Quote:
Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright
Adalbert is very much alive
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That's St. Boniface. Adalbert is in Pilsen / white terracotta cladding falling down. The building is falling apart while Byron Sigcho and the archdiocese dick around with each other.
The Landmarks Commission voted to landmark it, but it still hasn't even been introduced at City Council. There have been proposals to turn it into a music academy and an event venue, but no smart developer is gonna sign a purchase contract with so much uncertainty hanging over it all.
Turns out it's insanely hard to repurpose a gigantic ornate cathedral in a profitable way, especially when the alderman keeps letting the community dictate terms. At least with St Boniface the community was pretty open-minded about different reuse schemes, they just needed to find a developer who could make it pencil.
Back in Pilsen, Sigcho is also trying to expand the industrial corridor TIF to cover the whole neighborhood and he's already making plans to use it as his personal slush fund to dole out to homeowners and businesses. The funniest possible situation is that the city buys St Adalbert with TIF money, and still lets people worship there so we get a city-owned Catholic church. It was my grandma's parish church growing up so I'd love for it to be saved but this whole situation is such a clownshow it's ridiculous.