In his opening Cox spoke about the importance of the City’s core by saying, “The heart of any city is its downtown. You cannot have a healthy city if the heart of the city is not robust and dynamic. Chicago is very fortunate through the collective work of many others. You’ve been very successful to create a vibrant center that is the envy of other cities around the country.” He added, “There is the other side that is what I call the soul: residents live and thrive in Chicago’s 77 neighborhoods, and they have to be a part of bringing the City forward.”
To learn more about these neighborhoods Cox revealed he has been on driving tours with each of the City’s 50 Ward Aldermen to allow the Aldermen to show him their wards. He said he was surprised to learn about the difference in development throughout the City, and said, “It has taken a long time to get to this level of disparity…and it was caused by policy. If policy created this problem, policy can fix it.”
After joining the Department he quickly concluded it needs changes to fix these problems, as well as address some of the City’s corruption problems. “That can offset all the minor skirmishes that have played out at the ward level,” he said. To achieve that, he has begun a reorganization and directed that anyone with a Planning Degree in the Department join a new Neighborhood Commission to be led by seven regional planners (that he is currently recruiting). Cox hopes that by reforming the Department to make it more user friendly, it can lead to “real projects, real public spaces, it can transform streets, shops and storefronts, and provide housing options that allow for families of all types to live in the neighborhoods.”
Cox was not shy in tackling the Chicago tradition of Aldermanic prerogative, which is the unofficial policy of allowing each Alderman to control development in their ward. He said, “We have 50 Alderman here! Maybe we should have an Aldermanic institute to bring some of our professionals together to advise them.” He later said, “The Mayor has made it pretty clear with her Executive Order on Day One…Aldermen can’t simply shut down projects on a whim.” He added, “We are going to have to address zoning. If we have a City-wide plan that all Chicagoans agree to, we can push back on ad-hoc zoning changes because we have a plan that is adopted by the entire City of Chicago.”
In providing advice to the Mayor on how to achieve all her big plans he has suggested breaking it down into small pieces and start with neighborhood corridors. He said, “What would it be like for a family to get ice cream in their neighborhood, or to go on date-night around the corner? These are the simple quality of life amenities that help people stay in our neighborhoods. Then we’ll layer the public parks, housing options, then the schools, and the transportation systems, and before we know it we’ll have a comprehensive plan.”
Cox commented on the downtown’s success, and how to translate into achievements elsewhere in the City. He explained, “This work includes getting community input on a set of priorities, mining the resources to deliver the projects, reorganizing city government to deliver the promise, and then we’ll see the fruits of that labor in real time. A big piece of this is design, and I’m seeing evidence that the downtown has done a great job of valuing public space and I’m looking to replicate that in the neighborhoods.”
To create a coordinated effort the Department is reaching out to community organizations to provide alignment of efforts. He said, “A lot of people are doing a lot of different things, but we don’t always have alignment because of a lack of guidance from the City.” He added, “I’m thankful to CCAC for providing alignment early on, and every day we are seeing more organizations trying to get into this jet stream to improve our neighborhoods.”
