Dear Swami:
Why is it that every time I turn on the news or pick up a newspaper, I see stories about the Gurnee area bracing for flooding? Why do these idiots continue to live and work in a FLOODPLAIN, if they know they may get wet every year?
High and Dry in Highwood
Dear High:
Let's do what the nuns always told us not to do, and answer your question with a question. Several questions, actually:
Why do people build $800,000-plus brick mini-mansions 10 feet from the Tri-State Tollway at, say, Route 137 and Route 176?
Why are the Pritzkers getting millions and millions of dollars for land that commands a stunning view of that same Tri-State? And why do developers constantly knock on Waukegan's door looking to build dozens if not hundreds of homes within hearing distance of both I-294 and Route 120?
Why are there wooded estates smack dab along the mighty Union Pacific railroad tracks in noneother than tony Lake Forest?
Last but certainly not least, why did multi-multi-millionaire Michael Jordan build his Lake County mansion, oh, about a John Paxson three-pointer away from not only those Union Pacific tracks but also Route 41?
Don't ask the Swami. Ask Lex Luthor -- as portrayed by Kevin Spacey in "Superman Returns" (2006): "You can print money, manufacture diamonds, and people are a dime a dozen. But they'll always need land. It's the one thing they're not making anymore of."
There you have it. People choose to live by raging rivers, buzzing tollways and roaring frieght-train tracks because the world isn't getting any bigger -- and in the banquet of real estate, sometimes you have to go with the leftovers.
P.S. Let us know if you can do a shift or two on sandbag patrol this spring.
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