There was a ton of money on display in Chicago last week.
You could see it at the grand opening of the new Museum of Contemporary Art, where fundraisers set out to collect $55 million and instead pulled in $64 million. You could see it when Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf opened his wallet to rehire coach Phil Jackson for a cool $2-plus million, hopefully leaving enough to rehire Michael Jordan for 10 times that much. You could see it at the United Center, where workers began setting up for the Democratic National Convention, spending some of the $30 million that Mayor Daley’s host committee solicited from local corporations.
Money for this. Money for that. There is no limit, it would seem, to the amount that monied Chicago can pour on the table when the cause is right or the deal worth doing.
No limit, that is, unless the cause is in the wrong part of town, or the deal involves the wrong people.
How else to explain the near-total lack of private-sector interest in two important projects that can’t seem to get off the ground: Rehab of the Black Metropolis historic district on the Near South Side; and the replacement of the Cabrini-Green public housing complex on the Near North Side?
The worthiness of the two projects has been hailed and re-hailed by City Hall, by civic and community leaders and by would-be developers. But so far, no bank, no investment house, no cash-rich charitable foundation, indeed, no corporate angel of any stripe, has stepped up and said: “Yes, we will invest in that. We will spend our money to make that happen.”
Not that either deal is a slam-dunk. Both would require investors to get in a potentially messy three-way partnership with government and with not-for-profit groups. Both are located in “inner-city” areas where private capital long ago ceased to flow. And both will be considered a success only if African-Americans participate in the rebuilding and benefit from the finished product.
Race is obviously an issue here, though one that cuts both ways.
Consider Black Metropolis, the gone-to-seed commercial district that was the hub of the city’s earliest black ghetto, called Bronzeville. Community activists there are pressuring City Hall to undertake the restoration of a dozen historic buildings between 31st and 38th Streets east of South State Street. To date the city has bought and rehabbed just one, the old Chicago Bee newspaper building, for use as a branch library.
More city money (or, more likely, federal grant money) probably can be found to partially subsidize some of the others. But it’s obvious that City Hall can’t do it alone. There is not enough money in the public works budget to turn all the buildings into branch libraries, public health clinics, police sub-stations or community centers. Private and/or not-for-profit investors, preferably ones with clever ideas for re-using the structures, need to step forward.
And fast. One of the largest landmarks, the roof-less Eighth Regiment Armory at 35th and Giles, has been bought for back taxes by speculators who threaten to rip it down unless somebody meets their price (about $500,000.) Real estate, like politics, is no game of bean-bag.
No question many white investors harbor second thoughts about putting money at risk in Black Metropolis, located as it is within the afternoon shadow of the public housing that lines South State Street. But it’s important to note that African-American investors haven’t exactly been lining up to take the plunge. Which is a shame, because you can’t revive a black historic district–as a black district–unless there is black investment.
And make no mistake, there are more than enough black dollars in Chicago to do this job several times over. Chicago is home to some of the nation’s largest black-owned companies, black-owned banks, black-owned mortgage brokerages and black-owned real estate firms. More than a few black churches appear to be doing nicely, thank you. So are a number of sports and entertainment millionaires–people like Oprah Winfrey, the aforementioned Mr. Jordan and, lest we forget, Frank Thomas, who earns his $7.1 million-a-year just a fungo away at Comiskey Park. Is there no Bronzeville storefront that could be turned into the “Big Hurt” restaurant? Or do all such places have to be located in River North, or near Wrigley Field?
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The Cabrini-Green redo is a different proposition, but there’s the same sad lack of investor interest.
Several private development teams have offered to help the Chicago Housing Authority spend its $50 million federal grant to replace some of Cabrini’s hellish high-rises with low-rise apartments. But none have certified that they have the financial wherewithal to build the unsubsidized housing that will be needed to create a truly mixed-income neighborhood.
The best of the proposals, submitted by the North Town Community Partnership (a coalition of developers, community groups and DePaul University) states airily that $1 billion can be raised “from a variety of public and private sources.”
That’s wishful thinking.
Last week, Chicago proved once again that “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
How long until we prove there’s always a way, no matter where?