There’s a culture war going on in Jefferson Park, a middle-class community in Chicago’s northwest-side bungalow belt that’s home to many city and county workers. Some longtime residents want the neighborhood to remain an enclave of low-slung houses and two-flats, where driving and parking are prioritized. Others, many of them newer arrivals, want to see the community become more urban, with more apartments near the Jefferson Park Transit Center, and better conditions for walking and biking.
On the progressive side of this battle are people like 34-year-old transportation planner Ryan Richter. Richter grew up in Jefferson Park and moved back in 2009 after buying a house, where he lives with his wife and two young daughters. He joined the neighborhood association in January, then ran against Bank in September to be its new board president. (He didn’t win.)
This ideological clash came to a head during the September board election. Bank, who had previously made unsuccessful bids for alderman and committeeman, says he ran for president at the behest of board members who feared the organization was being taken over by urbanists like Richter. Bank won by a vote of 60 to 27.
Richter said it’s understandable the neighborhood association distrusts Kozonis. However, he doesn’t think that justifies the group’s knee-jerk opposition to recent Mega proposals. “People should be able to look at development skeptically but objectively,” he said.
Bank, who bikes occasionally (and wears a helmet in his Facebook photo), said his organization was neutral on the issue. However, JPNA ally John Garrido, an attorney and police officer who narrowly lost to Arena in the 2011 aldermanic election, showed up at a hearing with a thick stack of paper, announcing it contained 4,000 signatures against the road diet.
That law drops parking requirements for buildings within a certain distance of train stations. Since that distance is doubled on P-Streets, the association feared the designation would create a parking crunch.
