Andersonville

Trends

The table below uses Social Explorer to compare data from the American Community Survey 2005 - 2009 and 2011 - 2015 (5 year estimates) to look at income diversity trends in Andersonville. As discussed previously in the Social Mix section of this project, Andersonville, is a fairly diverse neighborhood in many regards although, it tends to be less diverse than the wider areas it inhabits (Community Area, Chicago Region, City of Chicago). However, in recent years many former residents and businesses have reported being priced out of the neighborhood.

From these tables we can see that the overall median and average household income in Andersonville is rising. However, when you break it down by tenure you can see that the income for owner-occupied units is decreasing while the income for renter-occupied units is going up. This is reflected in the fact that median housing value for owner-occupied units is decreasing while gross rent is increasing. Given the fact that most owner-occupied units in Andersonville are single-family homes and that renting has historically been the cheaper housing option in the area allowing for people with a diversity of incomes to be able to afford housing in Andersonville, the fact that renting is becoming more expensive does not bode well for the preservation of income diversity in the neighborhood. Although, the median income for owner-occupied households has decreased, they are still not a viable option for promoting income diversity in Andersonville. It appears that price points for renters and home-owners is converging on a more uniform and generally pricier narrower range, limiting the neighborhood's capacity for social diversity.

Interventions

In order to preserve and encourage the growth of social diversity in Andersonville, I propose three interventions targeting income diversity in the neighborhood. Intervention A focuses on servicing the neighborhood and takes advantage of the open space occupied by parking lots on Clark Street, the main commercial drag in Andersonville. Intervention B addresses the lack of East/West transit connectivity in the neighborhood which can create a cost barrier of necessitating car ownership to live in the neighborhood. Lastly, Intervention C addresses housing affordability in Andersonville which most directly affects the ability for the neighborhood to support a diversity of incomes.

Intervention A: Services and Amenities

My first proposed intervention addresses the significant space sacrificed to parking lots on the Northern portion of Clark Street in Andersonville. As discussed in the Public Space section of this project, Clark Street serves as the neighborhood center in Andersonville. However, the southern portion of the street is much more utilized than the northern portion. Pedestrian traffic thins out as you walk north and there are some more elongated storefronts and parking lots which reduce walkability.

Re-arranging the space so that storefronts face the street and any necessary parking is tucked away behind the buildings would encourage full utilization of Clark Street as the neighborhood center and allow for more services and amenities to be accessible within the neighborhood. As it stands the neighborhood is fairly well serviced; however, many of the stores, particularly at the southern end of Clark Street, are trendier and more expensive. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but when inserting new businesses into the area special attention should be given to ensure that a diversity of services are available to residents. A neighborhood can't be effective at meeting the needs of residents with diverse incomes if the services in it cannot serve a variety of price points.

Revitalizing the Northern portion of Clark Street can support the goal of preserving social diversity in Andersonville by ensuring that businesses that serve diverse needs are sought after to fill the space. This would encourage further pedestrian utilization of the Northern portion of Clark Street, increasing the number of eyes on the street and the safety and vitality of the neighborhood.

(Satellite image of large parking lots on N. Clark Street)

(Photo taken of the denser, more utilized, southern portion of Clark Street in Andersonville)

Intervention B: Connectivity

Andersonville's main transit connection to the rest of the city is through the Bryn Mawr and Berwyn Red Line stops. There are also 3 bus routes that run through the neighborhood: the 22 on Clark Street and the 50 on Ashland run North/South and the 92 runs East/West on Foster. This provides fairly good North/South connectivity in terms of intra and inter neighborhood connectivity. However, the only East/West route in the neighborhood is along the southern border, outside the 1/4 mile radius of easy walkability for many residents. The red line itself is also outside of this range of walkability for most Andersonville residents. Although both are within a 10 or 15 minute walk for most people, this provides a barrier in terms of easy access to transit for residents. This barrier can make transportation via public transit impractical for many residents and create a cost barrier to living in the neighborhood by necessitating use of a car for transportation.

In order to reduce this barrier, I propose implementing a bus route to improve East/West connectivity both within the neighborhood and with the rest of the city. Potential locations for this implementation are highlighted in blue below.

The Balmoral Ave route would be ideal as it would go right through the center of the neighborhood before turning south to connect to the red line stop. This proposal would be within 1/4 mile walking distance for most residents in the neighborhood and improve neighborhood connectivity.

Likewise the Catalpa Ave route proposal would help with connectivity for residents in the Northern part of the neighborhood as the existing Foster route is inaccessible for them. It would also pass next to the two grocery stores in Andersonville increasing the neighborhood's ability to meet the daily needs of residents.

The northernmost proposed implementation is the least effective, however it would be the easiest to implement. Simply extending the 50 route that goes up Ashland Ave. would allow it to provide connection to the red line via the 84 bus represented by the lighter pink line.

Implementing any of these routes would improve Andersonville's connectivity and reduce the cost of living in the neighborhood by reducing the need to own a car. This would help preserve and encourage social diversity, particularly income diversity in Andersonville.

Intervention C: Housing Affordability

Housing Affordability most directly impacts social diversity in terms of income diversity. A neighborhood cannot have a diversity of incomes if the all of the housing available becomes very expensive and unsustainable for residents with lower incomes. Earlier in this section, I highlighted the Southwest corner of the neighborhood for this implementation as that is currently where some of the most expensive homes available in the neighborhood are located. However, this intervention would ideally impact the neighborhood at large.

Housing at a variety of price points is the most effective way to ensure that people with a variety of incomes can live in the neighborhood. In order to encourage this, several measures can be taken regarding both existing and future housing in Andersonville. Firstly, single-family houses tend to be fairly homogenous and are particularly affordable, yet, at the same time many of the existing single-family homes have cultural and architectural value in the neighborhood. For this reason I propose that the building of new single family homes in the area is discouraged, leaving existing homes as they are, and the encouragement of mixed income housing through apartments.

Apartment buildings allow for a variety of types of units at different price points within a single building. Tax breaks for buildings that have mixed income housing or low income housing would encourage the preservation and encouragement of income diversity in the area. Furthermore limiting the number of single family homes would make the implementation of the other two proposed interventions more viable as a certain level of density is required to make public transit and increased commercial space viable.

These three intervention proposals work together to promote social diversity in Andersonville while preserving the strong neighborhood identity that already exists. Revitalizing and extending the neighborhood center located on Clark Street, improving connectivity via transit, and encouraging the availability of affordable housing all play an important role in improving the experience of living in the neighborhood while also encouraging social diversity

Sources

Google Earth
Social Explorer https://www.socialexplorer.com/
Andersonville Chamber of Commerce http://www.andersonville.org/
Chicago Transit Authority http://www.transitchicago.com/

Andersonville

Neighborhood Center

Sources

Amenities

Neighborhood Characterization

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Trends

Interventions

Intervention A: Services and Amenities

Intervention B: Connectivity

Intervention C: Housing Affordability

Sources