I'm no libertarian, but if we make it legal to build what people want where people want, we're going to end up with tons more usable density than if we just try to legislate what we want. It's illegal to build Lincoln Park, Georgetown or Greenwich Village almost anywhere in the country. Just remove parking minimums and allow people to build as many units as they want as high as they want. Then, if like in downtown Tokyo, someone wants to shell out millions to build a SFH in the Loop, I don't have a problem with it.

The fact is that it's often only possible in the first place to sell land in Lincoln Park for cheap enough to make a SFH financially feasible because the price of the land is effectively capped because it's so hard to build apartments on it.

306 W Erie
 

May 13

Here is a map I put together last year, of Emergency demolition permits on residential buildings in for which the city was listed as owner.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?h...788928605&z=11

Wow. It makes me wonder how many of those buildings were in good enough condition to rehab instead of demolish.

Seeing that map makes it feel like urban renewal part 2. Sad to loose those buildings.

Almost all non frame buildings are salvagable...

Uptown - Sheridan and Leland
 

May 3

Chicago by Harry Carmichael, on Flickr

Chicago by Harry Carmichael, on Flickr

Uptown - somewhere on Broadway
 

May 3

Chicago by Harry Carmichael, on Flickr

RUSH - 121 S Ashland
 

May 13

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...0d0b2dab_b.jpgChicago | RUSH by Harry Carmichael, on Flickr

There is a zoning app up which details building a new 7 story, 83 foot 8 inch tall building at 1623-31 N Halsted Street which would have 79 residential units or hotel rooms (not sure which one) with ground floor retail, 79 bike spaces, and 0 parking spaces. Owner/developer is Logan Ventures Fund and they bought those properties 7 years ago. They checked the ARO box, so it's probably residential.

Very very close to Steppenwolf Theater (and the expansion going on now) along with the North/Clybourn Red Line stop and all the stores there. Looks like it would knock down these 4 buildings:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/16...!4d-87.6480748

It is residential- expect sorta faux industrial similar to fulton market. Good density, ok design.

Along with requiring some but not all units to be accessible. If you could build six-story walk ups with no parking, no ramps and no elevators (passenger or service), you would get affordable housing.

With the exception of that nice old brick building on the end, seems like a worthy replacement for all the added density

Any renderings of it?

I've only seen them- it should hit zoning/plan commission shortly

2/4 are fairly recent builds. I've noticed a few other buildings <15 yrs old meet the wrecking ball.

That's Broadway & Foster.

The Presidential Towers space that used to be a Walmart is now going to be a Porsche dealer. That is a weird twist I didn't see coming - but its kind of good outcome for that space? The McLaren showroom a few blocks north seems to be doing fine, wonder if we could see more of this kind of format in the area.

It's interesting to see these car dealerships switch to a more urban format. Too bad it's all luxury brands, I don't really see a lot of lower and mid-level brands opening these urban dealerships. Honda is the only one with their dealership at Clark/Maple.

Fox Ford on Elston is 2 stories, but it's still basically a suburban design. Rogers Chevy on S Michigan is a leftover 50s style dealership that just hung on.

ty !