The city has missed some golden opportunities for economic development on the South Side. With the right sort of planning, U.S. Cellular Field could have been the catalyst for major growth in retail and housing around the ballpark, leveraging the mini-building boom in Bridgeport and the redevelopment of nearby Chicago Housing Authority projects into something cohesive, a whole greater than its disparate parts. The Chicago Sun-Times today examines some of the same missed opportunities surrounding Cicero Avenue and the renovation of Midway Airport.
We grew up a block from Midway, so it should be said that Cicero Avenue has never looked better, at least not in the last 30 years. The streetscape has been redone and new surfacing, landscaping and lighting have improved what used to be an extremely rundown strip. But grassy medians only provide jobs for a handful of landscapers, and few of the shabby buildings and seedy motels that have been knocked down have been replaced with anything besides grass and trees.
Our old neighborhood, Clearing, reeled in the early ’90s after the death of Midway Airlines and the loss of jobs that departure entailed. Chicago made a committment to the airport, however, and fueled by the failure of plans for a third airport to get off the ground and the rise of discount airlines like Southwest, Midway began to thrive.
Where are the economic ripples? In suburban Bedford Park, just a few blocks south of the airport, where gleaming new hotels and retail have sprung up during the last decade, feeding off of Midway’s expansion. Cicero Avenue, meanwhile, remains a ghost town. The city once again has proved itself much better at condemning property than figuring out what might replace it.
The Department of Planning and Development has studied this stretch of Cicero, which is a tax-increment financing district, and some positive suggestions have been made for key parcels, but the lack of vision is still startling. Elsewhere, Mayor Daley has been adept at focusing on high-profile arteries and commercial strips. Since Cicero is the first and last glimpse millions of travelers have of Chicago, it’s a shame that the biggest evidence of commercial progress is the drive-thru Starbucks, at 47th Street.