I’ve been a long-time skeptic of the oft-repeated hype that Pilsen is poised to be transformed into a haven dominated by students, artists, hipsters and affluent trend-setters seeking the next hot neighborhood. Pilsen has been, for many years, a port of entry for predominantly Mexican immigrants and continues to serve that role well despite suburban competition and a trickle of gentrification-disclaiming non-Hispanics.
A development that might precipitate more rapid neighborhood change would be the makeover of the historic Thalia Hall contemplated by Bruce Finkelman in today’s Chicago Real Estate Daily. A foray into Pilsen by an entrepreneur with The Empty Bottle and Longman & Eagle on his track record should cause everyone to take a fresh look at Pilsen’s near-term prospects.
For one Pilsen business owner, neighborhood change means that “no one is stealing my flowers.”
In the following video, shot more than six years ago, representatives of the Pilsen Together Chamber of Commerce were predicting a “totally different Pilsen in 5 years.” The Chamber’s website is no longer online, and its phone has been disconnected.
You can see more of YoChicago’s aerial photography at Flickr.
Pilsen is showing signs of warming up.
I just got off the phone with a person who works in rehab lending, and he says there is a lot of activity in the area, especially east of Ashland. Of course this is all anecdotal, but that’s generally a good sign in an otherwise sluggish economy where financing is still difficult to find in non-prime areas.
Joe,
as in all things regarding gentrification in Chicago I suggest we turn to the 2010 census for some answers or at least for some indications as to what may or may not be happening in Pilsen.
Put in a random Pilsen address in this interactive map, use the side by side feature, and then click on various census tracks and see what you find. The map lets you compare census data from 2000 and 2010 at the level of a census track which is generally just a few blocks.
I just did that for an exhaustive five minute foray into Pilsen census data and generally see two things. The absolute numbers of hispanics in many tracks are down drastically. Sometimes by a third or more. The absolute numbers of whites in many tracks are increasing exponentially, but are still relatively small in most tracks. Say ten-twenty percent or so, but in some of the eastern tracks near Halsted whites are the majority.
What does this tell us? Well given the improving economy in Mexico and the sluggish economy in Chicago, Mexican migration to the our area is down. If you’re a Pilsen property owner you may have an economic incentive to try to draw the pasty white hipster horde to keep your properties rented.
My guess is that Pilsen is well along the way to gentrifying. To paraphrase Churchill it’s not the end of hispanic Pilsen, but it may be the end of the beginning of Pilsen’s gentrification. I suspect gentrification will continue in Pilsen at a slow and steady pace. I recall being skeptical of some of the claims of gentrification in the eastern areas of Humboldt Park until I looked at the census data. Something similar seems to be happening here at a slightly less dramatic pace.
Census data doesn’t lie;although, it is often misinterpreted.
The location of Pilsen relatively near downtown, the medical district, and the University of Illinois make some degree of gentrification virtually inevitable.
It’s also possible that Pilsen will eventually draw a mixed bag of newcomers. Whites, Muppies–Mexican yuppies, and perhaps even the two parent gay families that give Justice Scalia nightmares.
Whatever happens I suspect the Pilsen of say 2033 will be very different than the Pilsen of 2013.
IP,
The map you reference is showing data at the block level, not the tract level.
Mexican migration to the area, in addition to being down, now occurs in a lot of venues beyond the city borders, and that’s one of the trends that’s been impacting Pilsen.
The overall poor quality of Pilsen’s housing stock is an ongoing issue. Many Pilsen landlords will rent to your pasty white hipsters very reluctantly – they might call in the code enforcement folks once they fully understand their landlord’s approach to maintenance.
Chicago’s facing too many problems for me to have any grip on what might happen to any of its neighborhoods beyond the top-tier lakefront ones over any time frame.
Data at the block level?
That suggests that I lack a Scalia-like certainty in that post.
I’m ashamed.
Anyhoo, like it or not Pilsen landlords may have to start improving their properties if they want to maintain a cash flow. While they may not like it the likelihood of greater property appreciation may help reduce their pain.
Think of increasing property values as an analgesic for the psychic pain of replacing a roof.
I seem to recall seeing a story in the last few years that Mexican migrants are more likely to move directly to the suburbs than to the “traditional” hoods in the city that formerly drew new immigrants.
If you’re working in a factory or some physical labor job in the western suburbs Cicero probably looks a whole lot more appealing than Pilsen or Little Village. Similar thing can be said for parts of northern Lake County and southern Cook County.
The negative of that for the city is that without steady or increasing hispanic immigration we’re likely to see a serious drop in overall population in the 2020 census.
Hell the population of Brooklyn friggin NYC may overtake the entire population of Chicago by 2020.
It will be a sad day when Brooklyn hipsters outnumber Chicago hipsters.
IP,
That sad day probably arrived several years ago. The first Hipster Olympics was held there in 2007:
IP,
If areas like Humboldt Park or Pilsen gentrify, that will require $$. $$ to rehab property, and the people who do the rehabbing will be largely Hispanic.
Gentrification creates lots of jobs for Hispanics right here in the city. It just doesn’t create housing for (most of) them…
Pilsen’s housing stock is older and in worse shape than similarly situated neighborhoods to the north, making it not worth the investment until (and if) those other neighborhoods are fully gentrified. Pisen was built in the 1890s and the northern lakefront in the 1920s.
LOL — when I was a little girl, this was a Polish neighborhood. My Grandfather and Grandmother had a printing company at 18th and Leavitt — they raised 3 daughters there. Then it became a Hispanic neighborhood — now it appears the neighborhood is changing again — progress……………