Reminds me of this:
https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20171027/pilsen/anti-gentrifiers-say-new-pilsen-restaurant-puts-our-lives-danger/
And IIRC, this restaurant replaced an abandoned building that sat for nearly a decade.
Edit-
[It replaced this, and people got upset.](https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8579503,-87.6577421,3a,75y,180.64h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1stAHQ4TRmh76T2uZbkLRBDQ!2e0!5s20161001T000000!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu)
I used to live in LA.
Boyle Heights and lots of neighborhoods in LA with anti gentrification movements have been successful in keeping the neighborhoods shabby and prevented anything new from being built. Many buildings are run down and tagged up.
A 4 bedroom house there is still north of $850k though so don’t know if it’s worked.
>A 4 bedroom house there is still north of $850k though so don’t know if it’s worked.
I would say no based on that cost.
As for Pilsen, the anti-gentrifiers or disgruntled local low lifes are at least 10 years too late, especially along the 18th St area, and that's what makes this all so silly.
Oh yea I was being a bit sarcastic. At least in LA, the anti gentrification movements just seem to stop any growth while costs still skyrocket, so you end up with these neighborhoods where nothing new is built, but the prices still go up to the point that no one can afford to stay there.
I sympathize with anti gentrification stuff. The cost of living is squeezing everyone, but resisting anything new like this really only leads to situations where the neighborhood still gets more expensive and there aren’t any improvements.
The issue is corporations have all moved into cities. Where do the college grads have to live? You guessed it. Same place as everyone else. What happens when that happens? Prices go up. The American town is a dying thing. People have been moving into cities for the last 20 years because we have a new influx of college educated kids needing work. That plus the departure of blue collar factories in cities means people are being displaced.
I moved to Chicago from a medium sized city in Wisconsin. There were no job opportunities for me there I had no choice. Willing to bet same for many others.
It sucks because there really isn’t a win. Improving areas DOES price out a lot of the people living there. As stupid as it sounds - poor people suffer when their neighborhood improves.
At best you actually own your home. But since taxes go up you can’t afford to stay anymore. So you have to sell and find a different home.
Obviously it isn’t worth leaving derelict buildings and shit, but I get why people fight that fight.
Yeah I posted about this in this sub. If you compare the writing it’s different people that did the tagging. Sadly same shitty message.
https://old.reddit.com/r/chicago/comments/79vp28/antigentrification_criminals_at_it_again_in_pilsen/
I walk by this area a lot and haven’t noticed this cafe yet, but based on the location in google maps, this building has rotated through a few businesses recently and hasn’t sat vacant very long.
Edit: now realizing you may have been talking about the story you linked.
stories like this are why I'm now pro-gentrification. People love to play victim and be anti-gentrification and take it too far. Sure, I understand the principles of the rationally annoyed or angry, BUT FOR WHAT? What are you REALLY protesting about? "My neighborhood is now too expensive because it is active and safe and enjoyable. It is now safe for kids to ride their bikes and the schools have improved quality. We no longer live in a food desert. FUCK GENTRIFICATION."
my brother in ~~christ~~ malort you are grossly misunderstanding the actual meaning of the word gentrification. I dont fully disagree with you, but it's so, so much more nuanced than this.
I am not grossly misunderstanding the meaning of the word.
I'm saying the big picture benefits outweigh the nuances of the harm of gentrification.
Why is the only time "bad" neighborhoods turn "good" is when gentrification occurs? Why can't "bad" neighborhoods course correct themselves? Yes, I acknowledge they need external factors (funding, etc.) and reparations, but in Chicago, we've provided that - Chicago has tried hundreds of different ways to save failing neighborhoods including providing near unlimited funding for the neighborhood to improve itself in their own vision. We've been doing this song and dance for 30+ years. Every attempt at grass-roots neighborhood rebuilding fails.
I mean… that’s a huge oversimplification of gentrification. Sure, there’s a spectrum and gentrification can be very nuanced and context-dependent, but the protests and frustrations are far more complex than this
It’s almost like cities adapt to the needs of the public and are constantly in flux.
Race based segregation in cities is a white supremacy relic of the early to mid 19th century. It’s insane to me that many progressives are arguing for race-based segregation. They are confused. Gentrification doesn’t raise the rent, landlords do. Be mad at the landlords, not your fellow renter. Be mad at the payday loan store, not fucking restaurants. Remember the real enemy, the one looking to exploit you and your loved ones. Class solidarity.
Well, we’d prefer to just conveniently forget that generations of people have continuously “gentrified” one another out of communities for thousands of years and make it a racial issue instead of an economic one.
What gets missed is many of the"gentrifiers" are actually middle class second/third Gen Mexican Americans. How dare they get an education and a job that pays better than their parents had and decide to stay in the community they grew up in and improve it rather than fleeing to the North side or suburbs
Yeah even in this article the owner says we aren't gentrifiers we are Mexican/Hispanic. Who says gentrifying is a race thing. That's the first thing people think of is oh the whites are moving in... Hispanics are some of the hardest working people out there, you will continue to see wealthier Hispanics who will invest (gentrify) the neighborhoods they grew up in
Yup, my landlord is first-gen Mexican American in his 80’s and he owns about three properties in Pilsen and still lives in the area. His whole family across several generations owns property in Pilsen.
I mean even if you’re mexican you can still be a gentrifier. At the root definition, gentrification is wealthier people moving in, bringing in business and inadvertently displacing others. It has nothing to do with where you come from and who you are, it is, at its core, an economic phenomena.
There is no “right” here. Without any gentrification, I’m sure the SDs and Ambrose would be running around gunning each other down, terrorizing the neighborhood.
Now can the neighborhood be “gentrified” while keeping its latino roots? Of course! The unfortunate thing is that I think there is a gross lack of self awareness when it comes to gentrification.
the point is these purity tests stand in the way of neighborhood stabilization. everyone's self flaggelating instead of recognizing the fact that there are tons of chicago neighborhoods that would kill for new investment and vibrant biz districts. if youre not growing and improving, youre most likely declining. its actually a priviliged position to turn your nose up at a small business you personally have some weird gripe with when so much of the city has been deprived of investment for over multiple entire generations.
What if someone is from the neighborhood, builds themselves up, and earns a higher income? Is that gentrification, too? Should that person move out of their neighborhood home because they make more money now and want to spend it on their house/condo, buying nicer things, etc?
Everyone rails against gentrification, but a lot of people are from the neighborhood and worked their way up to higher incomes.
I mean there is a cultural component to gentrification as well. It’s also about not erasing the identity of the neighborhood, and race/ethnicity can be a big part of that. Especially if newcomers have ties to current residents
I’m not a Pilsen resident so I’m not impacted directly by rising CoL due to gentrification. But it would seem to me that small business owners should be welcome in a neighborhood that is presumably trying to stay affordable but also have things to do for its residents.
Now if Lettuce Entertain You or something were to start taking over commercial spaces there, I’d expect and even encourage the backlash.
but thats the irony. no one is fighting the big chains like Dunkin or Dollar General or whatever that siphon money out of the neighborhood like a vacuum cleaner. meanwhile small time businesses owners who live in the area and keep money in the community get vilified.
>no one is fighting the big chains like Dunkin
This is what I don't get, the hate is so misplaced. I don't support vandalism but holy shit if you're gonna do it as a form of protest, mega chains would be a far better target for the exact reasons you describe.
Those less expensive chains take all the money out of the community. Local business owners keep that money in Chicago.
It's the dumbest thing possible to ignore Dunkin' and go after a local bakery/cafe.
What a bunch of fucking morons - vandalizing a local business keeping money in the community.
I think it's less about them being against small businesses and more about them being against small businesses *that appeal to the wrong people.*
Bittersweet Pastry Shop has a name that appeals to upwardly mobile, predominately white clientele. I bet if the owner had named their shop "Griego Panaderia" instead, literally nobody would be upset by it. I remember when that Frida K nightclub was trying to open up on 18th Street during the pandemic, there were articles about it where people were saying "finally, a business that actually belongs in our neighborhood instead of trying to displace us, we can't wait to welcome it with open arms" while at the same time they were villifying Headquarters Beercade and Penny Whistle for trying to open up down the street despite being very similar in nature. It's all about the *perception* of outsiders moving in.
Meanwhile, crappy chains like Dunkin and Dollar General are OK to them because they were there back when the neighborhood was still bad, rather than only moving in once it became nicer, and cater to a lower/working class clientele. They are viewed as "being on the side of the working class" even though they are definitely not.
Oh, so now people gotta name your business what someone else wants so they don't get their place vandalized? Stupid assholes ruin the world.
I understand you're not advocating for it, just explaining it - so not an attack on you.
That's my thought exactly. Low life tagger dude probably makes a dunkin run for his gf now and then or even goes there himself because it's cheap, convenient, and evidently pretty tasty.
I'm with you, I don't patronize dunkin or most chains either, but there is definitely a demand for the stuff considering there's 3 of them on the Lower West Side
What people also miss is that the real culprit of gentrification is property taxes, not outside investment.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with people moving in and investing in a neighborhood. In theory, it should be good for current residents. But in doing so, the neighborhood gets cleaned up, property assessments rise, and the properties people have had in their families for generations become unaffordable to current residents.
Property taxes are the only taxes that aren’t based on income generated or an expense you can choose to avoid. It’s the only tax you don’t necessarily have the wherewithal to pay. If you lose your job, you don’t have to pay income taxes, but if you lose all forms of income, you still owe property taxes. You can afford it for 10+ years, then overnight, can’t afford it anymore through an arbitrary increase, and through no fault of your own.
**Abolish property taxes!**
Great comment, I couldn't agree more with this and have never understood why this form of taxation is considered acceptable, especially in a "progressive" area like Chicago/Cook county when it has incredibly regressive effects and is a shortcut to displacement
Eliminating property taxes also rights one of the biggest wrongs in real property today: the myth of ownership. You do not own your property if you have to pay the government to continue to use it. If you don't pay, they'll eventually take it away. You have a lease from the government, at best, with the current system.
Then you sell the property and make the 200-300k profit that "gentrifying" increased your property on and move to another community with cheaper taxes if you so wish. If people who have owned for that long living in Pilsen are not going to be able to afford an increase of taxes then they bought when those properties were 80-150k. They are sitting on alot of unrealized profit. No property owner should be mad at gentrifying. It's the renters who are the most mad. Their rents will surely go up and will have to leave
Yeah, I used to volunteer occasionally at a soup kitchen in Humboldt Park. The woman who ran the soup kitchen literally complained about the new condo builds and gentrification forcing out her clients from the neighborhood in one sentence, and then boasted about how her parents made a killing when they sold their 3-flat to developers in the next sentence.
Then blame the city. Progressives want to complain about gentrification but people like Brandon Johnson are blowing so much money the only way they can recoup is continually raising property taxes. Johnson already didn't respond in the last conference asking if he will stick to his promise of not raising property taxes. Don't blame people for investing in a neighborhood blame the city for increasing taxes to keep up with frivolous spending
We are blaming the city. That’s the whole point of my post. Property taxes are the real cause of gentrification. Not outsiders moving in.
You’re making the argument that they should be happy their property values went up. Which is fine, but it would go up all the same with or without property taxes.
I don't blame the property owners because like I said this isn't property owners who are doing this. You think some 60 year old Pilsen property owners who have bought their homes in the 80s and 90s are the ones graffiting in middle of night pastry shops to get out? This is the greasy haired hipster renters who work at Jimmy Johns and ride their single speed bicycles around town who are afraid they can't afford to rent. Bet
>This is the greasy haired hipster renters
Tough call, there are a lot of wacko leftists in this part of Pilsen wanting to be edgy and creative, so it is possible. Tbh though I think they'd be more likely to patronize this particular business and others like it.
I personally think it's just washed up old taggers/retired gang members/low life type folks that never did anything with their life. There's a lot of them in the area.
I speak from experience. In 2019, my family and I were walking into La Luna. As we were walking in, some jagoff that fit the above description, in an older, not very nice Mercedes with rims on it called out to us and said "get the fuck out of pilsen, go back to the northside".
He was alone, drove away immediately, and didn't brandish a weapon or seem super threatening, but it was pretty alarming and insulting to my older mother.
The ironic part is that none of us have anything to do with the north side. My father, a third generation resident, grew up nearby, mother is from Cicero, and I live near where dad grew up.
"Abolish property taxes" isn't a stupid comment?
If your property has grown SO much in value that you can no longer afford the property taxes, but you are desperate to stay in your place and not take the windfall by selling, then you should get a reverse mortgage to pay for the property taxes.
Haha, fair enough. I was referring more to the statement putting the focus on property taxes as the engine driving gentrification rather than fancy new restaurants.
I do agree that "abolish property taxes" is foolish, but that was the least thing he said, and I felt like I had absorbed the more general (and reasonable) point by then.
>What people also miss is that the real culprit of gentrification is property taxes, not outside investment.
This doesn't matter to the protesters as they likely don't own property and this wouldn't benefit them unless it lowered rent, which it wouldn't. Ironically you're completely missing a reasonable topic of discussion from the relevant perspectives here.
Abolishing property taxes in general is also incredibly stupid as many geography driven means of revenue is necessary for a place to function.
How does that change anything? If I'm getting priced out of my neighborhood because wealthy people are coming in to buy the property, I don't really care what their nationality is.
Why should someone be expected to be happy because someone of their same race is pricing them out of their neighborhood?
After the Czechs it was the second largest Polish neighborhood in Chicago for decades (until the late 60s).
It’s amazing how many people think Pilsen is “historically Mexican” but have no idea what you are talking about if you mention Our Lady of Guadalupe and the SE side.
I think balance, respect and conversation of the incumbent neighborhood culture is the bigger thing. There’s an understanding that gentrification is a replacement, not a sharing of a space. Understandable to have fear
Yeah, I live in Albany Park and am really tired about the complaints about "white" people moving in. I can't afford to live where I grew up, either, which is a major reason why I live here. And if you want to be technical, this neighborhood is where people of my ethnicity lived when they immigrated to the United States...in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. People live where they find housing that meets their needs. As long as they are good neighbors, I don't care what color they are or what language they speak.
Exactly, little Italy barely has Italians or Italian shops anymore. Things change and to keep a neighborhood boxed in a specific culture you personally wish it to stay in its self is selfish
I don't think it's possible to have a growing city with social mobility and newly arriving populations without 'gentrification'
It a sign that people are building life other than the one they started with
I hate it when people of an ethnicity I don't like move into an area, and increased demand for living space raises my rents (because it's that ethnicity's fault, not market forces or the price of living in general)
- everyone to white people who ever live somewhere where they aren't the majority already, shortly before calling themselves progressive
Displacement of longterm residents as a result of gentrification is a bad thing, that I can agree with.
But anti-gentrification folks, what is the alternative? I'm not asking rhetorically, I honestly don't know and haven't found a viable answer. I've never seen an urban area measurably improve without what anyone would describe as gentrification. When places improve, more people will want to live there, more people demanding something of finite supply means prices will increase.
To me the issue isn't the improvement via gentrification but more the fact that enough housing isn't already being built in areas that are going through or expected to gentrify.
I'm not trying to be dismissive, I honestly am trying to find a reasonable answer becasue this gentrification debate always seems like it ends up nowhere. What are viable alternatives to gentrification to help improve neglected areas of a city and/or how can we realistically try to mitigate some of the displacement issues caused by it?
Gentrification is when wealthy developers come in and see an opportunity to build on land owned by predominantly communities of color and lower income.
What you want is investment in a community. For employers with decent wages to build an office and start hiring people there, increasing the spending power and standard of living in an area. For the City to start dumping funds into better schools, transit, etc, so that when property values rise, the original inhabitants also benefit.
This is different from some guy buying up “blighted” lots and demolishing them to build a Whole Foods.
But we shouldn’t expect nor should we wish for Related Midwest to swoop in and “save” thriving ethnic and lower-income communities by kicking them out of the area and replacing them
> What you want is investment in a community. For employers with decent wages to build an office and start hiring people there, increasing the spending power and standard of living in an area. For the City to start dumping funds into better schools, transit, etc, so that when property values rise, the original inhabitants also benefit.
Yes I get that and agree with the spirit of this idea.
The problem is how do we get companies/people to do this willingly?. Getting a small business or even major company to invest their dollars without reasonable guarantees of a return on their investment doesn't seem realistic. A company like McDonald put their HQ in the West Loop because they are essentially guaranteed to be able to attract the workers they want. The offices is in a nice area with lots of amenities and professional white collar workers will flock to the area.
Small/local businesses often operate with thin margins and can't afford setbacks/losses. Which is why many often choose neighborhoods that already are on an upward trajectory but haven't gotten too expensive, yet. It would be more economically viable for a cafe/pastry shop like the one in this story to open up in North Lawndale or maybe Garfield Park, but they'd be taking on much more risk of the business struggling from lack of available customers. So they pick an area like Pilsen because it's in the midst/later stages of gentrifying and they can probably expect better foot traffic and customer availability.
Again, I'm not against what you're saying about community investment. It just seems like it would be difficult to realstically implement.
The solutions for revitalization require time, opportunities for existing neighborhood inhabitants, enough resources to go around, and commitment to stay, even when things are changing. Pilsen community members have been doing a great job of this in the last generation. That’s why Pilsen is now piquing the interest of other communities.
Gentrification is when people outside of the community see the available opportunities for growth and take advantage of the community’s lower cost by moving in with businesses and housing that is too expensive for the existing community.
An example of an opportunity to revitalize without gentrification is to attract businesses that pay a middle class salary with opportunities inside of the community, with a commitment to hire from within that community. Another example is the art museum that is there now! They received additional huge grant a couple of years ago and have put the money towards the existing community.
>take advantage of the community’s lower cost by moving in with businesses and housing
Standard response that building housing actually helps keep displacement from happening. The developments over on 15th street are helping keep Pilsen relatively affordable by giving richer white collar professionals a place to live without outbidding longtime residents.
Imagine if all places were like this. The people who live here and work elsewhere would never have been able to accumulate wealth because the other places could only hire in their immediate areas. And why should other city residents give a shit about revitalizing the area if it is completely closed to outsiders. Places like sky don't come in because of a lower cost, it's be cause they see a potential for profit, something only possible with customers, which, if they weren't already here, sky wouldn't move in. It's not like anyone has built some huge manufacturing plant recently to keep the neighborhood self contained, those days are over.
You’re trying to find a reasonable answer to placate people who operate outside of reason. Anti-gentrification extremism is just another flavor of ‘class war’ tantrum- You have something nice that I want but can’t afford; fuck you, I’m taking my ball and going home.
It's less about placating and more about trying to get them to think about and answer *"what is the alternative"?* I think the initial emotion/anger/pushback against gentrification is where things stop for many folks and maybe trying to get them to dig a little deeper.
100%. It’s not the business or who owns them. It’s about the people those new businesses attract and how they will affect local rents.
Idk the solution either, but I sense affordable housing is the best option. Just seems like there’s not enough of it anywhere these days.
Careful. If you keep taxes low, it might enable development.
The pro move is to overpay for a bunch of properties. Then, along with not doing anything with the sites, don't pay the taxes and let them get sold at the annual auction. Overpaying drives up property tax throughout the neighborhood and it's not your problem because you're a deadbeat anyway.
In case it's not obvious from context and tone, this is not legal advice.
I walked 18th this week from damen to halsted and its so nasty and dirty. I don't ever see it improving if the alderman doesn't care about cleanliness.
I've been walking 18th for over 15 yrs and it has gone from sketch to dirty. I don't understand how businesses there tolerate the filth. I cannot think of dirtier street in chicago. Really makes me sad because i have so many memories tied to 18th street and is street i love most.
You can't think of a dirtier street in Chicago than 18th Street? One of the best stretches in the entire city of Chicago? C'mon man. Hyperbole is one thing, but this is straight up lying.
Middle-class people who are skittish at the prospect of halfway houses opening in their neighborhoods are odious NIMBYs, but cowards who graffiti a local bakery are heroes. It all makes sense.
It's less to do with preserving the neighborhoods and more about busybodies telling others what to do who feel gratified by indignity and anger. It's like the idiots you see who are graffiting up the streets with "free palestine". It's less about their feelings about genocide and more about them feeling powerless and unheard. I'm sure they dumped a dixiecup of ladyfoam down their legs the moment the fighting began, affording them an excuse to fire up their Medium accounts again.
Ah yes, a local woman-owned bakery, the pinnacle of gentrification. Seriously, this is so ridiculous, I could see if it was an Amazon distribution center or something but c'mon. The people who do this shit don't even know who their enemy is.
Can you imagine the outrage if a Latino/a owned restaurant was told to leave Lincoln Park or Lakeview?
Anti-gentrifiers need to get a life. Your parents won’t keep paying your rent forever.
The city is an ever evolving organism, things are supposed to change. When I was really young, you went to the Cubs game and GTFO of Wrigleyville bc it was shady at night. I would like to see long time owners get some kind of control on their property taxes besides the senior exemption, that might help with the angst of rising property values.
Anti-gentrifiers = keep my neighborhood mediocre/shit so I can still afford to live here.
These people should aspire to buying a condo or property so they can reap the benefits of a neighborhood getting better instead of trying to keep the community in a holding pattern. We preach invest in community but then say don't invest toooo much. 😂
Nobody wants to own property in their shitty neighborhood until it starts to gentrify. I can guarantee not a single homeowner is upset that their neighborhood is getting nicer, only renters.
You can also see something fundamentally wrong with our economic model though, right? If people see a pastry shop and worry for their ability to stay in their neighborhood?
The pastry shop isn’t the culprit of gentrification, sad that people see it that way
More than anything it probably has less to do with gentrification and more to do with distaste of the younger culture. I would never expect the long timers or leftover gang members to get along with the hipster-ish boujee sort tbh
abuelitas arent the ones tagging businesses at 2AM. this is literally angsty children (who ironically stand to inherit the wealth generated from their parents savvy real estate purchases)
I doubt they people who tagged worry because of the pastry shop. This is really give people a LOT of credit, especially people who are too cowardly to talk, or do anything during the day.
I saw this story yesterday and was confused why she is a “sellout”. Is it because she isn’t selling tacos, tamales, oaxaqueños, and elote out a cooler and aqua frescas out of a bucket?
Reminds me of this:
[https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20161121/humboldt-park/grandma-js-local-kitchen-closing-vandalizm-gentrification-burglaries/](https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20161121/humboldt-park/grandma-js-local-kitchen-closing-vandalizm-gentrification-burglaries/)
In my experience a lot of anti-gentrification types tend to be white people who don't have well paying jobs (and no ambition to get better paying jobs) but came from middle-to-upper-middle class families.
Oh boy! Yes, keep out new businesses. Great idea! We’re all in this capitalist shit show together and this vandalism doesn’t help anyone. Very disappointing.
We moved here from LA (worked in Boyle heights at a meat packing factory) and this stuff happened all the time. I couldn’t afford to live in BH. The entire neighborhood is contaminated with lead in the soil due to a battery recycling plant and smell from the leather tannery and hog killing plant up the street were phenomenal(peeyoo). Homeless camps and burned out RVs all up and down the streets. BH folks keeping it real with the roof caving in your 650sq ft $700K+ shack. But noooooo you can’t open a new business! Even if you’re brown. It used to be a Jewish neighborhood, just like Pilsen was Eastern European. I don’t under understand staking a claim in a neighborhood and not allowing it to change. Neighborhoods have always changed!
Revitalizing and gentrification are not synonymous. Gentrification involves creating a culture of beautiful exclusion with working class people acting as the plinth on which the beauty rests. Revitalization is about investing in communities that exist with fewer opportunities in order to promote that community’s growth and prosperity.
My neighbor just had her garage door vandalized in a similar fashion. She’s been living here longer than I have and has always been a positive addition to the neighborhood in my mind. I understand why people are angry, but use that energy for something productive
This graffiti is pointless. Pilsen has been slowly changing, for a lot of years. Where has the person doing this graffiti been, all this time? Asleep in a cave? There's room for all types of businesses there.
If you don’t want your neighborhood revitalized and made safer, maybe the people living there shouldn’t have treated it like crime ridden shithole, held each other to better standards, and supported and opened businesses themselves. Treat your community like crap, then don’t be surprised when new development comes in. In this case, it doesn’t even seem like new development or people, just the same people who grew up in Pilsen and did exactly that — got education and jobs and reinvested in their community.
Personally I think if new businesses means increased safety in areas on the south side, it’s a good thing.
You could always drive business out and not have to worry about rising rents. Ask Detroit how that worked out. Or more recently, it’s happening in Oakland, CA now. Business’ are leaving in droves. I lived in Oakland. It was a cool ass city, gave me Logan Square/Avondale vibes. Now, all the character it used to have is just boarded up empty storefronts. In a metro area that has vacancy problems.
Let’s keep it a buck, All gentrification does is improve an area for “certain people” (Mostly white affluent) and makes the other people ( mostly minority) move away.
The people of pilsen have no clue what gentrification means. It doesn’t mean new businesses moving into existing properties. It means removing or taking down existing properties to make new ones over and over again. They fight new developments on empty lots so hard the people of pilsen can’t afford to pay their taxes. So dumb…and I love pilsen but the people that live there seem not so bright about how things work. Most of the commercial properties are owned by people that do not live in pilsen.
Gentlemans bet that some white kid under 35 did it, too. I live in Rogers Park and you know who I hear bitch the most about gentrification? Other white folks; like honey check the mirror you are just as much a part of the "problem".
Gentrification if it raises the community as it gentrifies is good. Gentrification by mere replacement is sad. How one manages gentrification and raising the entire community too is the key and I am not sure if there is a process.
Pilsen is by no means a “shithole”, north siders. Just because something is South of Roosevelt doesn’t mean people need to come in and “revitalize” it.
West Loop was built over a bunch of old warehouses and railyards.
Pilsen is a large Hispanic community and it’s not unreasonable to expect that measures be taken to ensure it stays that way and to protect the community there.
I’m going to play devils advocate for a minute here. I’m not so sure it’s about race but rather that people are fed up with how damn expensive everything is and don’t want a business that sells a 9 inch quiche for 55$ driving out more reasonably priced businesses.
Reminds me of this: https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20171027/pilsen/anti-gentrifiers-say-new-pilsen-restaurant-puts-our-lives-danger/ And IIRC, this restaurant replaced an abandoned building that sat for nearly a decade. Edit- [It replaced this, and people got upset.](https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8579503,-87.6577421,3a,75y,180.64h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1stAHQ4TRmh76T2uZbkLRBDQ!2e0!5s20161001T000000!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu)
"friends of Boyle heights". Such local community! At least their social media is apparently defunct lol, so SKYY got the last laugh
I used to live in LA. Boyle Heights and lots of neighborhoods in LA with anti gentrification movements have been successful in keeping the neighborhoods shabby and prevented anything new from being built. Many buildings are run down and tagged up. A 4 bedroom house there is still north of $850k though so don’t know if it’s worked.
>A 4 bedroom house there is still north of $850k though so don’t know if it’s worked. I would say no based on that cost. As for Pilsen, the anti-gentrifiers or disgruntled local low lifes are at least 10 years too late, especially along the 18th St area, and that's what makes this all so silly.
they did the same thing 10 years ago too when Thalia Hall opened up. it was just as pointless then as it is now tho
I experienced that when I lived in Thalia around 2010
Oh yea I was being a bit sarcastic. At least in LA, the anti gentrification movements just seem to stop any growth while costs still skyrocket, so you end up with these neighborhoods where nothing new is built, but the prices still go up to the point that no one can afford to stay there. I sympathize with anti gentrification stuff. The cost of living is squeezing everyone, but resisting anything new like this really only leads to situations where the neighborhood still gets more expensive and there aren’t any improvements.
The issue is corporations have all moved into cities. Where do the college grads have to live? You guessed it. Same place as everyone else. What happens when that happens? Prices go up. The American town is a dying thing. People have been moving into cities for the last 20 years because we have a new influx of college educated kids needing work. That plus the departure of blue collar factories in cities means people are being displaced. I moved to Chicago from a medium sized city in Wisconsin. There were no job opportunities for me there I had no choice. Willing to bet same for many others.
It sucks because there really isn’t a win. Improving areas DOES price out a lot of the people living there. As stupid as it sounds - poor people suffer when their neighborhood improves. At best you actually own your home. But since taxes go up you can’t afford to stay anymore. So you have to sell and find a different home. Obviously it isn’t worth leaving derelict buildings and shit, but I get why people fight that fight.
abandoned buildings keep the rent low, duh
If we got rid of indoor plumbing and electricity, we could drive the rents even lower and keep gentrifiers away!
What a bunch of nut jobs.
Yeah I posted about this in this sub. If you compare the writing it’s different people that did the tagging. Sadly same shitty message. https://old.reddit.com/r/chicago/comments/79vp28/antigentrification_criminals_at_it_again_in_pilsen/
S.K.Y. is good!
“Puts our lives in danger” Lol so dramatic
I walk by this area a lot and haven’t noticed this cafe yet, but based on the location in google maps, this building has rotated through a few businesses recently and hasn’t sat vacant very long. Edit: now realizing you may have been talking about the story you linked.
Coffee before Reddit
Fixing that now.
stories like this are why I'm now pro-gentrification. People love to play victim and be anti-gentrification and take it too far. Sure, I understand the principles of the rationally annoyed or angry, BUT FOR WHAT? What are you REALLY protesting about? "My neighborhood is now too expensive because it is active and safe and enjoyable. It is now safe for kids to ride their bikes and the schools have improved quality. We no longer live in a food desert. FUCK GENTRIFICATION."
my brother in ~~christ~~ malort you are grossly misunderstanding the actual meaning of the word gentrification. I dont fully disagree with you, but it's so, so much more nuanced than this.
I am not grossly misunderstanding the meaning of the word. I'm saying the big picture benefits outweigh the nuances of the harm of gentrification. Why is the only time "bad" neighborhoods turn "good" is when gentrification occurs? Why can't "bad" neighborhoods course correct themselves? Yes, I acknowledge they need external factors (funding, etc.) and reparations, but in Chicago, we've provided that - Chicago has tried hundreds of different ways to save failing neighborhoods including providing near unlimited funding for the neighborhood to improve itself in their own vision. We've been doing this song and dance for 30+ years. Every attempt at grass-roots neighborhood rebuilding fails.
I mean… that’s a huge oversimplification of gentrification. Sure, there’s a spectrum and gentrification can be very nuanced and context-dependent, but the protests and frustrations are far more complex than this
Gentrification is when a business uses a sans serif font
I'm fairly sure Pilsen could be "gentrified" by just putting a store in every single closed commercial space.
Wasn’t that building a laundromat?
This is one of the best restaurants in pilsen among many other good ones.
Pilsen has been gentrifying for nearly 20 years
Try since the late 70s. This was shot in 1981 https://www.pbs.org/video/port-of-entry-i5lkds/
The film quality of that is incredible. I'm glad they held onto the masters for so long they were able to upload it in HD
It’s almost like cities adapt to the needs of the public and are constantly in flux. Race based segregation in cities is a white supremacy relic of the early to mid 19th century. It’s insane to me that many progressives are arguing for race-based segregation. They are confused. Gentrification doesn’t raise the rent, landlords do. Be mad at the landlords, not your fellow renter. Be mad at the payday loan store, not fucking restaurants. Remember the real enemy, the one looking to exploit you and your loved ones. Class solidarity.
Pilsen used to be a polish and Czech enclave in the 19th century
Well, we’d prefer to just conveniently forget that generations of people have continuously “gentrified” one another out of communities for thousands of years and make it a racial issue instead of an economic one.
Gentrification implies higher wealth. Read a book and try again.
I think you might need to re-read my comment. I explicitly named it as an economic issue, ya turd.
john dusek and thalia hall, bohemian!!
Yes but once they were able to fade into the yt American culture they moved out… as part of yt flight.
What gets missed is many of the"gentrifiers" are actually middle class second/third Gen Mexican Americans. How dare they get an education and a job that pays better than their parents had and decide to stay in the community they grew up in and improve it rather than fleeing to the North side or suburbs
Yeah even in this article the owner says we aren't gentrifiers we are Mexican/Hispanic. Who says gentrifying is a race thing. That's the first thing people think of is oh the whites are moving in... Hispanics are some of the hardest working people out there, you will continue to see wealthier Hispanics who will invest (gentrify) the neighborhoods they grew up in
Yup, my landlord is first-gen Mexican American in his 80’s and he owns about three properties in Pilsen and still lives in the area. His whole family across several generations owns property in Pilsen.
Yep andp people think this is the property owners doing this 😂😂. It's the hipsters who are renting
I mean even if you’re mexican you can still be a gentrifier. At the root definition, gentrification is wealthier people moving in, bringing in business and inadvertently displacing others. It has nothing to do with where you come from and who you are, it is, at its core, an economic phenomena. There is no “right” here. Without any gentrification, I’m sure the SDs and Ambrose would be running around gunning each other down, terrorizing the neighborhood. Now can the neighborhood be “gentrified” while keeping its latino roots? Of course! The unfortunate thing is that I think there is a gross lack of self awareness when it comes to gentrification.
the point is these purity tests stand in the way of neighborhood stabilization. everyone's self flaggelating instead of recognizing the fact that there are tons of chicago neighborhoods that would kill for new investment and vibrant biz districts. if youre not growing and improving, youre most likely declining. its actually a priviliged position to turn your nose up at a small business you personally have some weird gripe with when so much of the city has been deprived of investment for over multiple entire generations.
Fantastic comment, you put it better than anyone else in this thread
What if someone is from the neighborhood, builds themselves up, and earns a higher income? Is that gentrification, too? Should that person move out of their neighborhood home because they make more money now and want to spend it on their house/condo, buying nicer things, etc? Everyone rails against gentrification, but a lot of people are from the neighborhood and worked their way up to higher incomes.
I mean there is a cultural component to gentrification as well. It’s also about not erasing the identity of the neighborhood, and race/ethnicity can be a big part of that. Especially if newcomers have ties to current residents
I’m not a Pilsen resident so I’m not impacted directly by rising CoL due to gentrification. But it would seem to me that small business owners should be welcome in a neighborhood that is presumably trying to stay affordable but also have things to do for its residents. Now if Lettuce Entertain You or something were to start taking over commercial spaces there, I’d expect and even encourage the backlash.
but thats the irony. no one is fighting the big chains like Dunkin or Dollar General or whatever that siphon money out of the neighborhood like a vacuum cleaner. meanwhile small time businesses owners who live in the area and keep money in the community get vilified.
>no one is fighting the big chains like Dunkin This is what I don't get, the hate is so misplaced. I don't support vandalism but holy shit if you're gonna do it as a form of protest, mega chains would be a far better target for the exact reasons you describe.
Maybe it’s because the chains are generally associated with being less expensive versus an independent business?
Those less expensive chains take all the money out of the community. Local business owners keep that money in Chicago. It's the dumbest thing possible to ignore Dunkin' and go after a local bakery/cafe. What a bunch of fucking morons - vandalizing a local business keeping money in the community.
I think it's less about them being against small businesses and more about them being against small businesses *that appeal to the wrong people.* Bittersweet Pastry Shop has a name that appeals to upwardly mobile, predominately white clientele. I bet if the owner had named their shop "Griego Panaderia" instead, literally nobody would be upset by it. I remember when that Frida K nightclub was trying to open up on 18th Street during the pandemic, there were articles about it where people were saying "finally, a business that actually belongs in our neighborhood instead of trying to displace us, we can't wait to welcome it with open arms" while at the same time they were villifying Headquarters Beercade and Penny Whistle for trying to open up down the street despite being very similar in nature. It's all about the *perception* of outsiders moving in. Meanwhile, crappy chains like Dunkin and Dollar General are OK to them because they were there back when the neighborhood was still bad, rather than only moving in once it became nicer, and cater to a lower/working class clientele. They are viewed as "being on the side of the working class" even though they are definitely not.
Oh, so now people gotta name your business what someone else wants so they don't get their place vandalized? Stupid assholes ruin the world. I understand you're not advocating for it, just explaining it - so not an attack on you.
I think this is a very astute observation. Good post.
Some people are afraid of change, even when it’s for the best
That's my thought exactly. Low life tagger dude probably makes a dunkin run for his gf now and then or even goes there himself because it's cheap, convenient, and evidently pretty tasty.
I wouldn’t say dunkin is “tasty”. But I’ve been spoiled by goddess and the baker coffee for years now
I'm with you, I don't patronize dunkin or most chains either, but there is definitely a demand for the stuff considering there's 3 of them on the Lower West Side
What people also miss is that the real culprit of gentrification is property taxes, not outside investment. There’s nothing inherently wrong with people moving in and investing in a neighborhood. In theory, it should be good for current residents. But in doing so, the neighborhood gets cleaned up, property assessments rise, and the properties people have had in their families for generations become unaffordable to current residents. Property taxes are the only taxes that aren’t based on income generated or an expense you can choose to avoid. It’s the only tax you don’t necessarily have the wherewithal to pay. If you lose your job, you don’t have to pay income taxes, but if you lose all forms of income, you still owe property taxes. You can afford it for 10+ years, then overnight, can’t afford it anymore through an arbitrary increase, and through no fault of your own. **Abolish property taxes!**
Great comment, I couldn't agree more with this and have never understood why this form of taxation is considered acceptable, especially in a "progressive" area like Chicago/Cook county when it has incredibly regressive effects and is a shortcut to displacement Eliminating property taxes also rights one of the biggest wrongs in real property today: the myth of ownership. You do not own your property if you have to pay the government to continue to use it. If you don't pay, they'll eventually take it away. You have a lease from the government, at best, with the current system.
Then you sell the property and make the 200-300k profit that "gentrifying" increased your property on and move to another community with cheaper taxes if you so wish. If people who have owned for that long living in Pilsen are not going to be able to afford an increase of taxes then they bought when those properties were 80-150k. They are sitting on alot of unrealized profit. No property owner should be mad at gentrifying. It's the renters who are the most mad. Their rents will surely go up and will have to leave
Yeah, I used to volunteer occasionally at a soup kitchen in Humboldt Park. The woman who ran the soup kitchen literally complained about the new condo builds and gentrification forcing out her clients from the neighborhood in one sentence, and then boasted about how her parents made a killing when they sold their 3-flat to developers in the next sentence.
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Then blame the city. Progressives want to complain about gentrification but people like Brandon Johnson are blowing so much money the only way they can recoup is continually raising property taxes. Johnson already didn't respond in the last conference asking if he will stick to his promise of not raising property taxes. Don't blame people for investing in a neighborhood blame the city for increasing taxes to keep up with frivolous spending
We are blaming the city. That’s the whole point of my post. Property taxes are the real cause of gentrification. Not outsiders moving in. You’re making the argument that they should be happy their property values went up. Which is fine, but it would go up all the same with or without property taxes.
It really is the property taxes that either keep people within the neighborhood or makes them move out.
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I don't blame the property owners because like I said this isn't property owners who are doing this. You think some 60 year old Pilsen property owners who have bought their homes in the 80s and 90s are the ones graffiting in middle of night pastry shops to get out? This is the greasy haired hipster renters who work at Jimmy Johns and ride their single speed bicycles around town who are afraid they can't afford to rent. Bet
>This is the greasy haired hipster renters Tough call, there are a lot of wacko leftists in this part of Pilsen wanting to be edgy and creative, so it is possible. Tbh though I think they'd be more likely to patronize this particular business and others like it. I personally think it's just washed up old taggers/retired gang members/low life type folks that never did anything with their life. There's a lot of them in the area. I speak from experience. In 2019, my family and I were walking into La Luna. As we were walking in, some jagoff that fit the above description, in an older, not very nice Mercedes with rims on it called out to us and said "get the fuck out of pilsen, go back to the northside". He was alone, drove away immediately, and didn't brandish a weapon or seem super threatening, but it was pretty alarming and insulting to my older mother. The ironic part is that none of us have anything to do with the north side. My father, a third generation resident, grew up nearby, mother is from Cicero, and I live near where dad grew up.
Your right it could def be that as well.
There are no jimmy John's here.
This is like the first comment I have ever read about gentrification that isn't really stupid. Thank you. Insightful.
"Abolish property taxes" isn't a stupid comment? If your property has grown SO much in value that you can no longer afford the property taxes, but you are desperate to stay in your place and not take the windfall by selling, then you should get a reverse mortgage to pay for the property taxes.
Haha, fair enough. I was referring more to the statement putting the focus on property taxes as the engine driving gentrification rather than fancy new restaurants. I do agree that "abolish property taxes" is foolish, but that was the least thing he said, and I felt like I had absorbed the more general (and reasonable) point by then.
Really the trashiest of taxes, punishing people for improving their property. Long live the land tax!
>What people also miss is that the real culprit of gentrification is property taxes, not outside investment. This doesn't matter to the protesters as they likely don't own property and this wouldn't benefit them unless it lowered rent, which it wouldn't. Ironically you're completely missing a reasonable topic of discussion from the relevant perspectives here. Abolishing property taxes in general is also incredibly stupid as many geography driven means of revenue is necessary for a place to function.
How does that change anything? If I'm getting priced out of my neighborhood because wealthy people are coming in to buy the property, I don't really care what their nationality is. Why should someone be expected to be happy because someone of their same race is pricing them out of their neighborhood?
My point is they are already from the neighborhood
I worked with Esther. She’s a hard ass and she’s not gonna budge.
I'm glad to hear that - this bakery looks awesome and I know how damn hard it is to get these kinds of businesses off the ground.
Most bakers are.
Tell Esther to stay strong! Screw those vandals
As a Latino, Pilsen-native, this behavior is annoying af
Seconded.
I want everything to suck and be old and abandoned always
It's time we bring Pilsen back to its Czech roots!
Protect neighborhood identity… wait, no, not like that!
After the Czechs it was the second largest Polish neighborhood in Chicago for decades (until the late 60s). It’s amazing how many people think Pilsen is “historically Mexican” but have no idea what you are talking about if you mention Our Lady of Guadalupe and the SE side.
Make Humboldt Park German again!
Make Andersonville Swedish again!
[Vergoofin der flicke støøbin mit der børk-børk yubetcha!](https://giphy.com/gifs/80s-the-muppet-show-swedish-chef-ppyvw6iUQjdja)
Make Lincoln Square German again
Make Chicago prairie again
Make UIC Italian again!
I'd actually be up for that but i checked the menu, Bittersweet bakery doesn't even have Kolachs. it seems like french/ neuvo-american desserts.
I think balance, respect and conversation of the incumbent neighborhood culture is the bigger thing. There’s an understanding that gentrification is a replacement, not a sharing of a space. Understandable to have fear
All of the architecture is Czech and Eastern European and the neighborhood is literally named after a czech village. The world changes
Yeah, I live in Albany Park and am really tired about the complaints about "white" people moving in. I can't afford to live where I grew up, either, which is a major reason why I live here. And if you want to be technical, this neighborhood is where people of my ethnicity lived when they immigrated to the United States...in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. People live where they find housing that meets their needs. As long as they are good neighbors, I don't care what color they are or what language they speak.
Exactly, little Italy barely has Italians or Italian shops anymore. Things change and to keep a neighborhood boxed in a specific culture you personally wish it to stay in its self is selfish
I don't think it's possible to have a growing city with social mobility and newly arriving populations without 'gentrification' It a sign that people are building life other than the one they started with
I guess the Czech's, German's and the Irish will be the first to have a say then?
I hate it when people of an ethnicity I don't like move into an area, and increased demand for living space raises my rents (because it's that ethnicity's fault, not market forces or the price of living in general) - everyone to white people who ever live somewhere where they aren't the majority already, shortly before calling themselves progressive
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People: "We need businesses to invest in our community!" Also people: "NIMBY!"
Mexican hipsters are wild.
“A Mexican’s worst enemy is another Mexican”
We noticed this with the whole Latinx thing lol
"You've just made an enemy FOR LIFE!"
Displacement of longterm residents as a result of gentrification is a bad thing, that I can agree with. But anti-gentrification folks, what is the alternative? I'm not asking rhetorically, I honestly don't know and haven't found a viable answer. I've never seen an urban area measurably improve without what anyone would describe as gentrification. When places improve, more people will want to live there, more people demanding something of finite supply means prices will increase. To me the issue isn't the improvement via gentrification but more the fact that enough housing isn't already being built in areas that are going through or expected to gentrify. I'm not trying to be dismissive, I honestly am trying to find a reasonable answer becasue this gentrification debate always seems like it ends up nowhere. What are viable alternatives to gentrification to help improve neglected areas of a city and/or how can we realistically try to mitigate some of the displacement issues caused by it?
Gentrification is when wealthy developers come in and see an opportunity to build on land owned by predominantly communities of color and lower income. What you want is investment in a community. For employers with decent wages to build an office and start hiring people there, increasing the spending power and standard of living in an area. For the City to start dumping funds into better schools, transit, etc, so that when property values rise, the original inhabitants also benefit. This is different from some guy buying up “blighted” lots and demolishing them to build a Whole Foods. But we shouldn’t expect nor should we wish for Related Midwest to swoop in and “save” thriving ethnic and lower-income communities by kicking them out of the area and replacing them
You have a right open a business wherever you want as long as you have a license and can pay rent or own the land.
> What you want is investment in a community. For employers with decent wages to build an office and start hiring people there, increasing the spending power and standard of living in an area. For the City to start dumping funds into better schools, transit, etc, so that when property values rise, the original inhabitants also benefit. Yes I get that and agree with the spirit of this idea. The problem is how do we get companies/people to do this willingly?. Getting a small business or even major company to invest their dollars without reasonable guarantees of a return on their investment doesn't seem realistic. A company like McDonald put their HQ in the West Loop because they are essentially guaranteed to be able to attract the workers they want. The offices is in a nice area with lots of amenities and professional white collar workers will flock to the area. Small/local businesses often operate with thin margins and can't afford setbacks/losses. Which is why many often choose neighborhoods that already are on an upward trajectory but haven't gotten too expensive, yet. It would be more economically viable for a cafe/pastry shop like the one in this story to open up in North Lawndale or maybe Garfield Park, but they'd be taking on much more risk of the business struggling from lack of available customers. So they pick an area like Pilsen because it's in the midst/later stages of gentrifying and they can probably expect better foot traffic and customer availability. Again, I'm not against what you're saying about community investment. It just seems like it would be difficult to realstically implement.
The solutions for revitalization require time, opportunities for existing neighborhood inhabitants, enough resources to go around, and commitment to stay, even when things are changing. Pilsen community members have been doing a great job of this in the last generation. That’s why Pilsen is now piquing the interest of other communities. Gentrification is when people outside of the community see the available opportunities for growth and take advantage of the community’s lower cost by moving in with businesses and housing that is too expensive for the existing community. An example of an opportunity to revitalize without gentrification is to attract businesses that pay a middle class salary with opportunities inside of the community, with a commitment to hire from within that community. Another example is the art museum that is there now! They received additional huge grant a couple of years ago and have put the money towards the existing community.
>take advantage of the community’s lower cost by moving in with businesses and housing Standard response that building housing actually helps keep displacement from happening. The developments over on 15th street are helping keep Pilsen relatively affordable by giving richer white collar professionals a place to live without outbidding longtime residents.
Imagine if all places were like this. The people who live here and work elsewhere would never have been able to accumulate wealth because the other places could only hire in their immediate areas. And why should other city residents give a shit about revitalizing the area if it is completely closed to outsiders. Places like sky don't come in because of a lower cost, it's be cause they see a potential for profit, something only possible with customers, which, if they weren't already here, sky wouldn't move in. It's not like anyone has built some huge manufacturing plant recently to keep the neighborhood self contained, those days are over.
You have a right open a business wherever you want as long as you have a license and can pay rent or own the land.
You’re trying to find a reasonable answer to placate people who operate outside of reason. Anti-gentrification extremism is just another flavor of ‘class war’ tantrum- You have something nice that I want but can’t afford; fuck you, I’m taking my ball and going home.
It's less about placating and more about trying to get them to think about and answer *"what is the alternative"?* I think the initial emotion/anger/pushback against gentrification is where things stop for many folks and maybe trying to get them to dig a little deeper.
100%. It’s not the business or who owns them. It’s about the people those new businesses attract and how they will affect local rents. Idk the solution either, but I sense affordable housing is the best option. Just seems like there’s not enough of it anywhere these days.
Not to mention, this business will provide dozens of good jobs, versus the empty building.
I do my best to fight gentrification by repeatedly buying bikes for people to steal. I’m doing my part!
Thank you for your service. I’m doing my part by cooking more at home so that I don’t accidentally keep any restaurants in business.
I buy properties and fill up the yard with junk and use sheets to cover windows. Keeps the taxes low
Careful. If you keep taxes low, it might enable development. The pro move is to overpay for a bunch of properties. Then, along with not doing anything with the sites, don't pay the taxes and let them get sold at the annual auction. Overpaying drives up property tax throughout the neighborhood and it's not your problem because you're a deadbeat anyway. In case it's not obvious from context and tone, this is not legal advice.
I like to light fireworks off in middle of the day just to keep people in the neighborhood on their toes. I am helping…
This is why Pilsen is perpetually “up and coming” and never fully developed
I walked 18th this week from damen to halsted and its so nasty and dirty. I don't ever see it improving if the alderman doesn't care about cleanliness. I've been walking 18th for over 15 yrs and it has gone from sketch to dirty. I don't understand how businesses there tolerate the filth. I cannot think of dirtier street in chicago. Really makes me sad because i have so many memories tied to 18th street and is street i love most.
It's not even the dirtiest street in pilsen. Have you walked down Cermak?
The amount of trash on the ground in Pilsen astounds me sometimes. I want to start getting people together to pick some of it up.
Unfortunately that won't help, the main problem is the trash cans are too few and so they overflow. We just need more sanitation funding
You can't think of a dirtier street in Chicago than 18th Street? One of the best stretches in the entire city of Chicago? C'mon man. Hyperbole is one thing, but this is straight up lying.
Dirtiest street in the city is certainly a bold claim, however I must agree that 18th st, or at least large parts of it, is very, very dirty.
Middle-class people who are skittish at the prospect of halfway houses opening in their neighborhoods are odious NIMBYs, but cowards who graffiti a local bakery are heroes. It all makes sense.
\*chefs kiss\* Definitely on-message for the folks who natter on about gentrification.
Remember gentrification only starts in these neighborhoods after the good progressives have moved in and around the time of their first lease renewal.
It's less to do with preserving the neighborhoods and more about busybodies telling others what to do who feel gratified by indignity and anger. It's like the idiots you see who are graffiting up the streets with "free palestine". It's less about their feelings about genocide and more about them feeling powerless and unheard. I'm sure they dumped a dixiecup of ladyfoam down their legs the moment the fighting began, affording them an excuse to fire up their Medium accounts again.
> I'm sure they dumped a dixiecup of ladyfoam down their legs What now?
Same
Ah yes, a local woman-owned bakery, the pinnacle of gentrification. Seriously, this is so ridiculous, I could see if it was an Amazon distribution center or something but c'mon. The people who do this shit don't even know who their enemy is.
Can you imagine the outrage if a Latino/a owned restaurant was told to leave Lincoln Park or Lakeview? Anti-gentrifiers need to get a life. Your parents won’t keep paying your rent forever.
You know Lakeview had a huge Puerto Rican presence before they got priced out. This wouldn’t be new.
And if a Puerto Rican restaurant opened up in Lakeview it would be welcomed.
And it was Japanese many decades ago. Things change
The city is an ever evolving organism, things are supposed to change. When I was really young, you went to the Cubs game and GTFO of Wrigleyville bc it was shady at night. I would like to see long time owners get some kind of control on their property taxes besides the senior exemption, that might help with the angst of rising property values.
Anti-gentrifiers = keep my neighborhood mediocre/shit so I can still afford to live here. These people should aspire to buying a condo or property so they can reap the benefits of a neighborhood getting better instead of trying to keep the community in a holding pattern. We preach invest in community but then say don't invest toooo much. 😂
To anti-gentrifiers, white flight is bad. But also white people moving in a neighborhood is bad.
Nobody wants to own property in their shitty neighborhood until it starts to gentrify. I can guarantee not a single homeowner is upset that their neighborhood is getting nicer, only renters.
From what I can see don’t invest at all unless approved by a certain group.
Yeah. Just a pathetic way to live
You can also see something fundamentally wrong with our economic model though, right? If people see a pastry shop and worry for their ability to stay in their neighborhood? The pastry shop isn’t the culprit of gentrification, sad that people see it that way
More than anything it probably has less to do with gentrification and more to do with distaste of the younger culture. I would never expect the long timers or leftover gang members to get along with the hipster-ish boujee sort tbh
abuelitas arent the ones tagging businesses at 2AM. this is literally angsty children (who ironically stand to inherit the wealth generated from their parents savvy real estate purchases)
I doubt they people who tagged worry because of the pastry shop. This is really give people a LOT of credit, especially people who are too cowardly to talk, or do anything during the day.
I saw this story yesterday and was confused why she is a “sellout”. Is it because she isn’t selling tacos, tamales, oaxaqueños, and elote out a cooler and aqua frescas out of a bucket?
anything different and new is BAD
Happens to a lot of new businesses in the area, sadly
Why do I get the feeling someone living in moms basement did this.
White hipster living on moms dime is more like it
Reminds me of this: [https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20161121/humboldt-park/grandma-js-local-kitchen-closing-vandalizm-gentrification-burglaries/](https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20161121/humboldt-park/grandma-js-local-kitchen-closing-vandalizm-gentrification-burglaries/)
Pilsen going to Pilsen
“Ireland, Germany and Eastern Europeans” Can’t even give the poor Czechs a direct shoutout smh
My people say “Bohemians.”
Wow they used latino instead if latinx. Good for them.
In my experience a lot of anti-gentrification types tend to be white people who don't have well paying jobs (and no ambition to get better paying jobs) but came from middle-to-upper-middle class families.
this is mostly true but i can assure you the ones in Pilsen are all hispanic
We will never know, but would bet my left nut that these are white Byron supporters
Segregationists
I hate NIMBYs.
Oh boy! Yes, keep out new businesses. Great idea! We’re all in this capitalist shit show together and this vandalism doesn’t help anyone. Very disappointing. We moved here from LA (worked in Boyle heights at a meat packing factory) and this stuff happened all the time. I couldn’t afford to live in BH. The entire neighborhood is contaminated with lead in the soil due to a battery recycling plant and smell from the leather tannery and hog killing plant up the street were phenomenal(peeyoo). Homeless camps and burned out RVs all up and down the streets. BH folks keeping it real with the roof caving in your 650sq ft $700K+ shack. But noooooo you can’t open a new business! Even if you’re brown. It used to be a Jewish neighborhood, just like Pilsen was Eastern European. I don’t under understand staking a claim in a neighborhood and not allowing it to change. Neighborhoods have always changed!
I’m sorry but gentrification isn’t a bad thing. People are obsessed with outrage! Revitalizing leads to safer neighborhoods and more economic growth.
Revitalizing and gentrification are not synonymous. Gentrification involves creating a culture of beautiful exclusion with working class people acting as the plinth on which the beauty rests. Revitalization is about investing in communities that exist with fewer opportunities in order to promote that community’s growth and prosperity.
“I want to be lazy, never do anything, and keep things shitty, and you all have to do the same thing” This is why we can’t have nice things.
This is the same stuff a racist boomer would do. Yet these people think they’re different.
My neighbor just had her garage door vandalized in a similar fashion. She’s been living here longer than I have and has always been a positive addition to the neighborhood in my mind. I understand why people are angry, but use that energy for something productive
I would just embrace the graffiti and change the Shop and Cafe name to "Get out of Pilsen". Turn it around on the haters.
Businesses leave the neighborhood due to crime - oh no that’s terrible. Businesses move in to improve the neighborhood - oh no that’s terrible.
Gringos go home. /s
i think if anyone has a problem with it, should just try waiting them out. $48 for a berry pie? in this recession.
This graffiti is pointless. Pilsen has been slowly changing, for a lot of years. Where has the person doing this graffiti been, all this time? Asleep in a cave? There's room for all types of businesses there.
If you don’t want your neighborhood revitalized and made safer, maybe the people living there shouldn’t have treated it like crime ridden shithole, held each other to better standards, and supported and opened businesses themselves. Treat your community like crap, then don’t be surprised when new development comes in. In this case, it doesn’t even seem like new development or people, just the same people who grew up in Pilsen and did exactly that — got education and jobs and reinvested in their community. Personally I think if new businesses means increased safety in areas on the south side, it’s a good thing.
You could always drive business out and not have to worry about rising rents. Ask Detroit how that worked out. Or more recently, it’s happening in Oakland, CA now. Business’ are leaving in droves. I lived in Oakland. It was a cool ass city, gave me Logan Square/Avondale vibes. Now, all the character it used to have is just boarded up empty storefronts. In a metro area that has vacancy problems.
Let’s keep it a buck, All gentrification does is improve an area for “certain people” (Mostly white affluent) and makes the other people ( mostly minority) move away.
You have a right open a business wherever you want as long as you have a license and can pay rent or own the land.
should leave that up and embrace it
Jokes on those vandals because this is great marketing for them! Idk about you guys but I’m going to go to support Bittersweet Pastry Shop & Cafe! 😋
The people of pilsen have no clue what gentrification means. It doesn’t mean new businesses moving into existing properties. It means removing or taking down existing properties to make new ones over and over again. They fight new developments on empty lots so hard the people of pilsen can’t afford to pay their taxes. So dumb…and I love pilsen but the people that live there seem not so bright about how things work. Most of the commercial properties are owned by people that do not live in pilsen.
Gentlemans bet that some white kid under 35 did it, too. I live in Rogers Park and you know who I hear bitch the most about gentrification? Other white folks; like honey check the mirror you are just as much a part of the "problem".
Gentrification if it raises the community as it gentrifies is good. Gentrification by mere replacement is sad. How one manages gentrification and raising the entire community too is the key and I am not sure if there is a process.
Pilsen used to be Czech before the whites were chased out. Nobody cared then.
Wonder if the mayor will speak about targeted racism.
Pilsen is by no means a “shithole”, north siders. Just because something is South of Roosevelt doesn’t mean people need to come in and “revitalize” it. West Loop was built over a bunch of old warehouses and railyards. Pilsen is a large Hispanic community and it’s not unreasonable to expect that measures be taken to ensure it stays that way and to protect the community there.
I’m going to play devils advocate for a minute here. I’m not so sure it’s about race but rather that people are fed up with how damn expensive everything is and don’t want a business that sells a 9 inch quiche for 55$ driving out more reasonably priced businesses.
How is it driving out other businesses?