UNC E-News, February 17, 2007
Wilson Yard--Good Urban Planning? Or Urban Nightmare?
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In the past two decades since Helen Shiller became the 46th ward alderman, she's been called many things... A smart urban planner is not one of them.
The Wilson Yard TIF project, located on one of the most desolate stretches of Broadway, has amplified how Helen Shiller keeps the 46th ward retail streets dark, empty and dangerous, while every ward bordering the 46th has developed thriving retail areas.
With the aldermanic election right around the corner, Helen Shiller has pulled out her campaign check book to bamboozle voters with a glossy Wilson Yard mailing that promises to beguile residents hungry for some decent retail shopping within the ward. The rendering shows an appealing tree-lined street with lots of brightly-lit store fronts, a Target store, plus an Aldi's with welcoming windows for shoppers.
What's really going into Wilson Yard? Not much right now besides the low income housing and Aldi's. No movie theaters. No small retailers have signed leases. And now it is extremely questionable whether Target will ever be a part of the development.
If the new Aldi's, which is currently under construction, is a sample of what's to come, the plan is in serious trouble and will only further depress the 46th ward's retail corridor. The glossy Wilson Yard rendering shows Aldi's with windows all along Broadway. What has actually been built is a solid 100-foot concrete and brick wall that closes off the interior of the store from Broadway, thus perpetuating the stark street environment that will be unwelcoming, forbidding and unsafe.
Compare this actual photo of the new Aldi fronting Broadway to the glossy campaign material sent to you by Helen Shiller. You will never know the truth about Wilson Yard if you continue to buy what Alderman Shiller has been selling you...
Once promised to be a "thriving mixed-use, mixed-income development", Wilson Yard has fallen prey to Helen Shiller's personal agenda. First to fall was the mixed-income housing that suddenly became 100% subsidized housing for extremely low to very low income residents. Helen Shiller has once again double-crossed low-income residents who were told they would be able to purchase their housing units after 15 years, thus giving them the chance to actually own their homes. Click here to see the entire Illinois Housing Development Authority's Low Income Housing classification of Wilson Yard housing.
The housing is the largest portion of Wilson Yard. The rendering below, created by the developer, shows how massive this building will be along Montrose and Broadway. This prominent corner, that should be gateway for vibrant retail, falls prey to Shiller's misguided planning. Click the image below to see the full sized rendering.
Helen Shiller was also deceptive when she told residents that Wilson Yard would have a movie theater complex as a key component. In reality, the theaters were never viable in the plan presented to the public. Soon after the community meeting, the theaters were quietly killed in a backroom deal and the community was never informed. Helen Shiller's response: "It's no big deal." Dave Roeder, Sun-Times reporter, covered a community meeting where hundreds of outraged community residents showed up expecting a long-overdue Wilson Yard update. Helen Shiller and developer Peter Holsten ignored the community and blew the meeting off. Click here to read the entire Sun-Times article
And Target? According to Shiller and Holsten, Target is coming for sure, yet they have refused to produce any written documentation verifying this. The date for Target's ground-breaking mysteriously keeps moving to the next year. Several residents and a reporter have made inquiries through various Target contacts; all have been told there is no Target in the building plans for the near future.
"The (Wilson Yard) development is a future slum for Uptown. The current design is deadly for neighborhood safety and building a vibrant retail area."
A reknowned ULI (Urban Land Institute) planner reviewed the plan. His critique clearly states, "The (Wilson Yard) development is a future slum for Uptown. The current design is deadly for neighborhood safety and building a vibrant retail area. There is no active street frontage and without it, the street becomes a place for crime."
The poor planning doesn't stop there. The soil in Wilson Yard is contaminated and requires a clean-up plan that has not been properly addressed by the developer since their initial Wilson Yard Site evaluation report was denied by the EPA in 2004. Building cannot proceed without addressing the required toxic cleanup to assure residents' and shoppers' health.
A savvy 46th ward resident obtained documents sent by the EPA chastising the City's Department of the Environment for their sloppy work on submitting required Wilson Yard Environmental Site Evaluation report. Apparently the Wilson Yard site has lots of hazardous chemicals, like arsenic and lead, and how these toxins are going to be sampled and cleaned-up has yet to be defined. The EPA denied the 2004 evaluation and clean-up report submitted. If you'd like to read more on the toxic clean-up reports, click here and here.
The Wilson Yard plan, ten years in the making, gobbling up millions of property tax-supplied TIF dollars, seems to have lost its way in the convoluted world of developer greed, personal political agendas, and just bad urban planning.
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The whole Wilson Yard "thing" has amazed me for the past 6+ years of living in Uptown. And not in a good way. And yet, both the Tribune and Sun-Times have endorsed her for Alderman.
I guess I must be missing something.
I thought that the CHA had figured out that putting up high-rises for gov't subsidzed housing didn't work. So, why are we building a new one in Wison Yard?
I don't see how 78 units of subsidized housing will turn the development into a future slum...besides, it's better than vacant lots and boarded up buildings; right?
With all due respect, I would be more convinced if I saw more solid evidence backing up UNC's assertions. As it is, it's just more s/he-said s/he-said games.
A few FOIA-ed documents full of jargon and from the relatively ancient epoch of 2004 are unconvincing. And who is this "respected ULI expert," anyway, and when and in what context did he use the s-word?
The vibrant rendering on the campaign mailing is a good vision, and I support it. Say what you will, but the new Aldi looks a ton better than the old one. They're right next to each other, check it out for yourself.
Hi. I'm graduate student from Northwestern University, studying journalism. I working on an article about Wilson Yard and would love to talk to people familiar with the controversy.
If you have something to say, feel free to e-mail me.
So I just bought a condo on lawrence past broadway towards the lake. Should I be nervous about a single white girl living here?? I have concerns, but I love my place and don't want strangers pushing me out of my new neighborhood. Any new news??
So what's the latest on this. No Target? Not entirely sure I would want to shop there anyway given the element that this warns of. I thought this neighborhood was supposed to be getting better not worse. The gent named in an article said that it would be a "good thing" and being an "architect" of the Cabrini projects does not he bring some credibility to this project? I'm mixed. Thig appears to be a big budget low-income housing development project and I'm trying to learn the true appeal for that.
This is going to be another disaster to uptown like The Center on Halsted is to east lakeview. Open up your neighborhood to a bunch of undeserving diverse low lifes without value systems and see how your crime increases and overall feeling of "safety" plummets.