Blog Assignment #2: For or Against the One Winnetka Development

For Thursday:

Create a blog post arguing for or against the One Winnetka housing development near the downtown train station. 

 (latest design proposal?)

Requirements include:

  1. One cited image (can be a photo you took, a graph, a chart)
  2. Image must be analyzed (because it does not speak for itself)
  3. Two paragraphs (minimum)

Your blog post must address the following:

  • Affordable housing (based on our class discussions)
  • Other issues you value, personally (eg., traffic, parking, revitalization of downtown, aesthetics, etc.)

It doesn't matter which side you choose, but as budding sociologists, you MUST:

  • use evidence to support your argument
  • demonstrate the "critical consumption of information"

U P D A T E D:

NOTE: although the Village of Winnetka Planning Commission has approved the project, the Winnetka Zoning Board has not (yet?). See these links to educate yourself on the latest news. The next meeting of the Zoning Board is this Monday, December 14th.

Blog Assignment #1: For or Against the Wilmette Development

For Thursday:

Create a blog post arguing for or against the HODC affordable housing development in Wilmette. Requirements include:

  1. Image from Open Communities (see graphs in this presentation)
  2. Quote from Open Communities (see links in this post)
  3. Image from the main opposition group (see image below -- but do not use)
  4. Quote from the main opposition group

It doesn't matter which side you choose, but as budding sociologists, you MUST:

  • use evidence to support your argument
  • demonstrate the "critical consumption of information"

Affordable Housing Information

On Tuesday, we were fortunate to have two guests speak with us about their viewpoints on what "affordable housing" is and why it's important to a community. Gail Schechter is the former head of Open Communities and she brought with her the Rev. Jan Smith, who represents a group called the Housing Opportunity Development Corporation (HODC). Below are some materials they have used to educate the public. They also provided us with a flyer from a group that opposes the development of a multi-family development in Wilmette. Coincidentally and fortunately, there was a Plan Commission meeting that very evening at the Wilmette Village Hall, in which (perhaps) hundreds of residents showed up to express their opinions about HODC's most recent development.