Judging from some of the comments I read on oakpark.com, it is clear that at least some of the citizenry is concerned that at least some of the tenants of the proposed low income housing for the Comcast building will contibute to making the neighborhood sketchy.
My morning walk to the YMCA takes me along Madison from Oak Park to Home. I got news–that stretch already is kind of sketchy. There’s the abandoned Comcast Building, a vacant lot filed with pots of dead flowers and shrubs. There’s the fireplace store closed by court order for the failure to pay taxes. And the old now shuttered Walgreen’s. On the southside of Madison in that same stretch there is an abandoned gas station and two big lots of weeds and gravel where Fenwick parks its busses.
The whole stretch in the early morning resembles a post-apocalyptic scene straight out of AMC’s new zombie show The Walking Dead. The neighbors and the Village have a lot more to be concerned about than some low income people moving into the Comcast Building.
One more thing. At the corner of Madison and Home Avenue is The District 97 Administrative Office Building. If there is ever a contest for the ugliest building in Oak Park, I would like to nominate this almost windowless monstrosity. It looks like a regional office of The Center for Disease Control or a CIA safe house for waterboarding.
