Mount Prospect selling its soul?

Downtown Mount Prospect seems to have a new interest in "The Blues" so I think it's time for the village board to take a little music lesson from blues history. Robert Johnson is widely considered to be the most influential of all the Delta bluesmen. The legend goes that he sold his soul to the Devil at the crossroads (Hwy 61& 49 in Clarksdale, Miss.) to become the King of the Delta Blues. Listen to his deal with the Devil profiled in the songs "Crossroads" or in Bob Dylan's "Highway 61." Poisoned at the pinnacle of his career, Robert Johnson howled like a rabid dog for three days before the Devil got his due.

Yet without him there would be no "Jake and Elwood" or other so-called white bluesmen.

Now Mount Prospect stands at the crossroads (Routes 83 & 14) with the proposed Town Center Project with 100 condos and 40,000 square feet of retail space.

We need development. But this development has no clear parking plan for hundreds of cars, a downright zany delivery truck scheme, too much density in an already traffic snarled area, and it entails vacating a public street.

Yet the village will be kicking in $10 million in land and cash to grease this boondoggle. And the architectural design is clearly an insult to out beautiful and historic downtown. Look into what's coming. It appears that Mayor Wilkes and her minions stand ready to sell our village's very soul at the crossroads with their no-bid sweetheart albatross. They had better take a lesson from Robert Johnson. If this deal railroads through, there will be the Devil to pay!

Mike Konopka

Mount Prospect