Illiana Expressway: Does CAPIT Really Care About North Lake County?

An interesting exchange occurred earlier on the Citizens Against the Privatized Illiana Toll Road in which someone asked if CAPIT was really concerned about North Lake County, or if they were just being patronizing?

From the CAPIT No Illiana Toll Road Yahoo group:

I have no problem with anyone who is either for or against the road and their reasons are their personal business.

However, I think you folks look silly letting these professional "activists" clowns hitch their wagon to your cause or visa versa, however it went.

Mr. Ahlberg was quoted in the Times today as saying that he is now (and I'm paraphrasing) deeply concerned about the plight of Gary.

Please.

Enough already with the patronization of those who have nothing to do with the reasons that you don't want this road. This is totally about not wanting a road through YOUR neighborhood and NOTHING to do with Gary or the northern cities, period.

After some remarks from the CAPIT membership, the groups' leader Dave Alhberg responded with his comments:

I have exchanged several e-mails with the gentleman that first posted under this subject. He was reacting to how I appeared in the newspaper articles and after I explained what I had said that wasn't quoted in the paper, he saw things much differently. I hope to meet him personally at the meeting in Lake County on Wednesday. ...

The gist of what I said at the press conference was that while concern for our home and land was what fired us up in the first place, further research showed that there were far reaching impacts from a public works project like the Illiana Toll Road, and that it was a mistake to look solely at the project and not take a wider view of planning for the NWI area. What I said about the boarded up buildings and closed businesses in Hammond and Gary was absolutely my true feelings. We cannot continue to turn green fields to brown fields, and just because we want to protect the green fields, doesn't mean we can't care about the brown fields.

It's really difficult to boil these thoughts down to the "quotes" the media wants to print, and in this case, apparently I wasn't successful. That won't stop me from continuing to try.

Dave

It's great to see the opposition to the Illiana Toll Road Expressway is keeping things civil when dealing with supporters of the Interstate highway project. Maybe the back and forth between the supporters and opponents will result in the best possible outcomes for Lake County -- even if both sides don't get exactly what they hoped they'd receive when and if the project is approved or tabled.