SAVING UPTOWN FROM GOOD HOUSING

One of the most depressing sections of Chicago is the Uptown area on the North Side. Shabby apartment buildings, vacant stores, wino bars, littered vacant lots, junkies, muggers, and career down-and-outers.

It also has a new alderman, Helen Shiller, and she has a vision of what that seedy old neighborhood should be in the future.

And apparently her vision is that Uptown should remain a seedy old neighborhood.

She wants to make sure that no real estate developers come into Uptown and put up nice new buildings that will attract nice new people.

This is known as gentrification. In some circles, such as Shiller`s, it is viewed as an evil thing.

In other circles, it is viewed as a damned good thing because it turns neighborhoods that are verging on becoming slums, or are already there, into stable, livable communities.

I happen to be among those who think that gentrification, a lousy word, is a good idea.

It`s the reason that much of the North Side-from Old Town through Wrigleyville-has become the home for prosperous people who would otherwise be in Evanston or Arlington Heights.

It`s the reason these areas now pour huge bundles of real estate taxes into the city`s starving budget.

It`s the reason why hundreds of stores and other businesses that cater to these residents are contributing to the city`s economy.

And this is what Shiller fears will happen to Uptown-that it will be infected by new real estate development, renovation, prosperity, and livability.

It`s not surprising. Shiller is a protege and pal of Slim Coleman, the radical organizer who has turned Uptown into his political power base.

Coleman is a Harvard grad who poses as a gritty ol` street guy. He talks reform, but used old-fashioned Machine methods to build his clout with Mayor Washington. He did it exactly the way the old West Side bosses did it in the River Wards and along Skid Row-by hauling the derelicts and drunks to the polling places and rewarding them with nickel-dime favors.

Because he delivered Uptown`s votes for Washington and, later, Shiller, Coleman is now is one of the mayor`s most beloved honkies.

Some naive reformers still believe Coleman is on the legit. But in the words of one of the mayor`s former liberal boosters, who has since walked away in disgust: ”Coleman is slime.”

Obviously, it`s not to Coleman`s advantage to have Uptown go upscale. If that happens, people who move in might have good jobs and be able to think for themselves. And they would tell someone like Coleman to take a walk. Or at least to shave and bathe.

So Shiller, since recently becoming an alderman, is doing everything she can to make sure that Uptown remains as it is.

She`s introduced nutty housing ordinances that would make it almost impossible for anybody to renovate beat-up apartment buildings.

One of her pet ideas: If someone buys a dumpy old apartment building, spends a lot of money renovating it, and raises the rents, any tenant who can`t afford to pay more will be given $2,000 for moving costs by the landlord.

How`s that for an incentive to invest your money in restoring rundown properties?

Recently, Shiller was involved in another sly trick, with the cooperation of some of Mayor Washington`s bureaucrats.

Here`s how it worked:

Some tax delinquent real estate recently was being sold by the county. This is, in effect, abandoned property. The county sells it to recover some of the taxes that have been lost.

The tax-delinquent real estate included 11 vacant lots in Uptown. The taxes and penalties amounted to $200,000.

A real estate developer showed up and offered $80,000 for the 11 lots. That`s $80,000 that will go into the tax pot. And by buying the lots, the developer pays taxes on them every year.

But up jumped some guys from City Hall to say, no, the vacant lots should not be sold to the real estate man. Instead, the lots should be given to the city.

This is called a non-cash bid. What it means is that if the city has a plan for deserted property, it can take title for nothing.

But City Hall should do this only when it has a valid, definite plan, such as selling it at a bargain price to encourage low-cost housing or a useful business development.

And what plan does the City Hall have for those 11 vacant lots?

When we pressed a city housing official on that point, he talked in circles for awhile, but he finally admitted: ”At this point, there is no specific plan.”

Of course there isn`t a specific plan. What there is is a scheme to stop the developer from buying the lots because Shiller and Coleman don`t like him. The developer has been buying and renovating old buildings in Uptown, and they`ve been trying to stop him. So they used their clout to prevent him from buying the 11 lots.

That`s an example of Harold Washington`s new reform government.

If that`s reform, bring back Paddy Bauler.

Originally Published: October 6, 1987 at 1:00 AM CDT