Logan Square

The push to convert a parking lot next to the Logan Square station into a 100-percent-affordable TOD is picking up steam.

Activists are calling on the landlord to stop blocking a relocation agreement that would help his low-income tenants, who are being forced out of his building by the TOD plans, find new homes.

A neighborhood assoiciation is arguing that "current infrastructure" can't handle approximately 120 more people moving into planned LGTB-friendly and transit-friendly affordable housing.

Representatives from the anti-displacement groups Somos Logan Square, the Autonomous Tenants Union, and Grassroots Illinois Action blocked access points to the site at 2501 West Armitage Avenue.

Yesterday morning dozens of community residents and members of the Autonomous Tenants Union, Somos Logan Square, and Grassroots Illinois Action joined tenants of the 2340 N. California building in Logan Square as they announced their plans to fight their impending eviction.

I've discovered few similarities between the city of Rotterdam, where I've been living for seven weeks, and Chicago. The most striking similarity is the nearly identical layout of the boulevard streets. While biking from my apartment in Rotterdam towards the cool neighborhood of Witte de With, I realized that as I was cycling on the side road of a wide street, I was really biking on a facsimile of Kedzie Boulevard in Chicago.

Transit-oriented development is a sensible way to build housing. Creating dense housing within a short walk of transit stations, without a lot of off-street parking makes it easier for more people to live without having to own a car. It leads to fewer newcomers bringing autos into neighborhoods, which reduces congestion and pollution. And, since garage spaces cost tens of thousands of dollars to build, it saves money for developers, which can result in lower condo prices and apartment rents.

Yesterday the Tribune's Mary Wisniewski further explored a topic Streetsblog's John Greenfield covered two weeks ago for the Reader. Virtually all of Chicago's new transit-oriented development projects are upscale buildings in affluent or gentrifying neighborhoods. TOD advocates argue that adding housing in these communities will take pressure off the rental market. But some Logan Square residents say soon-to-open TOD towers in the neighborhood will encourage other landlords to jack up rents.

A parking lot next to the Logan Square Blue Line station that's ripe for redevelopment is under review for a zoning change. 35th Ward alder Carlos Ramirez-Rosa intends to change the zoning district from a very low-density, mixed-use B1-1 designation to RT-4, a residential district designation. That type of zoning allows only single-family homes and two-flats.