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Chicago Neighborhoods 2015: Assets, Plans and Trends – A project of The Chicago Community Trust
PILSEN LITTLE VILLAGE Ports of entry are regional centers of Mexican-American life
Pilsen and Little Village have been immigrant neighborhoods since their inception alongside the major
industrial corridors of the Southwest Side. For the past 50 years, they have been the cultural and
business centers for Chicago’s Mexican Americans.
Officially called the Lower West Side and South Lawndale, respectively, the communities have been
better known by their nicknames since the mid-20th Century, when they were largely Czech, Polish,
and Eastern European. The densely populated communities feature 120-year-old structures in the
4,200-building Pilsen Historic District, with slightly younger houses and two-flats in Little Village,
which was fully built up by the 1920s.
Today, Pilsen and Little Village are magnets for second- and third-generation Mexican Americans as
well as new immigrants. Hundreds of storefronts sell Mexican food, wedding and quinceañera gowns,
music, clothing, and housewares, drawing steady traffic especially on weekends. The annual Fiesta del
Sol in Pilsen and Mexican Independence Day Parade in Little Village draw huge crowds. Both
communities have flourishing art scenes that include galleries, murals, music venues, a Latino film
festival, and diverse programming for youth. Churches, social service agencies, and community
development organizations have built extensive support networks. And Pilsen, in
recent years, has been attracting the young and hip with resale shops, bars, and
trendy restaurants.
Amidst all this vitality and apparent economic health, the two communities remain
relatively poor compared to other Chicago neighborhoods, with household
incomes limited by low educational achievement and earning power. Nearly 30
percent of residents live below the poverty level. About half of those aged 25 and
older have not completed high school. In 2012, the unemployment rate was 15.8
percent.
Source: Calculations by Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University using 2010 Decennial Census.
Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Pilsen Little Village – February 2015 – Page 2
Despite a 15 percent population drop between 2000 and 2010,
due mostly to smaller family sizes, there is very little
residential vacancy. Both communities have solid blocks of
owner-occupied housing, often with decorative wrought-iron
fences and recently tuckpointed brick. But about 70 percent of
all households are renters, many living in older structures
with leaky windows and outdated utilities. Owners and
renters alike are “cost-burdened,” with about half in each
category spending more than 30 percent of their income on
housing.
Geographically unique
Pilsen and Little Village are isolated from their southern neighbors by a half-mile-wide corridor that
includes factories, railroads, the Chicago River South Branch or Sanitary and Ship Canal, and the
Stevenson Expressway (I-55). On the north, railyards and forbidding block-long underpasses separate
Pilsen from the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Illinois Medical District.
Little Village is bordered on the west by another industrial corridor, and on the north by a viaduct that
has long marked the racial dividing line with predominantly African-American North Lawndale. South
of 26th Street and east of Sacramento is the 96-acre Cook County Jail, which faces its host community
with high concrete walls and double barbed-wire fences. The jail’s average daily population of 9,000
residents is part of the district’s census count, which had fallen to 115,000 in 2010, from 135,000 a
decade earlier.
The district is well served with CTA bus service on all the major arteries and with Pink Line stations in
Pilsen and just north of Little Village at 21st Street. The #9 Ashland bus is the city’s busiest route with
30,000 riders a day; the planned Bus Rapid Transit system on Ashland would include a station at 18th
Street in the heart of Pilsen. Metra’s Heritage Line provides service to Western Avenue, but the station
served only 78 average riders on weekdays in 2014.
PILSEN LITTLE VILLAGE OVER TIME 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Population 107,293 120,075 126,744 135,102 115,057
Share of population in poverty 15.1% 23.5% 25.4% 26.7% 29.3%
Percent owner-occupied/renter occupied 33/67 32/68 32/68 32/68 29/71
Sources: Calculations by Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University using U.S. Census data from US2010 Project at Brown University.
Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Pilsen Little Village – February 2015 – Page 3
CTA Pink Line Ridership (weekday boardings, year-end averages, 2009 and 2013)
18th St. Damen Western California Kedzie Central
Park Pulaski Kostner
2009 1,517 1,243 991 1,182 860 1,039 1,041 1,127
2013 1,862 1,470 1,166 1,459 1,088 1,303 1,221 1,321
Source: Chicago Transit Authority Annual Ridership Reports.
Pilsen Little Village’s legacy of large industry and water transport created some of the district’s
strongest opportunities for future investment.
Parks and open space – With just 1.1 acres of open space per 1,000 residents, Pilsen Little Village has
the lowest share of park space among Chicago’s 16 planning districts. But reuse of former industrial
spaces is beginning to change that.
A 21-acre site west of Sacramento and north of 31st Street, degraded by industrial pollution and
asphalt dumping, has been capped and landscaped and will open as La Villita Park in 2015. The
$10.1 million park will include two artificial-turf playing fields, two natural-turf fields, a skate
park, playground, and picnic spaces. The City of Chicago is studying conversion of a 1.3-mile
Burlington Northern Santa Fe-owned railroad corridor to connect the park to the Chicago River.
Across 31st Street from the new park is the Collateral Channel, an unused boat dock that could
connect to additional green space along the Sanitary and Ship Canal.
Another BNSF-owned corridor, along Sangamon Avenue in Pilsen, is being re-envisioned as a
pedestrian-friendly “paseo.” The Pilsen Planning Committee’s 2006 quality-of-life plan, Pilsen: A
Center of Mexican Life, identified a four-block stretch of Sangamon for conversion into a
pedestrian connector; the southern-most block has already become a landscaped garden path.
In 2013, the City of Chicago filed a petition with the Surface Transportation Board to preserve
the railroad right-of-way for recreational uses.
The Chicago Park District has assembled three parcels where the Illinois and Michigan Canal
originally branched from the Chicago River. The Canal Origins Park and Canalport Riverwalk
Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Pilsen Little Village – February 2015 – Page 4
are partially developed; in 2016 a new boathouse will be added at Park #571, with a design
similar to the WMS Boathouse at Clark Park on the North Branch.
Large development sites – Five large parcels are in the process of redevelopment, each in a location
that could support additional nearby investment.
The Fisk and Crawford coal-fired powerplants were shut down in 2012 and will be demolished,
creating about 115 acres along the river and canal. The 2012 Fisk and Crawford Reuse Task
Force Final Report recommends redevelopment for clean industrial uses with adjacent green
space and trails along the water. Both sites are in existing industrial corridors where demand
for space remains strong.
The former Washburne trade school site at 31st and Kedzie is being redeveloped by the Chicago
Southwest Development Corporation as the Focal Point community campus, which would
include a replacement facility for the nearby St. Anthony Hospital alongside retail, wellness,
education, and recreational facilities. The developer is working with the City of Chicago to
acquire 11 additional acres adjacent to the core site.
The former Storkline furniture factory on Kostner Avenue at 26th Street is being converted into
148 units of affordable housing by the nonprofit Mercy Housing Lakefront. The long-vacant
factory building is at a strategic location on the west end of the 26th Street commercial corridor.
It is adjacent to the vacant 40-acre Chicago Central Industrial Park, which was identified for
potential housing and retail development in the 2005 and 2013 Little Village Quality-of-Life
Plans.
The former Chicago Sun-Times printing plant is being redeveloped as a $140 million, 400,000-
square-foot data center and tech-business hub, tapping Chicago’s high-speed fiber network.
Industrial corridors – The district has attracted substantial new investment in industrial facilities over
the past 20 years to serve produce distributors, food processors, metal fabricators, toolmakers, and
refrigerated storage companies. The newer facilities represent a small percentage of the district’s 1,600
acres of industrial land, much of which is now dedicated to low-value uses including garbage
processing, recycling, truck maintenance, and storage of trailers and shipping containers. One such
Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Pilsen Little Village – February 2015 – Page 5
plot, covering 16 acres at 3348 S. Pulaski, will be redeveloped in 2015 with a new 316,000-square-foot
distribution center. The district supports about 4,600 manufacturing jobs and 6,000 more in
wholesaling, transportation, and warehousing.
Retail evolution
Like the industrial areas, the retail districts of Pilsen and Little Village are visibly healthier than in most
other working-class neighborhoods in Chicago, with more than 1,000 small businesses spread along the
commercial arteries of 18th Street, Blue Island Avenue, Cermak Road, 26th Street, and 31st Street.
The corridor on 26th Street has more vacancies today than in past years, but still creates traffic jams
with its two-mile stretch of stores, restaurants, night clubs, banks, and service businesses, which draw
from across the Midwest. At 26th and Troy, the pink arch that proclaims Bienvenidos a Little Village is a
favorite of tourists and TV camera crews; at 26th and Rockwell on summer weekends, thousands
converge on Plaza Garibaldi for rodeos and for concerts by favorite banda and norteño groups from
Mexico.
Unique among Chicago neighborhoods, the district retains many corner stores on internal residential
streets, and supports secondary retail strips such as 25th Street, just a block from Little Village’s 26th
Street spine. In Pilsen, small businesses dot Leavitt Avenue between the bigger Damen and Western
corridors, and an enclave of Italian restaurants attracts citywide diners to Oakley Avenue in the Heart
of Chicago sub-neighborhood.
Cermak Road is a retail bridge between Little Village and Pilsen, serving both communities. The 18th
Street corridor in Pilsen was never as big or busy as 26th Street, but continues to offer a similar
selection of food stores, restaurants, artisan shops, botánicas, and service businesses. While retaining its
Mexican character, the strip has been influenced for decades by the artist community along Halsted
Street, and recently has evolved further as a mixed-retail environment.
The Halsted arts district was created by the Podmajersky family, which has been in the community
since 1914 and been marketing live-work spaces and galleries since the 1970s. Though sometimes
resented by local Mexicans as a gentrification threat, the arts district has survived and grown, and now
Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Pilsen Little Village – February 2015 – Page 6
coexists alongside a vibrant Latino-oriented arts culture that began with murals and today includes
galleries, performances featuring Mexican artists, music, and the National Museum of Mexican Art in
Harrison Park, which opened in 1987, expanded in 2001, and continues to offer free admission.
Recent years have seen considerable expansion of Pilsen’s cultural and historic resources. Redmoon
Theater relocated into the landmark Wendnagle building at Jefferson and Cermak, amongst a collection
of visually powerful bridges and industrial buildings called the Spice Barrel District, whose potential
was outlined in the 2007 study, Industrial Renaissance: Establishing a Creative Industries District. Parts
of the historic Schoenhofen Brewery complex have been rehabbed for modern uses, and scores of artists
and small businesses have set up shop in the Lacuna Artists Lofts, 2150 S. Canalport. Farther west at
18th Street and Allport, restaurant entrepreneurs Bruce Finkelman and Craig Goldman have restored
the 1892 limestone landmark, Thalia Hall, with a restaurant, bar, performance space, and retail shops.
Other new businesses include coffee shops, Mexican restaurants, a bike shop, fashion boutiques, and
resale stores. The Pilsen business district today is stronger than it was 10 years ago, and more diverse in
its offerings.
Source: Easy Analytic Software, Inc., updated January 2014, as displayed on Woodstock Institute Data Portal.
Challenges and opportunities
Pilsen and Little Village have remained vibrant over the decades because of continued investment and
commitment by small businesses, property owners, and public institutions, but at least as important
have been the efforts of individual leaders, community groups, churches, youth organizations,
Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Pilsen Little Village – February 2015 – Page 7
nonprofit development corporations, and social service agencies. The district’s activist culture remains
a major resource for addressing current and future challenges, which include gang-related violence,
weak schools, housing affordability, and low household incomes.
The Resurrection Project (TRP) was formed in 1990 to address the vacant lots and deterioration of older
buildings that discouraged Pilsen property owners from long-term investments. TRP partnered with
the City of Chicago to build 100 units of new housing, filling most of the vacant lots, and since has built
or rehabbed hundreds of additional units. In 2015 it will add 45 affordable rental apartments at Casa
Querétaro, on a former railroad silo yard at 17th and Damen.
TRP also provides financial training, foreclosure
prevention, small-business services, and education
programs, including construction and management
of La Casa Student Housing, a community-based
dormitory for college students at the CTA’s 18th
Street Pink Line stop.
Community partners have been equally
productive. Alivio Medical Center worked with
TRP on development of two new affordable
housing buildings next to its medical center at 21st
and Morgan, and opened in-school health centers
at Benito Juarez Career Academy and Orozco
Community Academy. Instituto del Progreso Latino offers employment and financial counseling
through its Center for Working Families and built a charter high school, Instituto Health Sciences
Career Academy, on Western Avenue. Pilsen Neighbors Community Council runs the Fiesta del Sol
and organizes the annual Pilsen Education Summit. Another educational resource is the Arturo
Velasquez Institute, a satellite campus of Daley Community College that offers programs in
manufacturing, office, and health careers.
EMPLOYMENT – PILSEN LITTLE VILLAGE
Top six employment sectors (# jobs) 2005 2011
Health Care and Social Assistance 4,784 6,266
Manufacturing 5,153 4,610
Admin, Support, Waste Mgmt, Remediation 3,312 3,667
Wholesale Trade 3,519 3,311
Transportation and Warehousing 1,452 2,713
Retail Trade 1,872 2,308
Total # private-sector jobs in district
26,290 29,815
District Citywide
Unemployment rate 2012 15.8% 12.9%
Sources: Calculations by Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University using Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics data (top sectors) and 2012 Five-Year American Community Survey (unemployment).
Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Pilsen Little Village – February 2015 – Page 8
Environmental groups including the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) and
Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization (PERRO) were instrumental in shutting down
the Fisk and Crawford generating plants and continue to advance community greening and trail
projects. LVEJO successfully advocated for extension of the CTA’s #35 bus to serve the 31st Street
industrial corridor. Youth organizations and block groups have built community gardens across the
district, using them not only to grow fresh produce but to serve as communal spaces in the park-poor
district. Chicago Botanic Garden’s Windy City Harvest farm-training operation is headquartered at
Velasquez Institute. Also active on environmental issues is the grassroots organization Pilsen Alliance.
Little Village’s civic infrastructure, serving a population twice as big as Pilsen’s, includes several broad
collaborative efforts. The Little Village Youth Safety Network coordinates and measures the work of 12
organizations that engage youth around healthy activities and discourage gang involvement. The Roots
to Wellness mental health collaborative brings together 11 health services providers to improve
understanding of local needs and to improve services and referral networks. The organization Enlace
Chicago coordinates these efforts and also manages a community schools network, arts programs,
community gardens, and advocacy campaigns around social justice, safety, and immigration. A new
effort is the 96 Acres project, organized with the Chicago Public Art Group and local youth
organizations, to engage youth in art projects on and around the walls of Cook County Jail.
Richly endowed with community organizations, small businesses, industrial development, and other
resources – and with major new investments supporting further growth – the Pilsen Little Village
planning district is well positioned to maintain its role as Chicago’s center of Mexican-American
culture, and as a major driver in the regional economy.
Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Pilsen Little Village – February 2015 – Page 9
Examples of development opportunities Place Location Status Notes
Chicago Central Industrial Park site
Southwest corner of 26th and Kostner.
40-acre site has been vacant for decades despite location at west end of 26th Street business district.
Site was identified in Little Village quality-of-life plans for potential mixed retail and housing development.
Fisk and Crawford generating stations
Fisk is east of Racine and south of Cermak in Pilsen; Crawford is east of Pulaski at Sanitary and Ship Canal.
Fisk’s 43 acres and Crawford’s 72 acres are in active industrial parks and along waterways, presenting opportunities for both industrial and trail development.
City of Chicago and site owners are pursuing options outlined in 2012 final report of Fisk and Crawford Reuse Task Force.
Industrial corridors Mostly south of the residential areas and north of the river and Sanitary and Ship Canal.
Both corridors have seen major new investment but also have large expanses of vacant or underutilized land.
Some areas, especially in Little Village, lack adequate industrial roads for truck access.
Waterfront areas Along Chicago River and Sanitary and Ship Canal.
City of Chicago and Chicago Park District have begun park development near Canal Origins Park at Ashland Avenue.
Multiple locations could be developed with water-edge trails to provide continuous access and to link larger park areas.
Infill housing Neighborhoods have a few vacant parcels on interior streets and some larger empty sites or buildings.
Zoning in much of the district is restricted to one- to three-unit buildings, but some higher-density locations are available.
Former industrial site at 18th and Peoria was cleared for a 381-unit housing development in 2005, but it was never built.
Data note: Demographic and other data is compiled by Chicago Community Area, which may differ slightly from the boundaries of the CN2015 Planning Districts. Community Areas included in this profile are Lower West Side (Pilsen) and South Lawndale (Little Village). Research support for Chicago Neighborhoods 2015: Assets, Plans and Trends was provided by a team convened by The Chicago Community Trust. The summary of assets for this planning district was created by LISC Chicago and Teska Associates with materials from Metropolitan Planning Council, Place Consulting, Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University, and many other sources. Author: Patrick Barry. Learn more about the Near West Side and Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 at cct.org/CN2015/PilsenLittleVillage. Learn more about data and sources at cct.org/CN2015/DataSources.
Bubbly Creek
Little Italy
University VillageFosco Park
Homan Square
Power House High
Roosevelt Square
Former Henson ES
Central Park Theater
St. Ignatius College Prep
Easter Seals Autism SchoolChicago WS Christian School
Douglas Park Comm & Cltr Ctr
Italian A Sports Hall of Fame
Stickney
Roosevelt/Cicero
AUSTIN
Halsted
Ashland
U of I at Chicago Med Ctr
9TH
12TH
10TH
Daley
Douglass
Learn es
Webster es
Frazier es
Stem academy
Douglas Park Apartments
EAST GARFIELD PARKWEST GARFIELD PARKWEST GARFIELD PARK
Western Ave.
Lawndale Mental Health Ctr
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Jefferson es
Thalia Hall
Cook County Jail
La Casa Del Pueblo Lacuna Artist Lofts
Pete's Fresh Market
Cermak Fresh Market
LV Boys & Girls Club
Cristo Rey Jesuit HS
St. Procopius School18th Street Corridor
Alivio Medical Center
Paseo Pedestrian Corridor
Chicago Youth Boxing Club
New Life Community Church
Xochiquetzal Peace Garden
Nt’l Museum of Mexican Art
Pilsen Satellite Senior Cntr
Focal Point Community Campus
Spanish Coalition for Housing
Instituto Del Progreso Latino
SOUTH LAWNDALE
LOWER WEST SIDE
Aldi
Clinic
ENLACE
ENLACE
La Casa
The Arch
6062Trees
Yollocalli
Erie House
Miami Park
Limas Park
Shedd ParkSuper Mall
Throop Park
Focal Point
St. Paul ES
Dvorak ParkCasa Puebla
Fisk Station
Harrison Park
Casa Queretaro
Casa Maravilla26th & Kostner
Fairplay Foods
Pilsen Alliance18th Street Corridor
Beyond the Ball
Pilsen Neighors
Epiphany School
La Villita Park
Piotrowski Park
96 Acres Project
Crawford Station
Gads Hill Center
Urban Life Skills
Vertiport Chicago
La Villita Community Church
St. Pius V School
Collateral Channel
Windy City Harvest
Former Lawndale ES
Rauner Family YMCA
Universidad Popular
Semillas de Justicia
Paul Simon Job Corps
Halsted Arts District
St. Augustine College
Pilsen Wellness Center
Pilsen Wellness Center
Pilsen Wellness Center
Esperanza Health Center
St. Ann Catholic School
St. Agnes of Bohemia ESCentral States SER (CWF)
Grace Christian Academy
New St. Anthony Hospital
The Resurrection Project
Gary/Ortiz Community Space
El Jardin de las Mariposas
Dongfang Chinese Education
Arturo Velazquez Institute
Little Village Chamber of Commerce26th/27th Street Corridor
Mercy Housing Redevelopment
LVEJODr. Prieto Family Health Center Ruiz ES
Spry ES
Gary ES
Herzl es
Perez ES
Walsh ES
Finkl ES
Medill es
Juarez HS
Kanoon ES
Zapata ES
Madero MS
Chalmerses
Collins hs
Jungman ES
Pickard ESHammond ES
Saucedo ES
Corkery ES
Whitney ES
Smyth, j es
Whittier ES
Farragut HS
Mccormick ES
De La Cruz ES
Castellanos ES
UNO Charter Paz
Simpson acad hs
Telpochcalli ES
North lawndale hs
noble charter uic
Little Village ES
IDPL Charter Lozano
Greater Lawndale HS
York Alternative HS
Charter De Las Casas
chicago tech academy
North lawndale charter
Pilsen ES
Orozco ES (Elev8 School)
Cooper ES
Cca academy
Cardenas ES
YCCS Charter Addams
Montefiore special es
Ortiz De Dominguez ES
Urban prep charter west
Spry Community Links HS
YCCS Charter Latino Youth
IDPL Health Sciences Career Acad.IDPL Charter Justice & LeadershipInstituto del Progreso Latino (CWF)
31ST
PULA
SKI
ROOSEVELT
CERMAK
Schwab
Little Village
Toman
PilsenIndustrialCorridor
Little VillageIndustrialCorridor
S. Lawndale Maternal & Child Health Center
Lower West Side Nbrd Health Center
Lozano Library
Halsted St.
Little Village / La Villita
CaliforniaWestern Damen
18th
KEDZ
IE
CALI
FORN
IA
WES
TERN
DAM
EN
See West SidePlanning District
See Near West Side Planning District
See StockyardsPlanning District
See MidwayPlanning District
18th
26th
Cicero
Stickney
Pilsen
IndustrialPark
55
90
DATE | 01.16.2015
PILSEN LITTLE VILLAGE DISTRICT ASSET MAPCHICAGO NEIGHBORHOODS 2015
Stickney
Berwyn
SSA#25
47TH
Western/Ogden Industrial Corridor
Little Village
Stevenson/Brighton
Ogden/Pulaski
Sanitary and Ship Canal
Near South Planning Board
Little Village Chamber of Commerce
18th Street Development Corp
PULA
SKI
WES
TERN
31ST
CERMAK Pilsen Industrial Corridor
Little Village East
Kostner Ave
12th Ward
24th Ward
28th Ward
25th Ward
22nd Ward
14th Ward
11th Ward
26TH
CALI
FORN
IA
33RD
35TH
The Resurrection Project
See StockyardsPlanning District
See CentralPlanning District
See West SidePlanning District
See MidwayPlanning District
Berwyn
Stickney
See Near West SidePlanning District
DATE | 01.16.2015
PILSEN LITTLE VILLAGE PLANNING DISTRICT WARD/TIF/SSA MAPCHICAGO NEIGHBORHOODS 2015
*This planning area is located within the Little Village Community Development Corp., the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council, and the Eighteenth Street Development Corp. (LIRI)
(NBDC) serves this district but main o�ce may be located o� the map