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Originally Posted by ardecila
It's not the alderman. North of Roosevelt is 25th Ward, so Solis was the alderman for many years and he rubber-stamped pretty much everything that was outside of the core Pilsen community. Now it's Sigcho, who looks to follow in Solis' footsteps when it comes to the non-Pilsen areas of his ward. He might take a progressive stance of "preserving good paying industrial jobs" in this area, but there's really not a lot of employment going on here except for the chain retailers... not the kind of jobs that get progressives excited.
No, I think it's the city's planning staff who want to keep this area off-limits to mixed-use development. The industrial and service businesses here, except for UPS, are largely a form of land banking for future retail development. The city has a very spotty record addressing the problem of retail deserts on the South and West Sides, so the next best thing is to have a regional shopping district at Roosevelt Road with plenty of room for growth. Plus the lowrise buildings do offer some affordable space to service businesses in the meantime.
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Agree on the City's past fails on retail deserts, but I don't know how that relates to this immediate area, which is still CBD-adjacent rather than South or West side proper. One could argue that the existing retail that has sprung up over the past 10 years or so (Best Buy, Walkgreens, Whole Foods, HomeGoods, Portillos) serves the immediate areas more so than what you mention, and even then, I suspect it's mostly commuter workers who populated the area pre-Covid. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your comment?