January 1994 - The Chicago Reporter

Alderman Keep Firm 'Hold' on Bronzeville
By Ray Quintanilla

An ambitious plan to restore "Bronzeville"—a historic neighborhood on Chicago's South Side—will begin circulating among developers this month. But long before the project's blueprint was completed in September, local aldermen, community groups and the Daley administration began reserving blocks of city-owned property in the area. About 85 percent of this land cannot be sold without their approval.

The city created the plan over the last two years with help from the Mid-South Planning and Development Commission, a coalition of neighborhood community groups representing 3,000 residents.

Its centerpiece: a revived black commercial and entertainment district designed to attract black tourists, create jobs and improve housing. Supporters call it the most comprehensive redevelopment effort ever proposed for the South Side.

"We have come up with a plan to improve the neighborhood while not getting rid of the people who are already here," said Harold L. Lucas, a member of the Mid-South Commission. "That's a new type of thinking in this city," he said.

The mayor is expected to formally unveil the plan this month. But city officials won't discuss whether they'll offer public funds for the project and supporters have yet to find private investors.

Even some black entrepreneurs have their doubts.

"I can't see how it will work," said Dempsey J. Travis, a prominent black real estate developer. "Who wants to look at a historic building on Martin Luther King Drive, marvel at it, and then get shot?"

On Hold
Bronzeville, in the Douglas and Grand Boulevard neighborhoods, runs south from 35th to 51st streets, and east from State Street to Cottage Grove Avenue. The Mid-South plan also includes two smaller sections of land between 22nd and 35th streets. About a quarter of the land is vacant, according to the Mid-South Commission. One in three housing units is owned by the Chicago Housing Authority.

The city owns 756 parcels of land in

Bronzeville. Of those, 450 properties have been put on "hold" by the local aldermen-Madeline Haithcock (2nd), Dorothy Tillman (3rd) and Toni Preckwinkle (4th). City departments have holds on 184 properties.

Typically, the city acquires land after it becomes tax delinquent and then sells it to recover the costs of demolition. Aldermen often use holds to prevent the city from selling land to developers they deem undesirable.

The three aldermen are responsible for 72.8 percent of all the aldermanic holds in the city. But their wards account for less than 20 percent of all city-owned land.

Large scale property holds are unusual and give aldermen powerful leverage in their wards, said Ald. Ambrosio Medrano (25th), who chairs the City Council's Committee on Housing and Real Estate.

"It's one of the aldermen's privileges," Medrano said. "Most of the time there's some type of arrangement reached" before the alderman releases a hold and clears it for sale, he added.

The aldermen and community groups say they're protecting the land, but they won't say from whom or what.

Tillman has put 117 parcels of land on hold in the Bronzeville area, city records show. She disputes the figure, but adds that she's guarding against a "land grab" by real estate speculators. She resents that other city officials have placed holds on land in her ward at the request of the Mid-South group, Tillman said.

"Those holds are coming off," Tillman said. "I'm going to see to that because it's just disrespectful. If some community group can get land put on hold then anybody should be able to do it, too," she added.

Tillman said she doesn't want to be a part of another redevelopment plan that gets shelved. "I'm about action," she said.

Preckwinkle justifies her 211 holds in Bronzeville as a way to ensure jobs for her constituents when construction begins. "I'm looking for developers who are interested in hiring people from the neighborhood in their project and employing them once it's complete," she said.

Both Tillman and Preckwinkle concede that developers are not knocking down their doors to buy the land in the Bronzeville area.

Haithcock, who did not return phone calls, placed 122 properties on hold.

Several Chicago aldermen have gone to jail for "taking bribes for zoning changes," said former Ald. Dick Simpson (44th), a professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The use of holds also has potential for corruption, he added.

Former Ald. Clifford P. Kelley (20th) said the neighborhood will continue to be poor if aldermen and community groups hold out for large projects that may never materialize. Small businesses that want to expand should be given access to city land, he said.

Kelley said neighborhood entrepreneurs are likely to spark any early development. "So much depends on (whether) the alderman acts as an advocate for development. Their involvement could be something positive, or it could be very questionable," he added. Kelley, currently a radio talk show host, pled guilty in 1987 to accepting $19,000 from two companies with city contracts.

And Simpson noted: "(Holds) are done when an alderman wants to decide what's done with the property. It's more difficult to determine what the alderman wants."

City departments have placed another 184 parcels on hold in the area that is targeted for redevelopment.

The property has potential for commercial development, said Pat Dowell-Cerasoli, a deputy commissioner in the Department of Planning and Development.

"At the moment we don't have a specific project in mind, but it's there for use," she said.

While Preckwinkle said some of her holds in Bronzeville were at the city's request, Dowell-Cerasoli said her department wouldn't have any reason to do that.

Preckwinkle acknowledged she's also holding property for the Mid-South Commission.

Last summer, two organizations in the commission contributed a total of $400 to her campaign fund, election records show.

The donations came from Centers for New Horizons Inc. and Ahkenaton Community Development Corp., both charitable organizations.

Non-profit agencies can lose their tax exemptions by making political contributions, said Robert Wendel, division chief for tax-exempt organizations with the Internal Revenue Service.

"I was not aware we were doing it out of our organizational funds. They were tickets to some kind of boat ride," said Sokoni Karanja, president of New Horizons, which had a 1993 budget of $6 million.

Angelo Rose, Ahkenaton's executive director and chair of the Mid-South group, said he wasn't aware the contributions were a violation of federal regulations. "In the history of movements, people support different kinds of causes," he said. Ahkenaton, a housing rehabilitation agency, has an annual budget of $250,000, said Karanja, who founded the organization eight years ago.

"It was their error and my inattention; I should have let them know" that the contributions were inappropriate, Preckwinkle said.

Some developers contend that political maneuvering may stifle private investment and keep the area from improving.

"If the cost of doing business there gets too high, then people will look elsewhere," said Philip Hickman, senior vice president of The Habitat Co., one of Chicago's largest developers.

"If you have general and flexible guidelines, then it's something that can be worked out. If not, developers may not have the same level of interest," he added.

A developer who is active on the South Side said local leaders should try to solve neighborhood problems to attract investors. "There are plenty of things that need fixing in the neighborhood to make it better," said Jerald I. Much, a Lincolnwood-based developer.

"There comes a point when things get so complicated you can't get it done," added J. Terrence Brunner, executive director of the Better Government Association. "It's not a great idea for aldermen to get involved in developing because some of them don't know much about it."

The history of the once vibrant area has been recorded in the stacks of demolition permits at City Hall.

The Binga State Bank, at 35th and State streets, was one of the country's first black-owned banks. It closed during the Great Depression and the building was torn down in 1954. The Regal Theatre at 47th Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive was demolished in 1973. Dozens of other businesses and jazz and blues clubs are either gone or in disrepair.

In the 1940s and 1950s, entire blocks were cleared to make way for the Stateway Gardens, Robert Taylor Homes and Ida B. Wells public housing developments.

"For years the area has been considered a dumping ground for public housing," Much said. "The area's got bad public perception problems."

Crime may be the worst problem of all. In 1992, the 2nd Police District, which includes Grand Boulevard, ranked above the city average in reported major crimes with 69 murders, 260 sexual assaults and 2,498 robberies. The 21st District, which includes Douglas, fell just below the city average, with 27 homicides, 121 sexual assaults and 1,304 robberies.

Yet, not since the neighborhood's glory days have so many residents and city officials talked about jobs, new housing and redevelopment. It's an example of what community groups can do when they start cooperating with each other, Karanja said.

Last summer, community groups representing 3,000 neighborhood residents helped the Mid-South Commission shape the plan, Karanja said. Their dream, "Restoring Bronzeville," is detailed in a $152,000 land use and economic development plan. The money came from a $271,000 grant from the Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation to the city of Chicago. The remainder may be spent on marketing the plan, city officials said.

They hope to create a marketplace of African goods, a job skills training center, as many as 45 new homes per block, a 20,000-seat stadium, a 400-room hotel near McCormick Place, and jazz and blues entertainment districts.

"What we've realized is there's a long list of developments beginning to occur on the north end of this community and we ought to be concerned about what our community should look like," Karanja said.

The surrounding area is enjoying over $1 billion in improvements. The $987 million McCormick Place expansion and renovation is underway and scheduled for completion in 1997. Central Station and Dearborn Park, two luxury apartment complexes, have opened and expanded. The new Comiskey Park was erected in 1991 at a cost of $135 million.

The plan's backers hope to siphon off some of the estimated 13 million visitors who come to the South Side annually for museums, baseball games, McCormick Place conventions and other attractions.

Tourism can address some of the problems that have stymied past efforts to renew the South Side, said James Capraro, executive director of the Greater Southwest Development Corp.

"If you build an export company based on cultural and ethnic products, it's kind of hard to remove those people," he said. "Chinatown won't thrive if there aren't Chinese people there. That's how shopping centers work. Small entrepreneurs can catch the spillover."

While Mid-South's leaders continue their efforts, Ald. Tillman is busy drumming up backing for her project, the proposed Lou Rawls Theatre, at 47th Street and King Drive.

She's promoting the efforts of Tobacco Road Ltd., a non-profit organization Tillman helped create last year to oversee the Lou Rawls project. Tillman said Rawls has pledged to help raise money for the project, which also will include a roller skating rink, museum, restaurant and library.

Tillman's 17-year-old son, Bemaji Amen Tillman, sits on Tobacco Road's board. "He plays five instruments and he's talented," Tillman said. "We felt it would be good to have a young black male on the board along with some other community folks," she added.

Cash Poor
The biggest obstacle facing the Mid-South plan is money.

The Mid-South group is considering asking the city to sell bonds to raise some of the money, Lucas said.

"The city has been a facilitator for other projects in Chicago. What's needed here is some package of resources, from community development block grants, to money from a bond issue," he said.

He estimated the area will need $1 billion over the next five years.

The city's response? "We'll look at the projects on a case-by-case basis before we decide what kinds of commitments the city will make," said Dowell-Cerasoli of the Planning Department.

She added that the city has pledged $2.8 million to refurbish The Chicago Bee Building at 3647 S. State St., and $2 million for street improvements on King Drive between 22nd and 35th streets.

Mid-South's Rose said he's already begun to pitch the redevelopment plan to investors, but he won't name them. Karanja said he'll be contacting Chicago's major black entrepreneurs.

"This whole (redevelopment) thing will be difficult," Karanja said.

"We'll need someone to help sell our idea. That's what the guy at Central Station did when he started. I heard businessmen laugh about it, but they ain't laughing now because it's looked at as a success," he said.

Mid-South's success could rest on dollars from white investors as well as government funds.

Karanja said he's encouraged by a new $54.6 million community lending strategy adopted by Detroit-based OmniBanc Corp. The bank promised to lend in the South Side neighborhood to help clear its purchase of Drexel National and Independence banks. The money will be available for mortgages and business loans.

Mid-South's leaders said they are determined to succeed. "We are doing this because we know the community has to change," Karanja said. "It cannot survive in its present condition."

Contributing: Judith Zimmer
Interns Barbara Feder, Sean D. Hamill and La Risa Lynch helped research this article.