What's the deal with Uptown? (Chicago, Sheridan: fit in, lawyer, law school)

[chicagobear]

I see some development coming along. I expect it will get gentrified over time.

[Larry Siegel]

The policies followed in Uptown are an object lesson in how to turn a great city into another Detroit. Chicago's north side has been so economically vibrant that Uptown has not been completely destroyed and is showing signs of a revival, but one should never underestimate what bad policy can do over a prolonged period.

[lenniel]

Wow....just wow. I'm flummoxed! I can't disagree with what anyone has contributed to this topic. Everyone is spot on with their comments and assessment of Shiller.
This is difficult for me.

[Aleking]

shiller was garbage BUT the neighborhood got better and saw greater percentage drops in violent crime under shiller than it has under cappleman...who is also awful, just a different variety.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by nightlysparrow

Well, the FedGov under HUD gave massive grants and loans to both individual homeowners (who did renovations), landlords (who did few renovations) and the City to clean up Uptown way back in the late 1960's. They did get the college built, but the rest of the money went??? Many blocks look exactly the same 50 years later; it's eerie.

Yep, and it doesn't look like Englewood or Garfield Park or North Lawndale, so sometimes stasis isn't so bad.

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by nightlysparrow

Well, the FedGov under HUD gave massive grants and loans to both individual homeowners (who did renovations), landlords (who did few renovations) and the City to clean up Uptown way back in the late 1960's. They did get the college built, but the rest of the money went??? Many blocks look exactly the same 50 years later; it's eerie.

Are you suggesting that corruption and misguided do-gooders that aligned themselves with self interested polticians actually held back progress for decades? Why we've never seen that before...

Certainly no one that has learned the lessons of how destructive these things are to real efforts at economic progress would do other that reject efforts to allow poltical forces to stand in the way of real improvements...

[Chicago60614]

The neighborhood certainly HAS gotten better. Everything south of Montrose is basically gentrified and great, although that's obviously not the area people think of when they think "Uptown".

I think the new alderman has been pretty good, at least he's very active and trying hard to improve the neighborhood while at the same time involving the community input much more than some other wards.

Closing down the large Somerset Nursing Home which was more a massive pit of crime and mistreatment than a nursing home helped a lot, as well as the new Target, the increase in businesses in the area, the revamping of Broadway, quite a few new condos and apartments actually went up during the 2000's. Salvation Army that had a lot of issues is closed, FLATS is building out dozens of apartments geared towards people in their 20's with a healthy income. Lawrence House is the new controversy, as the very notorious building is being completely revamped into a few hundred new apartments for $14M that will rent for up to $3,000 a month. At a loss are the building mostly impoverished residents who are on fixed incomes. Unfortunately the building has housed and is the center of a lot of crime in the area.

[Aleking]

by far the best part of uptown and one of the largest sections is the area north of lawrence and west of broadway...much nicer than Buena Park IMO

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by Aleking

by far the best part of uptown and one of the largest sections is the area north of lawrence and west of broadway...much nicer than Buena Park IMO

It's basically an extension of Andersonville! I think Clark has some potential to be awesome south of Lawrence and north of Montrose. There are some really great storefronts there, but many are abandoned or have marginal uses now. But it can draw from Ravenswood and Sheridan Park, so there's definitely potential there.

[Aleking]

Originally Posted by marothisu

^ Yep (and Buena Park is perfectly fine) while it probably won't see full scale gentrification fast, it will see a little. There's a new, nice 15 story apartment/condo high rise just completed on its southern edge, a new-ish building near the Sheridan stop, a proposal across the street from it and next to the Sheridan stop. New-ish Target near the Wilson stop, and the Wilson stop was OK'd for a large $200+ million rehab. If the entertainment center near the Lawrence stop took off and got funding, you'd probably see more gentrification. I think FLATS has a handful of properties in the area too.

FLATS doesn't have a single tenant in Uptown despite taking over something like half a dozen large properties...they smell like the same type of scam artists that were all over Uptown from 2000-2006.

I just wish we had an alderman that could succesfully steer some dense market rate developments to the numerous underused/surface lots surrounding the Lawrence/Wilson stops...instead we got another drive thru fast food joint.