Aug. 7, 2002
All publications Front Page Nightspots Blacklines En La Vida Out! Resource Guide Current WCT Issue	Neighborhood Groups Push to Protect Halsted District
	BY ALEXIS MAISLEN   Many Lakeview residents were shocked and disgusted with 44th Ward Ald. Bernie Hansen's bold statement that Halsted Street does not deserve special rights and protection as a gay entertainment district. Hansen's statement re-energized groups such as the Lakeview Action Council and the Lake View Citizens Council to encourage the mayor and the city's zoning commission to write special legal protections into the city ordinance to protect the commercial viability for Halsted and other remaining entertainment districts around the city. Currently, the city of Chicago is revising their zoning code...which dates back to 1957. "I am shocked and disgusted in Hansen," said Charlotte Newfeld, of the Lake View Citizens Council. "My experience with 40 years in this community is that there has never been a commercial entertainment strip so well-controlled and vibrant as this one. It is obvious that there is still homophobia it this neighborhood and in this city." Others saw Hansen's refusal to designate Halsted as an entertainment strip as a hypocritical act after Hansen devoted a lot of energy into creating a special adjacent area near Wrigley Field which is protected with zoning ordinances. "It's an insult to the gay community to have him now say he doesn't like special treatment," said Rich Ingram, of Lakeview Action Coalition. "The Mayor says Halsted is special. This is appalling. Can you imagine the community reaction if the alderman said this about Chinatown or Greektown." Ingram said that 46th Ward Ald. Helen Shiller is working with the Northalsted Area Merchants Association to make Halsted a special district protected under the new zoning code. After the ward maps were redrawn this spring, the Dakota condominium now falls into the domain of the 46th Ward. "We have the legalities in the zoning code to make this a commercial first district," said Ingram. "Light manufacturing is a dead dodo in Lakeview. Are we going to now have high-level businesses like what has been created around Wrigley Field?" Gregg Kiriazes, president of the Lake View Citizens Council, was concerned that Hansen knew the community violently opposed the building of the Dakota condominiums and approved the Dakota plan without a hesitation. "The Lake View Citizens Council asked Hansen to lower the density after the fire at the club before the Dakota. He knew this was a problem and approved it anyway," said Kiriazes. Hansen has told the Windy City Times that when the developers for the Dakota came to him with the Dakota plan he specifically told them that the community was against it and he would approve it but it better be built adhering strictly to code. "I told them that the community was against it and they better build it to code," said Hansen. With the trend to tear down all the former garage/manufacturing buildings to build condos, Kiriazes wonders when residents will decide they want to down-zone the neighborhood to not include resale shops, leaving the building the Brown Elephant is in vulnerable to developers. Halsted Street saw it happen before when the Chicago Tranist Authority (CTA) car barn property became condominiums. Since Plaza 32, the community has been pushing for down zoning of the Lakeview area. However, residential development is happening despite the pre-existing business owners' concerns. "The City Zoning Code must preserve commercial code strips, which are important up and down this street," said Newfeld.
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