September 30, 2005
Rising Values
He was certain once he saw the horses, rabbits and dogs. It was
25 years ago that Larry Burns and his wife, Pat, decided they wanted
to buy property in the neighborhood where Burns and his family grew
up as renters---near the Cabrini-Green public housing development.
They looked at an eight-unit apartment building at 1031 N. Orleans
St. that fronts Cabrini-Green's landmark red buildings. It was home
to squatters and going into foreclosure, said Burns, 73, who is
African American. The couple tried to buy the property for $45,000
in 1980, but no lender would give them a loan. "What they didn't
want to say was it was too close to Cabrini," said Pat, 63,
who is white. To most, the area was risky, but Larry Burns thought
otherwise. "Everybody who lived here knew it would be a prime
location," he said.
As the Chicago Housing Authority has closed or demolished Cabrini-Green
high-rises, Burns' prediction has come true. Sights not seen in
the neighborhood before are now commonplace. The Chicago Tribune,
which used to be a hassle to get delivered, now appears on his doorstep
every morning. He can also see white horses draw stately white carriages,
hungry rabbits nibble on bloomed summertime flowers and trendy canines
pull their owners down the neighborhood's streets. "Once you
see the dogs coming in, then you know the neighborhood is gone,"
Burns said. "I don't know if it's going to get better. It's
going to happen. It's a flow. It's like when the pioneers came to
the West and moved the [American] Indians out."
The neighborhood surrounding Cabrini-Green has gone through a dramatic
metamorphosis, fashioning it into one of the city's fastest-growing
and most-attractive neighborhoods. The racial pendulum there has
swung from black to white. Property has transferred from poor renters
to middle- and upper-class homeowners. And developers have transformed
blighted property and vacant lots into luxury condominiums and well-known
retail outlets.
To a much lesser extent, similar changes are occurring around other
developments slated for change as part of the CHA's ballyhooed 10-year,
$1.5 billion plan to demolish public housing high-rises and replace
them with mixed-income properties, now in its sixth year.
The Chicago Reporter analyzed residential property transactions,
dating back to 1995, within two blocks of the Cabrini-Green, Henry
Horner, Madden Park, Rockwell Gardens, Stateway Gardens, Robert
Taylor and Ida B. Wells developments---all of which are included
in the CHA's plan. The Reporter also analyzed Census 2000 figures
and home mortgage lending data for census tracts that include the
two-block radius around these developments. The Reporter found:
* Residential property sales within two blocks of the developments
reached a combined total of more than $2 billion;
* Most of the real-estate activity, nearly $1.6 billion, occurred
since 2000, the year the CHA launched its plan;
* Property values in these neighborhoods have escalated quickly,
in some cases, doubling within weeks;
* While nearly 74 percent of residents in the neighborhoods were
black in 2000, nearly 66 percent of new homeowners have been white
since then;
* About 25 percent of the neighborhoods' households earned more
than $50,000 a year in 1999, compared with 82 percent of those who've
bought homes there since.
By far, the most dramatic shifts have occurred near Cabrini-Green,
where nearly $1 billion in residential property has been sold since
2000. It was no surprise that Cabrini-Green's proximity to the Magnificent
Mile and opulent Gold Coast would garner interest as public housing
buildings there were torn down---it just had not been clear how
much.
Since Jan. 1, 2004, residential property sales within two blocks
of Cabrini-Green exceeded the sum for a six-square-mile section
of the South Side---nearly $281 million sold near Cabrini-Green
compared to a combined $272 million in Fuller Park, New City, and
portions of Gage Park, Grand Boulevard and Washington Park.
"It hasn't happened overnight," said developer Dan McLean,
whose MCL Companies has developed land near Cabrini-Green. "It's
been going on 10 years now, and it would've gone a lot faster if
the CHA had torn down the buildings."
But the change is happening fast enough for Larry Burns and other
longtime residents who rebuff the names of the neighborhood's many
new developments---like North Town Village---for the area's more
familiar incarnation---the Near North Side.
For decades, the area had been an intimate refuge to many black
renters and distinct pockets of black homeowners along Blackhawk,
Orleans and Mohawk streets. Back then, relationships were developed
through conversations drawn from plastic chairs on front stoops,
cutting stations at the local barber shop, rectangular tables at
the Italian-owned pool halls or basketball leagues at a nearby church.
People were known by their family name, preceded by a courtesy
title. Others were identified by some prominence, occupation or
description of their property. The guy who won NBC5's Thomas Jefferson
Award for public service---that's Corwin Marbly. The black father-and-son
architect team is Charles and Eben Smith. The 80-something who's
a bit hard of hearing and lives next to the fire station---now,
that's Mr. Booker.
Black residents have trickled out of the neighborhood over time
to the South and West sides, though several---who call themselves
the "Northsiders"---remain connected through monthly meetings
at Captain's Hard Time Diner on the South Side.
Those who've remained in the neighborhood, like Burns, try to acclimate
to their more distant new neighbors and ballooning home equity.
But they eye the changes with skepticism, questioning how long they'll
be able to participate. Burdensome property taxes alone have forced
some away.
Burns bought his Orleans Street property in 1980 for $45,000. It
is now appraised at around $1.5 million. Last year, the retired
Chicago firefighter was billed more than $27,000, much weightier
than the $11,000 he once paid. "If I didn't have this building,
I wouldn't be able to afford to stay over here because it's just
too expensive," Burns said. "That was one of the reasons
a lot of people sold."
Some decried the CHA's massive effort---dubbed the "Plan for
Transformation"---and predicted it would set off a land grab
among investors, transforming entire neighborhoods.
And now that the CHA is more than halfway through its 10-year plan,
critics say their forecasting was warranted. They point to escalating
real-estate activity as proof that, ultimately, poor residents are
being displaced in favor of wealthier homeowners. "It confirms
our theory," said Harold L. Lucas, president and chief executive
officer of the Black Metropolis Convention and Tourism Council.
"There are not going to be poor areas [in the new mixed-income
communities] because the people will be removed. The land will turn
over."
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Rapid Change
By Amy Rainey and Whitney Woodward (The
Chicago Reporter)
Through the large windows of Tanisha Woodson-Shelby’s bright
yellow living room, she can see Precious Blood Catholic Church,
where her father was baptized. Down the street is his old elementary
school. And a few blocks to the north is the Rockwell Gardens public
housing development where he grew up 40 years ago.
Woodson-Shelby liked the idea of moving into her father’s
old Near West Side community. She sees it as a mark of progress
to cycle back into the revitalized neighborhood from which her father
worked his way out.
But Woodson-Shelby said she and her fiancé wouldn’t
have bought their condo in the 2400 block of West Lexington Street
if Rockwell Gardens wasn’t going to be demolished. “That
was one of the deciding factors---knowing that the [Chicago Housing
Authority] housing was coming down,” said Woodson-Shelby,
30, an African American. “I don’t mind being around
poor people. I just don’t want it to be all poor people. I
want it to be integrated.”
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Neighborhood Transformations
By: The
Chicago Reporter
Since 2000, as the landscape of public housing changes,
the areas within two blocks of several developments have also changed
dramatically. Real estate transactions have skyrocketed and the
racial and economic mix of residents has shifted as public housing
and other longtime residents leave and more affluent newcomers settle
in new residential developments.
Note: Maps designate the areas analyzed by The Chicago Reporter.
The shaded areas designate the boundaries of public housing developments.
These boundaries may not include all of the developments’
buildings. "Transactions" data reflects all residential
property transactions. Figures for "residents" represent
1999 household incomes, and racial and ethnic backgrounds for residents
counted in the 2000 census, in census tracts including and surrounding
public housing. Figures for "homeowners" represent annual
incomes of individuals who received owner-occupied home mortgages
between 2000 and 2003, in census tracts including and surrounding
public housing.
Sources: Chicago Housing Authority, U.S. Census Bureau, Cook County
Recorder of Deeds, Crain’s Chicago Business, the Federal Financial
Institutions Examination Council; analyzed by The Chicago Reporter.
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reading the full story and view maps of changing face Chicago neighborhoods
where housing projects once stood...
~ All stories and lead photo courtesy of The
Chicago Reporter.
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