Redeveloping the South Lakefront

Bronzville between 26th and 51st Streets, Google Earth

70 years ago the South Lakefront of Chicago was one of the most densely populated areas of the City. Today it is a shadow of its former vibrancy. Massive demolition, "urban renewal" and decades of prejudicial disinvestment have made this one of the most underutilized stretches of real estate in America. Redeveloping this 2.5 mile stretch should be one of the City's top priorities.  If the South Lakefront were to reach the density of the North Lakefront it would provide beautiful, well-connected urban neighborhoods for hundreds of thousands of people.

The city certainly recognizes this and is already taking steps to bring more energy and life to the area. The CTA plans on building a new Green Line station at Cermak (23rd Street) by 2014. The new stop will be immediately adjacent to McCormick Place and the historic Motor Row. Proposals are floating for a relatively large-scale redevelopment of the area. This should help integrate McCormick Place into the City's urban fabric and continue the trajectory of redevelopment that pushed through the South Loop for the last 15 years.

Of course the South Lakefront was very much the center of Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid. Despite losing the Olympics the bid was instrumental in laying the groundwork for future redevelopment - including a new harbor at 31st Street (see below). The new harbor opened this past May and has greatly improved the amenities and physical condition of the surrounding park system.

31st Street Harbor Plan

31st Street Harbor looking North (Photo Credit)

Before the real-estate crash of 2008 Bronzeville was benefiting from significant investment and making important strides toward establishing itself as an upper-middle class African American neighborhood. Redevelopment has stalled some-what since the Recession, but its potential is no less significant. The City bought the derelict Michael Reese Hospital site and has cleared all but the historic Walter Gropius building. Initially intended as Chicago's Olympic Village the City has now asked a hand full of high-profile firms to develop proposals that will likely include some mix of residential and technology oriented businesses.

Proposed 2016 Olympic Village

Clearly such a large scale development will take time and remain subject to market conditions. The most important project that the City of Chicago could pursue in order to facilitate development of the South Shore is the creation of a new CTA "Gold Line" in the already existing Metra Right-of-Way that runs along the lakefront and through the heart of an already vibrant Hyde Park neighborhood. This idea was originally proposed by South Side community groups and was floating around the Internet for awhile before gaining more attention during the City's Olympic bid.

Proposed CTA Gold Line along the South Shore

The "Gold Line" is a transformative idea that takes advantage of existing infrastructure, minimizes cost and links already vibrant areas with the Loop while also bringing much needed transit access to areas of the South Lakefront that have enormous redevelopment potential. It's possible that the "Gold Line" could be realized by simply adding CTA turnstiles to existing Metra stations and running the trains every 10 minutes instead of every half-hour or hour.

The major barrier here is bureaucratic and political, not money or feasibility. Metropolitan Chicago desperately needs to consolidate and integrate its transportation systems. In New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. urban transit and suburban commuter rail are all integrated under the same umbrella organization (MTA, MBTA, SEPTA, WMATA respectively). In Chicago urban and suburban transit are divided between the CTA and Metra. Both organizations capital improvements are supported by the Federal Government. Operating expenses are supported by the State of Illinois and local government taxes. The City of Chicago and its immediately adjacent suburbs of Evanston, Oak Park and Skokie and Cicero support CTA (roughly 3.5 million people). The rest of the metropolitan area (an additional 7 million people, 10 million total) supports Metra. Steps are being taken to better integrate customer fairs across the transit organizations but too many redundancies and inefficiencies remain. Again the barriers are political, not technical.

Creating a CTA line along the South Lakefront would greatly facilitate massive redevelopments at the Michael Reese Hospital site and Lake Meadows at 31st street and King Drive.

Lake Meadows Redevelopment, Draper & Kramer

Until now redevelopment of the South Lakefront has been relatively small scale and piecemeal. For real progress to be made a critical mass of activity and amenities needs to be created. A new transit line along the Lakefront and one significant development project like Lake Meadows would provide this stimulus and inspire more fine-grained urban infill development in the surrounding neighborhoods. The final large-scale proposal for the South Lakefront is the Lakeside Community on the site of the former South Steel Works near the Calumet River (see below).

Lakeside Development

Collectively these developments and the urban infill that they facilitate may create beautiful, high-quality urban neighborhoods for hundreds of thousands of people by 2050. The most important step that the City of Chicago can take right now is the integration of CTA and Metra and the creation of a "Gold Line" along the South Lakefront.