As published in The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin
Moving back to the city, I quickly learned that aldermen are our busiest mediators. Brian Hopkins, the 42ndWard alderman, has been very helpful in our neighborhood.
“For me in my role as alderman now, I have to be very conscious of two different levels of the public interest. I'm a public servant, so I represent the public. But there's the immediate public on a given block in my neighborhood, and there's the public of the city of Chicago.
Moving back to the city, I quickly learned that aldermen are our busiest mediators. Brian Hopkins, the 42ndWard alderman, has been very helpful in our neighborhood.
“For me in my role as alderman now, I have to be very conscious of two different levels of the public interest. I'm a public servant, so I represent the public. But there's the immediate public on a given block in my neighborhood, and there's the public of the city of Chicago.
So for a ward like mine, sometimes what's in the best interest of a region as a whole, and our city, is not necessarily in the best interest of one given block. And of course, that phenomenon is going to play out on a much larger scale with the upcomingLincoln Yards development and the debate we're going to have about that. The impact that will have—whatever gets built there—the impact that will have on the economy of the city is, without question, a benefit.
“To take vacant land and put a development on it that's going to bring jobs, property tax revenue and economic development to the entire city, everyone else in the city's going to say ‘Start tomorrow, build, build, build.’ But of course, the people who live in my neighborhood and are affected by the traffic and the density issues are going to say ‘Hold on, not so fast.’ And it's not that they're not aware of the greater good, but it's so much easier to override your sense of what is the best interest of the collective when it's right outside your front door. Of course, that's the classic definition of Nimbyism.”
Brian advises everyone to begin by asking for everything they want.
“You're always going to negotiate down, that's just how it works. But start out by asking for 100%, even if realistically, you know you're not going to get it, because in this life we rarely do. Whatever it is. You know, salaries in a new job and you ask for whatever your dream salary is, at least that provides an honest assessment of what you're thinking the ultimate prize would be. And if everybody starts from there, it provides a little bit of an insight into what's really driving you. And what's really important to you. So put that out there on the table, even though you don't expect to get it.
“I tell developers when they are acquiring a property, and they want to build wherever they want to build, and they know they're never going to get an 80-story building on that property, but they really would like one, and if they were the mayor, they would give it to themselves and they could physically do it, then why not ask for that? Even though you know you're not going get it, at least ask for that.
“The same thing applies to a mediation session where you really want to have everyone feel as though they had the opportunity to honestly express what got them there in the first place. What do they really want that they're not getting? What is it that they're falling short of that's caused the frustration, that's caused the anger? What's the nature of the roadblock to success there? You need to know that before you can go on to the next party, and the next party, the next party, however many are involved in it. If you don't start from that posture, you will inevitably get halfway down the road and be surprised by something that you should have known and you didn't and it's going to throw you off. And it's going to knock you off track if you're on the way towards resolving a dispute.
“So the key to successful negotiations lies at the very beginning in making sure everything is out and on the table, so that the person in the middle, trying to broker the compromise, won't be surprised by some card that gets played in the middle of the process when everything's at its most sensitive and the wheels come off the cart.”
After the developer makes a proposal, the challenge begins.
“Sometimes people feel that that's a disingenuous straw man, so the developer can come back later and say, ‘Well, we got a 60-story building and the neighbors really only wanted 40, but we started out asking for 80, isn't that good?’ And that's part of my job in managing that process—to work with immediate neighbors who are affected by something like that, and to get them to the point where they have to understand, they're not going to live next to a vacant parking lot, no matter what.
“In one example, we finally did successfully negotiate an arrangement that will involve new roads, new sidewalks, aesthetic improvements, and ADA improvements to the existing residential building that they can now pay for with this external funding that they won't have to use a special assessment for, and the new construction gets to go forward, where it was actually in jeopardy of not happening. So it was win-win-win, across the board. There was a point where tempers were getting frayed and we had a couple of meetings where voices were raised and just in classic mediation, you kind of take a brief break and let everybody calm down a little bit. I have no trouble playing referee, when the time comes, and making sure everybody stays respectful and stays civil. I think that's important too.”
What are other common problems that lead to mediation?
“Smells. Cooking smells, [and] smells from various recreational drugs that can be smoked, especially in some of the older buildings that have the passive ventilation systems where the halls aren't pressurized and the air can easily infiltrate from one unit to the other through the electrical outlets and all that. Again, it's the classic turf-based dilemma where somebody in their own home feels they have the right to do anything they want. And if it happens to affect somebody in the home next door, that's really their problem, you know? That's the seed for some of the more bitter contentious disputes that you see in a condo high-rise. Some of them are very challenging to solve.
“Pets, that's a big one right now, with the advent of so-called ‘prescription pets,’ where you can easily claim that you have a medical reason for just about any animal that you want and that's your right. Well what about when your right to have your emotional therapy snake conflicts with the right of your neighbor who has diagnosed snake-a-phobia? How do you resolve that? That's a tough one, and condo boards are on the front line of that.
“The more recent example is with the advent of Airbnb. We get a lot of complaints from people living next door to what turns out to be an illegal hotel that's being operated, and there's a lot of unpleasant side effects that people don't really think through before they get into the Airbnb business. We will intervene--not necessarily trying to resolve the dispute between the neighbors, but simply trying to enforce the law. It's against zoning code to do that in most residential areas, for a very good reason.
“As humans, we're territorial animals and we get much more engaged and ready to do battle when it comes to what we feel is an encroachment on our turf, on our home block, our home neighborhood.
“You'll never find a more contentious issue than when it involves where a person lives.”
“To take vacant land and put a development on it that's going to bring jobs, property tax revenue and economic development to the entire city, everyone else in the city's going to say ‘Start tomorrow, build, build, build.’ But of course, the people who live in my neighborhood and are affected by the traffic and the density issues are going to say ‘Hold on, not so fast.’ And it's not that they're not aware of the greater good, but it's so much easier to override your sense of what is the best interest of the collective when it's right outside your front door. Of course, that's the classic definition of Nimbyism.”
Brian advises everyone to begin by asking for everything they want.
“You're always going to negotiate down, that's just how it works. But start out by asking for 100%, even if realistically, you know you're not going to get it, because in this life we rarely do. Whatever it is. You know, salaries in a new job and you ask for whatever your dream salary is, at least that provides an honest assessment of what you're thinking the ultimate prize would be. And if everybody starts from there, it provides a little bit of an insight into what's really driving you. And what's really important to you. So put that out there on the table, even though you don't expect to get it.
“I tell developers when they are acquiring a property, and they want to build wherever they want to build, and they know they're never going to get an 80-story building on that property, but they really would like one, and if they were the mayor, they would give it to themselves and they could physically do it, then why not ask for that? Even though you know you're not going get it, at least ask for that.
“The same thing applies to a mediation session where you really want to have everyone feel as though they had the opportunity to honestly express what got them there in the first place. What do they really want that they're not getting? What is it that they're falling short of that's caused the frustration, that's caused the anger? What's the nature of the roadblock to success there? You need to know that before you can go on to the next party, and the next party, the next party, however many are involved in it. If you don't start from that posture, you will inevitably get halfway down the road and be surprised by something that you should have known and you didn't and it's going to throw you off. And it's going to knock you off track if you're on the way towards resolving a dispute.
“So the key to successful negotiations lies at the very beginning in making sure everything is out and on the table, so that the person in the middle, trying to broker the compromise, won't be surprised by some card that gets played in the middle of the process when everything's at its most sensitive and the wheels come off the cart.”
After the developer makes a proposal, the challenge begins.
“Sometimes people feel that that's a disingenuous straw man, so the developer can come back later and say, ‘Well, we got a 60-story building and the neighbors really only wanted 40, but we started out asking for 80, isn't that good?’ And that's part of my job in managing that process—to work with immediate neighbors who are affected by something like that, and to get them to the point where they have to understand, they're not going to live next to a vacant parking lot, no matter what.
“In one example, we finally did successfully negotiate an arrangement that will involve new roads, new sidewalks, aesthetic improvements, and ADA improvements to the existing residential building that they can now pay for with this external funding that they won't have to use a special assessment for, and the new construction gets to go forward, where it was actually in jeopardy of not happening. So it was win-win-win, across the board. There was a point where tempers were getting frayed and we had a couple of meetings where voices were raised and just in classic mediation, you kind of take a brief break and let everybody calm down a little bit. I have no trouble playing referee, when the time comes, and making sure everybody stays respectful and stays civil. I think that's important too.”
What are other common problems that lead to mediation?
“Smells. Cooking smells, [and] smells from various recreational drugs that can be smoked, especially in some of the older buildings that have the passive ventilation systems where the halls aren't pressurized and the air can easily infiltrate from one unit to the other through the electrical outlets and all that. Again, it's the classic turf-based dilemma where somebody in their own home feels they have the right to do anything they want. And if it happens to affect somebody in the home next door, that's really their problem, you know? That's the seed for some of the more bitter contentious disputes that you see in a condo high-rise. Some of them are very challenging to solve.
“Pets, that's a big one right now, with the advent of so-called ‘prescription pets,’ where you can easily claim that you have a medical reason for just about any animal that you want and that's your right. Well what about when your right to have your emotional therapy snake conflicts with the right of your neighbor who has diagnosed snake-a-phobia? How do you resolve that? That's a tough one, and condo boards are on the front line of that.
“The more recent example is with the advent of Airbnb. We get a lot of complaints from people living next door to what turns out to be an illegal hotel that's being operated, and there's a lot of unpleasant side effects that people don't really think through before they get into the Airbnb business. We will intervene--not necessarily trying to resolve the dispute between the neighbors, but simply trying to enforce the law. It's against zoning code to do that in most residential areas, for a very good reason.
“As humans, we're territorial animals and we get much more engaged and ready to do battle when it comes to what we feel is an encroachment on our turf, on our home block, our home neighborhood.
“You'll never find a more contentious issue than when it involves where a person lives.”