Skokie Vision 4

Skokie Vision #4: Nothing disrupts community in the way that big roads and highways do. The core problem with the way suburbs proliferated after WWII -- including Skokie, where two-thirds of our housing was built during the two post-War decades -- is that we made the "fatal mistake," as Louis Mumford wrote, "to sacrifice every other form of transportation to the private motorcar."

The good news is that the Village can use its power of setting policy to simultaneously foster community and ensure safety. We can encourage neighborhood-based, walkable business development; bike- and pedestrian-safe roads; discourage drive-throughs; and create "public commons" throughout the Village rather than signing off on gated bubbles.

As I recently heard someone phrase it, let's stop calling our big streets "corridors" -- which implies speeding quickly in, through, and out of Skokie -- and instead, cultivate a sense of place.