Jefferson Park, Chicago

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Art and community involvement thrive together to boost spirits on Chicago’s Northwest Side

By Sean Keenehan

CHICAGO: When residents begin to feel that their voices are not being heard and their ideas ignored, complacency can often overtake a strong neighborhood. Sometimes a neighborhood just needs a good wake-up call and that is exactly what has recently happened in the Jefferson Park neighborhood.

Jefferson Park, along with Portage Park, Norwood Park, Gladstone Park and the Mayfair area, is a neighborhood that falls within the 45th Ward on the Northwest Side of Chicago.

Ideally located in close proximity to two major expressways, including Interstate 90 and I- 94, and plenty of public transportation, as the intermodal Jefferson Park Transit Center at 4917/4963 N. Milwaukee Ave. contains the CTA Blue Line, a CTA bus terminal and the An intermodal transportion mecca that houses the CTA Blue LIne, CTA bus terminal and elevated Metra Union Pacific/Northwest Line, Jefferson Park is a full-fledged Metra Union Pacific/Northwest Line, located transportation hub. just above Interstate 90 Expressway, offers easy access to pubic transportation. Although it is very convenient for commuters to get in and out of Jefferson Park, the community of Jefferson Park itself offers much more to residents and visitors than just easy access to public transportation.

“We have our own police station, we have a library, we have a firehouse, we have a post office,” said Brian Nadig, co-publisher of Nadig Newspapers, currently the Northwest Side of Chicago’s only local newspaper, located at 4937 N. Milwaukee Ave. in downtown Jefferson Park.

“Unfortunately, we have some vacancies,” Nadig added. The downtown, Jefferson Park shopping district is continuing to grow and develop. The challenge of attracting new businesses to a community that consists of 80 percent single-family homes has affected foot traffic in the downtown Jefferson Park shopping district for decades.

Nadig reminisced of the glory days of the former downtown shopping district.

“In the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, Jefferson Park was an extremely active shopping center,” Nadig recalled. “When I was a kid you could hardly walk down the sidewalk at Lawrence and Milwaukee avenues, you were bumping into shopping bags left and right.” View of I-90 from CTA Blue Line platform. Increasing foot traffic in downtown Jefferson Park would help give a potential storeowner confidence that, if he or she were to open a new retail business in the Jefferson Park area, they would have the economical support of neighborhood consumers in order to be successful.

Since being elected into the 45 th Ward in May of 2011, Alderman John Arena has addressed the opportunities to increase foot traffic in Jefferson Park and has placed his emphasis on attracting new businesses and residents without sacrificing the spirit and the integrity of the Jefferson Park community. Jefferson Park’s historic “We need reasonable development that needs to be developed in a smart way, making sure that we Post Office. have that balance of trying to get the density that we need and give people the amenities that they want,” Arena said. “But don’t do it in a way that steps on the quality of the neighborhood, the characteristics that make this an amazing neighborhood.”

Alderman Arena moved into the Portage Park area of the 45 th Ward in 1994. After being on the neighborhood board for over 10 years, Arena grew increasingly frustrated with failed attempts to engage the local government.

“I just wanted to petition government, for them to hear me, and say, ‘give me some info… we can provide resources with you…we want to partner with you…’ and those overtures were not accepted,” said Arena.

After taking office, Alderman Arena brought fresh ideas to his new position as Alderman Conveniently located just west of the of the 45th Ward and began to focus on leveraging the existing entertainment assets in Lawrence and Milwaukee Ave intersection in downtown Jefferson Park. the community.

“The new alderman is right, he wants to create a cultural, entertainment identity for the area,” Nadig said. “The whole idea is that you need entertainment to support retail and if you get more entertainment and restaurants into the area, that’s going to start the revitalization.”

“We do have a number of cultural attractions that if we promote and if we leverage, we can build on their success,” Arena explained. “The Portage Theater on the south end, the Gift Theater and the Copernicus Center on the north end.”

The Copernicus Center, located at 5216 W. Lawrence Ave., is Chicago’s first talking movie theater and was built in the early 1930’s. Nadig Newspapers, Northwest Chicago’s only local newspaper. Established in 1940. “The vintage hits you in the face,” said Copernicus Center Event Coordinator Patrizia Fuchs. “The events that we’ve had here are concerts, dance recitals, theater shows, fundraisers for schools in the area…also a lot of different cultural productions.”

Although the historic, 1900-seat theater is listed on its website as ‘a monument to the Polish American community,’ there is also mention of ‘its rich heritage while serving the City of Chicago at large,’ as the Copernicus Center has been reaching out to other ethnic groups outside of the Polish American community.

“As we reach out to these other ethnic groups, and they see that they can come here as opposed to downtown, closer to their ethnic bases out in the northwest suburbs, they absolutely love it,” explained President of the Copernicus Foundation and Copernicus Easily accessible on Milwaukee Avenue, The Center Managing Director Gregg Kobelinski. alderman of the 45th Ward has his windows covered in posters promoting community events and local art. In 2011, the Copernicus Center opened its attached Copernicus Center Annex, a modern, 10,000 sq. ft. loft-style facility that hosts everything from wedding receptions to Jazzercise classes.

Nadig, who is also the secretary of the Jefferson Park Chamber of Commerce, spoke about the Copernicus Center’s increasing involvement with the surrounding community of Jefferson Park.

Referencing to Chamber events and the neighborhood farmer’s markets that are held on the Copernicus Center premises, Kobelinski explained some of the Copernicus Foundation’s community efforts.

“Starting three or four years ago we’ve really tried hard to bring community leaders and the community into the workings of the center,” Kobelinski said.

All around the Jefferson Park neighborhood there are large public murals and painted storefronts that are part of an art initiative from a not-for-profit, local community arts organization called Arts The Copernicus Center, built in the early 1930′s, now holds Alive 45, “Incorporated specifically to help network artists and businesses, communities and community and ethnic concerts, resources around the arts in the northwest corridor of Chicago,” explained Arts Alive 45 president dances, fundraisers and other events. Cyd Smillie. According to Smillie, the idea of Arts Alive started with the simple concept of, “How do you make this whole place look better to everybody?” Smillie said.

Smillie credits Alderman Arena’s influence to help put Arts Alive 45 into motion and recalled Arena’s early visions.

“Because of his background as an artist he chose to use art as a vehicle for waking people up and getting people to pay attention to their neighborhood and community,” said Smillie. “I became one of the people who started helping on that mission.”

Alderman Arena’s background in the arts consisted of operating a marketing and design The City of Chicago downtown skyline is firm out of a home studio with his wife, Jill Arena. Jill was also very pivotal in early efforts visible just behind the Copernicus Center from to get Arts Alive 45 started. the Metra platform.

“Before Arts Alive was official,” Smillie explained, “we started with donated paint and then literally went door to door to my neighbors, and she (Jill Arena) to hers, and asked people if they had any paint that they were just going to throw out.”

Neighborhoods in the Chicago area often compete for the attention of new businesses and residents and Alderman Arena insisted that Arts Alive 45 was a way to help differentiate Jefferson Park from other communities in the Chicago area.

“If I’m looking to locate a business or relocate my family, what you see on the street is going to affect your decision-making process,” Arena said. “We need to put a better face out there.”

“Alderman Arena turned to me and said, ‘If you’re going to sell your house, what do you do? You clean it up, you throw a coat of paint on, you make it look better,’” Smillie recalled. “‘It’s our job to sell this neighborhood, to residents, to businesses to prospective “A non-profit, incorporated specifically to help people who want to move in.’” network artists, businesses, communities and resources around the arts in the northwest corridor of Chicago.” -Cyd Smillie, Arts Alive “We’ve reached out to the arts, we’ve said ‘you’re welcome here, you have an audience, 45 president. there is a place for you here,’” Alderman Arena explained. “This is part of the bigger plan, to use the entertainment, the arts economy to augment the general economy in the area.”

Dressing up the Jefferson Park neighborhood has already shown positive results after the first year and a half since the inception of Arts Alive 45.

The Filament Theatre Ensemble and the National Veterans Art Museum have moved into the southern end of what Alderman Arena refers to as ‘the Milwaukee corridor.’ On the northern end of the corridor Gene’s Sausage will be opening a Jefferson Park location in 2013 and Fischman’s Tavern is expanding to add an attached restaurant, adding another dining option besides the already well-established Gale St. Inn.

From a residential standpoint, the low-density population liability that has affected business development can be seen as an asset to homebuyers searching in the “We started with donated paint and then Jefferson Park area, as the neighborhood has been seeing an increase in younger literally went door to door.” Cyd Smillie, president of Arts Alive 45. people and younger families coming into the community.

The overall crime rate in the Jefferson Park area has dropped since 2005 and the 16 th District has statistically had the lowest crime rate in the City of Chicago for as long as Alderman Arena could recall.

According to Alderman Arena, Jefferson Park is ‘softly gentrifying’ and is ‘wonderfully mixed’ in terms of age demographics and ethnic diversity.

“We’re an inexpensive, family-oriented area of the city that has safe streets, good parks, good schools and access to get you wherever you need to go,” Arena said.

“You have more green space and it’s not as congested as some of the other parts of the city,” said Nadig. “It’s closer to a suburban-like feeling, but it’s still definitely the city, you still have that urban feel to it.” Kobelinski explained the large amount of sprawl that homes in the Jefferson Park area offer.

“The Jefferson Park area is considered a suburb within the city because the percentage of yards to lot space per homes is the highest in this area,” Kobelinski said.

Fuchs spoke of the convenience of travelling in and out of Jefferson Park.

“I commute to work everyday and I think that’s the one thing that I think really is a positive aspect of Jefferson Park is that it’s easily accessible, so it has that room for growth,” said

Fuchs. This local cafe offers paninis, hand baked pastries and fresh Illy coffee. Alderman Arena favors the idea of transporting commuters into the Jefferson Park neighborhood, rather than shipping them out.

“Transportation cuts both ways, it’s able to bring people in and also allows us to go somewhere else if we’re not getting what we want,” Arena said.

Alderman Arena’s plans and ideas seem to be striking a common chord amongst residents and businesses alike in the Jefferson Park area. Now that Jefferson Park residents have an alderman that listens, communicates and takes action, the community is beginning to embrace the positive changes that they are seeing take place all around the neighborhood.

A pedestrian bridge carries commuters over I- Nadig has remained optimistic and supportive about the alderman’s initiatives to ‘build 90 to the Jefferson Park Metra station. towards a community that can sustain itself.’

“We’re hoping to get more restaurants and entertainment-type businesses in the area that will bring in more foot traffic and then we can fill in some of these vacancies, maybe with some nice, small retail stores,” said Nadig.

“It would just be wonderful if people came to the Copernicus Center, parked their car, went to two or three of the neighborhood restaurants here, had dinner and came back to a show,” Kobelinski said. “That’s what’s going to revitalize the neighborhood.”

Smillie reflected on the positive changes that she has experienced in the Jefferson Park neighborhood, including Alderman Arena’s ‘re-engineering’ of Jeff Fest, an annual summer festival of food, art and music that takes place in downtown Jefferson Park.

Offering her appreciation of Alderman Arena’s efforts, Smillie said, “I am very personally grateful to the alderman for giving me a chance and giving the community a chance to come back to life in full color.”

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Jefferson Park, includes a public pool, tennis courts, basketball courts, a field house and a playground.