To: Senator John Mulroe, State Rep. Robert Martwick, Alderman Timothy Cullerton, and Alderman Nick Sposato

Request for a Flood Prevention Forum for the Northwest Side

We, the residents of the Northwest Side of Chicago, which includes but does not limit the area to such neighborhoods as Irving Woods, Belmont Terrace, Belmont Heights, O'Hare, and Dunning, request our public officials to organize a flood prevention forum, offering innovative, working, and preventive measures against flooding. We are looking for other ideas besides rain gardens, disconnecting down spouts and restrictors. Such options do not work for most of our neighbors, especially when our streets sit in the valleys and get a water down-flow from all directions.

Why is this important?

We are starting this petition, because our plea for effective and broad preventive flood measures needs to be taken seriously and requires immediate response. Our community has gone through multiple floods, which are becoming more frequent, requiring us to repeatedly spend thousands of dollars on undoing the flood damage. We cannot sustain such reactive actions, all while we are simultaneously dealing with ever increasing taxes and decreasing incomes.