Broadway Makeover
March 8, 2025
By Allison Darrahill
Link to full article on The Chicago Tribune
If you drive along Broadway between Montrose and Devon avenues, you’ll see the types of strip malls, drive-thrus and big-box stores that are more reminiscent of the suburbs than a city.
The Broadway Land Use Framework Plan aims to change the state of Broadway and allow this portion of Chicago to be a city. A city is a place for people and businesses to live and thrive together, not for people to drive to the Starbucks shack for a costly coffee-type drink.
All of the best parts of Chicago are the parts we have allowed to continue functioning like a city. They also happen to be the parts that are the most in demand, with the highest home prices and rents. These areas are generating the most taxes for the city per acre and are lowering the tax burden for the residents elsewhere throughout Chicago.
It’s time for this area to become the city again and start contributing its fair share to Chicago’s housing and commercial markets. Adoption of the Broadway Land Use Framework Plan by the City Council would allow midrise, mixed-use commercial and residential buildings to go up over time and usher Broadway back into the fold as the city.
— Allison Darrahill, Chicago
