Highland Park residents turn out to discuss issues

She’s nervous about what might happen.

“There are blighted properties, and I’m assuming if they are putting this type of money in, they are planning to put in high dollar housing going in like downtown,” Fitzell said. “That is not what the city needs…we need affordable housing.”

But Robertson says other residents are concerned about the opposite.

“We have some developers who are interested in putting more low income housing in the community, which the community is not happy with, and we need to talk about that,” said Robertson.

Robertson says one of her goals for this meeting was to raise awareness about a spot blight program offered through the city…which she says right now deals mainly with commercial properties rather than neighborhoods.

“They need to be involved in that program,” Robertson said. “They need to recognize that they are taxpayers just like everyone else and they deserve to get the same quality of services that other communities get.”

Other topics of discussion at Saturday’s meeting included education and traffic.

For more information,questions or comments about these issues on the Northside, you can contact Ellen Robertson’s office.