For the last two or three decades, politicians in and around Portage Park have pretty much done what they wanted with the business strips in their part of town. Then Adrienne O’Brien and a lot of people like her moved to the neighborhood. Now the neighborhood’s becoming a little more like Lincoln Park, and local pols are learning lessons their counterparts in Lakeview and Ravenswood learned long ago: gentrification brings greater expectations–that is, the richer the residents the more they demand. It’s enough to make an old ward heeler long for the days of economic stagnation.
O’Brien and her husband, a futures trader, moved to Portage Park from Bucktown in the spring of 1998. Back then her primary concern was Dickinson Park, a patch of green just west of Milwaukee and north of Irving Park and next to some fairly busy residential streets. “I wanted the city to put a fence around it to keep the kids from darting into traffic,” she says. “If some kid steps between parked cars into the road, there’s nowhere for an oncoming car to swerve to avoid an accident. It was a disaster waiting to happen.”
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
In the last few months they’ve turned their attention to development along Milwaukee and Cicero, especially the once-thriving commercial strips just north of the Irving-Milwaukee-Cicero intersection known as Six Corners. Those strips are in the doldrums, even though the surrounding residential neighborhood is booming. “Generally, there’s a lag between a neighborhood’s residential turnaround and its commercial one,” says Becky Carroll, spokeswoman for the Planning Department. “Look at Lincoln-Belmont-Ashland–that’s a classic example.”
Carroll says much of this criticism is unfair and misguided. “We have a great concern about community,” she insists. She points out that the city helped oversee and fund the development of a large shopping mall anchored by a Jewel grocery store just east of the Irving-Milwaukee-Cicero intersection. It has also conducted several extensive studies of the area, and large portions of Milwaukee Avenue are part of a Tax Increment Financing district, proof that the city is actively exploring new development. “There may be a public-perception issue about what’s going on there, but it’s not a reality issue,” she says. “The development plans for that area include studies that clearly outline everything from the area’s history to its current property values. We’re very aware of its strengths and weaknesses.”
The proposal now moves to the City Council, which generally rubber-stamps the zoning committee’s position. Yet it’s not a done deal. If Mayor Daley comes out against the demolition, every elected official, including Levar, will probably do a flip-flop. And Carroll says the city will meet with CVS officials to discuss preservation. “We are in favor of saving the building and having CVS reduce the project to fit the building,” she says. “The mayor’s very sensitive to what the community wants in terms of preserving the look and feel of a community. We’ve worked with other chains, such as Walgreens, on similar issues. We don’t just want a box development.”
