Chicago Neighborhoods 2015: Assets, Plans and Trends – A project of The Chicago Community Trust
MIDWAY
Airport, housing, jobs shape future of Southwest bungalow belt
A resurgent Midway Airport, solid job base,
and huge influx of new Latino residents are
reinforcing a familiar role for Chicago’s
Southwest Side neighborhoods, where miles of
brick bungalows continue to represent a
stepping stone to the American dream.
Though buffeted by the foreclosure crisis,
which has left hundreds of boarded properties
in some areas, the Midway planning district
overall has strong economic activity and
continued demand for its affordable for-sale
and rental housing. With 259,112 residents in
2010, these neighborhoods have growing or
stable populations, contrary to the trend in
many parts of Chicago. The district lost more
than 42,000 white residents and 4,855 African Americans between 2000 and 2010, but gained more than
52,000 Latinos.
Midway Airport is a core economic driver, serving 20.5 million passengers in 2013 and supporting
thousands of jobs, but the area also has five industrial corridors and direct links to downtown via the
CTA Orange Line and Stevenson Expressway (I-55). Retail corridors struggle with vacancies, but
maintain many strong blocks, thanks in part to new Mexican-oriented businesses. There are hundreds
of small shops along Archer Avenue, 63rd Street, Pulaski Road, and other streets, and larger shopping
centers near the Orange Line stations. The Ford City Mall at Cicero and 76th Street, one of Chicago’s
Source: Calculations by Institute for
Housing Studies at DePaul University using
2010 Decennial Census.
first enclosed malls when it opened in 1965, still draws from across the Southwest Side and suburbs,
with 130 stores and a 14-screen cinema.
Eight neighborhoods
The Midway district consists of eight Chicago community
areas, with the mile-square Midway Airport separating east
from west. All of the communities are made up predominantly
of single-family homes, many of them classic Chicago
bungalows, and all are alongside and influenced by industrial
areas that helped drive development of that housing.
MIDWAY AREA OVER TIME
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
Population
233,633 219,319 215,625 256,421 259,112
Share of population in poverty
4.4%
6.2%
9.5%
12.3%
15.7%
Percent owner-occupied/renter occupied
71/29
72/28
74/26
72/28
68/32
Sources: Calculations by Institute for Housing Studies
at DePaul University using U.S. Census data from
US2010 Project at Brown University.
Into the 1960s, seven of the eight neighborhoods had
populations that Census records show as 100 percent white;
only Garfield Ridge had a small African-American population, all of which was concentrated in the
616-unit LeClaire Courts public housing project on Cicero south of the Stevenson. The neighborhoods
at that time were aggressively resistant to racial integration, defending the “color line” along Western
Avenue in Gage Park and Chicago Lawn, where they bordered the West Englewood and New City
communities.
Martin Luther King, Jr. came to Chicago in 1966 as part of the Chicago Freedom Movement, pressing
for open housing laws that would allow African Americans to live outside of the strictly defined
ghetto. Angry mobs met King on August 5 when he marched into Marquette Park, where he was hit in
the head by a thrown projectile. Though some modest progress was made during King’s stay to reduce
anti-integration practices, it was not until the 1970s and 1980s that the Southwest neighborhoods began
opening up. Thanks to a more-positive style of organizing by then underway, the racial change came
more slowly than in other Chicago neighborhoods and resulted in today’s diverse communities.
Chicago Lawn is now a mixed community with about 27,000 African-Americans and 25,000 Latinos,
along with small white and Middle Eastern populations. The neighborhood includes the 323-acre
Marquette Park and adjacent Holy Cross Hospital and Maria High School, both of which until recently
Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Midway – February 2015 – Page 2
were affiliated with the Sisters of St. Casimir. The aging religious institution, whose motherhouse and
campus fill the 2600 block of West Marquette Road, completed a succession plan for Holy Cross in 2013
when it merged with Mt. Sinai Hospital in North Lawndale, and for Maria High School when it became
the Catalyst Maria charter school. Both have been longtime community anchors and supporters of
community-building efforts.
Gage Park is a mostly residential neighborhood that was about 89 percent Latino by 2010, with a
strong commercial corridor along Kedzie Avenue that includes a shopping center near the Orange Line
station and the area’s largest industrial company, Central Steel and Wire. To serve a growing schoolage population, an education corridor has been built on the west edge of the neighborhood, including
UNO Soccer Academy Charter at 5050 S. Homan, and, on the 5400 and 5500 blocks of St. Louis Avenue,
the Solorio Academy high school, Hernandez Middle School, and Sandoval Elementary.
Archer Heights and West Elsdon, north and south respectively of the Orange Line tracks, have become
predominantly Latino, with a net population gain of 3,000 between 2000 and 2010. Serving both
neighborhoods are the Archer Avenue and Pulaski Road commercial corridors, which intersect at the
CTA Orange Line and the 3,000-student selective-enrollment Curie Metropolitan High School. A large
industrial area near the Stevenson Expressway includes food processors, metalworkers, and the
Greater Chicago Food Depository. World’s Finest Chocolate makes its fundraiser candy bars at Archer
and Lawndale Avenues.
East of Midway Airport, West Lawn showed a 14 percent increase in population between 2000 and
2010, adding more than 11,000 Latino residents and losing about 6,500 white residents and 600 African
Americans. West Lawn’s southwest corner is non-residential. Used during World War II to make
aircraft and later as a Ford assembly plant, the area now includes the Ford City Mall, Richard J. Daley
Community College, and manufacturers including Tootsie Roll and Solo Cup Company. Adjacent
Ashburn also has a significant industrial district on either side of the diagonal Norfolk Southern
railroad tracks, including the Mondelez factory where Oreo cookies are made (technically in Chicago
Lawn). Ashburn is the area’s most mixed neighborhood, at 46 percent African American, 37 percent
Latino, and 15 percent white, though the southeast section is mostly African American.
Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Midway – February 2015 – Page 3
Clearing and Garfield Ridge are separated from the rest of the city by Midway Airport and have been
more stable in terms of population change. Both remained majority white in 2010 but with growing
Latino populations. Though primarily single-family residential, the neighborhoods are adjacent to
major industrial and rail centers in the city and suburbs. The Harlem Industrial Park in Clearing has a
dozen small factories; Garfield Ridge hosts a Clorox factory and truck-service companies along the
Stevenson. The former Chicago Housing Authority LeClaire Courts development along Cicero was
demolished in 2011; options for future development are discussed below.
The Midway district is among Chicago’s more economically diverse planning districts, with a five- to
15-percent share of high-income households in every community area, and 20- to 30-percent shares of
the lowest income quintile. Over the entire district, however, the percentage of families living in
poverty has grown steadily since 1970, and the share of homeownership has fallen slightly.
Source: Easy Analytic Software, Inc., updated January 2014, as displayed on Woodstock Institute Data Portal.
Challenges and opportunities
The Midway neighborhoods have remained relatively stable and attractive for newcomers thanks to
long-standing efforts by community groups, block clubs, churches, and institutions. This work has been
led on the west mostly by chambers of commerce, ethnic associations, and block clubs, and on the east
by more formally organized coalitions and community development corporations.
Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Midway – February 2015 – Page 4
Greater Southwest Development Corporation (GSDC), for instance, was one of the city’s earliest and
most successful nonprofit developers. Its work in the 1980s stabilized Western Avenue by bringing a
Jewel grocery store to 61st Street, major reinvestment in the Oreo cookie plant (then owned by
Nabisco), and new businesses, streetscapes, and façade improvements along 63rd Street. Today GSDC’s
REACH Center offers financial and employment-related services as well as foreclosure counseling, and
the affiliated 63rd Street Growth Commission provides business-development programs and manages
the Special Service Area taxing district.
Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP) brings together 29 neighborhood churches, mosques, schools,
and other institutions to work on local issues, and with GSDC produced the area’s 2005 quality-of-life
plan, Chicago Southwest: Making Connections. Developed with input from more than 300 residents
and stakeholders, that plan recognized the need, first, to rebuild relationships within the Southwest
neighborhoods, and then to address housing abandonment, school quality, access to health care, and
leadership development.
The most critical issue in recent years has been housing vacancies caused by the foreclosure crisis.
Despite intensive work to avert foreclosures through housing counseling and connections to financial
services, the Southwest Side was affected by an estimated 15,000 foreclosures between 2007 and 2013.
Targeting a particularly hard-hit section of Chicago Lawn, SWOP and Neighborhood Housing Services
of Chicago have reoccupied 64 of 90 vacant units through the City of Chicago’s Micro Market Recovery
Program. A related effort, in partnership with Brinshore Development LLC, has acquired a vacant 13unit apartment building at 62nd and Washtenaw as the first of at least 50 units that will be rehabilitated
and then rented or sold. SWOP has raised about $8 million for the housing-renewal effort and
developed a list of neighborhood residents interested in buying or renting the housing as it becomes
available.
Connected to the housing challenges are weak retail districts that contribute to a negative perception of
the neighborhoods, in particular the high-traffic Cicero Avenue corridor that connects the Stevenson
Expressway with Midway Airport. More than 65,000 vehicles travel the street each day, according to
Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Midway – February 2015 – Page 5
the 2005 South Cicero Redevelopment Plan, passing many vacant lots and underutilized buildings both
north and south of the airport. Many of these lots are of shallow depth, which limits development
opportunities, but the traffic volume and nearby population density suggest strong potential for
neighborhood retail and small-business office uses. Some mixed-use development, with housing over
retail, could also be developed, though the six-lane Cicero corridor is generally inhospitable to
pedestrian traffic.
The plan recommends upgrading of Cicero Avenue landscaping and buildings to create a “gateway”
corridor, and identifies the underutilized Midway Business Center property at Archer Avenue for
possible redevelopment as a convention and hotel center. South of the airport in Bedford Park, the
Midway Hotel Center supports six hotel chains, but the study says the airport’s heavy passenger
volumes could support more hotels.
Also on Cicero is the empty 44-acre parcel that was once the LeClaire Courts public housing
development. The Chicago Housing Authority’s 2013 LeClaire Courts Transportation and Access Study
examined potential commercial uses that would be compatible with future housing development. It
recommended a mixed-use retail, medical, and institutional complex covering up to 15 acres along
Cicero, or a community retail center. Both uses would require improved access at 44th Street and
additional through-street connections where there are now cul-de-sacs. New housing would be
clustered on the southwest edge of the parcel, next to the existing neighborhoods of LeClaire Hearst
and Vittum Park. The Chicago Housing Authority controls the land and had not announced its plans as
of late 2014.
A final large development opportunity is along the east side of Western Avenue between 59th and 61st
Streets. The 2005 Chicago Southwest quality-of-life plan envisioned a Town Center on this land, and a
subsequent effort by the Greater Southwest Development Corporation outlined a 375,000-square-foot
shopping center dubbed The Cannery, referring to the can factory that once stood on the site. Current
uses including a Blast! Fitness center and Pep Boys auto parts store, but much of the land remains
unused. The former anchors stores and traffic-drivers – Sears and Jewel Osco – are both gone. GSDC
proposed a phased development that would incorporate current uses into the new shopping center.
Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Midway – February 2015 – Page 6
Supporting future growth
The Midway planning district, with its diverse
neighborhoods, growing population, and solid
housing stock, has strong assets to build on as it
looks to the future. The airport itself is working at
full capacity, serving as one of Southwest Airlines
biggest hubs and also now connecting to
international destinations in the Caribbean and
Latin America. Thanks to the airport, industrial
districts, and transportation-related businesses,
the Midway district supports almost 55,000 local
jobs, of which more than 8,000 are held by local
residents.
EMPLOYMENT – MIDWAY
Top six employment sectors (# jobs)
Manufacturing
Retail Trade
Transportation and Warehousing
Admin, Support, Waste Mgmt, Remediation
Health Care and Social Assistance
Accommodation and Food Service
Total # private-sector jobs in district
2005
9,760
7,971
10,075
4,549
2,688
3,201
52,799
2011
9,332
8,987
7,535
4,388
4,370
3,688
54,549
Unemployment rate 2012
District
13.8%
Citywide
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).
Taking advantage of these strong employment opportunities will require improved education levels
and job skills, both of which are relatively low compared to other areas of the city. Also important will
be maintaining demand for housing stock across the entire district, and further improving local
schools, some of which are overcrowded. Building stronger connections among residents and local
institutions, as recommended in the 2005 quality-of-life plan, will be an essential element of achieving
these objectives.
CTA Orange Line Ridership (weekday boardings,
year-end averages, 2009 and 2013)
Western
Kedzie
Pulaski Midway
2009
3,302
3,000
4,738
8,708
2013
3,814
3,428
5,170
9,032
Source: Chicago Transit Authority Annual Ridership Reports.
Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Midway – February 2015 – Page 7
Examples of development opportunities
Place
Industrial buildings
and empty land
Location
Multiple locations in each
of the area’s industrial
corridors.
Retail corridors
Most corridors in the
district; Cicero Avenue in
particular
60th to 62nd Streets, east
side of Western Avenue
Retail shopping
center
Midway Business
Center
Cicero Avenue at Archer
Avenue, southwest
corner.
Housing
Empty foreclosed
buildings at numerous
locations.
Status
Though all corridors have seen
recent reinvestment, many
buildings are obsolete or
underutilized.
Demand for traditional small
retail stores is insufficient to fill
all storefronts.
Jewel Osco and Sears have closed
but some buildings are still
occupied; much of the land is
vacant.
Identified in South Cicero
Redevelopment Plan as
underutilized and large enough to
allow convention center or other
airport-related use.
Several programs are targeting
foreclosed properties in certain
target areas.
Notes
Mixed-use developments with housing over
retail could provide needed housing units while
adding shoppers to the retail area.
Concept for The Cannery Shopping Center
suggested 375,000 square feet of retail on
deep plot that extends east to railroad tracks.
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 Archer Heights, West Elsdon, Gage Park, West Lawn, Chicago
Lawn, Ashburn, Clearing, and Garfield Ridge.
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 Midway planning district and Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 at cct.org/CN2015/Midway. Learn more about data
and sources at cct.org/CN2015/DataSources.
Chicago Neighborhoods 2015 Summary of Assets – Midway – February 2015 – Page 8
MIDWAY PLANNING DISTRICT ASSET MAP
North Riverside
Riverside
Brookfield
CHICAGO NEIGHBORHOODS 2015
Cicero
Berwyn
See Stockyards Planning District
PULASKI
Stickney
Stevenson Industrial Corridor
Stickney
UNO SPC Daniel Zizumbo Charter School
UNO PFC Omar E. Torres Charter School
UNO Major Hector P. Garcia M.D. HS Charter School
ARCHER HEIGHTS
LeClaire Courts
Lyons
Hearst ES
Forest View
Access Southwest Family Health
47TH
Edwards ES
Pete's Fresh Market
Central Steel & Wire, Co.
J.B. Hunt
World's Finest
Chocolate
WESTERN
CICERO
Brighton Park
Western
Global Citizenship Charter
Industrial Corridor
Curie Metro HS
Kedzie
UNO
Charter
Soccer
HS
Christopher ES
St. Richard School
St. Jane De
Archer
Heights
UNO
Charter
Tamayo
McCook
51ST
Chantal School
UNO Charter Homan ES
Twain ES
Nightingale ES
R WEST ELSDON
Pulaski
Sawyer ES
ARCHE Mc Cracken Label Co.
GARFIELD RIDGE
Holy Cross
Solorio HS
Talman ES
Medical Center
Carson ES
Horizons Screen Print
St. Daniel School
St. Gall School
Byrne ES
Sandoval ES
St. Carnillus School
Gage Park
Polish American Society
Garfield Ridge
Greater Lawn WIC Clinic
55TH
Gage
Summit
Hernandez MS
Gage Park HS
Hancock Prep HS
Midway International
Kennedy HS
GAGE PARK Park
63rd Street Corridor
Weber's Bakery
Airport
Pasteur Park
Kinzie ES
Fairfield Elementary Academy
Peck ES
SWOP Foreclosure
Tonti
ES
Summit
Pasteur ES
Greater Southwest Community Garden
CLEARING
Target Area
McCook
Midway
IMAN Center
Chicago
Lawn
Morrill
ES
Ombudsman South HS
Minuteman Park
St. Nicholas School
Hodgkins
Churchview Supportive Living
Harlem Industrial Corridor
Greater Southwest REACH Center (CWF)
Hubbard HS
St. Symphorosa ES
Chicago Family Health Center
Hale
ES
Dore ES
St. Mary Star
Neighborhood Housing Services
West Lawn
63RD
Blair Early Childhood Center
Salvation
Army
8TH
of Sea Church
Anderson ES
Lee ES
Claremont ES
St. Rene Parish
Grimes ES
Southwest Organizing Project
Clearing
Eberhart ES
Marquette ES (Elev8 School) Greater Southwest Development Corporation
Balzekas Museum
Hotel Corridor
CHICAGO
LAWN
California Avenue Institutions
Azuela ES (Lithuanian)
Catalyst-Maria HS
Sisters of St. Casimir
WEST LAWN
Maria Kaupus Center
MLK Memorial
Hurley
ES
Bedford Park
Holy Cross
Tarkington ES
Bedford Park
Mckay ES
Southwest
Chicago
PADS
Queen of the Universe School
Greater Southwest
Industrial Corridor
Mondelez-Nabisco International
Burbank
79TH
Justice
Dart/Solo
Factory
Scottsdale
Richard J. Daley Sarah E. Good
STEM Academy
College
Hampton ES
Bogan HS
KEDZIE
Ford City Shopping Mall
Tootsie Roll
Monument of Faith Church
Assemblers, Inc.
St. Rita HS
Wrightwood
Stevenson ES
Bridgeview
Burbank
See South Side Planning District
ASHBURN
83RD
Dawes ES
St. Bede-Venerable School
Ashburn
Durkin Park ES
87TH
Hickory Hills
Shopping Center
Hometown
Oak Lawn
Evergreen Park
DATE | 01.16.2015
MIDWAY PLANNING DISTRICT WARD/TIF/SSA MAP
CHICAGO NEIGHBORHOODS 2015
Cicero
Berwyn
Stickney
14th Ward
Stickney
Stevenson/Brighton
Midway Industrial Corridor
See Stockyards Planning District
Cicero/Archer
Forest View
Forest
View
51st/Archer
SSA# 39
22nd Ward
Homan/Grand Trunk
AR CH ER
51ST
55TH
Archer/Central
15th Ward
59TH
23rd Ward
16th Ward
13th Ward
Greater Southwest Development Corp.
Harlem Industrial Park
Conservation Area
63RD
SSA# 3
17th Ward
63rd/Pulaski
67th/Cicero
Bedford Park
Bedford Park
SSA#14
72nd/Cicero
73rd/Kedzie
Greater Southwest Ind. Corridor
Greater Southwest Ind. (West)
79th/Southwest Hwy.
79th/Cicero
See South Side Planning District
KOSTNER
83RD
CICERO
Burbank
18th Ward
Burbank
Hometown
(NBDC) serves this district but main office may be located off the map
*This planning area is located within the Greater Southwest Chicago Development Corp & Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council (LIRI)
DATE | 01.16.2015