Shorelines

Two nights ago, on the 18th, the Shorewood DPW committed a large crew during the night to do a snow removal operation in the Business District.

Hooray !!!!!

On my block (4400 N Oakland)  and south, they did a great job.  Shoppers can actually get from their cars to the shops now.  

However -- (you knew there was going to be a however) -- the Merchants on Capitol Drive have nothing to cheer about.  As of this afternoon, their stores and the street are still separated by mounds of ice and snow.  

I wonder if anyone on the Shorewood Board of Trustees has ever had any retail experience (other than shopping).  If they ever depended upon retail sales for their livelihood, they would know that this week -- the week before Christmas -- can be a make or break event for many of the merchants.

With the high rate of property taxes that are paid for commercial property in Shorewood --- in addition to the BID tax that commercial property owners pay --- it is outrageous that these merchants are not taken better care of by the Village.

Note to Village Trustees:  Forget about bicycle races, and forget about artist displays by outside vendors at the high school, and forget about spending Tens of Thousands of Dollars Advertising how Friendly Shorewood is to Pedestrians and how Upscale the stores are for Shoppers --- try spending the money on clearing the snow banks so the merchants can make a little money and keep their businesses open.

 I would love a 320% ROI !!!

I am sure that any investor would love to get that kind of Return On Investment --- but I doubt that even Warren Buffet would count those kinds of chickens before they are hatched.

The Community Development Authority is sponsoring a Facade Grant of $800,000 for the apartment building at 3575 N. Oakland.  According to a story in www.shorewoodnow.com by Marie Rohde:

The building  is currently assessed at $3.5 million.

The CDA says the facade improvements will increase the value of the building by $2.256 million and boost neighboring properties by $305,000. 

Doing the math, $800,000 invested with a return of increased value of $2,561,000 is a ROI of 320%.

As a real estate broker, I have been involved in many transactions involving renovation, with single family and multi family properties.  I have never heard of anyone getting that kind of ROI with just a new facade ....

I would certainly like to see a Certified Appraisal of both the value of the building as is, and the value of the building after the facade improvements.  Due to the uniqueness and complexity of this project, such an appraisal would be mostly in narrative, and it would be interesting to see the rationale the appraiser used, and the comps that justify the conclusion.

As a very imperfect comparison (once again considering the uniqueness and complexity of the project) I have printed below the kind of return on investment a homeowner would expect for various renovations.

This is somewhat "apples to oranges" -- but note that on average, no project even pays back the cost !!  The returns are all less than 100%. 

You can find a number of similar charts and comparisons on the internet --- potential Seller are always interested in ways they can sell their property for a higher price. 

Just for fun --- let's pretend that a 320% ROI is doable on this project --- and can be substantiated to the satisfaction of investors/bankers/etc ------- then  why does the Village have to finance the project ?  If it is for real --- drop a dime, call Warren Buffet --- those are the kinds of numbers that would probably get his attention.

What's YOUR TAKE --- please leave your comments below.

Incumbent Village Board Trustees Michael Maher and Dawn Anderson are reportedly going to run for re-election.  At this point, it is uncertain if they will have any opposition to their re-election bid.  If they don’t, they will obviously not need to campaign.  But if they do have opposition, I have some suggestions for campaign literature.

Of course they can take credit for spending millions of dollars on new projects such as the Streetscaping and the Marketing of Shorewood.  And let’s not forget their largesse of Village money for the new Professional Sport Quality sports field at SHS (D2D)  --- possibly including a Second Dome by which to landmark that august institution.

In regards to the Streetscaping, they may not want to highlight that north Oakland was streetscaped barely 10 years ago --- and already determined to be obsolete.  And they would definitely not want to mention that the new aluminum light poles replacing the 10 year old cast iron poles have begun to fall apart before they have even been plugged in !!!

If the new athletic field does get a dome --- perhaps they can find room in it for some space for the Senior population --- who have been waiting for years for an enhancement to their diminished space in the library basement.

Most proudly, they can point to the tens of thousands of dollars (from general taxes) and hundreds of thousands from the BID taxes, to market Shorewood --- with a main emphasis on the “Walkability” and “Shopping Friendly” features the Village has to offer.

I am pretty sure they will NOT want to mention that they have put no money in the budget to actually clear snow and ice from our sidewalks, crosswalks and commercial parkways --- to actually make them Walkable ! 

Most probably, they will not want to feature in their campaign brochures, pictures of the mountains of snow and ice that act as fortress walls between where the shoppers park on the street and the shops they are trying to get to --- and pictures of the crosswalks that at best are covered with slush, ice and snow, making them close to impossible to negotiate – or at worst, the crosswalks that end abruptly at a wall of snow that would require a chair lift to get over.

Here are some of the pictures I would advise Anderson and Maher not to use in their re-election bids.

Wall of Snow & Ice on Parkway Oakland Ave

Smart Pedestrian Carries his Own Skis

 Cross Walk to Show Wall Atwater School

Inaccessible Bus Stop Capitol Drive

Shopper Friendly Snow Banks

Lake Bluff & Oakland where school kids

cross -- how would someone with a walker

or wheel chair cross this ?

 WHAT DO YOU THINK ?  PLEASE LET US KNOW AND LEAVE A COMMENT.

A new motto that you may have noticed on the new official Shorewood website is:

Shorewood --- Just Two Feet From Everything.

 If you think this motto is good --- just wait until the Village Board spends that $45,000 or so dollars they put in the budget to advertise the virtues of Shorewood as a "Walkable" community.

 Driving around the Village today --- I saw it was true --- Everything was just two feet away --- that is everything is just on the other side of a Two Foot High Snowbank !

If you want to park and shop at almost any store on Oakland or Capitol, I hope you get a parking spot near the corner.  Because where ever you are going is on the other side of a Two Foot Snowbank, and you have to walk to the corner to get to the sidewalk.

 Once at the corner, I hope that you are very nimble indeed, as almost all of them have ice fields and trampled down snow, that you still have to navigate.

If you are handicapped and use a walker or cane, you might still have a chance.  If you have to use a wheelchair, you better get it fixed with snow chains.

But hey  --- this time next year, if we have the same wintery conditions, you might be able to drive over to the Shorewood High School and walk around on the astro turf under a nice warm dome.  After all, the Village Board gave almost $500,000 for the D2D !

Of course that money may very well have been better spent if the Board had budgeted to have the snow banks removed from the parkway on the business streets --- and the ice fields cleard at the crosswalks. 

 Or maybe they can take the $45,000 some dollars they are going to spend to advertise Shorewood as a Walkable Community --- and use it to clear snow and really make it so.

 What is YOUR Take ?