Fed Up With Airport Noise: Appeal Your Real Estate Taxes

This is worth the effort:

Appeal your real estate taxes based on the amount of noise pollution you have to endure since the O'Hare expansion.

Chicago residents fed-up with new plane noise from O’Hare Airport said Friday they are appealing their property taxes based on it — and hope to encourage others to do the same.

Members of the Fair Allocation in Runways coalition revealed the latest anti-noise-pollution strategy during a meeting of the O’Hare Noise Compatibility Commission.

FAIR member and Sauganash resident Diane Yost said the planes that now stream over her house like a “string of pearls” have lowered her property’s value, perhaps as much as 10 to 15 percent, so her property taxes should go down, too.

 

“It’s prima facie evidence that your house values go down [based on airplane noise],” said Yost, a 39th Ward resident. A “very desirable swath of homes” on the city’s Northwest Side have been impacted by a new flight runway pattern launched in October yet are not eligible for O’Hare sound insulation, she said.

 

Yost said she filed an appeal of her property taxes by arguing that the new east-to-west flight flow has lowered her home’s property value by creating plane noise that didn’t exist when she purchased her house. She has yet to receive a ruling from the Cook County Assessor’s Office, she said.

FAIR member Judie Simpson, a North Park resident, asked the O’Hare Noise Compatibility Commission to resume publishing a list of each high-noise incident picked up by O’Hare noise monitors so residents can use the data to bolster their appeals.

 

Members said FAIR is considering briefing community groups on how to file property tax appeals based on new O’Hare noise -- a move that could hit the city in its pocketbook. FAIR also has sent Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel two sets of letters asking for a meeting about the “virtual highway of airplanes” over the Northwest Side, but has yet to hear back from him, members said.

The switch to mostly parallel runways should reduce delays in all kinds of weather and increase flight capacity, city officials have said. However, FAIR contends it has resulted in lopsided runway use, with 100 percent of night arrivals expected to be absorbed by one runway 70 percent of the year.

During Friday’s Noise Commission meeting, city officials revealed that O’Hare noise complaints continue to rise since the most recent phase of the O’Hare Modernization Program was completed in October. January 2014 complaints hit 6,321 – a new monthly record. The January 2014 total is up more than fourfold from January 2013.
 

Chicago Department of Aviation officials noted that the number of people complaining in January -- 462 -- is down from the 642 who beefed in December. About two-thirds of all complaints came from just eight homes, they said.
 

However, Aviation officials did not mention that the number of complainants in Chicago increased by 18 percent between December and January, with the bulk concentrated in the 41st, 39th, 45th wards. It’s beefs from suburban homes that are dropping.
Read the entire article in today's Sun-times.  Article written by Rosalind Rossi

 

 

 

 

We Need a City Council with Guts as the City's Credit Rating takes another Dive

So, at yesterday's city council meeting the aldermen duked it out over how to admonish Russia via our airports (who don't fly planes to/from Russia) and voted on a no brainer puppy mill ordinance.

Meanwhile, no mention of the City of Chicago Credit Rating taking another nose dive...this is bad, folks. This is real bad... And the mayor and city council have buried their heads in regards to finding solutions (namely, lets start taxing corporations who exploit our city and pay nothing)...
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/03/04/moodys-downgrades-chicagos-credit-rating-lowest-of-any-major-city-except-detroit/

CHICAGO (CBS/AP) — Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded Chicago’s credit rating, citing the city’s unfunded pension liabilities.
The agency announced Tuesday it’s lowering the rating on $8.3 billion in debt from A3 to Baa1, putting it only three notches above junk-bond status.
Moody’s gave Chicago a negative outlook indicating another downgrade could occur if there’s no pension fix. Moody’s says the rating “reflects the city’s massive and growing unfunded pension liabilities.”
Moody’s says those liabilities “threaten the city’s fiscal solvency” unless major revenue and other budgetary adjustments are adopted soon and are sustained for years to come.
The lower rating means the city will have to pay high interest rates.
Moody’s says a commitment to increasing tax revenue is one thing that could raise the rating. Chicago now has the worst credit rating of any major city except Detroit.

Where is Our Promised Airport Noise Meeting?

Have received a few requests to address:   "when the airport noise meeting promised by the alderman will be"...  I don't know.  But it doesn't hurt to call and ask the alderman "when the meeting will take place".  A couple people have sent me facebook messages stating they prefer an anonymous blog over a face book discussion about controversial topics, just so they can remain anonymous.  I agree.  Most people will actually tell you what they think knowing it won't be used against them in some way.  So here is the latest article about the airport noise debacle...  to little, to late, but let's see what the feds can offer us (or what we can demand) in terms of noise mitigation for our homes.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-02-18/news/chi-ohare-jetnoise-fight-gets-symbolic-nudge-from-county-official-20140218_1_o-hare-noise-silvestri-jet-noise/2

O'Hare jet-noise fight gets 'symbolic' nudge from county official

February 18, 2014|By Jon Hilkevitch | Tribune reporter

• 

(Tribune illustration)

A Cook County commissioner plans to propose a resolution Wednesday calling for a mandatory “fly-quiet” program during overnight hours at O’Hare International Airport to address increasing jet noise from a new runway layout.
O’Hare’s 17-year-old fly-quiet guidelines are voluntary and run from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. daily. They often are the last consideration of pilots, air-traffic controllers and airlines, whose primary focus is on safety, efficiency and passenger comfort, officials said.

Any move to make fly-quiet procedures mandatory would start with the city of Chicago, by conducting a study, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Tony Molinaro said.
The Chicago Department of Aviation declined to comment Tuesday on the matter. City aviation officials have previously dismissed calls for changes that would restrict O’Hare’s flight capacity.
Cook County Commissioner Peter Silvestri, R-Elmwood Park, proposed the mandatory flight restrictions and said he realizes the county doesn’t have jurisdiction over O’Hare. His effort is aimed at facilitating “an effective dialogue’’ between Chicago officials and noise-weary residents of the city’s Northwest Side and nearby suburbs, he said.
“This is not legislation I am proposing. It is mostly symbolic,’’ Silvestri said. “But many elected officials on the Northwest Side support the resolution as a way to say let’s be fair in allocating O’Hare noise so that everybody is on the same footing.”
Silvestri’s move comes as City Council hearings on O’Hare noise requested last month by two Chicago aldermen, Mary O'Connor, 41st, and Margaret Laurino, 39th, haven’t been scheduled yet.
Ald. Michael Zalewski, 23rd, who is chairman of the council’s aviation committee, said Tuesday that he expects to hold the first hearing within the next two weeks. He said it has taken awhile to coordinate the schedules of officials who will testify, including members of the Illinois congressional delegation, experts from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Chicago Department of Aviation, major airlines as well as the public.
Zalewski was careful not to raise expectations of any quick solutions among residents who have suffered more noise, including in the overnight hours, since O’Hare flight patterns were changed last fall.
In reference to Silvestri’s proposal, Zalewski said: “I’m not sure if making fly-quiet absolutely mandatory is doable at this point. The new runways that have opened are designed to bring in planes in certain ways, based on safety and capacity issues. Making fly-quiet mandatory is not something that I think the FAA is willing to do at this point.”
O’Connor, vice chairman of the aviation committee, said Tuesday it’s important for the hearing to be “meaningful and productive.’’
“You want people there to answer the questions and direct us along an avenue of what we have to do next. And not delay it any more,’’ she said.
O’Connor said the issues are complicated by the fact that they require action by the federal government to revise the current noise contour standards to make more homeowners eligible for federal funding to receive noise-abatement insulation, or to require the airlines to retire noisier, older planes on an expedited timetable.

 

For the time being, residents of the 41^st Ward “are just asking for a fair distribution’’ of flights to end the noise saturation over some areas, she said, adding, “I hope we are going in the right direction with these hearings.’’
The opening of a fourth east-west parallel runway at O’Hare last October marked a change in takeoff and landing patterns. The new air-traffic flow is generating more jet noise east and west of the airport and a noise reduction to the north and south of O’Hare.
The Chicago Department of Aviation’s voluntary fly-quiet guidelines for O’Hare’s airline pilots are in effect from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. daily. The guidelines provide operating procedures for using preferred runways and nighttime flight tracks to route planes over the least-populated areas.
Chicago Aviation Commissioner Rosemarie Andolino has rejected proposals to expand those guidelines to start at 9 p.m.
Andolino also denied requests from community groups and members of the Illinois congressional delegation to work with the FAA to use more runways late at night as a way to spread jet noise over a wider area but subject individual areas to a net reduction in planes overhead.
Numerous efforts to restrict jet noise by communities near airports have been proposed over the years, but few mandatory programs have been enacted, according to the FAA.

Click on the link above to see the entire story!

Reminder: "Like" 41st Ward Citizen's Blog on Facebook

Norwood Park Presbyterian Church --- Then and Now

An Early Post Card, 1910,  Norwood Park Presbyterian Church 5849 N. Nina. The words written across the post card, " voice la maison de montante"  means "voice rising house" in French...

 

Norwood Park Presbyterian Church today...

1975 Norwood Park Home 5930 N. East Circle

 

 

Norwood Park  5930-5938 N. East Circle      August 5, 1975  The Daily News 

Norwood Park Train Station 1914

A postcard dated July 24, 1914  Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Train Station

Recycling Pick Up Problems and Aggressive Parking Ticket Writing in Edison Park

Two sets of problems coming through email, recently:


1. Reports of an array of problems with recycling pick up in the ward.  Some people are reporting no pick up for three weeks and more...

2.  Parking meters are being monitored constantly by LAZ, the parking enforcement company who bought public parking meters from the City of Chicago a few years ago.  Apparently LAZ ticket writers are parasitic and aggressive, especially in and around Edison Park hurting Edison Park small businesses. 

This is Why There is No Money for Neighborhood Schools: The Chicago School Board Votes on Charter School Expansion Today

So,  the mayor has money for 17 new charter schools while we wait for more additions for overcrowded 41st Ward Schools

Start asking questions about charter schools, and today's charter school expansion vote by the Chicago School Board.   Why do new schools have to be charter schools? How do charter schools impact neighborhood schools?  Where is the investment in local neighborhood schools?  Why is it taking so long to add additions to overcrowded northwest side schools?  Why does the appointed school board have all the decision making power?


http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/council-mayors-allies-kill-charter-school-hearing/Content?oid=12196607

Even the Untouchables would have a hard time slowing the mayor's charter push. The Chicago Board of Education is set to approve up to 21 new charter schools this week.

Yet I can think of a million reasons the expansion should be put on hold. For starters, the more money the mayor spends building new charters, the less money he has for existing schools that are already so broke they're worried about paying for toilet paper.

As a city, we've never had a debate on this wider issue: Should we be building new schools of any kind when we can't afford to adequately fund the ones we have?

Moreover, if Mayor Emanuel's so determined to build new schools, why do they have to be charters?
The mayor says we need to bring in private operators to give parents more choices.

Sounds great! But in reality, charters do no better than other local schools on standardized tests—which is how we judge schools these days. In many cases, they do worse.
Plus, they're privately run operations. That means they don't abide by the same standards of transparency as regular public schools.

If you don't believe me, ask Dan Mihalopoulos. He's the ace investigative reporter for the Sun-Times who went to court to try to force UNO—one of the biggest charter operators in the state—to turn over records of how they spent millions of public dollars.
Another charter operator—the Chicago Math and Science Academy—has argued in court that it's not even a public school, though it's largely funded with public money. That's part of the school's legal fight against an effort by its teachers to unionize.
Yes, that's right: teachers who want to unionize. And now we've run into the elephant in the room.
Charter operators tend to be militantly nonunion, which is why I suspect power-hungry politicians like Mayor Emanuel love them so much.
The more charters he creates, the less power the Chicago Teachers Union has—and the more power Mayor Emanuel can amass, as if he needs more.

In fairness to the Chicago Public Schools—an operation that needs all the defending it can get—the district did create local advisory councils to review the latest charter school proposals, which are supposed to alleviate overcrowding on the northwest and southwest sides.

But CPS officials told the members of these councils that discussions should be limited to the specifics of the new charter proposals. They were not—let me repeat, not—permitted to talk about the larger issue of whether we should create any charters at all.

For the Sake of "The Children"

 Stop the Political Exploitation of Children

Why are politicians allowed to exploit children for their own political purposes, and when will the media listen to readers and listeners who are sick to death of the self grandiosity of politicians?  Aren't we all tired of Rahm using "the children" at his press conferences, to strong arm city ordinances, contracts and back room deals?

In the photo below we have the mayor and alderman cutting a ribbon to a new annex for a school that has been over crowded for years.  The annex was rallied for by the parents, children & teachers, and paid for by TAXPAYERS. 

These pols mugging for the politically motivated moment in front of a camera with children had nothing to do with this school annex. 

The politicians in this photo should be ashamed it took so long, as constructing this annex came well after the mayor closed 50 functioning schools and created plans for charter schools to replace them all over the city.  Upgrading neighborhood schools is the last thing on the mayor's list of things to do, as evidenced by the remaining schools in the 41st ward overdue for upgrades and the continuous need for MORE teachers in 41st Ward Schools.

The picture that should have been taken, is a picture of the children, their parents and their teachers who endured years of the hardships of overcrowding. 

Photo from DNAinfo 

When will the Department of Children & Family Services (DCFS) demand these politicians stop the political exploitation of children?

Alderman "Listening Tour" O'Connor Finally Calls for Airport Noise Meeting Now That Nothing Can Be Done.

Finally,  after years of citizen protests over the O'Hare Expansion Plan, Alderman O'Connor is calling for a "meeting"?  The new runway opened in October, and as predicted, the noise levels are not compatible with human beings who expect a basic quality of life.

Alderman "Listening Tour" O'Connor is famous for her listening meetings. Usually though, none of us are invited,  except for a few loyal patronage workers,  a sprinkling of chamber of commerce pals and the press, of course. 

Election time is coming up, everyone.  Start attending Alderman O'Connor's meetings to get the skinny on how her hands are tied.

A few runways have been built and more are scheduled to be built in the near future.  The result:  41st Ward residents are being deafened by the noise levels.

The solution:  invite a few airline CEOs and federal officials to a meeting to explain why we are being subjected to life shortening levels of noise, and ask about a "mitigation" plan.

Stop expanding the airport and close the new troubling runway - now that sounds like the noise mitigation plan residents have been screaming to Alderman "Listening Tour" since she took office.  Now, with over the top noise complaints being the top story in last Sunday's Tribune, and the aldermanic election exactly one year away, we get a meeting...

  

chicagotribune.com

2 aldermen seek hearing on O'Hare jet noise

By Jon Hilkevitch
Tribune reporter
9:55 PM CST, January 16, 2014

Advertisement

Two Chicago aldermen whose wards are awash in jet noise are calling for hearings on the new air-traffic patterns at O'Hare International Airport. Alds. Mary O’Connor, 41st, and Margaret Laurino, 39th Ward, introduced a resolution at Wednesday's City Council meeting seeking hearings with Chicago Aviation Commissioner Rosemarie Andolino and other officials at the Chicago Department of Aviation, officials from the Federal Aviation Administration and the major airlines serving O'Hare, O'Connor told her constituents Thursday.
The hearings would focus on the changing noise contours that are the result of new runways, O'Connor said in a email sent to residents of her ward Thursday night.
The call for hearings followed a Tribune report Monday detailing an all-time record for noise complaints involving jets at O'Hare in 2013. Almost 25,000 complaints were filed between January and November — more than for any full year on record since Chicago installed noise-monitoring devices in 1996, officials said. Complaints also sharply increased in November, a month after O'Hare's fourth parallel east-west runway opened. The runway opening triggered an increase in takeoffs and landings east and west of the airport.
O'Connor told residents that she and Laurino want to “gather information about the airline industry's efforts to mitigate the impact of aircraft noise on the surrounding population.'”
“I co-sponsored this resolution because I feel it's important to keep the conversation going about these changes that have taken place at O'Hare Airport,'' said O'Connor, who is a supporter of O'Hare expansion.
She said she wants to strike “a balance that fosters economic growth for the region while still respecting the concerns of residents on the Far Northwest Side of the city.'”
Dates for the hearings were not immediately set.
The latest noise complaint report issued by the city, which covers November, includes 2,300 from Chicago. Almost half, or 1,032, came from the 41st Ward. Next was the 45th Ward, with 923 complaints; and the 39th Ward, 247 complaints.
jhilkevitch@tribune.com
Twitter @jhilkevitch

41st Ward Senior Citizen Treated Unjustly by the City: Where are the elected officials?

So, a 41st Ward Tax-Paying 75 year old Senior Citizen is told she must prove the city sticker she bought and paid, for on time, was on her windshield.  Ms. Tamayo received a ticket for no city sticker in error.  She appealed at a hearing, and brought proof, she bought her city sticker on time.  But, somehow that isn't enough these days, as Ms. Tomayo was told the onus is on her to prove the sticker was on her car at the time the ticket was issued.  She had to pay $200! On a Senior Citizen fixed income! What nonsense this is.  The article makes reference to a trip to the alderman's office.  I have to assume that was useless, as the story ended up in the Sun-times today.




Hard to fight City Hall when fight isn’t fair

By MARY MITCHELL January 8, 2014 6:46PM

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Updated: January 9, 2014 2:22AM

So you walk outside of your home and see a ticket on your car for failing to display a city vehicle sticker, only the sticker is clearly visible.

Most young people would likely grab a cellphone and photograph the sticker along with the ticket.

 

But senior citizens like Gladys Tamayo, 75, still think they can tell their stories and someone will listen and hear the truth.

Tamayo has lived in Chicago since 1966 — first in the Wrigley area and now in the Norwood Park community. Her voice mail message greets callers in both Spanish and English.

“My car was in front of the house and had a valid city sticker,” Tamayo told me. “When the ticket was issued by the city, I said this is wrong.”

Tamayo followed the procedure for appealing the ticket, first requesting a hearing and then showing up at 2550 W. Addison, one of the locations where these revenue cases are heard.

 

She accepts that she probably got off on the wrong foot with the administrative law officer, Lonathan D. Hurse, when she mistakenly walked behind the podium instead of standing in front of it.

Attempts to reach Hurse about Tamayo’s hearing were unsuccessful.

“I was a little nervous,” she admits.

“He read something about the law and said I didn’t have a city sticker on the car. But that is a lie,” she said.

Tamayo said she brought along a copy of the check she wrote for the sticker, but the judge said she had to prove directly that she had the sticker on the windshield before she got the ticket.

“I thought, you’ve got to be kidding. How can I prove that?” she asked.

According to the Municipal Code of Chicago, violations involving the display of the city sticker are excluded from defenses covering other parking violations.

In the end, Tamayo was ordered to pay $200 in fines.

“I was really upset. You are robbing me if you order me to pay for something I didn’t do because a lazy employee didn’t do the job,” Tamayo said.

“They should have seen the sticker. Maybe they drove by and didn’t see it. I don’t know,” she said.

In a city plagued by potholes and senseless crime, a 75-year-old woman’s complaint about a wrongful ticket might seem like a trivial thing.

And as a spokesman for the city of Chicago told me, Chicago police officers and city workers have “bigger fish to fry.”

But no one has $200 to throw away.

Given that this senior citizen made the effort to show up and defend herself by presenting her receipts for the sticker, the administrative officer was a bit harsh.

Moreover, we all make mistakes.

But under these circumstances, Tamayo had no way to prove the sticker was on the windshield at the time the officer or city employee wrote the ticket.

That doesn’t sit well with her, and frankly, wouldn’t sit well with anyone who lands in this situation.

Last week, she trekked up to her alderman’s office with her documents hoping to raise awareness about what she considers an unfair situation.

“That is what really gets me. I have to prove something I cannot prove,” she said.

Now Tamayo is on a crusade.

“I am not really upset about the $200. It is the principle involved. I need to let people know from now on they should take photographs of the sticker the moment they put it on their windshield,” she said.

You’ve got to like Tamayo’s spunk.

In fact, she may have just the right message to convince seniors they need to get one of those new-fangled phones.

Email: marym@suntimes.com