Woodlawn Trends, Woodlawn and the University, University and communities in general
Presented by the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference and its community-service website, www.hydepark.org.
Community News. Development and Public Policy. South Campus Plan of U of C. Ending Homelessness, Unaffordability. To University and Community. The Urban Renewal series also contains some background, including in the timeline pages. U of C Community Renewal Conference of April, 2003. Tracking Community Trends I and II.
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Woodlawn Trends, Woodlawn and the University, University and communities in generalPresented by the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference and its community-service website, www.hydepark.org. |
See reports on UC campus
south plan meetings in South
Campus Plan page. Sonya Malunda,
773 702-4568.
http://southcampusplan.org. Grove Park public housing complex web/blog:
http://GroveParc.blogspot.com/.
Here:
Dear Sustainability Partners--The CKP is pleased to be collaborating with the Brickyard Garden, Architreasures, and the Christ's Way MB Church on the Woodlawn Youth Solutions program. Please check out their blog at woodlawnyouth.blogspot.com Best, Bart
Bart Schultz
Director of the Civic Knowledge Project
Senior Lecturer in the Humanities
and Special Programs Coordinator at the Graham School of General Studies
University of Chicago
http://civicknowledge.uchicago.edu
In an interview in the Herald, UC President Zimmer reconfirmed commitment not to expand south of 61st Street. He noted that use of the South Campus is becoming more dense.
Lifelong Woodlawn resident Wallace Goode has been selected Director of the University Community Service Center. His network with nonprofit and community organizations and the city are enormous. He wants people to develop their multicultural experience and share it.
Ken Warren is now Deputy Provost for Minority Issues. His goal is to weave diversity into the outlook and fabric of the University.
The Woodlawn High UC charter school has been launched in the Wadsworth School. Details in UC and Schools.
Up and coming is Nu Stage Theater in Woodlawn, a remnant of now-defunct Chicago Theater Company that seeks to engage and teach children and teens in theater and theater production. Proprietor Kevin Holt and Director Peter Chatman have great experience and talent.
April 4, Friday, 5-8 pm, join a community gathering and benefit for Experimental Stations's annual Farmers Markets (opening May 17, Sats 9-2). 6100 S. Blackstone.
See also South Campus Plan. U C South Campus Plan website.
"The poor face wretched housing choices while investors profit"- Chicago Tribune headline, late November, 2004.
by Gary Ossewaarde
Woodlawn has continued to go through pains and self-searching during redevelopment. Some think it's too little too slow with stalled housing (at least affordable) and shopping and other commercial venues so far left out of the mix despite plans to substitute development on Cottage west of Cottage at 63rd for lost/deliberately excluded commercial on 63rd east of Cottage. Others say there is too much gentrification housing and a vast income divide in Woodlawn, which lost 2/3 of its population between 1970 and 1990. Some want the University to do even more than its greatly increased presence--from health, schools, rebate-price housing for its staff, redevelopment expertise, and some job help to extension of University Police presence south to 64th Street. Others still resent the past and want the University out of anywhere south of 61st. Main forces for change- The Woodlawn Organization social service, business and political organization, Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corporation (WP&IC) including its New Communities Program (ref. Karen King and Willie Cochran) (with UC involvement), Bishop Brazier's church and social and business organizations, and Woodlawn East Community and Neighbors (WECAN) social service and political organization evoke diverse reactions. Many work together, but others seem to talk past each other. Other organizations of note are the Woodlawn Community Service Organization/Corporation (WCSC, a facility that assists in purchases of such things as school supplies and uniforms and provides a range of social services), the South Side Community Federal Credit Union, Woodlawn Development Associates (started by Hyde Parkers and focusing on cooperative and transitional housing), and the Harris YWCA which is now becoming also a Park District recreational and family center. The WCSC holds monthly open meetings at the Bessie Coleman Library, 731 E. 63rd.
Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference in 2002 hosted a forum called New Directions for Woodlawn, held at the School of Social Service Administration and featuring a forum with the leading organizations followed by discerning audience diagnoses and prognoses.
The Chicago Maroon, The Weekly News, the University Chronicle (official publication), and occasionally the Herald publish in-depth articles on Woodlawn issues and developments. Topics have ranged from documenting University programs and involvement to Woodlawn history, preservation issues (See the St. Gelasius page), transit concerns from Dan Ryan changes to Metra to fears of further Green Line closure, housing and welfare issues. Reports have highlighted successful programs in schools--especially Fiske, Carnegie, and Woodlawn Community (charter) --that offset an otherwise sad schools picture and increased presence of University students and staff, as consumers, transit users, home buyers, and volunteers.
See the South Campus Plan page for reports on a meeting that brought out harsh and agonized rhetoric, some on community issues and frustrations far removed from the topic at hand. It seems to me that touted impact in Woodlawn (such as saying that Woodlawn will be "largely driven" by it) from projects in the South Campus Plan per se are often overblown. The article that follows looks at more relevant potential impacts of university involvement in Woodlawn itself.
In October, 2004, the Maroon reported a reduction or suppression of gang activity, attributed to tactics of the University Police with Chicago Police, said to be tailored to the realities and needs of the community and focused on the heart of modern gang activities, the drug trade and --almost networks or cells of-- robbers. It is significant that community leaders and businessmen, especially the New Communities Program (NCP) of WP&IC, as well as Hank Webber of the University, point to the resulting "improved image" as a bridge to business growth.
The Maroon article quotes NCP leaders as noting a big contrast between how people had to live in terms of crime terror, housing, lack of social services, but say there is still a long way to go. An earlier article quotes leaders of the Credit Union as calling for focus on retail markets on 63rd partly as an increase in community-based jobs and income and to return the vacant land to productive use. they add (as quoted in anther article, that the University needs to come and put in restaurants and more like in Hyde Park. WCSC leaders add that the most serious lack is jobs and, like most of the other community organizations and some churches in the neighborhood host job-training programs, some of which tie into University programs and opportunities. WCSC also sees return of retail as the key to job growth. But most residents have to be referred outside the neighborhood.
One program often cited, a coalition of several organizations, the University and government agencies most noticeably the Chicago Fire Department, is the FACT (first aid care team) team of Hull House (Parkway). It has expanded its emergency medical response team (EMT) training as job-training, especially for present and past CHA residents but open to all residents. The EMT responds to hard-to-reach areas including in CHA that are hard for the Fire Department to reach.
University students are involved in a program called Meals for Affordable Housing/Student Tenant Organizing Project (STOP), a program to empower Woodlawn residents to take control of the housing situation. This group wants residents to buy buildings in the path of development and create student/residents cooperative living arrangements. The idea/program started in conversations between WECAN and a student group Angels of DEF. Current targets for organizing are WECAN owned buildings and the Parc Grove complex (on Cottage Grove, considered by many very poorly run, rundown and likely to be abandoned or sold by WPIC and so closed to the affordable market.
By Isaac Wolf
Editorial preface: As Woodlawn, t he community immediately south of the University, becomes more economically and racially contiguous with Hyde Park, residents there and members of the University community are struggling to make sense of the new geographic reality.
In the first of a four part series about Woodlawn, the Maroon reports on the issues of University expansion and relations with our southern neighbors.
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Consultants pointed University south
The University reconsidered its 40-year commitment to not acquire property in Woodlawn, the community south of 61st Street, as recently as a year and a half [previous] according to internal documents obtained by the Maroon during a four-month investigation.
Despite what the documents say, top administration officials contend that the University is committed to not going south of 61st Street.
Woodlawn properties were included in a March 2004 Power Point presentation produced by outside consultants and delivered to the board of trustees' community affairs committee meeting--bringing into question the University's longstanding agreement not to purchase property in tha[t] neighborhood.
Vice President of the University and Dean of Students Steve Klass, who was present at the committee meeting, said the presentation was meant to "think outside the box" in terms of expansion options. The discussion following the presentation made clear to the committee that purchasing below 61st Street would break a previous commitment, and cause the University to decide against it, Klass said. He added that the event allowed the University to "reinforce our long-standing commitment to the Woodlawn community."
While University officials continue to maintain that they have no plans to enter Woodlawn, low-income Woodlawn residents, local real estate agents, and community activists are convinced otherwise. Many fear a University presence in Woodlawn will contribute to the real estate renaissance that is pricing longtime residents out of their rental homes and propelling swindlers who try to snatch undervalued, longtime community member-owned property.
Torn between not wanting to interfere with Woodlawn and at the same time recognizing that economic forces could force out poor residents, University administrators expressed great frustration at activists who demand all poor Woodlawn residents have access to affordable housing.
The documents are part of a larger discussion surrounding the often-conflicting priorities of University expansion and relations with surrounding communities, and underlie the notion that, according to Klass, "large organizations--particularly those in the business of ground-breaking research, knowledge creation and dissemination, and healthcare--have a responsibility to ask those questions on a regular basis."
Invading city hall
Mayor Daley was at wits end. Tension between the University of Chicago and the surrounding community was roiling and activists were taking their grievances to him. Hundreds of community protestors had "invaded" city hall in a July sit-in demonstration, demanding a "flat, unqualified commitment" that University growth to the south be connected to a commitment to low-income housing.
The year was 1963. The community organization was the Temporary Woodlawn Organization (TWO, now The Woodlawn Organization), a group rallying for real estate assurances and funding for social programs for Woodlawn's low-income community.
"The responsibility for equitable relocation rests with t he University," said TwO's leader, Arthur Brazier. "But unless there has been a moral conversion by our good friends across the Midway, we must see to it that they live up to their duty."
When the mayor, University officials, and TWO finally coalesced, they agreed that the University would not acquire land or develop south of 61st Street. The meeting also resulted in the development and building of the public housing complex that would come to be known as Grove Parc Plaza, the honeycomb of apartments on Cottage Grove Avenue from 62st to 63rd streets.*
*The University also leased to TWO for a dollar a stretch along Stony Island between 60th and 61st.
The University, for its part, was able to execute its south campus plan, building the School of Social Service Administration and expanding facilities into the south campus. This episode, as recorded in the annals of the Maroon, ensured Woodlawn's independence, and made the task of low-income housing easier, since organizers did not have to worry about the University encroaching into their community.
STOP
Considered a historic moment in urban organization, the 1963 agreement has been brought into question by low-income Woodlawn residents and activists. Members of the Student/Tenant Organizing Project (STOP) increasingly say the University might acquire land south of 61st Street, and argue that this development will price the low-income residents out of their homes.
STOP, which includes University students, recent alumni, and Woodlawn community members, cites the University's plans to build a $100 million dorm, parking garage, and arts center south of the Midway but north of 61st Street. They say the University is reshaping its campus to the south with an eye on the Green Line stop at 63rd Street and Cottage Grove Avenue.
According to STOP, the University may be securing property in Woodlawn to build into the future and that this, in turn, is one of the factors ratcheting up the cost of living in Woodlawn.
Organizational lines are being chiseled in Woodlawn as STOP has embarked on a campaign to undercut an expansive program--which the University is involved in--to improve the community.
Against the mounting drumbeat of criticism, University officials have repeated their commitment to not meddle in Woodlawn politics or take property beyond the south boundary. They cite the University's involvement in community enhancement programs, which included the creation of charter schools, as proof that they have good intentions for Woodlawn.
But the University is not the only institution in a land squeeze: As cities nationwide se real estate values increase, the premium on acquiring property makes many options more tempting--especially moving into poorer areas.
For low-income residents in Chicago, the real estate crunch looks particularly painful. The City of Chicago is in the process of tearing down 16,000 public housing units, and there is currently a subsidized-housing waiting is in Illinois of at least 60,000, according to several media reports, including the Associated Press.
Priority area 2
STOP's recent indictment of the University began with a March 2004 Power Point presentation, obtained from a University worker and confirmed by President Don Randel, titled "A Strategy for Property Acquisition." According to University officials, the presentation was commissioned from an outside consulting firm given the task of evaluating all possible expansion options for the University. The consultants' finding specifically discuss the University's options for increasing real estate holdings and include property south of 61st Street.
One slide describes the Grove Parc public housing complex, and says that the area "provides 2, 500,000 gross square feet; strengthens connections to mass transit; [and provides opportunities for] additional commercial amenities."
Grove Parc, a public housing project infamous for its crime and drugs, is located on Cottage Grove Avenue between 61st and 63rd streets. The housing project sits between the University and Green Line subway, deterring the University community member from using the only subway line within walking distance of campus. [Ed. more on Grove Parc in article on November 14 2004 forum, below]
The consultants' presentation lists the Grove Parc area under the heading of "Priority Area 2," or "properties to purchase over the next decade" that are meant to "meet anticipated needs for the next 10 to 40 years."
The University has grown by 9,500,000 square feet since 1950, according to the document, which notes that Columbia University and Harvard University have grown at similar clips of about 2, 000,00 square feet each decade over the last 60 years. "Now is the time to obtain additional land near the campus for expansions in student life, research and teaching facilities," the document reads. "In recommending this strategy, we proceed from the assumption that the rapid redevelopment of the South Side of Chicago means that land not obtained now will be very difficult to obtain in the future."
Inherent contradiction
According to STOP organizers, this presentation highlights an inherent contradiction in the University's publicly articulated real estate policy. Whatever the University says publicly is belied by its need for more property--a demand that will inevitably be satisfied by going south, said Matt Ginsberg-Jaeckle, an organizer in STOP. "What this means is that the University has a long-term interest in that property," Ginsberg-Jaeckle said.
Ginsberg-Jaeckle added that the University is waiting for community resistance to subside before it moves south. "The U of C can wait out anyone," he said. "They have the deepest pockets. Our responsibility is to create an infrastructure of community leaders to fight them."
According to Larry Arbeiter, director of University communication, real estate advisors have repeatedly told the University to break the agreement. "Consultants have since [1963] often suggested that purchasing land in this area would be an efficient solution to future space needs, but in every case, the University's leadership has decided not to re-open that question with the community," he said.
Arbeiter said that if the University decides to break the 1963 agreement, it would engage in "an open, extended and inclusive process involving community leaders, elected officials, and the city of Chicago."
Red herring
Randel called the documents a "red herring," saying that they were meant only to illustrate the University's relationship with the surrounding community."This is just a way to showing 'so what's he environment we can operate in,'" he said. Randel added, "What this document means is, we have looked around the neighborhood, and asked 'What should we do?' One of the conclusions from looking around is that we decided we're going to continue to abide by the principle of not going south of 61st Street.
Randel said that the University would not treat Woodlawn the way Columbia University treated its surrounding communities in New York City. According to the Columbia Spectator, the University's student newspaper, Columbia paid a real estate firm $300,00 to investigate using eminent domain to secure property in the area.
It certainly came up
According to Hank Webber, vice president of Community and Government Affairs, the University considered going south of 61st Street as part of the Master Plan, which is meant to forecast the University's growth until 2020. "It certainly came up, but we made a very firm decision," he said. "We made it during the Master Plan process. we've made a decision and we're standing by it; we're not buying property south of 61st Street. I'm not saying it hasn't come up, but this is our decision in the 2020 plan."
The doctors, the richer people
Woodlawn residents see as different reality. In a dozen random interviews at homes, community businesses, and street corners, Woodlawn residents said they believed their homes were in jeopardy because of skyrocketing rent.
Audry Clay, who lives at 62nd Street and Woodlawn Avenue thinks there is as good possibility she will have to relocate because of increasing rent prices. "There are a whole lot of doctors and other people that might want to live here," she said, "and that makes it impossible for regular people to pay the rent." Clay said she thinks the University is intentionally trying to change the community's composition. "It's done on purpose to drive out the people who live here," she said. "They want the doctors, the richer people, to move in." Clay, who is not afraid of being displaced because she has relatives across Chicago, sees a possibility to create a mixed income Woodlawn community.
Clay said the key would be more Section-8 vouchers, or federally backed housing coupons. "With section-8, you can live anywhere you want to because the rent is going to be paid--even if it's going up," said Clay, who does not receive vouchers. Without section-8 vouchers, Clay said, low-income families would be driven out of Woodlawn. "It's impossible for the average person to be able to afford," she said. "I think it's good for bringing the neighborhood up, but it drives us out."
When we speak
Webber said he had no idea why Woodlawn community members believed the University might encroach upon their community; he pointed to a University letter, written by him and Director of Community Affairs Sonya Malunda nd sent to Woodlawn residents in October 2004. The letter, meant to dispel rumors and solicit input, announced the University's architectural plans for the south campus.
"I don't understand how people can be suspicious," Webber said. "When we speak, we speak. The changes in Woodlawn will work for a large number of the people there." Webber would not say what a "large number" was. "That's crystal balling," he said. "The goal is, can we create a large number of opportunities for residents who stay, who choose to stay?"
Nowhere to go
Noble Davis, who works in Woodlawn by live a few blocks to the north, echoed the fears of many of his neighbors when he said he thinks the University is trying to acquire housing property for its hospital workers. "It seems like the University is trying to make it more convenient for them," he said. "But at the same time, it's putting a lot of people out. You put them out and they don't have anywhere to go."
Davis said Woodlawn is seeing an influx of middle to upper middle class professionals moving into condos, which current residents simply can't afford. " I don't think it's fair they come into the community and evict everybody," he said. "If you have kids, it's that much harder to move."
Rocket science
According to Derrick Williams, a real estate agent with properties around Woodlawn, the South Side is experience a renaissance. Williams described a white-flight-in-reverse situation, where "all the people who felt they needed to move to the suburbs to get away from the city" are coming back, he said. "They want to be near the lake and have close accessibility to downtown," Williams said. "It's more important for them to live on top of each other than to stay out in the suburbs."
While driving through Hyde Park and Woodlawn, Williams explained that the real estate boom in the South Side coincides with the University's need to acquire property to the south or west--or both. "The University's growing," he said. "It can't grow to the east, the lake's there. It can't grow north--the area is already settled, landlocked. It can only grow to the west and south. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that they can only go that way," Williams said as he waved his hands south, "and that way, " he said, waving his hands west.
Williams said the University could be using a shell company to silently buy up property in Woodlawn. "It only makes sense," he said. "You've got the Midway right here, and there's open land all around us."
Arbeiter quashed the argument that the University uses holding companies to purchase property quietly in Woodlawn and said rumors like this harm the University's standing in the community.
"All of the land we own is held in the name of the University, and we engage in on secret-use purchases," he said. "We also have a policy that any University action that could involve displacement of individuals will result in those persons being materially better off than before."
Not wise
Also defending the University was Karen King, who directs the umbrella effort of community revitalization in Woodlawn, dubbed the New Communities Program (NCP). King said the University, which is one of three organizations, is not positioning itself to move into Woodlawn. "That's not the vibe I'm getting from them," she said.
Rather, King said, it is in the University's best interest to promote programs to make Woodlawn stronger for its current residents. "It's just not a wise move on the part of the University to try to dominate anything," King said. "Their best move institutionally is to support local initiatives."
[Note, Steve Klass said in October 2005 that he thinks the new dorm at 61st will draw students out of the rest of Woodlawn, reducing rent pressure. He also re-iterated that the University is in no way buying up property in Woodlawn.]
From the October 21 2005 Maroon: From article by Ethan Frenchman. This page does not necessarily vouch for conclusions drawn here.
...Since the [previous] article's release, administration official have reiterated that they have no plans to violate the University's agreement with Woodlawn. Yet, knowledge of the presentation [of March 2004] has "further increased the distrust between community members and the University," said Alex Goldenberg, a coordinator for the Student/Tenant Organizing Project (STOP) and a fourth-year in the College.
A large community outcry followed the initial release of the document in June 2004, resulting in a victory for STOP, as University officials signed a pledge that September to not expand the University south of 61st Street."
Officials maintain that the needs of the community are a top priority of the University. "We want to continue to work with the community to see how we can have a positive influence," said Steve Klass, vice president of the University and dean of students. Hank Webber, vice president of Community Affairs, said the University "supports the development of Woodlawn as a mixed-income community of high standards which offers real opportunities for long-time residents...The University will develop its south campus between 60th and 61st street in ways that met the University's needs but are sensitive to community needs...The University will not extend south of 61st Street."
Many students continue to trust the University even after having learned of the proposition to move south of 61st Street...
Many community members are watching real-estate transactions in their neighborhood closely, Goldenberg said. "If the University tries to break their promise, the whole community will be watching."
University president Don Randel sought to dispel rumors that the University is surreptitiously obtaining land south of 61st Street. "Both Harvard and Columbia have used shadow corporations to purchase land. The university does not and will not do that," Randel said.
The administration does not believe that there is a credibility gap...."The vast majority of members of the University community believe the University is sincere in it repeated assertions as well as by demonstrated history that it is not moving south of 61st Street," said Webber.
Both administration and community members feel strongly about the need for dialogue. While Klass said the University is in "constant communication with Woodlawn," some critics hope for a larger, more open debate. Many critics of the University see the article as a way to make students and members of the University aware of the issues and take pat in the debate....
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This article, by Isaac Wolf in the same issue, looks at problems of
price and rent pressure on low income and less affording residents of Woodlawn,
looks for ties to the University, and calls attention to lack of firm information
and statistics, as well as lack of remedies-although there are "affordable
opportunities" out there.
Chamar Brown had 40 days to get out... the reason: Brown's landlord is renovating the building into condos or luxury apartments.." Everyone knows the property value is going up because the University's expanding," he said. "Why are they [landlords] not making them more affordable? You just can't kick people out of the neighborhood. You can't tell a man he has to go."
Brown said that landlords in Woodlawn and across the South Side are getting greedier. "They're slumlords,...they're just putting up new buildings and pushing all the poor people out to a new place. You're just recreating the projects....Sooner or later, the minority's going to be out. The keep pushing the minority out."
Citywide, there has been an influx of new market-rate homes, with real estate agents saying Chicago is experiencing an urban renaissance. Low income Woodlawn residents--like poor residents in other neighborhoods--are increasingly worried about their future in the community.
Renters like Brown cite the rising monthly prices as proof that they will be forced out. Some long-time homeowners, meanwhile, have had their homes "stolen" out from under them, turning over their deeds to land-grabbers for far less than the true value.
All civic organizations involved in Woodlawn, including the University, are unequivocal in their support for low-income housing. But they also say there is no way to assure a set number of low-income houses, citing the economic realities of the real estate market. Woodlawn residents who own homes, especially young people who inherited houses and have little experience caring for property, are losing their real estate to taxes and aggressive speculators, who offer small but alluring quantities of hard cash in exchange for property deeds.
Renters face a different situation. The are being squeezed as monthly fees tick upward, and must either cope with higher prices or find cheaper places to live. The housing picture in Woodlawn is muddied by a paucity of concrete information, different community groups say, but they make clear threat the sizzling real estate market could drive residents out.
The dinosaurs of Woodlawn, seniors getting screwed
...'Tony' said that low-income residents would be flushed from Woodlawn within the next three years. "Come back in 2008. You won't see any of us...no black people, unless they've got money. We'll be dinosaurs."
Karen King, the director of the Woodlawn New Communities Program (NCP) the umbrella organization for community redevelopment, said that this type of land grab is happening all over the community. "When you hear about seniors selling their homes for a quarter of what they're worth, it's like, 'You're getting screwed,'" she said.
According to 2000 U.S. Census data, almost 30 percent of the owner-occupied homes in Woodlawn are less than $70,000. More than 35 percent of the homes are between $70,00 to $100,000. To protect homeowners from selling their homes far below market value, the NCP is developing programs and newsletter to teach Woodlawn resident owners about responsible homeownership.
While community institutions are working to minimize the number of poor residents who might be forced out, King said it is very possible that some will leave Woodlawn. "People here don't understand that if I have a piece of property, a three flat or something, and I want to sell it or turn it into condos, there's nothing that can stop me unless I'm breaking the law," King said. "People here don't understand the reality of economics, and we have to do a better job to educate them."
Housing database
Several different groups are working to create clearinghouses of information about Woodlawn. King said that the NCP is developing a database for low-income housing opportunities and a housing center. "There's all kinds of stuff here, buildings that are partially low and moderate housing," she said. "Quite frankly, it's phenomenal what we are finding."
Sonya Malunda, the University's director of Community Affairs, said Woodlawn needs a better system of tracking and managing the supply of affordable housing. "What's missing here is some type of affordably housing database so we can track the number of affordable housing units in Woodlawn," she said. "We know there's a demand. There's a citywide, nationwide demand for affordable housing. In Woodlawn in particular, we want to ask: Where is the current supply, and what can we do to support the preservation of that affordable housing?"
Alex Goldenberg [with STOP] said that his group is currently compiling information about housing in Woodlawn. [The article says that STOP is trying to undercut the broadbased program for community improvement. In a rebuttal article, Courtney Douglas of STOP says that it rather wants to include the perspectives of the low-income and has arranged a meeting between People of Woodlawn and the redevelopment umbrella.]
Renters
For renters, King admitted there was no clear solution to rising prices. King said that the community has probably seen an increase in Section-8 voucher residents because woodlawn landlords have grown to accept the arrangement, in which they receive part of the rent from residents and part from government subsidy. But low-income residents not on vouchers--and those who simply have cheap apartments--are in a bind. "The landlord's taxes are going up and the property's getting more valuable," she said. "It's a really difficult situation, and we haven't figures it out. It's something that should be vetted."
Stringing us out-Grove Parc. No plans to close.
The largest public housing complex in Woodlawn is Grove Parc Plaza, a 504-unit honeycomb of low-rise apartment buildings along Cottage Grove Avenue. Conceived during the University's negotiations with the Temporary Woodlawn Organization (TWO) during the early '60s, Grove Parc is the center of conversation about low income housing in Woodlawn. Its closing would drastically alter the real estate picture--both for low-income residents looking for housing, and for real estate developers considering the overall quality of the neighborhood.
Residents said living conditions are deplorable [from rats to leaks to ringworm to lead paint...Monique [fearful to use her last name] said she dose not care if Grove Parc is closed or if she is forced out. "All we care about is fixing the apratments...The management, they're stringing us out." Tiana...said there are rumors that the building will close. "Every year they tell us different stuff....But right now they're nit-picking, kicking out people who break the smallest rules so they don't have to give as many Section-8 vouchers when they decide to close."
Rudy Nimocks, chairman of the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corporation, which owns the complex, admitted that the buildings need extensive work but said there is not enough funding. He defended the buildings, however, and said they had never failed an inspection.
If Grove Parc is closed, the Section-8 building subsidies might not be replaced elsewhere in the neighborhood, King said. "Closing Grove Parc would inundated Woodlawn with low [income] people...The community needs Grove Pr, because it would be very difficult for the people who live there now to find enough other places to live in Woodlawn." [Courtney Douglas with STOP also points out why "more section 8s" is a very weak reed for either individuals or the community to rely on.]
Nimocks said there are no immediate plans to renovate or close Grove Parc. "We're going to be trying to find a better way for Grove Parc.... We need to find out how much it will cost to do certain changes over there.. It's going to take a lot of money to make changes--more money than Grove Parc can generate." Nimocks said that the biggest problem at Grove Parc is criminal activity and drug trafficking. He noted that officers have identified 65 to 60 apartments that are drug dens or the homes of drug dealers. "It was a shoddily built place in the first place," he said. "Some of that shoddiness is coming to the fore."
Starbucks on each corner
Nimocks said he does not foresee any low-income residents being priced out of Woodlawn. Visions of Woodlawn as a yuppie community with a Starbucks on each corner are simply incorrect, he argued, and the demand for high-end homes will not be great enough to push out the low-income residents. "I'm concerned, but there's only so much that each organization can do," he said. "We don't have complete control over the prices of homes."
Nimocks said that it is impossible to tell at this point what the demand is for low-income housing. "Looking into my crystal ball, I don't know how many apartments are going to be built in Woodlawn that you can rent with a voucher," he said. "I don't think anyone knows. As this neighborhood renovation goes on, maybe those number will come out. But right now, I don't think anyone has the foggiest."
Organizations seek to revitalize Woodlawn: Groups target neighborhood business, housing for improvement.
When Rudy Nimocks moved into Woodlawn in 1952, his family's home was in a desirable, mixed-income community. "It was very stable, a very nice place to live," he said. Over the years, Nimocks said, Woodlawn fell into disrepair. Middle class residents moved out. Homes rotted. Lots became vacant. Drug peddling and drug consumption flourished, and along with them came violent crime. "It became practically a ghetto," Nimocks said. "The neighborhood just went completely down."
Since moving to Woodlawn, Nimocks has become the director of the University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) and chairman of the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corporation (WPIC), and organization dedicated to community improvement that is the lead agency behind the Woodlawn New Communities Program (NCP).
Established organizations, including WPIC and NCP, are working to revitalize Woodlawn into a vibrant mixed-income neighborhood. But newer groups have taken root, saying current development does not reflect the interests of Woodlawn residents and demanding more representation for the poor.
WPIC was formed in 1989 to help Woodlawn become a better neighborhood, according to Nimocks. The organization bought Grove Parc, the public housing complex rife with drugs and crime, from the Department of Housing and Urban Development for a negligible amount of money, Nimocks said.
"We knew that if it was taken over by developers, then all the people there on subsidized housing would be gone," he said. WPIC fought in the 1990s to have the elevated 63rd Street Green Line tracks, which harbored prostitution and drug peddling, removed from Cottage Grove Avenue to Dorchester Avenue, according to Nimocks. "It was a forboding corridor, a canyon out there,"Nimocks said.
WPIC has worked to renovate 63rd Street, which has recently seen condos built along it, and still has swaths of open land where the Green Line tracks once sat. "The restoration of 63rd Street is pivotal to bringing Woodlawn back," Nimocks said. "We also foresee a new shopping center." According to Metro Edge, a market intelligence firm, Woodlawn "leaks" about $90 million in potential revenue each year because of a lack of local business.
Along with WPIC's call for real estate development in Woodlawn is NCP. It is an initiative to strengthen Chicago neighborhoods through business, real estate, employment, and education. Woodlawn NCP is backed by three organizations: WPIC, the University of Chicago, and the Woodlawn Organization (TWO). NCP started in November, 2003, and will run until May 2010, with the possibility for an extension.
Woodlawn NCP director Karen King has high hopes for the program, but knows the community has a long way to go. "There's no social life here, there's no cultural life here, there's not enough businesses here," she said.
In May 2005, the Woodlawn NCP published a report, "Woodlawn: Rebuilding the Village." The quality of life report described living conditions in Woodlawn and presented a working list of eight strategies, including youth programming, education, business opportunities, and the creation of affordable housing. The report is the lynchpin for the future of Woodlawn because it is the working document of the Woodlawn NCPO, which is, in turn the umbrella organization of development.
The report lists 47 projects, which include creating a chamber of commerce, opening a center for working families, and developing two new charter schools. "To become a community of choice will require a full range of social and recreational amenities, safe streets, high-quality education for people of all ages, and an even stronger sense that Woodlawn is a tightly knit community, where residents know each other and work together," according to the report, which includes several neighborhood improvement projects like an injury-free playground, live-work space for artists, and health fairs and screenings. Another focus for the NCP is an integrated child-care program, in which youth are not segregated along wealth lines.
Another group that supports much of the NCP's work but is also highly critical of it is the Student/Tenant Organizing Project (STOP). One of STOP's priorities has been to forestall the conversion of the Woodlawn Redevelopment Number TWO project, according to STOP organizer and fourth-year in the College Alex Goldenberg.
The project, championed by the real estate wing of TWO, would transform about 100 units of Section-8 public housing units into market-rate homes, Goldenberg said. He cited a letter sent to residents in January saying the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) might not renew the affordable housing contracts.
"A few people moved out because they were threatened," Goldenberg said. "That letter tells us their agenda is to turn these apartments into market rate buildings." Earlier this month, management told tenants they had to be out by next May so the buildings could be converted to condos, Goldenberg said.
Goldenberg said STOP has been trying to get Leon Finney, the chairman of TWO, to commit publicly that he will not transform the buildings. Finney did not return multiple calls to comment for this article.
University officials, when discussing their involvement in the NCP, are quick to note that they are a "minority partner." The University's role is largely to provide space, expertise, or technical assistance for the NCP, according to Sonya Malunda, the University's director of Community Affairs.
The University also has a program to help employees purchase homes, offering financial advice and a $7,500 forgivable loan, Malunda said. There are currently 70 employees enrolled in the prog dam, and Malunda expects another 20 more by the end of the academic year. "It's our way of saying 'we're in a wonderful community,'" Malunda said. "It's a redeveloping community in many ways. What can we do as an institution so our employees who aren't already living here are able to purchase homes?'
According to Hank Webber, the vice president for Community Affairs, about 40 percent of the participants in the program purchased homes in Woodlawn. Malunda said the program has targeted middle-income employees, and it includes single mothers and first-time homeowners. "We're trying to make purchasing a home a reality," she said. "Without our help it would just be a dream. We're trying to turn dreams into reality."
But STOP said that community organizations should take more responsibility for the economic forces driving out low-income Woodlawn residents. "It's a cop-out to blame displacement on economic forces," said Goldenberg. "When you build housing, property taxes go up. It gets more expensive everywhere in the community. The real estate organizations here definitely have control over changes in th housing economy."
To keep a place for current residents, Goldenberg estimates that 25-40 percent of all new home units would have to be designated low income. Citing the Balanced Development Coalition, Goldenberg said development should be split evenly between market rate homes, "affordable" homes, and low-income rentals.
When asked why developers would want to designate such a large fraction of their investments for low-income residents and therefore lose extra revenue, Goldenberg said development in the community would still be a winning investment.
STOP, which has received grants from the Ford Foundation and the Woods Fund, is active in developing organizers and homegrown activists who can articulate their desires for Woodlawn. Many of the NCP's projects are worthwhile but none create strong community leaders, Goldenberg said. He gave employment as an example. "Instead of having a job fair or training, we would start a research campaign to learn about the economy, understand why there was a lack of jobs in this area, and then work to develop them." Goldenberg said."It's a basic distinction of social service providing versus organizing."
The University is the largest employer on the South Side, employing about 13,000 people, according to Larry Arbeiter, director of University communications. "Our presence here supports numerous small businesses and landlords in the community," Arbeiter said. He noted that an important part of the current campus plan is the University's business diversity program, which has provided more tha $100 million of contracts to minority- and women-owned businesses in Chicago in the last six years.
By Isaac Wolf
The University hosted a conference in January 2005 to promote artistic and nonprofit development across the South Side. At the conference, "Enhancing Assets," the University's award-winning art historian Martha Ward gave a lecture on curatorship. Following her talk, a Chicago cultural policy expert lectured on the private galleries and collections across the South Side.
What happened next was a striking moment for Dean of Humanities Danielle Allen. "The museums discussed were five minutes from Cochrane-Woods," said Allen, referring to the art center on campus. "This professor, Marty Ward, an expert art historian sitting beside me, had no idea they existed. It as in her backyard," Allen, who is also executive director of the group that hosted the conference said. "She was intrigued by and and interested in what she was seeing," Allen said. "She was grateful to learn about the private galleries." This was one example given by Allen of the University's disconnect with the South Side. "There are pockets of knowledge," she said. "There's not a lot of flow."
Allen's organization, the Civic Knowledge Project (CKP) , is working to interconnect the University with the surrounding communities. The idea behind her project is that successful democracies gather strength from their ability to generate "remarkable rapid knowledge transmission across geographic and social barriers," she writes on the CKP website.
"A central goal of the Civic Knowledge Project," she continued, "is to lead the University in generating modes of knowledge transmission between itself and its surrounding knowledge communities that might help jump start, in places where it has broken down or has never existed, the process of cultural circulation and mutual influence that is crucial to socioeconomic mobility and fluidity, and successful democratic practice.
The CKP is not a one-way street, and the South Side communities have important expertise to share with the University. "First-year students don't know the South Side," Allen said. "They don't know how to move around, where to find good food and music." Similarly, she said, "The University administration doesn't know what people in the surrounding community are thinking and doing."
While the CKP works to stitch together University and community voices, other community organizations have less harmonious relationships, and there appears to be a breakdown in the ability to create a forum including all groups.
Criticism of community improvement plans by the Student/Tenant Organizing Project (STOP) reflects a struggle between community organizations to gain the voice of Woodlawn residents and illustrates the difficulty in communication among civic groups.
"Who's defining the political lay of the land is who's got a leadership role in it, " Allen said, adding that she has never seen a forum or conversation about Woodlawn that has encompassed all different views.* One of the biggest challenges has always been to make sure the conversation is broad enough," she said.
STOP organizers say community forums are rigged against introducing ideas outside what the established organizations want to hear. One of STOP's projects has been to organize a "town hall" forum to discuss Woodlawn issues--but in what STOP deems a fair environment. University and community representatives have refused to come, according to organizer and fourth-year in the college Alex Goldenberg. "They knew we were going to push them on issues they didn't want to be pushed on," Goldenberg said. "They're interested in a lot of dialogue that doesn't mean anything, that doesn't have accountability.
The [New Communities Program] NCP has included the participation of 300 Woodlawn residents, according to the May 2005 report. Hank Webber, the vice president for Community Affairs, said there is a place at the University for students and alumni who care about the community but have different views. He said the University believes the two-year New Communities Program (NCP) planning process was t he "best existing consensus of the hopes of Woodlawn residents," and included recommendations to preserve low-income homes. " I am disappointed that STOP did not participate in this community-based process," Webber said.
Karen King, the NCP director, took a different stance, saying that criticism was understandable. Between the last community meeting in June 2004 and the report's publication in May 2005, there was an almost year-long lack of communication, King said. "There was a vacuum, and in that vacuum people believed they were being left out," she said.
King said efforts are being made to address the concerns of Woodlawn residents ho have shifted toward STOP, and she hopes they will return to NCP. "This is very inclusive," she said. "It will be steered toward them." King says she knows Woodlawn residents worry their interests are not being represented, but think the benefits of NCP will shine. "I know people are afraid," she said. "But when you talk about schools being improved, those are schools people's children attend. When you talk about activities for seniors or after-school programs for kids, that's for everyone."
Two hundred Woodlawn residents have become involved in STOP, Goldenberg said. He said that the NCP has adopted some of of STOP's agenda, including workshops on tenant's rights and the rights of subsidized housing. "The NCP" stands for something much bigger than that document," he said of the May 2005 Quality of Life Plan. "It stands for a continuation of the history of exclusion in the shaping of the people of Woodlawn's future."
Goldenberg said that the NCP is a power-play, and he said the same ting is happening all over Chicago. "It's not a question of 'is the NCP going to get power' or 'is the University going to get power,'" he said. "It's a question of 'are the people going to get power.' At the end of the day, it isn't possible for both to have power," Goldenberg added.
Some, including President Don Randel, were critical of STOP. When presented the March 2004 PowerPoint presentation that STOP members leaked to the Maroon, Randel called the group "a campaign to make us [University administrators involved in real estate] look like the monsters that we aren't" Randel also said, "There's a kind of conspiracy theory, and some of your classmates, your former classmates, are trying to stir that pot by acquiring this set of documents. I would guess by illicit means."
Rudy Nimocks, the chairman of WPIC and a Woodlawn resident since 1952, used stronger words to respond to STOP's accusation that not all residents are included in NCP. "That's bullshit," Nimocks said."It was done by people in the community, people I've known for years and years and years." Nimocks said that no one had been left out of the planning process, and any Woodlawn resident could have been involved.
His message to STOP members: "Where were they when the five-year plan was being developed? he said., referring to the May 2005 NCP report. "They come after this thing is complete and say, 'Well, we don't like it and we weren't involved.' But why weren't you involved? Where were you? Nimocks added, "Now we're in the implementation stage. We've formed committees, and now we're executing ideas. Now we're changing the community."
[*This editor has been at at least 3 such forums, sometimes close to shouting matches, where a huge variety of views were expressed and debated in detail, although certainly with nothing close to consensus emerging or avoiding lightning-rodism, and it is very difficult to get large numbers from deep Woodlawn in attendance.] Top
February 16, 2007 Maroon article. Rocky past, neighborhood influence development plans. By Sara Jerome
Discussions continue both on campus and in the community as to whether the University has negotiated a balance between executing its development strategies and preserving the Woodlawn neighborhood in its southward campus construction projects.
Development plans south of the Midway include the creation of a new dorm, the Center for Creative and Performing Arts, parking and office facilities on Drexel and Woodlawn Avenues, and renovations to the Law School and to the former Illinois Bell Telephone building on Kenwood Avenue.
Improving Midway landscaping is also on the development agenda. The Campus Master Plan includes blueprints for a South Winter Garden between South Plaisance Drive and East 60th Street that will resemble current gardens on the Midway.
Hank Webber, the University's vice president for Community Affairs, said the school has worked hard to establish an open dialogue width locals about south campus development. In an effort to build ties with the surrounding neighborhood, the University plans to pen the new dorm's cafe and dining hall to the public. "The goal over time is to have a vibrant campus edge," Webber said. "We're committed to the Woodlawn community."
Upon assuming office, President Robert Zimmer addressed communal wariness of University expansion, reaffirming the school's promise not to expand south o feast 61st street, as laid out in a civil rights-era agreement with Woodlawn community organizers.
Nevertheless, the University faces ongoing criticism from locals wary of the school's expansion. "Those who have a negative image see the University as encroaching within their neighborhood, encouraging the gentrification of the neighborhood, patrolling their neighborhood not for the residents, but for the University community that now lives in their neighborhood," said Wallace Goode, associate dean of students and director of the University Community Service Center.
"Local interest in University development stems from a belief that the school's decisions have a major impact on the surrounding neighborhoods. "Where does an 800-pound gorilla sleep? Goode asked. "When we hiccup, the repercussions are felt [in the community]."
Webber called th e University "an anchor institution" that exerts "a large economic influence" on the area. He said that 20 to 25 percent of housing transactions in Hyde Park involve people connected to the University. Of the University's 14,000 employees, 4,000 live in the area, according to Webber.
Alderman Leslie Hairston of Ward 5 said despite its considerable influence in Woodlawn, the University is falling short in terms of positive contributions. She said Woodlawn could "use the resources the University could provide" and that the U of C has the potential to build a stronger community just south of it, rather than looking north toward "the upper class."
University officials sometimes downplay the University's impact on surrounding neighborhoods."We view ourselves as one of the citizens of Hyde Park, one of the components. We don't get to decide [the future of the community]," Zimmer said at a brownbag lunch [in early 1007].
Webber spoke in the same vein when he described the University's activities as just one factor that shapes the neighborhood, pointing to other causes involved in rising housing costs. "There are lots of forces that affect housing markets. The University is one, but there are many. To assume that the University drives those things is [an incomplete view]," Webber said.
Instead, Webber pointed to the federal government as the institution that's falling short in the affordable housing arena. "The fed hasn't been nearly as active in the last decade as they have been previously," he said, adding that "there are very rapid changes happening in Bronzeville, without any presence of the University."
Community views of University development ar complicated by the negative reputation the school accrued in the '50s and '60, the city's attempt to redevelop the area and reduce crime. Even in its time, urban renewal was criticized for displacing local businesses and forcing low-income tenants out of the area, prompting protesters to nickname it "Negro removal." "Some older residents of the South Side will never forgive or forget changes in the '50s under urban renewal," said Alderman Toni Preckwinkle, of Ward 4. "More recently, the University has worked hard to be a good neighbor." In fact, some see the University's more recent "good neighbor" initiatives as a form of penance for prior actions.
"There are those who want to right the thing the University did wrong with urban renewal," Goode said. "They've been here long enough to right those wrongs. I have to respect them for that." "We weren't always the world's best neighbor," Webber said speaking of the University's past, and added the U of C has "made a lot of progress."
The University's new "good neighbor" initiatives have included the creation of three charter schools, the investment of $1 million in a local nonprofit organization aiming to preserve affordable housing, and the expansion of the University Police Department beyond campus boundaries from East 39th to east 64th streets.
The University also "[provides] subsidies to faculty and staff who buy housing in areas beyond the traditional limits of the University's neighborhood," according to Danielle Allen, dean of the Humanities, in her book Talking to Strangers.
Grove Parc residents wary of University intrusion
Chicago Maroon, April 17, 2007. By Sara Jerome.
For FAith McGhee, the future is uncertain. The middle-aged security guard has lived in her three-bedroom Grove Parc Plaza apartment for over 19 years, but after two failed Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) inspections, her apartment complex will soon see drastic change. As final plans await HUD approval, Grove Parc's subsidized tenants aren't sure if the complex will change ownership, be redeveloped, or even face demolition, forcing them to find new homes.
For the last two decades, McGhee has maintained her apartment despite what some might see as managerial neglect. Adorning the walls with flowers and curtains, the single mother transformed the boxy living space into a pleasant spot for her three children to grow up in. Despite the difficulty of procuring a work order for problems like loose kitchen tiles or the smell she said sometimes emanates from the floor, McGhee's own routine repairs have kept her home in good shape. "I sweep my porch, I scrub, I put a floor down on my kitchen. When [management] didn't paint, I painted," she said.
McGhee stuck it out in Grove Parc through the years when Woodlawn wasn't as wealthy or safe as it is today. For a while, the complex was associated with gangs and criminal activity, said Ed Hinsberger, Chicago Director of HUD. Yet the thought of leaving now is devastating for McGhee. She breaks down in tears as she asks a question troubling many of Grove Parc's subsidized tenants: "Why do we have to leave now that the neighborhood is finally getting nice?" And McGhee, along with many of her neighbors, already has an answer in mind: because of the University of Chicago.
Since Summer 2004, the Student-Tenant Organizing Project (STOP) has galvanized tenants to take on the University as the force behind their current circumstances. STOP maintains that racist University policies are to blame for the potential displacement of Grove Parc's largely low-income black tenant population. With 325 Grove Parc residents officially backing STOP and 50 to 60 percent of residents endorsing it--according to STOP community organizer Alex Goldenberg (A.B. '06)--a sizable contingent of tenants see the University as the source of their problems.
Yet it's unclear whether they have reached this view because the University actually intends to pursue Grove Parc, or because organizers are exploiting the negative reputation the University garnered in the '50s and '60s, when it practiced what administrators now call racist and insular policies, to pit tenants against the University.
"There's a belief among some community organizations ...that argues that you should polarize issues. I don't believe that polarizing issues is very helpful," sasid Hank Webber, vice president of Community Affairs for the University. "I think that this is a hard problem... As for the claim that the University is some kind of bogeyman--the University is an enormous asset to the South Side of Chicago."
STOP, composed of students and local organizers, maintains that the University has veiled intentions to control the outcome of Grove Parc Plaza and that it has been eying that property for years. In its literature on the Grove Parc situation, STOP points out that Grove Parc is situated in what might be a desirable location for the school. The 504-unit complex sits on Cottage Grove Avenue from 60th to 63rd Streets. It falls between campus and the Green Line, "the only subway line within walking distance of the campus," STOP says.
STOP argues that the University has the power to ameliorate the situation by promising to support current tenants. The University is a major force in the Woodlawn area and has two members--Webber and Rudy Nimocks, executive director of the U of C Police Department--on the board of Grove Parc's ownership, the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corporation (WPIC). Valerie Jarrett, a University trustee, is managing director and executive vice president of Habitat Company, which manages Grove Parc.
"If the University takes a stance publicly, it would happen," said Goldenberg, on the potential for resolving the situation with minimal hardship for tenants. "The University just has to issue a press release and speak out at a meeting."
Administrators say the University is only minimally involved with Grove Parc. "[Influencing the situation is] not the University's proper role," Webber said. "The University wants to contribute tot he quality of woodlawn. We do that in a variety of ways. We are represented on a set of community [boards such as WPIC]. It's not our proper role to be making the final land use decisions."
According to Nimocks, the University is only involved in Grove Parc in positive ways and is limited in influence. "The University is doing everything they possibly can," Nimocks said. "We've been working a long time on this in the most equitable way possible."
STOP substantiates its accusations against the University with a leaked 2004 PowerPoint presentation delivered to the Board of Trustees entitled "The University of Chicago: Strategy for Property Acquisition," in which a private consultant group indicates that controlling Grove Parc would "strengthen connections to mass transit" and "[provide opportunities] for additional commercial amenities." The extent to which the University considered this prospect is unclear, and administrators maintain that the documents do not reflect its current strategies.
McGhee hesitated moment when asked if the University is responsible for her situation. "There was always a rumor in the air," she said. After prompting from Goldenberg, however, she added that before she met the STOP organizers, she "was in denial" about the University's negative role. When she read a STOP flyer and decided to attend a STOP meeting in Washington Park two years ago, "I started finding out a lot of things I didn't know," she said. She agrees with STOP's view that the University is pursing an aggressive course in part out of racism. "I think if it were low-income white people, things would be different," Goldenberg said.
As a result, tenants are focusing on the University in their struggle. In their most recent effort, a group of tenants and STOP members attended a March event at which Webber was speaking and, according to Goldenberg, "grilled him" on the University's involvement with Grove Parc. In turn, Webber agreed to pass along their complaints to the board of ownership, a promise that he fulfilled. Goldenberg said Webber did not do enough, noting that Webber's rhetoric pertains to his "personal" hopes that the tenants' demand abe met, but that Webber seems less altruistic when charged with speaking on the University's behalf. "I don't think it's genuine," Goldenberg said of the concern Webber has voiced.
In agreement with STOP, 20th Ward Alderman Arenda Troutman said the University has more interest in Grove Park than it is willing to admit. "For years they've always said they're not interested in Grove Parc. I don't believe that to be true. It's too close to the entryway of U of C. Of course they're interested in seeing what happens there," she said. "The University with all their influence and influential people can step up and do a better job [in helping the community]."
Nevertheless, others minimized the University's role in the Grove Parc situation. Ed Hinsberger, HUD's Chicago Director, said the University has not played a large role in negotiations with HUD. In proposals for Grove Parc's future, he said, the University "wouldn't have control over how the building is managed."
Laura Lane, the executive director of the ownership entity WPIC, also downplayed the University's influence. "I understand where some of these rumors started. In the time that I've been here, the University hasn't had a lot to do with it," she said. "They're community stakeholders, and they have a voice on our board. but in terms of negotiation and all that fun stuff, they haven't been participating as a formal entity in any other way."
Hinsberger said he could not predict when final plans for Grove Parc would be announced, adding, "It's in bad shape and something needs to happen soon."
By Gary Ossewaarde. Maroon coverage follows.
A lively forum was held Wednesday, Nov. 23 on Woodlawn revitalization. The forum was sponsored by UC Recognized Student Organization Giving Tree, but was also part of an ongoing follow up to the "congress" convened by U of C on South Side past and future redevelopment in April, 2004.
Speaker/answerers at the event in the Ida Noyes Cloisters were Hank Webber, UC Vice President of Community and Governmental Affairs, Dr. Leon D. Finney, for The Woodlawn Organization, Mattie Butler, Woodlawn East Community and Neighbors, and Matthew Ginsberg-Jaeckle of Student/Tenant Organizing Project. Moderator was David Hays of the University Service Center.
In extended remarks and in answers to questions from the moderator and audience, the speakers made the following suggestions and proposals:
Mattie Butler: In the immediate future Woodlawn will become increasingly diverse in incomes and housing, but what's being built currently is almost entirely high-end market: the unit prices range from $179,000 to over $500,000. A goal should be to at least no net loss in affordable housing for the 14,000 currently in Woodlawn, including the 1,400 in Section 8 accepting housing.
She also said that the University is involved and will increasingly be involved in Woodlawn. She asked that the University be a true partner, especially with the thousands of working and low-income people--"the keepers of the land" who stayed through the hard times. UC needs to help develop the skills of the people of Woodlawn and lobby for federal, state and local programs that will help communities and residents like Woodlawn. Specifics the University could help with directly and/or lobby for include public safety, affordable housing, support for the proposed affordable set-aside housing ordinance, and use the School of Public Policy as a think tank for the South Side.
Leon Finney: Woodlawn's history has always been as a moderate income community. Turnover east of Cottage Grove was followed accompanied by conversions and crowding, protest against this, and, especially from 1963-80, by disinvestment--torching for insurance--and depopulation. So it became heavily a place of vacant lots. Today, at most 1,700 units are section 8, all in buildings owned or run by WECAN and TWO/WPIC--section 8 is a rental program--and maybe should have an ownership component.
The Jackson Park Terrace complex on Stony Island, under TWO, was recently refurbished and will remain low-income section 8 because refinancing was made possible by the University's long-term extension of its lease. It is otherwise almost impossible to get financing or refinancing, let alone federal funding or subsidy, for any complex or development that is primarily low-income: one at 26th and King will probably be the last. There are no financing structures and CHA is taking all of Chicago's allotment. There is nothing on the horizon from Congress; we need a new push at the state and federal levels . TWO was able to keep the Park Shore East complex at Harper subsidized. Mixed income projects are the only possibility now, and it's necessary to get a set-aside ordinance, court those developers committed ("sharing common purpose") to including affordability, and pressure other developers--but you can't force someone who buys up property to conform.
Finney called on the University to extend its apprenticeship programs in new construction campus wide and set up a training institute for young and working age people, including a set-aside bank of University jobs. People don't want to be poor or have to keep moving around but they can't stay in a stable community if they can't get jobs. Next, Finney called on the University to step up its initiatives in Woodlawn schools, including its tutors in schools--revive SWAP. He encouraged UC students to tell of the needs here in their home communities--and take the red states back, while getting involved in Woodlawn programs. Finney also asked the university to use its strength with the financial community to open the way to building on the vacant lots, including affordable.
Matthew Ginsberg-Jaeckle, who has led a wide variety of organizing and social-services projects in many places of the world, said basically that the words of the University with regards to communities have often failed in its deeds and that members of the university must organize to hold the university accountable to more than its core corporate mission. He asked whether the University consults those in Woodlawn who are affected the most by its decisions and nods. He said the university is not accountable and this is why (according to him) little tangible has been done to connect with Woodlawn residents since the September presentation on the South Campus Plan. An example of how the University's encouragement of housing redevelopment in fact drives out low-income people: putting high-end housing next to affordable housing drives up taxes then rents until the "affordable" units either aren't affordable or get converted to high end.
Henry Webber, University of Chicago Vice President for Community and Government Affairs, not only recited a wide variety of help-programs and other involvement in Woodlawn and countered some criticisms but also responded favorably to several of the suggestions made by other panelists and members of the audience. He agreed that the University should be held accountable for how many it employed from Woodlawn and trained from Woodlawn and should encourage and enable student and faculty involvement in programs in Woodlawn. He was expressed interest in a proposed student-department fact-and-options finding "pilot" project in Woodlawn (South Shore was also proposed by an audience member). He responded favorably to the proposal for a University-wide apprenticeship and job bank program. On the housing front especially, he noted two ways for the university to be active: as an institution -especially for housing, healthcare, policing, schools, and other resources, and through amenities being added in the South Campus Plan. The university can also be active in developing and advocating for new policies at all levels. Housing is a tough nut; bringing everyone together pulling together is promising. He said the university cannot carry the burden alone but must partner, especially with the New Communities Project, which is striving to develop a comprehensive strategic plan for Woodlawn.
Karen King, leader of the New Communities Project, appealed for UC students to become involved in the dozens of on-the-ground projects going on in Woodlawn. She said the Project is committed to helping the residents, to a real strategic plan, and to a mixed-income community.
There were some strong expressions of distrust and accusations against both the University and Woodlawn organizations, esp. of Dr. Finney, most harshly by a representative of MOVE, a political organization. Finney refuted specific charges with facts and statistics. The Move representative had to be encouraged to stop disrupting the program.
Most felt the program was highly constructive, Mr. Webber offered to meet with several making suggestions, thanked the suggesters and said we can now go forward.
University affirms commitment to affordable housing - Panel fails to discuss Grove Parc Plaza apartments, Webber reiterates University's pledge to not build south of 61st Street.
Chicago Maroon, November 30, 2004. by Carl Pickerill
The University Community Service Center (UCSC) panel held last Tuesday at Ida Noyes discussed the University's commitment to affordable housing in Woodlawn, but did not address the possible closing of the Grove Park Plaza apartment complex. By failing to address the Grove Pac Plaza situation, University officials sidestepped an issue which community activists have emphasized: The possibility that the University will expand south of 61st Street. If closed....some 500 families would be evicted from their low-income apartments. [See following item.]
Tuesday' UCSC event, sponsored by The Giving Tree and featuring panelists from the University and the community, discussed affordable housing in Woodlawn. Henry Webber, the director of community affairs, Reverend Leon Finney of the Apostolic Church of God [sic- Christ Apostolic] and director [emeritus] of The Woodlawn Organization (TWO), Mattie Butler, director [sic] of Woodlawn East Community and Neighbors, and Matt Ginsberg-Jaeckle, recent graduate (BA '04) and a student organizer with the Student Tenant Organizing [Project] (STOP) shared their views nd concerns to about 200 attendees at Ida Noyes.
Butler spoke first, on the need for more affordable housing in Woodlawn, challenging the University to "be more involved with Woodlawn" and to "truly work as a partner with the economically-challenged members of the community."
Webber and Finney then commented upon the need for more state and federal funding for affordable housing. Ginsberg-Jaeckle go his turn about 15 minutes later. The tone of the panel, however, had already largely been set. He was the only speaker critical of University policy. "the only way to ensure that the University does what it says it is going to do is to organize for the sake of holding it accountable," said Ginsberg-Jaeckle. "the University is one thing in public, but privately its decisions are quite different."
Ginsberg-Jaeckle was largely unable to shift the focus of the forum onto the preconceived inability of the University to improve its relations with its southern neighbors. He emphasized that Woodlawn residents "can't ever really trust the University," asking if the University will" ever take the community's interests into account."
Webber detailed the University's construction plans in the coming years. Retail, parking and a dormitory will be going up on 61st Street in the coming years. By 2020 the University should see a new hotel and a performing arts center "all on plots of land that the University owns," Webber said. Webber repeated the pledge made by the University in 1964 "not to build on land south of 61st Street." He reiterated the "commitment" that the University has of supporting the community and stressed the "challenge of ensuring economic diversity in Woodlawn, as the neighborhood develops."
The tone was in stark contrast to the Angels of Def event "Bursting the Bubble: Everything you wanted to know about Woodlawn but were to afraid to ask," held on NOv. 17. [See below.] There, community members and student organizers expressed their reservations about possible University expansion south of 61st Street, and the possibility of the destruction of Grove Parc Plaza.
Ginsberg-Jaeckle asked rhetorically if "the University will go south of 61st Street, although Hank Webber said they will not." But his voice seemed to go both unaided and unanswered throughout the panel.
Reverend Leon Finney incited a strong response. He bemoaned the lack of a "housing bill to create funding for affordable housing. The days of developments for only low-income tenants are over unless something is passed on the national level."
His comments about jobs in Woodlawn drew the ire of one participant. After saying that Woodlawn's "young people need jobs to ensure that we have the ability to stay in the neighborhood," an attendee named Paul from the Voice of the Ex-Offender (VOTE) took Finney to task during he question-and-answer session. He accused Finney of not employing black residents at the South Park Plaza development at 26th Street and Martin Luther King Drive, a mixed-income development managed by the Woodlawn Community Development Corporation, of which Finney is chairman. The heckler then hurled racial insults at Fined and disrupted subsequent questions before being escorted out of the building.
Finney kept his cool and said that TWO employees 476 black men and women throughout the South Side. "Sixty percent of all men and women who worked on South Park Plaza were African American," he said. Finney added that the University"needs to become invigorated to seek opportunities to partner with us to complete projects on the South Side. The average African American community needs to use its resources and coalesce with the University. The University has the ability to help with investment funds to help build a community."
While Ginsberg-Jaeckle said in a phone interview that he "didn't necessarily agree with the heckler's tone, that kind of anger comes from somewhere and it needed to be expressed. He added that Finney and Webber have been deceiving the community and that people shouldn't ignore the "imbalance of power" that exists in the community. "My compliments go out to Hank and Leon," Ginsberg-Jaeckle said. "They did a good job of taking the real issue of University expansion out of the spotlight, instead making funding at the state and local level the culpable party in the issue of affordable housing."
Ginsberg said the lack of feedback from community residents in University decisions is deplorable and that the University should, "at the very least, organized more meetings to inform residents of future plans. As of yet nothing has been done." The exclusion of residents from the decision-making process's is "the base of all the problems of development in the neighborhood. There are other voices that would like to be at the table that aren't just TWO or the University."
Webber responded in a telephone interview: "The University is proposing to build on land it has owned well over 40 years. The University has no interest or plans in expanding south of 61st Street." Webber added that he looks forward to working with the community and that the results of the panel were quite positive. "The University is committed to working with a variety of groups in Woodlawn and to building a quality mixed-income community," Webber said...
[Note: from the report, complaints were mostly allegations that the Grove Parc Plaza apartments, a private complex under WPIC, may be closed at the disadvantage of low-income residents and that the University is in collusion with WPIC on such, and that the University is a controlling force in Woodlawn working toward gentrification and displacement-- a charge University officers vigorously countered. Criticism was also directed at TWO , WPIC, and Alderman Arenda Troutman (20th). This article is important in identifying players, perceptions, and dynamics. However, neither any particular view in the article or the tone of the reporter necessarily reflect those of this website or HPKCC. GMO]
The Chicago Maroon, November 19, 2004. by Carl Pickerill.
A few of Woodlawn and Grove Parc's tire, poor, and huddled masses gathered Wednesday night in Cob Coffee Shop at an RSO-sponsored event, putting a face on the community that will be largely driven by the University's expansion south of the Midway.
"Bursting the Bubble: Everything you wanted to know about Woodlawn but were afraid to ask," featured residents from the community, student organizers from Angels of Def, and questions from a curious audience of about 75 students.
Irate event participants directed their criticism not only at "University imperialism," as one Woodlawn resident called it, but also at Woodlawn community organizations. Drawing criticism were The Woodlawn Organization (TWO), headed by the Reverend Dr. Leon Finney, the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corporation (WPIC), founded by Bishop Arthur Brazier in 1987, and 20th Ward Alderman Arenda Troutman.
Of major concern was the potential closing of the Grove Parc Plaza apartments on Cottage Grove north of 63rd Street. Students and neighborhood tenant organizers have been behind a push to inform residents that they may soon be out on the streets.
Sharon Payne, a member of the Student/Tenant Organizing Project, said that Grove Parc residents believe they will receive vouchers for new housing if they are removed from the apartment complex. Grove Parc is however, not public housing. This means that the city shoulders no responsibility for providing new housing for displaced residents.
"They're either going to tear it down or turn it into town houses," Lonnie Richardson, Grove Parc resident and tenant organizer, said. Richardson said community leaders are hoping that a shopping center or high-priced homes will replace the low-income residences.
University Director of Community Affairs Henry Webber said in a telephone interview that the University is not going to purchase or develop land south of 61st Street."We are building on vacant University land," Webber said."The claim (that Grove Parc is being targeted for demolition) really flies in the face of facts."
Other residents expressed frustration that they are not being considered in the decision-making process. "(TWO) says that they represent the community's interests but they represent the community's interests but they don't" said Janice Fuller, a Woodlawn tenant organizer. "For one thing their meetings are closed to the public.." Fuller said that she and twenty other residents attempted to attend a TWO meeting a few months ago. TWO board members allegedly threatened to call the police to have Fuller and her companions removed.
TWO, once a staunch opponent of University expansion in the 60s and 70s, now manages 4,150 units of housing in Woodlawn. It has been a major developer in the neighborhood.
TWO said 10-15 years ago that the University was targeting the Grove Parc Plaza apartment on Cottage Grove north of 63rd Street for conversion into student dormitories, according to Richardson."Back then, we got buses together, organized a protest, and made it clear that we wanted to stay in those apartments," Richardson said.
He added that Grove Parc used to be populated by the working class. That has changed in past years. "Once WPIC took over, the apartments became subsidized," Richardson said. "They were paying working poor to move out." Residents suspect that the deterioration, crime, and poverty within the apartment complex serve as a pretext for its future demolition. Some residents believe that the University gives its tacit approval to WPIC's negligence of maintenance in hopes that there will soon be reason to close the complex.
Webber refuted those facts, and added that WPIC has spent several million dollars on refurbishing Grove Parc apartments, and that the University has helped with the crime issue by expanding University Police coverage to 64th Street and by posting individual police details within Grove Parc Plaza.
"There are challenges to providing high quality housing for people on very limited incomes," Webber noted. He said that WPIC as an organization is committed to keeping rents affordable, and encouraged tenants to raise any concerns they may have wit the executive director or staff of WPIC.
"The best way to get rid of residents in those places is to stop doing work on the decrepit buildings," [said] Sharon Payne, a member of STOP."There is a University board member who sits on the board of WPIC. They say there is no collusion, but there is a lot of it."
Webber, one of two University employees who sits on the board of WPIC, said he has made no secret of his board membership. Director of University Police Rudolph Nimocks chairs WPIC. "This fact is listed in my official bio," Webber said. "There is no hiding of any of this."
Event participants lacked definite answers to the question of the future of Grove Parc and Woodlawn. "I know someone who works for WPIC. She doesn't sit on th board, but knows about the plans for future development (in Grove Parc)," Fuller said. "And what she told me was, 'it's in the plans, it's coming down.'"
Residents and students claim to know why. Community organizer and University graduate Matthew Ginsberg-Jaeckle cautioned against taking the denials by University administration of University involvement in Grove Parc for granted. "(Henry) Webber was asked by a grove Parc resident at a recent meeting about the future of Grove Parc," Ginsberg-Jaeckle said. "Webber responded that he didn't know anything about that and that 'you'll have to ask WPIC.'" Ginsberg-Jaeckle said that webber sits on the board of WPIC, implying he would know their plans for development.
"I don't believe that the characterization of that exact quote is quite correct," Webber said. "I think I said that the question is best answered by the chairman of WPIC (Nimocks) who was in the room at the time of the meeting."
The University, for its part, distributed a memo to Woodlawn residents last month, detailing short-term projects for University construction north of 61st Street. Although the University has expressed commitment to not expanding past 61st Street, the only mention of "longer-term projects" was that they would begin by 2020. Despite its lack of land ownership south of 61st Street, the University has helped fund construction in Woodlawn.
Student/Tenant organizers are gearing up for next Tuesday's round table discussion featuring webber, Finney, Ginsberg-Jaeckle, and Mattie Butler, head of the Woodlawn East Community and Neighbors. The event will be held in the Ida Noyes Cloister Club at [7 pm or 7:15 pm?]. Food from Siam will be provided.
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Ed. Note. In a follow up letter, Michael Goldenberg, 3rd-year in the College, with Angels of Def, criticized this coverage on the following grounds:
Dan Weitzenfeld, a 4th-year in the College, wrote one of several letters in response to a November 22 op-ed piece by Ashley White-Stern entitled"University benevolence does not compensate for lasting inequality."
Weitzenfeld's points were:
Emily Mason, a 4th-year in the College, said:
Tha article was written by Lydialyle Gibson.
Due South: After decades of mistrust and misunderstanding, the University is getting reacquainted with Woodlawn.
It's possible to argue there's no such thing as Woodlawn. Geographically, the neighborhood is bounded by Jackson Park, King Drive, 60th Street, and 67th Street, but its true demarcations--its identity and unifying characteristics--are murkier. Woodlawn lacks the natural cohesion of other city neighborhoods: there are o softball leagues (or fields), no arts districts, few storefronts, and fewer community centers. Residents do not necessarily feel connected to each other or to the jostling neighborhood groups that claim to represent them. The vacant lots dotting the landscape both embody and contribute to Woodlawn's social fragmentation; the physical gaps between neighbors widen their isolation. Community gardening on empty property has become one of the area's few civic activities.
Until this decade, when development began picking up and new residents began moving in, Woodlawn's history was a marathon of decline. Between 1960 and 2000, its population fell from 81,279 to 27,086 as integration provoked furious white flight (in 1930 Woodlawn was 86 percent white; by 1960, 10.4; in 2000, 3 percent) and worsening poverty chased away middle-class blacks.
In the 1960s and '70s neighborhood deterioration* sparked "insurance fires" that claimed more than 100 buildings. Gangs commanded the streets. Taverns overtook 63rd Street's once-bustling commercial corridor, until finally most business died. Across t he Midway's grassy moat, meanwhile, the University raised its drawbridge. [* and inability of landlords to support costs during inflation and profits by chopping up units and charging steep rents]
After early-1960s protests foiled their urban-renewal hopes, some U of C officials ignored the neighborhood. Others sought engagement. In 1968 high-school basketball coach Larry Hawkins became inaugural director of the University's Office of Special Programs--a post he still holds-organizing Upward Bound curricula for youngsters in Woodlawn and elsewhere. By the 1970s Chicago's education dean began looking for ways to help local public-school principals. A few students tutor Woodlawn grade-schoolers, while individual professors offered after-school and summertime lessons in math and science.
Today many of those efforts have become institutional. Students and faculty volunteer through the Center for Urban School Improvement and Neighborhood Schools Project as tutors, mentors, and instructional coaches. They work with Woodlawn social-service agencies, the University Community Service Center, or activist groups like the Student/Tenant Organizing Project (STOP). The Office of Community Affairs seeks to preserve and create affordable housing, while the Civic Knowledge Project, an organization founded by Humanities dean Danielle Allen, aims for an unusual exchange: University book-learning for neighborhood memory and experience. Civic Knowledge Project staffers arrange programs, tutoring, and library access for local residents, who help catalog and archive their neighborhoods' cultural, economic and political histories. Even if Woodlawn residents haven's decided to trust the University, they're certainly seeing a lot moe of it.
Beat 313 meeting. ..Five officers listen as locals describe the drug deals [and more}...Three rows from the front, University Police Sergeant Jo/Cathy Roberts takes notes. [She offers comfort.] Roberts and other UCPD officers have been attending Woodlawn beat meeting for four years , ever since campus police agre