Even Chicago Struggles with Transit Oriented Development

Chicago is caught in a paradox: the city's overall population is stagnant. And yet, the city is gentrifying. 

By most accounts, Chicago remains an attractive, vibrant city. So much so that wealthier residents are snatching up rental properties, and driving up rents, while displacing some of the city's poorer residents. The result is not only a less egalitarian city, but also one that fails to capitalize on the city's extensive, fully built-out transit network. That's the analysis of Yonah Freemark, a project manager with Chicago's Metropolitan Planning Council. 

While Chicago may seem like the ultimate in transit-oriented cities—a large percentage of the city's residences and even larger percentage of its employment centers are within a mile radius of transit—Freemark contends that higher-income residents do not use transit as much as their less wealthy counterparts. They also live at lower densities. Thus, Chicago may be cannibalizing itself. 

"[W]hy are Chicago’s vibrant, transit-oriented communities that are attracting people still losing population? People who want to live in these areas but cannot afford high-price homes instead often choose to move to new suburban communities, which results in more traffic congestion and higher transportation costs, not to mention encouraging construction on previously undeveloped land," writes Freemark.

This problem, though, is not just one of economics. It's also one of policy. 

"One of the primary reasons why homes and apartments in many of Chicago’s neighborhoods are so expensive, and why population has declined, is that zoning has limited the construction of new housing," writes Freemark. Freemark lauds the city's 2013 transit oriented development ordinance but contends that much more remains to be done until Chicago successfully marries its 20th century infrastructure with 21st century urban trends.