Michael Reese being demolished

My commute to Hyde Park passes by the old Michael Reese hospital. Founded in 1881 and later rebuilt and expanded, the hospital’s buildings are being demolished. Harris students worked on a project before classes started that sought uses for the 2929 S. Ellis Ave. site if Chicago lost the 2016 Olympic bid. With the games going to Rio de Janeiro and plans scrapped for an Olympic Village at Reese, the area’s future is murky.

The 37-acre former hospital campus east of Martin Luther King Drive between 26th and 31st Streets is difficult to ignore now that it’s being torn down. Driving or bicycling past the site, I’ve watched demolition crews gradually eat away at structures behind the fencing. The city bought Reese for $91 million from Medline Industries, with $32.5 million returned to Chicago as a “charitable contribution” to pay for razing and clean up. Plans call for keeping two of the 29 buildings for historical value, with some people angered over the wastefulness of wrecking the other buildings instead of renovating them.

As piles of rubble grow at Reese, it’s time to really decide how to use the property. Soon after the city lost the Olympics, Chicago Tribune headlines trumpeted the possibility of redeveloping the site into a casino. As someone who lives six blocks away from Reese, I was relieved when Mayor Richard Daley nixed the casino. Instead, a mixed-use, mixed-income community is being planned, according to City of Chicago Department of Community Development spokesperson Molly Sullivan. She said the city wants to see the site developed in a way that will help “link” the South Loop to mid-South communities along the lakefront. More local retail options could be an improvement (Trader Joe’s is a personal preference).

Michael Reese on Jan. 3

The area around the Reese site has a strip mall with a Jewel supermarket, the McCormick Place Convention Center, a few large apartment complexes and some rehabbed classic homes. When Michael Reese was founded, it served Jewish and other immigrant communities in Chicago who faced discrimination at some hospitals. The Douglas community where it’s located includes part of the Bronzeville neighborhood, a historical center of African-American culture since the early 1900s. While many of the neighborhood’s famous nightclubs have vanished (the Sunset Cafe on 35th Street is now an Ace Hardware), the area retains a certain character.

In order to do what’s best for the community, I’m in favor of an idea for the Reese site floated by Leonard Mc Gee, President of The Gap Community Organization and a neighbor of mine. (The Gap is a small neighborhood between 31st and 35th Streets and is part of Douglas.) Citing the difficulty of selling real estate in the current market and the length of time to develop the site, Mc Gee suggested the city use some of the land for open space or parks. That way, Reese gets put to good use instead of remaining vacant for at least 10 years, according to Mc Gee’s estimate. Perhaps these proposed parks could become permanent if the land is divided before it’s sold.

Sullivan said there was not a specific time frame for redeveloping the site, which is separated by train tracks and Lake Shore Drive from the beach. She said the land is currently being looked at as a whole entity but could be sold as smaller parcels. The Requests For Proposals process has not yet begun and it’s too soon to say what will be built there, she added.

It might be wishful thinking (and doesn’t seem part of the city’s plan), but open space at Reese would accentuate the lakefront’s natural beauty and create a place to exercise and relax, a far more fitting use of an area previously occupied by a hospital than a casino would be. While development is unlikely to come soon given the state of the economy and size of the project, I hope that whatever is eventually built at the site respects the integrity of the neighborhood and the needs of the people who live there.