Image Source: Anthony Vazquez, Sun-Times

A new study by the University of Illinois-Chicago’s Great Cities Institute has documented generations of “disinvestment, systemic racism and neglect” in North Lawndale.

“The well-being of residents is bolstered by the economic health of a neighborhood,” said Teresa Córdova, director of the Great Cities Institute. “The problem occurs when … the wealth-building opportunities aren’t enough. When those wealth-building opportunities are denied, you start to have various quality of life indicators that are parallel to that.”

These efforts, Córdova said, show to the entire city that North Lawndale is “like many other communities. They want homes, safe streets, good schools, dignified living-wage jobs.”

Image Source: John J. Kim, Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune editorial board calls on corporate leaders to step up in the wake of a UIC Great Cities Institute report on the economic conditions in North Lawndale.

A new report from the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago starkly outlines the plight North Lawndale faces today. Violent crime in the neighborhood far outpaces the rate for all of Chicago. Nearly 8% of North Lawndale’s lots are vacant or mostly vacant. Fewer than 500 people who live in North Lawndale also work in the neighborhood — more than 11,600 residents leave the community to go to work.

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Image Source: Jose M. Osorio, Chicago Tribune

A Chicago Tribune story covers a UIC Great Cities Institute report, commissioned by Lawndale Christian Development Corp., that examines the trends for potential growth and the economic needs for North Lawndale residents, and what it will take to revitalize the West Side community following decades of disinvestment. Teresa Córdova, director of the institute and professor of urban planning and policy, is also interviewed.

“The most basic rule of economic development is you have to have dollars circulating in your community,” she said. “North Lawndale residents have to leave the neighborhood for almost everything because almost every category of goods and services is not available.”

“What is needed right now is to plug the leaks,” Córdova said.

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Image Source: Anthony Vazquez, Sun-Times

Findings from UIC Great Cities Institute report on the economic conditions in Lawndale is the subject of a column from the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board.

“The well-being of residents is bolstered by the economic health of a neighborhood,” Great Cities Institute Director Teresa Córdova said Monday as she presented the study at the City Club of Chicago. “When those wealth-building opportunities are denied, you start to have various quality of life indicators that are parallel to that.”

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Image Source: Video Parachute

Chicago’s West Side has been robbed of equitable investment for generations — and it has left legacy Lawndale residents with little economic opportunity, according to a new study.

Researchers found $124 million leaks out of Lawndale each year, seriously impeding community wealth building, said Teresa Cordova, director of the Great Cities Institute. That loss occurs through workers who live outside the neighborhood but earn money within Lawndale, or when “residents in the community must spend their money outside the community for basic necessities,” Cordova said.

“You want dollars circulating through your community. If those dollars are leaving … there are conditions created by the absence of that wealth,” Cordova said.

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Image Source: Alan Berner, The Seattle Times

Beth Gutelius, research director of the Center for Urban Economic Development at UIC and senior research specialist with the Great Cities Institute at UIC, spoke to the Seattle Times about the use of automation and robotics to increase the pace of work in warehouses and the risks it poses to employees.

“There are many technologies that could take out some of those risks, lower the risks [and] the hazards of being a warehouse worker,” she said. “The problem is the choices the employers are making … are canceling out all those opportunities.”

“For all of the talk about how technology is changing warehousing … it’s at a much earlier phase overall in the industry than I think a lot of people assume given the news, especially about Amazon,” she said.

Full Article from The Seattle Times »