For whatever reason, this past week I had more than one person mention to me that they were not happy about a new group of people moving into their neighborhood. One complained about homeless populations growing and encroaching on taxpaying house owners.
Another complained about how the neighbors are mad in her community about the fact that since Venezuelan migrants (who are not actually “migrants” in the true sense of the word) moved into their neighborhood, there is an increase of sex workers, and she and the people in her town were mad about their presence. This came from someone who is an immigrant themselves.
This dialog comes at an existential time for me. I just became an empty-nester. So I have all the space in the world. I recently traveled to new communities I will be a part of and reminisced about old stomping grounds. I am also taking a class on sustainable building and SPRAWL. The class has forced me to observe the communities of Oak Park and River Forest from the perspective of a builder and city planner. We are discussing these very aspects of building a community that is equitable, inclusive, and takes all groups of people and income brackets into consideration.
Our community is filled with immigrants, does not have a lot of sex workers on the streets, and though we have homeless, I think we do our best in the community to provide services while walking a fine balance: not letting the homeless situation get out of hand causing homeowners to flee the town.
But all transitions in community building are a journey of transformation, so we have to look at what else we can do. What next? I remember when Oak Park and River Forest did not build a new building for the longest time and you could hear stories of contractors frustrated with the village regarding impossible-to-get building permits. Now we are building buildings all at once! I have never seen so much construction going on in the community. Even in River Forest which is even more residential and just as historical as Oak Park, many houses are being built from the ground up … and they go up quickly.
In my SPRAWL class, we were asked to observe our community through SPRAWL eyes to see if there are areas in need of change. So “asking for a friend,” are we considerate enough of future growth of immigrant and homeless population growth as we are building like there is no tomorrow? We are becoming more densely populated and with new buildings comes more expense for the community via increased property values.
It’s great to have our property values increase but if we don’t consider fairness and equity, we could price ourselves either out of the market, make living here less affordable for various income brackets, outpace our space in general to not feel like we are still in a quaint community as our population becomes denser. We need a balance.
Imagine if in a different scenario, migrants were brought to Oak Park or River Forest as a safe haven. Why? Because we are a safe haven. In general, we are an inclusive bunch. What would the villages do then? How would you feel? What would be your true attitude about building and expanding our quaint little community?
Asking for a friend …
EL Serumaga is a resident of River Forest.
