Right across Hamilton Avenue in the West End neighborhood from West Cabanne Place, which I’ve looked at August of 2009 and a decade later in August of 2019, is the Cabanne Court redevelopment of a long-abandoned U-shaped apartment building on Cabanne Avenue.

Things are certainly changing fast around here! I have been visiting this area for over a decade, and I never imagined that these changes would happen so quickly. In a sign of how valuable the land is becoming, the building has been listed on the National Register!

The demographics are changing, too. While this area has been solidly African American for decades, that is definitely not the case anymore. And this apartment building is not being renovated for affordable housing. What will the future hold on Cabanne Avenue and other nearby streets? It is very close to the Loop. I am happy these long-abandoned buildings are being rehabbed, but if it means that longtime, law-abiding residents who stuck it out and kept this neighborhood alive get run out by gentrification, then I’m not happy with that. I meet and talk with many of the older residents in neighborhoods such as the West End; they have often owned their houses for fifty or more years, and they don’t deserve to be repaid for their commitment in that way. We can have reinvestment and longtime owner retention at the same time.