East Garfield Park: A Retail and Urban Design Plan 2007
A national retailer opens a high-quality new store in the suburbs, but neglects to locate additional stores in urban neighborhoods nearby. Residents of these neighborhoods must get in their cars or endure long bus rides to enjoy the same quality retail enjoyed by suburban and downtown residents. A local entrepreneur senses a market opportunity for new retail in her neighborhood, but cannot find a secure, affordable, accessible location nearby. She opens her store in a different neighborhood a few miles away instead. Today, these two retailing scenarios are all too common in East Garfield Park, one of Chicago’s most historic neighborhoods and one that is currently undergoing a development renaissance. This renaissance, however, has not yet brought to East Garfield Park the appropriate quality and opportunities for retail development that the community desires and deserves.
Quality and opportunity: these two themes guided the planning strategies for an improved retail environment in East Garfield Park described in this comprehensive plan, the first ever created specifically to guide retail development in this neighborhood. Quality and opportunity also describe the two key principles for new EGP retail as envisioned by this plan. Quality retail will bring to East Garfield Park a greater range of shopping opportunities, serving basic needs better, adding new destinations for area shoppers, and giving East Garfield Park the same retail balance and variety found in so many other Chicago neighborhoods. New retail opportunities are equally important. East Garfield Park has a unique mix of residents and cultures characteristic of its long history as one of Chicago’s “second downtowns”, and later as one of the city’s principal African-American cultural centers. New retail development should reflect this history, respecting East Garfield Park’s uniqueness, while also provide opportunities for local residents to be employed, manage, or even open up new retailing establishments of their own.
Quality and opportunity. The ROADMAP steering committee, a group of over 100 neighborhood residents, business owners, community leaders, and retail experts who met for over a year to discuss, debate, and strategize the content of this plan, is proud to present this plan to the East Garfield Park public, to the City of Chicago, and to the Chicagoland retail community. We are confident that the plan represents an innovative, well-supported, and implementable range of retail development strategies, and we welcome your participation in bringing the many visions of this groundbreaking plan to fruition as East Garfield Park’s retail renaissance begins.