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RSSMount Vernon City Council Continues Aging City Artificially
Aug 21
Illinois, Legislation, Mount Vernon Civic, Daniel, Local, Politics, Rants, Stupidity 3 Comments
Okay, we know that more and more Americans are “graying” as the last great population boom gets older. Good for them. Unfortunately, the Mount Vernon City Council sees fit to ignore residents’ pleas and destroy a neighborhood to gain possible monetary increases from a new old folks home.
For months that I have been following this story, residents of the proposed development area have been fighting in every way imaginable to stop this development from being approved. Frequent appearances at city council meetings, petitions, etc.
Now, seemingly as a snub to the very people they are supposed to represent, the council vastly passed 3 measures to allow this destruction.
For the city, this could mean new income and more old people to drive our average age even higher. For the residents, this will mean heavier traffic, construction in their once peaceful neighborhood, and absolutely no positive outcome.
One comment in an article from the Register-News has Councilman David Wood saying, “… Mt. Vernon has been negative, at best neutral, to developers.” Can you blame them, Davey? Some slick guy comes in claiming to have a great plan to help and grow our town while destroying a neighborhood. How about we build this next to your house, Dave? Better yet, you go ahead and buy one of the homes in that area and tell us how great it is to live there once this development starts.
What happens when/if the old folks don’t buy the condos/apartments and the developer cuts losses? Do we get another remote ghetto? Sounds like a winner to me.
When/if the old folks do come, what do they do for our local economy? Buy breakfast at Denny’s? Yay! More support for minimum wage jobs. Oh no, they’ll go golfing. Okay, I’m sure that the caddy they use can support his family on that wage.
Mount Vernon’s age was tilted to the high side when the 2000 census was taken. I have no doubts that it is even more so now that we have GreenTree. Bad news for council: YOU CAN’T SUPPORT AN ECONOMY SIMPLY ON RETIRED-PERSON’S INCOME.
It just can’t be done that I have seen. Real employment and development needs to come our way, not more retirement villages alone.
I see nothing wrong with retirement homes/apartments/whatever. I do have a problem with city council ignoring the people they were elected to represent and trying to turn Mount Vernon into a retirement community.
Aug 22, 2007 @ 07:38:02
From your description, I thought you were talking about a “shady rest” assisted living center for the elderly. Then as I read further I see these are condos/apartments. I agree, it is a very bad decision to put this in an R-1 zoned area (in a flood plain no less?). It’s a gamble for the developer/city, no doubt, but consider this.
Retired folks have the largest disposable income. Not only do they buy condos, they also buy furniture, appliances, cars, boats, services like cell phone, internet, memberships (to clubs etc), and they pay a boat-load of city taxes on all of this. I could go on and on. So it’s a good thing to bring all of this disposable income into a community, but they shouldn’t destroy a neighborhood to do it.
Aug 25, 2007 @ 12:43:51
Why buy a conco in Mt. Vernon when you can go to Boca and play shuffleboard.
Aug 25, 2007 @ 14:51:40
You know people do have relatives in the area, maybe they want to be near them to watch their grandkids (great grandkids, nieces, nephews, whatever) grow and be part of their lives. They may need to stay in the area to help care for a family member.
There are many reasons for someone retiring and living in MtV, think “outside the box”