P.S.: The Edgebrook Lutheran Church fire a couple of weeks ago was indeed a real tragedy. At the risk of breaking your heart, I snapped some pictures on the day after the fire which you can see here.

My family and I have been residents of “The Patch” since early 2003, hence I’m not privy to some of the historical details of this tiny area. But I really love the term “The Patch” because that essentially sums up what it is: A little patch that’s a bit disconnected from North Edgebrook (via Touhy Ave). My next door neighbors who have lived here forever, have told us about this being part of Niles at one point etc., prior to being annexed by Chicago. But I have never heard any of the subdivision residents talk about “The Patch”. Very cool.

Secondly, your situation with Melvina/Touhy is in some ways different than our struggles with the formerly proposed parking garage at 6000 W Touhy. I’d venture to guess that about 90% of the residents of our subdivision (about 95 homes in total) were actively opposed against the parking garage. That means, numerous petitions, signed by almost everyone in The Patch, and actually showing up by the dozens at 41st Ward Zoning Board Advisory meetings at Olympia Park, when this issue was on the agenda. At one of the meetings, we actually had about 60 residents plus their kids pile into the meeting room. It was impressive. The other thing that worked to our advantage was the fact that one of our residents works for the Dept. of Buildings, and would therefore be able to keep us posted on some of the behind-the-scene issues that were going on with this case. Of course, there was a very strong dose of politics mixed in as well, but with zoning issues that’s to be expected. The main thing that helped us advance our cause though was the unity of the residents, and the refusal to quit, even when things seemed to look bleak for us. Brian Nadig was actually very fair and accurate in reporting the 6000 W Touhy case.

Well it’s hard to keep informed as to what’s going on in North Edgebrook since there’s no community web site or newsletter. I quit reading the Nadig newspaper because of how poorly they print the facts. It seems to me Glen Nadig picks and chooses what part of the truth he wants to tell.

A little history, in 1995 just somehow Melvina residents were the last to know about the stoplight that was going to be installed at Melvina, literally learning about it when it was installed. Through the Freedom of Information Act I have learned that the project had been in the pipe for quite some time. When it was installed both the residents of Moody and Melvina petitioned to have their streets made cul-de-sacs but all Doherty did was file the petitions in the circular file and in so doing North Edgebrook starting becoming a thoroughfare for Niles’ traffic.

Fast forward to 2007 and Niles eliminated the right turn only lane on Melvina in Niles probably because they got tired of Melvina/Tahoma/Mankato/Estes residents complaining to them about not ticketing the right turn only violators. I did an estimate of well over 2000 violations a week. Niles Police must have got tired of Chicago people telling them that they weren’t doing their job because they weren’t and eliminated the right turn only lane. No right turn only lane – nothing to complain about.

In December of 2006 I circulated petitions on Melvina/Tahoma for speed bumps on Melvina and stop signs at Melvina/Tahoma/Estes. What and education this was! I learned that four other residents had been actively sending letters of complaint to Doherty over the amount of traffic that was using the neighborhood because of the Niles industrial/commercial area and they all said the same thing – that Doherty never responded to their complaints. The word got around that Doherty was looking the other way and a general pall of apathy set in.

In August of 2007 I circulated a petition to have Melvina made a one way street after Niles eliminated the right turn only lane. I reasoned if Nagle could be made a one way street a precedent had been set for Melvina. Another Melvina resident told me she had requested a petition form Doherty’s office to have Melvina made a one way street but just somehow received a petition for alley speed bumps instead. Finally I got a letter from Doherty’s office – a whopping three sentences. It said speed bumps were going to be installed on Melvina and if I had any questions I should call his office, so I called. Apparently I’m on the do not call list because I couldn’t get a response back. Maybe you have to be in with the in crowd. One police officer on Melvina who works in Wrigleyville told me he was against the speed bumps because they are only effective in low traffic areas and that in high traffic areas the daily traffic quickly learns to gauge the speed necessary to travel over them and it becomes a Dukes of Hazard type of thing. This turned out to be true and with the elimination of the right turn lane by Niles the traffic on Melvina increased by greater than ten times. I wanted to ask Doherty if speed bumps were the smart thing to do now that Niles had eliminated the right turn only lane because of the potential increase in traffic. I have to wonder if the attempted child knappings that occurred in 2007 right after Niles eliminated the right turn only lane weren’t just a coincidence. Once the traffic learned how to get through the neighborhood north to south it also learned how to get through the neighborhood south to north creating an inter neighborhood sub arterial thoroughfare that goes right past Wildwood Park, Wildwood School and SMOW, all highly child populated areas. It also created a lot of traffic going down Estes to avoid the stoplights at Touhy and Caldwell and the Y. One Estes residents even went out and bought a “Slow” flag sign to put up when her children are out playing.

Now with the significant volume of traffic coming through the North Edgebrook/Wildwood neighborhood because of the Niles commercial/industrial area and the recklessness with which this traffic uses North Edgebrook/Wildwood it is just a question of time until some child gets hit. It doesn’t do much for the property values either. It has turned out to be true that the speed bumps are ineffective except against the trucks from the Niles industrial area that are illegally using Melvina. Now the only hope is that Doherty wins the Senate race in November or gets beat by someone in February 2011 because North Edgebrook was definitely a neighborhood that was for sale and was sold.