Polish Downtown (Chicago) - Decline

Decline

In the 1960s Polish Downtown began to change radically. Completion of the Kennedy Expressway in 1960, whose construction had displaced many residents, disrupted the sustaining network of Polish-American churches, settlement houses, and neighborhood groups. Additionally Puerto Ricans and other Latinos displaced by urban renewal in Old Town and Lincoln Park began moving in. In 1960 Latinos comprised less than 1 percent of West Town’s population, but by 1970 that proportion had increased to 39 percent. At the same time, more established ethnic Poles moved out to newer housing in the suburbs, following World War II and the housing boom.

Downtown banks redlined West Town for much of the mid-20th century. Real estate values plummeted as landlords neglected their buildings and speculators sat on vacant land and abandoned property. Small businesses along Chicago Avenue closed. The arson rate in the vicinity was so high that in 1976 Mayor Richard J. Daley convened a task force to address the crisis. The Polish exodus out of the neighborhood followed the Kennedy Expressway into the suburbs. The Northwest Community Organization was founded in 1962 to stem white flight by promoting home ownership and integration between longtime ethnic Eastern European residents and the newcomers. The institutional infrastructure that held Ukrainian Village together during the 1970s and 1980s was lacking in East Village. Much of the Polish population had moved northwestward to Avondale, Jefferson Park and beyond. The Latino community, which had begun to organize around issues of affordable housing and other redevelopment strategies designed to stave off displacement, increasingly came into conflict with the mostly European-American artists and other urban-pioneer types. By the early 1980s, the latter were a minor but significant presence in the area.