“We need to work with businesses to grow and create jobs,” said Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. of the West Loop and Near-North Side neighborhoods. “But in order for these businesses to do well, we need more access for both employees and potential customers.”

In a recent victory, and part of the Chicago Housing Authority’s ongoing Reconnecting Neighborhoods Program, the Chicago Transit Authority has approved a new stop on the Green Line at Lake and Morgan streets. However, the $38 million stop won’t be open for another two years, and many still see the need for more.

“The area needs transit, transit brings retail, retail brings people,” said Mandy Burrell Booth, assistant communications director at the Metropolitan Planning Council, a nonprofit organization partnered with the CHA whose key recommendation was to build the new Green Line “L” stop. “Communities thrive at transit stops.”

“Lake Street is the lifeline of the 27th Ward,” said Reggie Stewart, infrastructure specialist for Ald. Burnett’s office. “But right now there is no bus or ‘L’ to easily get to businesses there. And what we do have is too few and far between.”

There are an estimated 30,000 employees and 2,000 businesses spanning the Kinzie Industrial Corridor and the Fulton Market area in the 27th Ward.

However, with only one bus stop between the 800 and 1600 West blocks on Lake Street, and the nearest “L” stop over a mile away, access to these areas remains an issue. Public parking is also not a popular option as it is limited and can cost up to $24 per day.

What community leaders want to see are two more “L” stops, one at Damen and Lake, and one at Western and Lake, said Stewart.

The goal is to increase jobs and sales of businesses already in the area as well as attract new business. But economic development will remain stalled without transit feeding into the industrial corridor where jobs and employers currently are, said Stewart.

“The Kinzie Industrial Corridor is a central area to economic development,” said Steve DeBreppo, director of the Industrial Council of Nearwest Chicago, an employee-driven organization that advocates for local business with city and state officials.

DeBreppo said the potential for both businesses and clients to get back and forth to the area could be a huge factor in the community’s economic success.

“We’re close to the Loop,” said DeBreppo of the neighborhood’s ability to attract new business. “Business owners and customers could avoid paying the kind of prices that are just eight to 10 blocks to the east.”

One person who agrees with DeBreppo is Michael Keara, a 40-year-old West Loop resident new to Chicago who is looking to open a new tapas-style restaurant in the area, but is concerned over cost and accessibility.

“I would love to open my business here,” said Keara of the reasonable lease prices, which range from $14 to $20 per square foot in the neighborhood, 80 percent less expensive than those one mile east. “But when I jump on the train at Clark, and when I get off at the next stop at Clybourn, there are no people there, no retail, it concerns me.”

The Industrial Council of Nearwest Chicago and the CTA are currently applying to the federal government for more grants to increase transit stops on the Green Line, but the wait could be a long one.

“It might not happen quick,” said DeBeppo. “But we got one stop in the works, and we’ll keep pushing for more options.”

But for the owners of four stores who have for years made their living under the tracks, the renovation is not great news. Those four businesses will be forced to close, including Lakeview Foods, the oldest running business to operate at the Wilson station.

Michael Stempien, who inherited Lakeview Foods from his father, is taking the closing of his store — the loss of his livelihood and his family’s legacy — to heart.

The store had been operating for 25 years with a month-to-month lease from the CTA, Stempien said, when he was notified of the renovations in February.

The CTA said in an e-mail that it wanted to upgrade the Wilson station to beautify the neighborhood and better serve customers. The CTA worked with Ald. Helen Schiller (46th) to get $3 million in tax increment financing for the renovation.

Stempien said he pleaded with the CTA to keep his store, but to no avail; he was given 30 days’ notice to move his business. He won’t be able to open a new store due to losses he’s currently taking with his inventory, he said.

“I’m not going to have money to open a new store. We’ve taken a hit on all the inventory we have, because we’re selling it for less than what we bought it for,” said Stempien.

Stempien has begun selling his products at buy-one, get-one -free prices, and fears that he will have to throw away most of his unsold merchandise. And he has been trying to sell his equipment from the store on Craigslist.

“Hoping for the best and expecting the worst. There’s nothing we can do,” he said. “I just got dealt a bad hand. It sucks, but it’s legal.”

Other stores affected by the renovation, according to Stempien, are Popeye’s, The Wilson-Broadway Mall and Americana Submarine & Grill.

The Wilson-Broadway Mall, which also operated on a month-to-month lease, will relocate across the street from the Wilson station.

“We actually found a place across the street. We got lucky,” said My Linh Lee, who works at the Wilson-Broadway mall. Lee said her store also tried to protest the closure and were told they had to move out.

Lee pointed to the outcome of other stores and their sad departures. “It’s unfortunate for everybody else. They’ve been here for so long and they have to move out. Lakeview [Foods] has been there forever, since I was little,” said Lee.

Asif Poonja, owner of the Popeye’s restaurant at Wilson and Broadway, took out a $500,000 loan to renovate his restaurant; now, he says, it’s a wasted effort.

“All of my furniture will be gone. There’s not much I can say without [the CTA] getting mad. There’s no way we can get reimbursed,” said Poonja.

Stempien thought his relationship with the CTA was good enough to avoid closure. “I would think that 25 years of having a business relationship would’ve gotten me more than a 30 days’ notice,” said Stempien.

After the renovation, the stores will have to re-bid for their former locations.

“When the project is done in over a year, we’re not guaranteed this spot back,” Stempien said.

The reviews and ratings help you figure out which one will give you the kind of information you need to get around. How about giving one of these apps as a holiday gift? If someone uses it to get around and save time or energy, it’s a little green for the holidays, right?

Chicagoland bikers can choose from Ride the City (4 stars), Bike Your Drive (2 stars) with its attempt track your bike mileage in terms of C02 offsets, or EveryTrail (2 stars.)

The site has a larger agenda, and that is to encourage government agencies to open up public data to the public in order to make public transit more convenient. The more convenient public transit is, the more we will all use it, thus conserving energy and curbing CO2. The site is supported by a Rockefeller Foundation grant, which is deliciously ironic because it was John D. Rockefeller who transformed oil into “black gold.”

According to the site, “lack of open data is the biggest barrier to software innovation. One of City-Go-Round’s goals is to make all public transit data public. To do this, we show the benefit of providing open data (innovative apps built on top of that data) and also provide a list of agencies who haven’t yet opened their data.”

They match two public transportation databases to identify which agencies do and don’t provide open data. And if you work for a transit agency, they tell you how to make sure the data from your organization is open.

See a sample for zipcode 60605.