Lawyer Presents Safety Concerns from Referendum Plan

The following letter was written and submitted by Robert Goldberg.

I spent decades of my first career as a lawyer representing some of Chicago’s largest real estate developers in planning complex and extensive projects. From what I have seen in this proposed school project, no weight has been given, in either the planning or the budget, to various critical safety concerns related to transporting students to the proposed school. An estimated 30% of the students would come in through the Clavey route, and yet I have seen no mention (even in the traffic study) of the on-grade railway crossing at Clavey. I am assuming that there is no way to predict when the trains will come, which makes matters worse; the safety aspects of that crossing concern me. Yearly, there are thousands of train accidents nationwide, a high percentage of which involve human error. This is only one example of problems unrelated to direct building and site development costs that appear to have been overlooked.

I consider $198 Million a starting point, call it baseline. If the referendum passes, fasten your seat belts for the overage. We raised our kids in Highland Park and have grandkids here, and I want a plan that hasn’t been rushed through and is up to the highest professional standards. I will be voting “NO.”

Robert Goldberg