community feedback. Sadly, not everyone is able to completely structure their lives around complete reliance on public transportation, especially many of the working class or elderly.

We are on the potential cusp of significant cuts to mass transit service, which makes this move all the more foolhardy.

— Norm Cratty, Chicago

City Council tone-deaf - Stephen Hutton, Chicago

Steve Weinshel’s op-ed highlights the city’s shocking lack of a parking plan for the proposed radical Broadway upzoning in Edgewater, where parking is already a nightmare due to density and poor city policies. Incredibly, the City Council recently made things even worse by passing Ald. Daniel La Spata’s ordinance to eliminate off-street parking requirements for new developments in transit districts throughout the city. In already-extremely dense Edgewater, this means off-street parking is not required for any new development on Broadway.

In a summer that has seen beyond-frustrating congestion and traffic jams caused by poorly timed street construction, can the City Council be any more tone-deaf?

— Stephen Hutton, Chicago