This Wednesday, students were invited to a meeting with representatives from Skidmore, Owings, and Merril, the architectural firm which the University has hired to create a master plan for the next fifty years.We talked about four main areas which the University is thinking about changing in the near future: South Campus, the area in West Campus near the Hospital, 55th Street, and 53rd Street.

While I wont go into too much detail on the plans, which are probably confidential to begin with, I would like to post my reaction and the reaction of the other students who attended the meeting to SOM’s proposal.My Thoughts:

For the most part I really liked what the University was planing on doing with South Campus. The new dorm and Logan Art Center will really transform the area into another hub of student life on campus (right now I’d say the current hub is between the Reynolds Club, Bartlett, and the Reg).”

But at the same time, I’m worried their efforts might be counterintuitive to the natural design of campus. The Midway, which I think they’d imagine would become the new center of campus, is really a desolate place in the winter. Would students congregate and use it like they use Bartlett Quad? I doubt it. So how do you build across this divide easier: They weren’t really sure. One obvious change will be with the larger dorm, more students will be ‘trapped’ over there and this will naturally help shift the center of campus. But is that really a solution?

Another way which shifting campus south is troubling is the evolution of 57th, 55th, and 53rd street retail. If These areas become more developed, does it make sense to put student farther away from them? That’s nearly 2 miles… And the plan didn’t really address 63rd Street Retail, the lack of 61st Street Retail, the Green Line Stop, or Grove Park; all of which are really big holes. There’s also the effect of the 2016 Summer Olympics, which was not mentioned.

From Suzanne Sellers, the Graduate Council Representative from the Graham School:

My reaction to the plan is that I believe it is headed in the right direction. I would like to see more emphasis placed on the parking situation, and stores and lighting on 60th Street (in addition to what they are planning for 61st St.).

From Hannah Jacoby, Third Year in the College and an active member of the Social Justice Coalition

I thought that given the constraints this group had (a dorm and a performing arts center already under construction) they had put a lot of good thought into how to make that work. I agree that they seemed to see more potential for the Midway than most students believe it has, but even if this gap is not bridged, their plans will make South Campus a nice place in its own right.

I had concerns as well about the way retail played into this whole plan. The discussion about types of retail stayed very general (i.e. coffee shops, cafes, book stores, etc), but did not get into the specifics that will more clearly define the type of area it is. The only two concrete examples given were Best Buy and Starbucks. This is a big concern for me, as I think it is pushing retail development in the wrong direction. There is no debate that there is a dearth of retail on the South Side. The argument is over how economic development should be pursued. I think if the Unviersity wants to continue to insist that it is “a good neighbor” they need to seriously consider making a greater commitment to local business. There are several reasons for this. The Andersonville Development Corporation (located on the North Side of Chicago) conducted a study of the impact of local businesses in the spring of 2004. You can find the whole study and www.andersonvilledevcorp.org, but here are some highlights:

• For every $100 in consumer spending with a local firm, $68 remains in the Chicago economy.
• For every $100 in consumer spending with a chain firm, $43 remains in the Chicago economy.
• For every square foot occupied by a local firm, local economic impact is $179.
• For every square foot occupied by a chain firm, local economic impact is $105.

I think ultimately local business makes more sense for Hyde Park’s economy. But beyond that, they can have tremendous social impacts. The relative lack of commerce on the South Side is not only problematic for college students who want access to shopping opportunities. It is also problematic for residents who want to open businesses. The University has the opportunity to serve as an incubator for the growth of local business from small entrepreneurs. We can choose to use that opportunity to place a Best Buy on 53rd St. or we can use that opportunity to make the commitment now to supporting local business.

From George Kuan, the Graduate Council Representative from the Physical Sciences

This is a very interesting discussion. I think we all want to encourage local businesses. In an ideal world, everything in Hyde Park would be locally owned. However, that said, the sense I got from the 53rd Vision Workshop where I talked to a local business owner is that even without any competition from chain retailers, there are some niches locally owned businesses just can*not* operated profitably. Admittedly this is anecdotal, but I believe it points out a larger point that the question isn’t a simple local v. chain business question. I think the real question in the end is in what niches and where can local businesses operate most effectively in Hyde Park, complementing chain retail offerings.

We should certainly encourage and even actively promote the cause of local businesses but not to the exclusion of chain retailers. Going completely chain retailer would be unwise. Going completely local would be unrealistic. In my home town, we have a very nice mix of local and chain retailers. The local and chain stores complemented each other’s strength and compensated to each other’s weaknesses. For example, local arts and craft stores fit much better than a big box version, but national bank branches often make much more sense for a college community. Locally owned restaurants have been very successful in Hyde Park and I would think that we would want to keep it that way. From the Vision Workshop, I even got the sense that some local business owners believe that Hyde Park is ready for a really high-end restaurant, locally owned of course.

Also, in all of the meetings on the development so far, I have hardly heard anybody mention office development and community spaces for a constructive outlet for local youths and neighbors. I know offices are boring, but is Hyde Park completely devoid of demand for office space because of downtown looming at the distance? Development of office space will add to demand for retail and this is a good thing for the health of the community if it is at all possible. Of course, I am fairly skeptical of the potential for offices at least in the short term. Community spaces, on the other hand, may be a good idea to help improve relations with the community and give students more room for activities.

With that out of the way, I think one important outstanding issue here is the one Scott alluded to, namely the creation of another hub of student life. I feel that none of the plans account for the fact that based on student density, it may make sense to have a plan to shift the hub eastward. There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, even without Shoreland, there are still a lot residents, University and non-University affiliated, living east of Lake Park. Secondly, I believe the area east of the Harris School is ripe for redevelopment and may turn out to be even a greater focus for the student community in the far future. Thirdly, I believe the existing plans do not adequately account for mass transit. The best plan would include mass transit as a primary component. Right now, we have the largely unused 59th Street Metra Station and the underutilized Green Line Stop. In the long term, we must plan to better integrate South Campus and the University campus as a whole with Chicago mass transit. I feel that transit may turn out to be a huge boon for retail activity and general student satisfaction. We should build with transit in mind.

From Julian Quintanilla, a First Year Representative to College Council

In order to economically vitalize Hyde Park, especially the South Side and 53rd Street, we need to focus on developing locally-owned businesses in Hyde Park. I’d rather see a locally owned coffee and bagel shop open than a Starbucks or a Dunkin’ Donuts, or a smaller bookstore rather than Borders. That being said, I also think that we shouldn’t be so gung ho on creating such establishments that we completely neglect corporate-owned chains. For example, I go downtown to the Target by the Roosevelt stop on the Red Line once every two weeks or so. If instead, there was a Target on 57th or 53rd street, I would go there and gotten to know 57th and 53rd Streets more and be shopping there on weekends instead of downtown.

While ideally, there would be plenty of locally-owned stores around Hyde Park to fill every need and desire of a U of C student, that will not happen overnight, and the only way to ensure locally-owned store growth is to have a steady consumer market. If everybody goes downtown to buy things because it is easier because there are simply not enough stores to provide us with everything we need here in Hyde Park, there’s only a small consumer market in Hyde Park. And, there won’t be enough stores unless business owners see the potential for profit here in Hyde Park, which they won’t if I continue to take my business downtown. So the end result is that stores won’t spring up here so we’ll be going downtown, and because we keep going downtown stores won’t open in Hyde Park. It’s a catch-22.

The only way to ensure that people stay shopping in Hyde Park rather than go downtown to shop is, at least in the short term, to have a few big name stores such as Target or Best Buy. Not only will it keep Hyde Park residents in Hyde Park and give them the opportunity to walk along 57th street and quickly duck into that corner bookstore on 57th and Harper, but it will also attract residents from neighboring neighborhoods to Hyde Park and give them the opportunity to take a quick lunch at Medici’s before heading back home with what’ they’ve bought.

It is an unfortunate situation, but I think it is vital to the economic vitality of Hyde Park that we try to attract some corporate chains here, along with trying to develop locally-owned stores.

These are just some things to think about, if you’d like to get invited to these type of meetings in the future, send me an email or comment on this page.