We have watched with wonder and enthusiasm the wholesale remaking of Madison Street from Austin Boulevard to Harlem Avenue over the past decade. It is a model of strong village government vision and leadership, a motivated and welcomed private sector, ambitious investments by multiple local governments and nonprofits, and a burst of entrepreneurial zest.
This comeback follows 40 years of intensive floundering. As auto dealers abandoned Madison Street’s auto row starting in the 1960s the street became purposeless. The village was of no help beyond overpaying to assemble parcels at Madison and Oak Park, which then sat empty for well more than a decade.
This week we report on a new collaboration between the Interfaith Housing Development Corporation and Housing Forward that will replace a storefront church (and one-time funeral home) with a new affordable housing development. Five stories and 36 units intended for low-income people with some level of disability, could be a physical disability, mental health concern, HIV/AIDS, substance-abuse history or developmental disability. Housing Forward will provide case management services.
Actively finding ways to offer housing to those with very scarce options is a genuine victory for Oak Park. And to have partners with the track record of Housing Forward and Interfaith Housing is encouraging.
We credit former Oak Park Mayor Anan Abu-Taleb for his vision of a new Madison Street. He worked tirelessly on this complex project.
Here are developments we cheer: the park district’s Community Recreation Center, new apartments already built and still coming between Elmwood and Scoville, Infant Welfare’s bold investment in a nondescript small office building at Humphrey, Whirlwind Coffee, new Oak Park Bank branch at Ridgeland, American House senior housing, upscale apartments at Lyman and Madison, new co-op housing planned for an underused Walgreens parking lot, townhouses on the site of the horrible old District 97 HQ at Home Avenue and the handsome D97 HQ at Harvey, Tacos 76, Oak Park Music School, Rush Oak Park’s new ER, renovations at the small Jewel, remaking of a long empty 7-Eleven.
The stalwarts, including Madison Street Theatre, Sears Pharmacy, Laury’s Bakery, Al’s Grill, Mama Thai, the world’s busiest Dunkin at Harvey, good old village hall (don’t knock it down!) and Belmont Village.
Opportunities remain: Two underwhelming car rental locations, the actively ugly D97 maintenance facility, currency exchanges bookending the street at Harlem and Austin, the still vacant New Rebozo, an unappealing and declining strip mall at Wenonah.
The elephant on the street: When on earth is Pete’s Fresh Market going to break ground on the giant parcel from Oak Park Avenue to Wesley? Village government claims it is turning the screws on Pete’s. We’re going to need some bigger screws and heftier fines. Excuses will no longer fly.
