I remember Ed Sinars well. I recall a Plan Commission under his direction having a very solid vision as well as great skill and compassion dealing with both the presenter and the residents. The push of creativity in architecture and design has not been seen since. The crap that gets approved now is void of any creativity. Miroballi Plaza and the Coldwell Banker plaza on LaGrange Road are clear examples of the crap that is going up. Yet publically funded buildings such as the library, village hall, sportsplex, etc are considered architectural gems by comparison. Sad that today the same push for privately developed parcels are not pushed harder to set a higher standard.

I had no idea. I have never ever seen a freight train in Orland. At least not that I can remember. Do they run at night or something?

I used to hear them early in the morning between midnight and 5 am on weekends. They were particularly loud when it was cold out -- guess sound travels better then. A few times, the horns woke me on the weekends.... not a happy camper about that. Haven't heard them for a while, but even after they originally instated the "no horn" rule, I heard then a couple of times. I guess the rule is only as effective as the train operator decides. I'm expecting that the next time there is a RR union issue or contract negotiations, the issue potentially could arise again. It seems that way at least with Metra trains; ever notice how many late Metra trains and mechanical failures there are just around the time the contract is up for renewal? ;-)

This is very interesting. Now I want to see one of these freight trains. I can tell you though that blowing the whistle is not just up to the train operator to do whenever he feels like. They have particular rules for that sort of thing, especially in an area designated as a quiet zone.

Basically if everyone writes the way you do, if I was someone looking into this complex and stumble upon the Patch to read your comments, why would i want to rent somewhere a person in the neighborhood claims will be Section 8. Orland Park is a wonderful place to live and everyone trash talking the town as well as this complex is going to deter people from renting.

Laura,
I used to think exactly as you do about those apartments. I'm sure you can view some of my old comments to see that. However, my view has changed somewhat since I began looking for a new place to live around here. After hours and hours on the Internet and looking around I have come to realize that those apartments may be a success. Buying a house isn't the investment that it was six years ago when you could buy anything you want with little or no money down and make money on it six months down the line. Every property I looked at I did so with the assumption that in three years it would be worth exactly what I am paying for it and I will not make any profit on that purchase. That may be overly cautious or just plain negative, but it's the safest bet. I'll save the talk about how the current increase in the housing market is being artificially boosted by the Fed. So anyway, based on those apartments being the nicest rental properties around here and they don't require a hefty down payment that most people don't have I can see them succeeding.
As far as a grocery store, isn't one going in at the old Terry's property at 143rd and John Humphrey Driver? There is also a Jewel at 131st and LaGrange. And according to the Orland Park website the plans for the Metra Triangle include parks.

I realize I sound like a defender of what Orland did to make those apartments happen. So to be clear, I absolutely DO NOT agree with how this whole thing came about. I am just saying that now I can see them being successful.

Hi Laura. I remember reading a few months back about some grocery store buying the Terry's property. Maybe that fell through or something. I agree with just about everything you say there. I think there is a market for rentals because of the flexibility they offer. Of course, if the Fed wants to print an extra million bucks or so for me I would be buying a house and wouldn't care at all about renting.
I think I am just looking at it now and accepting that it is happening and there's no stopping it so let's hope it works out.

Hey, Arthur! Is it just me, or did The Patch delete my comment about the Fed, FOMC, QE4 and the Twist?? LOL.... I guess those references must be unintelligible four-letter words??? OMG.... do YOU see them still here? Just wondering....

Well, guess Village Hall or someone on The Patch was offended by my opinions regarding the RR track apartment complex. So, I'lll just reconstruct part of it. That is, unless the Fourth Estate has merged with the Executive Branch these days!
Posted Nov 29, 2012: Speaking of real estate trends, check this out: http://www.ninety7fifty.com/ There's an "open house" this afternoon at the 143rd St train station to try to warm up potential renters. But, would you pay $1,450 monthly rent for 756 sq ft ON the RR tracks in Orland Park?? Don't forget, Metra doesn't OWN those tracks...(redacted) so there STILL can be blaring train horns at all hours. (I know, I can hear them from where I live.) Young workers can live in the Loop or Wrigleyville in same size apartment, with very nominal commute and pay $1k/month or less for very nice rental unit. BTW, weren't these originally billed to us as condos?? And isn't a lot of taxpayer money (via incentives, bond sales etc.) "invested" in this development and a number of OP businesses were displaced to execute this? Who in the Village has been dreaming of creating an OP Utopian Village?? Sword of Damocles poised overhead in Village Hall.....

Yea it appears to be gone. I don't know why?!?! I don't remember anything bad about it.

And, BTW, for those who might not know the financial acronyms (or somehow think they were offensive words!) Fed = Federal Reserve Bank; FOMC = Federal Open Market Committee; QE4 = Quantitative Easing, part four; Twist = Fed's operation to buy long-term Treasuries & sell shorter maturities to reduce short rates via market forces. What else? Oh, yes: GO bonds = general obligation municipal bonds with income derived from general public woks projects; revenue bonds = munis deriving income from specific revenue-producing projects. Hmmmm.... Idon't see anyting offensive here. And the FOMC in statement summary from of its latest meeting SAID it intended to keep rates low through 20125: "In particular, the Committee also decided today to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and currently anticipates that exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate are likely to be warranted at least through mid-2015." Source: http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/monetary/20121024a.htm

Gotta love all those acronyms and fancy words. For the simpletons like myself, basically the Fed is printing around $40 billion a month and dumping that money into the real estate market via lenders to force rates to stay down. When all else fails just fire up the printing press. What bad could possibly come from more debt and creating money from nothing????

LOL.... Thanks, Arthur. Thought I was missing something RE: deleted posts.
Yep, at some point inflation could crop up (hopefully not a la the 1980s!) from monetary printing presses. But that hasn't happened yet....even with gold spot price well above $1500/oz.
TTYL!

Perhaps there was a glitch...
Hey Ben, we were talking about the new 9750 apartments.....Do you know how much interest they have attracted or how many people have signed up?

Hmmm, guess freedom of (harmless) speech has a hater on this thread, then, huh? Ben, exactly how does it occur that "...that it can be removed..." work in reality? Is it an automated system that deletes comments after reaching a threshold or a person who must press the delete button? Either way, how are we defining "inappropriate" these days? If someone disagrees? If someone with a vested intereste disagrees? I'd love some clarity around parameter limiting my free speech.

Just as I said. Comments that are flagged a certain number of times are removed. Our system has undergone updates so I'll have to double check on how many times an item can be flagged now before it is removed, but when that number of flaggings is hit, it is automatically removed. No one pushing a button.

If a comment was removed by an editor, you would receive an email saying so. Please let me know if you did, because as I said before I haven't taken anything out of this thread.

Our definition of inappropriate has, and always has, been listed in our Terms of Use. http://orlandpark.patch.com/terms You might occasionally disagree with an editor's decision to pull a comment (though I don't believe that's what happened in this case), but it will be the editor's discretion to do so.

Now the email I described that is sent when an editor removes a comment actually includes the full text of the removed article, giving the reader a chance to update it up to fit within our terms of use. That is not done by any other publication I am familiar with. All in all, I believe we run a fair site with few limitations. And it's free.

The way I see it, and you're welcome to disagree, the removal of a comment on this site, whether by an editor or by flagging, doesn't prevent you from making the comment somewhere else.

For what it's worth, you are welcome to repost your thoughts if you'd like and see how it fares the second time around.

It is unique users.