Now That's Some Kind of Urban Renewal

It wasn't so long ago that Chicago's Cabrini Green, the public housing project that ultimately morphed into a high-rise ghetto, was an area to be avoided. It was not unknown for a sniper to find a nice little perch in one of the buildings there and pick off cars or pedestrians passing by. I drove a friend to the Gold Coast area from the freeway a few times, and the direct route took us right along the southern border. He gave me the option of a roundabout way, but unless the sniper had been active in the previous couple of days, I'd just go straight there.

If you're not in Chicago but are of a certain age, you may have encountered Cabrini Green as the setting for the TV show Good Times. I can't say whether or not it was ever actually named as the Evans's residence, but the establishing shots the show used were all Cabrini.

Several years ago, however, the experiment of high-rise public housing was finally recognized as a failure, and the city of Chicago started tearing the project down and relocating the residents who lived there. At least, they said they were relocating them. At the very least, they evicted them so they weren't around anymore. I came across this report from six-and-a-half years ago announcing federal funds for remaking the area. Most of the buildings are gone now, and most of the residents have had to find housing elsewhere. Although this was intended to be a mixed-income area and a small percentage of new housing on the site was to be public housing, I'm not sure exactly how that's worked out.

Shockingly, although perhaps not given that the ghetto was surrounded by some of the most desirable real estate in the city, property values started going up almost as soon as the wrecking ball came into sight on the horizon. The latest thing I've heard is that the former Cabrini Green area is now becoming one of the hottest, most sought-after Chicago retail districts. An article earlier this week in Crain's Chicago Business identified stores just north of this real estate racking up sales of $400 per square foot, which it points out is "second only to North Michigan Avenue's Magnificent Mile." It sure beats a sniper pointing his gun out the window.

Intriguingly, given that people would drive blocks out of their way to avoid this area just a few years ago, city planners are starting to worry about retail outlets causing choked and overly congested traffic. I don't drive through there often, but as it stands, traffic is slow. If you start adding more and more retail to draw people in, there's no question that it will soon become overcrowded. Once that happens, it becomes more trouble than it's worth to shop there. And people stop coming. And stores start closing. And the pendulum starts swinging back.