Please help save the neighborhood around the University of St. Francis in Joliet.
This page is run by concerned Joliet citizens in a grassroots effort to garner support against the university's expansion plans that would demolish the homes surrounding the university, a lively and diverse community that has stood for almost 100 years.
In meetings and newspaper letters to the editor, the public relations for USF vaguely claim that "no one is going to be forced out of their homes" for this expansion...yet the picture of their Master Plan, which appears on the school's website, shows a football field where our homes, are:
http://www.stfrancis.edu/masterplan/
None of us plan on moving for their plan...so how other than through some means of FORCE are they planning on forcing us out? THis is an issue of US citizens' claim to private property against a private institution.
Their lawyers have already fixed it so that the homes surrounding USF cannot be registered as historic landmarks, and therefore be protected from demolition, like homes just streets away from the expansion plan are, and can be, registered.
We would like to see the University of St. Francis work with the community that they claim to support, and which has supported it. Why can they not place parking lots in strategic neighborhood friendly locations and play football at a field that has not already been and taken. Not every college that was placed in uninhabited land has the luxury of a home field, or one within walking distance. They have to just deal with it, and go elsewhere. But they think otherwise.
The University of St. Francis is a private college that should NOT be taking any large amount of money from the state to finance their institution, NOR our homes. Since when can a private university come in and tell the citizens of the United States that they have to take what they offer them and move?
"The City of Joliet has been outstanding in offering support to the planning process and in committing to helping the university and neighborhood achieve its goals."
Shame on the City of Joliet for selling out its citizens to a greedy institution. If you cannot empathize with the loss of our homes, you might notice the illogical comment by Vinciguerra stating that he is helping the "neighborhood achieve its goals." He means to achieve HIS goals by getting rid of the neighborhood.
The University of St. Francis is disillusioned by greed. They cannot render a community that has stood here for almost 100 years homeless and rootless.
They want to use your tuition and financial support to wield tyranny over their neighbours. It is their "Master Plan."
