Comments ( 21 )

• These are nice tours and the new housing is certainly great for the neighborhood.

  But this part of town is in such bad shape despite the facade of opulence you see driving down Drexel. While the housing stock is pretty good, it continues to lack the density to support any meaningful urban retail. I wonder if Bronzeville will ever reach the point where it can have something on the order of a south side version of north Clark St or Broadway. So far the only thing developers have managed to build are soulless, meaningful strip centers. I just don’t understand how on one hand we can sell the “historical character” of this “urban Chicago neighborhood” yet on the other hand erode it with such poorly planned commercial development that completely has nothing in common with the housing that is going up. See that poorly designed, missed-opportunity strip center ironically named ‘Metropolis’ near Pershing and State (and an L stop, for that matter) that is currently planned.

  Lets see what happens, but I’m not optimistic. One thing that doesn’t help is the insistence of the black community to keep this part of town “black” and to overemphasize its “blackness” (Harold Washington this, ML King that, reminiscing about old Blues & Jazz clubs that have essentially left no traces of themselves, etc–instead of focusing on this being a potential mixed-ethnic community as a cheaper alternative to highly priced Lincoln Park, Gold Coast). I guess that works in New York City, where the black community is so much better off and where people of other ethnic groups are more voluminous in population and tolerant of ethnic diversity; but in Chicago, it just won’t work–ever. The white people left, they took with them their money & investment, and they will NEVER look at these parts of town again except for a few daring individuals. That same pretty much goes for Asians, Middle-Easterners, etc who basically take their cues from what white people do.

• tup – that’s a pretty short-sighted view to think that “white people” will NEVER look to live in Bronzeville. Neighborhood ethnicities in Chicago (and the US) are constantly changing. Take Pilsen for example: “The Slavs were the majority in the 1960s but the passage of the INS Act of 1965 caused a turn in the ethnic makeup of not only Pilsen but the United States as a whole. The neighborhood continued to serve as port of entry for immigrants, both legal and undocumented immigrants and mostly of Mexican descent, since.” –http://www.sjom.org/display.aspx?pointer=6864. I’m willing to bet that Pilsen won’t have a primarily hispanic population forever.

• No one would lend for Lake View style (aka traditional) retail and people on the south side like driving places and of course Chicago’s zoning stymies things. But there are a fair number of white people moving into Oakland (or were before the bubble burst) – my friends moved there because they didn’t want to be on the north side (too far north etc).

  Toni Preckwinkle really got development going there when she was elected (Tim Evans, nice enough guy, promised a lot, but delivered little), but there still is a lot lacking, retail especially.

• Sheridan, in what way does Chicago’s zoning “stymie” things in Bronzeville?

• TUP,

  I wouldn’t think twice about moving to the Oakwood Shores neighborhood and, yes, for what it’s worth, I’m white and I’m not daring.

  I think the area has a lot going for it. Beautiful architecture, nice parks, it’s close to downtown, museum campus, Soldier Field, the lake, the U of C, Washington Park and the Dusable Muesum. In addition, its proximity to Lake Shore Drive is great.

  I worked in the area and know people of various races that live in the neighborhood. That being said, I sure don’t know where you’re getting information from.

• TUP – parking requirements.

• This area will never be hopeless simply for the fact that getting a place that close to the lake on the north side is prohibitively expensive for some (including many white people I’m sure). A big reason for that price cut is certainly the lack of amenities. Strip plazas may be required for the big boxes but I think the city should try to encourage an intimate corner retail that might attract a brave businessperson to take a chance with a coffee shop or even a restaurant.

• I’m sure another reason Bronzeville will never have the type of commercial as the “white” neighborhoods is because all of the “non-white” gang-banging criminals that shoot-up and destroy the neighborhood.

• resident,

  The behavior you’re talking about is not a serious issue in Bronzeville. Visit there some time and you’ll know that.

• If you have ANY gang activity then you’d better prepare for big price reductions or wait for the gov to subsidize

  I havent bought a few times when the gang activity was present

  I visit places on the weekend and at night
  not just when you meet up with realtor

• I’ve lived in several places in the city over the years (Lakeview, Ravenswood, Edgewater, South Loop) and have lived in Oakland for the last 3 years — just a few blocks south of Oakwood Shores. It’s a dream. Other than the complete lack of retail, it’s extremely quiet, pleasant, safe, and convenient to the loop, the lake, and all the expressways.

  I guess I’m one of the daring souls, but this neighborhood has been nothing but welcoming and somewhat of an oasis from the frantic pace elsewhere. As daveydoo mentioned, the value is here. No way I could have afforded this large townhouse anywhere else in the city. The quiet but neighborly neighborhood was just icing on the cake.

• I rent in the area and agree it is seriously lacking in retail to walk to. BUilding hundreds of homes is not enough to get people to move to a neighborhood, they need retail and smaller shops to go to when they don’t feel like big-boxing it. It should have dawned upon developers that they could get more traffic or purchases if desireable retail was near their developments.

• People are skeptical to buy into areas that are “mixed income”. CHA has to lower the number of public housing units more. Its just not worth it to buy a home in an area with
  little commercial development and urban riff raff.

• I can’t find the website that shows floorplans for condos and townhomes. I only see rental plans. Does anyone know what specific website shows these? When the sales center first opened, the site worked, but now I get this strange login page.

• Has anyone over at Yo! seen this?

  http://www.thegatewayatwashingtonpark.com/

• Thanks for the link, SheridanB. I haven’t seen this before.

  Looking forward to learning more. On first blush there’s an air of complete unreality about this. Do you know any of the players involved?

• Joe, no more than was there. I saw this on the front page of the HP Herald. Sounds like he was cagey with them (the developer, that is). It would be great if it happened; something like the gate concept there would be perfectly appropriate for the end of Garfield at the park. But yes, you are right, there IS an air of unreality about it (like the proposal for 6400 S. Stony).

• I just re-read everything and notice that, while they mentioned proximity to the Dan Ryan and access to Midway, they don’t mention the Green Line station right in the middle of the project.

• You can find that Hyde Park Herald story (written by Yo alumna Kate Hawley) here: http://www.hpherald.com/visimp.html

  There’s a conversation going on about this over at Skyscraper City — http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=324117&page=17 — and Team 4 LLC, which is supposedly working with New South Partners, has a page devoted to the project: http://www.team4llc.com/team-4-news-events.html

• Joe A – you need to fix the Team 4 link – an extra period at the end.

• Done.