Tuesday, September 1, 2009

South Siders Spend Billions Each Year Outside of Their Neighborhoods

CPR:
South Side of Chicago residents are forced to spend billions of dollars each year outside of their communities. There are few restaurants or retail shops for them to go to in their own neighborhoods. And basic shopping needs such as groceries and household items often go unmet. Public policy, political will and race play into how the South Side is developed. But some communities are looking for ways to overcome those hurdles, and tap into the buying power of South Side residents.
So what about this:
If you want to find out about retail leakage, the place to go is LISC Chicago. It’s a nonprofit that promotes neighborhood growth. What a lot of people don’t know, says LISC Business manager Jake Cowan, is that underserved communities actually have a lot of spending power. Cowan says it may seem surprising, but the fact is a community’s buying power isn’t necessarily related to median income.

COWAN: The concentration of incomes, in specifically middle-income families, is great enough that in almost every Chicago neighborhood there is more buying power than in suburban neighborhoods and including affluent neighborhoods like the Wilmette’s of the world. Your average Chicago neighborhood – because of the dense population – has more money in the pockets of people going to stores.

Retail leakage occurs in lots of communities, even affluent ones. Every neighborhood isn’t going to get—or even want—the shiny new grocery store. And there are some South Side areas with bustling shopping districts such as Pilsen. But for the Washington Park, Roseland, Oakland and Grand Boulevard neighborhoods, the dearth of shopping has a ripple effect: food deserts and overpriced low-quality goods at low-quality stores. Cowan says neighborhoods like these can attract retailers. He’s seen it happen – if they have the right strategy.

COWAN: With regard to graffiti and trash, can they get their sites cleaned up so that when they take that retailer on the tour to show them the opportunity they can picture themselves there. But a community’s determination is sometimes not enough. Other powerful forces are in play.
This quote takes a look at a neighboring area Auburn-Gresham:
MERRIMAN: Public policy plays a big role in sort of determining what areas grow and what areas don’t grow.

David Merriman is a public economics professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

MERRIMAN: Sometimes the criteria is which alderman has the most power or what looks best for the mayor rather than whether or not is in the best interest of citizens.

Merriman points to retail corridors on the North Side that have benefited from city tax financing. Leaders in the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood have been deliberate as they try to spur economic development. ambi: Auburn-Gresham Auburn-Gresham is full of brick bungalows, two flats and black working families. Before white flight occurred between 1960 to 1970, there was a variety of businesses and department stores in the area.
Do you agree or disagree with the assessement that I placed in bold? Do aldermen do the mayor's bidding instead of looking at what's best for their own communities?

Read the whole thing! There is more about Auburn and the commercial strip along 79th Street in this CPR article.

Via CapFax morning shorts!

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