The Death and Life of Great Jefferson Park

In 1889, the town of Jefferson was annexed into the city of Chicago.  This was the beginning of a tale of rapid urbanization for the Northwest Side, as droves of people from the core of the city moved into the area.  Settlement was further punctuated with multiple waves of immigrants, who made their homes here, worked here, and patronized a wide range of businesses to serve all their needs.  The street cars arrived after the turn of the 20^th century, enabling further growth and development.  Throughout most of the last century, the area prospered and was the perfect image of a thriving urban neighborhood.  Storefronts were fully occupied and the sidewalks were brimming with pedestrians at all hours.  The old timers wax nostalgic over the memories of meeting neighbors on the street as they sauntered to Anne’s Department Store in “downtown Jefferson Park.”

Today, residents lament the blighted state of our main thoroughfares.  Storefronts stand unoccupied.  Sidewalks are empty.  Vacant lots line our main streets and are strewn with garbage.  A large postal distribution center now stands where the neighborhood department store once stood.  People can’t remember the last time they greeted a neighbor on Milwaukee Avenue. While we cannot bring back the past, we can certainly hold ourselves to the tenets of yesteryear.  As we move into the future, many people in the community long to recreate the neighborhood that once supported a bustling business district.  Recently, a development plan has surfaced that purports to help the neighborhood spring back to life again – the construction of a multiple story parking structure on the old Cowhey site, the empty lot immediately south of the Jefferson Park Terminal.

While the architectural renderings have been released, the details are nebulous.  How will parking spaces be allocated?  What will they cost?  What retailers are interested in this site?   Since the community is starved for momentum, critical eyes are seemingly averted, calling those who question the project “anti-development.” The community needs to realize the poignant need to make an informed evaluation. What is this parking structure going to bring to the area?  The plan calls for inclusion of retail establishments, but nothing definitive regarding interested tenants has been presented to the general public.  Additionally, what is the potential size of this building?  Although the developers purport that it will “only” reach 7 stories, the current request is for B3-5 zoning.  This large zoning height is extremely atypical for anything within miles of this neighborhood.  For a point of reference, the Veteran’s Square Tower just west of the site is zoned B3-3, which enables less height than a B3-5 designation.  Why would they request B3-5 zoning if they only needed 7 stories?  Once the zoning is secured, there is no guarantee that the community will have input if the developers want to add more height to the building.  Local citizens should probably understand the potential height of this structure before making any assessment.

“If you build it, they will come.”  This is some of the mantra associated with this recent proposition.  Undoubtedly, the area needs an infusion of energy.  However, the notion that a parking structure going to provide the area with a shot in the arm is dubious at best.  As a matter of fact, this is the kind of development that could be a detriment to an area already devoid of significant pedestrian traffic.  Yes, they will come.  Namely, the cars will come.  Since efforts to revive the business district have not been successful, it appears that developers would like to convince the community that we should have more cars driving into the neighborhood. 

The retail proposition is speculated to be the hook, but it seems difficult to believe that businesses would be enticed to set up shop.  Why would they find this spot more desirous than a spot along Milwaukee Avenue?  The argument is that the parking will bring people to the local retail establishments.  Businesses along our main avenues have open spots right in front of them today—why would more places to park enable more people to patronize the businesses?  Do people really find it difficult to park in Jefferson Park?  At any given time of the day, there are open spots all over the neighborhood.  The denizens of the community are active urbanites.  It is insulting to insinuate that we will not patronize businesses that don’t have a parking space three feet from the door.

As part of the fabric of the city of Chicago, we know that parking is not essential for business success.  Neighborhoods all over the city flourish without a parking facility in sight.  Just south of the intersection of Milwaukee and Montrose, visit some of the local watering holes and restaurants on a Friday or Saturday night.  Some of them are so packed that they are standing room only – with no parking.

No matter what those who have financial interests tell us, this is the reality:  this parking facility will mainly be used by transit commuters, period.  For anyone who doubts this, ride the Blue Line toward O’Hare on any weekday morning and note the throngs of people standing on the platforms at Cumberland or Rosemont, where there are commuter parking structures. These people are commuting to the Loop and most certainly are hard working individuals.  However, they have no vested interest in the neighborhood where they park their car.  People have vested interest in the communities where they live and / or work.  The only financial investments these commuters make before or after they get on the EL (or bus) is paying a few dollars to house two tons of metal. 

Attorneys for the project indicate that a medical office building and City Colleges of Chicago did not locate in the Jefferson Park area due to lack of parking.  It is not clear how expansive these facilities were going to be, but it seems odd that these organizations would be looking at sites in an urban area with an expectation that there would be a large parking facility available for their use upon arrival.  Even after the parking lot is built, they still may not come because there is no guarantee that the lot won’t be full with commuters.  Does the community believe that the developer would work with new businesses to entice them with parking spots unless there was some benefit that he stood to gain?  The answer is probably clear.

The biggest contribution that a large, multi-story parking structure will make to Jefferson Park is more motor vehicles and congestion.  This will further distance us from the pedestrian friendly utopia that we imagine for this community.  One of the few places where people walk on the sidewalks is in this area near the terminal – now these individuals will be contending with more curb cuts and garage door entrances.  Additionally, some non-resident drivers may not be as cautious as those who live in the area.   Everyone has seen cars perilously driving down Lawrence at 50 miles per hour and any resident who walks in the neighborhood can certainly tell multiple anecdotes about “near misses” at many intersections.

Jefferson Park has one of the largest mass transportation centers in the entire city of Chicago, and it has the only Metra stop that shares a station with an EL stop within the city limits.  This fact, coupled with spiraling gas prices, will potentially serve as an enticement for people to move to the neighborhood and help our residents emerge more quickly than others from the housing slump.  With arguably the second best mass transit system in the US (right in our back yard) and higher oil prices looming, it does not make good logical or economic sense to build a massive structure to house automobiles.

We need to be cognizant of the fact that this discussion has come to the forefront now because someone stands to make money.  To get everyone on board, propaganda has been hurled at the wearisome residents who just want some positive momentum in the community.  Understand that the biggest beneficiary of this site plan is the developer, and it comes entirely at the expense of our community.  We are only talking about this because our hands have been forced by a tentative “plan.”  The attorney for the development plan indicated that the parking would make it easier to lease the nearby office building.  It’s not apparent why the existing parking spaces (reserved for commuters) in office building cannot be used for this purpose.   Ironically, the developer created the Veteran’s Square building because of the excellent access to mass transit.  Now, years later, he indicates that the building requires a parking structure for the people who work there.  Someone who made such an egregious oversight in the plan for a centralized building should most likely be questioned about further local development. 

To discuss the Cowhey site is putting the cart before the horse; we need to talk about the master plan for revitalizing our stricken neighborhood.  Storefronts are empty all along the Milwaukee corridor and Lawrence Avenue looks like it has been bombed out – let’s talk about contextualizing and forming a master plan for a pedestrian friendly Chicago neighborhood, a true destination. With new leadership in the ward, there is no better time than now to change the stakes and stand up for what we deserve.  Let’s save the parking facilities for the suburbs, where they belong. 

Jane Jacobs would not have had it any other way.

Susanna Ernst Suerth

President and Co-Founder, Northwest Chicago Historical Society

Former President and Co-Founder, Jefferson Park Neighborhood Association