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Health & Fitness

How Tall Do You Want That Horsewhip Factory?

  Tomorrow the Zoning Board and Commission begins its deliberations on the requested variances sought by the city for the Addison Parking Deck. We have heard the testimony and most of us probably have an opinion whether it should be four or six stories tall.
   Yesterday's Chicago Tribune had an article on "Peak Car" http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/automotive/chi-peak-car-threshold-changes-auto-mobility,0,2... I urge you to read the whole article, I'll try to summarize it a little here. The article states that we as a society are driving less and owning fewer cars as well, it states that 87.3% of 19 year olds had a license in 1983 but dropped to 69.5% in 2010. Maybe you have seen recent car commercials targeting young drivers, I know I have.
   One of the variances requested is the height of the structure to be 65 feet so it can have 6 stories. I am sure the people who back in the early 1900's where trying to predict if they wanted to build a new horsewhip factory looked to the past for guidance with the population  growth that they were witnessing thought they were pretty smart to build a new horsewhip factory
but we all know that the automobile came and blew that prediction away. I say the proponents of the parking garage are making the same mistake here and now.
  Yes I did say the proponents of the parking garage not just the one with six stories. I mean if you were going to build a horsewhip factory would you rather just shave two stories to save the money or would you rather just not build it at all. Unfortunately, I believe there is no turning back on building a parking garage on Addison so my only hope is to mitigate the damage by urging the smallest one possible.
   The Trib Article goes on to mention that Car sharing services are reducing the need for car ownership, they state for every car used in car sharing it reduces auto sales by 32 cars. Just think if we get a real car sharing program in Elmhurst that had 50 cars how many less cars we  would need. And much like the bad prediction that did not see the lack of need of the horsewhip because of an invention of the automobile, driver-less cars are currently being tested and we should consider the impact that the technology will do to further erode the need for individual car ownership.
   I know it is easy to look back and use the past to try and gauge the need for parking in Elmhurst so I urge the City leaders who will pass judgement on the Addsion Parking Deck to remember the way of the horse being replaced by the car and not go all in on the 6 story plan and instead go with the 4 story plan if they must go with a parking garage at all. Twenty years from now you can look back and say you chose the more intelligent plan for Elmhurst. Again I urge you to read the Tribune Article to get a sense of what I am trying to convey.
  

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