C40 Reinventing Cities

The primary objective of C40 Reinventing Cities project in East Garfield Park is to make Chicago a new type of World Class City, based on Strong Healthy and Sustainable Neighborhoods. The two City-owned lots on 5th Avenue and Kedzie have the potential to serve as a model for how to invest in historically under-resourced neighborhoods while honoring and preserving the people, buildings, and cultural fabric that define them. Sustainable communities are those where people, structures, and culture are given the opportunity to thrive and grow together, rather than being repeatedly lost to redevelopment.

Our approach will be to strengthen, grow and enhance what is already there. This new eco-district will demonstrate the social, economic and environmental feasibility of developing vacant lots. The goal of this master plan is to implement a process and a project in such a way that it gives future developers and investors ideas and a roadmap to follow when redeveloping the numerous vacant lots in Chicago’s communities. The objective is not only to create zero impact structures but also to reinvest in cities and neighborhoods to enable them to thrive in a sustainable way. In Chicago, this will be through investing in and supporting neighborhoods as the backbone of our world-class city.