All the opposition had almost halted the movement's
momentum, Bialik remembers, when several events helped to reignite
the fire in proponents of legalization.
Around 1992, says Bialik, Baby Bell company Ameritech "put
an ad in the paper saying they were targeting the home office
market. I called them and asked how the city felt abut them
targeting an illegal business."
That didn't get her anywhere, so she went to the zoning
commission to see how it felt about Ameritech's actions as well
as those of Sears, which had just begun offering employees the
option of telecommuting.
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The flames were fanned even further during the 1993 Illinois
Women's Economic Summit. Legalizaing homebased businesses was
put on the summit's agenda, and during what turned into an
almost daylong meeting on the issue, Kern says attendees got truly
fired up.
"Cindy Richards, who was on the editorial board of the
Chicago Sun Times, was there, and when she didn't leave
the room to go to any other meeting, I knew something was going to
happen," recalls Kern.
At that meeting, 70 women's organizations representing
thousands of members agreed to actively work on legalization. And
for the next year, Kern, Bialik, Ratner and other volunteers held
meetings with, sent faxes and letters to, and made phone calls to
city officials in the zoning, fire, building and safety departments
to keep them abreast of developments.
The activists' diligence paid off, and in September 1994,
the first meeting of the Home Occupations Task Force, created by
Mayor Richard Daley, was held. By May 1995, an ordinance had been
unanimously approved by the city aldermen. It included a provision
to monitor implementation of the law and review it in a year and
was also written to address many of the objections raised by
opponents of legalization.
Among the restrictions in the law created to maintain the
residential character of neighborhoods were limiting delivery
times, controlling the number of customers and patrons in the home
at any one time, and allowing the use of only 300 square feet of
the house, says Ben Gibson, chief assistant of the city's
corporation council.
To satisfy union concerns about a resurgence of sweatshops, says
Bialik, a section was included that specifically mentioned an
existing law preventing such activity.
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