Chicago neighborhoods keep transforming under same old racial storyline

Last month, the owners of the United Center announced plans for a $7 billion project to feature housing, retail, entertainment and public open space over 55 acres of privately-owned land surrounding the iconic entertainment venue. The effort, dubbed the 1901 Project, was billed as a "transformative" investment and the largest private investment on Chicago’s West Side. The first phase could begin as early as next year, officials said.

But the transformation of the Near West Side started decades ago. And it’s not the first one the area has experienced.

The Near West Side is an expansive community area, stretching east-to-west from the Chicago River to a couple of blocks past Western Avenue, and spanning north-to-south from Kinzie Street to 16th Street.

In 1980, about 74% of the community’s residents were Black, while just 13% were white, according to census data. Twenty years later, Black residents were still in the majority. However, by 2020, 43% of Near West Side residents were white and just 24% were Black. From 1980 to 2020, the number of white residents had nearly quadrupled, while the number of Black residents had fallen by more than 60%, shows an analysis of census data.

Practically the opposite occurred during the previous 40 years. In 1940, the Near West Side was the second-most populous community in Chicago, and more than 80% of its residents were white. Between 1940 and 1950, the Black population more than doubled from roughly 25,000 to 65,000. In contrast, the white population plummeted from more than 110,000 in 1940 to under 8,000 in 1980.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, because we’ve seen this movie before: An influx of Black residents sparks white flight; the departure of white residents is soon followed by the loss of jobs and commerce; the now-Black community endures decades of disinvestment and population loss; once property values sink low enough, speculators swoop in to claim property on the cheap, sit on it and wait for the market to rebound; young white professionals seeking a place close to work, downtown or public transit start moving in; the market begins to pick up; the investment starts coming back in the form of condos, shopping and nightlife; prices begin to soar; low-income Black residents are priced out or pushed out. You know the story.

Red light, green light for investment

This movie isn’t just showing on the Near West Side. It’s also playing in parts of the Near North Side and the Near South Side. And the demographic and economic transformations of these communities have been influenced by the city’s transformation of public housing. The Near West Side’s Henry Horner Homes, Rockwell Gardens and ABLA Homes, the Near South Side’s Ickes Homes, and the Near North Side’s Cabrini-Green development were all demolished or redeveloped during the time when those communities gave birth to the glitzy and glamorous West Loop, South Loop and Goose Island, respectively.

Most notably, just within two blocks of the Cabrini-Green footprint, there were $1.2 billion in property sales between the mid-1990s and mid-2000s, according to research we conducted during my time at The Chicago Reporter nearly 20 years ago. Developers said they knew the area would take off once the public housing came down. One family bought a condo and sat on it for three years before moving in.

Race, market demand and commercial interests are inextricably linked, especially in Chicago.

These shifts show that an influx of Black residents has been viewed as a red light for some who fear for their personal or economic safety. Meanwhile, a demographic shift in the other direction represents a green light to rent, buy property or open a business.

If some consumers completely shun Black communities, market demand will be limited for businesses operating there. If folks looking to buy a home simply avoid Black neighborhoods, property values there will suffer. If companies only locate their businesses in white communities, they force consumers from other communities to travel there to shop — inflating the economic strength of those white communities and undervaluing the economic power of other communities.

Each year, Black Chicagoans spend billions of dollars outside of their communities because there are so few options there. When it comes to movie theaters, big-box stores, and several well-known clothing and retail outlets, there are more located in and around downtown than in all of the city’s Black communities combined.

The racial lens through which we’ve viewed the prospects for or threats against investment has skewed reality. It’s actually our racial fears that have determined the economic outcomes we’ve witnessed, not the other way around.

Alden Loury is data projects editor for WBEZ and writes a column for the Sun-Times.

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