Chicago Neighborhoods 2015: Assets, Plans and Trends – A project of The Chicago Community Trust

PILSEN LITTLE VILLAGE Ports of entry are regional centers of Mexican-American life

Pilsen and Little Village have been immigrant neighborhoods since their inception alongside the major industrial corridors of the Southwest Side. For the past 50 years, they have been the cultural and business centers for Chicago’s Mexican Americans.

Officially called the Lower West Side and South Lawndale, respectively, the communities have been better known by their nicknames since the mid-20th Century, when they were largely Czech, Polish, and Eastern European. The densely populated communities feature 120-year-old structures in the 4,200-building Pilsen Historic District, with slightly younger houses and two-flats in Little Village, which was fully built up by the 1920s.

Source: Calculations by Institute for Today, Pilsen and Little Village are magnets for second- and third-generation Mexican Americans as Housing Studies at DePaul University using well as new immigrants. Hundreds of storefronts sell Mexican food, wedding and quinceañera gowns, 2010 Decennial Census. music, clothing, and housewares, drawing steady traffic especially on weekends. The annual Fiesta del Sol in Pilsen and Mexican Independence Day Parade in Little Village draw huge crowds. Both communities have flourishing art scenes that include galleries, murals, music venues, a Latino film festival, and diverse programming for youth. Churches, social service agencies, and community development organizations have built extensive support networks. And Pilsen, in recent years, has been attracting the young and hip with resale shops, bars, and trendy restaurants.

Amidst all this vitality and apparent economic health, the two communities remain relatively poor compared to other Chicago neighborhoods, with household incomes limited by low educational achievement and earning power. Nearly 30 percent of residents live below the poverty level. About half of those aged 25 and older have not completed high school. In 2012, the unemployment rate was 15.8 percent.

Despite a 15 percent population drop between 2000 and 2010, PILSEN LITTLE VILLAGE OVER TIME 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 due mostly to smaller family sizes, there is very little residential vacancy. Both communities have solid blocks of Population 107,293 120,075 126,744 135,102 115,057 owner-occupied housing, often with decorative wrought-iron Share of population in poverty fences and recently tuckpointed brick. But about 70 percent of 15.1% 23.5% 25.4% 26.7% 29.3% all households are renters, many living in older structures Percent owner-occupied/renter occupied with leaky windows and outdated utilities. Owners and 33/67 32/68 32/68 32/68 29/71 renters alike are “cost-burdened,” with about half in each Sources: Calculations by Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University using U.S. Census data from category spending more than 30 percent of their income on US2010 Project at Brown University. housing.

Geographically unique Pilsen and Little Village are isolated from their southern neighbors by a half-mile-wide corridor that includes factories, railroads, the Chicago River South Branch or Sanitary and Ship Canal, and the Stevenson Expressway (I-55). On the north, railyards and forbidding block-long underpasses separate Pilsen from the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Illinois Medical District.

Little Village is bordered on the west by another industrial corridor, and on the north by a viaduct that has long marked the racial dividing line with predominantly African-American North Lawndale. South of 26th Street and east of Sacramento is the 96-acre Cook County Jail, which faces its host community with high concrete walls and double barbed-wire fences. The jail’s average daily population of 9,000 residents is part of the district’s census count, which had fallen to 115,000 in 2010, from 135,000 a decade earlier.

The district is well served with CTA bus service on all the major arteries and with Pink Line stations in Pilsen and just north of Little Village at 21st Street. The #9 Ashland bus is the city’s busiest route with 30,000 riders a day; the planned Bus Rapid Transit system on Ashland would include a station at 18th Street in the heart of Pilsen. Metra’s Heritage Line provides service to Western Avenue, but the station served only 78 average riders on weekdays in 2014.

Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Pilsen Little Village – February 2015 – Page 2

CTA Pink Line Ridership (weekday boardings, year-end averages, 2009 and 2013) Central 18th St. Damen Western California Kedzie Pulaski Kostner Park 2009 1,517 1,243 991 1,182 860 1,039 1,041 1,127 2013 1,862 1,470 1,166 1,459 1,088 1,303 1,221 1,321 Source: Chicago Transit Authority Annual Ridership Reports.

Pilsen Little Village’s legacy of large industry and water transport created some of the district’s strongest opportunities for future investment.

Parks and open space – With just 1.1 acres of open space per 1,000 residents, Pilsen Little Village has the lowest share of park space among Chicago’s 16 planning districts. But reuse of former industrial spaces is beginning to change that.  A 21-acre site west of Sacramento and north of 31st Street, degraded by industrial pollution and asphalt dumping, has been capped and landscaped and will open as La Villita Park in 2015. The $10.1 million park will include two artificial-turf playing fields, two natural-turf fields, a skate park, playground, and picnic spaces. The City of Chicago is studying conversion of a 1.3-mile Burlington Northern Santa Fe-owned railroad corridor to connect the park to the Chicago River. Across 31st Street from the new park is the Collateral Channel, an unused boat dock that could connect to additional green space along the Sanitary and Ship Canal.  Another BNSF-owned corridor, along Sangamon Avenue in Pilsen, is being re-envisioned as a pedestrian-friendly “paseo.” The Pilsen Planning Committee’s 2006 quality-of-life plan, Pilsen: A Center of Mexican Life, identified a four-block stretch of Sangamon for conversion into a pedestrian connector; the southern-most block has already become a landscaped garden path. In 2013, the City of Chicago filed a petition with the Surface Transportation Board to preserve the railroad right-of-way for recreational uses.  The Chicago Park District has assembled three parcels where the Illinois and Michigan Canal originally branched from the Chicago River. The Canal Origins Park and Canalport Riverwalk

Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Pilsen Little Village – February 2015 – Page 3 are partially developed; in 2016 a new boathouse will be added at Park #571, with a design similar to the WMS Boathouse at Clark Park on the North Branch.

Large development sites – Five large parcels are in the process of redevelopment, each in a location that could support additional nearby investment.

 The Fisk and Crawford coal-fired powerplants were shut down in 2012 and will be demolished, creating about 115 acres along the river and canal. The 2012 Fisk and Crawford Reuse Task Force Final Report recommends redevelopment for clean industrial uses with adjacent green space and trails along the water. Both sites are in existing industrial corridors where demand for space remains strong.  The former Washburne trade school site at 31st and Kedzie is being redeveloped by the Chicago Southwest Development Corporation as the Focal Point community campus, which would include a replacement facility for the nearby St. Anthony Hospital alongside retail, wellness, education, and recreational facilities. The developer is working with the City of Chicago to acquire 11 additional acres adjacent to the core site.  The former Storkline furniture factory on Kostner Avenue at 26th Street is being converted into 148 units of affordable housing by the nonprofit Mercy Housing Lakefront. The long-vacant factory building is at a strategic location on the west end of the 26th Street commercial corridor. It is adjacent to the vacant 40-acre Chicago Central Industrial Park, which was identified for potential housing and retail development in the 2005 and 2013 Little Village Quality-of-Life Plans.  The former Chicago Sun-Times printing plant is being redeveloped as a $140 million, 400,000- square-foot data center and tech-business hub, tapping Chicago’s high-speed fiber network.

Industrial corridors – The district has attracted substantial new investment in industrial facilities over the past 20 years to serve produce distributors, food processors, metal fabricators, toolmakers, and refrigerated storage companies. The newer facilities represent a small percentage of the district’s 1,600 acres of industrial land, much of which is now dedicated to low-value uses including garbage processing, recycling, truck maintenance, and storage of trailers and shipping containers. One such

Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Pilsen Little Village – February 2015 – Page 4 plot, covering 16 acres at 3348 S. Pulaski, will be redeveloped in 2015 with a new 316,000-square-foot distribution center. The district supports about 4,600 manufacturing jobs and 6,000 more in wholesaling, transportation, and warehousing.

Retail evolution Like the industrial areas, the retail districts of Pilsen and Little Village are visibly healthier than in most other working-class neighborhoods in Chicago, with more than 1,000 small businesses spread along the commercial arteries of 18th Street, Blue Island Avenue, Cermak Road, 26th Street, and 31st Street. The corridor on 26th Street has more vacancies today than in past years, but still creates traffic jams with its two-mile stretch of stores, restaurants, night clubs, banks, and service businesses, which draw from across the Midwest. At 26th and Troy, the pink arch that proclaims Bienvenidos a Little Village is a favorite of tourists and TV camera crews; at 26th and Rockwell on summer weekends, thousands converge on Plaza Garibaldi for rodeos and for concerts by favorite banda and norteño groups from Mexico.

Unique among Chicago neighborhoods, the district retains many corner stores on internal residential streets, and supports secondary retail strips such as 25th Street, just a block from Little Village’s 26th Street spine. In Pilsen, small businesses dot Leavitt Avenue between the bigger Damen and Western corridors, and an enclave of Italian restaurants attracts citywide diners to Oakley Avenue in the Heart of Chicago sub-neighborhood.

Cermak Road is a retail bridge between Little Village and Pilsen, serving both communities. The 18th Street corridor in Pilsen was never as big or busy as 26th Street, but continues to offer a similar selection of food stores, restaurants, artisan shops, botánicas, and service businesses. While retaining its Mexican character, the strip has been influenced for decades by the artist community along Halsted Street, and recently has evolved further as a mixed-retail environment.

The Halsted arts district was created by the Podmajersky family, which has been in the community since 1914 and been marketing live-work spaces and galleries since the 1970s. Though sometimes resented by local Mexicans as a gentrification threat, the arts district has survived and grown, and now

Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Pilsen Little Village – February 2015 – Page 5 coexists alongside a vibrant Latino-oriented arts culture that began with murals and today includes galleries, performances featuring Mexican artists, music, and the National Museum of Mexican Art in Harrison Park, which opened in 1987, expanded in 2001, and continues to offer free admission.

Recent years have seen considerable expansion of Pilsen’s cultural and historic resources. Redmoon Theater relocated into the landmark Wendnagle building at Jefferson and Cermak, amongst a collection of visually powerful bridges and industrial buildings called the Spice Barrel District, whose potential was outlined in the 2007 study, Industrial Renaissance: Establishing a Creative Industries District. Parts of the historic Schoenhofen Brewery complex have been rehabbed for modern uses, and scores of artists and small businesses have set up shop in the Lacuna Artists Lofts, 2150 S. Canalport. Farther west at 18th Street and Allport, restaurant entrepreneurs Bruce Finkelman and Craig Goldman have restored the 1892 limestone landmark, Thalia Hall, with a restaurant, bar, performance space, and retail shops. Other new businesses include coffee shops, Mexican restaurants, a bike shop, fashion boutiques, and resale stores. The Pilsen business district today is stronger than it was 10 years ago, and more diverse in its offerings.

Source: Easy Analytic Software, Inc., updated January 2014, as displayed on Woodstock Institute Data Portal.

Challenges and opportunities Pilsen and Little Village have remained vibrant over the decades because of continued investment and commitment by small businesses, property owners, and public institutions, but at least as important have been the efforts of individual leaders, community groups, churches, youth organizations,

Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Pilsen Little Village – February 2015 – Page 6 nonprofit development corporations, and social service agencies. The district’s activist culture remains a major resource for addressing current and future challenges, which include gang-related violence, weak schools, housing affordability, and low household incomes.

The Resurrection Project (TRP) was formed in 1990 to address the vacant lots and deterioration of older buildings that discouraged Pilsen property owners from long-term investments. TRP partnered with the City of Chicago to build 100 units of new housing, filling most of the vacant lots, and since has built or rehabbed hundreds of additional units. In 2015 it will add 45 affordable rental apartments at Casa Querétaro, on a former railroad silo yard at 17th and Damen.

TRP also provides financial training, foreclosure EMPLOYMENT – PILSEN LITTLE VILLAGE prevention, small-business services, and education Top six employment sectors (# jobs) 2005 2011 programs, including construction and management Health Care and Social Assistance 4,784 6,266 of La Casa Student Housing, a community-based Manufacturing 5,153 4,610 dormitory for college students at the CTA’s 18th Admin, Support, Waste Mgmt, Remediation 3,312 3,667 Wholesale Trade 3,519 3,311 Street Pink Line stop. Transportation and Warehousing 1,452 2,713 Retail Trade 1,872 2,308 Community partners have been equally Total # private-sector jobs in district 26,290 29,815 productive. Alivio Medical Center worked with District Citywide TRP on development of two new affordable Unemployment rate 2012 15.8% 12.9% housing buildings next to its medical center at 21st Sources: Calculations by Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University using Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics data (top sectors) and and Morgan, and opened in-school health centers 2012 Five-Year American Community Survey (unemployment). at Benito Juarez Career Academy and Orozco Community Academy. Instituto del Progreso Latino offers employment and financial counseling through its Center for Working Families and built a charter high school, Instituto Health Sciences Career Academy, on Western Avenue. Pilsen Neighbors Community Council runs the Fiesta del Sol and organizes the annual Pilsen Education Summit. Another educational resource is the Arturo Velasquez Institute, a satellite campus of Daley Community College that offers programs in manufacturing, office, and health careers.

Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Pilsen Little Village – February 2015 – Page 7 Environmental groups including the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) and Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization (PERRO) were instrumental in shutting down the Fisk and Crawford generating plants and continue to advance community greening and trail projects. LVEJO successfully advocated for extension of the CTA’s #35 bus to serve the 31st Street industrial corridor. Youth organizations and block groups have built community gardens across the district, using them not only to grow fresh produce but to serve as communal spaces in the park-poor district. Chicago Botanic Garden’s Windy City Harvest farm-training operation is headquartered at Velasquez Institute. Also active on environmental issues is the grassroots organization Pilsen Alliance.

Little Village’s civic infrastructure, serving a population twice as big as Pilsen’s, includes several broad collaborative efforts. The Little Village Youth Safety Network coordinates and measures the work of 12 organizations that engage youth around healthy activities and discourage gang involvement. The Roots to Wellness mental health collaborative brings together 11 health services providers to improve understanding of local needs and to improve services and referral networks. The organization Enlace Chicago coordinates these efforts and also manages a community schools network, arts programs, community gardens, and advocacy campaigns around social justice, safety, and immigration. A new effort is the 96 Acres project, organized with the Chicago Public Art Group and local youth organizations, to engage youth in art projects on and around the walls of Cook County Jail.

Richly endowed with community organizations, small businesses, industrial development, and other resources – and with major new investments supporting further growth – the Pilsen Little Village planning district is well positioned to maintain its role as Chicago’s center of Mexican-American culture, and as a major driver in the regional economy.

Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Pilsen Little Village – February 2015 – Page 8 Examples of development opportunities Place Location Status Notes Chicago Central Southwest corner of 26th 40-acre site has been vacant for Site was identified in Little Village quality-of- Industrial Park site and Kostner. decades despite location at west life plans for potential mixed retail and end of 26th Street business housing development. district. Fisk and Crawford Fisk is east of Racine and Fisk’s 43 acres and Crawford’s 72 City of Chicago and site owners are pursuing generating stations south of Cermak in Pilsen; acres are in active industrial parks options outlined in 2012 final report of Fisk Crawford is east of Pulaski and along waterways, presenting and Crawford Reuse Task Force. at Sanitary and Ship Canal. opportunities for both industrial and trail development. Industrial corridors Mostly south of the Both corridors have seen major Some areas, especially in Little Village, lack residential areas and new investment but also have adequate industrial roads for truck access. north of the river and large expanses of vacant or Sanitary and Ship Canal. underutilized land. Waterfront areas Along Chicago River and City of Chicago and Chicago Park Multiple locations could be developed with Sanitary and Ship Canal. District have begun park water-edge trails to provide continuous development near Canal Origins access and to link larger park areas. Park at Ashland Avenue. Infill housing Neighborhoods have a Zoning in much of the district is Former industrial site at 18th and Peoria was few vacant parcels on restricted to one- to three-unit cleared for a 381-unit housing development interior streets and some buildings, but some higher-density in 2005, but it was never built. larger empty sites or locations are available. buildings.

Data note: Demographic and other data is compiled by Chicago Community Area, which may differ slightly from the boundaries of the CN2015 Planning Districts. Community Areas included in this profile are Lower West Side (Pilsen) and South Lawndale (Little Village).

Research support for Chicago Neighborhoods 2015: Assets, Plans and Trends was provided by a team convened by The Chicago Community Trust. The summary of assets for this planning district was created by LISC Chicago and Teska Associates with materials from Metropolitan Planning Council, Place Consulting, Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University, and many other sources. Author: Patrick Barry.

Learn more about the Near West Side and Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 at cct.org/CN2015/PilsenLittleVillage. Learn more about data and sources at cct.org/CN2015/DataSources.

Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Pilsen Little Village – February 2015 – Page 9 WEST GARFIELD PARK WEST GARFIELD PARK Homan Square EAST GARFIELD PARK Stem academyLittle Italy Webster es Jefferson es U of I at Chicago Med Ctr Power House High Italian A Sports Hall of Fame St. Ignatius College Prep Roosevelt/Cicero Frazier es Learn es Douglas Park Apartments Federal Bureau of Investigation Central Park Theater AUSTIN ROOSEVELT University Village noble charter uic Fosco Park Chicago W S Ch riPILSENstian School LITTLE VILLAGELawndale MCehnatalml HeerDISTRICTsaeltsh Ctr ASSETEas teMAPr Seals Autism School Roosevelt Square Cca academy North lawndale hs Montefiore special es Smyth, j es Former Henson ES Douglas ParCko Clloinmsm h s& Cltr Ctr Douglass Simpson acad hs 12TH chicago tech academUryban prep charter west Vertiport Chicago FormCHICAGOer Lawndale ES No rNEIGHBORHOODSth lawndale charter 2015 Medill es Herzl es Schwab

18th Street Corridor See Near West Side Planning District Pilsen Alliance Halsted St. See West Side La Casa Charter De Las Casas The Resurrection Project Pilsen ES Jungman ES Planning District Lower West Side Nbrd Health Center Western Ave. Casa Queretaro 18th 18th YCCS Charter Orozco ES (Elev8 School) Addams 10TH St. Ann Catholic School Harrison Park Spanish Pilsen Perez ES Halsted Arts District Nt’l Museum of Mexican Art Cooper ES Coalition Esperanza Health Center Gads Hill Center St. Pius V School for Housing 26th/27th Street Corridor Shedd Park YCCS Charter Latino Youth California Walsh ES Little Village Chamber of Commerce Western Damen Pilsen Neighors Chicago Youth Boxing Club Pilsen Wellness Center Super Mall Dvorak Little Village ES La Villita Community Church Pete's Fresh Market Pickard ES Casa Puebla Juarez HS CERMAK Park Urban Life Skills Hammond ES Fairplay Foods Aldi Fisk Station New Life Community Church Cermak Fresh Market Pilsen Wellness Center St. Paul ES 90 St. Agnes of Bohemia ES Cristo Rey Jesuit HS Little Village Xochiquetzal Peace Garden Central States SER (CWF) Kanoon ES UNO Charter Paz Whittier ES LOWER WEST SIDE Spry ES De La Cruz ES Pilsen ENLACE Finkl ES Farragut HS Telpochcalli ES Pilsen Wellness Center Industrial Cardenas ES Halsted Dr. Prieto Family Health Center LVEJO Saucedo ES Ruiz ES Corridor Limas Park Spry Community Links HS

Instituto Del Progreso Latino Epiphany School WESTERN Little Village / La Villita IDPL Charter Lozano Erie House St. Augustine College 18th Street Corridor Pilsen Satellite Senior Cntr Corkery ES Castellanos ES The Arch IDPL Health Sciences Career Acad. St. Procopius School Alivio Medical Center S. Lawndale Maternal & IDPL Charter Justice & Leadership Clinic La Casa Del Pueblo Lacuna Artist Lofts Mercy Housing Redevelopment 26th Child Health Center Instituto del Progreso Latino (CWF) Thalia Hall Casa Maravilla Rauner 26th & Kostner 6062Trees Throop Park Paseo Pedestrian Corridor Semillas de Justicia Cook York Alternative HS Family YMCA Lozano Library El Jardin de las Mariposas Toman County Jail Zapata ES Mccormick ES Arturo Velazquez Institute DAMEN Universidad Popular Madero MS 96 Acres Project Windy City Harvest Grace Christian Academy Yollocalli Miami Park Dongfang Chinese Education Cicero Whitney ES ENLACE LV Boys & Girls Club La Villita Park See StockyardsAshland Ortiz De Dominguez ES Planning District SOUTH LAWNDALE 9TH Gary/Ortiz Community Space Beyond the Ball Focal Point Community Campus 31ST Gary ES New St. Anthony Hospital Focal Point Piotrowski Park Collateral Channel

Greater Lawndale HS Daley Paul Simon Job Corps CALIFORNIA Industrial Park

Little Village KEDZIE Bubbly Creek Industrial

Corridor Crawford Station

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See Midway Planning District

DATE | 01.16.2015 PILSEN LITTLE VILLAGE PLANNING DISTRICT WARD/TIF/SSA MAP CHICAGO NEIGHBORHOODS 2015

See Near West Side See West Side Planning District Planning District Western/Ogden Industrial Corridor See Central Planning District

28th Ward 11th N

R The Resurrection Project Ward

E T

S 18th Street Development Corp

E W

Ogden/Pulaski CERMAK Pilsen Industrial Corridor CALIFORNIA 25th Ward

12th Ward Near South Planning Board I

K Little Village Chamber of Commerce S

A

L

U P 26TH SSA#25 Kostner Ave 24th Ward 22nd Ward See Stockyards T 31S Planning District Berwyn Berwyn 33RD

35TH Little Village Sanitary and Ship Canal

Stickney Little Village East

14th Ward

See Midway Stickney Planning District

Stevenson/Brighton

47TH

(NBDC) serves this district but main o ce may be located o the map

*This planning area is located within the Little Village Community Development Corp., the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council, and the Eighteenth Street Development Corp. (LIRI) DATE | 01.16.2015