I try to look at both sides of an issue.
On one side of the “Altenheim’s backyard”debate, I hear, “Don’t sell any of the 11 acres the village purchased in 2001. Keep it green.
I cheered when Forest Park bought the 11 acres, in part to prevent it from being developed into townhouses like the ones across the street. My instinct is to retain as much nature in our urban environment as possible.
I therefore have supported the commitment of this community to steward our urban forest. Evidence of this stewardship is the designation by the Arbor Day Foundation of our village as a Tree City U.S.A. in 2020.
We have lots of trees, but not much grass. Walk Madison Street from the railroad tracks on the west to Harlem Avenue on the east and the only blade of grass you’ll see is on the north side of the street in the 7300 block.
If you look at the residential blocks, notice how small the front and back lawns are. A famous resident of Oak Park may or may not have quipped that the village, many years ago, was defined by broad lawns and narrow minds, or something like that. In my view, Forest Park is a community of broad minds and narrow lawns.
If, in economic terms, scarcity increases value, then grass (no, not that kind of grass) should be conserved as a precious commodity.
People like John Muir had the vision to prevent the development of townhouses along the south rim of the Grand Canyon, for example, making it off limits to development by getting it designated a national park. Same thing for the lakefront in Chicago.
There’s a joke that the definition of a suburban residential development is a section of land where they cut down all the trees to facilitate development and then name the streets after the trees. Once townhouses are built, grass is gone forever.
Exhibit A: the townhouse development across Van Buren from the Altenheim.
But there’s another side to the issue which makes it complicated.
Two pensions are way underfunded.
“Forest Park’s fire and police pensions have been underfunded by millions of dollars for decades,” according to an article in the Review. “As the deficit continues growing, there could be serious consequences for the village in the next 15 years.”
So Steve Rummel, a Forest Park resident who is a trustee of the village’s police pension board, suggested at a village council meeting a month ago that the village sell the Altenheim land it owns in order to fund a small part of fire and police pensions.
Selling the backyard of the Altenheim, he argued, would provide money to start chipping away at the deficit. The hardest part of any journey, they say, is getting out the front door.
And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that Forest Park does have some “broad lawns” in certain places.
Exhibit B: The Park District’s main campus includes over 16 acres, some of which is grass, although part of that is synthetic.
Exhibit C: The cemeteries. Forest Home Cemetery includes 240 acres and almost all of it is covered with grass and trees. It even has a river running through it.
My wife and I have often picked up a coffee from a local shop, parked in the shade of a big old cottonwood tree there, and hung out for hours. The “residents” are very quiet, and often we see deer. Sometimes we are the only living humans in sight.
I don’t think many of us consider Forest Home to be a public space for Forest Parkers, but there it is every day waiting for us to enjoy it.
Exhibit D: Thatcher Woods. It’s not inside the village boundaries per se, but it is within “spitting distance.”
Our village motto boasts that we have “big city access” as if the Art Institute, Symphony Center and Wrigley Field are Forest Park assets “on the far edge of town.”
Thatcher Woods is a lot more accessible than Guaranteed Rate Field where the Sox play.
Finally, perhaps you’ve heard the saying, “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” In a perfect world, the previous generations would have set aside more green space in town.
Reality, however, informs us that we have a pension fund crisis; we have some available green space; and in the last 24 years no one has come up with a perfect solution for the dilemma we are now facing.
I have a book titled, Leadership Without Easy Answers. Let’s not expect easy answers for what to do with Altenheim’s backyard. Easy answers to complex questions are often overly simplistic and not well thought out. Need I mention DOGE?
The more I think of Steve Rummel’s suggestion, the more I think that, although not perfect, it’s good. And that’s as good as it will get.
I therefore am OK with townhouses going up on Van Buren across from the ones that are already there.