Debate Over Future of Wilson Yard Continues in Uptown

Nov. 6, 2008

Story by Zach Wilmes

Gentrification affects different neighborhoods in different ways, and Uptown’s experience is certainly unique.  While many residents around Chicago watch their cost of living increase as public housing is demolished to make way for luxury developments, Uptown is embracing a different strategy.

Wilson Yard, the large piece of vacant land on Broadway that sits between Montrose and Wilson, will combine low-income housing with senior living and a sizeable commercial space that will house a Target and several other stores.  But not everyone’s happy.

The proposal has drawn criticism from many in the community who feel that Uptown is taking on too big a burden by taking in many of Chicago’s displaced, often people forced out of public housing projects like Cabrini Green.

“It sucks it all gets dumped on Uptown,” said Nikki Parks, a waitress who has lived across from Wilson Yard for three years.  Parks says Uptown is no longer as dangerous as it used to be, but it still has its problems.  And while reaching out to less fortunate citizens is commendable, she says, it isn’t likely to improve the area.  Adding another low-income development to an area that already has several is not the way to go about it, she said.  “It doesn’t work when it’s concentrated — it’s still segregation,” Parks said.

But Yvonne Odell, assistant to Ald. Helen Shiller (46th), disagrees.

“It’s not going to be the Friendly Towers or some halfway house,” said Odell. “It’s not subsidized housing.”  Odell said that people get the idea that because some of the development is reserved for low-income residents, the neighborhood will deteriorate.  By saying that, “You’re scaring people into thinking that crime is going to come to the neighborhood,” she said.

In a press release, Shiller wrote, “The housing at Wilson Yard is not public housing.  It is not high-rise housing.  And it bears no resemblance to the high-rise housing that has been torn down by the [Chicago Housing Authority].”

But Parks isn’t so sure.  Parks said she’s noticed an increase in petty crime since she moved to Uptown.  Things like tires being slashed on the street in front of her apartment, and even the occasional gunshot, make her wonder whether the development can change that.

But Cory Muldoon, a senior organizer for the 33-year-old Uptown activist group Organization of the North East, is excited about the project and optimistic about the future of Uptown.  Muldoon said the housing will be a step up for many, and the employment opportunities will benefit the community, not just by increasing revenue, but also by providing jobs for Uptown residents who need them.

The project, according to the alderman’s office, will include 26,000 square feet of retail space along Broadway in addition to the Target store.  The housing will include a senior center and two eight-story buildings that will contain 178 units for lower income renters.  In accordance with a Chicago human rights ordinance that protects renters from discrimination based on income, tenants will be able to use Section 8 housing vouchers.

Calls about construction plans to the project developer, Holsten Development, were not returned for comment.

Odell said that mixed income housing is the future of the neighborhood.  “The housing we’ve seen come in has been condos and the city has lost more rental housing than it’s gained,” she said.  A reversal of this trend will secure the diversity of the community and help its residents achieve financial stability, she said.

Still, the neighborhood remains divided over the project.  Community activist groups like Fix Wilson Yard have held events to raise awareness about the development and encourage action against it.   And websites like Uptown Update have become forums for disgruntled residents.  The Uptown Blogger, who runs the Uptown Update Web site in anonymity, said that Shiller tends to look out for her own interests rather than those of the community, and the Wilson Yard development is just another example.

“It’s been used as a lightening rod to create division in the community,” Muldoon said.  But now that it’s being built, he said he hopes it will strengthen the neighborhood.  Part of the problem, he said, is that people are not informed about the development.  “It’s fascinating that people are unsure about it,” he said.  “I think it’s a huge victory.”