The Right Place

Washington Park takes heart in Olympic dreams By Sally Duros

As the 2016 Olympic committee sizes up Chicago's bid for the Games,
the neighbors of Washington Park are making plans of their own.

William Hill -- people call him "Dub" -- runs the softball leagues
at Washington Park. At 74, he's been coming here since 1939.

Hill lists Washington Park's charms: 13 softball fields, five
baseball diamonds, three soccer fields. And "no other park in the
city has this -- cricket fields. We have four cricket fields."

The fields draw cricketers from all over the city, including the
East Asian Indians and Pakistanis from Devon Avenue.

Hill has one beef with the Olympics: "They are going to take away
some of my softball diamonds."

If Chicago wins the games, that's easy to make right.

"This is where softball was born, you know, and we don't have a
softball complex," Hill said. "I told the mayor that. Schaumburg,
Blue Island, Alsip -- they have softball stadiums everywhere."

Cecilia Butler calls the Washington Park Advisory Council to order.
She ticks through housekeeping: treasurer's report shows $459 in
the council's coffers, a thank you is given to Edna Pittman for her
$200 check for the playground fund.

Butler reads a copy of a memo produced by her group, "Olympics in
Washington Park 2016. What will it take to support this event in
our park?"

The memo outlines 27 points of negotiation. It's been delivered to
Chicago 2016, the parks superintendent and the four aldermen whose
wards touch the park.

"The 95,000-seat stadium, we want it in the Seven Hills area,"
Butler said. In its bid, Chicago 2016 knocked the size of the
stadium down to 80,000 seats but the site has not been moved to
Seven Hills.

"We want a community-benefit agreement," Butler said, "and a
referendum on the ballot concerning taxes and eminent domain. And
jobs, jobs, jobs," she said. "We want cooperative housing for those
who now live adjacent to the park to ensure that the rental
community can afford to stay in the area."

Could Olympics 2016 really deliver?

"This is a great opportunity," said Andrew J. Mooney, senior
program director for LISC Chicago, who works with community groups
in Washington Park and all over the South Side. "The Olympics bid
rivets the city's attention on that part of the city. In many
cases, the neighborhoods have been in a deficit position. And this
is a real opportunity to turn that on its head."

Nik Theodore, director of the Center for Urban Economic Development
at the University of Illinois at Chicago, sees other reasons to
support the effort: "Cities also are attracted to projects like the
Olympics because it is an opportunity to do things around transit
and transportation. Parts of Chicago's Southeast Side are
disconnected with little access to jobs, and that is an issue that
ought to be addressed whether we get the Olympics or not."

Tom Kirschbraun, managing director of Jones Lang LaSalle's Chicago
office, said that usually the Olympic Village has the greatest
impact on the real estate values in the host city. In the
Washington Park neighborhood, "one could expect infrastructure
improvements and improvements to the CTA," Kirschbraun said.

A 2001 report by his firm, "Reaching Beyond the Gold: The Impact of
the Olympic Games on Real Estate Markets" found that hosting "the
Olympics has a significant and varied impact on the real estate
markets, but that these impacts are largely indirect, and are
experienced over a long time frame."

Among them is a major impact on the residential sector, "not on
prices or rents, but in the development of new districts around the
corridor."

Murray Johnson, 65, president of the Washington Park Neighborhood
Association, would like to preserve the feel of his neighborhood
when new development occurs.

"Half of Washington Park is vacant lots," he said. "I am hoping
that as these vacant lots fill up that they don't become those
million-dollar homes that run the taxes up."

Johnson started running in the park in 1976 to lose weight. "The
park is my training ground," he said. "This is where I train for my
physical body and my spiritual health."

Like most of the people I spoke with in the Washington Park
community, he is excited about the possibility of the Olympics. The
advisory council's Butler echoes his sentiments.

"I am all for Chicago getting it, I love the Olympics," Butler
said.

CLARIFICATION

Related to our Jan. 26 column on SB 2349, not every consultant or
distressed property purchaser is dishonest.

READ MORE ONLINE

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links to::

- The Right Place, Our blog

- More Sun-Times Chicago 2016 coverage
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