Skokie Vision 22
Skokie Vision #22: Skokie has all the essential ingredients for a healthy, robust economy. Westfield Old Orchard already centers Skokie as a regional retail hub. There's no reason why Skokie should continue its disturbing trend of relying increasingly on cash-strapped homeowners and small landlords to make our Village hum rather than on income-producing commercial properties. I am especially excited to connect the dots, as this vision writer suggests, and as Trustee, move Skokie into what the Brookings Institution calls a "place-based industrial strategy."
A "tech hub" done right, that would incorporate Oakton Community College, the Skokie Science and Tech Park, and our industrial districts, would bring home-based, high-value prosperity to Skokie with high-paying jobs, a tax-producing economy, and foot traffic on Oakton Street that would then support small businesses, and a mixed-income transit-oriented development housing market to match.
The abandoned hotel construction site near the Tech Park -- what one resident I met recently calls "Skokie's Sculpture" -- is a symbol of Skokie's continually squandered opportunities for long-term growth and prosperity. Instead of thinking strategically and holistically about economic development writ large, incorporating sustainability, housing, and public health goals, this Village Board makes small-time, one-off financial agreements with brokers and developers like those that brought us that the Homewood Suites debacle, now in foreclosure. Moreover, there was no publicly evident vetting process for that particular deal, and the Village Board's closed-door sessions have been deemed Open Meetings Act violations. Why should any voter re-elect these Trustees?
As Trustee, I will enthusiastically embrace a Skokie Tech Hub. At the Tech Park, we have a new, state-of-the-art Underwriters Lab materials science lab focused on “decarbonization and other areas essential to a sustainable future.”
This is something needed, positive, and will lift all boats, from local residents to our region. I believe that with every step we take, individually and collectively, we have to be building toward a better world. Putting this vision into action will do that. I will get it done.