As developers hobnob in Pilsen, protesters rip gentrification
More than 100 real estate brokers and developers from across the city converged in Pilsen on Wednesday to talk shop and trade business cards at a networking event. Billed as a seminar on four of Chicago’s “emerging neighborhoods” — Humboldt Park, Logan Square, Uptown and Pilsen — the event drew ire from several community groups who argue developers are pursuing profits at the expense of longtime residents struggling to keep up with skyrocketing rents and property taxes.
The event, which cost $99 to attend, took place at Mural Park, a new office development from Condor Partners on 19th and Sangamon streets.
Two dozen protesters blocked the entrance to the building, including some holding a sign that said “Gentrification Is Violence.” Protesters verbally berated guests walking in, yelling “Get the f--- out of Pilsen.” They were eventually cleared out by Chicago police.
Moises Moreno, an organizer with Pilsen Alliance, said the protest was aimed at “predatory developers” who target working-class and immigrant communities.
“Profiteering is destroying our home, our history,” added Diego Morales, 27, a member of Democratic Socialists of America who grew up in Pilsen.
Some of the seminar’s attendees were visibly moved by the protesters, but others cracked jokes about them.
“They descended on me like locusts,” Edward Dushman of Foresite Real Estate Partners LLC said with a smirk.
Paul Tsakiris, president of First Western Properties and moderator of the event’s first of two panels, said he sympathizes with many of the protesters’ concerns, but he felt some of their criticisms came from a place of ignorance.
“These folks mean well, but I question their willingness to understand what the facts are,” he said.
Panelist Michael McLean Jr. of Condor Partners called on attendees to “acknowledge” concerns over displacement and to take them into account when doing business.
“We believe in producing responsible, impactful development,” he said.
Veronica Gonzalez from The Resurrection Project, a nonprofit developer in Pilsen, said some of the protesters are “misinformed [on] how markets work,” telling the crowd of developers, “there’s a lot of misinformation on your intent.”
McLean followed up by trumpeting new developments in Pilsen such as Mural Park, which replaced empty buildings and brought “role models in suits and computers” to the neighborhood.
“We’re safer here than in River North,” he told the crowd. “It’s an exciting time to be here.”
Luz Vargas, a great-grandmother who’s lived down the block from Mural Park for over 20 years, said she liked the changes she’s seen in the neighborhood but wishes her property taxes would stop rising so quickly. The Cook County assessor’s office valued her property at $321,590 in 2018, up from $237,240 in 2017. Her property taxes rose from $2,885 in 2014 to $3,508 in 2018.
“The neighborhood is getting safer, and I worry less about walking down the street at night,” Vargas said in Spanish. “But at the same time, my property taxes keep going up because of the new developments on my block. That doesn’t seem fair. What do they have to do with me?”
Carlos Ballesteros is a corps member in Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster Sun-Times coverage of issues affecting Chicago’s South and West sides.