A Melrose Park comeback (Oak Park, Maywood: apartments, condos, zoning)

[melrose78]

Melrose has been a great community to live in for years. Although in the last 10 years or so it has had a slight decline. Despite minor crime and the influx of new ethnic backgrounds, many long-time residents have remained in this great town. This well-known Italian neighborhood is planning redevelopment between 9th and 25th Avenues, south of Lake Street. Plans have been posted on the Melrose Park website and they look fantastic! Though still in its infancy stages, the plan includes replacing most of the homes in this section with new construction houses/condos, restaurants, and parks. This section of town has been the hub of its Hispanic population, but the village is focusing on gentrification. The north side of Melrose still remains the 'nicer' part of town, especially the Winston Park section and the area just north of Westlake Hospital. The construction of new condos has begun at 17th/Lake St and also at Division/23rd Avenues

Even though Melrose has attracted many Hispanics, it still has a strong Italian population. Just this past summer Bulger Park on 17th hosted a Bocce Ball tournament. The town was dressed in Italian flags and streamers of red, white, and green. The majority of the vendors at the Taste of Melrose Park are Italian. Scudiero's, Cafe 2000, Danny's Deli, Abruzzo's, Cafe Di Amore are just a few of the town's Italian establishments. The annual Our Lady of Mt Carmel Feast (AKA the Italian Feast) is still reminscent of old Italian Melrose.

Don't let rumors or hearsay fool you. Melrose Park is a great place to live. I should know, I grew up there. My family still lives there and I enjoy going back to visit. Melrose Park has and always will be home.

[sukwoo]

I wish MP the best of luck. Hopefully revitalization will spill over into Maywood as well.

[gardener34]

Yeah, those inner collar burbs are in such a great location to the city, they are prime for gentrification - and prices are great. I remember going to the italian fest there a few times. My girlfriend's dad ran a booth there. GREAT food!!!

Maywood has had some bad shootings lately, it could use a boost.

[OnceProud]

We need our Melrose Park officials to introduce an ordinance, a public injunction or regulations that halts illegal immigration into our community. Actually we need Melrose Park to reverse the current trend by getting the city council to pass ICE’s 287(g) training for our police department. This will train the Melrose Park police as to how handle and deport, if necessary all illegal aliens.

Opening that Illinois illegal immigration “Welcoming Center” sure didn’t help, did it? Who is the lamebrain who proposed that?

Enough is enough; it’s time to take our community back!

[Chinolala]

I live just east of MP in EP. I love living here. You can't beat the proximity to the city that both towns have and the food and shopping isn't bad either. When I want to go to a mall, Oak Brook is 20 minutes away. I took a taxi downtown for New Years Eve and it was $26! Metra, the Green line in Oak Park, easy to get to both airports - these town are in prime locations. I don't know about Maywood, but MP will be okay. I drive through it all of the time, and most of the town is still very clean and tidy. The Italian section just south of North Avenue is immaculate. It may take awhile, but due to its proximity to the city, I think MP will be a desirable area one day. Look how much the new condos cost even today!

[emmi605]

Neighboring Northlake has made a lot of improvements also. There are some great families that hung on there also. Improvement along North avenue along with condo developments are a bonus. It is great to see communities fight for their prime location. Best of luck MP!

[SamA]

Unfortunately, it might be too late for Melrose Park. What they really needed to do there was not allow single family homes to be chopped up into several apartments. Zoning can make or break a town. That is the single largest thing that ruined Melrose-it just begged for illegal hispanics to move in. Furthermore, the housing stock there isn't great to begin with; a lot of frame houses with little curb appeal. Add to that a corrupt government the people kept in power way too long. I grew up there and loved it. It saddens me to see it change for the worse.

[Chinolala]

Originally Posted by SamA

Unfortunately, it might be too late for Melrose Park. What they really needed to do there was not allow single family homes to be chopped up into several apartments. Zoning can make or break a town. That is the single largest thing that ruined Melrose-it just begged for illegal hispanics to move in. Furthermore, the housing stock there isn't great to begin with; a lot of frame houses with little curb appeal. Add to that a corrupt government the people kept in power way too long. I grew up there and loved it. It saddens me to see it change for the worse.

Yes, as I drive through Melrose Park on my way home from work, I have seen some apartment buildings going up where single family homes once stood. That's going on in the area just east of the Melrose Park police station, east of Broadway and south of Lake Street.

[Ron S.]

Originally Posted by SamA

Unfortunately, it might be too late for Melrose Park. What they really needed to do there was not allow single family homes to be chopped up into several apartments. Zoning can make or break a town. That is the single largest thing that ruined Melrose-it just begged for illegal hispanics to move in. Furthermore, the housing stock there isn't great to begin with; a lot of frame houses with little curb appeal. Add to that a corrupt government the people kept in power way too long. I grew up there and loved it. It saddens me to see it change for the worse.

I grew up there too, born in the 60's and growing up there through the 70s and early 80s (left for the Marines in '82). The Hispanic population began to replace the Italian-American one in the mid to late 70s, if I remember correctly. The Italians took pride in the area, even the one I grew up in which was 21st street south of Lake Street. The new immigrants didn't.

Once the new population started to move in, things got bad. Nobody took care of the neighborhoods anymore and it got run-down. Had to move my mother out of there in the 80s because the gangs were getting bad. Went back to visit in the late 80s and it was a dump.

North of Lake street was still okay, though. Wonder if it's gotten bad too.

To be fair, it wasn't all rosy when I was a kid either. If you were non-white, you weren't welcome. And we always had the running feud with Maywood which was predominantly black. Blacks came to Melrose Park in groups for safety and whites did the same when we had to go to Maywood.

My brother still lives in the general area and tells me that things are even worse now. By some of the other blogs, it sounds like MP is still going down the tubes.

Won't even go into the school systems.

Hope the renovation works, but I have my doubts. Wonder who the mayor is now? Probably somebody I went to school with. LOL.

[Anthera]

Kiddyland rocks!