The Uptown Neighborhood Council staged a rally at Clarendon Park on Oct., 21, commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Wilson Yard fire and what the community groups calls "dead promises" to redevelop the five-acre site that has remained empty since a fire destroyed a CTA maintenance barn Oct. 26, 1996.
The group of concerned Uptown business owners and residents has been at odds with Ald. Helen Shiller's (46) plans to redevelop the site that they say has changed drastically since plans were first presented to the community in 2004. Original plans called for a Target store, 78 subsidized housing units and 99 senior suites, as well as a multi-screen movie theater that pulled out of the project last April.
Shiller wants the site used for stores, and for-low income and "affordable" housing. The UNC says plans to include moderate-income families are nowhere to be found in the latest Illinois Development Housing Authority's 2005-2006 Low Income Housing Tax Credits Reservations rent structure breakdowns.
"Wilson Yard plans continually change for the worse," UNC president Randy Lehner told 150 Uptown residents gathered at the rally.
"We're here to tell our current city leadership that this neighborhood will not tolerate the bad urban planning that's been saddled on Uptown for the past 10 years," Lehner said to the cheering crowd.
Waving signs reading "Wilson Yard -- Ten Years of Broken Promises" and "46th Ward -- 20 years of despair" and marching to a boom box blaring New Orleans jazz, protesters carried a casket past shuttered store fronts and the Wilson Yard site to the 46th ward office at 4544 N. Broadway.
While the 46th ward office is closed on Saturdays, protesters gathered in front and inserted handwritten "broken promises" into the casket, spelling out their frustrations and what they characterize as Shiller's attempts to shut out community input into the changed Wilson Yard plans.
"Let's not look at this as a death, but as a transition to a vibrant community," UNC member and rally organizer Katharine Boyda said.
The more than 1,200 members of the UNC as well as other community groups say they want to honor the original plans of affordable mixed-housing and a movie theater.
"Alderman Shiller asks me for money, but she doesn't want to hear what I have to say," said Susan Jendrezak, who lives in Buena Park.
"People should have a stake in the community. Low income people shouldn't have to rent all their lives. It perpetuates poverty," Jendrezak.
The Wilson Yard redevelopment project is part of a $50 million tax increment financing, TIF, district, which permits the city to acquire vacant land and make infrastructure improvements so that the area becomes productive again. Plans call for two, nine-story rental buildings to be located at 1036 W. Montrose Ave. and 4400-4428 N. Broadway. One of the buildings includes 99 one-bedroom, low-income senior rental apartments, and 78 units of 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom rental units in the other.
"Affordable" units in the family building have been described as suitable for families of four, earning 80 percent of the area median household income or up to $54,000. The "affordable" housing component has been touted by the alderman and other community groups, such as Organization of the North East, ONE, as suitable for families living on a "firefighter's" or "teacher's" salaries.
The latest IDHA rent structure breakdown for the Wilson Yard project includes 16 units in the family building for families of four earning 60 percent of the area median income. The remaining 62 units are being set aside for "very low income" or "extremely low income" renters.
Further, the IDHA 2005-2006 Low Income Housing Tax Credits Reservations dated Oct., 16, 2006, does not include rent breakdowns in the family building for moderate-income families.
"Basically, you're warehousing people who range from low income to extremely low income. When you bring in the mixed-income factor you see middle-class people living with people of limited economic means, it changes the dynamic. Instead of (low income residents) feeling a sense of opportunity, it creates a sense of loss and hopelessness," said Boyda.
A petition signed by more than 2,500 46th residents opposed to what they term as "100-percent subsidized rental housing in Wilson Yard," was submitted to Mayor Daley, IDHA, the Department of Planning and Development, Shiller and other members of the Chicago City Council in 2004 and 2005.
Ten Uptown block clubs also oppose the current housing plans. The Uptown Chicago Commission has also stated in a position paper that its first preference for Wilson Yard is "housing for ownership, including affordable home ownership."
Construction of the new Aldi's supermarket has already started at the Wilson Yard site, with plans to open in December, according to developer Peter Holsten's web site. Construction on the other pieces of the project, including a Target, ancillary retail and the residential buildings, is expected to start in 2007.
