Fighting City Hall
Fighting City Hall is a series of battles over the course of years. Anyone who thinks that Fighting City Hall is only about one issue is sure to lose. One issue is only a battle, not the war.
We tried fighting city hall over the expansion of 75th Street and Washington Street. Hundreds of citizens spoke out against the 36-lane intersection planned to ease traffic flow. Residents raised concerns about noise and air pollution, home values and their children’s safety. Every person spoke out against this plan. Not one citizen said “Good work city planners, this is just what’s needed!” Yet not one of the City Council members or the mayor voted against it.
Doug Krause, whose campaign posters called him “The voice of the people,” even voted for this super highway. Obviously the Naperville residents at this meeting were not “the people” Doug was referring to on his posters.
Dick Furstenau, the council’s “Dale Carnegie reject,” basically told the residents who moved next to 75th Street that they were stupid for buying houses there in the first place. When he and his wife were looking for a house, they found a nice, quiet neighborhood. Too bad for the people of Naperville that quiet neighborhood wasn’t in Lisle! It must be a burden for Dick to be smarter than everyone he meets.
Dick Furstenau thinks the council censured him because of his lawsuit against Naperville. Maybe it’s because he’s condescending and often cruel to others. Somewhere along the way, compassion and concern for citizens has turned to contemptuous and callous commentary by Furstenau.
A Maplebrook mom was concerned that a highway merging from three lanes to two just a few hundred feet before the Lincoln Junior High School crosswalk was unsafe. Three children have already been hit by cars and killed there. Councilman Rosanova replied that the number of children killed was “insignificant!” This begs the question, how many children’s lives in the “Kid-friendliest town in America” have to be lost before it is significant? Is it five kids, 10 kids, or as many as 20? What if the kid only becomes a paraplegic? If my child had died at that crosswalk, and I heard Rosanova’s response, I promise you he’d spend the rest of his life eating through a straw. Insignificant! What a heartless thing to say.
My questions are:
1. How many of these City Council Representative ran unopposed last election?
2. How many of these City Council Represetative will run unopposed next election?
Elections … not issue by issue … is how to successfully Fight City Hall!
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 15th, 2009 at 6:31 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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