Once seen as urban blight, abandoned industrial corridors and rail lines have been transformed into some of the country’s most popular parks and trails.
In the coming months, construction crews will begin building a pair of affordable housing developments along The 606 in Humboldt Park.
There’s a lot to like about Chicago’s snazzy 606, the 2.7-mile greenway that slices through the Northwest Side, built on what used to be an elevated freight rail line.
Local aldermen want to curb gentrification along The 606 by making it more expensive to build homes along the trail.
Despite the bitter wind, Kim Wasserman showed me around La Villita Park. Occupying 21 acres in the middle of this city’s largest Mexican-American neighborhood, the park used to be a brownfield and illegal dump.
The 606 was a magnet for anti-gentrification demonstrations last year—and that was even before a report detailed just how sharply housing costs have spiked near the popular rail-to-trail pathway.
Since at least the 1950s, the Chicago neighborhoods of Wicker Park and Bucktown have been shaped by transportation networks.
New research suggests urban green space like parks and greenways may play a role in diminishing crime.
