Four years ago, at 2 o’clock in the morning on New Year’s Day, someone entered the alley directly behind my home and fired several rounds of an AK-47 into the air. Police were called, detectives investigated and, fortunately, no one was hurt.
I live in the 700 block of North Humphrey Avenue. On the opposite side of my alley stand several apartment buildings, mostly 6-flats rented to low-income families. During my family’s 17 years of residence in the neighborhood, our alley has transformed into a garbage dump for discarded mattresses, couches, dressers, and other furniture; at times it is a racetrack; during the summer it serves alternatively as a shooting gallery, a playground, a spillover parking lot, a place to set off fireworks, and a hideout to transact nefarious business. And all of these activities are conducted not by the homeowners on Humphrey Avenue but the scores of renters who live in multifamily dwellings just a few feet behind us along Austin Boulevard.
Over the years, a revolving door of renters and their associates has troubled the peace and stability of life in my neighborhood. Renters move frequently; owners, not so much. Sometimes, life behind our home is tranquil, yet other times my neighbors and I must contend with one nuisance after another. As a 27-year Oak Park resident, Black, gay, and from a family of working-class strivers, one of the things I love most about Oak Park is its ethos of inclusivity and equality. However, the village’s move to rezone single-family housing is, I believe, a bridge too far. Indeed, most of the residents who support rezoning, I suspect, do not live in areas like mine that are already experiencing congestion, litter, loud noise, rodent infestations, blocked alleys, and hooliganism.
Rezoning is not an abstract issue. The consequences of unilaterally changing the character of any neighborhood are far-reaching and can result not only in a loss of property value but peace, pride, and safety as well. A referendum is required on this issue so that all village residents can have a say. I want to vote.
Jarrett Neal
Oak Park