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Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright
It's fair to retort that LV is booming, but there is also a ton of vacancy and abandonment if you know where to look, particularly on the fringes of the neighborhood. I'd say that every block in LV has at least one or two abandoned or partially abandoned properties. The area can and will be so much more particularly as the Mexican American immigrant community continues to mature into the next generation of the American Middle Class. The goal needs to be creating outlets for that demographic transition. We need to offer housing and amenities in Little Village that keep the next generation there for the long term.
Too many immigrant communities evaporate in Chicago because the children don't want to come back to the communities they were born and raised in because they don't want to deal with the things their parents put up with to give them a better life. The goal in LV should be not to change the nature of the community, but to keep the community dynamic enough that the 22 year old first person in their family to graduate college always wants to come back.
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What's happening in Pilsen is a bit of a window into what the future of LV could hold.
Yes, a lot of white college grads are renting there, but at least a decent and regular proportion of my tenants are Latino youngsters who grew up in the area, got an education, and want to get an apartment there.
I'm not saying for sure that that is the future for LV, but as the rents keep rising in Pilsen and as the Pink Line becomes a more valuable train route towards a large number of jobs, it's probably the closest thing we have for a crystal ball of what LV's future might hold.