Urban Renewal Brings National and International Attention to Auburn Gresham
Ernest Sanders
Published: June 24, 2009
Nobuko Nishina, a graduate student from Hosei University Graduate School in Japan, and her professor, Miki Yasui, Ph.D speak with Carlos Nelson regarding Auburn Gresham.
Ernest Sanders
Over the past seven years, the Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation (GADC) has partnered with several public and private best practitioners regarding many aspects community development. Because of their unyielding push to turn a once blighted and crime infested community into a national and globally recognized one, several other communities and institutions have now taken notice of Auburn Gresham’s accomplishments.
Nobuko Nishina, a graduate student from Hosei University Graduate School of Well-being Studies in Japan, and her professor, Miki Yasui, Ph.D visited Auburn Gresham’s Carlos Nelson and Ernest Sanders to discuss and research community development corporations and their work with housing development and preservation and other programming at large.
Nelson discussed Auburn Gresham’s Quality of Life Plan and Foreclosure Prevention initiatives in partnership with Local Initiatives Support Corporation of Chicago (LISC/Chicago) and MacArthur Foundation.
Sanders gave a tour of Perspectives Calumet Middle School and the new school-based health center, managed by Access Community Health Network (ACCESS @ Perspectives) and spoke of their Elev8 partnership with Atlantic Philanthropies.
Nelson and Sanders both learned of Japan’s efforts to integrate community growth with housing initiatives.
Carlos Nelson [R] welcomes undergraduate students and administrators from Emory University in Atlanta, GA to Perspectives Calumet Middle School.
Justin Irving
As part of Atlanta-based Emory University's Community Building and Social Change Fellows Program, several undergraduate students and administrators visited Auburn Gresham to learn how to supplement their studies and grassroots efforts for building community in contemporary urban America.
Students enrolled in this fellowship program commit to spending two semesters learning the academics of community building and are getting full time experience working in communities in Atlanta. In order to broaden their perspectives and learning opportunities, the fellowship visits another U.S. city to understand how community building is happening outside of the Atlanta area.
Kate Grace, Emory’s Director of the Community Building and Social Change Fellows Program said, “This is such an integrating experience for our students and administrators. It is really amazing to see first hand the work we talk about and educate our students, especially in other communities outside of the metropolitan area of Atlanta.”
Nelson provided the Atlanta consortium a tour of Auburn Gresham to include Auburn Lagoons, St. Leo Catholic Church Bell Tower and Catholic Charities' Campus for Veterans, historic bungalows along Morgan Street, cutting edge elementary and high schools as Perspectives Charter Schools-Calumet Campus, the Faith Community of St. Sabina Church, the Martin Luther King Park & Family Entertainment Center, the first of its kind – SOS Children’s Village Illinois, and the City of Chicago Park District's and landscaping gem – Hamilton Park.
Recently, GADC partnered with LISC MetroEdge to conduct an assessment of the potential for retail development in the Auburn Gresham trade area including the 79th Street Corridor. Nelson discussed some of the goals of this current and potential retail development with students from Columbia College. There was also discussion around GADC's Litter Free Zone Initiative (LFZI) as a part of the City of Chicago's Climate Change Action Plan.
Carlos Nelson [C] speaks to several visitors who recently toured Auburn-Gresham as part of the Burnham Plan Centennial Community Showcase.
Justin Irving
Now part of The Burnham Plan Centennial Community Showcase Tours, with five other of Chicago neighborhoods: Albany Park, Pilsen, Quad Communities, South Chicago, and West Ridge, GADC looks to continue its sell of why Auburn Gresham is a great community to live, learn, work, shop and play.
As part of this tour, GADC showcases it main commercial corridor (79th Street) with enhancements to the streetscape and storefront facades, highlights its most important assets – the residents, and informs tourists of iconic landmarks – many which have been mentioned earlier.
Since 2008 GADC has hosted other delegates from across the country to include states as Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, New Jersey, and New York.
Posted in Business, Housing, Economic Development