By Ben Joravsky
About two years ago Mell came up with the idea of building a mix of homes, light industry, and a school on the site. The school would be a new building for Inter-American Magnet, a highly regarded public grade school now located in Lakeview. That part of the plan seemed to have the most support. Inter-American’s parents and staff were eager to move, as they’d long ago outgrown their building at 919 W. Barry. And many local parents wanted them to come, if only because their children would have a greater chance of being accepted now that neighborhood kids get preferential treatment in the annual magnet-school lottery. “There are no magnet schools in our area,” says Marissa Hopkins, a resident of the 33rd Ward whose son attends Inter-American. “But there are several magnet schools on the north side. So residents there have a better chance of getting into one. It’s only fair that it comes here.”
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Curiously, there’s no record of Daley saying anything publicly on the matter. Planning Department officials refer all questions on the matter to Daley’s press office. Spokesman Rod Sierra says, “It may not be the best site for Inter-American to be on a former industrial site, but nothing has been ruled out. There have been a number of meetings about this, and the bottom line is that they don’t know what they’re going to do with that site. The mayor hasn’t issued any edict on whether the area should stay industrial. It’s still under discussion.”
Mell finally had his staff make photocopies of the referendum question and distribute them to the five polling places. The election judges then passed these pieces of paper to voters, who were supposed to read them and then write in whether they supported the zoning change or not.
So the judge did. “That’s 16 or 17 votes that didn’t get counted,” says Bardoe. “I feel bad about that. My husband is extremely upset. And you want to know why? Because to get something on the ballot you have to do a lot of work, you have to go door-to-door and talk to people and convince them to sign your petition. We knocked on those doors, and we talked to our neighbors. This was something they really cared about, because it affects our community. The referendum is our chance to be heard, and what do they do? They send the wrong ballot books. It’s very distressing.”
