Additional dwelling units can help homeowners and make housing safer

Fran Spielman’s recent article “‘Bungalow Belt’ City Council members brace for battle over ‘granny flat’ expansion” didn’t address related positive impacts likely to result from allowing “additional dwelling units” (ADUs) citywide. I want to shed light on unmentioned benefits.

Ald. Marty Quinn cited a fire in an illegal attic apartment. A safety benefit of legalizing ADUs citywide is making it easier for homeowners to legalize and renovate parts of a house that were built without a building permit.

When City Hall discovers an unpermitted dwelling — say, after a fire — the homeowner must spend money to remove parts that make it a home (usually the kitchen) because location-specific zoning rules prohibit it from remaining in place. What if the homeowner could spend that money making the attic or basement apartment code-compliant and continue providing a home? Allowing ADUs citywide increases safety citywide.

Another ADU benefit is that homeowners can generate income to help pay their mortgage or to facilitate multi-generational households. Council members should consider how best to implement citywide ADUs so that those benefits accrue to homeowners equitably. A debate exists over whether to allow ADUs in all residential zoning districts “by right” or to require homeowners in the city’s RS-1 and RS-2 zoning districts to get “special use” approval from the Zoning Board of Appeals.

Getting that approval to build an ADU will create a barrier so high that many homeowners will be unable to adapt their property to fit their family’s needs. Special use applications require a $1,000 application fee, plus fees charged by attorneys and consultants (which, while not required, are essential to ensure a successful outcome).

Divergent modes of allowing ADUs — one for families in RS-1 and RS-2, and another for all other zoning districts — extend the right to the majority of property owners but not in one-fifth of the city’s land area. This could perpetuate unsafe homes and cause inequitable disparities in financial opportunities and impositions on homeowners to gain approvals that could be borne more easily by homeowners in Mount Greenwood (median income: $106,538; 83% of the population is white) than in Washington Heights (median income: $55,428; 96% of the population is Black). City Council should choose to level the playing field and allow all homeowners to benefit from the ADU expansion.

Steven Vance, South Loop

Erasing Columbus’ legacy

Once again, The Chicago Board of Education has failed the city and its students now with its recent action to rename the Christopher Columbus School. The Board of Education’s decision to do so came with no community input nor the introduction of factual historical data, which refutes revisionist history created by Howard Zinn, whose writings distort facts.

Within six years, the Board of Education has removed Columbus Day from its calendar and now removed the name of this historical navigator whose 1492 voyage changed the face of the globe, introduced Western European culture, which included farming, metal tools, horses and the wheel to a new world of people. One now has to question the quality of education and the content of the curriculum to which our students are now subjected.

Over these past few years, the Italian American Human Relations Foundation along with scholars including Rafael Ortiz, Carol Delaney, and Mary Grabar have provided data that reinforces a wealth of reasons to celebrate the Columbus legacy, only to have those efforts fall on deaf ears of educators, elected officials and the media. Not one representative in the aforementioned categories has provided any factual documentation to merit their claims that malign the feats of Columbus. And then there is Enrico Tonti School, also renamed. Another bit of history erased. How sad.

Louis H. Rago, president, Italian American Human Relations Foundation of Chicago

Obscene campaign cash

The amount of money being spent on election campaigns this season is obscene, especially in the presidential race. Just imagine if a lot of those dollars could be spent on meeting social and community needs. Donald Trump’s recent fundraising prowess shows that President Joe Biden may have erred in not breaking the law earlier and getting convicted of multiple felonies in time to goose his fundraising. Surely, it’s too late for Biden to have engaged in business tax fraud and to have developed a reputation as a cheating husband and sexual predator.

Mary F. Warren, Wheaton

A satisfying meeting

I have a Rolling Stones story that is quite different than the ones of Chicago area residents who recently saw the band at Soldier Field or elsewhere decades back.

Circa 1964 both of my parents were hospitalized at the same time. My aunt was taking care of me and took me to Northwestern Memorial Hospital to visit them, but I was too young to go up and see them, so a relative had to sit downstairs with me. All of a sudden there was this big ruckus as a gentleman was standing there with five girls around him clearly in ecstasy. Being 5 years old, I was incredibly curious and went up to this group. This gentleman was signing autographs and smiling at all of the teenyboppers, and when he came to me, I was just staring at him. He looked down at me, gave me the biggest smile and ruffled my hair.

I had no idea what had just happened and walked back to sit with my aunt. Turns out that gentleman was Mick Jagger. One of the band members had to have some sort of emergency surgery, so that’s why he was there. I can remember the moment and his face as clear as day. Now that I know what he looks like and looked like then, I realize how lucky I was as a major rock and roll fan. We all have strange stories in our histories and that’s one of my favorites.

Louise Bajorek, Burbank

Judge of character

I have some hope (alas, not much, since it gets slight coverage in general news media) that voters are attentive to the actions of Donald Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon in the former president’s classified documents case.

By investing time and process in many frivolous motions that were intended by Trump’s defense to consume time and performing routine parts of the process abnormally slowly, Cannon has made it impossible for voters to have a verdict on the charges, which are considered to be the legally strongest against Trump to consider on Election Day.

If Trump becomes president, Cannon will represent the future of the American judiciary. We may look back nostalgically to the days when Trump-appointed judges from a list provided by the far-right Federalist Society, who were, mostly, at least nominally competent.

Judicial appointees in a second Trump term can be expected to be chosen for loyalty to He Who Appointed Them and for a maximalist view of presidential power. Since these would be lifetime appointments, Trump’s shadow over the judiciary would last for a couple of generations.

Would anybody be surprised if a re-elected Trump elevated Cannon to a seat on a higher court?

Curt Fredrikson, Mokena

Mass Pride arrests soak up resources

The Chicago Police Department manages to clear the St. Patrick’s Day parade area on Columbus Avenue every year in two to three hours. Why are we watching mass arrests at the Pride Parade 10 to 11 hours after it ends? This strains police and first responder resources, costing taxpayers millions in overtime.

John McClorey, South Loop

Time to hand over the car keys, Mr. President

There comes a time in most everyone’s life when it’s time for him or her to stop driving a car, and it’s hard to to tell such parties that they shouldn’t drive anymore. I had a tough conversation with my 83-year-old dad (he was still riding a motorcycle), but he reluctantly accepted my advice.

Let me ask you this, “Would you feel comfortable riding in a car with Joe Biden driving?”

President Biden has spent over half his life, 50 years, in public service and has done an admirable job as president. I applaud his devotion, but in the best interest of the Democratic party it’s time for him to bow out of the upcoming presidential election. Surely his loved ones and close advisers know this. It’s time for them to step up and have the conversation with him.

Dave Hirsh, Rogers Park

Thou shall not force the Bible on school children

This letter was going to be about the forced posting of the Ten Commandments in schools throughout Louisiana and especially, as we’ve lately found out, in Oklahoma. But unfortunately I may give up on it because I can’t settle on the final word. This is what I’ve got so far:

Dear Sun-Times editors:

When Ryan Walters, the top education official in Oklahoma, announced recently to teachers in his state that they must teach the Ten Commandments to grade-school children and then threatened them with more severe repercussions for non-compliance than for a person who has actually broken several of those commandments — a person for whom Mr. Walters intends to vote for president in November — he was illustrating perfectly the very definition of the word “disingenuous.”

There. What do you think? Would “hypocrisy” be better? How about “fascist”?

See, my dilemma stems from the fact that Mr. Walters — whom I’ve seen interviewed on TV — is a handsome young man who speaks confidently and eloquently and dresses particularly w…w...wait! I’ve got it!

“Evil.”

Jim Koppensteiner, Niles

Trump needs to be told ‘You’re fired’

Now that we know that the majority of the Supreme Court justices are in the pocket of MAGA/Donald Trump, it is all the more reason to ensure that he is not elected president. This would be a disaster for our country and for democracy.

Contrary to what Trump says, we finally have the respect of the international community, which considered our country a laughingstock during his presidency. There is a reason this community, with the possible exception of Russia and North Korea, fear the re-election of Trump.

Regina Gomory, Crystal Lake