Today’s must-read
Friday, Sep 25, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From Crain’s Chicago Business…
Chicago’s other Magnificent Mile isn’t State Street or the Clybourn Corridor. Nope: The second-highest-grossing shopping district in the city is a 2-mile stretch of 26th Street on the Southwest Side, in predominantly Mexican-American Little Village.
The strip lacks the glamour of Michigan Avenue or the wealth of Lincoln Park. Instead, the area between Kedzie and Kostner avenues is dotted with family-owned restaurants, bakeries, barbershops, grocers and clothing shops, plus an occasional Western Union and Verizon outlet. Nothing about the simple signage or interiors hints at the huge volume of cash being spent: some $900 million annually, according to the most recent figures available, at roughly 500 businesses along 26th Street.
Neighborhood residents don’t make much money—average household income is around $33,000, and a third live below the poverty line—but they tend to spend what they have close to home. The shops’ linoleum floors are well-trodden by the 500,000 Mexican-Americans who live within a 10-minute drive. On weekends, many more pour in from suburbia and the entire Midwest for the food, clothing and household goods of a country they or their parents left behind.
“There is no other community in the country like Little Village, because of both the population and the density of Hispanics,” says Jaime di Paulo, executive director of the Little Village Chamber of Commerce. “It’s created a nostalgia market, where people can find that little product that reminds them of Grandma, of home.”
Go read the whole thing.
- ?? - Friday, Sep 25, 15 @ 8:19 am:
Just wonder if that total includes the money sent back to Mexico and other Latin American Countries by wire each week
- Rich Miller - Friday, Sep 25, 15 @ 8:21 am:
===Just wonder if that total includes the money sent back===
lol
It’s money that’s being spent in stores in Chicago.
- Wordslinger - Friday, Sep 25, 15 @ 8:26 am:
Great journalism. Fact-based and teaches you something new, rather than just re-hashing the same tired stereotypes.
You could really include Pilsen to the east (which is Bohemian in the other sense of the word now) and continue west into Cicero and Berwyn.
The food is off the charts, too.
The food is off the charts, too.
- Grandson of Man - Friday, Sep 25, 15 @ 8:41 am:
Great story, reading about individuals and families who start small businesses and prosper. Of course, they can be victims of larger economic forces, but when they tap into demand, that’s a key to economic growth.
“Just wonder if that total includes the money sent back to Mexico”
Lots of immigrants sent money back home throughout American history, including my own family. That is what helped make us great, that immigrants could come here and be successful, successful enough to help their families back home. Many of the people back home eventually came to America.
- A guy - Friday, Sep 25, 15 @ 9:01 am:
If you haven’t been there, go there. It’s an entirely different and pleasant shopping and dining experience. There’s an incredible liveliness and spirit about the area too.
Every Mexican immigrant to Chicago moves through this corridor. It’s a street version of Ellis Island.
- Emily Miller - Friday, Sep 25, 15 @ 9:09 am:
Shameless policy plug, but this is exactly why targeted tax credits for low-income working families, like the Earned Income Tax Credit, do so much for both families and local businesses, and why IRMA supports them: “Neighborhood residents don’t make much money—average household income is around $33,000, and a third live below the poverty line—but they tend to spend what they have close to home.”
- Downstate - Friday, Sep 25, 15 @ 9:17 am:
In a similar way, a mall in Indianapolis was on vapors, but was repurposed as a Hispanic based venue. From what I’m told it is doing quite well now.
- Weltschmerz - Friday, Sep 25, 15 @ 9:48 am:
Amazing “$900 million annually” with taxes paid and a legitimate source for the revenue.
- Anonymous - Friday, Sep 25, 15 @ 9:59 am:
Nice article, but there is this big thing located @ 26th & Cal, which contributes to this economy.
- Anonymous - Friday, Sep 25, 15 @ 10:03 am:
Start rolling the food carts north please
- walker - Friday, Sep 25, 15 @ 10:06 am:
Lots of suburbanites visit that section of the city for the shops and eats, as well.
- Taxguy - Friday, Sep 25, 15 @ 10:10 am:
Fascinating but false. Many times when I worked at Department of Revenue we were asked to provide the numbers to back up this claim; each time we did it was proved false. I am sure it is a vibrant neighborhood. It is not the second largest shopping district in Illinois. Think big suburban malls. This is an urban myth that won’t die.
- walker - Friday, Sep 25, 15 @ 10:12 am:
Taxguy: they said “in the city”
- Taxguy - Friday, Sep 25, 15 @ 10:46 am:
you are right - i overreacted
- walker - Friday, Sep 25, 15 @ 11:08 am:
==you are right - i overreacted==
Sincere kudos to you, Mr. Taxguy.
If only we commenters all would admit mistakes so quickly on this blog.
- Sick & Tired - Friday, Sep 25, 15 @ 1:59 pm:
Little Village is also pretty much known to be what DNAinfo called a “Quinceanera Shopping Capital.” I used to take the #60 Blue Island bus up and down that street all the time. You lose count of the many stores catering primarily to quinceaneras. Anyway, people from out of state come to the area just to shop the wider selection of dresses and such.