Quality of Life Plan

Growing Neighborhood Seeks Role in Development

Minutes away from downtown Chicago and well-served by transit lines and highways, our historic West Side neighborhood has caught the attention of developers and investors–and it is changing fast. This plan is our blueprint for managing and being a part of that change.

Named for the 185-acre park that serves as its western border, East Garfield Park is a 130-year-old community with big landmarks like the Golden Dome fieldhouse and Garfield Park Conservatory, and smaller ones like Edna’s Restaurant on Madison, beautiful greystone homes and a mosaic-clad elevated station on the CTA Green Line.

Built to house workers in nearby factory corridors, East Garfield Park grew to a crowded peak of 70,000 people in 1950. Today, with far fewer factory jobs nearby and thousands of housing units lost over the years, there are just 20,800 people here—and 1,750 vacant lots. This represents an opportunity because it means we can build a new community that serves existing residents, honors its past and welcomes newcomers. East Garfield Park has a unique potential to become a “green” neighborhood where gardens, landscape businesses and environmental land uses are commonplace. It can be a center of arts and culture as well, and a diverse community where people of many incomes and backgrounds become neighbors. With its strong transportation resources and a growing population–new housing is going up on many streets already–the neighborhood can also support vibrant retail clusters to serve both neighborhood residents and those passing through.

Achieving this vision will require a new framework for discussing development issues and making decisions about what is best for the community. That is the first strategy of this plan: to create a Garfield Park Community Development Council. Much more will also be needed, from ambitious land-use planning to academic improvements at local schools, stronger opportunities for our youth and healthier individuals and families.

This plan provides a vision for what is possible and lays out eight strategies for achieving our goals. We encourage continued participation of the more than 400 people who contributed to this plan, and welcome new participants to join us as we work to shape a healthy and strong East Garfield Park.