The intersection of Polk and Clark is just a few blocks from el stops, commuter rail lines, bus stops, stores, restaurants, Grant Park, and the Loop. “I don’t use a car around here–you don’t need a car,” says Steve Fors, who lives on Polk just west of the intersection. “People don’t even come here thinking they’re going to need cars.”
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But the city’s ignoring its plan. It’s allowing Terrapin Properties to convert the parking lot into Burnham Pointe, a 34-story condominium and retail complex with 295 parking spaces. It’s also allowing Concord Homes to build a 300-unit complex with 300 parking spaces across the street from Burnham Pointe. And it’s doing nothing to enhance Polk as a primary pedestrian route: after Burnham Pointe is built, pedestrians will have to weave between cars entering and leaving its parking garage, whose entrance will be on the north side of Polk just west of Clark. (The plans for Concord Homes haven’t been released yet, so it’s not clear where that garage entrance will be.) “We’ll have cars coming out of the parking garage, waiting to turn east or west on Polk, while we’ll have cars coming from the east and west on Polk wanting to turn into the parking garage,” says Fors. “On busy afternoons you’ll have tie-ups with cars backed up all the way to Clark trying to make that turn.”
Neighborhood residents complain that the two developments will also create a canyon effect. “They say they should have open space on Clark Street,” says Peter Ziv, who lives in the same building as Fors. “How is a 34-story tower open space? Why make the plan if you don’t follow it?”
Environmentalists say the squabble points to a bigger problem: too many cars in the city. They say the streets weren’t designed to handle the flood of cars already on them and that no one needs the aggravation of more traffic jams or the health problems that come with more pollution. Much better, they say, to walk, bike, or take public transportation. “Will people move to the South Loop if there’s no parking there?” says Michael Burton, a member of Break the Gridlock, which lobbies for more open space. “I think the answer is yes. So it makes no sense to build parking if people don’t need it.”
Most Chicago developers I’ve talked to say it’s naive to assume people here will buy housing that doesn’t come with parking. When I asked Ezgur if he could sell all of the Burnham Pointe units without parking he immediately said no. “People want parking,” he said. “It’s basic supply and demand.” But then he backtracked. “Well, it is a very pedestrian friendly area. People are walking to Dearborn and State streets to have their coffee and their breakfast and to shop. So my second response, after thinking about it, is that I do believe that people would move there even without parking.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration/Laura Park.
