Welcome back to my blog! This is the first Action Project of my Humanities class Journalism. In this unit, we have been looking at what it means to be a journalist. We examined different types of media bias and news literacy which are important to know as a consumer and producer of news. In preparation for the Action Project, we learned about the 5 core values of journalism which are Accuracy, Independence, Impartiality, Humanity, and Accountability. These values are important for journalists to be mindful of when creating news. Accuracy means looking for the facts, independence means making the work your own and impartiality ensures there is more than one side represented in a story. Humanity is all about being aware what you write impacts others and consequences can come from that. Finally, accountability lets journalists engage with the audience and admit their mistakes. For this Action Project, we have been tasked to write a story about a recent event in our neighborhoods. In my article, I talk about how areas of Chicago's West Loop may be losing their cultural and historical value. Making sure I was accurate and independent was pretty easy but staying impartial was slightly more challenging. Humanity was also a small challenge because I had to make sure my interviewees were represented as they wanted, with initials or their names. Finally, staying accountable was not difficult because this article is fully out yet to engage with the audience. I hope you enjoy reading my story!
West Loop Neighbors Are Worried Over Chicago's Dying History
“As it’s been said before, downtown is moving west.” As West Loop resident JP stated, the neighborhood looks to be becoming an extension of Chicago’s downtown. Skyrises continue to be built up, often replacing older buildings and making the area denser. The city’s Near West Side is home to a piece of the patchwork making up the city’s history, including Greektown, a firm representative of the ethnic identity, and the Fulton Market, a reminder of Chicago’s meatpacking industry. Over time, these areas have changed by losing original structures and being bought up by residential developers. With more skyrises to come, many residents fear Chicago’s West Loop history may be slowly dying out.
Over the last decade, Greektown’s commercial strip on Halsted Street is slowly getting replaced by residential properties. Developers scouting to place apartments just west of Chicago’s Loop are using restaurants closed because of high rent or a next-generation not looking to take over the family business. Two neighboring restaurants, Pegasus, which closed in 2017, and Santorini in 2020, were recently demolished to house a planned mixed-use building of luxury rental units and retail space. Other Greek businesses remain to hold the identity of Greek culture in the area but receive pressure to seek closure or move. “I feel like it's losing its identity. Many small Greek businesses that used to be in the area when I first visited in the early 1990s have closed, and some of the large restaurants as well. I am glad the Greek museum is there, but I fear that it's getting too expensive for the remaining Greek businesses to survive,” says MW, another resident of the West Loop.
The Fulton Market’s food service industries began to move into the suburbs following the invention of refrigerated trucks. With cheaper land for warehouses and access to the highway system, staying centralized was no longer necessary. Eventually, butchering and packing became standard practices on or near farms. By the 1970s, nearly all the warehouses had vacated, leaving a small handful supporting a few local businesses. To fill the empty spots, art galleries moved in and Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Studios opened a couple of blocks away in 1989.
Drawing of the newly completed Fulton Market District in 1887 by the Chicago Inter-Ocean, City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development, Chicago.gov
This first boom of the Fulton Market District kept Chicago’s history alive. The outsides of the warehouses remained while the indoors were remodeled. Pretty soon, the growing population of the area required more prominent buildings to entertain and house. Multistory apartments, hotels, and office spaces with retail or restaurants on the first floor replaced a few of the three-story warehouses. In 2015, Google moved its headquarters into a remodeled office building in the heart of the Fulton Market. In 2018, McDonald’s relocated their global headquarters to replace Harpo Studios which was sold in 2014. With these companies moving in, suddenly, every business wanted to put its foot into the ring. Now, as stated by Fulton Grace Realty, “high-end restaurant and retail businesses along with offices and I.T. firms now occupy red-brick buildings that were empty in the 1960s and 70s.”
Moving on from the past is not always the worst thing. While Chicago is already a well-known and attractive city, the West Loop has become a destination of its own. Big name corporations make efforts to move in, shops make their appearances, and chefs such as Stephanie Izzard and Rick Bayless have made their restaurants in the neighborhood.
What worries residents like Mia Walrod is how the area will be in the future. She says, “I think it could either go one of two ways, builders could totally ruin it by tearing down old buildings and making it way too modern or they can stay on the same track and utilize buildings that have been around for decades and keep the culture alive.” For now, the West Loop has kept some authenticity to its roots. And ensuring that history lives on requires a Chicago dedicated to preserving the culture of its neighborhoods.
Over the last decade, Greektown’s commercial strip on Halsted Street is slowly getting replaced by residential properties. Developers scouting to place apartments just west of Chicago’s Loop are using restaurants closed because of high rent or a next-generation not looking to take over the family business. Two neighboring restaurants, Pegasus, which closed in 2017, and Santorini in 2020, were recently demolished to house a planned mixed-use building of luxury rental units and retail space. Other Greek businesses remain to hold the identity of Greek culture in the area but receive pressure to seek closure or move. “I feel like it's losing its identity. Many small Greek businesses that used to be in the area when I first visited in the early 1990s have closed, and some of the large restaurants as well. I am glad the Greek museum is there, but I fear that it's getting too expensive for the remaining Greek businesses to survive,” says MW, another resident of the West Loop.
The Fulton Market’s food service industries began to move into the suburbs following the invention of refrigerated trucks. With cheaper land for warehouses and access to the highway system, staying centralized was no longer necessary. Eventually, butchering and packing became standard practices on or near farms. By the 1970s, nearly all the warehouses had vacated, leaving a small handful supporting a few local businesses. To fill the empty spots, art galleries moved in and Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Studios opened a couple of blocks away in 1989.
Drawing of the newly completed Fulton Market District in 1887 by the Chicago Inter-Ocean, City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development, Chicago.gov
This first boom of the Fulton Market District kept Chicago’s history alive. The outsides of the warehouses remained while the indoors were remodeled. Pretty soon, the growing population of the area required more prominent buildings to entertain and house. Multistory apartments, hotels, and office spaces with retail or restaurants on the first floor replaced a few of the three-story warehouses. In 2015, Google moved its headquarters into a remodeled office building in the heart of the Fulton Market. In 2018, McDonald’s relocated their global headquarters to replace Harpo Studios which was sold in 2014. With these companies moving in, suddenly, every business wanted to put its foot into the ring. Now, as stated by Fulton Grace Realty, “high-end restaurant and retail businesses along with offices and I.T. firms now occupy red-brick buildings that were empty in the 1960s and 70s.”
Moving on from the past is not always the worst thing. While Chicago is already a well-known and attractive city, the West Loop has become a destination of its own. Big name corporations make efforts to move in, shops make their appearances, and chefs such as Stephanie Izzard and Rick Bayless have made their restaurants in the neighborhood.
What worries residents like Mia Walrod is how the area will be in the future. She says, “I think it could either go one of two ways, builders could totally ruin it by tearing down old buildings and making it way too modern or they can stay on the same track and utilize buildings that have been around for decades and keep the culture alive.” For now, the West Loop has kept some authenticity to its roots. And ensuring that history lives on requires a Chicago dedicated to preserving the culture of its neighborhoods.
I hope you enjoyed reading my article. Working on this and interviewing my neighbors was very fun. I was hoping to interview a few other people in my neighborhood but didn't get the chance to speak with them. As a neighbor of the West Loop for 17 years, I have seen restaurants, shops, and buildings come and go. There are a lot of things I like about the continuous development in the neighborhood. We have been to many great restaurants and new small stores to wander into every now and then. Greektown's Pegasus restaurant was my family's go-to Greek food spot which was hard to see close and that can be a common feeling among other neighbors when popular restaurants close. The West Loop still shows its history through bricked roads or original warehouses in the Fulton Market and a few original Greektown restaurants remain. I am happy that these have stuck around over the years and wish that can stay the same for many years to come. Thank you for reading my article and I hope to see you in the next post.
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