Will weekend provide evidence of revival for South(east) Side neighborhood?

An aerial shot provided by Google Earth of the old U.S. Steel South Works site, and the surrounding neighborhoods of The Bush (to the west) and South Chicago (naturally, to the south). The red-boxed area is where the concerts are to be staged.

This weekend, my attention is going to be focused on The Bush. And no, I’m not being perverted.

I’m referring to a portion of the South Side that some people regard as merely the northern tip of the South Chicago neighborhood, but which the locals think of as a neighborhood in-and-of itself.

THE BUSH IS located around 83rd Street to 87^th Street along the lakefront. The land right on the lake was once the site of the old U.S. Steel South Works plant in Chicago. As for The Bush itself, it provided housing for many of the people who actually worked at the steel mill.

People literally could walk to work.

Now I had one grandfather who worked for a time at that steel mill (my other grandfather worked his entire adult life at the old Wisconsin Steel mill down on 106^th Street). Not that he lived in The Bush. He was just a few blocks to the south, in South Chicago proper.

But he was still among those who lived in that neighborhood that is one of Chicago’s original Spanish-language enclaves (along with a lot of other ethnicities) because of its proximity to work.

WITHOUT THE STEEL mill there these days, there just isn’t reason for as many people to live in that aging neighborhood. There are many people all across the Chicago area who used to live in South Chicago, or have family ties that came out of there.

Which is why I find the whole idea of the Dave Matthews Band organizing a major concert festival this weekend in the neighborhood (instead of going the U2 route and staging their Chicago performance at Soldier Field) to be intriguing.

For me, South Chicago (and its sub-neighborhood of The Bush) is the old neighborhood. It is the place where I was born and where I used to go to visit my paternal grandmother (my grandfather died when I was 7).

The idea that thousands of people will be flocking to South Chicago and to The Bush for any reason is something I find unique. Since I am used to that particular neighborhood (along with many of the communities in Southeast Chicago, such as Hegewisch and South Deering) being isolated.

IT IS A place where the locals who have remained there for whatever reason don’t mind that they don’t encounter the rest of Chicago all that often, and may well even prefer it that way.

But such isolation also results in there being little right in the neighborhood for the local residents, who have to make special trips to get just about any of life’s necessities (there’s a reason I haven’t lived in South Chicago in decades).

Could the coming of a weekend series of concerts be what revitalizes interest in the neighborhood? Particularly the site of the old steel plant, which was once proposed to be the site of a Solo Cup facility, and now is talked about as a possible development for housing and maybe even a building that could someday become the presidential museum for Barack Obama once he leaves office.

It sounds overly optimistic to me, particularly since I am fully away of the relative ignorance that most people have about this particular segment of Chicago.

I DON’T MEAN ignorance in a sense that they’re mean-spirited. I mean they’re more clueless. Too many people seem to think Chicago can’t possibly extend that far south.

Considering that the city only goes as far north as 7600 before one hits Evanston, maybe they think the South Shore neighborhood around 75^th Street is the far southern city limits (not realizing that the 138^th Street separation between Hegewisch and the suburb of Burnham is the true Far South point for Chicago).

I also have been reading the incessant commentary being posted all over the Internet whenever anyone feels compelled to discuss these concerts. The neighborhood is too dangerous. There’s nothing there. Going that far south is a mistake.

All a lot of rants.

WHICH IS WHY I say my attention is focused this weekend on The Bush. I want to see how many people actually make the trip south for the concert, and figure out how many are amazed at the potential for a downtown skyline sighting once they get there.

It really isn’t that far from The Loop to The Bush. Heck, Metra trains take people from downtown to South Chicago every day of the week. Although in all honesty, I don’t plan to be in The Bush for this concert event – largely because I don’t care much for the Dave Matthews Band. And none of the other acts are all that appealing to this fanatic of jazz music.

I didn’t think much of Liz Phair back when she was actually a hip artist back in 1993. The thought of her playing Saturday afternoon isn’t enough to get me to shell out $85.

But for the “old neighborhood’s” sake, I hope a certain sizable segment does, and manages to behave itself while spending time in South Chicago.

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Will they love Wal-Mart once it arrives?

I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself about all the screaming and screeching that took place earlier this week in the Lake View neighborhood concerning a proposal to build a Wal-Mart store as part of the shopping strip along Broadway near Diversey Parkway (in the less couth parts of the city, Diversey is an avenue).

Wal-Mart is everywhere, except in Lake View.



The reaction wasn’t the least bit surprising. In fact, it is exactly what I’d expect.

BECAUSE I RECALL a moment several years ago when I happened to be in that exact neighborhood. Specifically, I was at the Borders books store that until recently was at that very intersection.

I happened to be looking at a display that was set up near the cash registers when I overheard a man who walked into the store ask for directions to the nearest Wal-Mart store. From the sound of his accented drawl and his demeanor, I’m inclined to believe he was from out-of-town.

But it wasn’t his question about wanting to find a Wal-Mart in the area that separates the Lincoln Park and Lake View neighborhoods that was so memorable as much as the answer from the sales clerk.

The clerk told that man that such stores didn’t “fit in” to the neighborhoods that like to think they are the elite of Chicago (and probably think way too much of themselves). That clerk’s tone was rather snotty.

I’M SURE THIS particular tourist came away thinking that this particular neighborhood was a tad arrogant. Or maybe he let that allow him to perceive all of Chicago that way, I don’t know.

But as I read the reports coming out of Lake View about how people gathered Monday night at the Wellington Avenue Church, all I could help but think was that sales clerk from several years ago (who probably didn’t even live in the neighborhood – which is a bit pricey for a retail cashier to afford) gave an accurate perspective of the people who can afford the rents and mortgages of those two north lakefront Chicago neighborhoods.

What I find ironic (aside from the fact that that particular Borders bookstore is among the ones that recently closed down) is that this Wal-Mart is filling another vacancy. The location desired by Wal-Mart used to be a PetSmart store.

So I’m wondering if those “high-toned” individuals (many of whom I’d guess will wind up moving to some suburb once they have kids who become school-age) really prefer the idea of an empty storefront.

REALIZE THAT I write this piece even though I don’t think much of the Wal-Mart experience. I have never cared much for the quality of their merchandise, which means I view Wal-Mart stores as the perfect proof of that old cliché, “You Get What You Pay For.”

A cheaper price isn’t always everything.

But I can appreciate how one can’t be too picky when it comes to a community and empty storefronts.

I have seen too many neighborhoods in this city that used to have vibrant shopping districts where the big stores pulled out and the locals weren’t aggressive enough in trying to fill the gaps.

WHAT HAPPENED IS that many of those districts decayed from sitting empty and the perception became that they are dead. Now, these are districts that feel fortunate if they can get one of those “dollar store” chains (the 21^st Century equivalent of the “dime store”) to come in and sell cheap merchandise.

I’ll be the first to admit that the district at Broadway and Diversey isn’t at that point yet. But if local people think that some high-end retailer is just anxiously awaiting a chance to locate within their proximity to cater to their whims, I’d say that somebody thinks a little too highly of themselves.

If anything, the current economic conditions have most companies cutting back, instead of thinking in terms of new locations.

And with this kind of attitude, I’m sure such a haughty attitude would cause those desired high-end retailers to think they can get a better deal locating elsewhere – where they won’t have to deal with such snobbery.

OF COURSE, SUCH attitudes aren’t limited to retail locations.

I heard a lot of similar rhetoric last week when the Dave Matthews Band announced details about the Chicago concert they plan to give as part of this year’s musical tour. They want to use off-beat sites for their concert venues, instead of the traditional arenas and stadiums.

In Chicago, they plan to erect a stage on the site of the old U.S. Steel plant at 79^th Street and the lakefront. It will be an outdoor festival, and promoters would like us to think of the image of hundreds of thousands of people (it’s a 600-acre site) grooving to the music, rain or shine, with the Chicago skyline in the background of the stage.

Yet the critics, some of whom may be the same people who are now ranting about Wal-Mart, are claiming that a site between the South Shore and South Chicago neighborhoods (in fact, anything south of Roosevelt Road) is too far away from their preferred playgrounds, and too icky.

THEY’RE EVEN COMPLAINING about how attending such a concert will mean exposing oneself to massive crime – even though the former steel mill site is fenced in and my guess is that the security is going to be intense enough that nobody without a ticket is going to get anywhere close to the event.

Now I’m not sure I buy into the developer hype about how this event will draw massive attention to the South Side neighborhoods and will help their revitalization. But a lot of the trash talk about the event, and the Wal-Mart, is coming from people who think too highly of themselves because of their home address.

Besides, I find one other detail of this situation to be ironic. As I wrote earlier, I think many of these Lake View/Lincoln Park residents will wind up moving suburban someday so they can find their mini-mansion dream house.

The way things are going now, that house is likely to have a Wal-Mart located just a mile or so up the road. As dreadful as those places can be, I’d say it serves these residents right to suffer such an ultimate fate.

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