Elevated Chicago ETOD

272 N California LLC will be home to businesses Chicago Printworks (Direction Tour Marketing + Promotion) and Studio inHaus, allowing them to expand their services and increase their staff. The print shop creates printed marketing materials and the CGI studio creates 3D renderings and animations. Both have customers from all over the Chicagoland area. To complete the project, the team rehabbed a 100-year-old gear factory in East Garfield Park. A motivation behind this particular location was providing a transit-accessible option to staff, many of whom do not own a vehicle. The new space will be ready for a ribbon cutting and open house this fall. This ETOD was funded in part by the Chicago Recovery Plan and are also an Elevated Works technical assistance recipient. 272 N California LLC is right next to the #94 California bus, a few blocks away from the California Green Line station and the #49 Western bus. There are several other ETODs in the area, including The K Entrepreneurship Development Hub, Hub32, 548 Energy Institute, and BandWidth Chicago, making 272 N California LLC part of a larger ETOD movement in the area. #ETOD #UrbanPlanning #UrbanDevelopment #GarfieldPark #EastGarfieldPark #Chicago #ChicagoNews

Curious about the impact of Chicago Department of Transportation's Bike Chicago program? A report from the Shared-Use Mobility Center found that the program was cost-efficient and led to increased mobility and less driving for many recipients. Learn more at the MacArthur Foundation website: https://lnkd.in/gj3QnX3Q #Biking #Micromobility #Equity #Chicago

Little Angels Learning Center is an early education center for children ages 6 weeks old to 5 years in #Englewood. They began as a single preschool classroom in 1994 and have been serving the community for 30 years. Thanks to funding from the City and State, Little Angels will be moving into a new 11,500+ square foot space at 6706 S. Emerald Ave., which is across the street from their current location. After years of working out of a shared space, Little Angels is finally getting their own two-level school with a playground and community center. The added space will allow the center to provide more classes and year-round programming to the local community. Little Angels is located next to the Halsted Green Line Station and #8 Halsted bus, making it an equitable transit-oriented development. Learn more about Little Angels Learning Center at https://lnkd.in/gnBsRvEw. You can follow along with the construction updates on Little Angels’ Instagram page @773lalc. #ETOD #Education #Equity #PublicTransit #Chicago #ChicagoNews

Juan Sebastian reflects on his first 100 days as Executive Director and sets goals for policy change in the latest article on the Elevated Chicago website. #ETOD #Policy #UrbanPlanning #Chicago https://buff.ly/4fKLjfl

How much do you know about the Cut the Tape initiative? Browsing the 50-person Task Force, you may see some familiar names of ETOD supporters! Learn more about the policy goals and the progress that's been made on the Elevated Chicago blog: https://buff.ly/3SUqPHb #UrbanPlanning #ETOD #Equity #Chicago

🧅Wild Onion Market is a grocery co-op that opened June 12 in #RogersPark. It is the second co-op in the city after Dill Pickle Co-op, located in Logan Square. This ETOD was funded in part by both Chicago Department of Planning and Development and the State of Illinois. They are also an Elevated Works technical assistance recipient. Wild Onion has 2,000+ co-owners from the local community, with a board of directors chosen by the members. Some members have also gone the extra mile to volunteer their time and efforts to govern and promote the market. The market intentionally features fresh foods from local vendors and farmers. There are bulk grocery options and Co+op Basics generic options as well as a Co+op Explorers program where children can try a free piece of fruit. Community members also have a space to sit and enjoy food at the market. Wild Onion is easily accessible from the #22 Clark bus, Morse Red Line station, and Rogers Park #Metra stop and aims to serve multiple neighborhoods in the area as well as Evanston. Bikers can easily stop by, since there is a bike rack installed by Chicago Department of Transportation. 🧅 #WildOnionMarket #GroceryCoOp #ETOD #EquitableTransitOrientedDevelopment #ChicagoBusiness #ChicagoNews #Chicago 

Juan Sebastian A. weighs in on the #RedLineExtension contract announced in yesterday's Chicago Transit Board meeting in this Chicago Tribune article by Sarah Freishtat. #PublicTransit #Equity #ETOD

Truly historic! Much respect to the tireless advocacy from all that led to this huge step forward for transit justice and for #ETOD 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 We now have a responsibility to ensure that Far South Side residents benefit equitably from this investment. When the Chicago Transit Authority Red Line reaches these four new stations, we have an opportunity to ensure the neighborhoods nearby are vibrant, walkable hubs of economic activity and community wealth building.

Once again, Alden Loury is spot on with his opinion piece in this Sunday's Chicago Sun-Times article. Despite the seemingly never ending obstacles when advocating and requesting resources for communities starved of economic investment, my years of doing this work has been more rewarding than failures. And it also depends on what day you ask me. But to expand on the article a little, these mega developments are channeling through the same conduit as it has before, especially in Black neighborhoods or adjacent Black neighborhoods. We have yet to see a mega development that is lead by a Black-owned development company. More than likely, Black-owned companies are a "write-in" to meet diversity requirements. Several of these deals are made possible primarily because it is supported and secured by government subsidies/incentives to make the project financially feasible. Correct me if I am wrong, I have yet to see one Black-owned development company receive a billion dollars in government subsidies/incentives to leverage and attract other investments to build in Black communities or anywhere else in the city. Instead, we hope that these mega projects will have a trickle-down effect that we could possibly benefit from. Because, it is hard for me to believe that there is not one Black-owned development company in Chicago that can manage a billion dollar fund over a 10 - 15 year span to build up our communities in an equitable way, as we see in other mega project investments. You will never have to worry about meeting diversity requirements. And before I get the backlashing of "what if it fails or is delayed", what's the status of some of our mega projects now??? So, let's give some grace to Black-owned development companies and not write them off before we even give them a chance to prove themselves (ourselves). For the longest time, we have had the label of being a "Tale of Two Cities". I would further argue a subcategory is a "Tale of Two Standards" that we must vigorously work to eradicate for a more equitable and just city. Otherwise, the article brilliantly connects history with some large projects being sold as for us but not lead by us, and ultimately hurts us. ##BringingCommunitiesBackInitiative #BCBI #InvestFarSouth

Starling is a place designed and developed by Duo/. for community gathering that will be opening in #NorthLawndale this September. This ETOD was funded in part by the Chicago Department of Planning and Development. Outdoors, there will be a garden covered by a terrace. Indoors, there will be a coffee bar and roaster, sound studio, plenty of seating with modular furniture that guests can rearrange, a library area, and natural lighting. The building will be wheelchair accessible from two different entrances, and sliding glass windows will make it a beautiful open-air space in the warmer months. Starling is partnering with Monday Coffee Company and 10 local organizations to provide dynamic programming. North Lawndale residents have been engaged throughout the process, and Starling has intentionally designed the building to meet the needs and aspirations of the surrounding area. This ETOD is located next door to a high school and along a protected bike lane route on 16th Street. The Kedzie Pink Line station is about a 10-minute walk away. Douglass Park is about a 5-to-10-minute walk east. Most importantly, Starling is trialing a new shared ownership model. As the building makes profits, it will be sharing them directly with local residents. This model is meant to share the success of the business with its community, rather than a small number of investors. Stay tuned for Starling’s grand opening this fall! #ETOD #EquitableTransitOrientedDevelopment #ChicagoBusiness #ChicagoNews #Chicago