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The last few Harold Ickes buildings are about to be demolished. A block away historic Quinn Chapel is being rebuilt. See the near South Side changing before your very eyes.
Harold Ickes buildings come down; Quinn Chapel being rebuilt
chicagonow.com - 5 weeks ago - 167 views
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Have we fixated on the closing of the Ickes Homes, Megan Cottrell?
Are you missing the more compelling purpose accomplished by relocating Ickes residents & clearing the State Route 50 Cicero Avenue corridor from the Interstate 55 Stevenson Expressway to Midway Airport?
Notice how many commercial structures are shuttered along that 15 block stretch, how plans for a Crosstown Expressway once included an highway interchange built just north @ Ogden Avenue in the Town of Cicero & how motorists driving to a Billion dollar Midway Airport terminal must now drive throught urban "blight" to catch a flight.
Should a tunnel be built to carry motorists from the Stevenson Expressway to Midway Airport?
One, I'm pretty sure you're thinking about LeClaire Courts. Harold Ickes is at State and Cermak, nowhere near 290.
Two, I've written two articles about Ickes. I don't know if that is being "fixated."
Three, I write about public housing. I don't write about expressways or tourists catching a flight. That's not my beat.
Four, I find the idea that of kicking people out of their homes so that tourists don't have to experiences 3.5 seconds of seeing the real Chicago incredibly offensive.
I stand corrected, Megan Cottrell.
Several Chicago low rise public housing projects are being closed concurrently. While Harold Ickes may capture your attention, LeClaire Courts is but another example.
I illustrated the LeClaire Courts because it develops an initial report & explores broader significance.
How might we examine the strategic significance of Harold Ickes positioned, as it is between historically-significant Bronzeville & the rapidly gentrifying South Loop (SOLO)?
From the vantage of public housing residents, the book "Defensible Space" examines ways to make this taxpayer investment work for both residents as well as the surrounding community. This book's contention is that one of the greatest faults with public housing is that architectural designs make it tough for public housing residents to take charge of the public areas outside their doors.
What may concern us all is that such low rise developments are being swept up in the same frenzy which razed Robert Taylor Homes.
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