'Ghost town' in middle of Bensenville

There's never a lull at York and Irving Park roads in Bensenville.

Trucks huff and puff, loaded with freight. Drivers yak on their cell phones and pedestrians wait for a break in the traffic.

But just head southeast of the intersection and you'll find a desert island in the midst of a busy village.

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Out of 611 homes sought by Chicago for O'Hare International Airport expansion, about 90 percent belong to the city. If Chicago has its way, the land will become part of the new, bigger O'Hare.

Because of ongoing lawsuits, most properties are still standing and continue to be maintained, which enhances a "Twilight Zone" atmosphere.

Amid cut lawns and blooming peonies, signs warning "property owned by city of Chicago" and "no trespassing" dot the landscape.

There are some holdouts amid the vacant lawns.

On Dierks Street, Daniel Figueroa polishes his already spotless Corvette with care.

"It's like a ghost town here," Figueroa said.

Figueroa and his wife, Rosa, bought their home several years ago thinking it would be "excellent for retirement." Their real estate agent never told them about O'Hare expansion plans.

"It was a real nice neighborhood," Figueroa said. "My wife and I were really happy."

That soon changed as neighbor after neighbor sold their properties.

"Every day, there was a moving truck in front of someone's house," Figueroa said, adding he regretted residents didn't band together to stop the juggernaut.

The couple expect to move themselves in the near future.

"We have no choice," Figueroa said.

North of Irving Park, even closer to O'Hare, is Garden Avenue, where the Syla family lives -- the only ones on the block.

Nezir and Ramize Syla, who have five children, left Kosovo for New Orleans some years ago. But Hurricane Katrina destroyed their life in Louisiana and they started again in Bensenville in 2006.

The family didn't realize their neighborhood was in the O'Hare expansion blueprint until others started leaving.

"I don't know where I can go," said Syla, who rents his house. "It's too hard to find another house. But I would like my kids to go to the same schools."

Another worry is security. With all the empty properties on the street, he doesn't like to leave his family alone.

"For my kids, it's dangerous," Syla said.

Bensenville has been militant about protecting its gradually diminishing holdings.

Along with ally Elk Grove Village, the village is involved in multiple lawsuits seeking to stop home demolitions and to save St. Johannes Cemetery -- located at O'Hare in the path of a future runway -- on religious freedom grounds.

"We continue to believe the phase two construction will never occur," said Bensenville Village Manager Jim Johnson, referring to the final stage of the O'Hare Modernization Program.

Chicago leaders say the project, which would create six parallel runways and reduce chronic delays, is not only going to happen but is ahead of schedule.

Not so, counters Johnson, who has faith the vacant property the city owns "will be returned to homes and businesses in the future."

One development that was always a hub of activity in northeast Bensenville was the Hamilton Townhomes.

A dense, melting pot of humanity, populated to a large extent by low-income families and recent immigrants, it had its share of issues -- among them crime and delinquent landlords.

But with the problems, there was a quintessential American story happening of people working hard and striving for a better life.

Now, the parking lots where kids played tag and teenagers blasted loud music are barren and empty.

The village poured $10 million into infrastructure improvements and community policing in the neighborhood.

Acquisition has effectively eliminated "the largest block of affordable housing in DuPage County," Johnson said.

Losing property to Chicago has reduced the village's share of property taxes, and while increases in home values are offsetting some of that, it's meant residents' bills were about 1 percent higher last year, Johnson said.

The village manager, like many who grew up in Bensenville, has a personal stake in the airport saga.

Johnson's ancestors farmed in the village for years and some are buried in St. Johannes.

His great-grandmother was forced to sell her farm for an early O'Hare expansion in the 1950s, he recalled.

"I was a very small child when my great-grandmother moved off the farm where she raised her children," Johnson recalled. "She never recovered from it. She died of a broken heart."