This letter was first published in the Chicago Sun-Times. You can find the original here: https://chicago.suntimes.com/letters-to-the-editor/2026/09/07/gloria-steinem-feminism-movie-production-chicago-edgewater-emanuel-congregation
As a young zoning lawyer in 1980, I witnessed the battle over proposed development at Sheridan Road and Thorndale Avenue.
Now as an Edgewater resident, I experience the results of NIMBY’s success in that fight: a lushly landscaped pocket park that few people use and no woman will cross at night fearing what might lurk in the bushes. Public safety would have been better served by more housing and foot traffic.
The neighborhood group protesting Emanuel Congregation’s mixed-use development has also opposed every other proposal to create desperately needed housing. Apparently, the ideal neighborhood is one that let them in and then slammed the door behind them.
Friends of the Parks is organized to maximize park area in the city. This worthy goal seems to blind the group to the fact that Edgewater isn’t short of parks; it’s short of housing.
Legislation known as YIGBY (Yes In God’s Back Yard) would allow houses of worship to build housing on their spare land without being subjected to the death by a thousand cuts now facing Emanuel Congregation. I urge Illinois lawmakers to pass the legislation, and I urge my neighbors to get the hell out of the way.