A Random Walk Down Clark Street (2009)

[This article was originally posted in 2009, during the middle of the Great Recession.]

I think it's now safe to say that we are in a recession. Despite the constant media references to soup lines and 1929, no one knows how long it's going to last, though, or how bad it's going to get.

To get a sense of how things are going in my neck of the woods, I took my camera and shot photos of one of the business corridors in my neighborhood, Clark Street in Andersonville from Ardmore Avenue on the north to Winona on the south.

I specifically wanted to document vacant buildings, so I could get a sense of the economic mood of the area.

In this article I present the pics, as well as my two cents about them...

Edgewater Medical Center sits at the point where Clark Street and Ashland Avenue intersect. It's been closed for several years now and its demise was pretty shady - the place went bankrupt around 2001 amidst allegations of massive health care fraud on the part of doctors and administrators. (Here are a couple of pieces of information about this: Source #1, Source #2)

Since then the place has just been sitting there. It's too big to just tear it down and put something else up, and it looks like no other hospital networks are interested in moving in. The row of houses on the right side of the third picture is where the parking lot used to be.

I went to EMC once as a patient - can't say I was impressed with the experience. Now that it's abandoned and old, I've always thought now it might be a good place to shoot a horror movie.

Continuing my survey of vacant properties on a stretch of Clark Street, Chicago...

Over the last couple of years only a couple of condo units went up on this stretch of road. With all the foot traffic and activity, it's not the ideal place for a residence. A few blocks further south (in Uptown) a couple of major projects started and then ground to a halt when the housing bubble burst.

Chicago was just like any other city in its housing boom, which as we all now know was financed using bad mortgages. Up here on the north side, where land is relatively cheaper, EVERY vacant lot was being rehabbed or built on. About six months ago I took a walk and counted the construction projects near me. At that point, within a five block radius of my apartment, I counted over thirty of them.

Now, the ones that have been completed sit empty or have been foreclosed on, the ones that aren't finished are on hold. On the plus side, if you have income and great credit, this is a fantastic time to buy something.

When I moved into the Andersonville area more than 10 years ago, it was a great place to be if you were a small business, considering the relatively cheap rents, and more and more customers as Chicagoans migrated out of the Lincoln Park/Lakeview area in seach of less expensive places to live and rehab projects.

Over the last few years the less-well-off folks who gave Andersonville its funky urban flavor have mostly moved on. They can't afford to live around here anymore. Taking a walk down the tree-lined streets, one is more likely to run into a stroller or dog walker than an edgy bohemian artist.


Now the newly built or rebuilt properties sit empty or half-filled, and some businesses in the heart of the 'hoods commercial district have closed shop. It feels like the neighborhood could go either way this year - either it will weather the storm and maintain an inclusive, independent, reasonably-priced atmosphere, or it will start to look like Rogers Park, the neighborhood to the north that's a textbook example of what happens when local government officials don't give a shit about developing their community's businesses.

Here are some more pics I took last weekend on my "empty lot survey" walk down Clark Street.

This used to be a convenience store. It closed up more than a year ago and it doesn't look like any one's interested in doing anything with it.

Another shop on the northern end of Clark that's gone out of business.

This used to be a large coin-operated laundry/dry cleaner. It was well trafficked, although with the gradual increase in property taxes as the neighborhood got more popular, I hesitate to say the business was profitable. There was a sign up briefly that said the place was being rehabbed as a restaurant, but I assume that deal has fallen through.

Another empty storefront, tucked in between two independent businesses that are still going. This would have been prime real estate as little as a year ago.

This particular stretch of Clark Street enjoys some advantages that might help it through the slowdown in the economy. There are lots of stores grouped tightly together that sell a variety of things – groceries, books, hardware, furniture, gifts, personal services, etc.

There are also a lot of bars, restaurants, and coffee shops to choose from. And other than a couple of the antique stores, most things are reasonably priced. Throw a roof over these 4-5 blocks and you’d have a nice mall.

The stores’ proximity to each other helps – shoppers don’t have to walk a long way to get to several outlets. And the shopping district is within walking distance of peoples’ homes, so stores have access to a customer base that wants to support local businesses.

Despite all this, there are signs that the boom times this area experienced over the last ten years is over. Here are some more pictures of storefronts that have recently vacated or remain empty.

This jewelry store has been around forever, but closed within the last three months. I think the owners were getting ready to retire, but I’m not 100% sure of that. Either way, they probably picked a good time to close up shop.

The last thing the neighborhood needed in the summer of ’08 was another bank, but WaMu set up shop anyway. Now that they’ve been bought by Chase and there is already a Chase branch a few blocks down the street, it remains to be seen whether they stick around.

This restaurant never got off the ground. It opened for maybe two months before going dark and a “For Sale” sign going up. I walked past the place many times and never saw anyone in it.

This hardware store has also been a fixture of the neighborhood for a number of years. They are still around, having moved a few blocks north into a La Raza’s old headquarters, a move I assume will cost them less in rent.

Joel Hall Dance Studio is another business that pulled up stakes and moved north – they are now neighbors with the hardware store. They used to be right in the heart of the business strip, across the street from the Starbucks. It’s nice to see they are hanging in there.

Sweet Occasions was a sensation while it lasted. They sold ice cream and candy in an atmosphere that was more kid-friendly than some of the other places around. I have read the reason this place went under was bad management, which resulted in lots of ugly rumors floating around on review sites like Yelp regarding the quality of the store's ingredients and the treatment of its staff. The people who ran this location said they were going to open up another place, but that apparently never happened.

Tomboy was a very popular restaurant that I’ve heard nothing but good things about. I’m still looking around to find out what happened to it. The economy might be a factor, but there are a lot of other reasons restaurants go out of business.

There are some other empty storefronts here and there, posting more pictures of them would only marginally add to the overall pictures. In sum, this area of Chicago isn't suffering as much as others, but is definitely feeling the pinch. Hopefully things will turn around they will soon be housing new businesses and making entrepreneurs’ dreams come true.