6/30/2008
To which description of what job would you be alluding? Alderman? Poster to a community
forum? Alderman Chinino is not required to post to blogs but if he was, it would be in his best interest to communicate
using at least eighth grade punctuation and grammar.. The observation by 'Not So Young' was appropriate as regards
a would-be pretender for office, whether young or 'over forty'.
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6/30/2008
Ive been living here for 38 years and when I tell anyone where I live the first thing that comes out of there
mouth is those s#!thole apartments on 159th st.Sadly I do live near them and now I have attempted break-ins monthly.If mayor
kelly wants to do something THAT WOULD MAKE THIS ENTIRE TOWN HAPPY! GET RID OF THEM AND PUT A BETTER FACE ON THIS ENTIRE
COMMUNITY! WHEN PEOPLE DRIVE THROUGH THIS TOWN THAT IS ALL THEY SEE! EVERYONE ONE KNOWS THIS,DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT AND GIVE
YOUR GATEWAY PROJECT A CHANCE! EVERYONE ONE KNOWS ALL ABOUT THEM WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO BUY A CONDO NEXT TO THEM.GIVE THIS
HUGE MONEY SUCKING PROJECT A CHANCE AND MAKE THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY HAPPY! PLEASE!!!
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6/30/2008
Communication is certainly a desirable quality. Alderman Chinino does so in his own way. He is
an elected official and if those who elected him do not like his method of communication, they can discuss it with him directly.
If the majority disapprove, they are free to vote someone else to the office.
Fired or ousted for neglect of duties
is not a fair option. It's pretty clear from the last city council meeting he's trying to do the best for his
constituents, but is running against some obstacles at city hall.
Jim Rossi
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6/30/2008
To Not So Young and An Old Lady and Long Time Resident,
Just because someone was in office in
the past, does not mean they should be re-elected or even consulted for their wisdom. Past leaders in OF have a sordid
history of nepotism, cronyism and any other number of -isms you can muster up. The history of past OF leaders also shows
us the dark side of vendettas and revenge that reared its ugly head when one administration would get ousted for another.
In order for Oak Forest to truly move forward, we need new blood in our elected offices. We need people that
are willing to strike a balance between what the residents want and what will move the City forward in the best way.
Not getting elected so that they can put their friends and family into cushy City jobs.
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6/27/2008
If communication is a requirement: Why the hell hasent ald. chinino been fired or ousted yet for neglect
of his required duties???? I dont remember seeing anything in any job discription regarding proper blog communication...
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6/27/2008
Dear Youngster:
If you are serious about having younger candidates run for office in Oak Forest,
you might want to bone up on grammar and capitalization skills before sending in another comment. Voters would probably
be more interested in any candidate who could communicate properly as required by the office.
Not So Young
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6/27/2008
IF we were able to collect the full amount of the sales tax (and we cannot, most of it goes to the state
and county) and allocate it to the 5 million we paid for the school and the 7 million we are paying for improvements, It would
take 160 million in sales by the CVS and the little shops that will accompany it. Now, granted, this does not take into
account property taxes received from the condo owners.
I for one hated the thought of the new train parking lot.
I will be honest, and say that the extra walk is not bad, and there is not the shortage of spots that I thought there would
be. Some traffic control would be nice. Heck, the other day there was a squad car just sitting in the lot while
people were struglging to turn left onto Cicero, his time could have been better spent directing traffic. There is talk
of having community service officers, let's do it!
Now, with that bit of negativity said, what does everyone
think it would take to clean up the city of Oak Forest? Here are some of my thoughts. A true democracy will always
fail, and a dictatorship will make people miserable, so some of these may not be favorites of others.
1)
The gateway project is already under way. Let's find a way to live with it, but to not incur additional debt while
making it what it should be. A new train station and cleanup of the area along the tracks is a must. The ugly
silver boxes that Metra is installing must be landscaped, and the mess that they have made of the green area needs to be improved.
We need to work with Metra to get funding for a station. Tinley has gotten two, one at a station with less ridership
than ours. There was talk of getting the cement plant to move. If it does not move, which I do not think it should
or will, we should put a buffer of sorts between it and the train/corridor area. We should also ensure that they are
doing their part to reduce particulate in the air. There were summer days over the past few years that cars in the train
lot were covered in dust from the factory. Work with them as good neighbors and reduce this. Nobody is going to
buy condos with dusty windows and cars that get dirty all the time. It would be great if we could move them into the
industrial area (raise the notel motel over there), but we cannot risk loosing them at the cost of working with them to move.
2) There are residential units in the city, on major throughfares that are high contributors to crime (yes,
the crime free law set a model for other villages and has gone a long way), but more importantly add nothing to the image
of the village. 12 million would have went a long way to purchase some of these buildings and transform them into more
desirable living areas or stores, or if done early enough, an auto mall. When people think of Oak Forest, they often
think of these stores and appartments, not the nice areas. It sounds cruel, but it has been done in other villages with
much success.
3) Come up with a master plan of the types of businesses we would like to draw to this city.
Apply some standards. I for one would have preferred to see the old Dominick's repurposed into a gym or other facility
than a discount grocer. Do not get me wrong, we love eating at some of the restauraunts, but there are only so many
burrito and mexican restaurants that can coexist. And to allow a store to come in that has pegboard in the window, hand
written signs, etc is not a good image. We now have a pawn shop, conveniently located to some of the higher crime areas.
If I see a payday loan store go up, I will scream! We have some large parcels that are vacant or should be vacant.
Come up with a master plan of how to best utilize those.
4) Provide value to our citizens in new ventures.
I was very dissapointed to see the old fashioned coin boxes go up at the new lot. Many villages have gone to electronic
collection boxes which make it easier on the enforcement and the consumer. A card can be purchased with a months worth
of parking and you just subtract form that. It is much more convenient, and the officer also gets a list of what spots
do not have money in them and can quickly work off of that. If you are running late, you can also call in and have it
deducted from your card.
5) Identify how we can coexist with Tinley Park and Country Club Hills. Tinley
did an excellent job of identifying the fact that people were sick of putting up with Orland Park and put up several shopping
centers that directly compete with their neighbor. They have the advantage of location. Orland has taken the market
on car dealerships (we could have done it if we grabbed the right parcels and have the convenience of I-57 with 80 right there).
Country Club hills has a movie theater, would have been a good fill for some of our vacant property, and is attracting many
of our stores and fast food places. One niche that we could fill (but I think Country Club Hills is already working
towards it) is an upscale discount mall. Let's do it right and have higher end retailers in it to draw a higher
clientel. Build upon it with eating establishements suited to that clientel and a good majority of Oak Forest.
And build up residential areas that these people would say hey, this is a nice area, close to the train, very suburban and
safe, maybe we should move here. No more bars, mexican restauraunts (lets add some variety) or low rent apartments!
And no, I am not running for Mayor or Alderman! I'd much rather sit here and stick myself with a dull pencil!
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6/27/2008
Dear Youngster:
One of the biggest problems that Oak Forest has had is that new administrations
will not use the wisdom from its predecessors. Young or new doesn't always mean right. If we ever want our
city to progress, we are going to have to use the knowledge gained in previous years. Sometimes that will mean we learn
how not to do something but to ignore the insight from earlier leaders is downright foolish and wasteful as is replacing all
the department heads. This city has thrown away so much talent all in the name of politics.
An Old Lady and
Long Time Resident
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6/27/2008
For The Love Of GOD people...
Stop saying for lame-o Pat Gordon to run for mayor again.
PLEASE no more back-peddling.
WE need someone new if anything at all.
If you truly believe and dislike
Mayor Kelly then fine all the more power to you.
But for you to sit here and want to support the idea of having the very
sketchy, shady, and old pat gordon to run for mayor again.. well.. That is just Ridiculous.
Change people. Its
Obviously time for one. Something new and Something Fresh.
Stop Suggesting To Back-Peddle.
It is very obvious to
me that some younger people need to run for office in the City of Oak Forest...
I sure am thinking about it...
-the youngster-
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6/26/2008
So they have traffic problems from the Queens new parking lot! Lots of pre-planning mayor.
I suggest
they build a tunnel under 159th between her new parking lot to the old one so Metra riders can park without any problems.
Way to go mayor. I hope the mayor goes on a 9 month vacation so she doesn't screw up any thing more. Even if we have
to pay for it, we will be money ahead.
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6/26/2008
If any of our Aldermen and the Police Chief read this, I would like to know what they plan on doing about
the upcoming 4th of July fireworks display that will be happening on the 152nd block of Laramie (5th Ward). Every year there
is a certain house that sets off illegal fireworks for hours and hours (and our Alderman KNOWS who it is). I enjoy a
LEGALLY DONE display as much as anyone, as do our kids, but the huge explosions (from the illegal sized fireworks) go
on for days and all hours of the night, upsetting our kids and pets all night long -- THE POLICE HAVE DONE NOTHING to
stop it for years. Chief O, and our 5th Ward Alderman, this is for you--you know the house, but will you and the O.F.P.D.
finally crack down this year?
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6/26/2008
The concrete plant is not moving; nor could OF afford losing the sales tax revenue they produce. It
is a lot more than what will be in the Gateway Project.
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6/21/2008
A headline in the Daily Southtown published April 7, 2005 reads: "No shakeup in Oak Forest, Kelly
says."
Well, the deputy clerk has been replaced, the administrative assistant has been replaced, the public works
superintendent has been replaced, the community development coordinator has been replaced, the police chief has been replaced,
the fire chief has been replaced, and the city administrator & building commissioner have been replaced twice. Most
resigned under duress.
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6/19/2008
While I know Hank Kuspa and know that he is a nice guy, would I vote for him as Mayor? The answer is
no, I don't believe that he has the expertise and knowledge to run the town. I think we would be in the same position
that we are in now.
Even though he might of made some mistakes, I would vote to put Pat Gordon back in office.
Hank would need to much learning time to get the City back on track at least Mr. Gordon knows what he is doing.
I
said after the last election after 1 year you would be hard pressed to find someone who admitted to voting for the Queen and
lo and behold that is just what happened. I always say be careful what you wish for you just might get it.
My vote goes to Gordon if he would agree to run again
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6/18/2008
To be fair, 167 St is a county road. If the City were to make improvements to it, they would be liable/responsible.
Have you ever started a project and as you got into it, found other things that needed to be done? It would be the same
thing in this case. Should they do something about it? I don't know. Yes, it would be better for the
residents, but since we don't know the cost, immediate and future, I think they should put more pressure on the county.
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As has been stated here and at oakforestwatch.org, this whole Gateway plan seems to be rushed through without any long range
planning taken into consideration. Nothing should have been done until the concrete plant was moved, so that property
could have been obtained and better and closer parking made available to the commuters. An even better idea would have
been the thought of maybe relocating the station to an area where the traffic problems could have been addressed.
The rushing of this project through is nothing more than Chicago Style politics, whereas you try to present all of these
nice and pretty things right before an election, banking on that the voters short term memory will overpower the long term
memories of any negative done during the elected officials term.
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6/18/2008
IMPEACH THE QUEEN!!!!!!!
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6/18/2008
Whoever wrote the entry on the 17th of June....well said. I am standing here applauding you! I did notice
that someone is trying to fill one of the giant holes on 167th. I believe it might be in front of the home of the gentleman
that once brought pieces of 167th Street to a city council meeting. Unfortunately they tried to fill it with an orange road
cone. That didn't work. Finally someone in their infinite wisdom figured if you put 2 road horses up, one will begin to
fill the hole and the other will eventually work it's way down thus completing another road improvement plan!!!
Sharon
Pepper
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6/18/2008
The city rushed to relocate the commuter lot to a dysfunctional location without proper planning.
The
city gave property to the developer to entice them to come.
They paid for the infrastructure for the same reason.
They couldn't wait to settle the cell tower issue in court, so paid for that too.
They can't wait for Metra
to build a new train station, so have indicated they'll pay for that.
The reason to expedite all these extra expenditures?
They want to have it done by the next election.
It's a pretty high debt for the next administration to inherit.
Most intelligent investors are waiting for the economy to improve before making this sort of commitment.
While they
were focused on Gateway, they lost Community Pontiac.
The challenges the City of Oak Forest are now facing are enough
to scare anyone away from running for Mayor.
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6/17/2008
Has anyone heard if Don Hall has received an answer yet from the arbritration hearing? He's out
of work but Public Works can hire a full time person, again without a test, to run the computerized, automated work order
system. If it's automated, why do we need a full time person added to the payroll?
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6/17/2008
So, 167th Street West of Central is getting repaved, but east of Central (which is worse) will have to wait
until next year when it is supposedly completely redone. This after they said in one of the meetings that Julie was
out and marked it and work would begin soon. Guess they were confused as to where the markings were. But, if you call
the county with damage to your car, they will supposedly help to get it fixed. I am so sure that will work, and what
about the rattles and knocks from the constant abuse our cars are put through every day when we commute. I am about
ready to take a different train that takes me out of my way to avoid this mess. While I am at it, I might as well get
my groceries there, because is is more convenient than trying to fight to get across cicero to turn left because there is
no left turn on 159th towards Jewel, and there are no officers to direct traffic.
In similar news, I read recently
that Metra is funding a new train station for 80th avenue in Tinley Park. Hmm, Tinley gets two new train stations and
we get a brick shack with 3 lovely silver boxes on them and a torn up lawn. What is common here, Tinley seems to get what
they want, Oak Forest just pays and pays and pays.
Oh yeah, and let's lease property to Sprint only to turn
around and say "we are going to build here, take your tower elsewhere". So, we end up paying to move that
due to our poor planning, along with our wonderful sign.
We buy the school to build the parking lot. Now,
we are taking out bonds for infrastructure improvements (can you say the huge StormTrap that they had to put under the parking
lot, probably because the land was not suitable to be built on without such an elaborate storm containment system).
If we want more than a brick shed for a station, apparently we need to pay for it. Do we really think we are going to
recoupe 7 million in taxes on a Bank (where does sales tax come from that?, and a pharmacy?) But if the builder does
not fill his quota of condos, we avoid paying him an additional 2.5 million for land that we gave him to develop and paid
for massive improvements on! Seems to me, the last time I looked in other towns, developers developed the land including
improvements, and often were hit with impact fees for infrastructure improvements to support the new development. This
is one heck of a sweetheart deal!
Could we also not see that Community Motors would be leaving town. We almost
lost them when they moved their Honda Dealership.
Country Club Hills is going to swallow us whole!
Look at our strip mall vacancies compared to theirs. In fact, many of our businesses are moving there (Quiznos, the
jewelry store). They will win the annexation fight and have a true development at 167th street where the right development
makes sense. All of the traffic will avoid Oak Forest, and we will be out of luck. If we are lucky, the Shell
station will at least get some gas revenue.
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6/16/2008
Someone asked who are the other people running against the queen.
I think it's the 29,000 residents
of Joke Forest as a group.
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6/15/2008
This isn't the first time someone has mentioned multiple candidates running for mayor. The only
one I have heard of is Hank. Who are the other possible candidates?
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6/14/2008
So nice to have this site up and running again. It's the one arena where citizens can have a say
in their government without fear of reprisal from Kelly or her staff.
How many residents are putting their garbage cans
in their backyards since the new ordinance was passed unamimously? Do you want to lug those cans to the curb in the
snow when it's winter or through mud after heavy rains? That's what your city government wants you to do.
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6/12/2008
I know, everyone wants to defeat the Queen in the next election, but we can't have too many running for
Mayor.
We must offset the mayors three votes that she might possibly get.
So far, I'm voting for Hank
Kuspa!
Mrs. Tin Man!
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6/12/2008
A note to the Streetscape Commission: Would you please take down those ugly, worn out plastic flowers
from our intersections? The new banners are already showing dirt too. Just leave the flags up. It's
all we need.
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6/12/2008
Would someone please tell me why we are paying for the infrastructure development at the Gateway project
instead of the developer? Wasn't it enough that we already gave the land to him? He's in a no lose situation
where we might be putting ourselves in the no win column.