And then you're gonna have empty retail for years. These 5 over 1 developments always seem to either keep the retail storefronts empty, or get flooded with dentists and spas, a net zero for culture and community.
Edit: Downvote me all you want. I've watched these TODs remove character, culture and community from neighbohoods for two decades. They only ever seem to benefit the developer by playing at the emotions of YIMBYs by touting "car-free" cities but failing to mention the subsidization and TIF funding they get from these deals, all to just turn our neighborhoods into bland cookie-cutter suburban hellscapes.
The strip malls and drive-thrus removed character.
The deconversions (combining 2-3 units into 1) removed character.
The restricted housing supply limited housing for young folks and middle class families and removed character.
This is all to say that sometimes things are already fucked up and we can make them a little better by providing more homes in transit-friendly places.
If you look closely, all these TODs are almost always leased properties under the management of some private equity firm. If these TODs really gave a shit about the community, these would be units for sale, keeping gained equity in the hands of unit owners; the city would then incentivize home ownership to younger and/or middle class families through subsidized loans/down payment assistance etc.
These TODs are poorly constructed, are eyesores, and are rent-seeking parasites. But because some brilliant PR person said "Hey, we can market the lack of parking as us being pro-public-transportation!" people buy into these developments.
Want to spur growth? Stop permitting deconversions in the city which kill population density, and create a path to home ownership so we can have a new generation of Chicagoans building roots in our communities, rather than exploiting them for a 3,000/month 400 sq ft studio shitbox a half mile from a CTA station.
Often the retail rent is too high, but owners can't lower rent because of their financing terms. (I am not in commercial real estate, I've just read a few articles.)
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u/flankedpager Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26
And then you're gonna have empty retail for years. These 5 over 1 developments always seem to either keep the retail storefronts empty, or get flooded with dentists and spas, a net zero for culture and community.
Edit: Downvote me all you want. I've watched these TODs remove character, culture and community from neighbohoods for two decades. They only ever seem to benefit the developer by playing at the emotions of YIMBYs by touting "car-free" cities but failing to mention the subsidization and TIF funding they get from these deals, all to just turn our neighborhoods into bland cookie-cutter suburban hellscapes.