The Corner Project

THE CORNER PROJECT

The mission of The Corner Project is to revitalize three blocks of a traditional, immigrant working-class main street on Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago’s Avondale neighborhood. It is based on the belief that this "real Chicago" neighborhood shopping district is an ecosystem, not just buildings that happen to be next to each other; that the scale and character of our 100-year old built environment embodies the heritage of mom-and-pop entrepreneurs, individual property ownership, and local employment which are essential to a culturally diverse, prosperous and livable 21st century urban village.

The Corner Project works with and within the community on Milwaukee Avenue between Kimball and Central Park on actions for embracing future change that is done by us rather than to us. The Corner Project has active partnerships with the Avondale Neighborhood Association, 35th Ward Alderman Carlos Rosa, Logan Square Chamber of Commerce, Logan Square Neighborhood Association, Logan Square Preservation, Puerto Rican Arts Alliance, Elastic Arts, Hairpin Arts Center, Comfort Station, and OoUD among others. Working with businesses and property owners along the three blocks, The Corner Project has organized the Milwaukee Avenue Stakeholders Alliance, now applying for a 501c3.

The Corner Project was begun in October 2017 by artist Lynn Basa to do what she could about what needed to be done in the world immediately beyond the walls of her storefront studio and project space, Corner. What she saw was a relatively intact century-old main street in decline; hardworking merchants, social and cultural organizations that weren't communicating with each other; a lot of vacant storefronts; big plans from the City to redesign Milwaukee Avenue that no one knew about; and the wide-spread assumption that this is Chicago's "next hot neighborhood." These facts-on-the-ground guide The Corner Project's focus on building relationships to holistically revitalize our main street's cultural, social, and economic ecosystem.

Purpose, process and projects
The Corner Project is a catalyst for:
• Strengthening relationships and communication between the people and organizations of these three blocks;

• Raising awareness of the importance of our existing main street infrastructure and its connection to future quality-of-life;

• Building pride and identity around our immigrant working-class heritage as a basis for future growth;

• Identifying opportunities for alliances, projects, support;

• Collaborating with social and cultural organizations, artists, historic preservationists, urban planners, elected officials, City departments, developers and others to identify needs;

• Initiating and managing direct actions in response to those needs.

2018 Actions
Contextual zoning - With 35th Ward Alderman Carlos Rosa, merchants, property owners, and organizations, initiated rezoning of the three blocks to B2-1 in order to provide for more community input before buildings are torn down.

Corner Conversations -- The storefront of Corner has been turned into a conversation space for community meetings focused on topics relevant to these three blocks. Topics have included:
• Visioning meeting for Milwaukee Avenue Stakeholders Alliance
• Intro to buying commercial real estate for artists
• Causes and solutions to storefront vacancies
• CDOT information meeting about Milwaukee Ave. Improvement
Milwaukee Avenue Stakeholders Alliance (MASA) - The Corner Project organized the formation of a property and business owners group to represent our interests in all matters that effect our collective well-being. In October 2017 we developed a vision statement that states:

"Our vision is that by identifying, preserving and improving the original buildings of our working class shopping district, we can establish a distinctly identifiable character upon which to promote our stretch of Milwaukee Avenue as a destination neighborhood. We understand that traditional retail stores are struggling due to online competition, but in the current retail landscape we also see the opportunity to create a comprehensive shopping experience that can only be found in real life."

MASA is in the process of registering as a 501c3 with support from Lawyers for the Creative Arts.

Street banners - LSNA provided a grant to The Corner Project through the Logan Square Chamber to subsidize 8' banners for all 35 light poles on the three blocks. Each banner was designed by Lynn Basa with the text "Avondale," the logo of a local business and butterfly images made from Basa's paintings. The banners signify that there is a unified community to these three blocks After installation in June 2018 they will be seen by an average of 15,000 people per day, according to IDOT.

Asset Map - The Corner Project is working with recent UIC Urban Planning grad Hayley Woodbridge to develop a comprehensive database of resources within the three blocks.
A Day in Avondale: Woodard Plaza - With a grant from Activate! Chicago The Corner Project, Logan Square Chamber of Commerce, and MASA are organizing a pilot pop-up market on Woodard Plaza and Firemen's Park for August 19, 2018 for local businesses and artists.