Quote:
Originally Posted by SamInTheLoop
This should be fantastic.
Took the blue line out to o'hare for the first time in a little while recently. Even though I'm of course passionately following all this near nw-side tod development here, it was really exciting to see all this construction along the blue line/milwaukee actually beginning to take shape.....I think this is the beginning of a real pivot in Chicago neighborhood development to something more appropriate, more urban, more dense, more tod, and more walkable......exciting times....
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^ While this is great, it unfortunately is still far too little in the big scheme of things. It's good for the Blue Line, albeit there is a lot more that has to happen.
The land around Red Line stops on the north side, for example, which is "farthest along" in regards to property values, should be getting developed far more densely. It makes no sense that you have miles and miles of towers along Lakeshore Dr and Sheridan Rd when the Red Line is several blocks west of here.
The TOD ordinance should be enabling property owners around the Diversey, Fullerton, Addison, Sheridan, Belmont stops to be building much larger projects. But even today you will still see some strip malls or a piece of shit 7-11 type building with a parking lot right next to these stops.
If you look at the Red Line north, I can only think of about 1 project that takes advantage of TOD: the Clark/Belmont Tower. That's it.
Yes, the Ricketts are building their crap at Wrigley, but they probably would have done that anyway. And I'm not counting North/Clybourn since the development there always has so much damn parking.
Where else? It's the busiest line in the city, runs through the best non-downtown real estate, runs 24 hours per day, and has some of the best cultural/nightlife/restaurant scene in the region. That land needs to be developed to a higher use.
My impression is that one or more of three things are going on:
1. Property owners near these stops are oblivious to the possibilities
2. NIMBYism (I frankly think this can be overcome in Chicago and isn't as huge a barrier as people think)
3. Banks. I believe this is one of the biggest culprits. Banks make or break everything. They control the global economy, and it is their biases and whims that determine whether a company or a project will be financed. For some reason, there must still be a suburban mindset to many lenders. If it's not downtown, it probably won't do well. If it's not on the lakefront, it probably won't do well. Things seem to be getting better, but lenders need to be convinced that neighborhood TOD projects will be financially successful. Meanwhile, they have no problems shoveling money into the hands of suburban homebuilders, and each and every time get burned when there is a recession and have to foreclose on hundreds of unsold homes out in exurbia.