Chicago Neighborhoods 2015: Assets, Plans and Trends – A project of The Chicago Community Trust

PILSEN LITTLE VILLAGE Ports of entry are regional centers of Mexican-American life

Pilsen and Little Village have been immigrant neighborhoods since their inception alongside the major

industrial corridors of the Southwest Side. For the past 50 years, they have been the cultural and

business centers for Chicago’s Mexican Americans.

Officially called the Lower West Side and South Lawndale, respectively, the communities have been

better known by their nicknames since the mid-20th Century, when they were largely Czech, Polish,

and Eastern European. The densely populated communities feature 120-year-old structures in the

4,200-building Pilsen Historic District, with slightly younger houses and two-flats in Little Village,

which was fully built up by the 1920s.

Today, Pilsen and Little Village are magnets for second- and third-generation Mexican Americans as

well as new immigrants. Hundreds of storefronts sell Mexican food, wedding and quinceañera gowns,

music, clothing, and housewares, drawing steady traffic especially on weekends. The annual Fiesta del

Sol in Pilsen and Mexican Independence Day Parade in Little Village draw huge crowds. Both

communities have flourishing art scenes that include galleries, murals, music venues, a Latino film

festival, and diverse programming for youth. Churches, social service agencies, and community

development organizations have built extensive support networks. And Pilsen, in

recent years, has been attracting the young and hip with resale shops, bars, and

trendy restaurants.

Amidst all this vitality and apparent economic health, the two communities remain

relatively poor compared to other Chicago neighborhoods, with household

incomes limited by low educational achievement and earning power. Nearly 30

percent of residents live below the poverty level. About half of those aged 25 and

older have not completed high school. In 2012, the unemployment rate was 15.8

percent.

Source: Calculations by Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University using 2010 Decennial Census.

Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Pilsen Little Village – February 2015 – Page 2

Despite a 15 percent population drop between 2000 and 2010,

due mostly to smaller family sizes, there is very little

residential vacancy. Both communities have solid blocks of

owner-occupied housing, often with decorative wrought-iron

fences and recently tuckpointed brick. But about 70 percent of

all households are renters, many living in older structures

with leaky windows and outdated utilities. Owners and

renters alike are “cost-burdened,” with about half in each

category spending more than 30 percent of their income on

housing.

Geographically unique

Pilsen and Little Village are isolated from their southern neighbors by a half-mile-wide corridor that

includes factories, railroads, the Chicago River South Branch or Sanitary and Ship Canal, and the

Stevenson Expressway (I-55). On the north, railyards and forbidding block-long underpasses separate

Pilsen from the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Illinois Medical District.

Little Village is bordered on the west by another industrial corridor, and on the north by a viaduct that

has long marked the racial dividing line with predominantly African-American North Lawndale. South

of 26th Street and east of Sacramento is the 96-acre Cook County Jail, which faces its host community

with high concrete walls and double barbed-wire fences. The jail’s average daily population of 9,000

residents is part of the district’s census count, which had fallen to 115,000 in 2010, from 135,000 a

decade earlier.

The district is well served with CTA bus service on all the major arteries and with Pink Line stations in

Pilsen and just north of Little Village at 21st Street. The #9 Ashland bus is the city’s busiest route with

30,000 riders a day; the planned Bus Rapid Transit system on Ashland would include a station at 18th

Street in the heart of Pilsen. Metra’s Heritage Line provides service to Western Avenue, but the station

served only 78 average riders on weekdays in 2014.

PILSEN LITTLE VILLAGE OVER TIME 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Population 107,293 120,075 126,744 135,102 115,057

Share of population in poverty 15.1% 23.5% 25.4% 26.7% 29.3%

Percent owner-occupied/renter occupied 33/67 32/68 32/68 32/68 29/71

Sources: Calculations by Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University using U.S. Census data from US2010 Project at Brown University.

Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Pilsen Little Village – February 2015 – Page 3

CTA Pink Line Ridership (weekday boardings, year-end averages, 2009 and 2013)

18th St. Damen Western California Kedzie Central

Park Pulaski Kostner

2009 1,517 1,243 991 1,182 860 1,039 1,041 1,127

2013 1,862 1,470 1,166 1,459 1,088 1,303 1,221 1,321

Source: Chicago Transit Authority Annual Ridership Reports.

Pilsen Little Village’s legacy of large industry and water transport created some of the district’s

strongest opportunities for future investment.

Parks and open space – With just 1.1 acres of open space per 1,000 residents, Pilsen Little Village has

the lowest share of park space among Chicago’s 16 planning districts. But reuse of former industrial

spaces is beginning to change that.

A 21-acre site west of Sacramento and north of 31st Street, degraded by industrial pollution and

asphalt dumping, has been capped and landscaped and will open as La Villita Park in 2015. The

$10.1 million park will include two artificial-turf playing fields, two natural-turf fields, a skate

park, playground, and picnic spaces. The City of Chicago is studying conversion of a 1.3-mile

Burlington Northern Santa Fe-owned railroad corridor to connect the park to the Chicago River.

Across 31st Street from the new park is the Collateral Channel, an unused boat dock that could

connect to additional green space along the Sanitary and Ship Canal.

Another BNSF-owned corridor, along Sangamon Avenue in Pilsen, is being re-envisioned as a

pedestrian-friendly “paseo.” The Pilsen Planning Committee’s 2006 quality-of-life plan, Pilsen: A

Center of Mexican Life, identified a four-block stretch of Sangamon for conversion into a

pedestrian connector; the southern-most block has already become a landscaped garden path.

In 2013, the City of Chicago filed a petition with the Surface Transportation Board to preserve

the railroad right-of-way for recreational uses.

The Chicago Park District has assembled three parcels where the Illinois and Michigan Canal

originally branched from the Chicago River. The Canal Origins Park and Canalport Riverwalk

Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Pilsen Little Village – February 2015 – Page 4

are partially developed; in 2016 a new boathouse will be added at Park #571, with a design

similar to the WMS Boathouse at Clark Park on the North Branch.

Large development sites – Five large parcels are in the process of redevelopment, each in a location

that could support additional nearby investment.

The Fisk and Crawford coal-fired powerplants were shut down in 2012 and will be demolished,

creating about 115 acres along the river and canal. The 2012 Fisk and Crawford Reuse Task

Force Final Report recommends redevelopment for clean industrial uses with adjacent green

space and trails along the water. Both sites are in existing industrial corridors where demand

for space remains strong.

The former Washburne trade school site at 31st and Kedzie is being redeveloped by the Chicago

Southwest Development Corporation as the Focal Point community campus, which would

include a replacement facility for the nearby St. Anthony Hospital alongside retail, wellness,

education, and recreational facilities. The developer is working with the City of Chicago to

acquire 11 additional acres adjacent to the core site.

The former Storkline furniture factory on Kostner Avenue at 26th Street is being converted into

148 units of affordable housing by the nonprofit Mercy Housing Lakefront. The long-vacant

factory building is at a strategic location on the west end of the 26th Street commercial corridor.

It is adjacent to the vacant 40-acre Chicago Central Industrial Park, which was identified for

potential housing and retail development in the 2005 and 2013 Little Village Quality-of-Life

Plans.

The former Chicago Sun-Times printing plant is being redeveloped as a $140 million, 400,000-

square-foot data center and tech-business hub, tapping Chicago’s high-speed fiber network.

Industrial corridors – The district has attracted substantial new investment in industrial facilities over

the past 20 years to serve produce distributors, food processors, metal fabricators, toolmakers, and

refrigerated storage companies. The newer facilities represent a small percentage of the district’s 1,600

acres of industrial land, much of which is now dedicated to low-value uses including garbage

processing, recycling, truck maintenance, and storage of trailers and shipping containers. One such

Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Pilsen Little Village – February 2015 – Page 5

plot, covering 16 acres at 3348 S. Pulaski, will be redeveloped in 2015 with a new 316,000-square-foot

distribution center. The district supports about 4,600 manufacturing jobs and 6,000 more in

wholesaling, transportation, and warehousing.

Retail evolution

Like the industrial areas, the retail districts of Pilsen and Little Village are visibly healthier than in most

other working-class neighborhoods in Chicago, with more than 1,000 small businesses spread along the

commercial arteries of 18th Street, Blue Island Avenue, Cermak Road, 26th Street, and 31st Street.

The corridor on 26th Street has more vacancies today than in past years, but still creates traffic jams

with its two-mile stretch of stores, restaurants, night clubs, banks, and service businesses, which draw

from across the Midwest. At 26th and Troy, the pink arch that proclaims Bienvenidos a Little Village is a

favorite of tourists and TV camera crews; at 26th and Rockwell on summer weekends, thousands

converge on Plaza Garibaldi for rodeos and for concerts by favorite banda and norteño groups from

Mexico.

Unique among Chicago neighborhoods, the district retains many corner stores on internal residential

streets, and supports secondary retail strips such as 25th Street, just a block from Little Village’s 26th

Street spine. In Pilsen, small businesses dot Leavitt Avenue between the bigger Damen and Western

corridors, and an enclave of Italian restaurants attracts citywide diners to Oakley Avenue in the Heart

of Chicago sub-neighborhood.

Cermak Road is a retail bridge between Little Village and Pilsen, serving both communities. The 18th

Street corridor in Pilsen was never as big or busy as 26th Street, but continues to offer a similar

selection of food stores, restaurants, artisan shops, botánicas, and service businesses. While retaining its

Mexican character, the strip has been influenced for decades by the artist community along Halsted

Street, and recently has evolved further as a mixed-retail environment.

The Halsted arts district was created by the Podmajersky family, which has been in the community

since 1914 and been marketing live-work spaces and galleries since the 1970s. Though sometimes

resented by local Mexicans as a gentrification threat, the arts district has survived and grown, and now

Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Pilsen Little Village – February 2015 – Page 6

coexists alongside a vibrant Latino-oriented arts culture that began with murals and today includes

galleries, performances featuring Mexican artists, music, and the National Museum of Mexican Art in

Harrison Park, which opened in 1987, expanded in 2001, and continues to offer free admission.

Recent years have seen considerable expansion of Pilsen’s cultural and historic resources. Redmoon

Theater relocated into the landmark Wendnagle building at Jefferson and Cermak, amongst a collection

of visually powerful bridges and industrial buildings called the Spice Barrel District, whose potential

was outlined in the 2007 study, Industrial Renaissance: Establishing a Creative Industries District. Parts

of the historic Schoenhofen Brewery complex have been rehabbed for modern uses, and scores of artists

and small businesses have set up shop in the Lacuna Artists Lofts, 2150 S. Canalport. Farther west at

18th Street and Allport, restaurant entrepreneurs Bruce Finkelman and Craig Goldman have restored

the 1892 limestone landmark, Thalia Hall, with a restaurant, bar, performance space, and retail shops.

Other new businesses include coffee shops, Mexican restaurants, a bike shop, fashion boutiques, and

resale stores. The Pilsen business district today is stronger than it was 10 years ago, and more diverse in

its offerings.

Source: Easy Analytic Software, Inc., updated January 2014, as displayed on Woodstock Institute Data Portal.

Challenges and opportunities

Pilsen and Little Village have remained vibrant over the decades because of continued investment and

commitment by small businesses, property owners, and public institutions, but at least as important

have been the efforts of individual leaders, community groups, churches, youth organizations,

Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Pilsen Little Village – February 2015 – Page 7

nonprofit development corporations, and social service agencies. The district’s activist culture remains

a major resource for addressing current and future challenges, which include gang-related violence,

weak schools, housing affordability, and low household incomes.

The Resurrection Project (TRP) was formed in 1990 to address the vacant lots and deterioration of older

buildings that discouraged Pilsen property owners from long-term investments. TRP partnered with

the City of Chicago to build 100 units of new housing, filling most of the vacant lots, and since has built

or rehabbed hundreds of additional units. In 2015 it will add 45 affordable rental apartments at Casa

Querétaro, on a former railroad silo yard at 17th and Damen.

TRP also provides financial training, foreclosure

prevention, small-business services, and education

programs, including construction and management

of La Casa Student Housing, a community-based

dormitory for college students at the CTA’s 18th

Street Pink Line stop.

Community partners have been equally

productive. Alivio Medical Center worked with

TRP on development of two new affordable

housing buildings next to its medical center at 21st

and Morgan, and opened in-school health centers

at Benito Juarez Career Academy and Orozco

Community Academy. Instituto del Progreso Latino offers employment and financial counseling

through its Center for Working Families and built a charter high school, Instituto Health Sciences

Career Academy, on Western Avenue. Pilsen Neighbors Community Council runs the Fiesta del Sol

and organizes the annual Pilsen Education Summit. Another educational resource is the Arturo

Velasquez Institute, a satellite campus of Daley Community College that offers programs in

manufacturing, office, and health careers.

EMPLOYMENT – PILSEN LITTLE VILLAGE

Top six employment sectors (# jobs) 2005 2011

Health Care and Social Assistance 4,784 6,266

Manufacturing 5,153 4,610

Admin, Support, Waste Mgmt, Remediation 3,312 3,667

Wholesale Trade 3,519 3,311

Transportation and Warehousing 1,452 2,713

Retail Trade 1,872 2,308

Total # private-sector jobs in district

26,290 29,815

District Citywide

Unemployment rate 2012 15.8% 12.9%

Sources: Calculations by Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University using Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics data (top sectors) and 2012 Five-Year American Community Survey (unemployment).

Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Pilsen Little Village – February 2015 – Page 8

Environmental groups including the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) and

Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization (PERRO) were instrumental in shutting down

the Fisk and Crawford generating plants and continue to advance community greening and trail

projects. LVEJO successfully advocated for extension of the CTA’s #35 bus to serve the 31st Street

industrial corridor. Youth organizations and block groups have built community gardens across the

district, using them not only to grow fresh produce but to serve as communal spaces in the park-poor

district. Chicago Botanic Garden’s Windy City Harvest farm-training operation is headquartered at

Velasquez Institute. Also active on environmental issues is the grassroots organization Pilsen Alliance.

Little Village’s civic infrastructure, serving a population twice as big as Pilsen’s, includes several broad

collaborative efforts. The Little Village Youth Safety Network coordinates and measures the work of 12

organizations that engage youth around healthy activities and discourage gang involvement. The Roots

to Wellness mental health collaborative brings together 11 health services providers to improve

understanding of local needs and to improve services and referral networks. The organization Enlace

Chicago coordinates these efforts and also manages a community schools network, arts programs,

community gardens, and advocacy campaigns around social justice, safety, and immigration. A new

effort is the 96 Acres project, organized with the Chicago Public Art Group and local youth

organizations, to engage youth in art projects on and around the walls of Cook County Jail.

Richly endowed with community organizations, small businesses, industrial development, and other

resources – and with major new investments supporting further growth – the Pilsen Little Village

planning district is well positioned to maintain its role as Chicago’s center of Mexican-American

culture, and as a major driver in the regional economy.

Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Pilsen Little Village – February 2015 – Page 9

Examples of development opportunities Place Location Status Notes

Chicago Central Industrial Park site

Southwest corner of 26th and Kostner.

40-acre site has been vacant for decades despite location at west end of 26th Street business district.

Site was identified in Little Village quality-of-life plans for potential mixed retail and housing development.

Fisk and Crawford generating stations

Fisk is east of Racine and south of Cermak in Pilsen; Crawford is east of Pulaski at Sanitary and Ship Canal.

Fisk’s 43 acres and Crawford’s 72 acres are in active industrial parks and along waterways, presenting opportunities for both industrial and trail development.

City of Chicago and site owners are pursuing options outlined in 2012 final report of Fisk and Crawford Reuse Task Force.

Industrial corridors Mostly south of the residential areas and north of the river and Sanitary and Ship Canal.

Both corridors have seen major new investment but also have large expanses of vacant or underutilized land.

Some areas, especially in Little Village, lack adequate industrial roads for truck access.

Waterfront areas Along Chicago River and Sanitary and Ship Canal.

City of Chicago and Chicago Park District have begun park development near Canal Origins Park at Ashland Avenue.

Multiple locations could be developed with water-edge trails to provide continuous access and to link larger park areas.

Infill housing Neighborhoods have a few vacant parcels on interior streets and some larger empty sites or buildings.

Zoning in much of the district is restricted to one- to three-unit buildings, but some higher-density locations are available.

Former industrial site at 18th and Peoria was cleared for a 381-unit housing development in 2005, but it was never built.

Data note: Demographic and other data is compiled by Chicago Community Area, which may differ slightly from the boundaries of the CN2015 Planning Districts. Community Areas included in this profile are Lower West Side (Pilsen) and South Lawndale (Little Village). Research support for Chicago Neighborhoods 2015: Assets, Plans and Trends was provided by a team convened by The Chicago Community Trust. The summary of assets for this planning district was created by LISC Chicago and Teska Associates with materials from Metropolitan Planning Council, Place Consulting, Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University, and many other sources. Author: Patrick Barry. Learn more about the Near West Side and Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 at cct.org/CN2015/PilsenLittleVillage. Learn more about data and sources at cct.org/CN2015/DataSources.

Bubbly Creek

Little Italy

University VillageFosco Park

Homan Square

Power House High

Roosevelt Square

Former Henson ES

Central Park Theater

St. Ignatius College Prep

Easter Seals Autism SchoolChicago WS Christian School

Douglas Park Comm & Cltr Ctr

Italian A Sports Hall of Fame

Stickney

Roosevelt/Cicero

AUSTIN

Halsted

Ashland

U of I at Chicago Med Ctr

9TH

12TH

10TH

Daley

Douglass

Learn es

Webster es

Frazier es

Stem academy

Douglas Park Apartments

EAST GARFIELD PARKWEST GARFIELD PARKWEST GARFIELD PARK

Western Ave.

Lawndale Mental Health Ctr

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Jefferson es

Thalia Hall

Cook County Jail

La Casa Del Pueblo Lacuna Artist Lofts

Pete's Fresh Market

Cermak Fresh Market

LV Boys & Girls Club

Cristo Rey Jesuit HS

St. Procopius School18th Street Corridor

Alivio Medical Center

Paseo Pedestrian Corridor

Chicago Youth Boxing Club

New Life Community Church

Xochiquetzal Peace Garden

Nt’l Museum of Mexican Art

Pilsen Satellite Senior Cntr

Focal Point Community Campus

Spanish Coalition for Housing

Instituto Del Progreso Latino

SOUTH LAWNDALE

LOWER WEST SIDE

Aldi

Clinic

ENLACE

ENLACE

La Casa

The Arch

6062Trees

Yollocalli

Erie House

Miami Park

Limas Park

Shedd ParkSuper Mall

Throop Park

Focal Point

St. Paul ES

Dvorak ParkCasa Puebla

Fisk Station

Harrison Park

Casa Queretaro

Casa Maravilla26th & Kostner

Fairplay Foods

Pilsen Alliance18th Street Corridor

Beyond the Ball

Pilsen Neighors

Epiphany School

La Villita Park

Piotrowski Park

96 Acres Project

Crawford Station

Gads Hill Center

Urban Life Skills

Vertiport Chicago

La Villita Community Church

St. Pius V School

Collateral Channel

Windy City Harvest

Former Lawndale ES

Rauner Family YMCA

Universidad Popular

Semillas de Justicia

Paul Simon Job Corps

Halsted Arts District

St. Augustine College

Pilsen Wellness Center

Pilsen Wellness Center

Pilsen Wellness Center

Esperanza Health Center

St. Ann Catholic School

St. Agnes of Bohemia ESCentral States SER (CWF)

Grace Christian Academy

New St. Anthony Hospital

The Resurrection Project

Gary/Ortiz Community Space

El Jardin de las Mariposas

Dongfang Chinese Education

Arturo Velazquez Institute

Little Village Chamber of Commerce26th/27th Street Corridor

Mercy Housing Redevelopment

LVEJODr. Prieto Family Health Center Ruiz ES

Spry ES

Gary ES

Herzl es

Perez ES

Walsh ES

Finkl ES

Medill es

Juarez HS

Kanoon ES

Zapata ES

Madero MS

Chalmerses

Collins hs

Jungman ES

Pickard ESHammond ES

Saucedo ES

Corkery ES

Whitney ES

Smyth, j es

Whittier ES

Farragut HS

Mccormick ES

De La Cruz ES

Castellanos ES

UNO Charter Paz

Simpson acad hs

Telpochcalli ES

North lawndale hs

noble charter uic

Little Village ES

IDPL Charter Lozano

Greater Lawndale HS

York Alternative HS

Charter De Las Casas

chicago tech academy

North lawndale charter

Pilsen ES

Orozco ES (Elev8 School)

Cooper ES

Cca academy

Cardenas ES

YCCS Charter Addams

Montefiore special es

Ortiz De Dominguez ES

Urban prep charter west

Spry Community Links HS

YCCS Charter Latino Youth

IDPL Health Sciences Career Acad.IDPL Charter Justice & LeadershipInstituto del Progreso Latino (CWF)

31ST

PULA

SKI

ROOSEVELT

CERMAK

Schwab

Little Village

Toman

PilsenIndustrialCorridor

Little VillageIndustrialCorridor

S. Lawndale Maternal & Child Health Center

Lower West Side Nbrd Health Center

Lozano Library

Halsted St.

Little Village / La Villita

CaliforniaWestern Damen

18th

KEDZ

IE

CALI

FORN

IA

WES

TERN

DAM

EN

See West SidePlanning District

See Near West Side Planning District

See StockyardsPlanning District

See MidwayPlanning District

18th

26th

Cicero

Stickney

Pilsen

IndustrialPark

55

90

DATE | 01.16.2015

PILSEN LITTLE VILLAGE DISTRICT ASSET MAPCHICAGO NEIGHBORHOODS 2015

Stickney

Berwyn

SSA#25

47TH

Western/Ogden Industrial Corridor

Little Village

Stevenson/Brighton

Ogden/Pulaski

Sanitary and Ship Canal

Near South Planning Board

Little Village Chamber of Commerce

18th Street Development Corp

PULA

SKI

WES

TERN

31ST

CERMAK Pilsen Industrial Corridor

Little Village East

Kostner Ave

12th Ward

24th Ward

28th Ward

25th Ward

22nd Ward

14th Ward

11th Ward

26TH

CALI

FORN

IA

33RD

35TH

The Resurrection Project

See StockyardsPlanning District

See CentralPlanning District

See West SidePlanning District

See MidwayPlanning District

Berwyn

Stickney

See Near West SidePlanning District

DATE | 01.16.2015

PILSEN LITTLE VILLAGE PLANNING DISTRICT WARD/TIF/SSA MAPCHICAGO NEIGHBORHOODS 2015

*This planning area is located within the Little Village Community Development Corp., the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council, and the Eighteenth Street Development Corp. (LIRI)

(NBDC) serves this district but main o�ce may be located o� the map