New Wright Bed and Breakfasts in Chicago

[peterm]

http://chicago.curbed.com/archives/2013 ... kfasts.php

U.S. Army colonel (formerly known as James Pritzker) Jennifer Natalya Pritzker, http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/2212 ... woman.html has plans for these Chicago houses:
Warren MacArthur, George Blossom, in Kenwood, Emil Bach in Rogers Park...

[Paul Ringstrom]

This is wonderful news!

I toured both when the FLW Conservancy did an open house fundraiser earlier this year.

Both houses could use several hundreds of thousands of dollars of work, but will be spectacular when completed.

Col. Pritzker has a reputation for doing fantastic restorations.

In case you missed it, yes that was Billion with a B.

[pharding]

I greatly appreciate what she is doing for the legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright. She also founded the Pritzker Military Library which is extremely well done. I am sure that whatever she does with the Kenwood Houses that it will be well done and historically accurate.

[Paul Ringstrom]

Bad new for FLWBC:
http://evanstonnow.com/story/real-estat ... in-chicago

[Paul Ringstrom]

more on this topic…
http://www.chicagomag.com/real-estate/N ... n-Kenwood/

[pharding]

Deleted by author.

[DRN]

Politics?...Maybe. I suspect LGBT prejudice against Ms. Pritzker may be in play too.

I can't see how a historical house based B&B on a corner property and its immediate neighbor could be anything but a spur for rehabilitation of a neighborhood. If the neighbors are worried about property tax hikes due to gentrification, Chicago should consider a plan just approved in Philly that bases property taxes in neighborhoods experiencing gentrification on the property owner's income. The idea being existing residents won't be pushed out of their homes as their property values rise due to surrounding improvement.

[DavidC]

Interesting historical factoid I just ran across recently: Only one person in history has been awarded both the Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

(find the answer here).


David

[KevinW]

One speaker at the meeting, Dr. Anita Blanchard, who delivered the president's two daughters, complained that the B&Bs would bring transients to the single-family neighborhood.

Heaven forbid the neighborhood attracts those dangerous latte sipping, fluffy bathrobed hooligans that frequent Bed and Breakfasts...NOT IN MY BACKYARD, BUSTER![/i]

[Oak Park Jogger]

Hyde Park and Kenwood are not such a rough neighborhood! Houses in that area sell for large sums and many have been updated over the years and are very well maintained. The specific corner that the two Wright houses occupy is across from a park in a neighborhood of lovely homes of that era.

The odd thing about Hyde Park, I think, is that its residents still carry some of the anxiety of old style Chicago, where there were sharp lines of demarcation between "good" neighborhoods and "bad" neighborhoods and a fear that transients would from the bad areas would come over into the good areas and cause trouble. (47th Street, not too far north of these two Wright houses, used to be one of those lines.) And within Hyde Park and Kenwood individual buildings on many streets can vary a lot, with some buildings or homes that are in need of attention, and other homes are spectacular; at least one I knew of had a real Monet in it! This is a neighborhood with a lot of architecturally significant homes! But the fear that their neighborhood would suddenly go "bad" because of intruders or because of properties that were allowed to decay historically has made homeowners there very sensitive to any changes in the homes or apartment buildings around them.

That said, the idea that "transients" at the proposed Wright bed and breakfasts would be a problem is a more recent expression of that old fear, but it's hard to believe that a bunch of Mercedes driving tourists are the kind of threat to the residential neighborhood of Kenwood that some of the residents seem to fear. Parking in the neighborhood was impossible 30 years ago and probably isn't any better today, so maybe people are reluctant to add a few more cars to the mix. But two sparkling, renovated architectural gems would be a plus for any neighborhood, and increase property values up and down the block. And both of these homes need extensive work, as those of us who visited them recently with The Conservancy could attest.

I used to live a little east of the two Wright homes and walked past them on my way to and from work everyday, wishing that I could live in them. Recently I hoped that I could at least stay overnight in one or both of them, and am sorry that the neighborhood has such a fear of Wright driven tourists like me!

[Roderick Grant]

It seems a worse outcome would be if the two houses were to become dilapidated or carved up into small, cheap apartments, bringing the 'wrong' element into the neighborhood. Perhaps it's time to launch a campaign to reverse this foolish decision.

[Paul Ringstrom]

http://hpherald.com/2013/11/27/south-ke ... ment-43322

[ozwrightfan]

Perhaps in would be beneficial for these residents to hear from other FLW B & B owners and their neigbours to allay their fears.

[jmcnally]

I don't think they have fears. They have politically-connected opposition.

[Paul Ringstrom]

I don't think they have fears. They have politically-connected opposition.

please explain what you mean by this