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Dennis Rodkin
Charting A New Course
By Dennis Rodkin
For a decade, Illinois has been experimenting with a new approach to public education: privately managed charter schools. Now, with two Chicago champions of the charters—President Barack Obama and education secretary Arne Duncan—at the helm in Washington, these reform-minded schools may play a key role in solving the country’s scholastic woes. Here is how they work, and a look at some of the best charter schools in the area Read more
On the Market: A Condo Overlooking Hyde Park’s Madison Park
By Dennis Rodkin
List Price: $425,000
The Property: This three-bedroom condo in Hyde Park, with a small gourmet kitchen, lots of wood trim, and a long row of south-facing windows, can be found inside one of the neighborhood’s grandest buildings—which itself sits on private Madison... Read more
Housing Bulletin: Making Green Affordable
By Dennis Rodkin
The Wheaton townhouse her client wanted to sell needed a bit of dressing up, but the real-estate agent Laura Reedy Stukel thought that putting away some of the sports memorabilia and buying fashionable new bedspreads was only a first step... Read more
Sale of the Week: A Gold Coast Look in River North
By Dennis Rodkin
List Price: $4.35 million
Sale Price: $3.55 million
The Property: It may look like the successor to some of the great old Gold Coast mansions, but this slender four-story Georgian sits in a much newer neighborhood: the Kinzie Estates section of River North, which until ten years ago was a couple of blocks of defunct warehouses and surface parking lots south of what used to be... Read more
On the Market: Energy-Saving Contemporary in Southport Corridor
By Dennis Rodkin
List Price: $2.565 million
The Property: The builder Linda Sanchez put up this 4,800-square-foot, six-bedroom contemporary house in the Southport Corridor as the eco-friendly home she wishes she had built for herself eight years ago. At that time, when she was building... Read more
Sale of the Week: Second Foreclosure on Same Northbrook Block
By Dennis Rodkin
List Price: $829,000
Sale Price: $752,000
The Property: In September 2006, this 14-room house on a corner lot in Northbrook was sold for $1.9 million. Five months later a lender recorded a lis pendens—a notice that a foreclosure suit would be filed against those buyers. That began a long process that included further actions by the lenders, the eviction of the residents... Read more