In the second half of the 20th century, the North Lawndale community area on Chicago’s west side was devastated by redlining and other racist lending practices that led to civil unrest among the neighborhood’s by then booming black population. Fifty years ago this summer, Martin Luther King Jr. moved his family to an apartment in the neighborhood to highlight the need for fair housing and other improvements in black areas of northern cities.
Ogden, a major arterial street that runs southwest from downtown and through North Lawndale, is a priority for residents because CTA buses used to travel down the avenue all the way to Pulaski Road, well into the heart of the neighborhood. But in 2008 the Ogden bus line was truncated due to low ridership on its western leg.
“We’re not professional transportation people, but we do have a love and passion for our community,” said Valerie Leonard, a community development consultant present at last week’s forum. “We want to make sure that transit is accessible and affordable. People have said, ‘Some jobs I can’t take because of the way the buses run.’”
Attendees noted that since 2008, the neighborhood has seen the opening of a new charter school and the North Lawndale Christian Fitness Center, a large complex at 3950 W. Ogden that includes a cafe and meeting rooms. New events in Douglas Park like Riot Fest, the West Side Music Fest, and NLCCC’s first arts festival, which debuts in a few weeks, would also spur more Ogden bus ridership, they said.
Jackson added that she’d like to see the Roosevelt bus route extended a few blocks west to Mayfield Avenue, and get the #18 bus that runs primarily along 16th and 18th Streets restored to its old route, which connected North Lawndale with Little Village.
