Volume 27 No. 1 January 2011
Northside development sees big boost in 2010 Projects started in years past come to fruition after perseverance, hard work By Matt Cichowicz In a year when headlines focused on the national economic crisis, Northside communities persevered to bring resolution to long-awaited improvement projects and reshape the images of their neighborhoods. Mark Fatla, executive director of the Northside Leadership Conference for the past four years, described 2010 as a significant year. “It’s like an iceberg. Nobody sees the previous three years of planning and building and raising the funds and the financing and encouraging entrepreneurs. I think we’re starting
to see the tangible results of that strategic focus in the last year,” he said. The goal of the Conference and the community groups of which it is comprised has been to stimulate economic growth on the Northside and to encourage private investment. Looking at some of the major developments over the past year, it is no surprise results are showing.
will hopefully bring individuals and families to the Northside in years to come. With the 15-years-in-themaking Washburn Square Project, the Brightwood Civic Group transformed a housing complex into three single-family homes and a park. Located between Superior Avenue and Hodgkiss Street, two of the three units were sold before construction finished and the third sold shortly after. Manchester Citizens Corporation made inroads on its goal of having every house in Manchester occupied through the
Attracting homeowners No fewer than three neighborhoods celebrated ground breakings or ribbon cuttings for new housing developments that
ongoing Renaissance Housing Program and the beginning of the Columbus Square development, which features 31 new homes to be built on a former brownfield. The Renaissance Housing Program began in 2009 and continued through 2010 with the renovation of seven vacant historic homes, all of which were pre-sold. Improvements on Federal Street and North Avenue The Central Northside Neighborhood Council has worked
See Development, page 12
Obama picks local arts leader for new council By Kelly Thomas The Northside now has a voice in the White House. President Barack Obama recently appointed life-long Northsider and Manchester Bidwell Corporation President and CEO William Strickland to the newly formed White House Council for Community Solutions. The purpose of the new council is to help solve specific community needs and one of its tasks will be to engage leaders across the nonprofit, corporate and philanthropic sectors and to encourage cross-sector cooperation. The president wants directions,
INSIDE
answers and common sense approaches, Strickland said, not just facts and data. The job of the council will be to provide President Obama with real-life examples of programs that work in solving endemic social issues. “I was very impacted with the gravity and importance of being picked,” Strickland said. He sees some of the biggest challenges that communities face in education and the plight of urban youth, and believes Manchester Bidwell’s work in those two areas helped get him appointed to the 25seat council. The Bidwell Training Center, for example, works with employers
Photo by Jill McGlothlin
Long-time Northside institution Slovak Savings Bank in Brightwood walked away with the Best Place to Work award at the 2010 NorthSide/ NorthShore Chamber of Commerce’s annual Holidays Awards Gala on Dec. 2 at the Grand Hall at the Priory. For the complete list of winners, see News Briefs, page 3.
See Strickland, page 9
-Shops expand during recession
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STORIES, COLUMNS, -Students write about traditions FEATURES & MORE
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ONLINE
-Stage AE opens to the public
WWW.THENORTHSIDE -2010: Top stories and photos CHRONICLE.COM