Although I currently live in the Austin area, I was a resident of Oak Park from 1978 through 1982 and again from 2013 through 2019. As a result, I have many friends who remain and I subscribe to Wednesday Journal. In many opinion pieces regarding the proposal to eliminate single-family zoning, the authors claim that single-family zoning is racist — implying there is no legitimate reason for such zoning.
I find that assertion flatly contradicted by a number of facts. First and foremost, the most effective tool for excluding racial, ethnic and religious minority groups from living in certain areas was the restrictive covenant. Once the Supreme Court ruled that unconstitutional, the barriers came down rather quickly. Virtually every neighborhood on the South and West sides of Chicago — including those with single-family zoned areas — resegregated from white to African American from the 1950s through the 1980s. Subsequently, middle class African Americans left those communities for the suburbs — citing crime and other quality-of-life issues as their reason for doing so. I have many close African American friends who once lived in the city and now live either in a suburb or have moved out of the metropolitan area completely for the same reasons.
Virtually every south suburb has resegregated — from Riverdale to Matteson. Olympia Fields, for example, is 75% African American and, to my knowledge, is almost exclusively zoned single-family. Flossmoor is 59% African American. Closer to home, Bellwood, Broadview and Hillside are predominantly African American.
Clearly, single-family zoning did not prevent African Americans from moving to these communities. I will concede that, with respect to Oak Park, the price of a single-family home is not affordable to the average African American family. But frankly, it is also not affordable to the average white family. Is there a disparate impact on African American families? Probably. But that’s a thin reed on which to base the conclusion that single-family zoning has racial discrimination as its primary goal.
Neighborhood density and managing it, is a very legitimate goal — and one with which many African Americans agree, as demonstrated by the choices evidenced in the trends of African Americans moving from more dense city neighborhoods to less dense suburban areas.
Ultimately, even many proponents concede that eliminating single-family zoning in Oak Park is unlikely to result in much of an increase in affordable housing, given that it would require tearing down existing properties to rebuild more dense units. Under the current zoning laws, variances can be granted. This option, to me, makes more sense because managing housing density is a legitimate goal. Oak Park is already an incredibly dense community, so there is a danger in making it too dense.
All of this should be considered.
Paul Eichwedel
Austin