OP’s village board reaches out:

Oak Park trustees are looking to stop teardowns that are threatening predominantly single-family blocks in multifamily zones.

At a study session Thursday, trustees directed Village Attorney Ray Heise to draft an ordinance that would prohibit demolition permits to be issued for single-family homes and small flats in multifamily districts for 90 days.

Trustees expect to have a first reading of the ordinance at a special meeting tomorrow, and vote to adopt it Monday.

That’s fast work, but

“We have the power as a home-rule community to do it,” said Trustee Robert Milstein, who led the charge for a moratorium. “We need to have some courage as a board.”

We can’t let that power go to waste, can we?

It’s cute how NY Times calls Chicago “the Windy City.”  And it has almost nothing but praise for the Big-Box ordinance, of which it approves as far as it go.  But what this country really needs is legislative pay increases for the lowest paid across the board:

Laws should not be tailored selectively for individual companies, and most of the working poor will not be helped by simply targeting big retailers. An approach fragmented among many localities is also inefficient and in some instances illegal. The courts will decide that question. But the Chicago ordinance is a powerful expression of public dismay. The lot of the most disadvantaged will only improve if the issue is forced, as it was in the Windy City.

Public dismay, eh?  Wouldn’t we like to know as little about Chicago aldermanic politics as that newspaper?

Daley’s “profiles in courage” toss-off the other day, about aldermen unwilling to oppose big box/living wage, is suspicious, to say the least.  When has he bet on a not-sure thing except when he ran for mayor the first time and had no choice?  In the case of this bb/lw veto, for instance, do we think he will do it without first getting the votes to sustain it?  Do we think he will do it either way?  Reliable Spielman reports aldermanic opinion that he won’t:

The fact that all of the undecided votes broke labor’s way led some aldermen to believe that Daley wanted it that way to get himself off the veto hook. 

As for the suit v. bb/lw by retailers, held off until Daley does or does not veto at the 9/13 council meeting, Chi Trib discusses decisions about big-box legislation with nary a mention of this year’s Maryland fed court case that shot a bb ordinance down.  The Defender, in a Medill News Service article, thought it worth reporting, however. 

As for minimum wage in general, as in House Repub leaders wanting to raise it nationally, consider this from Cato chairman William A. Niskanen:

An increase in the minimum wage has long been a symbolic issue for the Democrats, however inconsistent with their other professed political values. House Republicans should challenge the Democrats on this issue, pointing out that an increase in the minimum wage would most hurt those that they claim to help.

Take Emma Mitts’s 37th ward, for instance.  It’s a half mile east of Oak Park but worlds away in terms of unemployment.  Ald. Emma is against bb/lw ordinance, needless to say.