by dap | Jul 26, 2024 | Chicago Tribune
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it wants to do more research before it proceeds with its recommendation that nine dams on the Fox River, including those in Elgin and South Elgin, be removed.
In a letter sent to municipal officials and property owners, the agency said it is going to do a new assessment in which they will evaluate the “broad or holistic” impact of dam removal and “address specific issues and effects not fully addressed in the (initial report issued last year).”
Elgin Mayor Dave Kaptain said he believes “this is a stop on this whole process. … It looks like to me they’re saying we’re going to reload and start all over.”
The Corps’ Fox River Connectivity and Habitat Study, released last year, recommended that the dams be removed for the environmental benefit of the waterway. Removing the man-made impediments would return the river’s natural flow and improve it as a habitat for fish, mussels and other wildlife, the study said.
But what was not addressed was the huge impact it would have on the city of Elgin, which draws its drinking water from the river. The water level drop would makes its intake system unusable in its current location.
And other questions arose as well. The study did not address things like the sediment, water flow and riverbank shifts that would occur with Kimball Street dam removal, prompting the Elgin City Council to commission several studies of its own.
The city could reject the Army Corps’ offer to pull the dam out free of charge, but it would be obligated to take over the cost of operating and maintaining the structure.
It’s not known if the questions raised by city officials prompted the Army Corps’ decision to do more research before proceeding.
When asked about it, Corps bioligist Ryan Johnson said in an email Friday that they are “currently evaluating the removal of dams along the Fox River under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which may result in a Programmatic Environmental Assessment, which would be released for future public comment.”
He could not be reached for additional comment.
Kaptain said he believed plans to do a new analysis mean “they’re going to look at this in a holistic way (because) the scope now has to expand.”
What he doesn’t know, he said, is if the new study is going to be a duplication of what Elgin is already paying to have done. The city has spent close to $500,000 on four studies that are looking at factors like what the river will look like if the dam is removed.
“We don’t know where this is going to go, that’s why we are doing our studies,” Kaptain said.
One study done by the city examined a natural dam occurring north of Kimball Street that showed there is sediment and loose sand at least 10 feet below the river, he said. They don’t know how far down they’d have to go before they hit rock.
Kaptain has been asking the Corps about the 250,000 cubic yards of sediment along the river that could be released by the dam’s removal and would result in environmental damage — something that’s occurred in other communities, he said.
It’s very important that the agency “drill down deeper” to look at issues like sediment shifts, sediment removal and shoreline restoration, he said.
“This has really gotten to be a can of worms,” Kaptain said.
How this will affect the Army Corps’ timeline is unknown, he added. It’s already behind schedule as evidenced by the fact that a letter the city was to receive in April asking if it wanted to commit to local dam’s removal was never sent, he said.
“(Now) they’ve completely changed direction and are going back and doing more of these extensive studies,” Kaptain said.
“I think they are a long way from getting this done. It seems like this was poorly planned. Maybe this was a little bit of a rush job when they did it last year, and it’s coming back to haunt them,” he said. “I think they got more pushback than they expected.”
The agency received more than 1,000 comments from the public about the dam proposal, according to the letter sent to officials.
Factions on both sides of the issue have been forming. Friends of the Fox worked with the Corps on the initial study and members back dam removal but vocal opposition to the idea has been growing. Guardians of the Fox, a newly formed group opposed to taking the barrier out, now has chapters in Geneva, St. Charles and South Elgin.
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
by dap | Jul 26, 2024 | Chicago Tribune
A 16-year-old boy and a man were killed Friday morning when an unknown gunman opened fire on them in the Brighton Park neighborhood on the city’s Southwest Side, according to authorities.
The boy and a 40-year-old man were on the 2500 block of West 46th Street around 10:40 a.m. when a person got out of an SUV, approached the pair and started shooting, police said.
The boy was shot in the head and the chest and was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Hospital, police said. The man was taken to the same hospital in grave condition and was pronounced dead at 12:06 p.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Their identities weren’t immediately available.
Police didn’t say the relationship between the two victims, but said no one was in custody and area detectives were investigating the shooting.
by dap | Jul 26, 2024 | Chicago Tribune
PARIS — On a typical summer day, tourists flock to the historic Marais district of Paris, wandering its charming medieval streets dotted with ultra-chic boutiques, gazing at stunning private mansions, strolling through the elegant 17th-century square Place des Vosges, and filling humming restaurants and bars.
But this summer has hardly been typical, and those streets, shops and cafes have been markedly emptier in the days leading up to the Paris Olympics — leaving businesses like Stolly’s Stone Bar, a pub popular with English speakers, pining for summers past.
It’s a far cry from what business owners expected when they first heard the Olympics were coming to Paris, says David Carroll, who stood behind the bar on a recent, slow weekday.
“It’s sure not the Olympics we were hoping for — so far, anyway,” said Carroll, a Canadian who has been working in the neighborhood for 20 years. “It’s the same for everyone around here.”
Carroll attributes the light crowds to multiple factors, but first and foremost the chilling effect from security measures that have had tourists encountering metal fences, police checkpoints and demands for a special QR code that they may have neglected to obtain — a digital pass required to access some popular areas before Friday’s highly secured opening ceremony along the Seine River.
Now, visitors are facing major disruptions after officials reported fires and other sabotage to the high-speed rail network.
Some would-be tourists decided to avoid Paris altogether during the Olympics, fearing high prices, crowds or general chaos. On top of that, many Parisians have escaped the city in their usual summer exodus — likely even more so this year.
“Many tourists haven’t arrived yet and Parisians have left, so it’s kind of a combination,” Carroll said. And as for the tourists who are here, “people aren’t able to move around, so wherever they are, they’re kind of stuck in their areas.”
He’s hopeful this is “the calm before the storm” and that after Friday’s opening ceremony, things will loosen up. But for now, it can be an ordeal to make even a simple urban trip.
Just ask Gillian Levison and Richard Mitchell. The British couple traveled by train from London this week precisely because, Mitchell said, they figured flying during the Olympics would be “a nightmare.” The rail journey went smoothly until they arrived at the Gare du Nord, the train station in the north of Paris, and found their pre-ordered taxi had been canceled.
There was a “terrific queue” for taxis at the station, Levison said, and while they felt lucky to find one, the odyssey to their hotel on the Left Bank took two hours and cost 200 euros ($217), exponentially more than it would normally cost.
The irony is that the couple, who live in Dorset, England, have no interest “in those blessed Olympics,” as Levison puts it. “Definitely not here for that,” she said. Rather, they are attending a family wedding in the countryside and wanted to spend a few days in Paris first.
“It seems they didn’t think much about how people were going to get across the river,” Mitchell said of Paris authorities.
It’s all been certainly hurting the business hopes of Jean-Pierre Salson, who owns Factory’s Paris, a shop in the Marais specializing in menswear. Salson estimates business is down 30% compared with this time last year and probably 40% among American customers.
“It’s been very slow since the beginning of June,” he said, “and July is worse. There’s a lot less tourists, from all the countries. I think they’re avoiding France and Paris because they’re afraid of the Olympics.”
And for those who are in Paris, it’s especially hard to get to the center, he added. “There are restricted areas you can’t get to by car. So you need to walk, and some subway stations are closed.”
Analysts say the high costs of travel to Paris this Olympic season — and staying there once they arrive — means some planes are landing with empty seats and hotels are not as booked as they normally would be in the summer high season.
Olivier Ponti, vice president of insights at ForwardKeys, a travel data company with access to airline industry ticketing data, said arrivals to Paris in the three weeks before the Games were down 13% from a year earlier, meaning typical tourists are holding off on trips. But those coming to Paris for the Games have sent arrivals up by 8% during the Olympic period, he said.
Some tourists who would traditionally have been pouring in at this point of the summer “have been put off by high prices and communication on the number of new obstacles created by the Olympic Games,” such as landmarks being closed or difficulties getting around, he said. “Those traditional travelers have decided that it would be probably great to visit Paris, but not at that time.”
Airlines are feeling the pain. Ponti said that some planes arriving in Paris are not full after many airlines increased capacity for the Games and charged “really high fares.” Air France-KLM said it expects a 150 million to 170 million euro drop in revenue from the Games in the third quarter, while Delta foresees a $100 million hit from June to August.
Those visitors who do get to Paris face high prices at hotels, leading to rooms sitting empty, according to Tim Hentschel, CEO of Hotelplanner, a hotel booking platform. Paris hotels are seeing 70% occupancy compared with 90% at the same time last year, he said this week, noting that the average rate was twice as high as it usually is — at 700 euros a night.
“The prices that they were charging for Paris hotel rooms and Paris travel over those Olympic days were just too high for consumers to bear,” Hentschel said, adding that hotels are now starting to drop rates dramatically.
Airbnb, on the other hand, has not seen the same issues. It said in a statement that the Paris Olympics is “one of the biggest hosting events in Airbnb history, with more guests staying in local homes on Airbnb than at any event, ever before.”
Some business owners say they believe — or simply hope — that things will get better as the city becomes easier to navigate after Friday’s opening ceremony. Though officials say the rail disruptions may last at least through the weekend.
“It’s true, it’s very quiet now,” Guillaume Faller, who manages the Feria restaurant in the Marais, said this week. “Much quieter than the same period last year. But I think it will bounce back in a few days. In any case, I hope so. But for now, the (situation) is clearly not what we expected it to be.”
Salson, the clothing shop owner, believes it’s just a matter of patience.
”I (just) have to wait,” he said. “I’m sure they will be back, because I had many American customers telling me in the spring: ‘Well, see you in September, October and November!’”
AP writer Courtney Bonnell contributed from Paris.
by dap | Jul 26, 2024 | Chicago Tribune
A Winnetka woman is facing charges after she allegedly struck and killed an 82-year-old woman in a crosswalk in Northfield earlier this week, authorities said.
On July 22, at 3:30 p.m. Northfield police responded to the 300 block of S. Happ Road on a report of a pedestrian struck by a vehicle, police said in a news release Friday. They said the Northfield Fire-Rescue Department was already at the scene tending to the injured pedestrian, Jeanne Dechovitz, 82, of Northfield.
Dechovitz received a laceration to her head and was transported to Evanston Hospital by ambulance, said the news release. It said Dechovitz died the next day.
Northfield police investigated the crash and determined the 49-year-old female driver of a black Mercedes sport utility vehicle exited eastbound from the southernmost driveway of the Northfield Village Center at 300 S. Happ Road in Northfield. The news release said the driver checked for oncoming traffic to her left but did not see the Dechovitz crossing a private driveway within the crosswalk from her right. The driver then struck Dechovitz causing her to fall and hit her head on the pavement.
Northfield Police Commander Thomas Hanus said the fatal accident could have been avoided if the driver and Dechovitz had both been aware of the potential for a mishap.
“This is simply being aware of your surroundings and also making sure you check both sides of the roadway when you’re making a turn,” Hanus said. “The driver looked to the left and did not look to the right and clearly that’s where the pedestrian was coming from which created the issue.”
He also urged pedestrians to make eye contact with drives to ensure they see you.
“Typically that’s a good idea because you never know what the other person is thinking. But in a situation like this, the pedestrian should have the right of way,” Hanus said. “Unfortunately that didn’t happen here.”
The driver, who was not identified by police, was cited for failure to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk and expired registration. She is scheduled for a Sept. 16 hearing at the Skokie Courthouse.
A memorial for Dechovitz is scheduled to be held in Wilmette on Friday, July 25 and Saturday, July 26. Details were not available at press time.
Brian L. Cox is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.
