CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Chicago’s new planning commissioner says this time around, city officials will be doing the right things to bring community revitalization and investment back to some neighborhoods that have struggled the most in recent years.
However, if struggling neighborhoods on Chicago’s South and West sides are actually going to be revitalized, big changes need to be made from the way things have been done in the past.Chicago Planning Commissioner Maurice Cox admits there’ve been plans to redevelop neighborhoods like Humboldt Park, West Lawndale, Austin and Auburn Gresham before but they didn’t go very far. Reversing the disinvestment on the South and West Sides means there cannot be groups of planners working on cookie cutter redevelopment, he said.He plans to have one planning division for each of the city’s regions with specific workers on each neighborhood team.
“We would organize the work in the West,” Cox said. “There would be a housing component, a CDOT member, a planning member (and) a small business development. You would be able to coordinate your delivery of services.”Cox is spearheading Mayor Lightfoot’s plans to revitalize 10 communities that have suffered for years, even decades.But in order to succeed where past efforts have failed, he said community involvement will be crucial.
Cox said the overall vision will be for neighborhoods to have more vibrant commercial corridors and ultimately attract businesses and people back to the West and South Sides. According to new estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau in May, Chicago's West and South Sides decreased in population for the fourth straight year, while Downtown became more congested.