Wilmette Under Assault!

Some of the powers that be pushing for high-density housing in Wilmette are driven (perhaps an unfortunate choice of words) by supposed demand from downsizing seniors, claiming that they don't use the schools, and they don't drive. In effect, a senior Shangri-La.

The argument is that this will have little impact on Wilmette. (Of course, with any kind of village subsidies at all for "affordable" housing, the schools will surely end up with more students.)

Aside from the effect of high-density buildings lining traffic-choked, train-constrained Green Bay Road, what about this high rate of senior vehicular assaults on our buildings and those within? This time the victim was DeGiulio Kitchen Design. Wilmette Life:

Over the last year or so, one crossing guard was struck, Veterans Park was traversed, and a car drove out of a parking space backward and the wrong way down Central Avenue before colliding with another car. Four buildings have been hit, including two by Ruth Rose, the Wilmette 94-year-old who injured eight people at Panera Bread, 1129 Central Ave., July 19.

"We're just terribly lucky that people aren't being killed," Wilmette Police Chief George Carpenter said Tuesday after the latest incident.

Pedestrian casualties are only a matter of time, not to mention the bikers. And let's hope any more talk of village subsidies are a casualty as well.

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