I’ll begin with three disclaimers. One, I’m not advocating for or against any candidate for village president — in fact, I’m confident that what I’m about to say will irk them both equally. Two, I’ve voted for the incumbent over his four-plus decades in public service; I’ve also voted against him when I believed there was a better choice. Three, I’m a third-generation Homewood resident, and I believe that Homewood is a better, more vibrant community than the one I returned to in the mid-1980s.
I attended the March 15 forum between the current village president and his challenger. These two individuals couldn’t be more different in depth of experience and disposition. However, the one thing both had in common was hubris, which is going to make our selection of up to four new village trustees critical to Homewood’s future. Those trustees will need to be focused on communication, opportunities for seniors and youth, and community diversity.
Communication. Gentlemen, both of you missed the most fundamental opportunity to communicate with all of us who took the time to attend. Watching you at opposite corners of the theater, engaging only with those who appeared to support your platform, sent an opening message that you found the forum to be performative.
I’ve been to Village Hall on Saturday mornings and to Village Board meetings on Tuesday nights. I should have been welcomed by name and asked what I was there to learn. Similarly, a challenger who doesn’t know me, my interest in this community, or my issues of concern missed an opportunity to leave his comfort zone and to invest time in meeting a vote he should be earning.
Gentlemen, good communication also involves listening, not just hearing. We’ve had one Town Hall/Committee of the Whole meeting during the past four years and none that anyone can recall before then.
The forum made clear that the incumbent continues to be out of touch with residents’ concerns about a multi-level residential complex to the west of Village Hall. Residents spoke out frequently and loudly when they learned that an oversized Hartford Building would dwarf Martin Square — concerns that were ignored. And now, the same developer is looking to transform public parking adjacent to Village Hall into a complex even larger and more obnoxiously oversized than the Hartford Building.
Village leadership announced at a recent Village Board meeting that construction will commence in April — although trustees have not yet voted on this plan. At a recent focus group I attended, two village employees explained the fire lit under this project as “a need to be aggressive, to look like Oak Park, before the builder goes somewhere else.” I was told that “if people are so concerned about the building, they should be showing up to Planning and Zoning meetings; by the time this gets to the Board, we just expect them to sign off on it.”
Let that sink in. “We just expect them to sign off on it.” My response that I voted for trustees, not village staffers or members of the Planning and Zoning Commission, was met with silence. The incumbent has decided this is what he wants, and he’s going to get it, whether we like its location or not. And if you watch the video, you’ll see his next housing plan is a multi-unit building on the north side of Ridge Road across from Irwin Park.
Regrettably, the challenger missed an opportunity to address residents’ concerns about the speed and timing of this construction. Ambiguous references to tax rebates without funding details and comments about bringing either Google employees or headquarters to Homewood were all we heard (and he was a bit squishy on what he meant by that).
The concerns of small business owners and residents who need more and better-located ADA parking accommodations went unanswered. Particularly troubling is that the challenger continually referenced Homewood as part of the Cook County Board’s 5th District. Spoiler alert: Even the furthest outreaches of Homewood haven’t been part of the 5th District for over 20 years. Homewood is in the 6th District to the south—not to the southwest—of Chicago.
Seniors and Youth Engagement. Gentlemen, neither of you appears to have a plan for issues facing these two disparate demographic groups, particularly providing a voice for youth in the future of our village.
I’m not interested in an incumbent touting the success of a senior taxi program no longer in existence because “seniors get rides from other people.” I’m also not interested in a challenger asking an incumbent why he hasn’t visited a senior living facility in five years when the challenger himself has yet to attend a Village Board meeting. (Note to the challenger: It’s also a bad look to leave before a trustee forum begins—you know, the trustees you’d be working with.)
What I am interested in is hearing the voices, concerns and suggestions of these two key demographics in our community. There are plenty of seniors whose response will not be, “But we’ve always done it this way.”
And to assume that youth have nothing to contribute to the conversation plays into the perception that only one person in Homewood knows what’s best for all of Homewood. Nothing could be further from the truth. At no point did either candidate suggest a Youth Council, a Youth Civics Advisory Board, or some similar complement to the Senior Committee to gain valuable insight from the next generation of civically engaged citizens.
Community Diversity. One of Homewood’s greatest strengths is that we’re all different—whether that’s race, ethnicity, gender, faith affiliation, political viewpoint, owner or renter, kids of the two- and four-legged varieties, commuter or work from home—and we choose to live here because of those very strengths. We have diverse schools, diverse library and park district programs, and diverse faith communities. These are things I value about our village.
To hear the incumbent define “diversity” as “dividing” is, ironically, choosing to ignore the very strengths that make us the community we are. Part of building the next generation of community is to be open-minded to others’ points of view, and the challenger missed a similar opportunity to document the specific, tangible ways he would leverage our residents’ strengths for Homewood’s benefit.
I never like “hold your nose and vote” efforts, nor do I like to vote for someone because that candidate isn’t the other one. Regardless of your preference for village president, the role of our trustees over these next four years is more important than ever (and to be clear, he’s not the mayor, except in the informal sense; under Illinois law, he’s actually the village president because we have an elected board of trustees).
Voting matters. Your voice matters. Three four-year seats and one two-year seat are in play in 2025. I hope every resident will consider whom they believe will be the best trustees to serve our village. They will have the responsibility for either checking an incumbent who’s had nearly four decades of things going his way and has mastered deflect, defer and defend when questioned—or checking a neophyte who has more charisma than practical solutions and who appears to be significantly underqualified for the rigors of the job. Remember, they work for us — not the other way around.
Thank you for the forum to express my opinion.
Dr. Kristine M. Condon,
retired legal studies and civics educator,
Homewood