Reviewing The Roseland Medical District Master Plan

Reviewing The Roseland Medical District Master Plan

by Suzanne Hanney

Expansion of health care and the CTA Red Line are beneficial bedfellows for community development in the Roseland Medical District Master Plan.

Adopted by the Chicago Plan Commission last November, Roseland’s efforts began in 2008. Community leaders had several proposals for retail and housing, aimed at reviving the desolate area adjacent to Roseland Hospital: between 110th and 112th Streets, South Stewart Avenue on the west and South Michigan Avenue on the east.

Community members realized the 300,000 people in Roseland and surrounding ZIP codes – 11 percent of Chicago’s population – lived in a health care desert and were also impoverished. The area has a 31% poverty rate, compared to 19% for the city overall. Its median household income is $36,713, in contrast to the citywide $62,097.

First, Roseland residents needed preventive health care and treatment for chronic ailments, says Abraham Lacy, Far South Community Development Corporation president and interim executive director of the Roseland Medical District.

“Cancer is one of the leading causes of death,” Lacy said. “Alzheimer’s is going unnoticed, and we have some of the highest infant mortality and premature births in the city, leading to all sorts of mental and behavioral issues among our youth.”

Another priority is a Level 1 Trauma Center. The closest one is at the University of Chicago, 8.4 miles away, or 19 minutes on I-94. “If you were a gunshot victim, you could die on the way.”

Meanwhile, the new Roseland Community Hospital at 45 W. 111th St., currently employs 900 people. Expansion of the medical district into a major outpatient and mixed-use campus could grow the number of jobs to at least 3,000, according to the master plan for the district, which was passed by the Illinois General Assembly in 2011.

A high-tech medical research and academic facility would bring synergies to Roseland. Complementary services could include dental clinics, optometrists, and other specialized care providers. Associated retail could mean optical stores, pharmacies, practitioners of alternative medicine. Wrap-around services could include mental health providers, art and music therapy, physical therapy, substance abuse clinics, veteran services – and a grocery store with healthy produce. Not least of all, there would be housing for hospital staff and medical residents.

Public infrastructure is the second component of the Roseland Medical District plan. Its $25 million in attached funding made it a natural linkup with Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s INVEST South/West initiative, Lacy said.

INVEST South/West is using $750 million in public spending – for transportation, parks, housing – to attract private money: a combined $2.2 billion so far. The intention is to energize commercial corridors in 10 disinvested neighborhoods, including 111th/Michigan in Roseland.

In addition, CTA Red Line expansion to the southern city limits will mean a station at 111th Street, on the western edge of the Roseland Medical District. Trains will then run southeast to 115th/Michigan avenue – just four blocks south of 111th/Michigan – before ending up at 130th Street.

Now, Lacy wants Mayor Brandon Johnson to continue INVEST South/West around 111th/Michigan, which includes vacant sites formerly occupied by the Roseland movie theater and Gately’s People’s Store, “because there’s been significant work done over the years.

“One of the issues we have in our neighborhood when a new administration comes in, is that you lose the things you started with and have to start all over again. We put 10 years in, not just the next election cycle,” Lacy said. “This is what it takes to turn a community around: a lot of layers.”

If Chicago wants to grow, “look at where you lost population and go there.”

Black West and South Siders need a family-focused, workingclass agenda, Lacy said, not an affluent, San Francisco-financialsector one. They are looking for safety, improved schools, adequate housing, transit, grocery stores, health care, parks within walking distance.

Roseland Medical District rendering taken from the "Roseland Community Medical District Master Plan" by the Roseland Medical District Commission.

“They’re not looking for a downtown, Gold Coast-lifestyle. Michigan Avenue in Roseland was the Michigan Avenue of its time.”

Lacy points to the Pullman National Historic Monument, due east of Roseland at 111th Street and Cottage Grove, as a model with “a long-term commitment and results.”

He credits Ald. Anthony Beale (9th ward) and U.S. Bank, which started with 180 acres of marshland in 2008-09, and brought in Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives, headed by David Doig, a former Department of Planning and Development commissioner.

“They saw something different when they looked at the history: a lot of rich architecture, right off the [I-94] expressway, so access for manufacturing.”

Pullman was a 19th-century factory town for transcontinental railway sleeping cars. A labor strike there made history, and so did African American porters who worked on the trains.

Pullman gained one of the first Walmarts in Chicago. It also has distribution facilities for Amazon and Whole Foods, two commercial greenhouses for Gotham Greens, a manufacturing plant and 400,000 square-foot warehouse for Method Products. And in 2015, President Obama made the Pullman Clock Tower part of the National Park Service.

The third component of the Roseland Medical District plan is human investment. City workers have spent 10 years signing up people for Medicaid, because the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) seemed threatened, Lacy said. These people now have cov-

erage for emergencies and for eye and ear preventive care, but there are many more hard-to-reach people. “Just like talking about nutrition or health, it has to be ongoing.”

Planners have been in talks with the University of Chicago, Northwestern, Advocate, Chicago Christian Health Center, and others about running the medical district, which would be predominantly outpatient and urgent care. Its mission would be to keep people out of the emergency room, to thus drive down costs.

Northwestern’s Bronzeville center, set to break ground this summer, is a benchmark, and so are Lawndale Christian Health Center’s Ogden Medical Corridor, Esperanza Health Center in Brighton Park, and others.

The fact that most of the medical center’s target population is covered by Medicaid, rather than private market insurance, which pays more to providers, “is a policy problem,” Lacy said.

Grassroots discussions have also encompassed housing. Admittedly, the medical district could bring gentrification. Residents said they needed housing for seniors and housing that is disability-accessible. Lacy cites the need for manufacturing training for youth, for housing that is trauma-informed, and aimed at youth aging out of foster care.

“Homelessness intervention sparked a debate about how creating services for the homeless could also increase the homeless population,” according to the medical district plan, “but all agreed something must be done.”