September 2007 | Choice Feedback
Escape Your Devices
Your tree house article (August 2007) begins by asking where we can find a refuge from our “Blackberry-dominated, cell-phone-detonated” world. I wonder if it has occurred to anyone that we have an option (a conscious choice, even) of simply not having these devices if their presence is something we feel we must escape from. If we do not have this option, why not? Who forces these things on us? Who took away our choice? Can we envision no life other than buying every new gadget that comes along because we think we must, and then looking for ways to escape from what we have bought?
— David Stein, Chicago
Don’t Displace Homeless Along the Bloomingdale Trail
I just read the blurb in CC (July 2007) regarding the Bloomingdale Trail (BT) and am quite appalled. My disgust is twofold. First, the removal of tent cities built by the homeless by the Friends of the Bloomingdale trail (FOBT) is appalling. The implied tone here is that the homeless are less important than putting in a basketball court, growing crops, adding hills, etc. Homelessness is a problem, and by removing the homeless — further displacing them without providing them resources upon which to change their situation. Well, it’s the whole “not in my backyard” mentality that has come to be the prevailing attitude in the fully gentrified BuckerPark community.
Second, nothing was discussed in the blurb regarding the impact that gentrification of the BT would likely have to native wildlife that may have returned to the area. I’m sure the Fiends of the Bourgeious Trail will no doubt gloss over the impact. While I applaud the efforts at maintaining the trail, I feel it is best left as is — no public funds should go to gentrification of the the BT just for “our” use. Just because the land exists, does that mean that we have to occupy and subjugate it?
I would rather have some funds allocated just for maintenance — keeping it clean and allowing native vegetation and wildlife to return and let it take its course while having the majority of funds going towards a shelter or other intervention strategies for the homeless to circumvent the development of tent cities. If the FOBT truly were friends of the trail, they would recognize that the homeless population is a part of the trail. Gentrifying the BT to make it “pretty” and “usable” does not make the homeless problem disappear.
I, for one, will be vigorously campaigning my alderman in the 35th ward letting him know that I absolutely do not support development along the BT.
— Serena Alexander, via email
![[Send]](http://consciouschoice.com/sendlink/send.gif){kind=small}
Recommend this page to a friend
Top Ten pages recommended to friends:
