The Democratic National Convention will descend on the United Center next August like a made-for-TV political Cirque du Soleil spectacle, putting a spotlight on Chicago.
For residents of the proud West Side, the impending gala offers an opportunity, but it’s also something of a double-edged sword. They worry their part of the city will host the event at the arena without enjoying much of that light or seeing many trickle-down benefits of the expensive party.
Now they’re trying to figure out how to get a seat at the table with the decision-makers to ensure they get their say, while local members of Congress also are attempting to make sure the West Side residents and businesses aren’t left out.
U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, who has represented the West Side since 1997, is pledging he and other members of Illinois’ Washington delegation will press the Democratic National Committee to secure Black businesses don’t get left behind when contracts and jobs are awarded ahead of the event.
After decades of gentrification spurred in part by the 1996 Democratic convention in the hard-partying neighborhoods east of the United Center — which sits on Madison Street east of Damen Avenue — even the definition of “West Side” and the stadium’s place in it is a point of contention.
“Technically the United Center is in the West Side of Chicago,” said Anthony Jones, an organizer and outreach coordinator for Westside Rising, a nonprofit organization that seeks to represent the interests of various West Side groups. “The West Side, traditionally, goes from Halsted back west. Traditionally. But since we’ve redistricted our maps and all this other stuff, the West Side has been fragmented and broken into multiple pieces. And now the United Center is in ‘Near West Side,’ but it’s the West Side. And it’s all political. So how can you exclude the West Side from the West Side?”
West Siders know all about the ways a political convention can have an impact on a neighborhood.
While development was already underway in the vicinity of Fulton Market and West Town, that trend exploded in the aftermath of the 1996 Democratic shindig and then-Mayor Richard M. Daley’s big spending to beautify the scruffier parts of the area so delegates and members of the national media traveling from their downtown hotels to the arena would get a more flattering view.
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Daley splashed out more than $60 million to pretty up the city ahead of the 1996 convention, according to a Tribune analysis at the time. In addition to a tree-planting spree in the West Loop and downtown, artisanal street lamps cost more than $1 million in public funds, while spending on bridge makeovers and renovations to Daley Plaza and State Street downtown climbed into the tens of millions.
“The last convention really helped the east side of the ward, of that area,” said Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. “Now, hopefully, it will transfer some things to the west side of that area.”
Vast areas of the West Side need much more help than a brief injection of cash from the DNC could bring. Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Invest South/West program was a signature project from her single term in office to try to boost parts of the city that have long lacked the direct economic stimulus seen in wealthier Chicago ZIP codes.
In some neighborhoods, scars of past decades are still fresh in vacant city lots, some empty for decades or since widespread unrest broke out following Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.
“West of the United Center, there’s evidence there of 1968, what happened over there,” said Bradly Johnson, chief community officer at the youth development organization BUILD and a board member at Westside Rising. “And the West Side hasn’t really been invested in since that time, since the late ’60s.”
But in East Garfield Park, Burnett notes there already are signs of encroaching gentrification just west of the United Center. “If we don’t capture trying to bring some stability and diversity in the area, we’ll lose it. It will be all million-dollar homes,” Burnett said. “Homes are already selling for $750,000 west of Western (Avenue) there.”
The city is working to ensure developers who buy city-owned vacant lots in the area invest heavily in affordable housing units so longtime residents don’t get pushed out, he said.
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Burnett was first elected in 1995 to represent the 27th Ward, which stretches through the West Side and includes the United Center, and he witnessed Daley’s wrought-iron fence Potemkin village rise west of the Loop. He’s well aware there will be opportunities to improve and beautify the West Side ahead of the 2024 convention.
“(Daley) made everybody do it on their lots. He made deals with them to do it on their lots, right?” Burnett recalled. “He gave them plays on other stuff if they did the wrought-iron fencing, like you may not have to do as much landscaping, put the wrought-iron fence in first. Or you may be encroaching on city land, we’re going to let that slide if you put the wrought-iron fencing in.”
While Mayor Brandon Johnson hasn’t discussed specific plans for infrastructure improvements and might be hard-pressed to justify big outlays in the face of more pressing needs, Burnett said he plans to offer ideas on how to spread the wealth, through CTA improvements and other projects that would help residents in East Garfield Park and farther west.
“We’ll see how aggressive this group will be with some of these things,” Burnett said of the Johnson administration. “I expressed to the mayor that I was there in ‘96 and I saw how a lot of things happened and I can give some ideas on how to take advantage of some of this stuff.”
“We’re gonna try to juice it for what we can,” he said.
West Siders hope that juice extends to the kinds of jobs many residents need.
“Pre-convention, I think it’s important that they invest in our people, that’s No. 1,” said Carol Johnson, board member of Westside Rising, founder of the Westside Cultural Alliance and member of the Garfield Park Advisory Council. “And some of our small businesses, when it comes to jobs, there’s going to be a lot of jobs that are going to be available for the convention, right? And so, it’s important to me that our community gets first choice as to employment, and be part of sitting at the table when it comes to jobs.”
Congressman Davis said he aims to try to make sure of it.
“We’re anticipating a meeting with (Democratic National Committee Chairman) Jaime Harrison … to talk about the impact of the convention on African Americans living in Chicago, period, but especially those in the arena of the United Center, and expect that to occur,” Davis said. “So I’m anticipating serious involvement of vendors and people who do the kinds of things you do in a convention, and we’re having some of those conversations now.”
Burnett pointed to the Hatchery, a food and beverage business incubator in East Garfield Park, as a likely site for events tied to the convention. And the Garfield Park Conservatory, a renowned gem of the West Side, will certainly see some action.
But some West Side activists are leery of letting elected officials set the agenda.
“We need some key community leaders — not those that they pick for us, but the ones we do ourselves, not the ones they delegate, but the ones we pick ourselves — there should be a strategy, like they have nominations for who sits on whatever, there should be nominations for which community members are part of the process of it,” Carol Johnson said.
Can Mayor Johnson, a proud West Side resident who speaks often of his aim to lift up that part of the city, help?
“I think we can sit down and meet with him and make that happen, but again we don’t know when everything is happening,” Carol Johnson said. “We just need to be informed.”
In a statement, Deputy Mayor of Business and Neighborhood Development Kenya Merritt said the administration is excited to host the convention, which “will undoubtedly have a positive impact on our local economy.” But it’s too early to say specifically how the event will help in disadvantaged communities, Merritt said.
“As of now, we do not have any developments tied to next year’s convention, but what we do have is a continued, strong commitment to inclusive growth and development throughout all of Chicago, including the West Side,” she said.
