If the UIC Campus had been built at Garfield Park (Oak Park: employment, transfer)

[marothisu]

Speaking of development on the west side, I just discovered plans to possibly go through with the redevelopment of the old Sears HQ in North Lawndale into 800-1200 affordable and market rate apartments, condos, and townhomes, next to Homan Square. The Tribune wrote about it in 2005, but a massive building permit was issued the other day for one of the buildings to convert a 6 story building formerly part of the old HQ campus into 181 apartments a few blocks south of the Kedzie-Homan Blue Line stop. Very interesting...

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by treemoni

Valley Project 1971 - a set on Flickr

Amazing pics. These remind me of the set of amazing pics from the south side (mainly Bronzeville area) that are out there from the 1970s for their quality and what they capture. Really cool.

Originally Posted by treemoni

I know everyone here is posting from gated communities, but if you ask me, the pictures above are pretty damn cool.

Stop with the ****. I'd wager a lot of money that exactly 0 people on this sub forum live in a gated community.

[nightlysparrow]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Little Italy wouldn't have been 75% ruined...I honestly can't believe they got rid of most of Little Italy for that.

Originally Posted by jonnynonos

Most of the elite mobsters themselves had moved to the suburbs by then, but I'm sure Taylor Street and the surrounding area was still a hotbed for a lot of things.

The area when the U was built was mostly all Hispanic and Black by then, not Italian. And the Taylor St./Maxwell St. area was the filthiest, worst-looking slum I have ever seen in the US to this day. The area was a wreck, and the buildings were cut-rate cheap immigrant "projects" when they were new in the 1880's. Just because something is old does not qualify it as "historic."

[Irishtom29]

Originally Posted by nightlysparrow

The area when the U was built was mostly all Hispanic and Black by then, not Italian. And the Taylor St./Maxwell St. area was the filthiest, worst-looking slum I have ever seen in the US to this day. The area was a wreck, and the buildings were cut-rate cheap immigrant "projects" when they were new in the 1880's. Just because something is old does not qualify it as "historic."

The neighborhoods torn down were still heavily Italian and Greek. I went to Iggy's at the time and watched the neighborhood being torn down from the classrooms, I was somewhat familiar with the neighborhood. And Mrs. Scala was in the papers often and I followed the political struggle to preserve the neighborhood.

Maxwell St. was a different world than Taylor St. and Greektown, much changed south of 12th St. I used to go down to Maxwell St. often, my father went down there almost every weekend and HIS father did lots of business there. In the 20s and 30s he did business with a black guy down there who spoke Irish Gaelic.

Greasers used to go down to Maxwell to buy Cabrettas, baggies and army boots and Gousters went down for their zip-deck pants and Stacey Adams shoes.


My father's Communion suit came from Maxwell St., a generation later, our family having moved up in the world, mine came from Madigan's at Madison and Crawford.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Ace Rothstein

I've heard that UIUC almost ended up in Kankakee originally but have never been able to verify it. While Kankakee is currently a joke, both it and Chicago would have been better off with the state flagship school just 55 miles from downtown.

I'm not sure how the flagship university being just 55 miles from downtown would have been of much benefit to Chicago. It sure hasn't helped Detroit any, and I don't see that it makes a significant difference to Milwaukee or Indianapolis either.

Undoubtedly the south suburbs would be significantly more developed than they are now but I don't know how that would have helped Chicago.

[North Side Brandon]

West Garfield Park emptied out almost Immediately after 1961 when the University at the behest of Mayor Daley choose the Halsted-Harrison site for the campus. By 1965 the Neighborhood was just gone and South Austin was starting to change. By 1969 everything South of Lake Street all the way to Austin Blvd had changed. Think about it from 3800 W Hamlin to 6000 W and from Harrison Street 600 S to Lake Street rougly 3 S it changed in less than 10 years! Then in the 70's it was finished off from Lake Street to the tracks North of North Avenue No doubt the riots played a big role but West Side Community were worried even in the late 50's seeing North Lawndale and East Garfield Park go so fast. In about 30 years an entire region of Chicago just totally emptied out. My Great Aunt and Uncle native West Siders now in their 70's still have a hard time wrapping their hands around it all.

[marothisu]

I see a new 42,000 sq ft community center is being built near the Kedzie metra stop (Kedzie and Carroll) in East Garfield Park. Pretty cool..

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Stop with the ****. I'd wager a lot of money that exactly 0 people on this sub forum live in a gated community.

The gates we put up are financial. It's alway amazing to me that a standard Chicago bungalow can cost anywhere from $50,000 to $900,000 within a few miles distance in Chicagoland.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by North Side Brandon

West Garfield Park emptied out almost Immediately after 1961 when the University at the behest of Mayor Daley choose the Halsted-Harrison site for the campus. By 1965 the Neighborhood was just gone and South Austin was starting to change. By 1969 everything South of Lake Street all the way to Austin Blvd had changed. Think about it from 3800 W Hamlin to 6000 W and from Harrison Street 600 S to Lake Street rougly 3 S it changed in less than 10 years! Then in the 70's it was finished off from Lake Street to the tracks North of North Avenue No doubt the riots played a big role but West Side Community were worried even in the late 50's seeing North Lawndale and East Garfield Park go so fast. In about 30 years an entire region of Chicago just totally emptied out. My Great Aunt and Uncle native West Siders now in their 70's still have a hard time wrapping their hands around it all.

This is an interesting exercise. But given the time frame we're talking about here, my gut tells me it's entirely possible that UIC didn't want to be in West Garfield Park, because of fears of continued white flight. Sure, it would have been grand for the west side if it had worked, but had the area continued to experience white flight (the pattern of which was very clear by 1961), the new UIC would have been completely surrounded by 'hood. Not sure those in charge at UIC would have wanted to take that kind of chance.

[jonnynonos]

Originally Posted by nightlysparrow

The area when the U was built was mostly all Hispanic and Black by then, not Italian. And the Taylor St./Maxwell St. area was the filthiest, worst-looking slum I have ever seen in the US to this day. The area was a wreck, and the buildings were cut-rate cheap immigrant "projects" when they were new in the 1880's. Just because something is old does not qualify it as "historic."

Doesn't surprise me but I know for a fact there was still a great deal of mob activity, whatever the proportion of Italians was. There are still some Italians over there. Not many, but some.