McCormack Baron Salazar is planning a multimillion-dollar reconstruction of the 675-unit Preservation Square subsidized-housing community on the near North Side. Plans include re-connecting the street grid.
Great to see that it will be a mix of low income housing with some market rate. Let's hope that this can serve as a model for further redevelopment on the Northside.
Finally. The Carr School desperately needs to be saved. My idea is for SLPS to rehab it and have Metro High School move there so they can have a more inspiring and updated facility with space for sports fields.
To be clear, the Carr School is not in the Preservation Square development, it's a couple blocks south. I agree it needs to be saved -- perhaps in the next round of investment in this neighborhood that will happen if it's not too late.
Related history lesson: the Carr Square in the neighborhood name is now called Loretta Hall Park, and it was deeded to the city in 1842 and has always been open green space. Loretta Hall was a tenant manager at the Carr Square public housing project and advocate for residents back in the 1970s.
Plenty of Aldermen have their pet projects or neighborhood organizations, where, following a wink and a nudge, a developer can make a reasonable donation to help "smooth things with the neighborhood." And such "transactions" can certainly be mutually beneficial for many stakeholders (even if not entirely ethical or legal).
But what's described here is so audacious and overtly demanding (“How are you gonna sustain the community without giving them an equity interest?” [spokesman and Carr Square resident Todd] Irons-El said. ). I'd think it would discourage other developers from pursuing projects in the 5th Ward. Investing 10s of millions of dollars in affordable housing seems like a great way to help sustain a community. The article makes it sound like in the 5th Ward equity in the project needs to be given away as well.
