Leno spoke movingly at the April 5 board meeting of the neighbors' efforts. Well, this is people voting with their brains. All this organizing has created the sense that City Hall wants to see the neighbors' proposal seriously considered. Which, for Nordstrom and her allies, is exactly the point. They hope the mere threat of City Hall intervention will persuade the property owner to consider the neighborhood's development plan.
Leverage cuts both ways.
The neighbors won't be negotiating with an elderly heir living in retirement in Oregon. They will be dealing with a wily real estate broker named Preston Cook, who knows just as much about local politics as any of the members of the Glen Park Association, and maybe more. Like any veteran real estate man, Cook can smell advantage. If the neighbors are passionately opposed to a chain store occupying 2815 Diamond, then Cook is just as passionate about seeing how much they are willing to concede in return. The neighbors have proposed that a two-story structure with eight residential units be built on the site.