Boystown Needs the OUT Hotel

As Andy's article mentioned, the recent Belmont Harbor Neighbors vote on the proposed OUT Hotel is a non binding recommendation. But shame on the directors of the Belmont Harbor Neighbors organization for voting on the recommendation without even consulting the results of the 'straw poll' they took of their members. This meant they had their minds made up before entering the room tonight or were voting their own opinions vs the opinions of those they supposedly represent. However, that is a bit off topic...

What really saddens me is that we have an individual, with the support of financial investors, who is willing to put some $30 million dollars into our community to develop this property and people are complaining about their house plants not getting enough sun. 

Some people just aren't seeing the larger impact this investment will have on the community. Not only will it bring additional jobs (the developer mentions 100 jobs in his talk, but in reality it would only be about 30 'new' jobs as the hotel would be incorporating an already existing restaurant (Mark's Chop Suey) and bar (Mini Bar) so those jobs already exist so it is unfair to count them as created), the economic ripple effect would be phenomenal. First you have to take into account that people staying at a hotel have to eat somewhere, thus the restaurants and eateries in the neighborhood will see an immediate increase in sales. Guests will most likely visit the drinking establishments, they may purchase wine at the wine store for their dinner at one of the many BYOB restaurants, they may discover they forgot to get their haircut before leaving home and visit a saloon/barber in the neighborhood, snacks at the 7-11, sex toys from Tulip, fun gay gear from Beatnix, etc, etc, etc. You get the point, guests of the hotel are going to spend money throughout the community. But it doesn't end there, other investors are going to see this $30 million dollar investment and open their eyes to the potential that is sitting there with other properties in the area. Maybe the vacant commercial space in our building will attract a florist due to demand for all the gay weddings the hotel will host in their reception/meeting areas or demand for boutique clothing stores or fun gay wear (enter Bad Boys II perhaps?!?) will open down the street. Better yet, maybe someone will have the cash to buy the entire Sherwin Williams/Ink Spot/parking lot area and develop it into something amazing! The point is, once the investment machine gets rolling, it is hard to stop it. In turn our property values have only one place to go and that is up. 

Which brings up another concern raised at the meeting, property values. While it is completely plausible that a few homes directly to the east of the proposed hotel might be negatively effected, overall I think values will go up (over time, even if they do go down for a few, I believe they will recover and gain at a faster pace than if left alone). On the flip side, if the hotel doesn't get approval, future investors will see this attempt, along with many other failed attempts by investors that were 'railroaded' by community organizations such as BHN as a sign that it isn't worth their time or money to attempt to come into our neighborhood. 

This would almost certainly spell doom down the road for us and our community. Without an influx of new money and businesses in our community, our neighborhood will be passed up for other up and coming neighborhoods as investors look to capitalize on our improving economy. As these neighborhoods improve, so does their appeal for a visit from outside communities, such as ours. So as our neighbors venture to other neighborhoods to spend money, the existing business in our area will begin to feel the pinch. Layoffs and business closures would surely follow and our street would soon start to remind us of Uptown. While this may sound like a doom/gloom scenario, the plausibility of it isn't that far fetched. Business is already down on the street, ask any number of merchants/business owners and they will confirm this. 

I also think that having a hotel in the neighborhood would actually help with the crime problems. 1) they will have 24/7 security guards and cameras watching the street. 2) many of the crimes in our neighborhood happen when nobody else is around, thus having more people around may help deter crime. 3) with tourists staying on the street, they don't have a need to walk to the 'L' where most of the muggings take place (between here/there). 4) Chicago hates the national spotlight on crime and does everything in its power to mitigate that. Police presence on the 'Mag Mile' and in the Rush Street area are there to protect the areas visited by those not from Chicago. Thus the more nationally recognized and visited our neighborhood is, hopefully the more the 'powers that be' will want to keep it safe. 5) This might actually be the 'nail in the coffin' so to speak to get our street designated and thus patrolled like an entertainment district. Plus, more tax revenue stems the need to cut funding from our existing police force and may actually help hire some back. In the end I really don't see how having the hotel would be a net negative in the crime area. 

To address the concern of the lady who thinks that having 10 or fewer beds in the hotel labeled "luxury hostel" will somehow make the hotel a whorehouse; "I have seen sex acts performed in the alleys and now they will have a room that they can pay for to do it." (for those not familiar, a couple of the rooms would be partitioned in a way similar to a sleeping car on a train to allow for multiple guests to share a bathroom, but pay a fraction of the going rate for a private room)... 1) The people performing sex acts in public most likely do it because they are exhibitionists 2) Those people aren't going to pay $60-$100 for a train style bunk bed for sex 3) If they were going to pay for a room, the Best Western 1 block to the east is already open for business 4) Steamworks is already a much cheaper option.

As I mentioned in the meeting, we bought in, and others there live next to a commercially zoned area. We would be ignorant to think that there isn't/wasn't a potential down the road from when we bought, that some commercial development would want to move in next to, down the street or across the street from us. It is purely selfish to think otherwise and try to stand in the way of development for our own oversights. 

Wake up Lakeview! We have an opportunity we can't afford to pass up, please take the time to write/call/talk to Alderman Tunney and show your support for this neighborhood necessity and support the OUT Hotel Chicago.