Bypass Coronary

Appeared in Pioneer Press newspapers

September 19, 2010

The message from El Capitan was urgent.  There was a public meeting taking place, and I had to be there.  El Cap is a lifelong local and knows what gives in our new area.  In fact, some 25 years ago his parents tried to buy the place we’re now laboring on, so, when he speaks of municipal matters, I pay attention.

            The meeting in question was to review the Route 45 Bypass project and the options under consideration by the appropriate powers.  Our place is about three-tenths of a mile from Route 45, and the famed “Millburn Strangler” – a traffic choke point in the middle of the Millburn Historic District.  I’m told that the back-ups are ugly at rush hours, though I’ve never experienced the phenomenon, myself.

            We were aware of the long planning and debate over the bypass when we bought our place.  We’d been assured that it would go to the west of 45; we’re to the east, so we largely put it out of our minds.

            Exactly who it was who gave us this assurance, I’m no longer sure.  It may have been the folks we bought from.  If so, it was not merely a matter of salesmanship on their part; our neighbors, Kevin and Marie, long-time residents of the area, confirm that since the beginning of the planning process – some 20 years or so – the plan had been for the bypass to go west, through the more settled Lindenhurst, and that some land had even been purchased for the purpose.

            However, some of the folks who live on that side of 45 insist they’d never been warned when they bought their houses; and others grant that it was mentioned, but that they’d been assured that it would never happen.

            But it looks like it will, in fact, happen, one way or another. And Capitan was exercised because it looked a whole lot like it was going to happen to us.  Perusing the Web site dedicated to the project, I found a map showing the nine proposed routes for the bypass under consideration.  I was particularly intrigued by the one that went directly through our barn.

While convenient, this was not so much what we were looking for when we moved to the country.

So, I sped to the meeting – over the precise roads in question, making good time, with no traffic back-up. The good news:  of the nine original possible routes, only three were still on the table – and none of them turned my house into a toll booth.

Also pretty good news – from our perspective/side of the road -- is that two of the three remaining approaches place the bypass on the west side of 45, in accordance with what we’re told was the original plan.  But one option would go east of 45, not too near our place, but not only lopping off a piece of our neighbors’ beautiful spread, but also cutting through land that’s part of the Historic District.

Now, I hate to get all NIMBY.  I’m public-spirited, and want to work with my neighbors to find the best solution to shared problems.  But the very reason we made this MBY was for its beautiful, semi-rural character.  It’s extremely unique.  Although located just a couple miles from

Grand Avenue

, featuring not just Gurnee Mills but virtually every national sprawl-denizen business you could think of, it feels like it’s a hundred miles in the country.

To get to Old Mill Creek you turn off Grand, pass through a half-mile of regular suburbia, a half-mile of horsey suburbia, and then you’re in beautiful open country. This combination, of rural peace, space, and beauty, with high proximity to – well, maybe not quite civilization, but, at least, the modern world -- is very appealing, and hard to beat.  It would just be a terrible pity to lose this unique character to more asphalt for the sake of two pinch-points a day.

But, such is politics, right? It’s the balancing of needs and interests. Sometimes, it actually produces the best outcome.  So, time to get involved, I guess.

It seems this move is making not only a real neighbor out of me, but a citizen, as well.  Of course, these things do go together pretty naturally -- but it's still a change for me after being a passive suburbanite in a more developed place where things just seemed to get done.  Here civic decisions seem more immediate, real, and made by people.

Citizenship can be damned inconvenient.  But it’s a lot better than the alternatives.