On Southworks Site Redevelopment and Residents of South Chicago
Last week, South Side Weekly (a successor of Chicago Weekly, University of Chicago's alternative newspaper) did a piece about how the residents of South Chicago neighborhood are responding to the efforts to redevelop the site of U.S. Steel Southworks - the former site of the steel refinery that, until the early 1990s, was South Chicago's lifeblood.
I've written about the site before. I even went on the tour of it. And I've always been a bit weary of the redevelopment. As I've written before, in Chicago, neighborhoods that are located next to each other can be starkly different from each other. What McCaffery Interests is proposing - a whole bunch of mid/high-rises with stores, retail outlets, a harbor - seemed like something that could easily turn into its own, better off enclave that's as far apart from South Chicago as Hyde Park is from Washington Park..
The South Side Weekly article isn't particularly reassuring.
I strongly recommend that you read the whole thing. But to hit on some highlights... Back in October, the site saw the first real change in years - an extension of Lake Shore Drive, which was supposed to run through it, officially opened. During the opening ceremony, South Chicago residents protested, telling McCaffery Interests head Dan McCaffery that what the neighborhoods needs is jobs. Preferably manufacturing jobs. And when McCaffery tried to explain to them that the company would listen to their feedback, the residents pointed out that they submitted comments to McCaffery Interests before, and nobody seemed to listen.
The article author talked to project manager Nasutsa Mabwa, who talked about various says the project would benefit South Chicago
Mabwa listed the numerous things Lakeside will bring to the community, the new stretches of lakefront and parkland, the new retail and commercial outlets, the brand-new school, and thousands of new residential units. She discussed the potential for a new light rail line through the site, and possible connections with the University of Chicago, among them new student housing and a satellite campus,
And honestly, I'm not sure about any of that. Sure, more housing would help - but not if the current residents can't afford it. When I visited the site, Mabwa told me that some units will be affordable - but only as much as the city laws require (in Chicago, developers have to either make a certain percentage of the units they build affordable or give money to the city's affordable housing fund). The new retail and commercial outlets could give residents job opportunities - but not as much as manufacturing. And if those outlets are on the more high-end side, South Chicago residents wouldn't be able to afford to shop there.
Mabwa told me during the tour that the "brand-new school" is going to be a charter school, which is... let's just say it's a controversy waiting to happen.
The light rail idea is tricky. The Metra Electric Line's South Chicago branch already links the neighborhood to downtown Chicago and Hyde Park/University of Chicago, and it's located within walking distance of Southworks site. But getting from South Chicago Branch to Southworks requires people to walk 1-3 blocks (depending which part of Southworks you're trying to reach) though South Chicago.
If there's a separate light rail line running though Southworks and into downtown, let's say along the Lake Shore Drive, Southworks' new residents can easily avoid South Chicago altogether. Which goes back to the whole "separate community" thing.
As for the University of Chicago satellite campus... There's no denying that, in a lot of ways, UC has been good for Hyde Park. But over the last decade or so, it's been expanding into nearby Woodlawn, where it's earned the reputation for steamrolling over residents' concerns and needs. So I can see how, to many South Chicagoans, the prospect of UC coming near their neighborhood might not be altogether reassuring.
Later in the article, Mabwa talked about Southworks' recreational areas becoming a neighborhood attraction, similar to Lincoln Park in the eponymous neighborhood. Which would be pretty nice, actually - if the South Chicago residents feel welcome there.
But a few paragraphs later there's a passage that's quite telling.
On the southern end of the site, near the old ore wall that Mabwa says will be converted into a monument to US Steel workers in the old mill, local citizens were fishing on land that has been closed for five years. Some cast out their lines from the newly opened Park 523 at the end of 87th Street, which Alderman Pope hopes will be renamed Steel Workers Park. Others fished right off the concrete dock just beneath the ore wall.
Mabwa looked out the SUV window at them and expressed her excitement at the fact that people had already started using the reopened space for recreation.
On a Friday afternoon almost a month after the SUV ride through the site, after snow had started to fall, there were still people fishing from the makeshift pier created by the ore wall. A hired security guard, however, arrived to kick them off about halfway through the afternoon.
I hope that my concerns aren't justified. But when it comes to the interests of the lower-income residents of Chicago...you learn to be cynical.